A Reformed
Semi-Month/y
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VOI.  66, NO.  /
jarwary I, 7990


 Contents                                                           jai-wary 7, 7 990

Meditation  - Rev. lames D. Slopsema
   THE HOPE OF THE RIGHTEOUS: GLADNESS                                                 147

EDITORIALLY SPEAKING.. .  -  Prof. David].  Enge/sma                                   149     ISSN  0362-4692
                                                                                              Semi-monthly, except monthly during June,  July,
Editorial  -  Prof. David  /. Engelsma                                                        and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                              lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
   THE REFORMED FAITH - THEOLOGY OF HOPE                                               149    at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                              POSTMASTER:  Send address changes to The
                                                                                              Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
OUR HOPE FOR OUR SAVIOR'S RETURN  -  Rev.  lohn  A. Heys                               151    49516.
                                                                                              EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
THE BELIEVER'S HOPE AT DEATH - Rev. Steven R. Houck                                    153    Editor: Prof. David  I. Engelsma
                                                                                              Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                              Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
THE ILLUSORY HOPE OF THE RAPTURE - Rev. Da/e H. Kuiper                                 155    DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                              Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
                                                                                              Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
THE ILLUSORY HOPE OF POSTMILLENNIALISM                                                        Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
   - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                             158    Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
                                                                                              Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Mr. James
                                                                                              Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.  Marybeth  Lub-
HOPE AS AN INCENTIVE TO GODLINESS                                                             bers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra.
   -                                                                                          Rev. Cise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop,
        Rev. Bernard  1. Woudenberg                                                    160    Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
                                                                                              EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
THE HOPE OF EVERY BELIEVER REGARDING HIS FUTURE                                               The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
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   EARTHLY LIFE  - Rev. Ronald).  VanOverloop                                          162    Crandville,  MI 49418        Hudsonville,  MI 49426
                                                                                              EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                              Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
HOPE AND THE PROTESTANT REFORMED CHURCHES'                                                    of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
   MISSION CALLING  - Rev. Arie  denHartog                                             164    terest from our readers and questions for The
                                                                                              Reader Asks Department are welcome. Contribu-
                                                                                              tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                                                 and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
                                                                                              must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
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  In This Issue . . .                                                                         REPRINT POLICY
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   The cover quote was intended, not simply to arrest attention (though it may very           made;  c) that a copy of the periodical in which
well have done that too), but rather to bring into focus the theme of this issue, that        such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
the Reformed faith is uniquely the theology of hope. In his editorial Prof. Engelsma          BUSINESS OFFICE          NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                              The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
demonstrates that the nominally Christian, non-doctrinal religions of our day have            Don Doezema              c/o Protestant Reformed
this serious defect, namely, that they can not give real hope.                                P.O. Box 6064              Church
   The world, of course, as is pointed out in other of the articles in this issue, knows      Grand Rapids, MI         B. Van Herk
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nothing of this hope. They do indeed live in a hope for the future. The disease, the          PH:  (616)  243-3712     Wainuiomata.  New Zealand
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it's all a vain dream.                                                                        without the formality of a renewal order, and he
   Worse yet, there are those in the church who promote false hope - an expecta-              will be billed for renewal. If you have a change of
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   The hope of the Reformed Christian is not in any kingdom in this sorry world.              advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
Why, after all, would he want to place it there? For, what is the Taj Mahal, even . . .       and school events, anniversaries, obituaries, and
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that God is sovereign in the affairs of men is a "potent antidote against hopelessness."      Deadline for announcements is the 1st and the
And the assurance of an imputed righteousness, based not on a sinner's worth but on           15th of the month, previous to publication on the
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   Another decade has ended. We are a step closer. We do well to meditate on that.            Office.
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146  I The Standard Bearer  I January  I,1990


                                        The Hope of the
Meditation
Rev. James Slopema                      Righteous: Gladness

   The hope of the righteous              On the one hand, there are the      not live righteously in their own
shall be gladness: but the ex-          righteous.                            strength. Of themselves they are
pectation of the wicked shall             The righteous are, first of all,    dead of sin, spiritually impotent,
perish.                                 those who are righteous before        prone to every crooked way, as
                     Proverbs  lo:28    God. As they appear day by day        is the whole human race fallen in
                                        in the courtroom of the Judge of      Adam. However, the righteous
                                        the whole earth, God declares         have been born again in Jesus
   1990!                                that He finds no fault in them,       Christ. God in His grace has pro-
   The beginning of another year!       that all obedience to the divine      foundly changed them so that
   The beginning of another             law has been met, and that,           they are new creatures in Christ,
decade!                                 therefore, they are worthy of all     the result of which is that they
   What will the new year bring?        blessing and favor.                   live a new life of obedience to
What will the new decade bring?           The righteous do not receive        the living God.
Is there room for optimism? Or          this favorable verdict of God on        And lest we conclude that
will there be more of the same:         the basis of anything they have       none of us is righteous, let us
sickness, poverty, war, crime,          done. This favorable verdict is       understand that the transforming
divorce, broken homes,                  based solely on the perfect           work of the new birth is not yet
alcoholism, drug abuse, misery?         righteousness of Jesus Christ,        perfected in the righteous as they
   Man always looks to the future       which God accounts as their           live on the earth. Consequently,
in hope, expecting something            righteousness. Christ has suffered    the righteous must fight daily
better than he has at present.          and died to pay the price of sin.     against evil lusts from .within.
This is true both of the righteous      Christ has walked in perfect obe-     Again and again they halt and
and the wicked.                         dience before God. This perfect       stumble into sin. Even their best
   Thanks be to God, the hope of        righteousness of Christ God im-       works are tainted in one way or
the righteous shall be gladness.        putes to all who cling to Jesus       another with sin. And so they
But the expectation of the wicked       Christ by a true faith. The           find it necessary to flee to the
shall perish.                           righteous are righteous before        cross every day to find the
* * * * *  * * * * *                    God only in Christ.                   forgiveness of their sins in Jesus
   There are many different ways          But the righteous are righteous     Christ.
you can categorize people.              also in their living. God com-          The wicked are not so.
  You can categorize them ac-           mands us in His law to love Him         The wicked are those who
cording to race, nationality,           with all our heart, mind, soul,       stand outside of Jesus Christ.
financial status, political convic-     and strength. The righteous are         Consequently, they are corrupt
tions . . . .                           those who love their God. God         and vile. They have neither the
   But most importantly you can         has also commanded us in His          love of God nor the love of their
categorize them spiritually.            law to love our neighbor as           neighbor in their heart. Without
Viewed spiritually everyone falls       ourselves. The righteous love         any concern for God's honor they
into one of two categories. One is      their neighbor. They also show        trample under foot His holy com-
either righteous or he is wicked.       this love as prescribed by the        mandments. They use and misuse
                                        law, seeking God's honor and the      their fellow man. At times they
                                        welfare of the neighbor.              may put on a veneer of respect-
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope           Also this aspect of their           ability. But over the course of
Protestant Reformed Church of           righteousness finds its source in     history they have filled the whole
Walker, Michigan.                       Jesus Christ. The righteous do        earth with their violence.

                                                                               January 1, 1990 I The Standard Bearer  I147


   And having not Christ as their                                sufferings of the pres-    earthly pleasure, a higher stan-
Savior, they stand before the                    ent life which also tend to make           dard of living - then they would
Judge of the whole earth with all                it more difficult to serve the             find happiness.
their sin, guilty, condemned,                    Lord, and certainly to keep their             So they give themselves over
bound for hell.                                  enjoyment of God's friendship              to obtaining more. To accomplish
 *  *  *  t  *  *  *  *  *  *                    less complete.                             that end they seek to eradicate
   Both the righteous and the                       Consequently, the righteous             disease, poverty, crime, welfare,
wicked live in hope of something                 long for the promised return of            and all the social ills that plague
better for the future.                           Christ, when all that is of sin will       society. They also have con-
   There is much suffering in this               be destroyed, and all suffering            vinced themselves that they have
world: sickness, pain, death of                  will be taken way, and the elect           it within their power to achieve
our loved ones, loneliness, pover-               of every age will be transformed           all these things.
ty, strife, disappointments, frus-               into the new creation to live with           Such is the expectation of the
tration . . . .                                  God in perfect joy, world without          wicked.
   These miseries are no                         end.                                       *  * * * * * *  * * *
respecters of persons. They are                     Such is the hope of the                   The expectation of the wicked
common to all mankind. They                      righteous.                                 shall perish.
come upon the righteous as well                     Is this your hope?                        Certainly this implies that all
as the wicked.                                      If not, then there is always the        that for which the wicked hope
   Consequently, we all tend to                  expectation of the wicked. What            shall perish. All the earthly .things
look for something better in the                 the righteous treasure, the                for which they labor so hard, to
future. This is true even of the                 wicked despise. The wicked have            find true happiness, will one day
righteous, who are charged by                    absolutely no interest in serving          all be destroyed. Sometimes God
God to be content in whatever                    God and having His friendship.             takes these things away from the
state they are in. And the                       The very thought is repulsive to           wicked in this life. He certainly
righteous are content. However,                  them, so that they blaspheme               takes them away at the time of
the source of their contentment                  God and His people every day.              death. Finally, all things material
is that God will provide some-                      But this leaves a tremendous            as well as all things sinful will be
thing better for them in the                     void in the life of the wicked.            forever destroyed at the coming
future for which the present suf-                Man must have something which              of Jesus.
ferings are also necessary.                      gives Him happiness and securi-              But notice that even the expec-
   And so we read of the hope of                 ty. The righteous find this in God.        tation of the wicked will perish.
the righteous and the expectation                But since the wicked hate God,             There will come a time when the
of the wicked.                                   they have to turn elsewhere. The           wicked will even cease lookiing
   Hope is very simply a living in               wicked turn to the treasures and           for any future good.
expectation for some future                      pleasures of this world. The                 This sometimes happens
good. Now we must bear in mind                   wicked are convinced that true             already in this life, when a
that the future good for which                   happiness and security in life are         wicked person begins to under-
we hope is determined by our                     to be had with earthly treasures           stand that all of his grand expec-
spiritual condition. Consequently,               and earthly pleasures, even sinful         tations for the future are futile.
the righteous and the wicked do                  pleasures.                                 Then he loses even his hope, and
not hope for the same thing.                       Now the fact of the matter is            he is left in complete despair.
   The hope of the righteous is                  that earthly treasures and                   And if the wicked have not
heavenly and spiritual. The                      pleasures really do not satisfy.           lost their hope for the future in
righteous are those who love the                 Only the loving service of God             this life, they certainly will in
Lord God. And so it is their chief               satisfies. And so the wicked do            hell. Once in hell the wicked
desire to serve God, and in that                 not find happiness in the                  have no expectations for any
service to find the sweet joy of                 pleasures of sin. Nor do they find         future good.
God's friendship and companion-                  safety and security in the posses-           The expectation of the wicked
ship.                                            sions they have. The wicked live           shall perish.
   However, the righteous also                   unfulfilled.                                 But the hope of the righteous
find that in this life there is much               Foolishly the wicked conclude            is gladness.
that hinders them in this. There                 that the only real problem is that           The hope of the righteous is
is sin within them and sin around                they do not have enough                    not a fool's dream but is based
them that makes it very difficult                material things. If only they had          on the solid promises of the liv-
to serve God in love. Then there                 more - more possessions, more              ing God. Hence, the hope of the

148  I The Standard Bearer  / January 1, 1990


righteous is gladness already in
this life as it affords the righteous
contentment and confidence for           E d i t o r i a l
the future.
  But the hope of the righteous
shall provide greater gladness in        The Reformed Faith -
the future, when the righteous
come into their inheritance in the
day of the Lord Jesus Christ.            Theology of Hope
  In this new year let us hope
the hope of the righteous and be
glad. Cl

                                           If hope is the confident expec-       Spirit."
Editoritilly                             tation of good in the future from         In all his or her "sorrows and
                                         the Father of Jesus Christ, the         persecutions," the child of God
Speaking. . .                            Reformed faith is the theology of       living in January, A.D. 1990
                                         hope. The doctrines that make           longs for one thing, and one
                                         up this faith give hope to all          thing only: the coming of Christ
  This is the first issue of The         those who embrace them with             to judge the living and the dead,
Standard Bearer both of the new          believing hearts. This faith gives      by which he and all Christ's
year and of the last decade of the       hope, as does no other faith, in-       chosen ones shall be translated ;to
20th century. The time is now            asmuch as this faith is the pure        Christ (Heidelberg Catechism, Q..
January, A.D. 1990. It is fitting        Word of God in the Holy Scrip-          52). All other hopes are
that we devote this issue, as a          tures, as no other faith is.            miserable delusions and pipe
special issue, to "The Reformed            As the theology of hope, the          dreams.
Christian's Hope for the Future."        Reformed faith directs the saints'        The Reformed faith holds this
  Deliberately, we speak of the          expectation to the great good in        one, genuine hope before its
Reformed Christian's hope. We            the future that is the genuine ob-      people, because it is solidly
are convinced that the Reformed          ject of hope. This is not some          grounded in the only foundation
faith is the gospel of hope as is        event within time and history,          of hope. This is the bodily resm-
no other. A man or woman has             but the event that is the end of        rection of Jesus as revealed in
hope in the measure that he or           time and history: the coming of         the inspired Scriptures. The bodi-
she embraces the truth in its            Jesus Christ. Reformed people           ly resurrection of Jesus is the
Reformed purity. To the extent           look to the final judgment and          basis of hope. "If Christ be not
that one departs from the                the resurrection of the body in         raised, your faith is vain . . ." (I
Reformed faith, or is ignorant of        the Day of Christ: "we expect           Cor. 15: 17). This is the case, not
it, he forfeits hope.                    that great day with a most ardent       only because His resurrection as
  The time is January, A.D.              desire to the end that we may           the Head of His church was the
1990, that is, year of the Lord          fully enjoy the promise of God in       "firstfruits," guaranteeing our
(Jesus). This makes all the dif-         Christ Jesus our Lord" (Belgic          bodily resurrection (I Cor.
ference. Jesus is Lord of the pres-      Confession, Article 37).                15:20-23)  but also because it wars
ent time. His Lordship consists            Faithful to its calling as the        His resurrection that proved Him
of directing time toward His com-        theology of hope, the Reformed          to be the eternal Son of God in
ing at the end of time and of            truth vigorously uproots all false      human flesh (Rom. 1:4).
blessing every one who waits for         hopes that spring up among                If Jesus did not rise, He is
this coming.                             Christians: earthly success;            nothing but a fraud and an im-
  Our desire for our readers is          establishing the kingdom of             poster - the worst fraud and the
that you live and work in the            Christ on the earth in a carnal         most dangerous imposter of all.
hope of the coming of the Lord           form, before the Day of Christ          In comparison with Him, the
in the new year and decade. Cl           (utopia); the rapture of the saints     Bakkers, the Swaggarts, the
                                 -DJE    out of the world, so as to escape       Roberts, and even the pope are
                                         the persecution at the end under        cherubs. The television
                                         antichrist; and a personal,             charlatans only fleece the silly
                                         spiritual perfection in this life by    people of their money. The pope,
                                         some "baptism with the Holy             besides skillfully shearing his

                                                                                  January 1,  1990  I The Standard Bearer  I149


sheep, is responsible for the                    in this Reformed church like to           The reality of hope is a m.atter
destruction only of those in the                 raise a rhubarb about this. (On all     of the doctrine of Scripture in the
Roman Catholic fold who trust in                 the sorry ecclesiastical scene in       church. We stand in the gospel of
him as "vicar of Christ." But a                  the Netherlands, the "conser-           hope when we keep in memory
Jesus Who did not rise from the                  vatives" cut the sorriest figure.       that Christ "rose again the third
dead defrauds all those who trust                They call to mind nothing so            day according to the scriptures" (I
in Him both of the eternal life                  much as the line from Shake-            Cor. 15:4).
that they hoped for from Him                     speare's Macbeth, "full of sound           But Scripture's message of
and of the life of ease on earth                 and fury, signifying nothing," ex-      hope is lifeless apart from the
that they might have had if they                 cept that they display little fury.)    Holy Spirit Who seals it in the
had not followed Him. There is                   Why should the "conservatives"          experience of the believer. What
now no coming with bliss and                     be surprised at the denial of           good is a promise of "heavenly
glory for the believer; but neither              Jesus' resurrection in their            joys and glory" (Heidelberg
is there any reward for the labor                church? The Dutch Reformed              Catechism, Q. 52), if one never is
and suffering on account of His                  Church has been denying the             able to be assured that this prom-
Name. There is neither joy of vic-               doctrine of Scripture at least          ise is for him or her personally?
tory over death nor wiping away,                 since 1834 and 1886 when "the           One man is more miserable than
at the end, of the tears of Chris-               God of hope" delivered His              the Christian who has hope in
tian life.                                       people from that apostasy, so           Christ in this life only (I Cor.
   "But now is Christ risen from                 that they might "abound in hope"        15:19): the church member who
the dead" (I Cor. 15:20). This is                by believing the Scriptures (Rom.       is always languishing in doubt,
the foundation of the Reformed                   15:13). If Scripture is undermined,     whether the great good of Jesus
faith's teaching about the future.               its message - the resurrection of       Christ is for him. The Reformed
   This is its foundation, because               Jesus - is up for grabs. It is only     faith is the powerful means of the
the Reformed faith builds firmly                 a matter of time until the same         comforting Spirit to assure each
upon the Bible, confessed to be                  spirit of unbelief that challenges      and every penitent, believing sin-
the very Word of God by inspira-                 Scripture also calls into question      ner "of eternal life" (Heidelblerg
tion of the Spirit. The simple fact              Scripture's good news of the            Catechism, Q. 1). There is in-
is that we have no other source                  resurrection. "Conservatives" in        herent in the Reformed faith, and
and basis for the belief of the                  similar church situations               in every preacher who preaches
resurrection of Jesus than the                   elsewhere in the world do well to       it as it ought to be preached,. the
testimony of Scripture. If Scrip-                give heed: Where they tolerate          burning desire to demolish doubt
ture is not the Word of God, our                 the notion that the Bible is a          and build up hope in the people
source of hope is suspect and our                human, fallible word, their grand-      of God, so that they declare,
ground of hope, crumbling sand.                  children, perhaps their children,       "Behold, God is my salvation; I
It is easy then, indeed it is in-                will hear that the story of Jesus'      will trust, and not be afraid" (Is.
evitable, to regard the message                  resurrection is "exegetically inac-     12:2).
of the bodily resurrection of                    curate, hermeneutically in-               Nothing is more obnoxiou.s to
Jesus, with its promise of the                   tolerable for modern man, and           the Reformed faith, not even the
resurrection of the believer, as                 theologically unacceptable," that       denial of the resurrection of
only a projection of natural                     is, that there is no hope.              Jesus, than that miserable
human fears of death and desires                   But the Reformed faith, child-        teaching that is always working
for immortality.                                 like in its confidence in the low-      at creating and nurturing doubt
   This is being played out in our               ly, despised Word of God and            in the souls of believers, and that
day for all to see in the life of the            willing to be a fool before this        even prides itself in destroying
Dutch Reformed Church in The                     exalted, glorious "modern man,"         assurance in one who finally
Netherlands. Dr. F.O. van Gen-                   confesses Holy Scripture to be          dares to possess it.
nep, professor of theology at the                "the truth of God . . . this in-          Hope is certainty of future
University of Leiden, has publicly               fallible rule" (Belgic Confession,      good.
denied the bodily resurrection of                Article 7). For this reason, and          The Reformed faith gives cer-
Jesus as "exegetically inaccurate,               only for this reason, does it also      tainty.
hermeneutically intolerable for                  testify the bodily resurrection of        Only the Reformed faith gives
modern man, and theologically                    Christ at the end of the learned,       certainty.
unacceptable" (cf. de Waarheids-                 wise, sophisticated, scientific,          This is so, first, because the
vriend, August 3, 1989, transla-                 proud, autonomous, sceptical,           Reformed faith is theological.
tion mine). The "conservatives"                  and hopeless 20th century.              "Hope," wrote Luther, "is

150  / The Standard Bearer  I January  1,199O


nothing else than theological               Spirit" - are a11 nice, human           own undeserved, compassionate
courage." What he meant was                 religions. Inasmuch as they are         love.
that hope is the courage to face            not doctrinal, they suffer one,           This is the God of the Re-
the future, even the future of              serious defect (in addition to not      formed faith.
one's death and of facing God the           being Christian): They do not             Being ignorant of this God, the
Judge one-on-one, because hope              give hope.                              other faiths deny hope to their
is based on theology - the doc-               The Reformed faith gives cer-         people. It is the dogma of Rome,
trines of God's own Word. Take              tainty of future good also because      as it is the admission of the Prot-
theology away, and hope col-                of the nature of its theology. It is    estant churches that suspend
lapses like an empty bubble. The            true theology: truth about God          salvation on the "free will" of the
Reformed believer faces the                 Who is truly God. The one hope,         sinner, that no believer can know
future without fear, dies without           ultimately, of the guilty, de-          with certainty that he or she
fear, and will one day stride into          praved, dying sinner is God:            shall have a part in the company
the Judgment Hall of God                    "Blessed is the man . . . whose         of the eternally blessed. Not one
without fear, because of doctrine.          hope Jehovah is" (Jer. 17:7). The       has hope! Like the atheists of
The un-theological and non-                 sinner's hope is the God of faith-      Ephesians 2:12, all these millions
doctrinal, nominally Christian              fulness, Who keeps His promise;         of professing Christians have no
religions of our day - the                  the God of sovereignty, Who is          hope, and for the same reason:
religion of feeling good and being          able to keep His promised Word;         They are without God in the
happy, the religion of social ac-           and the God of mercy, Whose             world.
tivism, the religion of emotional           motivation in keeping His                 Praise God for the Reformed
exuberance in worship, and the              promise is neither the sinner's         faith - theology of hope in 1990
various religions of the "Holy              worth, will, nor works, but His         and until the coming of Christ. Cl
                                                                                                                             -DJE
                                       -



                                       Our Hope for Our
Rev. john Heys                         Savior's Return

  Another year has come to its              Testament, that an end is coming        day and that moment of Christ's
end, and a new year has begun.              to this present world, but Christ       return with the holy city, `the
For us this means that we have              Himself literally stated in the last    new Jerusalem, which will come
come closer to the day when                 verses of the last chapter of the       down out of heaven "as a bride
Christ will return upon the clouds          last book in the New Testament          adorned for her husband" (Reve-
of heaven, and that we are an               that, "Surely I come quickly.           lation 21:2). And we do, in the
awesome step closer to the day              Amen." Then too, He had                 next verse, read that the "taber-
when this present creation will             already stated in verse 7,              nacle of God is with men, and He
be changed, with the new Jeru-              "Behold, I come quickly: blessed        will dwell with them, and they
salem being established for us so           is he that keepeth the sayings of       shall be His people, and God
that we may enjoy the heavenly              the prophecy of this book." Then        Himself shall be with them, and
blessedness realized for all those          in verse 12 He stated, "And,            be their God."
for whom Christ died.                       behold, I come quickly; and my            A very important question,
  Not only has our covenant God             reward is with me, to give to           therefore, is, "Do we hope for
declared, throughout both the               every man according as his              that return of Christ, and for the
Old Testament and the New                   works shall be." To that day we         new Jerusalem to come down
                                            have come a long step closer,           from God out of heaven?" The
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in         although we do not know how             question, however, is not merely
the Protestant Reformed Churches.           many years stand between us to-         whether we desire all this to

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come to pass. That certainly will               it. It most emphatically means        tions of man such as his classy
be, and may be, our longing.                    that we expect that what is prom-     automobiles, which far outshine
That most assuredly will be in                  ised will most assuredly come.        the carts and wagons of years
the heart of every elect child of                 Is that your hope? Having           ago; the trains and airplanes that
God, who is His mercy and grace                 come into the year that indicates     swiftly send man speedily toI
"keep the sayings of the proph-                 that we are only ten years away       other countries; the telephones,
ecy of this book," and whose                    from the year A.D. 2000, and          radios, and even television --
works are pleasing in God's sight.              that we will then be 6,000 years      which enable man to see what is
But the word hope, as used in                   from the day God created all          happening on -the other side of
Scripture, means far more than                  things, do you agree with Christ      the earth while it is happening -
desire or longing for these bless-              when He says that He is coming        do seem to say that man will
ings. We do so often say, "I hope               quickly? Do we not read in            reach the 700 and be curse free.
so," and mean nothing more than                 Revelation 13:18, "Here is              It is true that some unbelilevers
that we desire to have this or                  wisdom. Let him that hath under-      have their fears, because of acid
that happen. That is not the case               standing count the number of the      rain, the greenhouse effect, wars
with the child of God in his hope               beast: for it is the number of        and rumors of war, the extinction
for Christ to return, and for the               man; and his number is Six hun-       of some birds and animals, t.hat a
new Jerusalem to be his dwelling                dred threescore and six"?             rough life can be ahead. But right
place. However, if we will look                   Plainly the idea here is that       now the world is striving to get
up what Webster says in his dic-                the world - which ultimately          the whole human race united in-
tionary, the word hope will be                  will bring forth the antichrist,      to one kingdom, so that peace
understood more clearly as far as               who is here called the beast -        will reign and war shall cease. At
what God means by it in the                     will not reach what the church        the moment what is happening in
Scriptures.                                     will enjoy when Christ returns        Russia, and for us because of the
   Webster tells us that hope is,               with the new Jerusalem. The           "changes" in Russia (which some
"1. a feeling that what is wanted               number of antichrist and his          trust), seems to say that the anti-
will happen, desire accompanied                 kingdom is 666, which is less         christ is not far away, to realize
with expectation." He also wrote                than 700, and surely significantly    the one-world kingdom in wlhich
that to hope is "to want and ex-                less. The world is trying to get      he will, because of the inven-
pect, to trust or rely." For us to              out from under the curse without      tions, and the satellites which he
hope, then, means to expect as                  the cross of Christ. And it never     will have placed in the sky, be
well as desire, to trust in God's               will, even though at times it may     able to rule the whole world and
promises, and to rely upon them.                look that way. By its ingenuity       know whether all the citizens of
We do not simply want and long                  and skills the world by medicine      his kingdom have that mark of
for Christ's return. The passing of             and surgery, by heart implants        the beast on their right hand or
every year, and the beginning of                and richer, more powerful anti-       forehead.
every new year, causes us, by                   biotics, by inventions and              The church, however, because
God's grace, to expect, that is, to             discoveries, seems to be getting      Christ dwells in its members in
look forward with the certainty                 out from under the curse. Man         their hearts and minds by His
that it most assuredly is coming,               seems to have gotten a much           Spirit, in hope counts the days
and that God's promise is without               richer life than Adam and Eve         and years, and expects Christ to
hesitancy being fulfilled.                      had when driven out of the            come. He said, "Surely I corn...
  In Psalm 38:15 the psalmist                   garden of Eden. Yet is is only the    quickly. Amen." And they say,
says, "For in Thee, 0 Lord, do I                cross of Christ that removes this     "Even so, come Lord Jesus"
hope: Thou wilt hear, 0 Lord my                 curse and brings the church to        (Revelation 22:20). They have not
God." And in Psalm 119:81 we                    the glory in that new Jerusalem,      the slightest doubt about His
read, "My soul fainteth for Thy                 which Christ will soon bring into     coming and about what He will
salvation: but 1 hope in Thy                    being. The number 666 means           bring. And now, since God
word." Plainly here, to hope is                 failure, while the number 700         brought us to the point wher'e
not merely to long for but to be                means victory.                        another 365 days have come and
confident that what we hope for                   Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain        gone, and we are closer to the
will come. To hope in God is to                 made some amazing discoveries         day when He will return and
be confident, and to expect that                (Genesis 4: 19-2 1). The food we      bring us into the new Jerusalem,
what He promises will take place.               have today is so much richer          we are sure that we will have all
Hoping in God's word is more                    than what man enjoyed before          of the salvation He earned for us
than desiring what is promised in               the flood. The more recent inven-     by His cross. We will go beyond

152  / The Standard Bearer  /January 1, 1990


the 666 into the everlasting day       all tears from their eyes; and          John 3:9, where we read,
of rest, the everlasting 7th day.      there shall be no death, neither        "Whosoever is born of God doth
For that rest, like Gods on the        sorrow, nor crying, neither shall       not commit sin; for his seed re-
seventh day of creation week, is       there be any rirore pain: for the       maineth in him; and he cannot
the enjoyment of as well as en-        former things are passed away"          sin, because he is born of God."
trance into the fulness of our         (Revelation 21:4). And what a           The most important part of our
salvation.                             beautiful city that new Jerusalem       salvation is not deliverance from.
  Consider the fact that the           will be! We read of pearly gates,       the curse, but deliverance from
name Jerusalem means Posses-           and of the foundations being            the love and power of sin. And
sion of Peace, Inheritance of          seven beautiful, precious stones        Christ is coming soon to realize #a
Peace, or Foundation of Peace.         (Revelation 2 1: 10-2 1). In Revela-    holy city, not merely a beautiful
At any rate, peace lies ahead for      tion 22 we read of the tree of life     city, that is, one that our bodies
us, and we are coming closer and       which Christ will bring, and to         can enjoy. And if we do not
closer to absolute peace with God      which we are much closer in this        sincerely and seriously desire to
through Christ, Who in Isaiah 9:6      year than ever before.                  be delivered from the love,
is called the Prince of Peace; and       There is, however, a very im-         power, and acts of sin, do not
with a view to the day when He         portant question. Even the devil        want to love God wholly, com-
arose from the dead, after earn-       and all the most godless men            pletely, and entirely, our hope
ing our salvation by His cross,        want some kind of joy and peace,        for Christ's coming is itself sinful.
the angels appeared at His birth       and a world full of beauty. But         For then we are no different
and said, "Glory to God in the         they do not want the peace              from the world whose number is
highest, and on earth peace,           Christ realized for His church.         666; for they are going away
good will toward man" (Luke            Being stopped at 666 is not             from God rather than unto Him.
2:14). On the seventh day God          because they were eager to reach        David said it, and we find it in
rested from His work of creating       our 700, which Christ realized for      Psalm 27:4, "One thing have I
all things and rested in the sense     us. Even though Christ healed           desired of the Lord, that will I
of entering into the enjoyment -of     the sick, multiplied the loaves,        seek after; that I may dwell in
it. So we who reach the seventh        and even raised the dead, they          the house of the Lord all the
day will enjoy what those whose        did not look for His coming as          days of my life, to behold the
number is 666 cannot reach.            Savior. Instead they killed Him!        beauty of the Lord, and to en-
  Look up Revelation 21 and 22,          But, do you look for Christ to        quire in His temple." Salvation is
and you will find that peace, that     return and raise for you a body         not simply deliverance from the
enjoyment of our salvation. We         that cannot sin? Being born again       punishment of sin, but chiefly
read, "And God shall wipe away         we receive the beginning of that        from the love, power, and activi-
                                       new life, as it is presented in I       ty of sin. 0



                                       The Believer's
Rev. Steven Houck                      Hope at Death

  There are many troubles and          strongest heart, for death is the       must die. God says, ". . . it is ap-
tribulations which come upon the       end of this earthly life. In death      pointed unto men once to
believer in this "valley of tears,"    the body dissolves and returns to       die . . ." (Hebrews 9:27). This is
but none of them is so disturbing      the dust, and with this dissolution     true of the young as well as of
as death. Death is something           of the body all that belongs to         the old. We do not know the da.y
which strikes fear in the              our earthly life is destroyed.          nor the hour when God will say
                                          Moreover, there is no escaping       to us, "This night thy soul shall
                                       the grip of death. With the ex-         be required of thee" (Luke 12:20).
Rev. Houck is a home-missionary of     ception of those who live at the        Any of us can die at any
the Protestant Reformed Churches.      time of Christ's return, everyone       moment.

                                                                                January  1, 1990 I The Standard Bearer  / 153


   All of this makes death a very               Thus the daily prayer of every          soul goes to heaven.
frightening thing. For most people              child of God is, "Even so, come,          We see this from the words
it is something to be dreaded.                  Lord Jesus" (Rev. 22:20).               spoken by Christ to the thief on
The very thought of death fills                    But that is not all. The hope of     the cross. Jesus said, "Verily I say
their hearts with terror. The an-               the believer is not only that he        unto thee, To day shalt thou be
ticipation of death brings such                 shall be raised from the dead           with me in paradise" (Luke
feelings of despair and hopeless-               when Christ returns, but that           23:43).
ness, that people will do just                  after death he shall immediately          Jesus did not say that the thief
about anything to avoid its in-                 enter into the presence of Christ.      would be. with Him in parad.ise
evitability.                                    The child of God looks for Christ       after a long stay in purgatory.
   For the believer, however,                   to come at death to take him to         Nor did He say that the thief
things are different. He does not               heaven just as much as he looks         would enter into some kind of
fear death. With the Psalmist he                for Him to come at the end of           sleep until the resurrection. No!
says, "though I walk through the                time. Even though the body              Jesus made it very clear that the
valley of the shadow of death, I                returns to the dust and is not          thief would be with Him in
will fear no evil . . ." (Ps. 23:5).            raised until the last day, at death,    heaven on that very day in
Even though he is walking                       the soul is taken to heaven. At         which they both died. At death,
through the "valley of the                      death, the believer consciously         the thief would go to heaven.
shadow of death" he does not                    enjoys the blessedness of being           The apostle Paul likewise
fear. He knows that for him                     with His Lord and Savior.               believed that at death the
death is not the end of every-                    Although this truth is very           believer goes immediately to
thing. He does not die like the                 comforting, it is denied by many        heaven. In II Corinthians 5:l he
beast of the field. He does not die             who profess to be Christians. For       says, "For we know that if our
as one without hope. By grace he                instance, the Roman Catholics           earthly house of this tabernacle
believes that God has given eter-               believe that at death the souls of      were dissolved, we have a
nal life to him and death is the                most believers go to purgatory          building of God, an house not
means whereby he passes into a                  and remain there for a con-             made with hands, eternal in the
more glorious experience of that                siderable time before going to          heavens."
life. "Death is swallowed up in                 heaven. Before the believer can           When our "earthly house" -
victory" (I Cor. 15:54).                        go to heaven, he must bear the          the body and all that belongs to
   The believer's hope is fixed                 remainder of the temporal pun-          earthly life - is dissolved in
upon the day of our Lords return                ishment for his sins.                   death, we will not be left un-
and upon the resurrection of his                  There are some evangelical            clothed. There is a "building of
body from the dead. Even though                 Protestants who believe that the        God" in heaven in which we will
his body returns to dust, it shall              Old Testament saints did not go         dwell. This is not the resurrection
not remain in that corruption. He               immediately to heaven at death,         body, but a heavenly state of
shall be raised from the dead.                  but rather to a different place         glory which the believer enters
The corruptible shall put on in-                which they call "paradise" or           at death. At death he does not
corruption and the mortal, im-                  "Abraham's bosom." Only after           enter purgatory or some abode
mortality. "For the Lord himself                the death and resurrection of           other than heaven. He does not
shall descend from heaven with a                Christ were the souls of the Old        sleep either. At death, the
shout, with the voice of the arch-              Testament saints released from          believer enters into the glory of
angel, and with the trump of                    this place and taken to heaven.         heaven.
God: and the dead in Christ shall                 Still others believe in what is         It ought not to surprise us,,
rise . . ." (I Thess. 4:16).                    called, "soul-sleep." At death the      therefore, that the apostle sh.ould
  This is one of the reasons the                soul enters into a state of sleep in    also say, "For to me to live is
true believer eagerly seeks the                 which the person is not conscious       Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil.
coming of Christ. He longs for                  of anything, He remains in this         1:21).
that day when he shall be                       sleep until the resurrection day          What gain would there be if at
changed "in a moment, in the                    when once again his soul is             death the believer went to
twinkling of an eye, at the last                united to his body.                     purgatory? What gain if his soul
trump" (I Cor. 15:52). In that                    The Bible, however, makes it          entered a state of unconscious-
wonderful moment all the people                 very clear that none of these           ness? But since the soul of thie
of God shall be glorified and                   views is correct. Every believer        believer goes to heaven im-
enter into the blessedness of the               may be comforted in the fact that       mediately after death, death is
new heavens and the new earth.                  when he dies, immediately his           gain. For the believer, death is

154 I The Standard Bearer  I January  1,199O


the passageway which takes him               in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt.        before, for he shall see Him face
out of this "valley of tears" into           8:ll).       -                          t o   f a c e .
the glory of heaven.                           Think of that!                           Thus at death the believer
   Oh, how glorious is heaven.                 When the believer dies he will        enters into a greater experience
   In heaven the believer will ex-           go to "Abraham's bosom" where           of the covenant of grace. He
perience sin, suffering, and sor-            he will sit down with Abraham,          knows the love and grace of God
row no more. For the cause of all            Isaac, Jacob, and all the saints        as he has never known it before.
these things will be gone. There             that have gone before him. He           He walks with God and talks
will be no old man of sin any-               will be reunited with his loved         with God in a most intimate and
more. Finally the believer will be           ones who have died in the Lord.         loving way. He knows beyond a
completely free from his wicked              Heaven will be like a great ban-        shadow of doubt that God is his
nature so that it will be impossi-           quet in which the people of God         God and that He dwells with him
ble for him to sin. With the end             enjoy one another's company             now and forever more. His heart
of his sin will also come the end            and rejoice together in the             is filled to overflowing with
of all that sin brings - the suffer-         blessedness of their salvation.         praise and adoration of God.
ing and sorrows of this life.                  The hope of heaven, however,            This is not to imply that at
  Since he is in heaven rather               is much more than fellowship            death the believer enters into his
than on earth, he will no more               with the saints. In heaven the          final state of glory. We must
face the persecution and cruelties           believer will experience the            remember that at death the bod:y
of the wicked. His soul will be at           blessedness of fellowship with          of the believer is still in the
rest, even as the voice from                 Christ, and in Christ fellowship        grave, the heavens and earth
heaven proclaims, "Blessed are               with God.                               have not yet been made new,
the dead which die in the Lord                 The apostle teaches us that           and the saints of God have not
from henceforth: Yea, saith the              "whilst we are at home in the           all been gathered. Yet this inter-
Spirit, that they may rest .from             body, we are absent from the            mediate state of the soul is the
their labours;  and their words do           Lord" (II Cor. 5:6). That is            beginning of that eternal glory
follow them" (Rev. 14:13).                   because the Lord is in heaven           that awaits us. It is something
  In heaven the believer will ex-            and we are on earth. But "to be         that ought to give all of Gods
perience the blessedness of                  absent from the body" is "to be         people great comfort. In the
fellowship with all the other                present with the Lord' (vs. 8).         midst of all the sorrows that
saints who have died and gone to             When the believer dies and goes         belong to death, the believer has
heaven. Jesus says, ". . . That              to heaven, he enters into the           a most wonderful hope. He
many shall come from the east                presence of Christ. He sees Christ      knows he is going to heaven. 0
and west, and shall sit down with            everywhere and always. He sees
Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,               Him as he has never seen Him
                                        -




                                        The Illusory
Rev. Dale Kuiper                        Hope of the Rapture

                                               Hope is the certain, expectant        not be put to shame. Hope is the
                                             longing that the child of God has       power of the Christian life that
                                             for the return of Jesus Christ and      enables the child of God to walk
                                             the renewal of all things in Him.       as a pilgrim and stranger in the
                                             Hope is that aspect of faith that is    midst of this present evil world
Rev. Kuiper is pastor of the Prot-           firmly grounded in the resurrec-        with his eye on the better coun
estant Reformed Church of Lacombe,           tion of Jesus Christ from the dead      try, the city which hath founda-,
Alberta, Canada.                             (I Peter 1:3), and therefore can-       tion.

                                                                                      January  1, 1990  I The Standard Bearer  I155


   As we stand at the beginning              beyond historic premillennialism.       the next decade. It can happen in
of a new year and a new decade,              It divides the history of mankind       1990. It can happen tomorrow. It
it is well that this hope be sharp-          into seven distinct periods of          can happen today! The displensa-
ly defined, and that false, illusory         dispensations, and teaches that         tionalists are very dramatic in
hopes be exposed for what they               God deals with the children of          their descriptions of the rapture.
are: deceptive and leading to all            men during each period accord-          "One of these days, as sure as
kinds of misunderstandings. As               ing to different principles, inno-      this is the Word of God, those
true hope can never put to                   cence, conscience, human govern-        who have pled with you, who
shame, so all false hopes will               ment, promise, law, grace, and          have warned you, who have
surely evaporate as the mist and             kingdom. It teaches a basic dif-        prayed for you, will be missing.
leave a man with nothing. The                ference between the kingdom             The preacher will be gone,
expectation of the rapture is such           people (the Jews) and the church        mother will be gone, wife will be
a false hope. It is an illusion.             (the Gentiles). It teaches that part    gone, and babies' crib will be
   Our purpose in writing is to              of Holy Scripture (the Old Testa-       found empty. Oh, what an
give instruction to those who are            ment, most of the gospels, and          awakening that is going to be!
being deceived by the dispensa-              parts of Revelation) are for the        Imagine getting up some morning
tional teaching of a rapture, to             Jews, while the epistles and the        and your wife is not there, and
warn against even considering                rest of Revelation are for the          you call for her, but there is no
the rapture as an aspect of our              Gentiles. It teaches several future     answer. You go downstairs, but
hope, and to show what believers             comings of Christ: at the rapture,      she is not there. You call upstairs
have in the resurrected Lord                 seven years later in the revela-        to daughter asking where m.other
Jesus Christ.                                tion, and then a thousand years         is, but no answer from daughter.
   The rapture is an important               later when Christ comes to              Daughter too is gone. You ring
event in the system of                       destroy the present world and to        the police but the line is busy.
eschatology known as dispensa-               make all things new. For our            Hundreds and thousands are call-
tionalism. Dispensationalism is a            present purpose we pass by              ing up, jamming the telephone
radical form of premillennialism.            many other elements that belong         lines. You rush out of doors and
All dispensationalists are pre-              to the dispensationalist's view of      bump into the pal of last night's
millennialists; but all premillen-           the last things.                        wild party. He is white as a
nialists are not dispensationalists.           By the rapture is meant the           sheet. He is out of breath, and he
Historic premillennialism does               sudden, secret coming of Christ         stammers a few words, and bawls
not advocate a rapture. It holds             to take unto Himself in the air         out, `My wife is gone. My brother
that the second coming of Christ             the living saints and the saints        is gone, and I don't know where
will be followed by a period of              who are resurrected at this time.       they are.' Down the street runs a
peace (an exact one thousand                 The wicked dead remain in the           woman shrieking at the top of
year period) during which the                grave. They call this rapture the       her voice, `Someone has kid-
Christ will come to reign in earth-          coming of Christ for His saints.        napped my baby!' and in a mo-
ly Jerusalem, and that after this            This view is based on Matthew           ment the streets are full of people,
period of time Christ will come              24:40-41, Matthew 25:13, and            weeping, crying and howling
again to bring an end to this                especially  I Thessalonians             over the disappearance of loved
present world and usher in His               4: 13-17. After the rapture comes       ones. What has happened? The
everlasting kingdom. Historic                a seven-year period of great            Lord has come as a thief in the
premillennialism is wrong. Its               tribulation which the church            night. He has quietly stolen away
basic error can be traced to.its             escapes because she is with her         those who trusted him, like
faulty interpretation of Revelation          Lord in the air. Then Christ            Enoch,  and no one is left behind
20:1-7 where the "thousand                   comes again to the earth with His       to warn you any more, to pray
years" is given a literal meaning.           saints. At this time there is a sec-    or show you the way" (Rev. R.
We hold that the "thousand                   ond resurrection of saints who          De Haan, Radio Bible Class,
years" is a figurative expression            have died during the tribulation.       November, 1954). And many of
denoting a long period of ti.me,             This ushers in the millennium           you have seen the bumper
the time from the day of Pente-              when.Christ rules over the Jews         sticker, "If you see this car going
cost to the time just before the             from earthly Jerusalem.                 down the freeway without a
end of the world. We live, there-              This rapture, this sudden,            driver, I've been raptured." Many
fore, in the very last part of this          unannounced disappearance of            live in the hope of such a rap-
period. It is the last hour.                 thousands of saints from the            ture. Be not deceived: It is an il-
  Dispensationalism goes far                 earthly scene, can happen during        lusion.

156 I The Standard Bearer/January  I,1990


   Let's turn to I Thessalonians        size of the stones of the temple,      be saved: but for the elect's sak:e
4:13-17 for a few moments, for          Jesus tells them that the time         those days shall be shortened"
on this passage the rapturists pin      comes when one stone shall not         (Matt. 24:21-22).  In a final spasrn
their hopes. The apostle here is        be left upon another. He speaks        of rage the Devil through his ser-
correcting a mistaken view of the       of the destruction of Jerusalem as     vant the Antichrist will turn on
resurrection that some Thessalo-        that destruction is a picture of       the church to persecute her and
nian saints held, a view that           the end of the world. And then         deceive her. But Christ, whose
troubled them. How ironic that          with rare insight the disciples ask    servant time is, will preserve His
some use this passage to advance        Him, "When shall these things          people, and shorten those days
another mistaken view! The              be? And what shall be the sign of      lest a single elect be deceived.
Thessalonians were concerned            Thy coming, and of the end of            That is not illusion; that is
about, even sorrowed over, those        the world?" They conceived -of         reality. The year 1990 and the
who had already died as if they         the end of the world and the           decade it initiates will bring that
had no hope, as if they could not       coming of Jesus as one, simul-         tribulation ever closer. Let no
participate in the resurrection         taneous event. Jesus does not          man think he can stand in his
and eternal life. He instructs          correct them by saying, "No, you       own strength, lest he fall. Let no
them that we which are alive            misunderstand. The end of the          man think, or teach his children,
when the Lord comes are not go-         world and my coming are                that the faithful people of God
ing to have an advantage over           separated by a thousand years.         will be brought to heaven before
those who are dead when He              And you must learn to think of         those days come; the church
comes; we are not going to              three different comings of the         passes through those perilous
precede them in any way. And            Son of man." No such thing. He         days. But let us place our trust
then we come to verses 16 and           allows their question to stand for     and hope in the Lamb that was
17, which some have called the          our instruction.                       slain, Who is worthy to open the
noisiest verses in the entire Bible,      Then Jesus proceeds to lay out       Book of the Seven Seals to brin.g
in contradistinction from a sup-        the signs of His coming. Our           about those things which must
posed secret, unannounced rap-          hope for Christ's return is a hope     yet come to pass; Who gathers
ture. "For the Lord Himself shall       for His coming in the way that         and defends His church to the ut-
descend from heaven with a              He has prophesied. He prefaces         termost; and Who comes vic-
shout, with the voice of the arch-      His teachings with the words,          torious through multitudes of
angel, and with the, trump of           "Take heed that no man deceive         catastrophes!
God: and the dead in Christ shall       you," indicating what false proph-       Of all that the Father hath
rise first: Then we which are           ets will do with the subject of        given Him, He shall lose nothing,
alive and remain shall be caught        the end of the world. Jesus ex-        but raise it up again at the last
up together with them in the            plains that there will be signs of     day. Comfort one another with
clouds to meet the Lord in the          many different kinds, some in          these words. Cl
air: and so shall we ever be with       nature, some amongst the na-
the Lord." No mention is made of        tions, and.some in the church.'
the living or the dead unbeliever;      And He insists that the end can-
they are not in view at all. That       not come until all these signs         The cost is only
the dead in Christ rise first is not    have been fulfilled.
to be contrasted to the dead out-         As the Church of Jesus Christ        $6.00 for a new
side of Christ rising at some later     awaits the return of her Head,
date, but rather to the living who      she is not deceived into thinking      subscriber.
remain when Christ comes. For           that she is going to be delivered
all of Scripture teaches that there     out of this world before all of
is one resurrection, of them that       these terrible things come to
have done good unto the resur-          pass. She does not entertain the
rection of life, and of them that       notion that because of the rap-
have done evil unto the resurrec-       ture she will not have to suffer
tion of damnation (John 5:28-29).       for her faith. "For then shall be
  The child of God hopes for one        great tribulation, such as was not
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ         since the beginning of the world
at the end of the world. When           to this time, no, nor ever shall
the disciples of Jesus marveled at      be. And except those days be
the size of the temple, and the         shortened, there should no flesh

                                                                                January 1, 1990  I The Standard Bearer I157


                                                The Illusory Hope of
Prof.  Herman Hanko                             Postmillennialism

   Especially in our time of                       Postmillennialists, therefore,         various prophecies in earthly
theological confusion, many dif-                look for a period of time, not            terms.
ferent views have appeared in                   necessarily a literal 1000 years,            It fails to reckon with signifi-
the church on the question of the               before the coming of Christ dur-          cant passages of Scripture which
millennium. One such view is                    ing which Christianity is supreme         teach things quite contrary to the
called Postmillennialism.                       in the world and a kingdom of             postmillennial view. We have in
   Among those who hold to a                    peace, with great prosperity and          mind a passage such as Luke
postmillennial position, many of                unequaled happiness, character-           18:8b: "Nevertheless when the
them Calvinists, there is a con-                izes our earthly planet. It will be       Son of man cometh, shall he find
siderable amount of disagreement                an earthly kingdom of Christ,             faith on the earth?" Quite con-
on various details. The purpose                 realized in this present world,           trary to what the Lord means
of this article is not to enter into            and a kingdom which Christ                with this rhetorical question, the
a thorough discussion of Post-                  takes to Himself when He comes            Postmillennialist would answer:
millennialism, list all the dif-                again upon the clouds of heaven.          "Yes, He shall find a world in
ferences of opinion, examine the                   Hoeksema writes of this also           which faith is characteristic of
teachings, and evaluate them in                 (Reformed Dogmatics,  Reformed            most men."
the light of the Word of God. For               Free Publishing, 1966, pp. 816,              It speaks of the kingdom of
our purposes, we are content                    817):                                     Christ is earthly terms, in spite of
with a broad definition.                           The postmillenarians, as the name      the fact that the Lord Himself
   Whatever the differences may                 indicates, believe that the millennium    emphatically states: "The
be, all Postmillennialists are                  is antecedent to the coming of Christ.    kingdom of God cometh not with
agreed on the broad definition                  Before the coming of Christ there         observation: neither shall the:y
which Loraine Boettner offers in                will be a special dispensation of         say, Lo here! or, lo there! for,
his book, The Millennium (The                   gospel preaching and its effect, so       behold, the kingdom of God is
Presbyterian & Reformed Pub-                    that before Christ's coming the           within you" (Luke 17:20, 2 1).
lishing Company, 1966; p. 4):                   knowledge of the Lord shall cover           It stands in sharp contrast with
                                                the earth, even as the waters cover
  Postmillennialism is that view of             the bottom of the sea. Besides, a         that whole body of Biblical data
the last things which holds that the            glorious reign of peace . . . is ex-      which describes the days prior to
Kingdom of God is now being ex-                 petted . . . . They . . . expect a        the coming of Christ as days h-r
tended in the world through the                 realization of the kingdom of God on      which lawlessness abounds (Mat-
preaching of the Gospel and the sav-            earth, upon the scene of which            thew 24:12), persecution is th'e lot
ing work of the Holy Spirit, that the           Christ will come.                         of God's people (Matthew
world eventually will be Christian-               While it is not our purpose to          24:16-22, Revelation 11, 13:17,
ized, and that the return of Christ
will occur at the close of a long               examine Postmillennialism, we             etc.), and Antichrist reigns in a
period of righteousness and peace               briefly mention some of the ob-           universal kingdom in which tlhere
commonly called the  Millennium.                jections which can be brought             is no room for the saints of
                                                against this view.                        Christ.
                                                  It is based on an interpretation          We oppose such views of the
                                                of prophecy which, much like              coming of Christ and the events
                                                premillennialism, fails to reckon         which precede His coming. The
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church              with the typical character of the         Postmillennialists are an ardent
History and New Testament in the                Old Testament and interprets              group of men. They have little
Protestant Reformed Seminary.                                                             patience with anyone who does

158  / The Standard Bearer  /January 1, 1990


not agree with them. In personal        life's problems are solved shall         disobedience of our first parents.
correspondence, one defender of         presently be established.                Nothing will be changed until sin
Postmillennialism called us               As the law of God is enforced          is taken away. Christ did this on
"pessimistic" and "kamikaze             in all the world, we shall have a        His cross. He took away the sins
Christians" - i.e., Christians who,     kingdom of great prosperity, of          of His people. Deliverance must
after the pattern of Japanese           worldwide peace, of freedom              wait until we are taken out of
pilots at the end of World War II,      from disease and suffering, of           this world into another world
are intent on committing eccle-         happiness and joy such as the            where sin is no more.
siastical suicide.                      world has never known.                     Nor must it be forgotten that,
   The point of these and similar         It is something wonderful to           because of sin, the curse of God
objections is that the believer         look forward to and it gives the         entered into the warp and woof
who holds to an amillennial posi-       child of God something to work           of the creation itself. Shall this be
tion has no hope. He takes a            for with bubbling hope.                  changed here in this world?
dark view of the future. He is            Is this the object of the hope of      Romans 8 says loudly, No! "For
gloomy and sees only the dark           the Christian?                           the creation was made subject ito
sides of life. All he sees in the         It all sounds so nice. One could       vanity, not willingly, but by
world is a creation under the           almost wish that it were true.           reason of him who hath sub-
curse, a world filled with sin and        Postmillennialism, however,            jected the same in hope, because _
getting worse, a hopeless situa-        holds before us an illusory hope.        the creature itself shall be
tion beyond repair and impossi-         In this desert of sin and death in       delivered from the bondage of
ble to salvage. He wanders              which we live, postmillennialism         corruption into the glorious liber-
through life with a long face and       can only give us the promise of a        ty of the children of God. For we
a pessimistic outlook.                  mirage. It is important - for our        know that the whole creation
  He should be optimistic and           spiritual well-being - that we           groaneth and travaileth in pain
enthusiastic. He should look at         recognize that postmillennial            together until now. And not only
this world and think of what it         hope is indeed that and nothing          they, but ourselves also . . ." (v.ss.
will become. He should keep his         more.                                    20-23).
eye fixed upon a great and                It is a mirage because it holds          To fasten our hope upon an
glorious kingdom which shall            before us the promise of a               earthly kingdom is to fasten ou'r
presently be realized here below.       kingdom which is nowhere                 hope upon a kingdom in which
He should not look at the dark          spoken of in Scripture.                  the curse still is present. I do not
side of the picture, but at the           It is a mirage because it speaks       want that kind of a kingdom.
bright side, that here in this pres-    of a kingdom here in the world           Postmillennialism cannot take sin
ent world the kingdoms of this          of great joy and happiness for           as seriously as do the Scriptures.
world are becoming the kingdom          God's people when such is in fact          It is a mirage because the
of our God and His Christ. Is he a      not the case. It is like saying to a     kingdom which the Post-
part of only a few who hold to          mountain-climber, who is near            millennialists describe is, in fact,
the truth? Never mind; presently        the point of total exhaustion, to        the kingdom of Antichrist. I do
the Reformed faith shall be the         keep courage, for just around the        not doubt that a kingdom of
faith which is dominate in the          next bend in the trail the walk is       peace, of great plenty, of enor-
whole world. Is he persecuted           easy and without obstacle -              mous prosperity and uncounted
now by the wicked? Bear it pa-          when in fact it is still ten miles of    riches, of beauty and splendor
tiently because presently he shall      trail to the summit.                     such as the world has never
himself be in power and the               It is a mirage because it prom-        seen, will some day be estab-
wicked shall either be non-             ises to the people of God a              lished. Scripture points us to that.
existent or at least completely         kingdom here in the world, this          What makes one cringe,
under the control and rule of the       world, this present world in             however, is that this kingdom is
righteous. Are there social prob-       which we live. It is a mirage,           described by Scripture as the
lems of war, race inequalities,         therefore, a false hope, because it      kingdom of the beast (read
poverty, sickness, suffering? It        fails to reckon properly with the        Revelation 13).
will all presently be different         fact of sin. All the grief, the suf-       This makes postmillennial
when in this world the rule of          fering, the trouble, the pain of         thinking of considerable spiritual
God shall be over all, the              war and earthquake, the vicious          danger.
Reformed faith shall hold sway          character of sin, the agony of             Rev. Hoeksema writes some-
throughout the world, the               death - all are the result of sin.       where in his book, Behold He
kingdom of Christ in which all          Sin entered the world with the           Cometh, that the spiritual danger

                                                                                  January 1, 1990  I The Standard Bearer  I159


of postmillennialism is that it                  beautiful and glorious kingdom         man shall say unto you, Lo, here
tempts the people of God to iden-                comes to this world, he will say:      is Christ, or there; believe it not.
tify the kingdom of Antichrist                   Ah, our dreams are realized, our       For there shall arise false Christs,
with that of Christ.                             hopes are fulfilled, our longings      and false prophets, and shall
   This is not hard to understand.               are satisfied; the kingdom of our      shew great signs and wonders;
How nice it would be if we did                   Christ has come. But, lo and           insomuch that, if it were possible,
not have to worry about persecu-                 behold, it is the kingdom, not of      they shall deceive the very elect.
tion, about the terrible tribulation             Christ, but of Antichrist.             Behold, I have told you before"
of the Antichrist's kingdom. How                   Do you respond to this by say-       (Matthew 24:23-25).
nice it would be if we could                     ing: "Never fear. I will be able to      The hope of the believer, and
rather look forward to our faith                 tell the difference. I can never       for this I am profoundly grateful,
pervading all the world. The                     possibly confuse the two. I know       is not on any kingdom in this
song of postmillennialism is a                   how Christ's kingdom is different      sorry world, but is fastened with
lullaby. It is a sweet siren song                from that of Antichrist"?              eagerness, with longing and with
that gradually sings the child of                  If you say this, then all I can      great optimism, on the everlast-
God to sleep. It is a song which is              do is warn you that the decep-         ing kingdom of righteousness
so beautiful, so entrancing, that                tion is very real and very much a      which shall be realized only in
he forgets all about his calling to              possibility. The Lord was deeply       the new heavens and in the new
watch for the coming of the                      concerned about this very thing        earth where sin shall be no
Lord. And so when a very                         when He told us, "Then if any          more. cl




                                                 Hope as an
Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                          Incentive to Godliness

    For this is the love of Cod, that            work, so that Paul-warned, in          world, and, if they are going to
we keep his commandments: and                    3: 10, 11, "For even when we           be so, they must see a future vi-
his commandments are not                         were with you, this we com-            sion for which to hope. Else what
grievous.          I John 5:3                    manded you, that if any would          will give the incentive to work?
   If we are actually in the end                 not work, neither should he eat.         With this there is one thing, or
times, as it often seems, what                   For we hear that there are some        maybe two, with which we rnust
motivation is there left for the                 which walk among you disorder-         take exception.
Christian to work diligently with                ly, working not at all, but are          To begin with, it is much too
a view to what lies ahead?                       busybodies."                           early and materialistic in its con-
   This problem is not new. Paul                   And so through the years there       cern. Those who hold to millen-
struggled with its already in                    have been those who have               nial theology seem to see evlery-
Thessalonica, a church deeply                    warned against amillennialism          thing in terms of prosperity and
concerned about the imminent                     and its view of an imminent end,       dominion in this material world.
return of Christ (II Thessalonians               for, they say, it can only take        Somehow God cannot prove His
2:1, 2). There were those there                  away every incentive for Chris-        greatness, they would seem to
who had concluded that with no                   tian activity in life.                 think, unless Christianity comes
future to look forward to in this                  And now, in recent times,            to a position of visible dominance
world there was no need to                       there has come a resurgence of         among men.
                                                 millennial thinking, both of a           In turn, they have coupled
                                                 premillennial and a postmillen-        with this a supposition that this
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the                 nial sort. The feeling is that         can only happen through the
Protestant Reformed Church of                    Christians should be active in the     cooperation of man. The coming
Kalamazoo, Michigan.                             social and political forces of this    of the kingdom is seen as condi-

160  I The Standard Bearer  I January 1, 1990


tional and legalistic throughout;      strangers and pilgrims on the           siderable power and prominenc'e;
unless man does his part God           earth. For they that say such           and yet this was never their goal.
cannot have what He wants. This        things declare plainly that . . .       Whatever their position was,
is perhaps to be expected from         they desire a better country, that      whether great or small, it was
the premillennialists, who for the     is, an heavenly: wherefore God is       something given by God and was
most part have always been Ar-         not ashamed to be called their          to be used for spiritual service to
minian in thought; but they are        God: for he hath prepared for           the people of God.
now being joined by a                  them a city."                              But what is the motivation that
postmillennial movement which,           But even more serious,                brings one to this? It is simply, as
while claiming a Reformed identi-      perhaps, is the use they would          the Heidelberg Catechism brings
ty, would seek to establish the        make of the law.                        out, gratitude, nothing more and
kingdom of God on earth by               Now it is certainly true that         nothing less.
means of the law. These two            the Reformed faith has always             To begin with, it has to come
movements have joined forces in        been marked by its deep and             from within a person, it cannot
the hope of proving that Chris-        continuing regard for God's law,        simply be aroused by external
tianity can and will become the        but never as a means for pro-           dreams. It may be true that God
dominant power in this world, if       viding salvation, either in-            created man to have dominion
only they can influence its            dividually or for the world at          over the creation (Genesis 1:26),
governments to establish and en-       large. The Scriptures may tell us       but the right to it he has lost
force statutes based on God's law.     that those who keep the law will        through the fall, and the con-
Then Gods blessings will fall          be blessed by it; but they also         tinued pursuit of such dominant
upon all, and Christianity will        make it very clear that no one          greatness reflects more the men-
usher in a millennium of peace         has ever done this but Christ, as       tality of Satan (Isaiah 14:14) than
and prosperity in this world.          Paul repeatedly brought out,            of God (Isaiah 53:7). It is like the
What greater incentive could           Romans 3:20, "By the deeds of           children of Israel rushing in to
there be, they would suggest, for      the law there shall no flesh be         take the land of Canaan, but
Christians to get out and work?        justified in his sight: for by the      without Moses at their head
  The problem is that these are        law is the knowledge of sin."           (Numbers 14:40-45). Christ alone
not the prospects for world            And this has continued to bear          holds the right to rule, and He
history set forth by the Word of       itself out. We in our day are see-      does (Ephesians 1:19-22) and we
God.                                   ing evangelicals who with their         are never more than simply ser-
  In the Bible the goal of Chris-      exaggerated claims and ambi-            vants of His. To each He gives
tianity is not on this earth but in    tions have pushed themselves in-        his place; and our calling is to be
heaven, as Jesus said to Pilate,       to prominence, only for it to           content with what it is (Philip-
John  l&36, "My kingdom is not         become evident that they are as         pians 4: 11).
of this world: if my kingdom           subject to corruption as anyone           The fact of the matter is that
were of this world, then would -'      else. And Christianity is shamed.       the place God gives to His people
my servants fight, that I should         True Christian behavior must          here below seldom includes
not be delivered to the Jews: but      have roots deeper than that. It         earthly greatness. David had it
now is my kingdom not from             doesn't arise from earthly ambi-        once, but it was only too soon
hence." There once was a time          tions and dreams, but only from         tainted by his own adulteries and
when God's kingdom held earthly        spiritual convictions of heart, as I    sins. Calvin and Beza were ac-
glory, in the days of David, but it    John 5:3 says, "For this is the         tually quite successful in leading
was typical and temporary and          love of God, that we keep his           the people of Geneva into a
could not last. In reality God's       commandments: and his corn-             generation of piety and peace,
saints long before that had under-     mandments are not grievous."            but the real focus of their con-
stood that the fulfillment of Gods     This world is never presented in        cern and prayers, a continuing
promises is not here below, as         Scripture as something to be            reformation in France, God never
Hebrews points out, 11:13-16,          sought in itself; and its goals are     gave. Presbyterianism in England
"These all (e.g., Abel, Enoch,         empty at best. The hope of Chris-       and Scotland planned at length
Noah, Abraham and Sarah) died          tian life is anchored in the life to    for Christian rule,in their lands,
in faith, not having received the      come; and what we do here only          and yet to any great degree it
promises, but having seen them         prepares us for that.                   never came to pass. And in the
afar off, and were persuaded of          This. was always the attitude of      Netherlands Abraham Kuyper
them, and embraced them, and           the Reformers. They were in cer-        through a valiant expenditure of
confessed that they were               tain instances men who had con-         effort became Prime Minister of

                                                                                January  1,199O  / The Standard Bearer  / 161


the nation, but his political attain-           great or be it small, as Paul put it       And as far as our place in the
ments proved only mediocre at                   again, I Corinthians 12:3 1, "But       world is concerned, it may be
best. Earthly greatness is not the              covet earnestly the best gifts."        that Christ will see well to place
area in which God has seen well                 And from there he went on into          some in positions of prominence
to demonstrate the wonder of His                his glorious chorus of praise to        and power. He did so with
salvation, and He has told us that              the beauty of love in the children      Daniel. But even for such,
much through the Apostle Paul, I                of God. After all, we have              greatness and glory must not be
Corinthians 1:26, "For ye see                   nothing to give but what He has         their goal, but rather to do Iwhat-
your calling, brethren, how that                first given to us; and all we can       ever they do in careful practice
not many wise men after the                     do is to return as did the prodigal     of love and truth, I Corinthians
flesh, not many mighty, not                     son to his father with the prayer,      10:31, "Whatsoever ye do, do all
many noble, are called: But God                 Luke 15:18, "Father, I have             to the glory of God." But, for
hath chosen the foolish things of               sinned against heaven, and              this, one need not be great; the
the world to confound the                       before thee, and am no more             service of the simple is just #as
wise . . . . That no flesh should               worthy to be called thy son:            good, Mark 9:35: "If any ma.n
glory in his presence."                         make me as one of thy hired ser-        desire to be first, the same shall
   That which is most pleasing to               vants." The world may not ap-           be last of all, and servant of all."
God, and the pursuit of which                   preciate such meekness, but             God doesn't need us for glory
should be the true motivation for               Jesus has assured us, Luke 15:7,        among men; His joy is only when
the child of God, is the simple                 "Joy shall be in heaven over one        our hearts are turned to Him
pursuit of spiritual virtue and                 sinner that repenteth, more than        (Ezekiel 33:ll). Cl
truth in whatever we do, be it                  over ninety and nine just per-
                                                sons, which need no repentance."



                                                The Hope of Every
                                                Believer Regarding His
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                         Future Earthly life

   There is much need for hope.                   Because of God's curse, man           to doubt his salvation.
   The need for hope arises from                lies in the midst of death with no         There is much in this life
the curse which God placed upon                 escape. Man goes in a circle, a         which leads the believer to fear
man and upon the earth because                  vicious circle. He has made prog-       and to despair.
of man's willful fall into sin. The             ress, but his progress consists         * * * *  * * * * * *
book of Ecclesiastes details the                only in that he runs his miserable        At the beginning of each calen-
effects of that curse, summarizing              circle at a faster pace. The best       dar year man pauses. He looks
it with the two familiar phrases:               of man's earthly life is labor and      back and sums up the achieve-
"vanity of vanities; all is vanity"             sorrow (Psalm 9O:lO). Nothing is        ments and failures of the past
and "there,is nothing new under                 free from becoming dust.                year. He spends more time Ilook-
the sun" (1:2, 5). All of man's in-               The need for Christian hope           ing ahead, hoping that the new
ventions and scientific advances                arises from the constant presence       year will bring new and betiter
do nothing to reverse God's                     of sin in the believer's life. This     things. Hence, he makes resolu-
curse.                                          leads to frustrations for the saint,    tions.
                                                who is not as godly as he wants           Unbelieving man hopes, but
Rev. VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel           to be. Further, need for hope           his hope -is vain.
Protestant Reformed Church in                   arises from the fact that Satan is        In contrast, the believer h.as
Northwest Chicago, Illinois.                    constantly tempting the believer        hope.

162 I The Standard Bearer  I January  I,1990


   Most importantly, the                 Reflect on the collective giving of    comes not by chance, but by
 believer's hope is based on God's       the cheerful believers. Watch a        Gods fatherly hand. He provides
 promise of everlasting life. The        deep and satisfying joy shine on       believers with every good thing
 believer, with uplifted head, an-      the faces of a believing congrega-      and averts all evil or turns it to
 ticipates the return of his resur-     tion as they drink deeply of the        their profit. It is the believer's
 rected and ascended Lord. He           sincere milk of the Word.               knowledge that God is in control
 fixes his mind upon the new               Yes, there is hope and, there-       of all things on the earth which
 heaven and earth, which Jesus          fore, joy on the part of believers      gives him reason to hope. He
 will bring upon His return. This       who are still confined to this          does not have to live in the
 aspect of the believer's hope is       earth.                                  despairing fear of chance.
treated earlier in this issue.             What is that hope? How can              But there is another work of
 * * * * *  * * * * *                   the Christian have hope concern-        Jehovah which gives the believer
   I would contend that the             ing his future earthly life? How        even more reason to hope, name-
believer also has reason to have        can this be, when he is living in       ly His work of salvation. It is His
hope regarding the rest of his          a decaying body, in a life which        eternal purpose to save unto
earthly life.                           seems vain, among a world of            Himself a people in Christ; it is
   First of all, the hope of eternal    unbelievers who are reserved for        Gods work of establishing and
life in heaven has a great and          the lake of fire?                       maintaining His covenant of
comforting effect on our present         * * * * * * * * * *                    grace. All things in heaven and
life. Our hope of everlasting life         Hope, even great hope in this        on earth God uses to serve the
is described as a sure and stead-       vale of tears, is possible when         realization of His covenant.
fast anchor of the soul, which          one sees Gods work.                     Believers have entered into the
stabilizes the ship of the                 The realization that God is          finished salvation given to them
believer's present life (Hebrews        working on the earth is a potent        in Jesus Christ. The state of salva-
6:18, 19).                              and effective antidote against          tion is no longer for them a land
  Also, it is not the case that the     hopelessness and discourage-            of promise, but a land possessed
Christian's only hope is the future     ment. When we raise our eyes            and enjoyed. They have peace
life and that this present, earthly     above the puny and ineffective,         with God, for they are now
life is nothing but tedious misery      work of men and see the great           justified by faith!
and sorrow. Such would con-             and successful work of God, then           The servants of God behold
tradict the experience of               we can hope also concerning our         the work of God by faith in His
believers, for they have moments        earthly pilgrimage. Psalm 90: 16,       Word. In the darkness of awful
of joy and happiness, even great        17 is the prayer that God's "work       night, when the forces of iniquity
joy at times. Think of the joyful       appear unto thy servants, and           seem to swallow up the cause of
experience of godly parents who         thy glory unto their children."         Christ and when deliverance
present their child for holy bap-         All men, including believers,         seems impossible, then God's ser
tism because of God's promises.         despair when it appears as if all       vants cling to the realization that
Consider the experience of the          things are happening by chance,         in the darkest moments of
same believers as they rejoice in       and that God's curse has left the       Golgotha there was the resurrec-
the physical and spiritual              world without purpose. The              tion hope.
development of that child. Watch        believer despairs when it seems           Already in the Garden of Eden,
the joy of their hearts become          that his godliness is in vain           immediately after the fall into
visible when that same child            (Psalm 73:13), or that God has          sin, and after God gave His prom-
stands publicly before the church       forgotten to be gracious (Psalm         ise (Genesis 3:15), Adam, in
and unashamedly confesses his           77:6-g).                                naming his wife, proclaimed
faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior       Hope springs from seeing that         great hope for this present life.
and Lord. Consider the joy of the       the Most High, Who called all           Eve was the mother of all the liv-
marriage of two believers whose         things that are not as if they          ing.
fervent desire is expressed in          were, sustains and governs all            Our trouble is that all too fre-
vows that their marriage will           things on the earth as well as in       quently we see nothing of the
reflect the beautiful union of          heaven. Behind all of the move-         work of God, of that which He is,
Christ and His church. Listen to        ments of men and nations is the         accomplishing. For a servant of
the triumphant praises of God           everlasting God Who is realizing        God to be unaware of what the
which are raised by the voices of       His counsel and eternal purpose.        Master is doing in the world can
a congregation of believers.            Therefore, everything that              well be cause for hopelessness.
                                        touches the life of the believer        Therefore, it is so appropriate

                                                                                 January 1, 1990  I The Standard Bearer  II63


and necessary to pray, "Let Thy                  the world (Matthew 28:2Ob).           will be with us to the very end of
work appear unto Thy servants."                  Literally, Jesus promises to be       time. He, Who opens the seals,
   We ask for grace always to                    with us all the days, or day in       blows the trumpets, and pours
behold the work of God on us                     and day out. The days follow          out the vials of God's wrath in
and on our children in all of our                each other one by one, and each       time, is working all things
present way. Hope thrives within                 has its own trials, troubles, and     together for the good of them
the breasts of those who are in                  difficulties. But each day is also    that love Him and are called ac-
Christ, for they know that all                   accompanied by the reassuring         cording to His purpose.
things work together for their                   fact that the One, to Whom all          Knowing this, therefore, our at-
good. God will not allow any-                    authority in heaven and on earth      titude can be one of hope even
thing to foil His work of salvation              belongs, is with us.                  now, while we live in the midst
in them. Realizing that, our souls                 He is present with us accord-       of death.
can be quieted. Whatever hap-                    ing to His Godhead. He is present     * * * * * * * * * *
pens in this present time of sor-                with us according to His majesty,       The hope of the believer iin
row, tribulation, and apparent                   which is His absolute authority to    this present life is that He Who
confusion, we have reason to                     govern all things in heaven and       has been our help in ages past is
believe that our Father is at                    on earth. And He is with us by        not only our eternal home, but
work, accomplishing all for His                  His grace and spirit, having made     also our hope for years to come
glory and for our salvation.                     our hearts His dwelling place.        by being our Guide while
   Then believers can confess,                   And He is with us by His Word,        troubles last.
even while they walk in the                      through the preaching.                  While living in a world
midst of this sin-cursed earth,                    The world, which has an end,        wherein all is vanity and nothing
that they are more than con-                     is the habitation of the church of    is new under the sun, we see by
querors through Him that loved                   Christ. Here the church is the ob-    faith that old things are passed
them.                                            ject of the hatred and reproach       away. All things are presently,
* * * * * * * * * *                              of the evil world. He, Who did        new. Our hope is our confid'ence
   There is another reason why                   redeem us through the shameful        in the realization of God's saving
the believer has hope regarding                  and bitter cross, will never allow    work upon each individual elect
his future earthly life. He has the              that anything should happen to        and upon the church collectively.
promise of the ascending Lord                    us that would negate that work.       Our hope is God's mercies which
that He is with us unto the end of               Jesus assures us that we need         are new every morning. I7
                                                 have no fear. He is and always



                                                 iope and the Protestant.
                                                 ieformed Churches'
Rev. Arie dent-iartog                            Vlission Calling

                                                   Never must we lose sight of         which shall finally appear before
                                                 the great and glorious calling        His throne in glory to praise and
                                                 which the Lord Himself has given      glorify Him forever.
                                                 to us. Through the preaching of         The gathering of the chur'ch is
                                                 the gospel our Lord is p!eased to     the sovereign work of the Lord.
                                                 gather unto Himself the church        He is not dependent on any man
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of the Prot-           which He has chosen unto eter-        or church. Yet He is pleased to
estant Reformed Church of Redlands,              nal life and redeemed with His        use us as His church for that end,.
California.                                      own precious blood, the church        What a glorious thing it is to`

164  / The Standard Bearer  I January 1, 1990


serve the Lord unto this purpose.       Apostasy grows worse and worse         "gospel" of the free will of man
In connection with the great            as time goes on. We live in the        that depends on man for its effec-
commission to preach the Word           last days and we know that our         tiveness and results. Ours is not
to all nations the Lord has given       Lord prophesied that in our days       the "gospel" of "offering" Christ
us the promise: "Lo, I am with          there would be few in the world        to all men. The gospel that God
you alway, even unto the end of         that believe.                          has entrusted to us is the gospel
the world. Amen." The work of             We as churches have some-            of sovereign grace. The Lord has
missions must be carried out until      times been discouraged in the          given His Word that we must
the end of the world. In fact, the      work of missions. Often the            declare with authority in His
chief purpose of all history is the     response to the preaching of the       name unto the salvation of His
gathering of the church of the          gospel seems so small. We              people.
Lord. The exalted Lord reigns           wonder whether it is worth the           Always the church has a two-
over all heaven and earth for the       work and sacrifice. On a number        fold task and obligation. She
accomplishment of that purpose.         of occasions in the last few years     must preach the Word of the
Only when the gospel has been           mission fields have been closed        Lord to her own members. The
preached unto all nations will the      down due to apparent lack of in-       members of the church must be
end come. The work of missions          terest and the difficulty of           constantly built up and
is not a temporary calling of the       establishing a church because the      strengthened in the faith. They
church. It is not one that she is       numbers were too small. We             need the preaching of the word
engaged in at will. Never do we         have had real struggles over the       to comfort them in the midst of
have the right even for a short         years with our mission work in         this evil world and to strengthen
time to suspend out involvement.        Jamaica. Presently we face the         them against its temptations.
Our love for the Lord and for His       great question of what the Lord's      Covenant youth need to be in-
appearing must constrain us ever        will may be for the future of our      structed by the church and
to be zealous and faithful in this      mission work in Jamaica. We are        brought to maturity in the faith.
great and glorious work.                facing a serious shortage of           No church may ever neglect this
  The work of missions is a dif-        ministers in our own churches at       part of her calling. Missions is not
ficult work. It requires great          home. We wonder sometimes              the only calling of the church, as
sacrifices. It involves great bold-     whether we are not better off just     some have foolishly imagined. If
ness and courage to face the op-        concentrating on our own               the church neglects the great anld
position of the enemy. It requires      churches and our own families.         constant spiritual needs of her
men of God who are specially              Yet we must never lose sight         own members and the youth tha.t
called to this work and ready to        of the fact that our hope is in the    are growing up in her midst,
endure the hardships and give           Lord in the work of missions. We       there will soon be no more
themselves totally to this calling.     believe that He is sovereign and       church to do the work of mis-
It requires long, patient labor         that He will surely accomplish         sions. It will soon happen that a
with weak and sinful people. The        His purpose for the glory of His       generation arises that knows not
history of Christian missions has       own name. Humbly we desire to          the Lord and His truth. Such a
demonstrated this over and over.        be used of Him. He has not only        generation is totally unqualified
Think of all that the apostle Paul      called us to continue in the work      and ill-equipped for the great
endured for the sake of the             of missions but He has promised        task of missions.
preaching of the gospel. Many           ever to be with us and to em-            But at the same time that the
thousands of faithful servants of       power us by His Holy Spirit. The       church is preaching the Word fo,r
the Lord have given their lives         Lord has given us a wonderful          her own members she must also
for this cause. They have suffered      heritage of the Reformed faith         be concerned about those outsidle
hardship and persecution and            that we are under solemn obliga-       of the fold of the church. Every
even martyrdom. We, the church          tion to share with others. If we       congregation must be concerned
today, may not shun any of these        are really true to that heritage       about this, every member of the
things or imagine that mission          we will earnestly desire to com-       church. If this is not the case in
work in our day will be easier          municate the glorious truth of the     the church, she will grow stag-
than it was in the days of the          Reformed faith to others. The          nant and self-centered. She will
apostles. In fact it is probably to-    Lord has given us a powerful           soon lose her zeal and love for
day even more difficult. The            gospel. We must not be ashamed         the Lord. We must be in earnest
devil has increased his                 of that gospel, for it is the power    prayer for this part of our calling.
stratagems against the church for       of God unto salvation to every-        We must take great interest in
he knows that his time is short.        one that believes. Ours is not the     the progress of our mission

                                                                                January 1,  1990  I The Standard Bearer  I165


endeavors. The Lord greatly                        that it is proper and necessary         understanding of the Word of
blesses His church when this is                    for the church to do mission            God. We are ready in the Lord's
true of her.                                       work among people of apostatiz-         providence to help establish such
   As Reformed churches we                         ing churches, even among people         groups and to institute them as
have a proper perspective on our                   of Reformed churches that are           true Reformed churches ancl con-
hope in mission work. There is a                   departing from the fundamentals         gregations of our denomination.
sense of the greatness of the                      of the truth of the Word of God.        Always and again we must
Lord's commission to preach the                    Through such mission work we            recommit ourselves to this work
gospel unto all nations. It is a                   seek by the grace of God to call        and redouble our efforts. Wee
great wonder that the Lord will                    the faithful saints of God out of       must also be ready again and
gather His people out of all the                   such churches, to come and join         again to examine our methods of
nations of the world. The work                     the fellowship of our churches.         carrying out this work, making
by which this will be accom-                       We invite and encourage Gods            sure that we are working in the
plished is tremendous. No single                   people to come and enjoy with           most effective way possible, in
church alone accomplishes this                     us the blessings of the Word            faithfulness to the Lord and in
task. The church of all ages by                    which God has given to us. Also         harmony with the principles of
the grace of God and through the                   we exhort faithful people of God        His Word.
true preaching of the gospel ac-                   concerning their obligation to            Besides home mission work we
complishes that task. On the                       stand together with us against          must also continue the work of
other hand, we do not imagine                      the apostasy and wickedness of          foreign missions. Foreign mis-
that there will be a worldwide                     the modern day church. This we          sions is usually a lot harder than
conversion of all or even of the                   believe is mission work which           home missions. It usually requires
majority of peoples on the earth.                  the Lord commands and with              a lot more resources and
The Lord gathers unto Himself a                    which the Lord is pleased.              sacrifices. It requires a larger
remnant according to the elec-                       Our day is one of increasing          work force and long-term
tion of His grace. Wherever the                    apostasy. Modern day churches           commitments. Foreign missions
Word is faithfully preached, the                   are departing further and further       can seldom be accomplished with
Lord Himself will gather all those                 from the truth of God's Word.           one missionary on a field. It
whom He has chosen unto life                       Home mission work is increasing-        usually requires a team of
eternal. The glory of the Lord is                  ly urgent. It is also increasingly      workers. Foreign missions in-
not dependent on great throngs                     difficult. The devil is working         volves great patience and en-
of people. The Lord is not                         hard to destroy the church by           durance to bring those who have
ashamed of the small remnant of                    false doctrine. When false doc-         first come to know the Lord. to
His people. That remnant is                        trine prevails in a church for a        maturity of faith in the Lord.
always much, much smaller than                     long period of time, a whole            Foreign missions requires a great
the thousands and millions of the                  generation grows up almost en-          love for people of God different
world who continue in idolatry                     tirely ignorant of the true doc-        from us who have not grown up
and wickedness. We as a church                     trines of salvation. Yet the Lord       in a Christian environment as we
are not ashamed of the remnant                     is pleased to call His saints out of    have. Foreign missions is done in
of the people of God gathered                      such churches. We are thankful          countries where ungodliness has
out of the nations. With that rem-                 to Him for all those whom the           reigned for centuries and for
nant the Lord will build His                       Lord has called into the fellow-        many generations. It is a most
church for His glory, and bring to                 ship of our churches to enjoy and       wonderful work to bring such
shame all the boasting and glory                   experience the riches of the truth      people unto the knowledge of the
of men.                                            that God has given to us and to         truth. Only the Lord can ac-
   Always the church is called to                  stand together in the defense of        complish this wonder. It is a.
perform the work of missions on                    that truth. I know this by per-         great joy for the church actively
two fronts, both at home in our                    sonal experience in my own life.        involved in this work to ex-
own land and in our own im-                        Though the number of the                perience and behold this great
mediate community, and also in                     faithful are few, we rejoice in         wonder.
foreign lands where the gospel                     that God saves His own. We are            Is there hope for our Prot-
has not yet been preached. We                      not ashamed of working with             estant Reformed Churches bleing
may not neglect the work of mis-                   small groups of interested saints       involved in foreign missions? We
sions on either of these fronts.                   of God, and of spending much of         are a small denomination with
We as Protestant Reformed                          our resources to help such small        very limited resources. Are there
Churches have always insisted                      groups come to a more perfect           still lands in the world that lhave

166  I The Standard Bearer  I January  1,  1990


  never heard the preaching of the        as in our churches at home we          fields of labor. We need to ex-
  gospel? There will be until short-      insist that the gospel which we        amine our present denomina-
  ly before the Lord returns. Much        preach must only be the true           tional structures to determine
  of the foreign mission work of to-      doctrine of salvation. We seek         whether we have the best possi-
  day is sponsored by large ec-           not to establish mission churches      ble set-up to accomplish this
umenical organizations who                by the social and political means      great work of the Lord. We need
  have many millions of dollars           that are used by many of the           to continue to pray earnestly that
  and the capability of sending a         modern day mission organiza-           the Lord will give us laborers, for
  number of missionaries at once          tions. The Lord has given us           the harvest indeed is plenteous
  to a field. We maintain that we         foreign mission work in the past.      but the laborers are few. Until
  cannot join most such organiza-         We must labor faithfully to con-       our Lord returns our calling will
  tions without compromising the          tinue in the fields that the Lord      not be complete. May He find us
  gospel. In mission work as well         has given us and to seek also the      faithful when He appears. Cl
                                          guidance of the Lord for new

 Mr. Benjamin Wigger                                                               There was a half-day of school!
 News From                                                                       on November 30 for the students
                                                                                 of the Hope P.R. Christian School
                                                                                 because that night the entire
 Our Churches                                                                    school presented their annual Alll-
                                                                                 School Program at the First
                                                                                 Jenison C.R. Church in Jenison,
                                                                                 MI.The Ladies' Circle of the Love-
  MINISTERIAL CALLS                       MI organized groups to sing            land P.R. Christian School in
    Rev. A. denHartog has ac-             Thanksgiving songs to their shut-      Loveland, CO sponsored a Soup
  cepted the call he received from        ins. Participants were reminded        Supper on November 10 in their
  the Hope P.R.C. in Redlands, CA         that they would never have a           church's basement. Afterward
  to serve as their tenth pastor.         more appreciative audience, and        they were treated to a children's
  Consequently Pastor  denHartog          they were encouraged to come           program presented by pre-
  declined the call he has received       as families.                           schoolers through Jr. High
  from the Peace P.R.C. in Lyn-             Every Wednesday night and            students of Loveland. q
  wood, IL.                               Saturday morning the congrega-
    Peace has since presented a           tion of the Grandville P.R.C. in                                                  I
  trio consisting of Revs. S. Houck,      Grandville, MI is cordially invited
  S. Key, and J. Kortering for            to help out on their new church        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  prayerful consideration to their        building by being part of work-          The Hudsonville Men's Socie-
  congregation.                           bees. Presently the outside of         ty of the Protestant Reformed
                                                                                 Church expresses its sincere
    The Consistory of the Byron           their sanctuary is completed,          sympathy to Mr. Garett Jansma
  Center P.R.C. in Byron Center,          along with one coat of black top       in the loss of his sister,
  MI just received a request from         on the parking lot. Work on the        DOROTHY L.  LINDERMAN.
  the Committee of Contact with           inside consists of putting up dry-       "And we know that all things
  other Churches to release their         wall and insulation. Those Stan-       work together for good to them
  pastor, Rev. B. Gritters, for one       dard Bearer  readers in the West       that love God, to them who are
  year to labor in the-Evangelical        Michigan area might also be in-        the called according to His pur-
  Presbyterian Church in Burnie,          terested to know that air condi-       pose." (Romans 8:28)
  Tasmania. The consistory was            tioning is part of Grandville's
  scheduled to begin to discuss this      plans. The Lord willing, Grand-        Dick Teitsma, President
                                                                                 George Hoekstra, Vice-President
  proposal at its December 14             ville will move in sometime this
  meeting.                                spring.                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  CONGREGATIONAL                          SCHOOL ACTIVITIES                        The Hudsonville Men's Socie-
  HIGHLIGHTS                                The Band of the South Holland        ty of the Protestant Reformed
    The Activities Committee of           P.R. Christian School in South         Church expresses its sincere
  the First P.R.C. in Grand Rapids,       Holland, IL presented their Fall       sympathy to Mr. Ted Miedema,
  Mr. Wigger is a member of the Hud-      Concert on November 30 in the          Jr. in the loss of his brother,
  sonville Protestant Reformed Church.    South Holland P.R. Church.             ERNIE MIEDEMA.

                                                                                  January  1,199O I The Standard Bearer  I1167


si!hD!!                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                    Postage Paid at
 BEARER                                                                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan
FiO. Box 6064
Grand Rapids, MI 49506



   "For we know that if our                   ministrator, or Mr. Robert           grandfather, MR. WILLIAM
earthly house of this tabernacle              Mantel (RR 2 Box 92, Hull, IA        BUYS, president of the School
were dissolved, we have a                     51239;  [712]  726-3478), Board      Board at the time of his death,
building of Cod, an house not                 President.                           was taken by the Lord to his
made with hands, eternal in the                                                    heavenly home on November
heavens." (II Cor.  5:l)                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY               30, 1989.
Dick Teitsma, President                         The consistory and congrega-         "But I would not have you to
Carett Jansma, Secretary                      tion of the Randolph Protestant      be ignorant, brethren, concern-
                                              Reformed Church extends Chris-       ing them which are asleep, that
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                        tian sympathy to Mrs. Cert           ye sorrow not as others which
   The Adult Bible Society of                 Alsum, Mrs. Judy Abel and            have no hope. For if we believe
the Byron Center Protestant Re-               family, and Mrs. Jackie              that Jesus died and rose again,
formed Church expresses its                   Hoekstra and family in connec-       even so them also which  slleep
sincere sympathy to Mr. and                   tion with the death of their         in Jesus will God bring with
Mrs. Sid Miedema, Sr., Mr. and                beloved husband, father, and         him." (I Thess.  4:13-14)
Mrs. Sid Miedema, Jr., Mr. and                grandfather, MR. DEWEY               Board of the Free Christian School
Mrs. Duane Mingerink, Mr. and                 ALSUM.                               Harold Brands, Secretary      (Edgerton,  MN)
Mrs. Bruce Holstege, Pat                        May they be comforted to
Miedema, Scott Miedema, and                   know that the Lord leads his         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Judy Hoven, in the death of                   saints from suffering to glory.        The Men's Society of the Hull
their brother, and uncle, ERNIE               "For we know that if our earthly     Protestant Reformed Church ex-
MIEDEMA.                                      house of this tabernacle were        tends its sympathy to Rev.
   "Precious in the sight of the              dissolved, we have a building of     Moore, his wife, and family in
Lord is the death of His saints."             Cod, an house not made with          the death of their mother and
(Psalm 116:15)                                hands, eternal in the heavens."      grandmother, MRS. STELLA
Rev. Barry Critters, President                (I I Cor. 5:l)                       MOORE.
Annette Bredeweg, Secretary                   Pastor Arie  denHartog                  May they be comforted by
                                              Mr. Don  DeVries, Clerk              the words of the Lord in John
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                             11:25, "I am the resurrection
   The Consistory and congrega-               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY               and the life: he who believes in
tion of the Loveland Protestant                 The Adult Bible Class of Faith     me, though he were dead,  ,yet
Reformed Church extends its                   Protestant Reformed Church ex-       shall he live."
Christian sympathy to Mr. and                 presses its Christian sympathy to    Tim Kooima, Vice-President
Mrs. Milt  Alsum and family in                Mrs. Kae Miedema in the death        Peter Westra, Secretary
the death of his father, MR.                  of her husband, MR. ERNIE
DEWEY  ALSUM.                                 MIEDEMA.                             RESOLUTION OF'SYMPATHY
   "For me to live is Christ, and                May she be comforted and             The consistory of the Hull
to die is gain." (Phil.  1:21)                sustained by Cod's grace. "Thou      Protestant Reformed Church ex-
Rev. Ron Cammenga, President                  shalt guide me by Thy counsel        presses its Christian sympathy to
Mr. Robert Brands, Clerk                      and afterwards receive me to         its pastor and family in the
                                              glory." (Psalm  73:24)               death of their mother and
ANNOUNCEMENT                                  Rev. Ken Koole, President            grandmother, STELLA MOORE.
   The Northwest Iowa Prot-                   Sandra Tinklenberg, Secretary           "For we know that if our
estant Reformed Christian                                                          earthly house of this tabernacle
School of  Doon, Iowa is in need              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY               were dissolved we have a
of one teacher for grades 3, 4, 5                The Board of the Free Chris-      building of Cod, a house not
for the 1989-1990 school year.                tian School wishes to extend its     made with hands, eternal in the
Please contact Mr. Chester                    deepest Christian sympathy to        heavens." (I I Cor. 5:l)
Hunter (106 5th Ave.,  Doon, IA               Mrs. Verna Buys and family           Henry Hoekstra, Vice-President
51235;  [712]  726-3381),  ad-                whose husband, father, and           Egbert Critters, Clerk

168 I The Standard Bearer I January 1,199O


