  A Reformed
 Semi-Monthly
 Magazine
     -





             Athanasius -
           Church Father
            (c.  296  -  373)

          See "A Cloud of Witness"
                           -p. 111





~ Vol. 66, No. &Y
1 Apd 15,199O




                                      -P
                                            ---     --     -    m--    n     .-_.     se?      ki


Contents                                                     April 15, 1990                THE
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema                                                   STANDARD
   THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD                                               315        BELZRER
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
   THE COVENANT OF GOD AND THE CHILDREN OF                                            Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July,
      BELIEVERS (3)                                                           317    and  Atigust.  Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
   FUNDAMENTALISM IS NOT ENOUGH                                               318     lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                     at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
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LETTERS                                                                       320    Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
                                                                                     49516.
                                                                                     EDITORIAL   COMMITTEE
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hank0                                         Editor: Prof. David  I. Engelsma
                                                                                     Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
   ATHANASIUS  AGAINST THE WORLD                                              321    Manaeing  Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
                                                                                     DEPAiiThENT   EDITORS
                                                                                     Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                          Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
   PROMOTING GOOD CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS                                           324    Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
                                                                                     Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
                                                                                     Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Mr. James
When Thou Sittest  in Thy House - Mrs. Mary Beth Lubbers                             Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.  Marybeth  Lub-
   THE REFORMED WIFE: MOTHER (1)                                              326    bers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra,
                                                                                     Rev. Gise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop,
                                                                                     Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard  Woodenberg.
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NEWS-FROM OUR CHURCHES - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                                  335    provided: a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
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314 I The Standard Bearer 1 April 15,199O


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               7  .                                T h e   Resurrectio'n.
Meditation
Rev. James Slopsema                                of the Lord

  And the angel aizswered and                            noon. And when the darkness had,                    Into this framework Jesus' death
said unto the women, Fear not ye:                        lifted three hours later, their                   ,and resurrection did not,fit. And.
for I know fhaf ye seek Jesus, which                     beloved Jesus was dead. Tearfully .               so when Jesus had spoken of His
was crucified.                                           they had followed after, as Joseph                impending death and,resurrection,
  He is not here: for he is risen, as                    and Nicodemus managed to bring                    these women with the other disci-
he said, Come, see the place where                       the body of Jesus to the sepulchre                ples had completely ignored Jesus'
                                                         just before nightfall.                            words. In fact, they had forgotten
the Lord lay.                                                   After waiting through the Sab-             all about it by the time of Jesus'
  And go quickly, and fell his dis-                      bath day, these same women return                 death. Hence, Jesus' death not only
ciples that he is risen from the                         to the sepulchre at the crack of                  took them by surprise but com-
dead; and, behold, he goefh before                       dawn with heavy hearts. Perhaps                   pletely devastated them. Nor do
you info Galilee; there shall ye see                     Joseph and Nicodemus had not                      they now anticipate a resurrection.
him: lo, I have fold you.                                had time Friday properly to em-                   They are at the sepulchre to anoint
  And f hey deputed quickly from                         balm the body of Jesus. Or, if Jesus              the body of Jesus.
the sepulchre with fear and great                        had been properly embalmed,                         But Jesus' body is gone!
joy; and did run to bring his disci-                     these women are not aware of it.                    And then the women notice the
ples                                                     At any rate they are set on perform-              angel sent from heaven to roll away
    2007-d.
                       Mat fhew 28:5-8                   ing what they assume will be their                the stone and let them into the
                                                         last labor of love for their Lord.                grave.
                                                                At the sepulchre, however, they              No wonder- the women are
                                                         are surprised. And they are fright-               afraid.
  It is Sunday morning.                                  ened. For the grave is empty.                       The angel assures them, `Tear
  As the first few rays of morning                              The grave is empty, of course,             not." No, the women need not fear
light streak across the morning sky,                     because Jesus has risen from the                  the angel. He had good tidings for
several women are to be seen leav-                       dead. But the women are not                       them. Nor need they fear the
ing Jerusalem. There are Mary                            aware of that fact. Oh, they should               empty grave. -For the angel would
Magdalene, Mary the mother of                            be aware. Had not Jesus told them                 explain that to them.                 -
James, Salome, Joanna, and others.                       repeatedly during the past several                  Fear not!
  On Friday this same group had                          weeks of His life that He must                      To calm the women's fears the
been shocked by Jesus' death.                            needs go to Jerusalem to suffer                   angel, first, interprets the empty
They had seen it all. They had                           death at the hands of the Jewish                  grave. I know that you week Jesus,
stood by as the crowds demanded                          leaders? And had He not told                      which was crucified. He is not
Jesus' crucifixion. They had wit-                        them that after His death He would                here: for He is risen, as He said.
nessed the soldiers whipping and                         rise again? He had even told them                   How important these words of
misusing Him. They had followed                          that He would meet them after-                    the angel are. For soon the report
their beloved Master to Golgotha                         ward in Galilee.                                  will be spread by Jesus' enemies
where He was cruelly nailed to the                              But, you see, this did not fit into        that the disciples-stole the body of
cross. With amazement they had                           the perspective that these women                  Jesus. But the fact of the empty
beheld the darkness that de-                             and the other disciples had of Je-                grave must not be misconstrued ei-
scended upon the land at high                            sus. They perceived Jesus basically               ther by evil or by honest men. All
                                                         as an earthly Messiah. They envi-                 must know that Jesus' body was
                                                         sioned that Jesus had come to es-                 not stolen but risen. Hence, the an-
                                                         tablish an earthly kingdom in                     gel (a divine messenger from
                                                         which Israel would be restored to                 heaven) explains to the women the
                                                         the place of prominence among the                 meaning of the empty grave. Jesus
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope                          nations that she had formerly en-                 is risen, as He said.
Profesfanf Reformed Church of                            joyed during the reigns of David                    The angel proceeds to confirm
Walker, Michigan.                                        and Solomon.                                      his message by balling  the women's

                                                                                                             April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 315


attention to the place where the              sus' disciples that He is risen from      transforming us wonderfully from
Lord lay.                                     the dead. And, behold, Jesus goes         death into life so that we be;:ome
   What the women see is quite re-            before you into Galilee; there shall      living members of His kingdom
markable. They see Jesus' grave               you see Him. Lo, I have told you.         and enjoy the blessings of the king-
clothes, strips of cloth that had               Thus ends the angel's message.          dom.
been wound around Jesus' body on                Quickly the women depart from             And in the power of His resur-
Friday evening. From the other                the sepulchre with fear and great         rection He will also return to us
Gospel accounts we learn, how-                joy. Eagerly they find Jesus' disci-      one day to take us through the final
ever, that Jesus' grave clothes are           ples and relate to them the wonder-       resurrection of the body into the
not lying in an unraveled heap on            `. ful message of the angel.               kingdom to enjoy in both body and
the sepulchre floor. They are per-              Jesus is risenfrom the dead!            soul its bliss forever.
fectly intact, in the exact position            No, the women and disciples at            The resurrection of Jesus i.s vic-
they had been left on Friday. Noth-           this point do not fully comprehend        tory indeed!
ing has been disturbed. Everything            the significance of Jesus' resurrec-        With fear and great joy we too
is in place - except that Jesus'              tion. That will have to wait until        leave the empty sepulchre of Jesus,
body is gone!                                 Pentecost. But they certainly under-      our Lord. 0
   The grave clothes point conclu-            stand that the resurrection of their
sively to especially two important            Lord means victory. What a terrible
realities.                                    defeat the death of Jesus had been
   First, the grave clothes establish         for them. But now there is victory!          The Chastisement of
that Jesus' body has definitely not             And so they are filled with fear
been stolen but miraculously raised           and great joy.                                             Our Peace
to life. Had His body been stolen,              In the light of Pentecost, and the               Was upon Him
the grave clothes would either have           full revelation of God, we are able
been taken also or would have                 more fully to understand the vic-         Darkly rose the guilty morning,
been left in a heap on the floor.             tory of Jesus' resurrection.              When, the King of Glory scorning,
   Secondly, the grave clothes point            In the first place, Jesus' resurrec-       Raged the fierce Jerusalem:
to the nature of Jesus' resurrection.         tion serves as God's seal of ap-          See the Christ, His cross upbearing,
   To understand the exact nature             proval upon Jesus' death. No, Je-         See Him stricken, meekly wearing
of Jesus' resurrection we compare             sus' death on the cross was not the          The thorn-platted diadem.
the resurrection of Jesus to that of          destruction of God's purpose, as
Lazarus one month before. In the              initially assumed by the disciples.       Not the crowd whose cries awiled
case of Lazarus, Jesus called                 The cross was rather an integral                  Him,
Lazarus to come forth from the                part of the glorious plan of God for      Not the hands that rudely nailed
grave. After stumbling out of the             salvation. Through Jesus' death                   -1
sepulchre, Lazarus was there for all          God would pay for the sins of His            Slew Him on the cursed tree;
to see and touch. Lazarus' resur-             people. On its basis He would es-         Ours the sin from heaven th,at
rection was obviously only a return           tablish the Kingdom of heaven in                  called Him,
to this life. Lazarus died, he was            which His people would find their         Ours the sin whose burden galled
raised, and nothing had changed.              salvation. And Jesus' resurrection                Him
And poor Lazarus had to die all               is God's stamp of approval upon             In the sad Gethsemane.
over again one day.                          Jesus' suffering and death. By rais-
   But Jesus' resurrection is entirely        ing Jesus from the dead, God pro-         For our sins, of glory emptied,
different. Jesus is not present at the        claims very clearly that through Je       He was fasting, lone, and tempted,
grave. He is gone. And quite obvi-            sus' death the price of sin has been        He was slain on Calvary;
ously Jesus simply passed through             fully paid. For, were there yet one       Yet He for His murderers pleaded,
His grave clothes. For they are per-          sin left to the charge of God's elect,    Lord, by us that prayer is needed:
fectly intact. All this points to one        Jesus would be in the grave until ,          We have pierced, yet trust in
glorious reality. Jesus has been glo-        this day!                                          Thee.
riously changed through the resur-              Secondly, being raised from the
rection. That which was earthly               dead, Jesus now lives to accom-           In our wealth and tribulation,
has become heavenly, that which              plish God's purpose in His death           By Thy precious cross and passion,
was physical has become spiritual.           - the establishment of the king-             By Thy blood and agony,
Jesus has been raised into heavenly          dom of heaven. And our Lord Je-            By Thy glorious resurrection,
glory!                                       sus Christ not only has established        By Thy Holy Ghost's protection,
  The women, of course, do not               the kingdom in heaven, but in the            Make us Thine eternally.
immediately understand all this.             power of His own death and resur-
They do, however, understand that            rection also brings us into that                                  -Aufhor Unknown
Jesus is risen from the dead.                kingdom. In the power of His own
  And so the angel concludes his             resurrection Jesus accomplishes a
message. Go quickly, and tell Je-            spiritual resurrection in our hearts,

316 I The Standard Bearer I April 15,199O


                                          The Covenant of God and the
                                              Children of Belivers (3)
Editorials                                Fyndamentalism Is Not Enouglh

n The Covenant of God                     are they nothing but heathens, little         your parents in the Lord...and, ye
and the Children of                       heathens to be sure, but heathens             fathers, provoke not your children
                                          nevertheless, like all other ungodly          to wrath: but bring them up in the
Believers (3)                             people, whom the church at the          o     nurture and admonition of the
 THE INCLUSION OF THE CHIL-               most should evangelize?                       Lord."
 DREN OF BELIEVERS IN THE                   But above all the place of the                Here the Reformed faith -
 COVENANT                                 children in the covenant is impor-            Calvinism - parts company wiith
   The children of believers are in-      tant to God. He said, at the begin-           all Baptists. Every Baptist seriously
 cluded in the covenant as children,      ning of the history of the covenant           errs regarding a vital truth of the
 that is, already at conception and       with Abraham, "I will establish My            central covenant-doctrine in Scrip-
birth. They receive forgiveness of        covenant between Me and thee and              ture. Every Baptist holds that the
 sins through the blood of Jesus, the     thy seed after thee in their genera-          children of believers are lost hea.-
 Holy Spirit of sanctification, and       tions...to be a God unto thee, and to         thens outside the church, no differ-
 church membership - as children.         thy seed after thee" (Gen. 177).  He          ent from the children of unbeliev-
 They are called to love, fear, and       inspired the apostle, on the very             ers. The advertisement that a local
obey God - as children. For they          day'that the covenant became new,             Baptist church placed in the paper
have God as their God, and are His        to proclaim as gospel, "the promise           concerning the superior holiness of
people  - as children. Therefore,         is unto you, and to your                      the children in their congregation
 they have full right to baptism.         children...even as many as the Lord           - their obedience to.authority  and
Parents must present them for bap-        our God shall call" (Acts 2:39). Re-          their freedom from drunkenness
tism. And the church thatwould            buking His unfaithful wife, Judah,            and fornication, etc. -was decep-
maintain the pure administration of       in Ezekiel 16:20,21,  God exclaims,           tive advertising. There are no chil-
the sacraments as instituted by           like an aggrieved Husband and Fa-             dren in that church. Every Baptist
Christ must see to it.                    ther, "Is this of thy whoredoms a             church denies membership to aI
   This is an important feature of        small matter, that thou hast slain            children. Only sheep belong to ithe
the central doctrine of the               My children...?" In Malachi 2:15,             Baptist fold, no lambs. Entrance
covenant. It is important to the          God condemns the divorcing that               into the church is restricted to thlose
children. Are they God's children         was prevalent in Judah, because di-           who are grown up and are able to
or the devil's? It is important to the    vorce jeopardizes the "godly seed."           make confession of their faith.
parents. We love our children and         (And still today the unchangeable             Whatever youth do join the Baptist
regard our rearing of our children        God hates divorce in the covenant             church do so not as children of be-
as one of the most important tasks        community because it is destruc-              lievers but as mature individual,s.
in our lives. May we regard them          tive of the children who,. as                 The Baptist church will not suffer
as children of God? Or are we             covenant children, are His chil-              the little children to come to Christ,
compelled to regard them as Sa-           dren.)                                        but forbids them.
tan's `little vipers," as must all          How important our children's                  Among the other implications of
those who deny that children are          inclusion in the covenant is to God           this grim teaching and practice is
included in the covenant and as did       is shown in the New Testament                 that there is no ground for any
certain Calvinistic theologians, e.g.,    (Covenant) by ChrisYs command,                hope of the election and salvation
Jonathan Edwards. Inclusion of the        "Suffer little children (infants) to     /    of the children of believers who die
children in the covenant is impor-        come unto Me...for of such (infants           in infancy or in early childhood.
tant to the church. The church            of believers) is the kingdom of God           Indeed, there is every reason to be-
asks, "Are they members of the            (made up)" (Luke 18:15ff.). It is             lieve that they perish. They are, ac-
church or do they stand outside?"         shown also by the careful provision           cording to the Baptists themselves,
Does the church have a calling to         God makes for the children, as                outside the church and covenant of
them too, to feed and protect them        members of the congregation, in               God; and outside the church and
as lambs of the flock of Christ, or       Ephesians 6:lff .: "Children, obey            covenant of God is no salvation.

                                                                                          April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 317


   In light of our confession of the         and ecclesiastical sorrows. Abra-             the concerned church member can
inclusion of the children of believ-         ham had a grandson, Esau, who                 profit from the book. What really is
ers in the covenant (about which             was a profane reprobate (cf. Gen.             higher criticism of Scripture? What
fact there is no dispute among Re-           2539-34;  Heb. 12:16,17; Rom. 9:6-            do modernists teach about the first
formed people or churches), we               13). Deuteronomy 21:18ff. pre-                eleven chapters of Genesis, indeed
must now answer the question,                scribed the procedure by which Is-            about the entire Old Testament?
what exactly do Scripture and the            raelite parents of gluttonous,                What in the end is the effect of
Reformed confessions mean when               drunken, rebellious, and stubborn             modernism upon Christian&~  it-
they say that our children are in-           sons were to bring these children to          self? Positively, what is the Bible's
cluded in the covenant?                      the elders to be excommunicated               own teaching on its inspiration? on
   The Reformed creeds are clear             and stoned. Hebrews l&29 speaks               the Godhead of Jesus? on the res-
and emphatic about children's be-            of the baptized son of believers in           urrection of the body? These ques-
ing included in the covenant of              the time of the new covenant who              tions, and more, are answered
God. The Heidelberg Catechism                treads under foot the Son of God,             clearly and pointedly in short chap
teaches that infants must be bap-            counts the blood of the covenant,             ters.
tized "since they as well as the             with which he was sanctified, an                Writers include James Orr (on
adult, are included in the covenant          unholy thing, and insults the Spirit          "Science and Christian Faith"); B.B.
and church of God; and since re-             . of grace.                                   Warfield (on "The Deity of Christ");
demption from sin by the blood of               We cannot presume that all our             R.A. Torrey (on `The Personality
Christ, and the Holy Ghost, the au-          children are regenerate and elect.            and Deity of the Holy Spirit");
thor of faith, is promised to them           To presume this is contrary to                Thomas Boston (on "The Nature of
no less than to the adult..." (Q. 74).       Scripture and experience. Nor may             Regeneration"); John Ryle (on `The
   The Reformed "Form for the Ad-            we parents be bitter about this. For          True Church"); the lawyer, Philip
ministration of Baptism" assures             it is pure mercy that any of our              Mauro (on `Modem Philosophy");
the believing parents and the con-           children is saved.                            and many others.
gregation that "our young chil-                                                 ----DIE      The book has serious weak-
dren...are again received unto grace                                                       nesses. These weaknesses were, in
in Christ...." It insists, with power-       H Fundamentalism Is                           part, the reason why the churches
ful, decisive appeal to the unity of                                                       of the "fundamentalists" have lost
the covenant in both old and new             Not Enough                                    the war to modernism. They are
dispensations, that "infants are to             Early this century, a series of            also the reason why "fundamental-
be baptized as heirs of the kingdom          twelve volumes appeared setting               ism" is not enough for a Reformed
of God and of His covenant." And             forth the "fundamentals of the                or Presbyterian church.
in the prayer of thanksgiving it             Christian faith." The books were ti-            First, there are fatal conce.ssions
puts on Reformed lips the words of           tled, Fundamenfalism:  A Testimony fo         to modernism. James Orr co:ncedes
praise, joy and comfort,, "Thou hast         fhe Truth. They were intended to              to evolutionary science that Gene-
forgiven us, and our children, all           combat the spreading theological              sis 1 and 2 are no factual account of
our sins, through the blood of Thy           modernism, i.e., unbelief and                 creation but "a sublime picture" of
beloved Son Jesus Christ, and re-            heresy, Two rich Christian busi-              God's activity over "vast cosmic
ceived us through Thy Holy Spirit            nessmen distributed three million             periods" (cf. pp. 133,134). This is
as members of Thine only begotten            individual volumes, without                   the theory of theistic evolution that
Son:..." In the vow at baptism, the          charge, to pastors, missionaries,             now has a stranglehold on .l?rotes-
parents confess that they believe            Sunday School teachers, and others            tant churches and schools. It: repre-
that, "although our children are             in influential positions in the               sents the denial bothof the doctrine
conceived and born in sin, and are           churches. This year, Kregel Publica-          of creation and of the doctrine of
therefore subject to all miseries,           tions in Grand Rapids, Michigan               inspiration and the jeopardizing of
yea, to condemnation itself; yet that        has published a new edition of                every doctrine that rests on the
they are sanctified in Christ, and           those volumes in one, big book, The           foundation of Scripture and cre-
therefore, as members of His                 Fundamentals: The Famous Source-              ation, i.e., the whole of the Ghris-
church, ought to be baptized."               book of Foundational Biblical Truths          tian faith.
  Our question, what this means,             (edited by R.A. Torrey, updated by              Second, the "fundamentalists"
is occasioned by the incontestable           Charles L. Feinberg, 714 pages, pa-           include the dispensationalist, C.I.
fact that not all of the children of         per, $16.95).                                 Scofield, whose chopping  up' of
believers are saved. Both parents               Since modernism did not surren-            God's work of salvation and of
and church experience the hard,              der in A.D. 1915 but has, on the              Holy Scripture is scarcely prefer-
painful fact that some of our chil-          contrary, been gaining victory after          able to modernism. Scofield writes
dren grow up ungodly, unbeliev-              victory in Protestant churches and            the article on `The Grace of God."
ing, and disobedient, and perish.            schools, including Reformed                   He shows himself a thorough-go-
God is not their God; and they are           churches and schools, believing               ing antinomian, denying that the
not His people. Scripture prepares           preachers, professors, and teachers           law of God is the rule for the life of
us for this bitterest of all parental        will find this book helpful. Also             the child of God (cf. p. 404). This

318 / The Standard Bearer I April 15,199O


pernicious notion is directly re-         those who lived at the time the                be, far better would be a distinc-
sponsible for abounding lawless-          warnings were given. We have the               tively Reformed book written in
ness in contemporary "fundamen-           advantage of seeing that these                 1990. It would call all Protestants,
talist/evangelicaYChristianity.           teachings have destroyed the                   especially all Reformed Protestants,
  Third, the "fundamentalism" of          Protestant churches that allowed               to hold the traditions against the
The FundamenfaZs  does not include        them. In The Netherlands, the Re-              apostasy in its present-day forms.
the Reformed-doctrine of salvation        formed church of the Synod of                  In short chapters, written simply
by sovereigngrace alone. There is         Dordt has become the Hervormde                 and in a popular style for the peo-
no article on divine predestination.      Kerk and the Gereformeerde                     ple of God, it would defend the :Re-
All the articles on the atonement         Kerken. The Presbyterian church                formed, i.e., biblical, fundamentals:
carefully avoid teaching limited          of Samuel Miller, Charles Hodge,               inspired Scripture; creation; the Ihis-
atonement. No one criticizes the          and B.B. Warfield in the United                torical character of Christianity; the
basic modernist tenet of free will.       States has become the Presbyterian             covenant; predestination and the
The same is strikingly true of "con-      Church (U.S.A.).                               sovereignty of grace; the Godhead
servatives" contending against               The fundamentalist authors re-              and manhood of Jesus the only Me-
modernism in Reformed churches            mind us of the seriousness of the              diator; the resurrection of the body;
today. They are silent concerning         demand to hold the traditions                  the authority of the ecumenical and
the modernist denial of the               against the modernist apostasy,                Reformed creeds; the law as rule of
sovereignty of God in salvation.          particularly modernism's view of               life for the thankful believer; and
Not the denial of reprobation, not        Scripture as a human book:                     the inviolability of the marriage
the affirmation of a desire of God        If this modern criticism (of the               bond and sexual chastity for those
to save all sinners, not the              Bible--DJE) were true, then away with all      who hope to see the Lord, among
widespread preaching of universal         so-called Christianity, which only deceives    other truths.
atonement, not the acceptance             us with idle tales! Away with a religion         With utter contempt for the
within their churches of free will        which has nothing to offer us but the com-     praise of theologians and scholars
organizations, evangelists, and tac-      monplace teachings of morality! Away           (cf. John 12:42,43),  it would expose
tics, but the denial of creation and      with faith! Away with hope! Let us eat
                                          and drink, for tomorrow we aid.... What        the errors of the present day: Scrip-
the criticism of Scripture receive all    does it offer us?. Nothing. What does if       ture as a human book; theistic evo-
the attention. This is an attenuated      take away? Everything. Do we have any          lution; the mythical nature of the
fundamentalism that contrasts             use for it? No! It neither helps us in life    great events of the Christian faith;,
sharply with the robust insistence        nor comforts us in death; it will not judge    the attack on the substantial Deity
of the Reformed faith on all the          us in the world to come...@p. 32,33).          of Jesus as confessed in the Nicene
fundamental doctrines of the                 Useful as a fundamentalist vol-             Creed and the Symbol of Chal-
gospel.                                   ume written in the early 1900s may             cedon; universalism; free will; anti-
  Fourth, there is no call to                                                            nomism; doctrinal tolerance and its
churches to discipline the mod-                                                          expression in an ecumenicity that
ernists, i.e., the heretics and apos-         "Ye Have Not Passed                        ignores the creeds; and the charis-
tates. Without excommunication                                                           matic movement, among others.
by the church, the war against the           This Way Heretofore"                          There may still be rich Christian
unbelief of modernism --and war                                                          businessmen who would finance
it is, to the death - is lost. Mod-       But once I pass this way                       the distribution of the volume or
ernists will allow fundamentalists           And then - no more;                         volumes to thousands of Protestant
to talk and write forever, as long as     But once - and then the silent door            preachers, professors, teachers, and
the modernists may occupy the                Swings on its hinges -                      others in position of influence in
seats of power in the church.             Opens - closes - and no more                   the churches. I know nothing of
  This criticism does not minimize           I pass this way.                            the two men who underwrote the
the usefulness of The Fundamenfals                                                       original The FundamenfaZs  than that
for the orthodox. Many of the is-         Through grace I'll try                         they were rich California oilmen.
sues remain crucial issues for the           While on the road                           But I admire them for their willing-
true church in her contending for         To take along                                  ness to use their money on behalf
the faith at the end of the 20th cen-        To my abode,                                of a testimony to the truth. Other
tury: Scripture; creation; higher         Whate'er the cost,                             than giving to the poor and con-
criticism; evolution; the Godhead            Some stranger lost.                         tributing to good Christian schods,
of Jesus; the resurrection of the                                                        I know of no better investment in
body; whether Roman Catholicism           For no man travels twice                       the cause of the risen Christ than
is genuine Christianity; and the             The great highway                           this.
like. In certain respects, the warn-      Through night and day,                            The Rt$ormed Fundamentals:
ings given against the false teach-          From darkness unto light -                  Holding the Traditions in fhe Present
ings of modernism at the beginning        Lord, give me might,                           Apostasy -how does that
of the 20th century carry more               Today.                                      sound? 0                            --DF
weight for us than they did for                                  -Aufhor Unknown

                                                                                           April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer .I 319


                                                 Perceptive Articles on Suicide
                                                 Fields and Winslow on the
Letters                                               Doctrines of Grace

n Perceptive Articles                            fashionable? and having lost their savor               In volume 66 of The Star&d
on Suicide                                       -with the many, are they not cast out and            Bearer (March 1,199O)  you reported
                                                 trodden  under foo f of men? We verily and           on the colloquium on Calvin stud-
   Thank you for the excellent arti-             solemnly believe that if is so. By some they         ies and cited Hesselink's paper on
cles by Mr. Joel D. Sugg on suicide              are professedly recehd,  but criminally              Calvin's "secret guidance' in
(The Standard Bearer, Jan. 15 and                held back; by others they are professedly            which the Spirit gives the believing
Feb. 1,199O).  These are timely and              preached, but with such timidity and ob-             man or woman special insight and
perceptive articles that truly deal              scurity, as to ymaa them of none effect;             special empowering for the Chris-
with spiritual issues. May the au-               and by the many they are disbelieved alto-           tian walk, although this never con-
thor continue to exercise his writ-              gether, and therefore openly  and boldly de-
                                                 nied!....& undervaluing of these aOOhks              tradicts the Word or takes place by
ing ministry for God's glory and                 of grace...will wither the spirituality and          new revelations" (p. 246).
the edification of the saints.                   obstruct the prosperity of the churches in             Could you tell me how I could
                  Edward W. Ojarovsky            OUY land.                                            contact Mr. Hesselink and learn
                      New Rochelle, NY           And then, after discussing this                      more about the topic of his paper?
                                                 delusive condition further,                          I am particularly interested in mad-
H Fields and Winslow                             Winslow eloquently remarks:                          ing his writings on Calvin's secret
on the Doctrines                                 It is then discowyed, that the true prosper-         guidance.
                                                 ity of a church, its stability, its spirituality,
of Grace                                                                                                                  (Dr.) Bruce W. Speck
                                                 its vigour, and its holy influence, are essen-                            Indiana University
   Thank you very much for The                   tially, and therefore inseparably, connected
                                                 with a fearless and holy maintenance of the                                    Fort Wayne, IN
Sfandard Bearer and the fine, firm,
and facile affirmation of the Re-                doctrines of grace (pp. 121-122).
formed faith contained therein.                     Although written in 1841 these                    n              R e s p o n s e
Your exposure of the sad doctrinal               words could have been written by                       A copy of Dr. Hesselink's paper
declension evident even in profess-              a David J. Engelsma circa 1990,                      may be available from Westelm
edly Reformed circles is quite apt               they seem so fresh and relevant to                   Theological Seminary, 86 E. 12th
                                                 the state of today's church. I
and timely. I would like to share a                                                                   St., Holland, MI 49428. Dr. Hes-
brief extract from the book                      wanted to share the above with the                   selink will be interested to know
                                     Personal    readers of 
Dedension                                                        The Standard Bearer, and             that you learned of his paper from
             and Revival of Religion in          to again thank you for your most
the Soul (written in 1841 by Oc-                                                                      The SB.  Cl                         - Ed.
                                                 excellent ministry. My prayers are
tavius Winslow) that I think accu-               with you.
rately captures this important                                                    Greg Fields
polemical as ct:                                                            Hamilton, Ohio
                E
Is there not in t present day a criminal
keeping back by some, and a painful under-
valuing by others, of the scriptural and                       Come, Ye Saints, Look Here and Wonder
holy doctrines of grace? -The doctrines
which unfold the eternity of God's love to           Come, ye saints, look here and                         Sing ye praises!
His people -the sovereignty of HIS                            wonder:                                 Praises to the Victor's name.
grace in their election -the effectual                  See the place where Jesus lay;                Jesus triumphs! Countless legions
power of the SPlRIT in their calling -               He has burst His bands asunder;                    Come from heaven to meet
the free justification of their persons                 He has borne our sins away;                        their King;
through the imputed righteousness of                          Joyful tidings!                         Soon, in yonder blessed regions,
CHRIST....are not these Divinely revealed,           Yes, the Lord has risen today.                     They shall join His praise to sing.
truths, at the present moment, and by the            Jesus triumphs! Sing ye praises;                       Songs eternal
great mass of CHRISTIAN professors and                  By His death He overcame;                     Shall through heaven's high
peachers, excluded from OUY pulpits and              Thus the Lord His glory raises,                    arches ring.
exiled from our land?                                   Thus He fills His foes with
   Are they not cons&red mean and un-                         shame.                                                            -Thomas kLelly

320 I The Standard Bearer I April 15,199O


A .Cloud                                 Athanasius Against
of Witnesses
Prof. Herman C. Hanko                    the World

  It pleases the Lord, the King of       also at an early time in his life he      Now he turned to false doctrine.
the church, in crucial times during      had come to know and love the               His weapon was aimed at the
the church's history, to raise men of    Christian faith. The story, perhaps       very heart of the Christian faith: the
fearless courage who are willing to      apocryphal, is told of a number of        truth of Christ's divinity. If Sata:n
sacrifice all for the cause of the       bishops of the Alexandrian church         could rob the church of that doc-
truth. Such a man was Luther;            who, while meeting in the house of        trine, the church would be de-
such a man was Calvin; such men          their chief bishop,saw through the        stroyed forever. The Lord Himself
were the leaders of the "Separa-         window a group of boys on the             had told His disciples that it was
tion" in the Netherlands in 1834;        street imitating certain rites of the     upon the rock of this confession
the Lord has blessed our own             church - as children are wont to          that He would build His church,
churches with such spiritual fa-         do. Watching, while one of the            and the gates of hell would never
thers; such a man was also Athana-       boys was going through the rite of        prevail against it (Matthew 16:13-
sius. At a most critical time he was     the baptism of his playmates, they        19). The apostle John had warned
raised up by God to defend the           decided that the game had gone            the church that everyone who de-
truth of the divinity of our Lord Je-    too far. After calling the boys into      nies that Jesus Christ is come into
sus Christ against almost all men in     the house and quizzing them, they         the flesh is of Antichrist (I John 4L:3).
the church of his day. The epitaph       learned that the "baptizing bishop"         Because the church was still very
attached to his name throughout all      was the young Athanasius. The             young, no formulation of this doc-
ages expresses the honored place         chief bishop of Alexandria, himself       trine had been made, and, indeed,
Athanasius occupies: Athanasius          named Alexander after the name of         there was much confusion over the
confr,a mundtam - Athanasius             the city, took Athanasius under his       point. How could God be the only
against the world.                       wing and instructed him more              true and living God, while at the
  The birthplace of Athanasius           carefully in the Christian faith.         same time both the Father and the
was Alexandria in Egypt, the city        This was the beginning of a long          Son were God? This was the ques-
in which was found one of the ear-       period of close friendship between        tion with which the church strug-
liest Seminaries of the early church,    Alexander and Athanasius, the lat:        gled. Various solutions to the prob-
but also a city which was a              ter soon becoming the spiritual and       lem had been proposed, but all had
seething cauldron of competing           theological superior of his mentor.       been rejected by the church as be-
philosophies. Because of its strate-     Athanasius was soon made the pri-         ing contrary to the clear stateme:nts
gic geographical position, it was a      vate secretary of Alexander and           of Scripture. But what exactly
bustling center of trade and com-        deacon in the church of Alexandria.       Scripture did teach on this subject
merce where East and West met.             The story of Athanasius is wo-          the church was not prepared to day.
Greek philosophy, Oriental mysti-        ven into the warp and woof of one           Into this situation a man by the
cism, the Christian religion - all       of the greatest controversies that        name of Arius set forth his solu-
clashed and fought for supremacy         has ever troubled the Christian           tions. He was a man of no little
in this port city of Egypt on the        church, a controversy concerning          abiiity, but he was also vain and ar-
Nile Delta.                              the doctrine of Christ's divinity.        rogant. He proposed that the Son,
  Not a lot is known of his early          The great enemy of the church,          just because he was Son, God's %n,
life. He was born in 296 of parents      Satan, the prince of devils, has one      He could not be God. Though per-
of high rank and great wealth. In        powerful weapon in his arsenal            haps He was eternal, He neverthe-
keeping with the social status of his    which he repeatedly uses to attack        less had to be created. And if He
family, he received a classical and      the stronghold of Christ's church:        was created, there was a time when
liberal education and became well-       the weapon of false doctrine. Per-        He was not. ThusHe  taught tha.t
versed in Greek philosophy. But          secution is also such a weapon, but       our Lord Jesus Christ was not God,
                                         Satan had failed in his efforts to de-    but a creature, even though the
                                         stroy the church with this weapon,        highest of all creatures.
Prof. Ha&o is professor of Church        for "the blood of the martyrs had           Because of Arius' influence in
Hisfo y and New Tesfamenf  in the        become the seed of the church."           the church, his views were widely
Profesfanf Refomed Semina y.

                                                                                     April15,199O/TJ1eStandardBearerI  321


  accepted and many began to de-              the truth, finally prevailed upon a       tion were hurled against him. The
  fend what he taught. The result             majority to adopt the solid ortho-        former accusation he proved false
  was that the whole church was tom           dox position, that Christ is "very        by presenting to the council the
~ by confusion, controversy, schism,          God of very God, begotten, not            very man whom he was accused of
  and bitterness. The unrest reached          made, being of one substance with         murdering. His accusers were mo-
  also into the city of Alexandria.           the Father."2  In the formulation of      mentarily speechless, but contin-
  Here Alexander and his bishops              this creed, Athanasius played a           ued their bitter attacks, and he was
  saw the evil of the views of Arius          leading role and emerged from the         severed from his beloved congrega-
  and resolved to do all in their             council as the most able defender         tion.
  power to combat them. Alexan-               of the truth of the divinity of             The fortunes of the orthodox
  der's deacon and secretary was              Christ. He was recognized as a            party rose and fell with the elm-
  God's man to help in this noble             man of outstanding "zeal, intellect,      peror who happened to occulpy the
  cause.                                      and eloquence."3                          throne of the empire. And so,
    Constantine was the emperor of               One would think that the deci-         when a new emperor came to
  the Roman Empire and he had                 sions of this council would have          power, Athanasius was recalled
  thought to give a decaying empire           settled the matter; for the truth was     from exile in 338 and returned to
  new life and unity by embracing             set forth, Arius was condemned,           his congregation. But his enemies
  and supporting the Christian faith.         and the position which he took was        remained fierce and bitter. And so,
  When he saw his fondest hopes               anathematized. But this was far           once again, in 339 he was exiled.
  about to be dashed to pieces by in-         from the case. The controversy            This time he fled to Rome to find
  ternal conflicts in the church, he re-      continued unabated in the church;         safety with the bishop of Rome,
  solved to attempt a settlement by           in fact, it became more bitter, more      Julius by name. The West was far
  calling an ecumenical council at            rancorous, more divisive until the        mom orthodox than the East and
  which would be present delegates            church was fairly tom to pieces by        he found a sympathetic audience
  from the whole church in every              the struggle. While, generally            for his views. The time of this exile
  part of the empire.                         speaking, the out and out Arians          was spent in rallying the West to
    This council is the famous and            declined in influence, another party      the orthodox position.
  venerated Council of Nicea which            arose, basically Arian, but taking          In 346 he was recalled, but again
  met in 325, the decisions of which          the position that while Christ was        his labors in his congregation were '
  are incorporated into the Nicene            truly divine, He was of a `like           interrupted. After ten years, a new
  Creed.'                                     essence" with God and not of the          emperor attempted to accommo-
    The council met in the city of            %ame  essence."*                          date the Arians, and the enemies of
  Nicea in the northwestern part of              It was during this period of con-      Athanasius saw another opportu-
  Asia Minor, on the shore near the           fusion and ecclesiastical chaos that      nity to get rid of their opponent.
  Bosporus. Over 250 bishops from             the light of Athanasius shone             While Athanasius was condu.cting
  all parts of the Eastern Church             brightly. In 328, after the death of      a service with his congregation, in
  were there; the emperor was pre-            Alexander, he became bishop of the        356,500O  armed soldiers stormed
  sent; a delegation from the West,           church in Alexandria. While al-           the church building. Calmly, he be-
  sent by the bishop of Rome was              most the whole world went chasing         gan reading Psalm 136 and asked
  present; Alexander and his youth-           after the Arian heresy, Athanasius        his congregation to respond. It was
  ful secretary were also there. Some         stood like a rock for the truth of        a moving moment. When he read:
  of the members of the council came          Scripture and Nicene orthodoxy.           "0 give thanks unto the Lordl; for
  with bodies scarred and broken by              For his troubles he was banished       he is good," his congregation re-
  the persecution of Diocletian which         no less than five times. Of the 46        sponded: "For his mercy endureth
  had ended only a little more than           years of his ministry as bishop of        forever." This time he went into
  ten years earlier.                          Alexandria, he spent 20 years in ex-      the desert to spend time with. the
    The council was divided roughly           ile.                                      monks who had retired from the
 into three factions: one group of               His first exile began with his         church to find God in their own pe-
 men who were determined to sup               condemnation at the Synods of             culiar ways. The time in the desert
 port Arius and establish his views           Tyre and Constantinople. He was           was spent in writing, and the con-
 in the church; an orthodox group to          banished to Tieves in faraway Gaul        tent of his writings was the defense
 which Alexander and Athanasius               (now France) on the borders of the        of the great truth that Christ is fully
 belonged, very small, numbering              empire, where his enemies thought         God and that the Arians were idol-
 only about 20 men, who were                  he could do no harm. He was ban-          aters who worshiped strange gods,
 ready to fight long and hard for the         ished by the emperor for refusing         no different from the heathen.
 truth of Christ's divinity; and the          to permit Arian men to the table of         Again he was recalled to his
 majority who stood somewhere be-             the Lord. He was accused of being         flock (3621, but was almost immedi-
 tween these two factions.                    a disturber of the peace and a trou-      ately driven away by-those who
    The orthodox group was, far and           bler in Israel. In fact, the hatred of    were stung by his attacks against
 away, the most capable; and by               his enemies was so intense that ac-       them. As he left his weeping con-
 their steady and biblical defense of         cusations of murder and fornica-          gregation, he comforted them with

 322 1 The Standard Bearer / April 15,199O


     the words: "Be of good cheer; it is       The bishop of-Alexandria was in-                     He was one that so govd himseif
     only a cloud, which will soon pass        structed to determine the date each              that his life supplied the place of sermons,.
     on." He escaped hired assassins on        year and inform the churches of the              . . He was a patron to the widows, a father
     an imperial ship on the Nile and          date. This instruction was due to                to orphans, a friend to'the poor, a harbor to
     found refuge once again in the            the fact that the best astronomers               strangers, a brother to brethren, a physi-
     desert.                                   were to be found in Alexandria.                  cian to the sick, a keeper of the healthful,.
                                                                                                one who "became all things to all men,
       Once more he was able to return.        But the bishops of Alexandria took               that, if not all, he might at least gain the
     Once more he was driven from his          the occasion to write a pastoral let-            more.. 1' 8
     flock, this last time to find refuge      ter to all the churches on some im-                  May God be pleased to raise up
     for four months in the tomb of his        portant point of doctrine. When                  such men in his church today.0
     father. By this time he was an aged       this duty fell on Athanasius in 367,                                                                -
     man and longed to spend the last          he took the occasion to instruct the
     years of his life with his beloved        churches in the canon of Scripture               * The Nicene Creed can be found in the back of
     sheep. The Lord granted this              and to enumerate the books which                 0~ Psaltti  It is worth re-reading at this point iffl
                                                                                                the narrative, for it is, in large measure, the work
     prayer, and he was able to return         rightly were the rule of the faith               of Athanasius.
     and spend the few remaining years         and life of the church. Athanasius'              2 Quoted from the Nicene Creed.
                                                                                                3 Philip Schaff, History offhe Christian church,  VoL
     of his pilgrimage with those whom         letter contained the 66 books of the             III, p. 626.
     he had so long faithfully served.         Bible as we now have them, and                   4  This difference was expressed by two key
       This remarkable servant of God          excluded the apocryphal books.                   words: the orthodox held to the truth that Christ
                                                                                                was humo-ousiios  (of the same essence) with the Fa-
     suffered as few are called to suffer.        He wrote extensively on many                  ther; the semi-Arians,  as they were known, held to
     Yet he never once deviated from his       subjects, but concentrated on a de-              the idea that Christ was ho&-m&s  (of similar
     defense of the great truth of             fense of the great truths of the God-            essence) with the Father. I am always a bit amused
                                                                                                that people today can get excited about what they
     Christ's divinity. He was a man of        head of our Lord. Added to his                   perceive to be useless hair-splitting in doctrinal
     small stature, somewhat stooped,          many books was one which con-                    controversies in the church, when the great truths
                                                                                                of the divinity of Christ hung, in this controveq%
     emaciated by fasting and many             tained a biography of the venerated              on whether or not the little letter `5" ought to be in-
     troubles, but fair of countenance,        monk, Anthony. Athanasius him-                   cluded in this  key  word.
     possessing a piercing eye and great       self lived an ascetic life and was               5 Schaff, III, 885,886.
                                                                                                6 Ibid.
     power of presence. Towards the            much influenced by the desert                    7 schaff,  III, 890.
     end of the controversy, he was aged       monks who gave themselves to the                 8 Quoted from The Nicene nnd Post-Nicenc Fathers
     and weary. But he never wavered           isolation of the desert to live near             (Second Series), VoL IV, p. 506
     from his position though the whole        to God. It remains to this day a
     world was against him. And he did         classic of the solitary life.
     not live to see his position finally         Athanasius proved his greatness                                  Quietness
     vindicated at the great Council of        "in suffering, and through years of
     Constantinople in 381, which em-          warfare against mighty errors and                "Be still and know that I am Godl,"
     phatically reaffirmed the creed of        the imperial court."s  He was                    That I who made and gave thee
     Nicea.                                    "Athanasius contra mundum"                                  life
       His love for the truth was not          (Athanasius against the world) be-               Will lead thy faltering steps aright;
     rooted in a mere love of doctrinal        cause this expresses best "his fear-             That I who see each sparrow's fall
     speculation. He was intent on             less independence and immovable                  Will hear and heed thy earnest call.
     maintaining his position because          fidelity to the Scriptures."6                        I am God.
     he believed that the salvation of the        It was the passion and the life-work of
     church rested on the truth of             Athanasius to vindicate the deity of Christ,     V3e still and know that I am God,"
     Christ's absolute divinity. As he         which he rightly regarded as the corner-         When aching burdens crush thy
     expressed it: The divinity of Christ      stone of the edifice of the Christian faith,                heart,
     is necessary for redemption be-           and without which he could conceive no re-       Then know I formed thee for thy
     cause only God can do the impossi-        demption. For this truth he spent all his                   part
     ble; i.e., only God can save poor         time and strength; for this he sufiered depo-
                                               sition and twenty years of exile; for this he    And purpose in the plan I hold.
     sinners such as we are.                   would have been at any moment glad to            Thou art the clay that I would
       Other major accomplishments             pour out his blood. For his vindication of                  mold.
     marked his troubled life. In 367,         this truth he was much hated, much loved,            Trust in God.
     while temporarily at peace in his         always respected or feared. In the unwa-
     congregation, he wrote a pastoral         vering conviction that he had the right and      "Be still and know that I am God,"
     letter to all the churches. This is an    the protection of God on his side, he con-       Who made the atom's tiny span
     interesting footnote to history The       stantly disdained to call in the secular         And set it moving to my plan,
     churches were, by this time, accus-       power for his ecclesiastical ends, and to de-    That I who guide the stars above
I    tomed to celebrate Christ's resur-        grade himself to an imperial courtier, as his    Will cidee and keep thee in My
     rection on the first Sunday after the     antagonists often dia. lo
                                                  Gregory of Nazianzus, a contem-
     first full moon after the vernal                                                               Be thou still.
I                                              porary, spoke of Athanasius in
     equinox - as we do to this day.           these words:                                                                                -Doran


                                                                                                    April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I' 323


Decency                                     Promoting Good
and Order
Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga Christian Schools

The con&tories shall see to it that there are     Previous-Decisions on Which                           The decision of Dordrecht,, 1618-
good Christian schools in which the parents       Article 21 is Based                                19, on which our present article is
have their children instructed according to          The Synod of Dordrecht, 1574,                   based reads:
the amnas of the covenant.                                                                           All consistories shall see to it that there are
                  Church Order,                   ruled:
                                    Article 21    With regard to the schools it is d&&d              good schoolmasters who not only teach the
                                                  that: 1) The ministers of all the classes          children reading, writing, languages, and
Introduction                                      shall have the responsibility to determine at      liberal arts, but also train them in godliness
   This article deals with the re-                which places schools are needed. 2) The            and in the Catechism.
sponsibility of consistories with re-             ministers shall determine whether in the           Comparison of the Present Article
spect to the Christian education of               past the school teacher at a given place was       with Previous Decisions
the children of the covenant.                     p'ven the normal stipend from public                  The language of what is now Ar-
   The article does NOT entrust the               funds. 3) The ministers shall request per-         ticle 21 of our Church Order d.erives
consistories with the responsibility              mission from the magistrate to hire a              from the revision of the Christian
for establishing, operating, and                  school teacher, and they shall request  from       Reformed Church in 1914. A. com-
governing Christian schools. This                 the magistrate that he order that tke nor-         parison of the present article with
would be to advocate parochialism.                mal stipend be paid. 4) The ministers shall
                                                  make sure that the school teachers subscribe       its predecessors indicates at l.east
Instead the article insists that the              to the Confession of Faith, and submit             two significant differences.
education of children is fundamen-                themselves to discipline, and furthermore             First, the earlier decisions
tally a parental responsibility: "...in           that they teach the children the Catechism         demonstrate that previously  consis-
which parents have their children                 and other beneficial things. 5) In case there      tories had much to do with the ac-
instructed...." However, the article              are some school teachers unwilling to do           tual operation of the schools in the
does place upon consistories the re-              these things, the ministers shall request          Netherlands, even to the extent of
sponsibility to direct parents to the             from the government that they be turned            being involved in the interviewing
discharge of their covenant obliga-               down OY dismissed. 6) In case the ministers        and hiring of the teachers.
tions.                                            cannot obtain the above-mentioned request             Secondly, whereas our present
   That consistories have such a re-              from the local government, they shall by
                                                  petition explain and pursue the matter             article directs consistories to see to
sponsibility is not only emphasized               with the higher authorities.                       it that there are good Christian
by the present article. This also                    The Synod of Dordrecht, 1578,                   "schools," the earlier decisions re-
comes out in the "Questions of Ar-                resolved the following:                            quired the consistories to see to it
ticle 41" put to the delegates of                 People shall work that everywhere schools          that there were good Christian
each consistory at the conclusion of              are established in which the children are in-      school "teachers."
the classis meetings. The third                   structed not only in languages and arts,              The explanation for these differ-
question is: "Are the poor and the                but also especially in the Christian cde-          ences is historical. In the Nether-
Christian schools cared for?" This                chism and be led to the midst y.                   lands the schools were operated by
responsibility is also brought out in                The Synod of Middelburg, 1581,                  the state. But after the Reforma-
the "Questions For Church Visita-                 made the following decision:                       tion, the state turned over the pro-
tion." One of the questions put to                The congregations shall see to it that there       motion and supervision of the
the full consistory is: "Does the                 are professors and schoolmasters who teach         schools to the church. VanDellen
consistory see to it that the parents             not only the fine arts and languages, but          and Monsma write:
send their children to the Christian              also theology and the Catechism, and edu-
                                                  cate their listeners and disciples  in the fear    Various measures were adopted duting
school?"                                          of God.                                            these years by the Churches and approved
                                                     The Synod of `s Gravenhage,                     of by the government, which point lie a
                                                  1586, ruled:                                       very close cooperation between the Church
                                                                                                     and the government in the establishment
                                                  All consistories shall see to it that there are    and maintenance of Christian Schools. For
                                                  good teachers (schoolmasters) who not only         instance, the law required that schoolmas-
                                                  teach the children rending, writingr lan-
Rev. Cammenga is                                                                                     ters be professors of the Reformed fG!ith,
                     pas for of the               guages, and liberal arts, but also train           and hold membership in one of the I&+
Protestant Refomed Church of Love-                them in godliness and in the Catechism..           formed  Churches; they had to be Godly in
land, C010yd0.

324 I The Standard Bearer / April 15,199O


all their conduct; they were required to sub-    of the baptism of their children is a    teaching profession in our Chris-
scribe to the Reformed confessions; they         vow thatis made before the church,       tian schools.
had to give proof of knowing the Catechism       so that the elders have the respon-         If there are parents who do not
and of ability to teach it in the school         sibility from God to see to it that      make use of the existing Christian
rooms; they were under special supervision
of                                               parents carry out that vow.              schools, the elders should visit
       the Con&tories and accountable to         Ways in Which Consistories               them to inquire concerning their
them.  (The Church Order Commentary,
p. 93).                                          Promote Christian Education              reasons. If their reasons are inade-
Main Principles of Article 21                      There are numerous ways in             quate, they should be visited peri-
       Education of children is a                which consistories can promote           odically.
parental responsibility: "...in which            Christian education.                        The consistory should also pro-
the parents have their children in-                This can be done by the minister       mote membership in the school tj~-
structed...." The Scriptures are                 in the public preaching as occasion      ciety, active membership, and this
clear in teaching this parental re-              warrants. A sermon could be de-          not only among the men of the con-
sponsibility: Genesis 18:19;                     voted to this subject in connection      gregation who have children in the
Deuteronomy 6:6-9;  11:18-21;  Psalm             with Lord's Day 38 and the Fourth        Christian school, but also among
78:5-7;  Ephesians 64. Our "Bap-                 Commandment. Sermons dealing             both the younger and older men
tism Form" also emphasizes this re-              with Christian education are appro-      who do not even have children or
sponsibility of covenant parents.                priate in connection with the ad-        whose children are past school-a.ge.
And parents are in duty bound, further to        ministration of the sacrament of            If there is no Christian school, or
instruct their children herein, when they        baptism. In Reformed churches the        no Protestant Reformed Christian
shall arrive to years of discretion.             practice of preaching an annual          School, the consistory can promote
And again, the third question                    "School Sermon" in the Fall at the       the discussion of organizing a soci-
asked of the parents at baptism:                 beginning of a new academic year         ety, making plans for the establish-
Whether you promise and intend to see            is of long standing. This is a good      ment of a school, and sponsor pub-
these children, when come to the years of        practice - one, I trust, that sur-       lic meetings at which speeches are
discretion...instructed and brougti up in        vives in our Protestant Reformed         given or there is open discussion of
the aforesaid a0ctri~,  OY help OY cause         Churches.                                these issues.
them to be instructed therein, to the utmost
of your                                            The whole matter of Christian          Promotion of "Good"
            power?
       This responsibility of parents for        education, both in the home and in       Christian Schools
the education of their children is               the Christian day school, ought to          The responsibility of consistories
"...according to the demands of fie              find a place in the congregational       is to promote "good" Christian
covenant." This indicates the posi-              prayers. Let our ministers pray for      schools, according to Article 21.
tive foundation upon which Chris-                our Christian schools, our Christian     What are "good" Christian schools?
tian education is founded: the                   school teachers, our children and           Good Christian schools are cer-
covenant of God. This covenant of                young people who study at these          tainly Protestant Reformed Chris-
God is established by God with                   schools, the parents who sacrifi-        tian schools. This is the ideal, the
elect believers through Jesus Christ.            cially support our Christian             goal that we must strive after, both
It is a covenant that extends to and             schools, and the school boards and       in the elementary grades and at ihe
includes the children of believers               school societies.                        high school level. If circumstances
(cf. Gen. 17~7 and Acts 2:39). But                 `Let the promotion of Christian        (i.e., God in His providence) make
this covenant is contained through               education by our consistories be re-     the immediate achievement of this
the instrumentality of the instruc-              fleeted  in the offerings taken dur-     goal impossible, then "good"
tion of covenant children in the                 ing the worship services for the         means the best Christian schools
truth and fear of God. This is the               cause of Christian education             that are available.
demand of the covenant, that par-                among us.                                   Under ordim  y circumstances,,
ents instruct their children. This is              Let the subject of Christian edu-      this rules out the public schools.
their part in the covenant. This is              cation be brought up on family vis-      This is true both because a good
not a condition that they must ful-              itation. Let the responsibilities of     Christian school is a parentally con-
fill, but a matter of thankful obedi-            covenant parents in this regard be       trolled Christian school, and be-
ence to the covenant God.                        pointed out. Let those who show          cause a good school does not com-
       Consistories share in the respon-         deficiencies in carrying out these       promise or openly deny the teaclh-
sibility for the Christian education             responsibilities be instructed and       ings of the Word of God, as is done
of the children of the covenant:                 exhorted. Let the pastor and the el-     in the public schools.
"The consistories shall see to it that           ders direct questions to the children       VanDellen  and Monsma state:
there are good Chris,tian  schools...."          and young people concerning their        The Church cannot aj@d, and before God
The children of the covenant are                 faithfulness in applying themselves      cannot tolerate, to see much of her precious
                                                                                          teachings contradicted and silenced five
members of the church, and there-                to their studies in the Christian        days a week, year afir year, before OUT chil-
fore under the spiritual care and                school. And let promising young          dren, and that while they are in their for-
supervision of the consistory. The               people be encouraged to give seri-       mative years. Godless and Christless in:-
vow that parents make at the time                ous consideration to entering the        struction clearly runs counter to the best


                                                                                             April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer r'325


interests of the Church, the Kingdom of      should limit themselves to admoni-                  The Synod of the Christian Re-
God in general, the welfme of the child,     tion and instruction, since ulti-                formed Church, 1934, passed the
and solemn obligation of Christian par-      mately the education of their chil-              following declaration:
ents" (The Church Order Commentary,          dren is a parental decision. The ad-             Although such as heartily support Chris-
p. 95).                                                                                       tian instruction a0 not thereby automati-
   A good Christian school also              vice of VanDellen and Monsma to                  cally qualifjr for the nomination of ofi-
means a school that is academically          consistories is:
                                             There may be cases in which parents re-          bearers, yet Synod wishes to empha&e
excellent. A good Christian school           frain from sending their children to a           that this element should be given very
is a school that provides a well-            Christian school for reasons which they          weighty consideration, and advises consis-
rounded education. The decisions             consider valid before God, although others       tories to a0 so, since OUY principles Qi-
of the early synods quoted at the            question OY amy the validity of their posi-      cdly call for it and OUT Christian schools
beginning of this article speak of           tion. In all such cases the matter must be       aye constantly in need of whole-hearted
reading, writing, languages, and             left to the consciences of the parents con-      supporf from consistories.
the liberal arts. Not only must the          cerned, although the Consist0 y should              Once again, the bare fact that one
education be well-rounded, but it            urge prayerfiLl reconsideration repeatedly       does not presently send his chil-
must be academically sound. Re-              (The Church Order Commentary, p, 98).            dren to the Christian school does
formed Christians can never be sat-          Again:                                           not in itself disqualify from serving
isfied with education that is Re-            Parents who fail to send their children to a     in the special offices. The impor-
                                             Christian school because they assume a
formed, but academically deficient.                                                           tant question is: `What is his, rea-
                                             careless attitude toward their Christian
In the final analysis, that is NOT                                                            son?"
                                             obligation and make light of their bap-
Reformed education.                                                                              VanDellen and Monsma also face
                                             tismal vows, should be admonished, cen-
Two  Questions                                                                                this question:
                                             sured,  and perhaps excommunicated be-
   Two questions of a practical sort         cause of their unChristian attitude toward       Can one who is opposed to Christian
often arise in connection with the           God and His commands in general. In              schools serve as a Con&toy member?
                                                                                              Not very well. Those who serve in Consis-
contents of this article.                    other words, mere failure to send children       toy pledge to uphold the doctrine a.nd gov-
   First, are those parents who              to a Christian school may never constitute       ernment of the Churches. (Cf. "Form of.
choose not to send their children to         a basis for censure and excommunication,         Subscription.") Now, the  Church Order,
the existing Christian school to be          but persistent indifference toward Chris-        according to which they help to goarm the
put under formal church disci-               tian duty, including proper child training,
                                             may. For by such indijference we clearly         Church, requires that they promote .and
pline?                                       testij) that we are either temporarily wan-      sponsor Chrisfian schools. Therefore one
   The answer to this question is:           dering away from God, or that                    who is opposed to these schools cannot
                                                                               OUT  Chris-
No. The bare fact of not sending             tianity is only a sham, without reality, and     serve in the Consist0 y. He cannot do
one's children to the Christian              that we are Godless at heart (The Church         what is expected of him. Emn those who
school is not a valid ground for dis-        Order Commentary,  p. 98).                       assume a lukewarm attitude toward' the
                                                                                              Christian school movement are not
cipline. There may be valid, or at              A second question that is often               desirable candidates for the Consist0 y. We
least understandable, reasons why            raised is whether those who do not               should, of course, remember that every case
parents do not send their children           send their children to the Christian             must be judged on its own merits. A gen-
to the Christian school. In the case         school, or to our own Protestant                 eral nrle in this matter dwuld never be
of those whose reasons are not               Reformed Christian schools, may                  made (The Church Order Commentary,
valid, for the most part consistories        be nominated for office in the                   p. 99). izl
                                             church.



 When Thou
Sittest in                                   The Reformed Wife:
Thy House
Mrs. Mary Beth Lubbers                       Mother (1)

                                                By faith Moses, when `he was born, was            The threefirst years of life...are @ten...a
                                             hid three months of his parents (Hebrews         period decisive for after life. It requires no
                                             11:23).                                          stretch of imagination to conceive what the
                                                But there was one inj7uencefor highest        child Moses would learn at his mother2
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in         g00a - constant, unva ying, and most             knee...  (Alfred  Edersheim).
the Protestant Reformed Church of            powe~fil. It was that of a "mother in Is-            What an encouragement is sidggested
                                             rael" (Alfred Edersheim).                        by this record to mothers -to make the
South Holland, Illinois.

326 I The Standard Bearer I April 15,199O


ve y most of the early years during which      account of the Great Flood, telling       her instruction. She taught him t:o
chiIdren  are confided to their charge. The    him of Noah and the animals               obey. She taught him to respect au-
circumstances must be exceptional indeed       which filled the ark, and the re-         thority, even as she earnestly
under which that charge can be entrusted       demption by water. She recounted          prayed that her son would never
to others (F.B. Meyer).                        in vivid detail the history of his        really consider himself the son of
   For all of you mothers who have             God-fearing, illustrious forefathers,     Pharaoh's daughter. And althou,gh
diligently trained and instructed              Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.        it pained her, she disciplined him,
your very young children, taught                 Above all, the mother tied to in-       for what benefit was an unruly son
them Zion's songs, and have spo-               still within her young son a love for     either to her or to Pharaoh's daugh-
ken to them of the majesty and ho-             the God of Israel and the perse-          ter?
liness of God from infancy on, but             cuted people to whom He had                 She taught him to pray and to
who are grieved over an unrepen-               covenanted Himself.                       place his complete dependence
tant son or daughter, may Jehovah                With only the spoken stories            upon Jehovah. First, as is natural,
comfort your sad heart. Perhaps                handed down to her, not even pos-         she folded his tiny hands and
even yet God will bring such a                 sessing the little parchment rolls        prayed for him as he stared blankly
wayward child to his spiritual                 which would later be used in Is-          into her eyes, not understanding
knees. Nevertheless, the well-                 rael's history Cfor the instruction of    this strange ritual, even straining to
known words of Proverbs 22:6 are               the children, she began the careful       separate his hands. Yet, his mother
true, `Train up a child (infant) in            training of his memory. She taught        knew instinctively the importance
the way he should go: and when he              him the poetic verses, the majestic       of teaching this little one to pray.
is old, he will not depart from it."
             x-x-*****                         benedictions, and the wise sayings        Soon, first out of habit, he began to
                                               of her people which she herself           pray, lisping his first halting utter-
   He was only three months old,               could recite flawlessly. She im-          ances. Later, she expanded the
but it was not too early to begin              pressed them upon her young son           prayer giving more content and
teaching him all the ways of God               with every skill at her disposal.         meaning to it, teaching him not
and the traditions of his people. In           Her son would be "a well-plastered        only to ask for things but also to ex-
fact, it was urgent that she should            cistern, which would not let even a       tol God's great name in his prayers.
do this. Her infant son's time with            single drop [of his mother's in-          It was so important that he learn to
her was to be brief. Perhaps she               struction, MBLI escape" (A. Eder-         pray. She would not always be
would be able to keep him through              sheim). She filled him with the sa-       there to guide and direct his prayer
his toddler years, but much longer             cred thoughts of Jehovah, even            times. She molded his prayer life
than that she could not be certain.            while many of her own people              so that it would become "habit" for
Times were hard in Goshen. The                 served other gods in Egypt (Joshua        him - a habit that would not be
state no longer looked benevolently            24:14), forgot the Sabbath, spurned       easy to forget or break. And how
on one's having children. And yet,             the sacrifices, and despised that         many young people today, gone
God had miraculously heard and                 most significant sign of God's            astray, would have to admit that
answered her prayer when she had               covenant with His people, circum-         they have never forgotten their
defied the king's command and                  c i s i o n .                             early prayers and that their con-
saved her well-favored child alive.               Oh! the times were dark and evil       science smites them each time they
Once again, He had granted a re-               during which this God-fearing             crawl into bed or eat without praly-
prieve as He had done when she                 Levite mother struggled to pre-           ing ?
had weighed the king's edict                   serve the best religious traditions of       At a very tender age she taught
 against the command of God to                 her people and. teach them to her         him to sing the songs of Zion. At
 conceive and bear children. She re-           son. Many of the Hebrews were             first, she sang for him the songs
 solved to trust in the living God             filled with anxiety and despair dur-      which she had learned from her
 whose promises had  been handed               ing these oppressive days; they           parents and grandparents. She
 down to her from the lips of her an-          went about their business furtively;      crooned to him the joyful alleluias
 cestors.                                       they attended to the needs of their       to God. She hummed soft, lilting
    And so, she began. She told him             families perfunctorily. But she was       lullabies to him, with a catch in hler
 first in most simple language the              not afraid of the king's command-         own throat because she knew the
 treasured story of origins: how                ment. Inside her humble reed hut,         power of Egypt's seductive music.
 God, the Yahweh of His people,                 within easy walking distance of the       The mother was totally unaware
 had created the whole world out of             city of Memphis, center of Egypt's        that the beautiful music which
 nothing. As her son grew a little              national life and Pharaoh's opulent       welled out of her soul as she
 older, she elaborated on the stories           court, she observed the exceeding         worked inside her simple home
 of the creation of the world, telling          fairness (Acts 220) of this child and     would be the wellspring out of
 him what God had created on each               was assured that he was a goodly,         which not only this babe but also
 successive day. She told of Adam               that is, a covenant child and that        her older daughter, Miriam, would
 and Eve, their falling into sin, and           God would care for him.                   render magnificent paeans of
 their redemption through the blood               Ever conscious that her time            praise to God. (Read Exodus 15
 of the slain Lamb. She detailed the            with him was short, she intensified       and Deuteronomy 32 for the Song

                                                                                            April 15,199o / The Standard Bearer I 327


of Moses; Exodus 15:20,21 for the            fail her now. She was not afraid.             Christ Victoriou.s
Song of Miriam.)                             Even then, she had been confident
  Did her young son-understand               that something of. import would oc-      Oh, days of sickness, grief, and
these deep truths? Was his tender            cur, for she had told her daughter
heart able to grasp her instruction?         Miriam to observe "what would be           W&%&g ye in your mournful
Her faith clung to God. He, Who              done to him."                                    train?
was able to save her son from the              She taught him unstintingly. She       Grey hairs, old age before its time-
Nile's dark and watery grave, was            held back nothing. She. taught him         The breaking down of man-
able to secure her instruction on            each day as if it were the last day           hood's prime,
her child's heart.                           that she would have opportunity to       The trembling hand, the fainting.
  Somehow, with a faith knit to              do so, ,until finally the day arrived         heart,
God, this mother ,&mew that the              when Pharaoh's royal officials             Bruises and wounds to throb
child she cradled in her arms                came to take her little son away.                and smart,
would live to see the demise of this         With a prayer on her lips and a          The nerve unstrung, the sleepless
wicked and cruel king, and that the          monumental faith in God, she                  brain;
cruel bondage under which even               watched him go.                            Oh, these come boldly in your
now her own husband groaned in                 Now Egypt's priests, teachers,                 train.
the scorching Egyptian sun was               and philosophers would do their
soon coming to an end. Had she               utmost to train.him, grooming him        But days of sickness, grief, and
not been told by her forefather,             for Egypt's throne. But the mother            pain,
Abraham? "Know of a surety that              was not afraid. She had trained            Do these alone make up your
thy seed shall be a stranger in a            him well. The nurture which he                   train?
land that is not theirs, and shall           had received for three or four years     Not so! not so! The ranks between
serve them; and they shall afflict           at his mother's breast was woven           Submission's gracious fonn is
them four hundred years...and af-            into the very fabric of his soul. No
terward shall they come out with             stray threads would be sewn              And wig: boldest of the hand
great substance" (Gen.  15:13,14).           through it. Egypt's education and          Sweet patience ventures hand
She, as well as all her people who           mores, the intrigues and wicked-                 in hand,
had not assimilated with the Egyp-           ness of its court, the gods Ra and       While faith, Christ's honor to
tians, was watching and waiting              Isis would hold no fascination for            maintain,
and counting. Surely, deliverance            him. All his instruction in mathe-         Rides, dauntless, mid your
was imminent! History's clock was            matics, astronomy, and chemistry;                hostile train.
winding down. God would cer-                 all his knowledge of the noble skills
tainly deliver His chosen people             of athletics, war, and hunting; all      Come, then, wild troop of griefs
with a mighty hand. And her tiny             the luxuries that he enjoyed as a             and pains,
son must learn to love and extol             privileged prince; and all the price-      And riot on my Lord's domain!
this mighty God, so that the inef-           less treasures of Egypt would con-       Where you lay waste another
fectual, yet exalted mummylike               tinue to be hisif only he would               Hand
gods of Egypt, whom he would be              agree to be called the son of              A firmer fabric long has p'lanned;
tutored to respect, would ulti-              Pharaoh's daughter. He refused.          What you destroy, Faiths radiant
mately have no appeal for him.                 For the child had listened to his           smile
  It was out of that same faith that         mother. Indeed, he was a proper            Declares is for a little while!
she had woven a little basket out of         child (Heb. 11:23). He had ab-           And Christ himself shall come to
papyrus rushes and set her son in            sorbed her instruction. He had                reign
the water, knowing full well that            heeded her discipline. He never          Victorious o'er your helpless train.
Pharaoh's daughter and her retinue           forgot the early training which she
came regularly to that location to           had so diligently given him.                                 -S.B. Nov. :I,, 1927
bathe. The claim might even be                 And as God has promised fruit
made that, in a way, she had                 upon such instruction, when this
obeyed the king's command: she               handsome young man came to
had placed her son in the water.             years, he chose for God and em-
Later, when Pharaoh's daughter               braced Christ because he had an
would name her foster son, his               eye for the heavenly reward of
name would bear that very mean-              those who are faithful to Jehovah.
ing, "drawn out of the water." At               The mother?
that time, as in the conception of             Jochebed.
her son in those earlier ill-fated              Her son?
days, she had placed her confi-                 Moses. 0
dence in God to work out His plan
and His purpose His way. He had
not failed her yet. He would not

328 / The Standard Bearer ! April 15,199O


                                              State Supreme Court Holds
Church                                            Church Liable for Discipline
and State                                         of Parishioner After
Mr. James Lanting                                 Withdrawal of, Membership

State Supreme Court Holds                       Five years after she became a           Church of Christ but cannot volun-
Church Liable for Discipline of               member of the Collinsville Church         tarily withdraw from it.
Parishioner After Withdrawal of               of Christ in Collinsville, Oklahoma,        Ignoring her request, during the
M e m b e r s h i p                           the elders of her church confronted       next two Sundays the elders an-
  After she wrote a letter to the El-         Marian Guinn with a rumor that            nounced her name, read the scrip-
ders unequivocally withdrawing                she was having sexual relations           tures she had violated, and in-
her membership from the Church                with a male resident of Collinsville      structed the congregation to en-
of Christ, the Elders continued               who was not a member of the               courage her to repent of her sin and
their disciplinary actions against            church. During a second meeting           return to the church. As part of the
her. During Sunday services the               with the elders, she admitted com-        same disciplinary process, her el-
Elders read to the congregation               mitting fornication, and agreed to        ders sent notification of her trans-
those Scriptures which the Parish-            consider ending this illicit relation-    gressions to four other area Church
ioner violated. This exposure of.             ship. A few weeks later, the elders       of Christ congregations to be read
her private life, done without her            again met with her and told her           aloud during Sunday services.
consent, was unprotected by the               that if she did not repent of her           Mrs. Guinn then brought suit
First Amendment.                              continuing fornication, the church        against the Collinsville Church of
                        Majority opinion,     would begin its "withdrawal of fel-       Christ and its elders, alleging that
Guinn v. Collinsville Church of Christ..      lowship" disciplinary process.            the church had wrongfully publicly
                                                At this point she realized that the     branded her a fornicator. She
  Churches are afforded great lati-           elders intended to inform the con-        charged the church with the inva-
tude on members or former mem-                gregation of her sin. She immedi-         sion of privacy and outrageous
bers when they impose discipline:             ately wrote a letter to the elders im-    conduct causing mental distress.
I therefore would hold the Elders             ploring them not to mention her             Upon trial, a jury brought back. a
of the Church of Christ are free to           name except to tell the congrega-         verdict against the church and
discipline Parishioners as a church           tion that she had withdrawn from          awarded her damages of $39QOOo.
member (and former member) un-                membership. Several days later            The church appealed to the Oklai
der the protection of the First               she met again with the elders and         homa Supreme Court, which held
Amendment without state interfer-             attempted to dissuade them from           in a landmark decision that the el-
ence and Parishioner may not es-              divulging her private life to the         ders' discipline of their parishioner
cape such discipline by unilaterally          congregation.                             prior to her withdrawal letter was
withdrawing her membership.                     The elders informed her that            constitutionally protected, but the
                        Justice J. Hodges,    withdrawing membership from the           church's discipline after her request
                dissenting opinion in         congregation was doctrinally im-          for termination of membership was
Guinn v. Collinsville Church of Christ        possible and that they could not          not immune to state tort laws.
                                              halt the disciplinary sanctions be-       Pre-withdrawal Discipline
                                              ing carried out against her. The            In a lengthy and scholarly opin-
                                              Church of Christ believes that all its    ion, the Oklahoma Supreme Court
                                              members an2 a family; one can be          ruled that First Amendment's "free
                                              born into a family but can never          exercise" clause ("Congress shall
Mr. Lunfing, a member of South Hol-           truly withdraw from it. Accord-           make no law respecting an estab-
land Protestant Reformed  Church, is a        ingly, they instructed her that a         lishment of religion, or prohibitin,g
practicing attorney.                          member can voluntarily join the           the free exercise thereof") "shielded

                                                                                          April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 329


the church's pm-withdrawal, reli-            fore she withdrew her membership,         decision is very troublesome to the
giously-motivated discipline." The           the elders argued that her at-            extent that it holds that once a
court ruled that when people vol-            tempted withdrawal could not hin-         parishioner requests withdrawal of
untarily join a church for their spir-       der their constitutionally protected      membership, any further actions by
itual welfare, they freely consent to        religious discipline.                     the elders or the church is outside
the doctrinal and disciplinary                 The court rejected this argument.       constitutional protection. In effect,
tenets held by the church. When              Finding her letter an effective with-     the court ignored the Church of
one joins a church, one also im-             drawal, the court held that "Just as      Christ's doctrine that a member
pliedly consents to the government           freedom to worship is protected by        may not unilaterally withdraw
of the church and "are bound to              the First Amendment, so also is the       from the church once discipl.inary
submit to it."                               libefty  to recede from one's reli-       procedures have commenced.
  Thus, under the "free exercise"            gious allegiance." The Constitution          Finally, the court made it clear
clause of the First Amendment, the           clearly safeguards the freedom to         that if any church embraces such a
courts may not interfere in a                join a church, said the court, as well    doctrine of the impermissibility of
church's discipline of its members,          as the freedom to withdraw  from a        post-discipline unilateral with-
so long as that discipline does not          church.                                   drawal of membership, its disci-
constitute a "threat to public safety,         The,court  also rejected the            pline thereafter will be subject to
peace or order." Accordingly, the            church's argument that she had            court scrutiny, unless the parish-
elders' visits confronting her with          waived her right to withdraw, since       ioner had previously given a
her alleged sin of fornication and           there was no evidence that them           `knowing and intelligent" waiver
their demand for her repentance              was a `knowing and intelligent"           of his right to disassociate himself
was constitutionally protected as            waiver of such a right to withdraw        from the church at any time..
"free exercise" of religion.                 when she joined the church.                  The relationship of church and
Post-withdrawal Discipline                   Church and State                          state has always been a thorny and
  Not entitled to such constitu-               This landmark case exemplifies          sensitive issue, and the aftermath
tional protection, however, were             an alarming trend in recent years of      of the Guinn decision should be
the church's disciplinary actions af-        parishioners suing their pastors, el-     observed very carefully by
ter she requested withdrawal of              ders, and churches for various civil      churches, elders, and pastors en-
membership. The court held that              wrongs (alienation of affection,          gaged in ecclesiastical discipline in
when the church received her letter          child abuse, clergy malpractice, in-      our litigious society. 0
requesting withdrawal of member-             vasion of privacy, etc.). Although
ship, she thereby also withdrew her          this trend is regrettable and embar-
consent to submit to spiritual su-           rassing for the church, it is                  An Evening Prayer
pervision. Thus, the disciplinary            nonetheless a reality that must be
actions taken by the elders there-           faced by churches and pastors in
after were "outside the purview of           the coming decades.                        Dear God, another day is done
                                                                                       And I have seen the golden sun
First Amendment protection."                   The Guinn  case illustrates, of          Swing in the arch from east to west
  Her letter of withdrawal, said             course, the perennial tension be-
the court, "effectively revoked any          tween church and state. Although           And sink behind the pines to rest.
consent" to further ecclesiastical           the Guinn decision is technically          I thank Thee that Thou gavest me
supervision, and the elders had no           binding only in Oklahoma, this             The power of sight that I may see
right to publish before the congre-          court's scholarly and lengthy anal-        The tinted glories of Thy skies,
gation private facts about her life.         ysis of the constitutional limits on      An earthly glimpse of paradise;
Accordingly, the court held that             church discipline will be very influ-     The power to hear the evening
with regard to the elders' post-             ential in future decisions in many           breeze
withdrawal publication of her for-           other states that confront this issue      Swelling in organ harmonies;
nication, a jury may find that such          in the future. Accordingly, a few          The power to feel the tender grasp
publication to her former church             implications of this important case       `of loving hands in friendship's
and four other area congregations            are noteworthy.                              clasp;
constituted invasion of privacy and            First, churches will be pleased to       I thank Thee for these gifts to me,
intentional infliction of mental dis-        know that the courts will undoubt-         But one thing more I ask of Thee;
                                                                                       From out Thy bounteous, gracious
tress.                                       edly exercise judicial restraint and
The Church's Defense                         refuse to interfere with ecclesiasti-        hand
                                                                                       Give me the power to understand,
  The elders argued that the                 cal discipline of church members.
Church of Christ had no doctrinal            The Guinn court unequivocally             To understand - to sympathize -
                                                                                       To note the pain in other's eyes;
provision for withdrawal of mem-             held that membership implies sub-
bership. According to its beliefs, a         mission to church discipline, and         To have the power rightly to read
member remains a part of the con-            such discipline is constitutionally       The kindly motive of each deed.
gregation for life. Because disci-           protected under the "free exercise"        And this I humbly ask of Thee
plinary procedures against the               clause of the First Amendment.             Because I know Thou lovest  me.
parishioner had already begun be-              On the other hand, the court's                             -Author &known

330 I The Standard Bearer I April 15,199O


                                            Exposition of
From Holy Writ
Rev. George Lubbers                         Isaiah ,6 (3)

  Verses 8,9 - "Also I heard the            Who was lifted up on the Cross             ment glory, in that it proclaimed a
voice of the Lord, saying, Whom             and entered into the glory of the          ministry of reconciliation, which
shall I send, and who will go for           Mediator of God and man, the man           changes the believers from glory
us? Then said I, Here am I, send            Jesus Christ.                              unto glory as by the Spirit of the
me. And he said, Go and tell this             In this essay we shall see that          Lord (II Cor. 3:l ff.).
people, hear ye indeed, but under-          grace ati glo y of the Son of man,           It is noteworthy that, from the
stand not; and see ye indeed but            high and lifted up, the forerunner         point of view of being a glory of
perceive not. Make the heart of this        Who entered for us within the vail,        grace, the beautiful temple of
people fat, and make their ears             so that we have an anchor, sure and        Solomon was no advancement.
heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they       steadfast within the holy place!           Here too the priests were virtually
see with their eyes, and hear with          (Heb. 619,201.                             driven from this glory when the
their ears, and understand with             THE NATURE OF THE GLORY                    glory of God appeared. Beautiful as
their heart, and convert, and be            INTHETEMFLEINTHE                           this temple was, it was not yet the
healed."                                    VISION                                     real tabernacling of God with His
  You will remember that we have              There are a number of Old Testa-         people. This temple could not be
written two earlier essays in Isaiah        ment Scripture passages which we           the fit abode of the God of glory.
61-7.  Two things we there noticed          ought to read from our Bible; they         That must wait till the Word (LO-
and underscored. (1) The time of            should be read carefully and com-          GOS) became flesh, the word who
the vision - that it was in the year        pared. They are Isaiah 40:5,6&l;           dwelt (tabernacled) amongst us,
the king Uzziah died. We noticed            Ezekiel 43:2-5;  Haggai 2:3,7,9            fd of grace and 820 y.
that this is very significant informa-      (Heb. 12:26);  and Zechariah 2:5,8.           The great guiding principle,
tion. It sets this vision as being          Space forbids us to exegete these          which we must ever keep clearly in
meaningful that, whereas no king            passages; however, we shall weave          mind, is that "the law was given lby
of Judah might minister at the altar        these passages into our exposition         Moses, but grace and truth became
in the Old Testament Temple, in             of Isaiah 6.                               through Jesus Christ." Such is the
this temple we have a priest, who             As we have already stated                key of knowledge here properly to
is also King. He is a king-priest, after    above, this is the glory of the Son of     exegete Isaiah 6 in its total scope.
the order of Melchisedec.  For He who       man (John 12:3741).  That this glory       Only then will we understand that
sitteth on the throne is Adok. (2) We       is really far more glorious than any       we are here dealing with what Pe-
noticed that this temple in the vi-         glory of the Old Testament forms of        ter called the more sure word of
sion is not at all like the tabernacle      God-appearances (Theophanies)              prophecy  which casts its light across
of Moses in the wilderness. In that         we see from the two occasions in           the ages until Christ shall come in
tabernacle,none  could minister in          the history of the salvation               His Parousia, ever to dwell with us,
it, when God came into the entire           (heilgeschiedenis) of Israel.              so that we may behold His glory
tabernacle and shrouded it with               The first is at the.time when the        (John 1724).  Then will the high-
His glorious presence in the Cloud,         tabernacle is raised up for the first      priestly prayer be fulfilled: Father, I
the Shekinah of glory: Moses, who           time, and the priesthood of Aaron          will that they also, whom thou hast
had seen the glory of God on the            will minister in the tabernacle (Exo-      given me, be with me where I ami,
Mount from a place in the cleft of          dus 4034-38).  So great was that           that they may behold my glory!
the rock, could not be in this taber-       glory that Moses, Aaron, and the              We should notice rather carefully
nacle when God dedicated it with            priests had to leave the tabernacle.       that in this temple-vision we have
His presence. However, in the vi-           For God symbolically came to               projected the ideal, final glory of
sion Isaiah sees another glory. It is       dwell in the most holy place upon          God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is
the glory of the exalted Son of man,        the mercy seat on the Ark of the           the glory of Adonai, as sung by the
                                            Testimony. That was the glory of           ministering Seraphims: holy, holy,
                                            the letter of the law that kills, while    holy is the Lord God almighty; the
                                            here in Isaiah's vision it is the glory    whole earth is full of His glory.
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in      which eclipsed all the Old Testa-          That the entire earth shall be full of
the Protestant Rtformed  Churches.

                                                                                         April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 331


                                                                                                               r





the glory of the temple, and of the            ness to enter into the holiest by the     of forgiveness and the power of the
King on the throne, surely signifies           blood of Jesus. . . let us draw near      gospel of the glory of the blessed
that then all the nations shall be             with a true heart in full assurance       God, he knows whereof he ~speaks.
blessed in Abraham and in his                  of faith, having our hearts sprin-        He has tasted that the LORD is
Seed, the Christ. God will spread              kled from an evil conscience. . ."        good and full of kind compassion.
his tent, widen it, so that the gentile        (Hebrews l&18-22)!                        He can "go home justified." No
lands shall also share in its glory              The great high priest which we          power in earth or heaven cam bring
(Isaiah 541-3).  For in this temple in         have, Who was made higher than            any charge against him. Now he
the vision the middle wall of parti-           the heavens, sends one of His             can be truly obedient.
tion is lacking. The glory is not hid        : Seraphims to bring a live coal from       HERE I (AM) SEND ME, LORD!
behind the vail in the temple, but             the altar to touch Isaiah's mouth.          What an evidence of new obedi-
the entire temple is now a holy of             Isaiah had confessed to be a man of       ence, of one who has the law writ-
holies. It prefigures the time when            unclean lips. This implied that back      ten in his heart. Now he can say to
it shall be manifested that the way            of these lips was a heart which           all the wicked to whom he will
into the most holy place is opened             needed to be purified by the Holy         need to preach: Who of you con-
(Heb. 9:8).                                    Spirit, Who sanctifies both the in-       demns me? There is one who
   Even though this temple can be              ward and the outward man. Here            judges me, even the Lord of glory
the dwelling-place of all the believ-          stands Isaiah in all his undoneness.      in heaven, dwelling in the hloly of
ers, as a holy nation, a royal priest-         And he is healed with the healing         holies as the high priest which be-
hood, yea they shall be the very               of the wings of Adonai, his Savior-       comes Him!
spiritual temple itself (I Peter 24,           God. What all the Old Testament             Isaiah does not yet know the full
5), they can only dwell there as               sacrifices of every age could not         implication, the length and
those who are cleansed from their              achieve was miraculously realized.        breadth, the height and depth, of
sin, whose iniquity is pardoned. Of            His iniquity was forgiven and his         the ministry which he must fulfil in
this we have a case-study in Isaiah,           sins were blotted out. They are cast      Israel. He will be told shortly. He is
the prophet. When he sees this                 in the sea of God's everlasting for-      now dedicated to the ministry, and
glory of the Son of man he becomes             getfulness!                               he will be God's faithful ker;ugg, His
virtually "undone." He says really,              0 blessed forgiveness!                  authorized minister. For he is as
`Lord, I perish before a holy God,               All Isaiah's sorrows are turned         prophet, whose mouth has been
as a sinner of the deepest dye!" He            into joy, and his fears am removed.       sanctified to preach, come what
stands here in utter helplessness,             Now he can stand in the very pres-        may! He is in safe hands, in God's
emptiness, full of a sinful heart,             ence of a glory which became his          hands! 0
from which, as he is by nature, no             salvation!
good can come. But that is not all.              Now he can serve his God in a
Isaiah had also received a good                pure conscience. When he speaks
heart. He is also a "good man" who
out of a "good heart bringeth forth
good things." Out of the abun-
dance of grace abounding, he con-
fesses his own sins and the sins of
the people. The deep cry is that of
the publican  in the parable, who
went to the temple and who                                              Book Reviews
prayed, "God be merciful to me."
May the blood of propitiation
sprinkled by the high-priest on the
mercy-seat be my complete cover-
ing (Matt. 12:35a  and Luke 18:13ff.).         WHEN THX MORNING CAME,                    ing Reformed books from village to
THE LIVE COALS FROM THE                        by Piet Prins. Neerlandia, Alberta,       village, drops a copy of Guido de
ALTAR ADMINISTERED BY A                        Canada: Inheritance Publications,         Bres' True Christian Confession -a
MINISTERING SPIRIT (vs. 7)                     1989. 158 pages. $8.50 US, paper.         booklet forbidden by the Roman
  What a beautiful, touching heal-             (Reviewed by the Editor.)                 Catholic authorities. An evii
ing of grace. Live coals from the Al-            This is reading for Reformed            neighbor sees the book and in- '
tar of God in the temple, where the            children, young people, and (if I         forms the Roman Catholic sheriff.
great glory of grace is manifested..           am any indication) their parents.         The result is that Martin and his
Here is the world which echoes                   It is the story of 12-year  old Mar-    parents must flee to Emden,, where
and m-echoes in our believing                  tin Meulenberg and his family dur-        they will be safe. On the way Mar-
hearts and is as music to our ears:            ing the Roman Catholic persecu-           tin must hide in a hayloft. The sol-
"Now where remission of these is               tion of the Reformed Christians in        diers search for the "heretics" in
there is no more offering for sin.             The Netherlands about the year            the hay. "To the right and left he
Having therefore, brethren, bold-              1600. A peddlar, secretly distribut-      pushed the (pitchjfork  deep into

332 I The Standard Bearer I April 15,199O


the hay, slowly making his way to              had broken through while they              the average person? Need we bur-
where Boudewyn and Martin lay                  were singing. Its light now filtered       den the viewer with such theologi-
hidden. The two remained motion-               through the leaves of the tree on          cal details? Indeed we must. The
less. Martins heart beat...hard  . . . .       the place where Hinne Gee&z'               viewer must sense that the issue at
Suddenly Boudewyn felt a cold                  body was buried and where it               stake is not how satisfied he is with
steel tooth of the fork go through             would remain until the day of res-         God and His plan, but how satis-,
his shirt sleeve. The steel grazed             urrection...."                             fied God is with him. Such doc-
his skin...."                                    There will be several volumes in         trines are not theological details.
   Although fiction, the story is              the series. The series is called,          They are the big picture. Salvation
based.on  the history of the terrible          "Struggle for Freedom Series."             is God-centered, not human-cen-
persecution of the Dutch Reformed              When the Morning Came  is the first        tered. The viewer must not be flat-
believers by the Roman Catholic                volume.                                    tered, but confronted."
Church and the great struggle of                 These am books for your chil-              Among the contributors to this
the Dutch for freedom during the               dren and grandchildren. Our                volume am Dr. R.C. Sproul, Dr.
"eighty years war" from 15561648.              grade schools should have a set or         Walter Martin, and the recently re-
Of this history, the historian, John           two of the series in their library.        tired Surgeon General.of  the United
Lothrop Motley, has written, in his              Young Roelof A. Janssen of In-           States, Dr. C. Everett Koop. The
The Rise  of  the Dutch Republic,  that it     heritance Publications is to be com-       contributors who might be more fa-
was the greatest of all the struggles          mended for publishing such Re-             miliar to those in Dutch Reformed
for religious and political liberty.           formed literature.                         circles are Dr. Joel Nederhood of
Everyone of Dutch ancestry and es-               In Canada, the book is available'        "The Back to God Hour" and
pecially everyone who loves the                from Inheritance Publications, Box         "Faith 20"; Dr. Quentin Schultze,  a
Reformed faith should know this                154, Neerlandia, Alberta TOG 1RO.          Calvin College communications
history. It cries out to God in                The telephone number is (403) 674-         professor; Dr. Henry Krabbendam,
heaven that the Dutch Reformed                 3949.                                      a professor of New Testament at
today, both in The Netherlands and               The outlet in the United States is       Covenant College; and Dr. W.
in North America, abandon the                  Inheritance Publications, 2207 76th        Robert Godfrey, who is professor of
faith for which scores of thousands            Street, Caledonia, MI 49316.17             church history at Westminster The-
gave their lives in the 16th century                                                      ological Seminary in California.
deBres' True Christian Confession -            THE AGONY OF DECEIT, by                      Without fear, and yet with care,
our Belgic Confession of Faith-is              Michael Horton, editor. Moody              the different authors repeatedly
despised by the "Reformed" as out-             Press, 1990,284 pp. (Reviewed by           speak of the "another gospel"
dated and false.                               Rev. Ronald VanOverloop.)                  which they hear coming from the
   The story is exciting. The reader             Thesubtitle of the book  -               TV preachers. It is their collective
learns something of the important              `What Some TV Preachers are Re-            desire that the TV preachers be
history of the Reformed church in              ally Teaching" - describes its con-        brought into account and exam-
The Netherlands. And the spiritual             tents. It is the desire of the Rev. Mr.    ined, not for their morals, but for
things of the Reformed faith are               Michael Horton, pastor of St.              the contents of their preaching - is
matter-of-factly worked into the               Luke's Reformed Episcopal Church           it biblical? The authors contend
story as part of the lives of the be-          in Anaheim, California, that this          that the most significant problem
lievers. In the flight to Emden, one           volume concern itself, not with the        plaguing televangelism is not a
of the group is killed by the pursu-           character and moral scandals of the        moral and ethical decline, but a
ing soldiers. The rest bury him un-            popular television preachers, but          gross deficiency in its doctrinal
der a large oak, near the dike. They           with "the rotted foundation under          foundations. They are shouting
begin to sing Psalm 103:                       so many of the popular ministries:         "HERESY!" This is the strength of
   The Lord has dealt with us in great com-    errant beliefs, distorted doctrine,        this book.
passion,                                       and unsound convictions with re-             Early in the volume R.C. Sproul,
   Not punished us according to transgres-     gard to the heartand  soul of bibli-       in a chapter entitled "A Serious
sion.                                          cal faith."                                Charge," shows why the word
   High as  the soaring keavens, without         The editor writes, "The contribu-        "heresy," though strong, is legiti-
ma,So great His mercy is to those who fear     tors of this volume are concerned          mately used. He concludes, "There
Him,                                           ultimately not with air-conditioned        is such a thing as heresy. The
   And He the sins of all those who revere     dog houses or sexual dalliances but        tragedy is that it pervades the elec-
Him                                            with the real scandal: heresy." The        tronic church." In his chapter, "Set-
   Removes as far as east from west ex-        editor, in one of the chapters he au-      tling for Mud Pies," Art Lindsley
tends....                                      thors which is entitled "The TV            declares, "These preachers appeal
"The little group slowly walked                Gospel," compares many of the              to our selfish instincts, which ma;y
back to the lifeboat. When they                doctrinal positions of TV preachers        be momentarily satisfied by
reached the top of the dike, Martin            with the Scriptures. He concludes,         promises of success, unfailing hap-
turned around with tears in his                "Are such doctrines as those con-          piness, and good times,' when all
eyes to have one last look. The sun            sidered in this chapter essential for      the while our deepest needs, our

                                                                                            April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I :333


trues1  needs go untouched." W.              Theological Seminary and served            Though Broadus  was Arminian
Robert Godfrey correctly points out          as its president from 1859 until his     in his theology, the Reformed
the serious danger that the reli-            death. Broadus also wrote a book         reader will be able to use this com-
gious TV programs have formed                entitled, Qn. the Preparation and De-    mentary with profit.
their own "church," to the point of          livery of Sermons, which has become        Kregel Publications is to be com-
denying the necessity and indis-             a classic in the field of Homiletics.    mended for making this commen-
pensability of the local church. He            The Commentary is enhanced by          tary, which was first published in
details the biblical basis for the lo-       a lengthy introduction and by very       1886, available for today's Bible
cal church and describes the failure         helpful author, topic, term, person,     student. Cl
of the "TV Church." Quentin                  and place indices.
Schul@e  questions the possibility
of a successful marriage of televi-
sion and evangelism because tele-
vision turns religion into public en-
tertainment, into a performance.
Therefore, "television is biased to-
ward the more emotionally dra-                                            Report from
matic" charismatic form of wor-
ship. Joel Nederhood, in his chap
ter "Send No Money to Martin
Luther," finds much similarity in                                         Classis West
the cries of today's televangelists
and Tetzel  of Luther's day.
   The book accomplishes well its
goal of exposing "the errant beliefs,
distorted doctrines, and unsound               Classis West met on Wednesday,         Rev. R. VanOverloop was elected
convictions of some televangelists."         March 7,1990,  in South Holland,         as delegate ad examina, and. Revs.
From that perspective, The Agony of          Illinois. Classis met in two sessions    D. Kuiper and A. denHartog  as
Deceit is interesting reading. 0             and finishedits business at about        Church Visitors. Rev. R. Hanko
                                             3:00 Wednesday afternoon. Rev. C.        was reelected as Stated Clerk of
COMMENTARY ON MAnHEW,                        Haak served as President of Classis      Classis. The ministers chosen as
by John A. Broadus: Grand Rapids:            and Rev. R. Dykstra as Clerk. As         delegates to Synod, 1990, were
Kregel Publications, 1990, pp. liii-         President of the previous Classis,       Revs. A. denHartog,  C. Haak, D.
610. $18.95 (paper), $24.95 (cloth).         Rev. R. Dykstra also led Classis in      Kuiper, and R. VanOverloop. Elder
(Reviewed by Prof. Robert D.                 its openinggdevotions.                   delegates chosen were Mr. J.,
Decker.)                                       Most of the business conducted         Flikkema, M. Poortenga, L. IReg-
   One would be hard pressed to              by Classis was routine. Classical        nerus, and E. VanVoorthuysen.
find a more thorough and detailed            appointments were scheduled for            One congregation was advised
exposition of the GospeI According           Hope PRC of Isabel, SD and for the       by Classis in closed session ito pro-
To Matthao than this commentary              Randolph, WI PRC. Nine subsidy           ceed with the discipline of a mem-
by Broadus. Broadus was a compe-             requests totaling $107,081.00  were      ber.
tent exegete who was fully commit-           approved for 1990 and 1991 and             The next meeting of Classis West
ted to the inspiration and infallibil-       will be forwarded to Synod, 1990         is scheduled for September !5,1990,
ity of Holy Scripture. This com-             for its approval.                        in South Holland, Illinois. Cl
mentary is a phrase by phrase .ex-             Various elections were also con-                               Rev. R.. Hanko
position of Matthew from the                 ducted. Rev. M. DeVries was re-ap-                                Stated Clerk
Greek. It would be useful for both           pointed to the Classical Committee,
lay persons and-those able to work
with the Greek.
  John Albert Broadus @27-X395)
was born in Virginia and educated
at the university of Virginia. A
Baptist scholar, teacher, and                   For new subscribers, it is
preacher, Broadus was assistant
professor of Latin and Greek at the             available for one year at hal'f
University of Virginia as well as
pastor of a Baptist church. In 1859
he became professorgf  New Testa-               the subscription price!
ment Interpretation and Homiletics
(art and science of preaching) at the
newly founded Southern Baptist

334 I `he Standard Bearer / April 15,199O


                                                                                                                                -
                    .  .
                             .:      :e                                . .                       _      `_
                                                                              `.
                                             Nizwi From                                                r. #
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                          Our Churches

                            April 15,199O    preach and answer the questions,           March 27, but more about that next
Mission  Activities                          classis declared him qualified for         time.
  In a letter dated March 6, Rev. G.         the ministry of the Word and sacra-          The Choral Society of the Hope
VanBaren,  who along with his wife           ments within our P.R. Churches in          PRC in Walker, MI presented their
and daughter spent six weeks in              Jamaica. We thank the Lord for             annual spring program on March 4
Northern Ireland on behalf of our            giving us another `beautiful feet to       after the evening service.
churches, writes to his congrega-            bring the gospel' to `as many as the       School Activities
tion in Hudsonville, MI concerning           Lord our God shall call through the          The city council of Redlands, CA
some of his observations and im-             preaching of His Word.                     has given final approval to Hope
pressions regarding the work there.            `We as churches face hardships           Christian School to proceed with
  He writes, "I have been espe-              because we are a small denomina-           the construction of an addition to
cially impressed by comments                 tion and do not have enough fi-            their school building. Construction
made by some of these people of              nances and leaders to help promote         began on February 24 and will con-
their great gratitude for the help           (by the power and help of God) this        sist of one large multi-purpose
they have received through the               Reformed truth as it should be;            room which will also see duty as a
preaching of the Word. One                   nevertheless, we thank God for             classroom.
claimed that they had grown spiri-           what He has given and it is our            Ministerial Calls
tually `by leaps and bounds' in an           prayer and hoe that we may grow              The congregation of the Ran-
understanding of God's Word."                spiritually and in numbers, and            dolph PRC in Randolph, WI will
Rev. VanBaren was told too "that             that God's covenant may be seen            soon be calling (they no doubt have
these people regarded themselves             and may flourish in our churches           by now) a pastor from the trio of
to be the fruit of the mission work          according to God's promise in the          Revs. Cammenga, DeVries, and Ko-
of the l?R.C. It is their desire and         line of continued generations."            rtering. q
prayer that this work may continue             May that be our prayer as well.
for the spiritual profit of them-              Rev. and Mrs. Bruinsma spent
selves, their children, and so that a        two weeks in Venice, FL evaluating
sound Reformed testimony may                 the area, as to the possibility of cre-
continue there."                             ating a mission field there in the fu-
  The following is taken from a let-         ture.                                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
ter received by First PRC in Grand           Congregational Highlights                    On Prayer Day, March 14, 1990,
Rapids, MI from Rev. Leonard                   It hardly seems possible, but six        our Heavenly Father, in His
Williams, pastor of Belmont PRC in           years ago the PRC of Grandville,           sovereign good pleasure, called
Jamaica, W.I.                                MI was organized, and for those six        MELANIE ANNE FEENSTRA
  "Our classis met on December 28            years they have held divine wor-           beloved infant daughter of Mr. and
and one of the decisions made was            ship services in the auditorium of         Mrs. Ryan Feenstra, to her eternal
that Charles Tomlinson should be             the Grandville.High  School.               home in glory. The consistory and
examined by this classis meeting.              Well, you can imagine their joy          congregation of the First Protestant
He preached a sermon and after-              when on Sunday morning, March              Reformed Church of Holland,
wards answered the questions he              11, they met together for the first        Michigan extend their heartfelt
was asked. After hearing him                 time in their new church sanctuary         sympathy to the Feenstra and
                                             at 4320 40th St., Grandville, MI           Wassink families.
                                             49418. Their pastor, Rev. J. Korter-         May they find comfort within the
                                             ing, chose for that happy occasion         care of the great Shepherd, our
                                             to preach from Psalm 27:4 on the           Lord Jesus Christ. "He shall gather
                                             theme, "Dwelling in the House of           the lambs with His arm, and carry
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-        the Lord." Dedication of                   them in His bosom" Isaiah 4O:ll.
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,         Grandville was tentatively set for         Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, President
Michigan.                                                                               John  VanUffelen,  Clerk

                                                                                          April 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I k5


        THE
     STANDARD                                                                                                                  SECOND CLASS
       BEARER                                                                                                                   Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                Grand Rapids, Michigan

      PO. Box 6064
      Grand Rapids, MI 49506



     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               "For whether we live, we live unto                      WEDPING  ANNIVERSARY
        The Choral Society of Faith                       the Lord; and whether we die, we                           On April 13,199O GIL ANID
     Protestant Reformed Church ex-                       die unto the Lord: whether we live                      GRACE SCHIMMEL  celebrated
     presses sincere sympathv to our                      therefore, or die, we are the Lord's"                   their 40th wedding anniversary. We
     fellow members, Rick and Sue                         Romans 14:8.                                            are thankful to our Heavenly Father
     Noorman and family in the loss of                    Rev. Ron Cammenga, President                            for giving us God-fearing parents,
     their loved one: RENAE SUZANNE                       Glen Griess, Clerk                                      and for the love and instruction
     NOORMAN.                                                                                                     they have given us.
        May they find comfort from the                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATliY                                    It is our prayer that God will con-
     words of Psalter 150:4, `Thy bur-                      The Adult Bible Class of Faith                        tinue to bless them and strengthen
     den now cast on the Lord, And He                     Protestant Reformed Church ex-                          them in the years ahead.
     shall thy weakness sustain; The                      presses its heartfelt sympathy to                       Jim  & Carol Schimmel
     righteous who trust in His word Un-                  Mr. and Mrs. Robert Noorman in                          Dan &Judy Schimmel
     moved shall forever remain."                         the loss of their dear grand daugh-                     Hank & Deb VanderWaal
     Gord Schipper,  President                            ter RENAE SUZANNE NOORMAN.                              Steve  & Ruth Kerkstra
     Karen Daling, Secretary               Jenison, MI      -May they receive comfort in                          Dave  &  Shelly Schimmel
                                                          God's Word, "`And they shall be                         Tim Schimmel
     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in                       Tom Schimmel
                                                                                                                    21 grandchildren           Hope, Walker, MI
.       On March 20, 1990 the Lord took                   that day when I make up my jew-
     to her eternal rest a beloved and                    els; and I will spare them, as a man
     aged member of our congregation,                     spareth his own son that serveth                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     MRS. ESTHER GRIESS.                                  him" Malachi 3:i 7.                                       The Permanent Committee of
        We extend heartfelt sympathy to                   Rev. Kenneth Koole, President                           the Publication of Protestant Re-
     her numerous relatives, but espe-                    Sandra Tinklenberg, Secretary                           formed Literature expresses, its
     cially to her son, Mr. Paul Griess.                                                                          Christian sympathy to Mr. and Mrs.
                                                                                                   Jenison, MI    Neal Pastoor in the death of his sis-
                                                                                                                  ter, CAROL PASTOOR.
                                                                                                            .,
                                                              ('
                                                                    .(.'
                                                                            *                                        "The Lord will give strength unto
                                      `FAMILYFORUM.  ."  `.-'                                                     His people, the Lord will bless His
                                                                                                                  people with peace" Psalm 2!3:11.
                 Biblical Teaching on Sex, Single Life, Marriage, and Divotce                                     Charles Kregel, President
                                                                                                                  Dave Harbach, Secretary
                      ^               First  l%otestant   Reformed Church  ' .
                           `_                                                                                :
                                             2800 Michigan N.E.                                                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                          Grand Rapid; Michigan                                                     The Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of
                                                                                                                  Faith Protestant Reformed Church
                                       (l/2 mile west of East Beltline),                     `.        i          extends its Christian sympathy to
       Tuesday, April 10, at 8 I%+ Sex for Chrisiians Outside and Wifhin Marriage                                 Rick and Sue Noorman, Michael,
               Tuesday, April                                                                                     Joel, and Denise, whose 3-year-old
                                      24; at 8 PM: Hporuble Single Life and Married Life                          daughter and sister, RENAE
                 Tuesday, May 1, at 8 PM: Deserjion, Divorctr, and Remarriage                                     SUZANNE NOORMAN was taken
                                       Speaker: Prof. David Engelima                   (.                         to her heavenly home on March 19,
                 Profe&r  of Theology at the ProtWant  Reformed Semin&ry                                     :    1990. May our Heavenly Father
                                      Geheral public invited to attend.,                                          comfort them with the assurance
                           Questioll   arid answer period after each  session.                              ,     that His grace will supply all their
                                                                                                                  needs.
                                          Refr&unentsprovided.                                                      "...He shall gather the lambs with
                                       Tapes available upon request              `.                   : '         his arm, and carry them in his bo-
                      Call ($16)  364-0953  for information or send request to:
                                        Church Extension Commit&e  p .  '                                         som, and shall gently lead those
                                 -    First Protestant Reformed Church                                            that are with young" Isaiah 4O:il.
                                                                                                                  Rev. Kenneth Koole. President
                                            2800 Mi$igan N,E.                                                     Ruth Kaptein, Secretary          Jenison, MI
                 i                     Grand Rapids, Michigan 39506                                    .
                                 .              _..

     336 / The Standard Bearer / April 15,199!


