                   "Grandville Protestant Reformed Church"
                                Grandville, Michigan





Vol. 66, No. 15
May 1, -1990


 Contents                                                                May I, 1990                        THE
Meditation - Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                                                  slYuvD!!l!
    DWELLING IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD                                                     339             fE4RER
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                   ISSN 0362-4692
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                                                                                                      Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHattog                                                                     Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
    FEAR GOD AND NOT MEN                                                                  344         Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
                                                                                                      DEPARTMENT EDITORS
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Contribution - Mr. John Veldman                                                                       Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barr
    FROM OPPRESSION TO FREEDOM                                                                        Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
                                                                                          346         Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Hey!;,   Rr
                                                                                                      Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Mr.  lame:
The Strength of Youth - Rev. Barrett L. Gdtters                                                       Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.  Marybeth   LI
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   THE END TIMES (5): PREACHING TO ALL NATIONS,                                                       Rev. Gise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop
      JHEN THE END                                                                        349         Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard  Woudenbet
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338 / The Standard Bearer I May 1,199O


                                            Dwelling in the
Meditation
Rev. Jason Korteriqj                        House of the Lord

   One thing have I desired of              Nob in great hunger and Ahim-              he was denied that and was re-
the Lord, that wiII I seek after;           elech the priest gave him the hal-         stricted to assembling the supplies,
that I may dwell in the house of            lowed bread to eat. David took             since he was a man of war and
the Lord all the days of my life,           with him also the sword of Goliath.        bloodshed. His son Solomon built a
                                            Doeg, the chief herdsman of Saul,          beautiful temple which typified a
to behold the beauty of the Lord,           saw this take place and reported it        house worthy of Jehovah's resi-
ana to inquire in his temple.               to Saul, who in anger slew 85              dency. That too, however, was de-
                           Psalm 27:4       priests and all the inhabitants of         stroyed; and later, upon the return
                                            Nob - men, women, and even                 of the captives, a lesser house was
                                            children. This caused anguish of           built, and still later the temple of
                                            soul for David and he longed to be         Herod the Great. Those Old Te,sta-
                                            in Shiloh where he could commune           ment houses of God took on the
   The house of the Lord!                   with his God.                              character of the old covenant.
   One place we easily take for               The other incident occurred later.       Blood was shed within their walls.
granted.                                    Recorded in II Samuel 15 is the re-        They had the stench of burning
   That was on the mind of David            bellion of Absalom, when-David             flesh which typified the wrath of
when he penned these words. He              was forced to flee Jerusalem and           God in death. Only after the Sacri-
was denied dwelling in that house           dwell in the wilderness as a wild          fice of blood could the incense fill
and his soul cried in anguish.              beast hunted in sport. This in-            the temple, which indicated thalt
   "One thing have I desired of Je-         volved his own son rising against          God's people were made sweet by
hovah, that I will seek after; that I       him, and his friends turning traitor.      the blood of the lamb;
may dwell in the house of Jehovah           By this time the ark of the covenant         The great change came in the ful-
all the days of my life."                   had been brought to Jerusalem and          fillment of the typical by the com-
   The context indicates that David         dwelt in a tent there.                     pleted work of THE High Priest af-
was in distress. In verses 2 and 3            Both events brought separation           ter the order of Melchizedek, Jesus
he speaks of his enemies who come           from the house of God, along with          Christ. When His blood was shied
against him; in verse 4 he implies          personal strife and seeming victory        upon the cross, God struck with
that he is separated from                   by the enemy. And David cried,             His hand and tore the veil of sepa-
Jerusalem; in verse 10 he mentions          "One thing have I desired of the           ration from the top to the bottolm.
family conflicts; and in verse 12 his       Lord and that will I seek after, that I    As Jesus so aptly said to the Samar-
enemies slander him with their lies.        may dwell in the house of Jeho-            itan woman, "The hour cometh
Any one of those problems would             vah!"                                      when ye shall neither in this moun-
precipitate distress, but the accu-           Have you ever been separated             tain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worslhip
mulation became overwhelming.               from Jehovah's house? Was there a          the Father...when the true wor-
   There were two incidents in the          time when you were prevented               shipers shall worship the Father in
life of David that seem to fit this         from worshiping with the people of         spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-2.4);
description.                                God and your heart longed to be              The house has undergone
   The'first is recorded in I Samuel        there? Then you know something             change because the worship has
22, where David is being pursued            of the cry, "One thing have I de-          changed. We now have the pulpit
by Saul. David came to the city of          sired of the Lord."                        in the center, the preaching of the
                                              It is true that David had a differ-      gospel. The pulpit is surrounded
                                            ent house of the Lord in mind than         by the baptismal font and the com-
                                            we do. The people of Israel took           munion table, the holy sacraments.
                                            the tabernacle with them from the          We have the collection plates as,
                                            wilderness sojourn. They erected a         means to receive our offerings. We
Rev. Kortering  is pastor of the Protes-    tent in Shiloh and later transported       have the instruments of music to
tant Reformed Church of Grandville,         it to Jerusalem. David longed to           accompany our songs of praise.
Michigan.                                   build a suitable house of God; but         The pews and entire building are

                                                                                           May 1,  lhl I The Standard Bearer I 339


so constructed to enhance our ac-         the three Persons of the Godheadj           wills. When there is spiritual ne-
tivity of worship.                        the infinite and glorious attributes. _     glect of the house of God, by loved
   Even though the form of wor-           We behold the graciousness of His           ones or fellow members of the
ship has undergone change, it is          eternal good pleasure expressed in          church, or even by neighbors to
still the house of Jehovah. God is        His decrees, and in the works of            whom we witness, we are re-
the same! The God of Abraham,             His hand from creation, through :           minded that only Jehovah can
Isaac, and Jacob, of David and            the cross, all the way to the crown         draw them in.
Solomon, of Peter and the apostles,       of victory. He has given to us. His           Finally, we also confess with
is our God. As David so aptly said,       Word as the revelation of His               David, that the proper effect of
"Jehovah is my light and my salva-        beauty; and even that cannot com-           worship is in the hands of our great
tion, whom shall I fear? Jehovah is       pare to the wonder of gazing by '           Jehovah. Some people come to His
the strength of my life, of whom          faith upon His dear Son, our Sav-           house, and we wonder what they
shall I be afraid?" (vs. 1).              ior, the grace of God incarnate. In         are doing there, for they seem to
   His house of worship reflects His      the house of God this is unfolded,          bear so little evidence of its bless-
presence. No, He is not confined to       before our eyes in the Scripture :          ings. The ability of a pastor .to set
a church building. Solomon cor-           reading, the singing, the preaching,        forth the beauty of Jehovah is also
rectly said, "But will God indeed         and the sacraments. We behold               heaven sent, as is also the ability of
dwell on the earth? Behold, the           this by faith. We stare at it inrapt        the people to rejoice in it. Hence
heaven of heavens cannot contain          attention and contemplate that              we desire this of Jehovah, that He
thee, how much less this house            beauty of Jehovah.                          will work by His Holy Spirit to ac-
which I have built" (I Rings 8:27).         Further, we inquire in His tern+          complish it.
It is His house because He comes to       ple. The word inquire has the con-            One thing! So precious that
that place in the moment of wor-          notation of examining, reflecting           David gave it top priority! His
ship in a very special way. By the        upon, considering, hence meditat-           heart is right with God, His will is
preaching of the gospel, He speaks!       ing. You see, our activity of wor-:         sanctified. I desire one thing, not
By the sacraments, He seals! He           ship is not a passing experience, a         just to be in church, but to dwell in
feeds us with the bread of life and       fleeting moment. Rather it forces           the house of Jehovah to behold His
washes away our sins and invigo-          us to do some deep thinking. The            beauty and meditate upon it.
rates us with the body and blood of       Holy Spirit calls us to give serious          One thing! I will seek after it.
Jesus. In His house the Heavenly          consideration to what we hear and           That includes arranging our lives
Father gathers and preserves His          see in order that we may take it to         that we are physically and spiritu-
dear family.                              heart. Such meditation produces             ally fit for worship. Saturday
   David knew this. It motivated          from our lips the cry of repentance,        night, Sunday morning, we do well
him to cry out, one thing have I de-      the joy of forgiveness, and the hope        to make this our prayer and act ac-
sired of the Lord...to dwell in that      of the abiding presence of Jehovah          cordingly.
house forever!                            in our lives.                                 Our best worship in God's house
   Obviously, David did not have in         Such spiritual benefit of worship         now can be only a foretaste of
mind to live full time in that hum-       is heaven sent. The Psalmist mcog-          heaven. Hence this desire ulti-
ble tent,.whether  in Shiloh or in        nizes this as he adds, "One thing           mately takes us to Father's  h.ouse
Jerusalem. No one lived there, not        have I desired of Jehovah."                 of many mansions to see the beauty
even the priests. He desired to live        Only Jehovah can so arrange our           of Jehovah in the face of Jesus.
in close proximity to it that he          lives that we are able to enter the           May our time spent now in the
could visit it regularly and have the     house of God. David experienced             house of God comfort us, instruct
benefit of that typical worship. He       that as he wrote the Psalm. He was          us, encourage us, as we presis on-
expressed it thus in Psalm 84:10, "A      forbidden that joy as he was chased         ward and upward. El
day in thy courts is better than a        either by Saul or by Absalom. How
thousand, I had rather be a door-         he lifted his prayer to Jehovah: 0,
keeper in the house of my God,            that Thou wilt arrange my life that
than to dwell in the tents of             I may dwell in Thy house all the                    ABSOLVO TE
wickedness." And we do the same.          days of my life! We admit the          :
To desire to dwell in the house of        same. In Jehovah's great wisdom,            One Priest alone can pardon me,
the Lord means that, as long as we        He sends sickness, infirmities of             Or bid me "Go in peace";
live on this earth, we pray that it       old age, persecution, all of which          Can breathe that word "Absolvo
may please God that we can enter          prevents us from coming to God's                 te;'
into His house for worship.               house. It is our comfort that, at             And make these heart-throbs
  The Holy Spirit gives us a              such times, His grace is sufficient                 cease:
twofold incentive.                        for us even when we cannot wor-             My soul has heard His priestly
  The first is, "to behold the            ship. Our desire, however, is to be              voice;
beauty of Jehovah." He is indeed          able to be there.                             It said, "I bore thy sins -
beautiful; literally, gracious. Con-        In addition, only Jehovah can                     Rejoice!"
sider the beauty of His own Being,        bring to His house those whom He                                        S.B., 1929

340 I The Standard Bearer I May 1,1990


                                          ,a The Covenant of God and the
                                                   Children of Believers (4)
 Editorials

n The Covenant of God                      and must regard them, as those              covenant, which is not so pleasing).
and the Children of                        "sanctified in Christ." Second, it is       Also, it seems to do justice to the
                                           not true that our children, consid-         language of Scripture and of the
Believers (4)                              ered now strictly from the point of         creeds. God said to Abraham,
   But what then does the Re-              view of their natural condition, are        "...and to your seed," not, "...and to
formed faith mean by the inclusion         in any better position than the hea-        some of your seed." The Heidel-
of the children of believers in the        thens of the world. Our children            berg Catechism says that the in-
covenant of God?                           are by nature dead in sin. A dead           fants are included in the covenant,
   There are three possible explana-       person in a Christian home and in           not some of the infants. In the form
tions of the inclusion of children in      the sphere of the church has no ad-         for baptism, we confess that our
the covenant. All are proposed by          vantage over a dead person outside          children are sanctified in Christ,
various Reformed churches.                 a Christian home and the church.            not some of them.
   The first explanation is that be-         The second possible explanation             Are not all the children of believ-
cause of their privileged position in      of the place of children in the             ers baptized? Are not all the chil-
a Christian home and in the envi-          covenant can be more persuasively           dren required to be baptized?
ronment of the church these chil-          argued. All the children of believ-           Nevertheless, this view conflicts
dren are more likely to be con-            ers without exception are in the            with cardinal doctrines of the Word
verted than the children of unbe-          covenant in this sense, that God            of God, doctrines which are pre-
lievers. In fact, the children are un-     promises them all salvation and ex-         cious to every Reformed man and
saved, and must be regarded as un-         tends to them all His covenant             woman. For one thing, the promise
saved until such time as they give         grace in Christ. However, the ac-           and covenant grace of God now de-
evidence of faith, but they are in a       tual fulfillment of the promise, the       pend upon the work and will alf the
better position to be saved than           actual reception of covenant grace,         sinful child. The covenant and its
other children. This was the view          and the actual realization of the           salvation are conditional, depen-
of some Puritans and of Jonathan           covenant with them personally de-          dent upon the faith of the child.
Edwards. It is the view of certain         pend upon their believing in Christ        But this stands in diametrical oppo-
Reformed churches today, includ-           and thus taking hold of the                sition to the teaching of Scripture,
ing the Free Reformed Churches of          covenant when they grow up. The            with specific reference to this very
North America and the Nether-              covenant consists of promise and           matter of the salvation of the chil-
lands Reformed Congregations of            demand, which demand is a condi-           dren of believers: "So then it is not
the United States and Canada.              tion that the children must fulfill.       of him that willeth, nor of him that
   This view must be rejected.             The promise from God is for all            runneth, but of God that sheweth
First, it does not do justice to the       without exception. But if the child        mercy" (Rom..9:16).  Also, the Re-
language of the Bible or of the Re-        should not fulfill the demand that         formed faith has creedally rejected
formed creeds. God does not                he believe, he forfeits the promise.       the notion that faith is a condition
merely put the children of believers       This is the view of the Reformed           unto salvation: in I/9,10 the
in a more advantageous position,           Churches in The Netherlands                Canons of Dordt deny that faith is a
so as to make it likelier that they        ("Liberated"), of the Canadian Re-          "prerequisite, cause or condition"
will be saved; but He establishes          formed Churches, and of the Amer-          upon which election and salvation
His covenant with them, so as to be       ' ican Reformed Churches.                   depend, asserting rather that "men
their God. God gives to the chil-            The appeal of this view is that it       are chosen to faith" (cf. also I&-
dren the promise of the Holy Spirit        puts all our children without ex-          jection  of Errors, 3; III,IV/14;
of Jesus Christ. Accordingly, the          ception in the covenant. This is           I&IV/Rejection of Errors, 6).
church does not and may not re-            naturally pleasing to the parents             For another thing, this expla:na-
gard them as heathens with an              (although the implication of this          tion of the inclusion of the children
edge over other heathens. Rather,          view is that not only some but also        in the covenant definitely implies
the Reformed church regards them,          all of the children can fall out of the    that Christ's death for some per-

                                                                                          May  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 341


 sons fails to secure their redemp-         tinction not only between visible        lievers. They are rather the "chil-
 tion. At baptism God promises to           church and world but also within         dren of God" among our offspring.
 all the children that He will give         the visible church itself (Rom. 9:10-    And the children of God are those
 them His covenant and its bless-           13). God's salvation never depends       who are chosen in Christ. These
 ings on the basis that Christ washed       upon the will or action of the sinner     are the ones whom God counts for
 them a22 in His blood. But the fact is     (Rom. 9:16). Christ's death is effi-     the seed when He says, "I will be
 that some of these children perish.        cacious (Rom. 5:6-11). The promise       the God of your seed." These, and
 Thus is denied the doctrine of lim-        of God is sure to all the seed (Ram.     these only, are "the children aif the
 ited, efficacious atonement, at least     4:16).                                    promise." To them, and to them
 within the sphere of the covenant.           Second, Scripture itself gives ex-     only, is the promise given. In every
 As regards the children of believ-        actly this explanation of the precise     one of them is the promise effectual
 ers, there is universal atonement.        matter under discussion. It does          to work faith in Jesus Christ. Kl
    Yet another objectionable ele-         this in Romans 9:lff. The concern
ment in this view is its teaching                                                                                        -DJE
                                           of Paul is that so many physical
 that the promise of God fails in          children of Abraham perish in light
many cases. God promises salva-                                                      n Moonshine
                                           of God's promise to Abraham to es-
 tion to every baptized child of be-       tablish His covenant with Abra-           Blasphemy
lieving parents, but many of them          ham's seed (vss. l-5). The chief             As t e great apostasy that pre-
 do not receive salvation. The word        difficulty of the apostle is not that     cedes the coming of Christ intensi-
and promise of God have failed in          dear relatives perish (although he        fies, believers are witness to the
all these cases. They have failed          could wish himself accursed for           wildest of religious teachings and
because the children have refused          these brothers - vs. 31, but that it      the weirdest of religious practices.
to fulfill the condition of faith; but     might seem that "the word of God          All is in the name of Christ. This
the fact remains that they have            hath taken none effect," that is, that    was foretold. False doctrines and
failed.                                    the promise of God has failed to es-      evil practices in the churches are
   The basic objection to this             tablish the covenant with many to         part of the coming of "antichrist."
covenant-view - and it is a deadly         whom the promise was given (vs.           The mystery of iniquity is always
serious objection - is that it con-        6). But it is not the case that the       working. And antichrist opposes
flicts with the Reformed gospel of         promise has proved to be a power-         the Christ of Scripture by taking
salvation by sovereign grace.              less failure in even one instance.        His place. The Greek word  "anti"
   The third explanation we believe        Why not? Because the seed of              in I John 2:18 ("as ye have heard
to be that of Scripture itself. Al-        Abraham, to whom the promise              that antichrist shall come, even
though all our children are in the         was given, never was all the physi-       now are there many antichrists;
sphere of the covenant and there-          cal children of Abraham. "For they        whereby we know that it is the last
fore receive the sign of the               are not all Israel, which are of Is-      time") combines the meaning of an-
covenant and are reared as                 rael: neither, because they are the       tagonism and replacement.
covenant members, the covenant of          seed of Abraham, are they all chil-          Believers tend to get used to the
God, the relationship of friendship        dren: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be     superstitious nonsense that parades
in Jesus Christ, is established with       called. That is, They which are the       as Christianity. We "roll with. the
the elect children only. The               children of the flesh, these are not      punches." We are no longer horri-
promise does not depend upon the           the children of God: but the chil-        fied by the boldest affronts to the
faith of the child, but the promise        dren of the promise are counted for       majesty of God. We no longer
itself works the faith by which the        the seed" (vss. 6b-8). There is a dis-    know how to be angry at the pro-
child receives the grace of the            tinction between two kinds of chil-       faning of the holiest things of the
covenant in every child to whom            dren of believing Abraham: chil-          kingdom of God. We become cal-
God makes the promise. It is the           dren of the flesh and children of the     loused. Or we are battle-weary.
elect children among our physical          promise. And this distinction is de-      This is a weakness. It bodes ill for
offspring who constitute our true          termined by election and reproba-         the future. But this is not now my
children, even as the seed of Abra-        tion, illustrated plainly by the his-:    concern. Occasionally, something
ham was not all his physical de-           tory of Jacob and Esau (vss. 9-23).       is done that outrages even the most
scendants, but only Christ and               Paul's difficulty is exactly our        calloused and battle-weary of Re-
those who are Christ's according to        problem. By promise, God in-              formed believers, alerting them to
election (cf. Gal. 3:7,16,29).             cludes our children in His covenant       the deep penetration of the apos-
   Our grounds for this explanation        of salvation; but not all of our chil-    tasy into the Reformed churcjhes..
of the inclusion of children in the        dren are saved.                             Such a thing took place in Grand
covenant are the following. First,           Scripture's solution of the apos-       Rapids last month in celebration of
only this view harmonizes with the         tle's difficulty solves our problem       the suffering of Jesus. A religious
rule of faith in Scripture. God's          as well. The children of believers        organization with a name some-
saving, covenant mercy is particu-         to whom God graciously promises           thing like Moonshine Ministry
lar, i.e., for the elect alone (Rom.       membership in the covenant are            Center crucified the Son of God
9:15). Predestination makes dis-           not all the physical offspring of be-     again. It decked some actor up as

342 I The Standard Bearer  I May 1,199O


Jesus, the eternal Son of God in hu-     their Redeemer and to worship the         lished by Jesus Christ and serving
man flesh, and hanged him on a           Lamb Who was slain by gazing on           Him, preaches the cross as the sac-
cross to die. There, according to his    this monstrous farce and hormn-           rifice of Himself by Jesus, once for
own testimony in the public press,       dous lie.                                 all. She worships Jesus as the IOne
he experienced something of what           What did a father say, I wonder,        Who is now in heaven according to
Christ endured in His final hours.       to the little child who asked, in         His human nature, and not on
He suffered something of the hu-         some terror at the spectacle,             earth where He can be crucified
miliation of the sin-bearer under        "Daddy, who is that on the cross?"        yearly for the entertainment of
the wrath of God. All this was           Did he say "That is Jesus dying for       Grand Rapids. Religious ministry
done at a public gathering on a          our sins"? Or did he say, `That is a      centers, man-made and catering to
main highway just outside                man playing the part of Jesus dying       the people, do whatever it takes to
"Jerusalem" for the religious edifi-     for our sins"? It makes no differ-        attract and amuse the people.
cation of the audience,.for the          ence. In either case, he said, `That        But everyone knows that in very
spread ofthe witness to Jesus in the     is a replacement-Jesus, an an-            small print Moonshine Minisby
world, and in remembrance of Je-         tichrist."                                Center is a member church of the
sus' death until He comes. Admis-          But the show was spiritually en-        Christian Reformed denomination.
sion was free.                           riching. The actor himself testified      The Christian Reformed Church,
  Merely drama?                          in the press that taking the place of     and every man, woman, and child
  Moonshine blasphemy rather.            the crucified Jesus strengthened          in her, becomes responsible for the
  A mere man, and sinful, imper-         and deepened his faith.                   Moonshine blasphemy. If the CRC
sonated the eternal Son of God,            Blasphemous moonshine rather.           did the denominational discipline
Mary's holy Child. Moonshine               The Holy Spirit of the exalted          that Christ calls her to do, she
staged a reincarnation of the Incar-     Christ works faith in Jesus Christ        would set Moonshine outside .the
nate Word of God. It replayed the        by the preaching of the gospel and        fellowship so fast the heads of the
unique, unrepeatable atonement of        strengthens it by the use of the          music/drama/entertainment~blas-
the only Savior.                         sacraments, as the Reformed Chris-        phemy department would spin.
  God was represented by a crea-         tian confesses in question 65 of the        I suspect that the arena in which
ture. A mortal man played God.           Heidelberg Catechism. The Spirit          replacement-Jesus suffered on the
  Dumb images - the pageant,             does not use transgression of the         cross this past Lent was full. I
rather than the lively preaching of      second commandment to                     would be surprised if most of the
the Word, were used to teach the         strengthen faith or to give the bene-     spectators did not leave the mock-
people the very heart of the mys-        fits of the cross of Christ. For He is    crucifixion testifying, like the IX+
tery of salvation.                       holy.                                     placement-Jesus, to a religious ex-
  Other actors screamed, "Crucify          The best that might be said of the      perience, even a strong religious
him," playing at the sin of crucify-     superstitious shenanigans is that         experience.
ing the Lord of glory. These knew        the sponsoring organization is, by          I do not doubt it.
what they were doing.                    its own seemingly proud advertise-          A moonshine experience. q
  Men, women, and children gath-         ment, no church, but only a "min-                                                -DJE
ered to remember the crucifixion of      istry center." The church, estab-





Letters

n Your March 15 issue has me             Response:                                 quiries may be directed to Artlhur
listed as a speaker for the                The confirmed list of speakers at       Lamoureux, 209 Tanner Ave., War-
Psalmody Conference which is set         the Psalmody Conference consists          wick, RI 028864410 (telephone:
for this August. I have no such as-      of Rev. G.I. Williamson; Rev. Frank       401-739-1699).                      -. Ed.
signment. Perhaps you would              J. Smith; Dr. William Young; Rev.
want to find out who does have           David Compton; Dr. Randall T. Ru-
this assignment and give proper          ble; Prof. Herman Hanko; and Dr.          n Congratulations with your :in-
credit for this to your readers.         Charles J. Butler. The conference is      teresting article about some aspects
              - (Rev.) Duncan Lowe       scheduled for August 1-3,199Oat           of life in beautiful South Africa to-
                      Pittsburgh, PA     Flat Rock, North Carolina.  In-           day (The SB, March 15,1990,  "The

                                                                                       May  1,199O   1 The Standard Bearer  I 343


Church, Theology, and Violence in         unique in human history.                 Communist doctrine (including the
South Africa"). That country is a           Apartial  rendering would in- :        A.N.C. in South Africa) demands
key supplier of resources like man-       elude the murder of sixty million        the use of terror, particularly the
ganese, chrome, gold, and dia-            people in slave labor camps, pris- :     liquidation of the bourgeoisie and
monds - crucial to Western indus-         ons, and psychiatric institutions;       the Bible-believing Christians. As
try. If it were taken over by the         destruction of thousands of              Lenin wrote in 1908, "it is neces-
Communists it would really spell          churches; the forgotten Holocaust        sary to institute the sort of Id, na-
disaster.                                 of the Ukraine; the forced famine of     tionwide terror which reinvigorates
   See what has happened in Com-          the 1930s; the Hitler-Stalin Pact,       a country and through which. the
munist-conquered territories world        with the rape of the Baltic states;      Great French Revolution achieves
wide.... This tyrannical ideology,        the Katyn massacre of the Polish of-     glory."
which began in 1903 with but 17           ficers; the deception of Yalta; the        Always Communism has pro-
revolutionaries, took Russia, a na-       crushing of the Hungarian Free-          duced its inevitable and identical
tion of 120 million in 1917, with         dom fighters; the war of genocide.       fruit. Always the religious, social,
only 40,000 followers. Calculations       against the Afghan people; the           political, and economical life of a
now are that Communism controls           even greater genocide by Red             victim nation has been dis-f&wed
some 1.7 billion people - 38% of          China; the enslavement of Cambo-         beyond recognition.
the world's population. For these         dia, Laos, Ethiopia, Angola,               Despite all the hype and hoopla
people, the Ma&an  promise of a           Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.                we now get from the media, there
worker's paradise has turned into a         The number of deaths at-               is no change. It is already the fifth
nightmare of permanent scarcity,          tributable to Communism world-           time that Moscow has a "pere-
economic stagnation, underground          wide since 1917 is estimated to total    stroika!"
churches and chronic crisis.              180-million.                               Communist ideology is inca-
   That party, in its various guises        What cannot be questioned is           pable of producing anything good.
and in its various countries, has         that in its search for a `New So&.                               - J.I? deKlerk
compiled a catalogue of crimes            ety," the creation of a `New Man,"                    Ashhurst, New Zealand Cl




                                          Fear God ,and
In His Fear
Rev. Arie denHarfog                       Not Man

   How easy it is for us to fear man      ways be motivated only by the fear       anger is dreadful. In His just and
more than we fear God. We often           of God.                                  holy wrath He will cast ungodly
are so blind and foolish. We imag-          To fear God means that we              sinners into the eternal condemna-
ine that, since man can be seen and       know that the Lord is the abso-          tion of hell. He is the God of
God cannot be seen, man is there-         lutely sovereign God, infinite in        sovereign predestination. In
fore more to be feared. Yet we            power and greatness, awesome in          sovereign mercy He saves those
know that there is so much more           majesty and holiness, terrible in        whom He has chosen before the
reason to fear God than man.              righteousness and judgment. This         foundations of the world. By
When we fear God there is no rea-         God is enthroned in the heavens.         almighty sovereign grace He
son to fear man. Everywhere Scrip-        He rules sovereignly over all. He is     makes His people to be instru-
ture exhorts us not to fear man but       at once everywhere present in the        ments of His praise. He saves them
to fear God. The child of God born        world. We cannot escape His all-         into eternal glory to live with Him
again by the Spirit of God must al-       seeing eye and His all-knowing           forever and to praise Him through
                                          knowledge. He is the judge of the'       all eternity. By the same
                                          nations. He rules over His ungodly       sovereignty this God condemns the
                                          enemies, laughing them to scorn          ungodly from eternity and causes
                                          because He holds them in derision.       them to be vessels of His wrath fit-
&o. denHarfog  is pastor of Hope          When He has finished His purpose         ted for destruction. He raises up a
Protestant Reformed Church of Red-        with them He shall dash them to          proud Pharaoh and sovereignly
lands, California.                        pieces as a potter's vessel. His         hardens his heart in order that God

344 I The Standard Bearer / May 1,199O


     might show His power and glory                The most fierce hatred against          time they fear not that they are dis-
     in delivering His people Israel.            the Lord and His truth always             honoring the name of God and
     What reason there is to fear such a         comes from apostate Christendom.          compromising and denying His
     God! How very puny and power-               History has proven that time and          truth. What an awful judgment will
     less man is in comparison to this           again. It was apostate Israel that        come on such churches. Meri stand
     God. There is nothing more terrible         persecuted and killed the true            in awe of the mega churches of our
     imaginable than the holy and righ-          prophets of the Lord. The unbeliev-       land but pay little attention to the
     teous judgments of this God. There          ing Jews crucified the Lord of glory.     Word that is preached in them and
     is nothing more blessed and won-            It was the apostate Roman Church          to the fact that many of them are
     derful than the favor and loving            that engaged in one of the most           nothing but synagogues of Satan.
     kindness of this God.                       dreadful eras of persecution of the       On the other hand a church that is
       Yet often we fear man rather              true church of Christ that the world      small and insignificant in the eyes
     than God. We fear what man can              has ever known. Our age is such an        of men is looked on with disdain
     do to us. We fear what man will say         age of tolerance of every form of         and ridicule, even though it may be
     to us and about us. We fear shame          belief that we easily imagine that         far more faithful to the Lord and in
     and reproach before man. We want            this kind of thing will never hap         the true sense serve the Lord with
     desperately to be accepted of man           pen again in the world. But we            greater zeal and love to Him.
I    and to have a place of honor and            must remember that, though the              How many ministers of the
     glory among men. We forget that             world will tolerate every form of         Word in our land are desperately
     we stand before the Lord. He daily          the lie and wickedness, it will           interested in becoming popular
     judges all our actions and even the         never tolerate the righteousness          among men and even in becoming
     thoughts of our hearts. How much            and truth of God. In the last days        rich and famous  in the world. The
     more important it is to be,accepted         the true church of Jesus Christ will      recent scandals that have been per-
     of Him, and to be exalted in His            become smaller and smaller, while         petrated by so-called ministers of
     presence.                                   the apostate church will become           the gospel are evidence of this.
       When we fear God, love His                larger and larger and more and            How easy it is for a minister to
     commandments and keep them,                 more powerful. We must be ready           compromise the demands of the
     and confess the truth of His name,          as faithful believers to face the ever    Word of God. As a preacher I know
     then the world will hate and de-            increasing wrath and fierce hatred        the danger of this. It is just so much
     spise us. We will be ridiculed and          of the liberal Christianity of our        more pleasant to be well received
     put to shame in the world. If we are        day. To be associated with the true       and to have all men speak higwy  of
     serious Christians who refuse to            church of Jesus Christ will become        you than to have to bring the `of-
     compromise the Word of God, then           increasingly unpopular. If you are         fense of the Word of God. It i's, so
     the world will ostracize us. When           serious about living the life of a        easy to leave off admonishing the
     we seek the glory of God and con-           Christian, you must be ready to en-       people of God though they some-
     demn the wickedness of the world,           dure the shame and ridicule and           times need this. It is a fearful lthing
     we will be threatened and perse-            persecution of modern day nomi-           to have to bring a Word to a home
     cuted in the world. This is just as         nal Christianity.                         or individual that you know is go-
     true in the modern day wicked                 The fear of man is one of the           ing to offend. You know that you
     world as it always has been. In fact        chief reasons for compromise in           will be hated for it. Oh how we
     we know that in the last day this           Christianity. We must realize that        love the praise of men and try to
     will grow worse and worse. How              and be on our guard against it. It        avoid therefore anything that will
     much then do we need to be very             takes place on every level.               make men angry with us. Yet we
     clear on the truth that God is to be        Churches want to be popular in the        must remember that the fear of
     feared more than man. We need to           world. They want to have large             God is so much greater. If we fail to
     stand in the spiritual courage that        memberships and maintain vast              bring His Word faithfully we .will
     is rooted in the fear of God. We            and beautiful complexes to boast          incur His wrath and displeasure,
     need to be willing and ready to suf-        and glory in. In order to do that         and He will hold us accountable for
     fer the loss of all things in the          they must be careful not to offend         those we have deceived by flakter-
     world, including our own honor             any members, especially those with         ing words and have failed to warn
     and glory because of the fear of           money and influence. Therefore             against their sins. How preachers
     God. We must very really expect            they change the Word of God                need to be men of courage, a
     the time to come when Christians            which iharply and absolutely con-         courage rooted in the fear of God
     will once again have to face terrible      demns man's wickedness, and they           and that is not afraid of the faces of
     suffering and even death for the           preach a doctrine of a God who.            ungodly men. One of the chief re-
     Lord's sake. The only thing that           loves everyone and who winks at            quirements for the minister of the
     will keep us in that day is the fear        sin. They seek to make their              gospel is that He is one that fears
     of God. We can expect to stand in           "gospel" appealing to the natural         God. In the history of the church it
     that day only if by God's grace to-        man and as easy as possible to fol-        was such God-fearing men that
     day we fear God rather than man.           low. By: doing this they will attract      were mighty in the church and
                                              I many to their fold. But at the same        were ready to face even the fires of

                                                                                               May 1,199O  / The standard Bearer / 345


persecution rather than in the             feminist movement wants every                to be considered a prude? Who
slightest way compromise the truth         woman in our land to rebel against           wants to be left out of the fun and
of God.                                    her God-ordained role in the home            excitement of the world? Yormg
   The fear of man is real for the         as wife and mother and to seek a             people, are you afraid to be differ-
workman in his work place and              glamorous career in the world. It            ent because you are afraid of men
business establishment. The world          does everything in its power to              and the consequences that a life of
we live in is full of corruption and       make the virtuous and godly                  godliness will have on your glory
wickedness. There is strong pres-          woman look ridiculous and stupid.            and honor among men? Remember
sure upon the Christian that he go         The career woman of the world is             .that the evil philosophy of modem-
along with this. Often it seems as         portrayed as the most worthy of              day youth is accursed of God. Fear
though the wicked man prospers in          praise. She appears on the front             God and be courageous to live lives
his way. On the other hand, when           page of the women's magazines.               that are pleasing to Him and hon-
the Christian maintains the princi-        How many are ashamed and afraid              orable in His sight.
ples of the law of God, he must suf-       to stand against the pressures of              Fear God! The Lord will preserve
fer financial loss. Only the fear of       our modem day evil society be-               all those that fear Him. He will de-
God can cause the Christian to per-        cause they are driven by the desire          stroy the wicked. His wrath and
severe in such a world. The Chris-         of the praise and glory of men. But,         judgment are terrible. Fear not
tian who refuses to join the godless       again, let us remember that the              what man can do to you, for that is
labor unions of our land will often        wrath of God is upon this ungodly            nothing compared to the judgment
be left without a job or have to take      world. How much more important               of God. Fear God, for the Lord is
a job with much less pay. Threats          is the favor of God and being found          able to keep His own through all
and intimidation are the common            of Him in honor. and glory.                  the persecutions and trials of this
tactics of the world to seek to per-        Young people face peer pressure.            world. Fear God, for the reward of
suade the Christian to join ungodly        How very strong this is. Often it is         His grace to His saints who remain
men in their ungodly walk. Who             very subtle. You must conform in             faithful and steadfast is infinitely
dares to oppose this out of the fear       your life style to be accepted, you          more glorious and blessed than
of God? What God-fearing courage           must wear the same clothes as the :          anything which the world can
is necessary.                              world does no matter how immod-              promise. Though the world may
   There is strong social pressure on      est they may be, you must listen to          try to bring shame and reproach on
the Christian to conform to the            the same music and dance with the            the godly, before the Lord we shall
"norms" of society. Those norms            world's dance no matter how                  never be put to shame. The glory of
are based on humanistic philoso-           wicked and immoral. If you want              the world shall soon be destroyed.
phy that leaves out God and His            to be "with it" then you must adopt          The glory which God will give to
truth.  Anyone who refuses to con-         the language and life style and in- /        His saints will endure forever. 0
form to these norms will be                terests of the world. And who           i
ridiculed and put to shame. The            wants to be different? Who wants




                                     From Oppression
Contribution
ML John Veldman                            t o   F r e e d o m

                                             People have often in the past ex-          America, but more especially in
                                           pressed to us interest in hearing            their becoming members of thle
                                           the story of the Romanian  refugee           Protestant Reformed Churches in
                                           family which is attending our Faith          this country When therefore we
                                           Protestant Reformed Church in                were asked to write a short account
                                           Jenison, Michigan. We have al-               of our experiences with this family
                                           ways been willing to share that         I    we readily, though somewhat fear-
                                           story with others, because we our-,          fully agreed to do so.
Mr. Veldman is a member of the Faith       selves have been thrilled by the o$            It was back in 1986  that I m-
Protestant Reformed Church in Jeni-        portunity  given us to have a part           ceived a telephone call from Rev.
son, Michigan.                             not only in this family's coming to          Bekkering,  informing me that a
346 I The Standard Bearer I May 1,,1990


representative of "Freedom Flight
Refugee Center" had contacted him
to ask about our church's willing-
ness to sponsor a refugee family. At
Rev. Bekkering's request I met with
the man to try to determine if there
were any way in which we could
work with that organization.
  I learned that Freedom Flight
Refugee Center works through
churches, attempting to persuade as
many of them as possible to be-
come "sponsors." We realized of
course that sponsoring refugees is
not the calling of the church, and
we explained our position to the
representative of Freedom Flight.
At the same time, we expressed our
willingness personally (i.e., as a
family) to become involved in such
a project.
  Freedom Flight agreed to that ar-
rangement and we were soon busy
with them, in meeting after meet-
ing, screening and evaluating the
requests from the many families          The Barabas Family: Zoltan, Irma, Csaba, and Zoltan, Jr.
who had fled Romania and were
waiting in refugee-camps. We             country; and they prevailed upon            looked at them, looked again at
learned that the majority of these       an aunt to send them an invitation          their passports, shook his head and
families, who were of all kinds of       to come and visit her. With this in-        said, "Get off the train...and may
religious backgrounds, gave polifi-      vitation in hand, they went to the          God bless you."
cal reasons for their flight. Only       Romanian  police and, to their great           They were overjoyed, of course,
one declared that they had fled to       delight, were given permission to           to be able to step out of that train
escape persecution  - persecution        go. Now they could cross at least           onto "free" soil. What they did not
which they had to endure, partly         one border without trouble. But             anticipate however was that they
because they were Hungarians in          they were of course, for all that,          faced in Austria a wait of no less
Romania, and more particularly be-       still behind the "iron curtain."            than 22 months, living in a one-
cause they were Hungarians who             After visiting their aunt they            room apartment without  runrung
were Reformed Christians. We in-         boarded a train, not for Romania,           water. That's a family of four!
formed Freedom Flight Refugee            but for Austria. They moved pur-               The Barabases had come from a
Center that this family was our          posefully to the front part of the          part of Romania called Transylva-
choice, and the Center in turn filled    train. That gave them a slight ad-          nia. That was land which had once
out the necessary application forms      vantage; for when the train stopped         been part of Hungary but had/ been
to file with our government, re-         at the border, the first few cars were      taken by Romania. Many of the
questing that they permit this fam-      in Austria, while the rest-were yet         Hungarians  wem forced to leave,
ily to come to the U.S.A.                in Hungary. That meant that the             and as many Romanians were
  May we introduce to you at this        border guard who asked to see               moved in to take their place -- in
time the Barabas (pronounced             their passports was Austrian, not           the hope that the Hungarians who
Bare'uh bus) family? The father's        Hungarian. But in no way could              remained would lose their ethnic
name is Zoltan; the mother's, Irma       they rest easy at that point. For           identity. It happened that the
(with a Dutch r-r-r-r). The older of     though they could produce pass-             Barabas family was left alone..
two sons is also named Zoltan, and       ports, it would be immediately              They were allowed, too, with other
the younger is Csaba. At the time        clear, when they did so, that they          Hungarians, to go to church. If,
of their flight from Romania, their      had received no authorization from          however, the people of the church
ages were, respectively, 44,42,20,       the Romanian  government to travel          planned an activity during the
and 12. They had tried first to es-      to  Austria.  If the guard therefore        week, the communist government
cape through Czechoslovakia.             would, in accord with international         more often than not would find a
When that failed, they determined        law, turn them back, thenprison,  or        reason to cancel it. Church ser-.
to make another attempt through          worse, would be their lot. Need-            vices, though, were possible in Ro-
Hungary; Being themselves Hun-           less to Say, their hearts pounded.          mania. And, ironically, now that
garian they had relatives in that        What will the border guard do? He           they were in Austria, they found

                                                                                         May 1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 347


     that that privilege was no longer          often passes them by.                        out to their daughter and her Ihus-
     available to them. For 22 long               For the boys, this is different.           band and family who live yet in
     months in the refugee camp...no            Zoltan, Jr. understand everything            Romania - as well as to both
     spiritual care!                            now - since he had a good begin-             Zoltan's and Irma's parents. AI1 is
        Finally, in June of 1987, came the      ning in the basic English he had             not well in Transylvania. Now
     happy news to the Barabases, `You          taken in school in Romania. Csaba            there is fighting between Romani-
     have a sponsor in the U.S.A."              has advanced more slowly, but                ans and Hungarians. The
     More months passed however with            nevertheless steadily. Very soon af-         Barabases here have taken stelps to
     little apparent progress. Then,            ter the family's arrival, he went to         try to help their daughter and her
     early in 1988, there came a knock at       our Hope School to be tutored by             family to move to the U.S.A. That's
     their door. A stranger it was, and         our patient and helpful Miss                 not likely to happen soon, however,
     he asked simply, `Does the Barabas         Winifred Koole. Now he is attend-            because for the present the grand-
     family live here?" After an initial,       ing our Heritage School, and cate-           parents need the protection of this
     fearful denial they admitted that          chism classes in Faith Church. And           young family in Romania.
I    they were in fact the Barabases.           he's even beginning to forget some             More and more we realize that
     And who was the stranger stand-            Hungarian words!                             we live in perilous times. God's
     ing at the door? None other than             Right from the start, they have            sovereign power is clearly vis:ible
     Bruce Jabaay from Faith Church in          been happily employed in the                 not only in floods and in earth-
     Jenison, Michigan. He had been in          woodworking and building trade.              quakes but also in revolutions. We
     Germany, on a business trip, and           They are very good at their work.            in this country have yet a greait
     decided to travel to Austria to look       Several times we have received               measure of freedom. Let us pray
     up the Barabas family. What a              calls indicating that their crafts-          for, and, as we have opportunity,
     happy encouragement that was to            manship is much appreciated.                 help those who are terribly perse-
     the Barabases.                               Mr. and Mrs. Barabas still find            cuted, in other lands, for their faith.
        Meanwhile, back in the States, a        the English language a handicap.             The King's command is:
     "Laymen's Committee" had been              They do in spite of it experience the           "Let brotherly love continue. Be
     formed to make the necessary               friendship of the members at Faith           not forgetful to entertain strangers;
     preparations for the arrival of the        Church. But our hope is that they            for thereby some have entertained
     family from Romania. Through               may begin better to master the lan-          angels unawares. Remember them
     their work, and through the willing        guage, so that there may also, by            that are in bonds, as bound with
     donations of individuals in various        the working of the Spirit through            them; and them which suffer ad-
     of our congregations, there was            the preached Word, be a growing in           versity, as being yourselves also in
     soon supplied adequate bedding,            grace and in the knowledge of our            the body" (Heb. 13:l3).
     furniture, food, etc. During that          Savior.                                        "For the Lord heareth the poor,
     time too, many of us corresponded            The family is happy to be in this          and despiseth not his prisoners"
     with the Barabases regularly, even         free country. But their hearts go            Vs. 69:33). 0
     managing to send them a Hungar-
     ian Bible - since they had not
     dared to take their Bible with them
     out of Romania. Our letters were
     painstakingly translated by them,          Pentecost  (John 7137-39)                                       - Suzanne Looyenga
     and their response to us was al-             Feast of fulfillment this:                 The spirit of our Rock and
     ways to give God all of the praise           Offspring of seven days of fest.             Dwellingplace:
     and to trust in Him Who had so               There is a plenteous harvest               The water that refreshes us oft' as
     marvelously given them escape.                  gathered here                             we come to drink,
        Finally on July 21,1988,  the big         Where in our tabernacles we are            Oft' as we seek His face.
     day arrived. The Barabas family                 called to rest.                         We, stirred to life, break forth as
     landed at the airport. Though it             And now this wilderness, this                fountains now
     was a daytime arrival>  there was a             barren place                            Within this desert-world: as
     good-sized crowd waiting for                 Breaks forth with joy and praise             Springs of praise
     them. A gratifying experience that           And we behold a wonder done                To Him, the Source unmeasured of
     was, for them; but then began the            On this His Day of Days.                     our joy;
     hard work of settling in a new               The Rock He cleaves                        As pitchers pouring out to all upon
     country. The language barrier was            And forth come streams to                    our pilgrim ways
     of course the most immediate and                quench our thirsting souls.             A cup of water from the Well. Oh
     the greatest obstacle. Now they              We, dying pilgrims, sin-parched,             who would taste
     had actually to learn that terribly             drink                                   And see the goodness of the Lord?
     difficult English! Even with their           These living waters of an un- i            Would you deliverance find, poor
     thorough acquaintance with the                  plumbed depth and are made                stranger too?
     Heidelberg Catechism,.the  drift of             whole.                                  Already He has called you to the
     the sermons in Faith Church still            Now deep within us dwells             I      waters. Haste!

     348  I  TheStandardBearerI   May1,1!490


                                           The End Times (5)
The Strength                               Preaching To All
of Youth
Rev. Barrett Gritters                      Nations, Then the End

  Young people, do you know the                   -      ,..*'
                                                                           r      ;,     -.=     (     `
                                                                                                       ;     Q-2,:
                                                                                                                           _,L       --L"
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                                                                                                                                                                                  ,     ,      I     ,i      .     :~     :f...,;
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                                            sFeyxbzy+".  .*.: ,:I.,- ,s.,`;:.~, ,z.-;;...,,:-~.,;:  +;:;, -:p: y.:.;* p i .;*~,: y )_I,_ .:  -`*`r  1  ,.,,'  +  `: .'
teaching about the end times? Are
you aware of what the Bible                 .I,,,,-A:couple, of months ago I.began:by  ~sas,ng that; although  we doenot know
teaches will happen in these per-           when the. end will'come in` terms of bdaysLor @en y$&sj *t$e Bible `does give
ilous times? Are you aware that             us.gcjoc@&uctionas  t~~~~~t.~~niust'expect-bitfor~.~~'Lord,.~eturns  to
they will be perilous?                      ~~iiWtlii$$3  ri&w;, `~~~o~l~~d~p~~~~~~t'you  wiEknow,these  ,things!
   Before the rise of Antichrist and        2:' ,Clo$etothe'end  ~~~~~~~l:~~d~ho~k~~e,C'divor~~~"-(aposta~~rnean~;
                                            ~fp@&~~~$j@)~,~f~&$  `truth.~~~~~~~~c~~s~,:.~e~a;ld,,~~~~:in-l~~de~
great persecution take place, the           ;&i@&&i&&i$$&v  ~tl7i~~r~~~~.,~~~~~~~~s~~h~~~~l
church is to be busy Instead of                                                                                                                                                                                                                     jet tr+&iurch has alwaiys
simply                                                                                                                                            &the
                                            ~~~~~~~~:.~~~~~l~,~                                                                                                        &&indwork  for `the ~~~t;4ipostate~`~A~ti~rist.
           watching these  develop
ments and wringing our hands in             fIty+ykg,$y$ pohQc@  an&hurchl;ower~ 5 into one.mammoth&wer!  his
                                            will be.the* peaceful, prosper;c;is;~  hi&&t'attair&c~
despair, or only assuming a de@-                                                                                                                                                                     -;-o;-#;;`T*                              _,---iit'&i&~ thisearth has
sive posture, the church is to be           ever >~~~~:`iAlli~~e,~t~~~~~,~fil&p~ Iucrative  benefits. OIjpdsition  to
busy with the positive and offen-           ;~~~~11,~.~~~`~~~~tio1;,su~h~ ho@bIe "$+ecution  :$Ilat the true church is
sive work of the preaching of the           almost&qsed.  out.offexistence~.  But@-$$.ect  will not perish; spiritually `.
gospel to all nations, as the Lord          JJy~difi+ii~  shorten thedays! The l&@e of God `will h,&~7~'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              yLw=vurbu.                  -_
                                            *           t.,          I           I       ,,      `
                                                                                                 ,            /_,             ,_       I           `           ,.           .           .,             *           _      .,      ."      .          -      ...I    i"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    _.
commanded in Matthew 28:18-20.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  -
And this work of the gospel                 all the earth. Antichrist will not                                                                                                                                                   dom of heaven, not a kingdom of
preaching to all nations is connected       come until the preaching is fin-                                                                                                                                                     this world, a spiritual kingdom, not
by the Lord to the end times in             ished. The end waits on the                                                                                                                                                          an earthly kingdom. Jesus Christ,
Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of          preaching!                                                                                                                                                                           Son of the King, your older brother,
the kingdom shall be preached in                        If this is true, it is the saddest                                                                                                                                       rules in His Kingdom by His Holy
all the world for a witness to all na-      (and most wicked!) behavior possi-                                                                                                                                                   Spirit and the Word of His grace.
tions; and then shall the end               ble that churches who claim to love                                                                                                                                                          The gospel (good news) of this
come:'                                      the Lord Jesus are throwing out or                                                                                                                                                   Kingdom that we preach and that
   This shows how important the             putting the preaching off to the                                                                                                                                                     you young people hear and re-
preaching of the gospel is! The end         side. And it would be the worst                                                                                                                                                      member as you lie down to sleelp
of the world and the coming of Je-          thing in the world for the young                                                                                                                                                     with a guilty conscience, is that the
sus Christ wait on the preaching!           people of the churches to ask for                                                                                                                                                    King has grace and favor towards
The end cannot come until the               anything to replace the faithful                                                                                                                                                     sinners through Jesus Christ, and
gospel is preached; and when it is          preaching of the gospel of Jesus                                                                                                                                                     that there is salvation from sin and
preached, it will come! Everything          Christ. I just talked with a pastor                                                                                                                                                  death and hell in the blood of the
waits on the preaching. For exam-           who said that, even though he                                                                                                                                                        cross of Christ! So the message of
ple, since the Antichrist will stop         knew it used to be the tradition of                                                                                                                                                  the Kingdom's gospel is the whole
the preaching, that is, silence the         his denomination to let the preach-                                                                                                                                                  story of Jesus Christ - His Person,
witness of the church (Rev. 111,            ing have the central place, it cer-                                                                                                                                                  His work, His power, His glory!
something must hinder the coming            tainly was not the case in his                                                                                                                                                       Really it is the whole Bible, but al-
of the Antichrist (II Thess. 21, so         church anymore. Pray that you                                                                                                                                                        ways as it centers in Jesus Christ
that the gospel can go throughout           may so love Jesus Christ and His                                                                                                                                                     Who is Lord and King through His
                                            work that  you  love  the preaching.                                                                                                                                                 death and resurrection. Why? Be-
                                                        Kingdom  preaching!                                                                                                                                                      cause the foundation of the King-
                                                        The "gospel of the kingdom"                                                                                                                                              dom is the righteousness of Jesus
                                            that Jesus refers to in Matthew                                                                                                                                                      Christ in His cross. Without this
                                            24~14 teaches that your God is the                                                                                                                                                   foundation, the Kingdom is noth-
Rev. Griffers  is pasfor of fhe Profes-     King, that the Kingdom is His                                                                                                                                                        ing.
fanf Reformed Church of Byron               Kingdom; not man's. The                                                                                                                                                                      But how is this kingdom built?
Cenfer, Michigan.                           Kingdom you belong to is a King-                                                                                                                                                     How does it grow? Can you see it?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           May  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I349


   God's children come into this           drink," whereas the gospel of the          kingdom, also carries with it a
kingdom fhrough faifh in Jesus             Kingdom is of "righteousness and           blessing and a reward "now in this
Christ. God's rule in the kingdom          peace and joy in the Holy Ghost"           time...and in the life to come..."?
people is a rule in their hearts. Jesus    (see Romans 14:16X                                    *****   **
Christ puts His throne there.  Re-           That  "gospel," the gospel of fhaf          Two dangers must be warned
member, you have the riches of that        kingdom, which is not the heav-            against when we speak of the
Kingdom when you have the riches           enly kingdom, is powerless to save         preaching of the gospel to all na-
of salvation in Jesus. You have the        sinners. It may deceptively remove         tiOllS.
peace of that Kingdom when you             a little of your guilt now, but it cer-       First, there is the temptation fo be
know that all your filthy sins and         tainly doesn't save. But the gospel        optimistic in the wrong sense about fhe
corrupt nature are for$ven  you be-        of  "fhis  kingdom," Jesus' Kingdom,-      results  of  the gospel preaching.  There
cause of the righteousness of Jesus        actually makes the Kingdom to              is the view that before Jesus re-
Christ. That is peace! That is pros-       grow. You see; the preaching of the        turns, almost the whole world will
perity! And that is invisible! "The        Kingdom does not just inform you           be converted by the gospel and be
kingdom of God cometh nof with             about  the kingdom; it actually            saved. Earthly life will become al-
observation" (Luke  17:10X Pray for        translates God's elect info  the king-     most completely Christian, in poli-
that Kingdom to be yours more and          dom. The preaching draws you               tics, in law, in culture, in ethics.
more.                                      and me into the Kingdom, and in            This is the postmillennial golden
   So the gospel of that Kingdom is        doing so establishes the rule of Je-       age that will be a fulfillment of the
a message of repentance, of sorrow         sus Christ in our hearts! See Ro-          Old TestamenYs prophecies about
for sin, of humbling yourself before       mans 10~13-15 and I Corinthians            beating swords into plowshares
God's great goodness because of            1:17-24.                                   and about the knowledge of God
sin. It is a message that iq comes           Is it not strange, then, that peo-       covering the earth as the waters
through this godly sorrow!                 ple who claim to love the kingdom,         cover the sea.
   Is this the gospel that you are         claim to want to promote the king-            But this is a dream that is not
hearing today? Is this what comes          dom, claim to be zealous for the es-       scriptural. As we saw last time,
from your pulpit and out of the            tablishment of that kingdom, are           Matthew 24 teaches conclusively
mouth of your pastor? I pray that          running madly around the world             that the last times will be times of
it is in yours, because another king-      doing everything except preaching          false prophets, horrible apostasy,
dom is being promoted today, an            the gospel of this kingdom? It is          vile wickedness, hot persecution.
earthly kingdom with earthly               like a young man who wants to at-          So terrible will these days be that
riches and earthly peace. This is          tract a girl but never uses his de-        for the elect's sake they will be
the kingdom of man, of man's               odorant, or like a father who wants        shortened. We may not suppose
power and n-tan's glory In the             to feed his family but eliminates          that the end times mean fantastic
preaching of this kingdom, the             the grocery item from the budget.          success in the mass conversion of
kingdom of heaven is laughed at as           Young people, do you see that            the world's population.
old-fashioned and ineffective. In          the church's calling is to preach?            But, second, this does not mean
the preaching of this kingdom, the         Since the gospel is so powerful, do        that we must be pessimistic about fhe
message of sin and repentance is           you learn from this how important          preaching  of the gospel. You notice
despised.                                  it is that we listen to it? Do you see     that I said the first danger was to
   On an Amway inspirational               that your duty is to support that          be optimistic in the wrong selzse. But
tape, Robert  Schuller, "Reformed"         preaching of the gospel, the preach-       optimism is warranted! There is
pastor who has a larger audience.          ing of this gospel, and no other?          nothing pessimistic about the
than any other "Reformed" pastor           Let your support be thrown behind          prophecies in the Old Testament,
in the world, says, "I don't think         the denominational mission work            including the promise that the Yit-
anything has been done in the              and the evangelism work of your            tle stone" of Daniel that crushes the
name of Christ and under the ban-          local church, by giving liberally to       image will grow until it fills the
ner of Christianity that has proven        those collections. Give your sup-          whole earth, nothing pessimistic
more destructive to human person-          port to the seminary where gospel          about the message that the white
ality, and hence, counterproductive        preachers are being trained. Give          horse of the preaching will go forth
to evangelism enterprise, than the         encouragement to your pastor.              triumphantly. We are optimists.
often crude, uncouth, and unchris-         Pray for the preaching!                    We must be optimists, because Je-
tian strategy of attempting to make          And could it be. that the Lord           sus Christ sits on the throne,, ruling
people aware of their lost and sin-        wants you, young men, to be                right now! And the message that
ful condition." Explaining Philip          trained for the ministry of the            Jesus sends forth through His faith-
pians 2:7,8 he said, "Jesus...suf-         gospel, so that you personally will        ful servants is accomplishing His
fered the cross to sanctify his self-      be used by the King of the King-           will triumphantly, right now!
esteem, and he bore the aoss to            dom for this blessed work? Do I              But we may not, get the wrong
sanctify your self-esteem. And the         needto  tell you again that this           impression of what Jesus promises
cross will sanctify your ego-trip."        work, in addition to being one of.         will be the result of .the gospel
His is the gospel of "meat and             the most important works in God's          preaching. Christ does not cjayin

350 ! The Standard Bearer I May 1,199O


Matthew 24 that the gospel will           exposes their crooked behavior.           of the ofher kingdom, the kingd'om
converf  all nations, but that it will    But they reject the gospel of the         of darkness. Praise God, the
be pmached as a witness to all na-        kingdom of Jesus Christ. In doing         gospel of this kingdom saves! We
tions. The triumph that II                that, they fill up the measure of the     come into the kingdom of God's
Corinthians l&4,5 speaks of is a          cup of sin and are readied for the        dear Son, Jesus Christ (Cal. 1:13.
spirifuaZ  triumph, just as the           final judgment. Jesus always              This dear Son rules, and we pas
weapons of our warfare are spiti-         warned the disciples that this            sess the riches and peace of the
fual weapons. "For the weapons of         would be one of the results of            only lasting kingdom, so that in ev-
our warfare are not carnal, but           faithful gospel preaching. That is        ery aspect of our life, the kingdom
mighty through God to the pulling         why He forewarned the church              comes and is extended.
down of strong holds; Casting             that she would be hated for His              Has the gospel of the kingdolm
down imaginations and every high          name's sake (Matthew 24:9).               been preached to all nations?
thing that exalteth itself against the       But this is not the only result of     When it has, all the elect will halve
knowledge of God...."                     the preaching. The positive result,       been gathered in and the end will
  As a "witness" to all nations, the      indeed, the main purpose of God in        come.
preaching will result in the harden-      the preaching, is to save His elect          "Come, Lord Jesus, come
ing of some nations and of some in        in every nation, to save you, who         quickly. And grant us the grace to
all nations. The preaching wit-           believe. By this gospel, the elect        be faithful in preaching and, hear-
nesses to them the error of their         are brought into the kingdom,             ing the preaching, to believe." Cl
way, the lie of their theology, and       saved from the power and misery
     0



                                          Out Mission
Guest Article
Mr. Don Doezema                           Vbrk - `89/`90

  The work of the Domestic Mis-           secretary of the Contact Committee        ious of our congregations. Gone
sion Committee, like that of most         has done more to disseminate in-          too, of course, were the mission sta-
other Synodical Committees, is not        formation than has that of the Do-        tions - two of them having in Eact
highly visible. Not that it cannot        mestic Mission Committee. What-           been granted permission to  orgal-
be, or should not be. It just isn't.      ever the case, we hope that this ar-      nize.
And that!s too bad. Maybe we              ticle will give our readers a little        The Mission Committee has nev-
should have, in The SB, short quar-       flavor of what has been happening         ertheless, since then, been active.
terly reports from the secretaries of     in missions in our churches this          Florida, for example, has de-
the major committees. Then one            past year, and what decisions must        manded our attention. Synod 1989
wouldn't have to wait for the             be faced, relative to those labors, by    instructed us to investigate the
agenda for Synod in order to learn        Synod 1990.                               Bradenton/Venice area, with a
about what's happening in the               The year has been comparatively         view to making a recommendation
British Isles, or in Tasmania, or in      uneventful - compared, that is, to        to this year's Synod as to whether
Jamaica, or in Florida. A good test       previous years when there were no         or not we have there a viable field
to determine the worth of such mg-        fewer than four full-time mission-        for mission labor. Since that kind of
ular reporting can perhaps be             aries, stationed in various parts of      determination cannot be made
found in discovering whether our          the country and abroad, all of            from a distance, the Mission Com-
readers know more about Lame              whose labors were the concern not         mittee arranged for various of our
than they do about Jamaica; for, if       only of the respective calling            ministers to spend a couple of
memory serves me correctly, the           churches but also of the Mission          weeks each in the area. Rev.
                                          Committee, which has an impor-            Houck,  while he was still a mis-
                                          tant part to play in supervising the      sionary, worked for three weeks in
Mr. Doezema is a member of First          mission activities of our churches        Florida on two different occasions.
Profesfanf Reformed Church, Grand         in common. One by one, however,           Rev. Bekkering, Rev. Bruinsma,
Rapids, Michigan and secrefa y of the     in `88 and `89, those missionaries        Rev. Gritters, Rev. Key, and Rev.
Domestic Mission Committee.               took calls to serve as pastors in var-    Woudenberg were also there for a

                                                                                       May i, 1990 iThe Standard Bearer I 351


short time. For their labors on our       and are apparently willing not only       committed to the Reformed faith
behalf we sincerely thank them and        to support the work financially but       and have requested from us a mis-
their respective consistories.            also, and more importantly, to in-        sionary. On the strength of that,
  Reports we received from them           volve themselves personally in the        the Mission Committee will recom-
were, for the most part, optimistic.      labors which are expected of a            mend that Synod 1990 approve the
That began already with Rev.              "core" group once a particular area       calling of a missionary to the
Bekkering, who worked in Florida          is declared a "field." That group         British Isles, locating him in the
immediately after Synod 1989 and          currently consists of five families.      Larne/Ballymena area as the initial
saw potential for continued and ex-       And the Venice area, which is             center of his labors.
panded labors in the south. Not           growing steadily and has a large            Then there is Jamaica. It :hap-
long after that, we received a letter     school system, seems to offer po-         pens that Jamaica is the one and
over the signature of eleven indi-        tential for a mission outreach. The       only field which our churches cur-
viduals in the Venice area urging us      Reformed faith is not strong in the       rently have. And we've had it for a
to send a missionary or minister of       area. An opportunity we would             good long time, for it has been
our churches to "present the truth        have, therefore, to preach the good       some 30 years ago that we were in-
of the Scriptures with a view to es-      tidings of the Reformed faith to          troduced to the work on that island
tablishing, if the Lord will, a           many who were never privileged to         in the Caribbean. And where are
Protestant Reformed Church in this        receive instruction in it. `It is with    we now? What have we accom-
area."                                    all this in mind that the Mission         plished? The number of congrega-
  The Mission Committee has no            Committee will ask Synod 1990 to          tions...has  dwindled. And the con-
well-defined, objective criteria to       declare the area of Venice, Florida a     gregations which remain...are
determine when an area is ripe for        denominational mission field.             smaller. Besides, some of the prob-
the labors of a missionary. It is a         Another exciting opportunity for        lems with which we had to cope at
matter therefore of gathering as          the Protestant Reformed Churches          the beginning have persisted to the
much information as we can,               is a possible labor in the British        present. One could very easily be-
weighing all the evidence, reaching       Isles. Synod 1989 instructed the          come discouraged by all of that,
our conclusions, and then prepar-         Mission Committee to study the            and wonder even whether the
ing advice for Synod. Sometimes,          matter of calling a missionary to la-     blessing of God has rested upon
perhaps, the evidence may very            bor in Lame, with the possibility of      our efforts there.
soon become overwhelming, even            pursuing also contacts in the British        It is with those realities that the
compelling. Mom often than not,           Isles. We were directed to lean           Mission Committee and the calling
conviction comes gradually, as            heavily on the advice of the Con-         church have had to wrestle.. But
events seem more and ,more to lead        tact Committee, which was then la-        what axe the realities of the situa-
us in a particular direction. In the      boring still with the little Covenant     tion? What about those 30 years?
case of Florida, debate on the floor      Reformed Fellowship, part of              We have to remind ourselves that,
of the Mission Committee has been         which was a remnant of the Bible          though Jamaica has appeared regu-
sometimes warm. We are well               Presbyterian Church, with whom            larly on our Mission Committee
aware, as a committee, that the           we had until recently sister-church       agendas for over many yetirs,  we
rather prominent seasonal presence        relationships. The Fellowship is          cannot claim to have labored there
of Protestant Reformed visitors to        made up now of five families and          for very long at all. For, during
the land of winter sunshine has in        two individuals. In addition, them        most of those 30 years, our work
the past been and continues still to      is another family, and three more         consisted of nothing mom substan-
be a complicating factor in our           individuals, who attend regularly         tial than sending emissaries and
churches' consideration of this area      and show deep interest in the             carrying on correspondence by let-
as a potential field for mission la-      Protestant Reformed truth. Lec-           ter. In no way can that be said to
bor. Over the course of the year          tures in nearby Ballymena attract         constitute mission work, which re-
however the Mission Committee             fifteen to twenty additional inter-       quires the presence of a prerzcher.
became more and more convinced            ested people; and ads in local              But what then about thorje  last
that we are being shown in Florida        newspapers, offering pamphlets or         five years, the years during: which
an open door, and that we cannot          tapes, regularly bring requests for       Rev. Bruinsma labored diligently
let the `TR factor" (which is really a    20 to 30 items. Interest in England       on the island? Where are all the
separate issue) determine the legiti-     is scattered and isolated; but it is      positive, concrete results of that?
macy of a mission labor in that           real, it seems to beckon, and it          Should we not have more tlo show
place. We have in Venice, accord-         added an intriguing element to our        for those efforts? The truth. is that
ing to the reports of three minister-     consideration of the British Isles as     there were positive results -- in the
members of the committee who              a focus of our mission work. What         organizational structure, in the
have themselves already spent a           is decisive however, for the present,     strength of the leaders, in the spiri-
couple of weeks in that area, a defi-     is the very solid core group of five      tual growth of the people. But is
nite opportunity to bring the             families (with 15 children) in the        that  enough?
gospel. Interested families love the      Larne/Ballymena area of Northern           I remember one of our ministers
preaching, plead for a missionary,        Ireland, all of whom am firmly            once wondering what we would

352 I The Standard Bearer I May 1,199O


expect of a pastor here in the States,     Church and our Synods have had             just a name. We think of an ami-
were he to be assigned responsibili-       to struggle for years. That the            able, warm, unassuming,  serious-
ties comparable to those given to          work requires the presence of a            minded, humble black man whose
our missionary in Jamaica. By              missionary or minister to labor on         love of the Lord, and appreciation
"comparable responsibilities" I un-        the field is a given. It is clear, too,    for the Protestant Reformed
derstood him to mean that a minis-         to all parties concerned, that the de-     Churches because of his love of the
ter in, say, Michigan would be             mands on the missionary which are          frufh, am unassailabie. And wh.en
given the oversight of work in a           inherent in the work in the Ja-            we receive from Rev. Williams this:
couple of congregations in Grand           maican hills makes a companion in          "Please continue to remember us in
Rapids, of another congregation in         the labor a virtual necessity. Synod       your daily prayers that whatsoever
Grandville, still another in Jenison,      has in fact instructed us to try to        hath pleased the Lord to be done
and likewise one in Hudsonville            meet that need by calling two mis-         for our good may be done by the
and in Holland and in Kalamazoo,           sionaries. Faced as we are, how-           decisions of your Synod to the
with the help of two young minis-          ever, with a minister shortage in          glory of God and for our good" -
ters. (And that is to say nothing          our own churches; and recognizing          when we read that, we say, our
about the added difficulties and           too that the Lord has given to our         hearts go out to the saints them and
stress of living in a different culture    churches other resources, in their         we want to get on with the work. It
and having to home school one's            many capable elders, the Mission           was out of that desire to be busy in
own children.) His point was this:         Committee will propose again that          the interim (i.e., while there are not
would we then wonder at the end            Synod approve our sending an el-           yet men to labor in the field full-
of five years why there were not           der as a co-worker to assist the mis-      time), that First Church prepared
seven flourishing congregations in         sionary until such a time as we are        the Guidelines which call for a min-
the west Michigan area? From that          able to have two missionaries in the       ister and an elder to go to Jamaica
perspective,. and in light of the ac-      field. We will attempt to demon-           twice a year, for two months at a
tual needs of a foreign field like Ja-     strate, in our overture, that there is     time, to labor particularly in the in-
maica, it would seem that the in-          abundant biblical precedent for em-        struction of leaders and potential
escapable conclusion is that our ef-       ploying men unordained to the              leaders. This will, under the bless-
forts to date have been, at best, fee-     ministry as co-workers in missions,        ing of God, assure some continued
ble, meager.                               and to point out too that the great        progress toward our goal of estab-
  And what about the weaknesses            value of elders' assistance is a mat-      lishing truly indigenous churches
and failings which persist among           ter of record in our own work, both        in Jamaica, even in the absence lof a
the people? Those, we think, are           in Singapore and in Jamaica. Our           missionary. The idea is not, of
reasons, not to forsake them, but to       Synods prior to 1983, in fact, re-         course, that this seminar approach
continue with them in the compas-          peatedly made provision for it in          could go on indefinitely. For one
sion of Christ. No evidence do we          the conduct of our work in Jamaica.        thing, we emphasize again that it is
have that the people among whom              First Church, meanwhile, was             intended only as an interim activ-
we labor are hardened in wicked-           busy working out a set of Guide-           ity; and, for another, First Church
ness and rebellion against the Word        lines for a different kind of labor in     envisions an end to this type of la-
of God which we have brought               Jamaica. They too saw the unlikeli-        bor after four years.
them. Rather, we have abundant             hood, in the foreseeable future, of          More, much more, could be said,
reason to believe that God's people        obtaining two missionaries to Ja-          about Jamaica and about all of our
are there. And the Lord in His             maica, as well as the difficulty in-       other labors. We offer the above,
good providence has given us op-           volved in obtaining even one. Feel-        not as a comprehensive report of
portunity to share with them the           ing keenly their responsibility to-        the extent of our work in 1989-1990,
wonderful heritage of the truth            ward the field which had been en-          but to give our readers a feel for the
which is ours as a gift of grace           trusted to them for oversight, First       nature of the work, and some
alone. That, if nothing else, should       Church was anxious to be busy              knowledge of the main aspects Iof
spur us on to greater  efforts. We         again with the people they had             it. A lot of time and energy goes
might not be able, with our re-            learned to love. We speak of course        into the work on the Mission Com-
sources (both human and material),         particularly of those from First who       mittee. Especially is that so for the
to carry on a work as extensive as         had themselves spent time on the           already hard-pressed minister
those of larger denominations; but         island. That makes a big differ-           members of the committee. But it
our smallness is no excuse for less        ence. To those of us who have been         is a labor ,which can be and is ree
than wholehearted commitment to            there, both from the calling church        warding. And we have experi-
a cause which constitutes Christ's         and the Mission Committee, word            enced in it the blessing of our God.
one great commission to His                (for example) that Elder Tomlinson         We covet your prayers that that
church.                                    was examined by. the Jamaican              might continue, for the good of our
  But how to work effectively in           Classis and ordained in February of        churches and the advancement of
Jamaica, given our resources -             this year to the ministry of the           the cause of Christ as we am given
that is the question with which the        Word -that news, we say, has spe-          to represent it. 0
Mission Committee and First                cial meaning. "Tomlinson" is not

                                                                                          May  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 353


I    Decencv
     And Oriier
     Rev. Ronald Cammenga                             Election of Elders

        The elders shall be chosen by the judg-       tion. There have been those who              the Dutch refugee church in Lon-
     mt of the consktory  and the deacons  ac-        favored appointment of elders by             don. According to this method, the
     cording to the regulations for that purpose      the civil government. There is the           members of the congregation, by a
     established by the wnsistoy. In pursuance        method according to which elders             free election, select a list of candi-
     of  these regulations, every church shall be
     at liberty, according to its cimmstances,        are chosen by a free election of the         dates. The consistory then chooses
     to give the members an opportunity to di-        members of the congregation.                 from this list those whom it deems
     rect  attention to suitable persons, in order       In distinction from all of these is       most qualified.
     that the consist0 y may thereupon either         the Reformed or Presbyterian                    There is the Aristocratic-Demo-
     present  to  the congregation for election as    method. According to this method             cratic method. This was the
     many elders as are needed, that they may         elders are chosen under the guid-            method followed by the Reformed
     after they are approved  by it, unless any       ance and leadership of the consis-           churches in the Netherlands. Ac-
     obstacle  arise,  be installed with public       tory, with the cooperation of the            cording to this method, the consis-
     prayers and stipulations; OY present a a0u-      congregation. Both consistory and            tory presents a double slate of
     ble number to the congregation and there-        congregation play a role in the elec-
     upon install the one-half chosen by it, in                                                    nominees to the congregatian,  from
     the aforesaid manner, agreeably  to the form     tion process.                                which half are elected.
                                                         Article 22 recognizes the leading            Article 22 allows for the use of
     " this  puTs?  Ch~h  Order Article 22            role of the consistory. `The elders          the Aristocratic and the Aristo-
        The main subject of this'article is           shall be chosen by the judgment of           cratic-Democratic methods.
     the manner of the election of el-                the consisfoy and the deacons...."              Of these two, the Aristocratic-
     ders. The article spells out the role            "...in order that the cons&toy may           Democratic method is to be pm-
     of the consistory as well as the con-            thereupon either present to the con-         ferred, and is the method com-
     gregation in the election process.               gregation for election as many el-           monly followed in our churches.
        Article 22 indicates three distinct           ders as are needed . . ..`I `I... or (the    This method does greater justice to
     stages in the process by which men               con&toy  may) present a double               the right of the congregation to be
     am chosen for the office of elder.               number to the congregation . . . . fl        actively involved in the selection of
     The three stages  am: election, ap-                 But Article 22 also recognizes the        its officebearers. This is not to say,
     probation, and installation. With                role of the congregation. The mem-           however, that a consistory may not
     ministers there is the additional                bership is given the privilege of di-        choose to follow the Aristocratic
     stage of examination. In the case of             recting the consistory to names of           method.
     elders, our churches do not require              suitable candidates for the elder-           APPROBATION AND
     any kind of formal examination, al-              ship. Approbation by the congre-             INSTALLMENT
     though there have been those in fa-              gation is required. And actual elec-           No matter which of the two
     vor of this. The careful examina-                tion by the congregation from a              methods permitted by Article 22 is
     tion by the consistory of a man's                double slate of nominees is recom-           followed, there must be the appro-
     gifts prior to,nominating  him takes             mended.                                      bation by the congregation. If the
     the place of examination.                          Historically three different meth-         Aristocratic method is followed,
     METHODS OF ELECTION                              ods have been followed by Re-                there is one period of approibation
       Several different  methods of                  formed churches in the election of           between election and installation.
     electing elders have been followed.              elders.                                      If the Aristocratic-Democratic
       There is the hierarchical method                 There is the Aristocratic method.          method is followed, there am two
     according to which elders are ap-                This was the method followed by              periods of approbation - one be-
     pointed and foisted on a congrega-               the French Reformed churches. Ac-            fore election (after the slate of nom-
                                                      cording to this method, the consis-          inees has been announced), and an-
                                                      tory selects the elders, and its             other after election and befolre  the
                                                      choices are simply presented to the          actual installation into office.
     Rev. Cammenga is pas for of the                  congregation for approval.                     As part of the approbatio:n  pro-
     Protestant Rejiwmed  Church of Love-               There is the Democratic method.            cess, the following decision has
     land, C010rd0.                                   This was the method followed by              been appended to Article 221:

     354 I The Standard Bearer I May 1,199O


"Nominations and congregational           the highest majority are elected,          the male members who are entitled
meetings shall be announced upon          that proxy votes shall be valid on         to vote. One wonders about the
two successive Sundays."                  the first ballot only, and so forth.       wisdom of this, not to speak of the
(Adopted by Classis of June 6,7,            Article 22 speaks of the consis-         consistency of a "free election"
1934; and Synod of 1944, Art. 66,         tory giving the congregation op            with Reformed principles of church
67.)                                      portunity to suggest possible candi-       government. Better it would be,,
  Approbation provides the mem-           dates for office. This is not manda-       and mom in keeping with Artic1.e
bers of the congregation the oppor-       tory, but each consistory shall be at      22, if at the time of the organization
tunity to register with the consis-       `liberty" to do this. This may be          of a new congregation, the consis-
tory objections against certain nom-      done no matter which of the two            tory overseeing the organization
inees. Such objections would deal         methods of election suggested by           would compose the slate of nomi-
with the requirements for office          Article 22 is followed. Even when          nations for the initial election.
laid down in I Timothy 3:1-7  and         the consistory provides this oppor-          It is proper that nominees be offi-
Titus 1:5-g. If the consistory up         tunity to the members of the con-          cially notified by the consistory,
holds an objection, the man's name        gregation, it is not bound by these        preferably by a committee of el-
would be removed from nomina-             suggestions.                               ders. Nominees ought not easily be
tion, or, if he has already been            Often the question is raised             permitted to refuse their nomina-
elected, the election declared in-        whether a father and son or two            tion. If a man does object to beilng
valid. If the consistory does not         brothers may serve simultaneously          nominated, he should be encour-
uphold the objection, it may do one       in the consistory. Neither the             aged to make a personal appear-
of two things. It may proceed to          Church Order nor Scripture ex-             ance at the consistory to present the
the installation, if it judges the ob-    pressly forbids this. There were           reasons why he feels compelled to
jection to be trivial or without any      two sets of brothers among the             decline the nomination. In the end,
ground. Or it may wait for the            twelve disciples of Jesus. For prac-       if a man simply refuses to serve,.
judgment of the Classis, if the ob-       tical considerations, however, it is       the consistory has no choice but to
jection is of a serious nature and        perhaps not a very desirable ar-           remove his name from nomination.
the consistory has been assured by        rangement. Some consistories even          If he has no valid reason for refus-
the one bringing the objection that       have local regulations to prohibit         ing to serve, the seriousness of his
he intends to appeal to Classis.          this. In some congregations, espy-         refusal to serve Christ and His
  After approbation by the congm-         cially smaller ones, it is almost im-      church by the use of his gifts ought
gation, the consistory proceeds to        possible to avoid near relatives           to be impressed upon him. But
the installation of the newly elected     serving in office together. In the         persistent refusal indicates that a
elders. Installation is the actual in-    end, this matter must be left to the       man does not possess one of the
duction of a man into office. At the      discretion of each particular consis-      qualifications necessary for an el-
time of installation, he actually be-     tory.                                      der, namely, that he "...desire  the of-
gins to function as an elder. If he         Often a question is raised con-          fice of a bishop..." (I Tii. 3:l). Cl
succeeds someone, the outgoing el-        cerning the permissibility of imme-
der continues in office until his suc-    diate m-appointment. Article 22
cessor is duly installed. Installation    does not forbid immediate map
takes place during a formal wor-          pointment. Most con&stories have                  Watch and Pray
ship service and with the use of the      a custom prohibiting immediate m-
"Form of Ordination of Elders and         appointment of retiring officebear-        Christian, seek not yet repose,
Deacons."                                 ers. But there is nothing in the             Cast thy dreams of ease away;
-PRACTICAL MATTERS                        Church Order or Scripture that ex-         Thou art in the midst of foes;
  Article 22 mentions certain             pressly forbids this. In case of re-         Watch and pray.
"...mgulations for that purpose (i.e.,    appointment, m-installation is also
for the purpose of electing office-       necessary. Installation is for a defi-     Gird thy heavenly armor on,
bearers) established by the consis-       nite period of time. When that pe-           Wear it ever night and day;
tory...:' The reference is to local       riod of time comes to an end, if a         Near thee lurks the evil one;
regulations adopted by the consis-        man is m-appointed, he must also             Watch and pray.
tory to promote orderliness in the        be m-installed. The Christian Re-
election process. .VanDellen and          formed Church Synod of 1928                Hear the victors who o'ercame;
Monsma offer a "Suggested Set of          ruled that m-installation was "...not        Still they watch each warrior's
Rules Governing the Election of El-       only desirable but also proper."                way;
ders and Deacons" (The Church Or-           The exception to the methods of          All with one deep voice exclaim,,
an Commentay,  p. 104). Such regu-        choosing elders laid down in Arti-           "Watch and pray."
lations might include the time of         cle 22 is the election of elders at the
the annual congregation meeting,          time of the organization of a new                                - Charlotte Elliott
the terms of officebearers, the time      congregation. Because there is no
of installation, that a majority is       existing consistory as yet, the prac-
one over half and that those with         tice is to hold a free election of all

                                                                                         May 1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I' 355


                                                  Exposition of
From Holy Writ
Rev. George Lubbers                               -Isaiah 6 (4)

   And he said, Go, and tell this people,           When Nathan comes to David to           of importance here.
Hear  ye indeed, but understand not: and          tell him of his heinous sin against          1.    That Jesus looks at His
see ye indeed, but perceive not.                  God in the killing of Uriah by the        work of doing miracles and of
   Make the heart  of this people fat, and        sword of the enemy, and of his sin        preaching the gospel far and wide
n&e their eats hmzty,  and shut their  yes;
lest they see with their yes, and hear with       of adultery against God in the tak-       for three years as the very dimax of
their  ears,  and understand with their heart,    ing of another man's wife, then that      the work of all the prophets who
and convert, and be healed.                       is a message which is one-time, and       prophesied until John.
                               -Isaiah 6:9,10     is not something of a prophetic              2.    That at His day this
                                                  character. Likewise also are the          prophecy was fully fulfilled. Noth-
TI3E GREAT PROPHETIC                              words of Elijah when he stands be-        ing more needed to be done! in the
MESSAGE TO THIS PEOPLE                            fore Ahab and announces the three-        way of preaching to fulfill the
   These words which Isaiah must                  and-a-half-year famine and                words "go and tell this people."
speak to Israel are indeed prophefic              drought over Israel. That too is not      Yes, over many centuries these
words. Of this there cannot be a                  a prophetic word which awaits cen-        words had been preached by
shadow of doubt when these                        turies of fulfillment.                    prophets, from generation  to  gener-
words are read in the light of all of               But here it is different.               ation, and by various prophlets
Scripture. And the latter we shall                  Hem is not a message from God           whose words were taken up in the
need to do if we are reverently to                to an individual sinner, but a mes-       inspired Scriptures. Two prophets
bow before the Bible.                             sage to a people, to a nation whose       in particular merit our attention.
   First of all, we notice that they              generations extend over centuries         They are Jeremiah and Ezekiel.
are words which Isaiah must                       of time. These are words which re-        However, Daniel, Hosea and
prophesy. They am not merely a                    flect the lives reaching back till the    Micah, Haggai and Zechariah as
one-time announcement for Isaiah                  days at Sinai, and Israel's wander-       well as Malachi, all spoke this word
in his day, but they are words                    ings in the wilderness, and               of Adonai to Israel, rising early and
which really reach across the ages                reaching forward, for their initial       late.
till the first and second coming of               fulfillment, in the captivity of Ju-      THE IMPORT OF THE TERMS
the Son of God in the flesh.                      dah in Babylon. For the later and         INTHETEXT
   Let us try to see this together.               mom complete fulfillment they an-            Our next question to consider is
                                                  ticipate the utter  destruction of the    the exegetical import of the terms:
                                                  temple by the Roman legions as            hear ye indeed and hear not, etc.
                                                  they surround Jerusalem. Typically        These words, of course, presuppose
                                                  the destruction of Jerusalem mpre-        that each generation is going to
                                                  sents the end of the world, when it       hear these words in future preach-
                                                  will be said by God "it is done" I        ing of the promise of God and its
                                                  (Matt. 24:13-25;.Luke  21:20-23;  Rev.    certain fulfillment by Him, Adonai,
                                                  16:17b).                                  Who sits on the throne.
                                                    But we have stronger evidence              Grammatically the terms in the
                                                  still that these am words of futuris-     Hebrew are very significant. In the
                                                  tic prophecy. It is none other than       Hebrew the verb "hear ye" has a
                                                  Jesus Himself Who thus interprets         modifier. It is the same veib in a
                                                  these words to His'disciples. In          form of the verb which is called
                                                  Matthew 13:14  we read, "And in           "infinite absolute." It is used to
                                                  them is fulfilled the prophecy of         add emphasis to the verb, in this
                                                  E&as, which saith, by hearing ye          case to the verbs hear and see. It
                                                  shall hear, and shall not under-          means hear and see very em.phati-
                                                  stand; and seeing ye shall see and        tally. Know the content of what
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in            not perceive...."                         you hear and see so that you never
fhe Profestant Reformed Churches.                   We ought to notice a few things         forget it. It will stick in your mem-

336  I The  Standard Bearer  I  May  1,199O


ory; yea, it will, even from a spiri-            spirit, but thev were those who did            things from the wise and prudent,  and hast
tual point of view, penetrate into               not love to hear the message of the            revealed them unto babes. Even so Father;
your very heart (Matt. 13:19).  It               Word of the Cross as they should.              for so it seemed good in thy sight (Matit.
was sown in the hearts of the hear-              To them as well as to us comes this            11:25,26).
ers. It is indeed the calling by the             warning in I Corinthians 14:21!                   The church-world of contempo-
Gospel. It comes as the word                        When these foolish unbelievers              rary "theolo&  is full of such
which is circumscribed in Hebrews                are told really to read the Scriptures         preachers and unbelieving  chuach-
as follows, and we quote:                        so that they would hear the great              goers who say "the book is sealed I
  For the word of God is quick (living),         Gospel-truth uttered by Paul in I              cannot read." Such they are, not in
and powerful, and sharper than any two-          Corinthians 30;31, then they can-              their own judgment, but in the all-
edgal  sword, piercing even to the dividing      not possibly read that Gospel-mes-             wise judgment of our ,Lord Who
asunder of soul and @it, and of the joints       sage in the Scriptures. God says of            sits on the throne as Kmg in Zion.
and marrow, and is a discerner of the            these men, who are wise in their                  But remember that Capernaum,
thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither                                                      which had been raised to heaven
is there any creature that is not manifest in    own conceits: I have not given                 when Jesus preached the content of
his sight; but all things are naked and          them ears to hear, nor eyes to see,            John 64451  in their synagogue,,
opened unto the eyes  of  him with whom we       neither have given them to see
have to do (Heb. 4:12,13).                       what the prophets desire to see, the           will in their unbelief be cast down
   Now here we have the spiritual-               fulfillment of the Promise in the              to hell (Matt. 11:23)!
psychological insight into what                  SEED. With the Bible-book in their                It truly will be more tolerable for
happens in the preaching of the                  hands they really say to the Lord, I           Sodom in the day of judgment than
Word. This text explains rather                  cannot read in the entire book any             for Capemaum. He that has
profoundly the import of `hearing                such gospel as "This is the rest               known the way and has not walked
hear emphatically" and "seeing see               wherewith ye may cause the weary               in it shall be beaten with many
very clearly' from a natural (psy-               to rest. And this is the refreshing.           stripes. For they that sinned under
chical) point of view. This people               But they would not hear."                      law shall be judged by the law in
must hear and must come to stand                    They never walked in the old                the day when God judges the se
naked and opened before the eyes                 and tried paths spoken of in                   crets of man according to His
of the all-knowing God with whom                 Jeremiah  616,                                 Gospel (Rom. 2:16). Cl
they have to do. They will, there-                  Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask
fore, stand condemned by their                   for the old paths, where is the good way,
own gospel-enlightened con-                      and waZk therein and ye shall find rest for
science. They belong to those who                your souls. But they said: we will not                Christ Is Coming
are under law, and stand with the                walk therein.
entire world whose mouths are                       In Matthew 11 Jesus says to this            Christ is coming! We are waiting
stopped and who stand guilty be-                 same people, "But whereunto shall I               `Mid the shadows dim;
fore God (Rom. 3:19).                            liken this generation? It is like unto         Longing till the night's dark
   In this spiritual blindness and               children sitting in the markets, and                 pinions
hatred, God's righteous judgment                 calling unto their fellows, and say-              Fold their plumes to Him.
upon them is evident!                            ing, We have piped unto you and                Waiting by each gate of sorrow,
  Yes, they are those blind leaders              ye have not danced; we have                    Thinking of the glad tomorrow;
of the blind who cannot read the                 mourned unto you and ye have not               Standing `neath His banner,
Scriptures. It is for them a closed              lamented. John came neither eat-                     keeping
book. We read of them in Isaiah                  ing nor drinking, and they say: he             Watch while all the world is
28:8ff ., where they are portrayed in            hath a devil. The Son of Man came                    sleeping.
their riotous drunkenness. When                  eating and drinking, and they say:
reproved by the prophet they deri-               Behold a man gluttonous, and a                 Christ is coming! Come, Lord,
sively retort, Whom shall he teach               winebibber, a friend of publicans                    come!
knowledge? And whom shall he                     and sinners." Yes, Jesus adds, "But            Christ is coming! in a moment
make to understand doctrine?                     wisdom is justified of her chil-                  Shall the shout resound,
Does he think that we are still                  dren."                                         And the voice of heaven's
babes in arms? He teaches us in the                 Unto this people "say the very                    archangel,
abominable rote: precept upon                    strong word of God's eternal wis-                 And God's trumpet sound;
precept, line upon line, here a little,          dom, "hear ye indeed, but under-               Then the sleeping saints arisen,
there a little!                                  stand not!" In this light we under-            Bursting from their earthly prison,
  But God says to these mockers                  stand that the divine wisdom of the            With the living upward soaring,
"For with stammering lips and an-                Cross through the foolishness of               See their Lord with eyes adoring.
other tongue will he speak to this               preaching is justified in the belieu-          Christ is coming! Come,. Lord,
people." It is not often understood              ing children. Yes, here we take the                  come!
that those in Corinth who clamored               shoes from off our feet, and repeat
for eloquent preachers were not                  with Jesus:                                                           - Heyman  Wrtford
merely guilty of a certain clique                   J thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven
                                                 and earth, because thou hast hid these

                                                                                                     May  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer  11 357


                                          Book Review

UNHOLY HANDS ON TI3E                      with the exception of the New King         "God" in this text). There is his
BIBLE, Volume I (An Introduction          James.                                     study of John Z53-8:ll (omitted in
to Textual Criticism, Including the          The work is not intended for the        the modem versions), `The Woman
Complete Works of John W. Bur-            ordinary church member. It virtu-          Taken in Adultery." There i,s his
gon, Dean of Chichester), by John         ally demands some knowledge of             "The Last Twelve Verses of the
W. Burgon and Jay I! Green, Sr.           the Greek. But preachers who are           Gospel of Mark" (also omitted in
Lafayette, IN: Sovereign Grace            committed to the complete inspira-         the W-H text and in the modem
Trust Fund, 1990. Pages vii-H-12,         tion of Scripture should avail them-       versions).
plus index of biblical texts. Hard-       selves of it, especially those who           The obvious value of UtioZy
cover. $24.95. (Reviewed by the           assume that the W-H text is the best       Hands is that it gives all of Bnrgon's
Editor.)                                  text and those who suppose that            works on textual criticism in one
   When the English Bible (the King       there is no significant doctrinal dif-     volume. The editing out of some of
James Version) was revised in 1881,       ference between the texts. It should       the technical and dated material
the revision (the Revised Version)        be in the libraries of seminaries that     from Burgon's  original writings
abandoned the Greek text of the           hold the doctrine of verbal inspira-       makes the book manageable and
New Testament that had been used          tion and therefore have deep con-          less daunting to the hard pnessed
until then, not only for the English      cern for the authentic text of the         pastor who yet desires to get a han-
Bible but also for all the Bibles of      New Testament. It should be con-           dle on this important textual issue.
the Reformation, e.g., Luther's           sulted in the classes on textual criti-      A biographical sketch of IBurgon
Bible and the Dutch Bible autho-          cism. Reformed and Presbyterian            and a helpful "Introduction"' that
rized by the Synod of Dordt. The          churches that have removed the             clarifies the important issues am
revision chose the newly discov-          KJV from pew and pulpit and m-             supplied by Edward F. Hills, him-
ered Greek text advocated by the          placed it with the NIV would do            self a notable textual scholar and a
textual scholars, Westcott and Hort.      well to reconsider in the light of the     contemporary disciple of  Burgon.
All subsequent English versions,          solid scholarly work and sharp               Fundamental to all of Buigon's
except the New King James, have           warnings of Burgon. Ministers in           thinking and work with the text of
used the Westcott-Hort (W-H) text,        the Protestant Reformed Churches           Scripture was his conviction that
rejecting the Greek Text of the KJV       and in other denominations that re-        the,Bible  is the inspired Word of
as an inferior text.                      tain the KJV will learn that there         God - a divine book. Following
   One godly scholar opposed the          are reasons for this retention in the      from this was his conviction that
change at the time of the revision in     Greek text and will be able to teach       God has providentially preserved
the late 19th century - the-English       their people the serious faults of         the text. These convictions lhave
textual scholar, John W. Burgon.          the modern versions.                       implications for textual criticism.
Burgon defended the Greek text of            Included are an edited version of       The lack of these convictions also
the KJV which he called the Tradi-        Burgon's major defense of the              has implications for textual criti-
tional Text and which is referred to      Greek text of the KJV `The Tradi-          cism.  -
today as the Majority Text or Textus      tional Text of the New Testament,"           The publisher, Jay I'. Green, Sr.,
Recqdus,  as the authentic text of the    and an edited version of his main          informs us that Volume II "will
New Testament Scripture. He criti-        critique of the English Revised            take  up the individual modern
cized the W-H text as false and           Version of 1881, "The Revision Re-         translations and relate them. to the
dangerous.                                vised." The book also includes his         factual information conveyed in
   Unholy Hands  on the Bible is basi-    careful, convincing treatments of          this voh.lme." cl
cally;the complete works of Burgon        controversial passages in the area
on the issue of the Greek text of         of textual criticism and English
Holy Scripture. It is, therefore, a       -translations. There is his "God
powerful defense of the KJV and a         Manifested in the Flesv `on I Tiio-
devastating attack on all modem           thy 3:16 (the W-H text and the
English translations of Scripture         modem English versions omit *

358 I The Standard Bearer I May &1990


                                         -News From
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                      Our Churches

MISSION ACTIVITIES                       year the services formerly held in       May, and Rev. Woudenberg for four
   I thank.Rev. C. Hank0  for fur-       Bradenton were transferred to a          Sundays in May/ June.
nishing the following information.       home in Venice.                            The Council of South Holland1
   For the past nine months weekly         Five couples and four children         PRC in South Holland, IL also re-
worship services and evening Bible       were regular attendants from this        ports that the decision was made to
Study, sponsored by the Protestant       area, supported by others who            continue the work in Fort Wayne,
Reformed Churches, have been             have taken up or consider taking         IN with a review of the work to be
held in Venice, Florida, a city lo-      up residence in this area. Three of      made in one year. The Council also
cated about thirty-five miles south      the local residents in Venice work       instructed the Evangelism Commit-
of Bradenton. These meetings are         with heavy earth-moving equip            tee of South Holland to expand the
conducted by Rev. C. Hanko, with         ment, one is an accountant, and one      work if possible, and to pursue
the assistance of ministers who are      is retired. Their background, for        other means to extend the witness
sent here  by the mission commit-        the most part, is in the Reformed        there.
tee.                                     Church, while one couple comes             The Consistory of the Covenant
   It is more than a year ago that       from the Presbyterians and another       PRC in Wyckoff, NJ turned down a
two families came from Venice to         from the Nazarenes. These have           couple of requests from the Com-
attend the services held in Braden-      been unhappy with the preaching          mittee of Contact requesting that
ton, and have been attending our         they received, hungering for the         their pastor be released either for
services ever since. In May of last      Word of God, and now testify that        one or two months to labor in
                                         their souls are being fed with the       Lame, Northern Ireland or for o:ne
                                         Bread of Life.                           year to labor in Tasmania.
                                           Them are also others who occa-         MINISTERIAL CALLS
                                         sionally attend these services. Time       The congregation of the Ran-
                                         and again visitors (local residents      dolph, WI PRC has extended a call
                                         or individuals contemplating mov-        to Rev. J. Kortering.
                                         ing into this area) inquire as to the      And the Hope PRC in Isabel, ND
                                         possibility of a permanent congre-       has formed a new trio consisting of
                                         gation being established here.           the Revs. M. DeVries, R. Flikkema,
                                           Last September an effort was           and T. Miersma.
                                         made to find a suitable hall for our     CONGREGATION
                                         meetings. This was found in the          HIGHLIGHTS
                                         Shamrock Center on Shamrock                On March 22 Mr. and Mrs.
                                         Boulevard, where we are able to ac-      Henry Brands presented a slide
                                         commodate close to a hundred peo-        program on Australia, Tasmania,
                                         ple. This building has been fur-         and New Zealand for the members
                                         nished with a number of chairs, a        of the First PRC in Edgerton, MN.
                                         platform and pulpit, and also an           At 790 PM on March 27, the con-
                                         organ, all of which gives a comfort-     gregation of the Grandville, MI
                                         able place to worship our God and        PRC met to dedicate formally their
                                         search the Scriptures.                   new church sanctuary. The pro-
                                           And, also with regard to Venice,       gram included remarks from Rev
                                         Rev. C. Hank0 will be returning to       Kortering and Jon Huisken, chair-
                                         Michigan for six weeks. The Mis-         man of the Building Committee.
                                         sion Committee meanwhile contin-         Special numbers were given by
                                         ues to arrange for ministers to labor    both the choir and the Sunday
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Profes-    in the area. Rev. Slopsema will be       School. The congregation was in-
tant Rt@med Church of Hudsonville,       in Venice for two Sundays in April,      cluded personally with a Litany of
Michigan.                                Rev. VanOverloop for two weeks in        Dedication, and with singing of

                                                                                     May  1,199O   I The Standard Bearer  / 359


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STANDARD                                                                                          SECOND  CL4SS
  BlARER                                                                                          Postage Paid at
                                                                                                  Grand Rapids, Michigan

 I?O.  Box 6064
 Grand  Rapids, MI 49506



Psalter numbers. Also dedicated              `Yet the Lord will command his       commanded that what He hath
that night was Grandville's new           lovingkindness in the daytime, and      done be passed in tradition from fa-
organ.                                    in the night his song shall be with     ther to son" Psalter  # 213:2.
   Perhaps Rev. Kortering ex-             me, and my prayer unto the God of       Ron and Linda Corson
pressed it best that night when he        my life" Psalm 42:8.                       Melissa, Chad, Rhonda, Anna
said, "Let us go forward with             Adams Street Christian School Moth-     Randy Carson and Cheryl Bleylenberg
courage and confidence in God's           ers' Club                                  (fiancee)
blessing as we stand together for                                                 Rick and Sharon Carson
the great task which He has given         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     Kyle                Grand Rapid:s, Michigan
to us as a church, the ministry of           The Adult Bible Study group of
the gospel for the gathering of           Southeast Protestant Reformed           NOTICE!
Christ's church from within and           Church, Grand Rapids, extends her          According to the decision of
without."                                 Christian sympathy to Mr. and Mrs.      Synod 1989, the Southeast Protes-
   The Evangelism Committee of            Neal Pastoor in the recent death of     tant Reformed Church was ap-
the First PRC in Holland, MI spon-        his sister CAROL PASTOOR.               pointed the calling church for the
sored a Spring Lecture in Zeeland,           "The Lord knoweth the days of        1990 Synod. The Consistory
MI. Prof. H. Hanko spoke on the           the upright: and their inheritance      hereby notifies our churches that
theme, "Is There a Need for               shall be for ever" Psalm 37:18.         the 1990 Synod of the Protestaiit
Church Revival?" Cl                       Rev. Steven Key, President              Reformed Churches in America will
                                          Henrietta Kamminga, Vice-Secretary      convene, the Lord willing, on Tues-
                                                                                  day, June 5th, 1990 at 9:00 .AM in
                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                     the Southeast Protestant Reformed
                                             On May 4, 1990, our parents and      Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
                                          grandparents MR. and MRS.               The Pre-Synodical Service will be
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                    WILLIAM CORSON will be cele-            held Monday evening, June 4th at
   On April 2, 1990, the Lord, in His     brating their 40th wedding anniver-     7:30. Rev. James Slopsema, Presi-
infinite wisdom, took to Himself one      sary.                                   dent of the Synod of 1989, will
of His precious children, KATIE             We rejoice with them on his           preach the sermon. Synodical dele-
MARIE BRUMMEL.                            happy occasion and are thankful to      gates are requested to meet with
 We express our deepest sympa-            God for their Christian love and in-    the Consistory before the service.
thy to Mary, and to her husband,          struction. It is our prayer that God    Delegates in need of lodging should
Joe, and their family, in the loss of     may continue to guide them in their     contact Mr. R. Moelker, 1448 Calvin
their daughter and sister. We             remaining years together.               S.E., Grand Rapids, Ml 49507,
mourn with them and pray that God           "Instructing our sons we gladly       Phone (616) 452-5753. ,
will be near them and comfort them        record the praises, the works, the                      In the service of our Lord,
with His Word.                            might of the Lord. For He hath                                 For the Consistoty
                                                                                                                  R. Moelker

                                                                                  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                                                    The Martha Society of the Hull
                                                                                  Protestant Reformed Churclh ex-
                                                                                  presses its Christian sympathy to
                                                                                  Mrs. Ralph Brummel in the death of
                                                                                  her husband, MR. RALPH EIRUM-
                                                                                  MEL.
                                                                                     "Wait on the Lord: be of igood
                                                                                  courage and He shall strengthen
                                                                                  thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord"
                                                                                  (Psalm 27:14).
                                                                                  Rev. Richard Moore, President
                                                                                  Mrs. Judy Brummel, Vice-Secnatary




360 I The Standard Bearer I May 1,199O


