A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                Southeast Protestant Reformed Church
                       Grand Rapids, Michigan
                      Site of PRC Synod, 1990





June  2,299O


Contents                                                               June I, 1990
Meditation - Rev. Jason L. Kortering
   BEGOlTEN UNTO A LIVING HOPE
                                                                                                    /SSN 0362-4692
EDITORIALLY SPEAKING . . . - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                        389    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
                                                                                                   and  August.  Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                               lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
   PRC SYNOD, 1990                                                                          389    at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                                   POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The
                                                                                                   Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
THE SEMINARY AND SYNOD - Prof. Roben' D. Decker                                                    49516.
                                                                                                   EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                   Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
MISSIONARY FOR THE BRITISH ISLES - Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                  393    Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                   Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
THE INTERNATIONAL                                                                                  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
   REFORMED CONFERENCE - Prof. Herman C. Hank0                                                     Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                                   Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
                                                                                                   Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys,  Rev.
into All the World - Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop                                                    Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jason Kortering, Mr. James
   MISSION PRINCIPLES (1): THE CALLING                                                      396    Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.  Marybeth  Lub-
                                                                                                   bers, Rev. James  Slopsema,  Rev. Charles  Terpstra,
                                                                                                   Rev.  Cise   VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop,
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                             Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard  Woudenberg.
   DRY ROT AND WORMS                                                                        398    EDITORIAL OFFICE                         CHURCH NEW!5 EDITOR
                                                                                                   The Standard Bearer                      Mr. Ben Wigger
   APPEARANCESCANDECEIVE                                                                    398    4949  lvanrest                           6597  - 40th Ave.
   GAY SOAP OPERA                                                                           398    Crandville,  MI 49418                    Hudsonville,  MI 49426
   PERSECUTION A REALITY FOR MANY CHRISTIANS                                                       EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                            399    Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
                                                                                                   of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
The Reader Asks - Rev. Cornelius Hank0                                                             terest from our readers and questions for The
                                                                                                   Reader Asks Department are welcome. Contribu-
   IS ORATORIO DRAMA?                                                                       400    tions will be limited to approximately  300  words
                                                                                                   and  must be neatly  written  or typewritten, and
A Cloud of Wiinesses                                                                               must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
                           - Prof. Herman C. Hank0                                                 the fifteenth of the month. All communications
   ANTHONY AND THE ASCETICS                                                                 401    relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                   editorial office.
                                                                                                   REPRINT POLICY
When Thou Sittest in Thine House - Rev. Kenneth Koole                                              Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
   RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS CHILDREN (1)                                                    403    articles in our magazine by other publications,
                                                                                                   provided: a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
                                                                                                   duced in full;  b) that proper acknowledgement is
BOOK REVIEWS                                                                                405    made;  c) that a copy of the periodical in which
                                                                                                   such reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
                                                                                                   BU.SlNESS OFFICE                     NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES - Mr. Senjamin Wgger                                                        The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                   Don Doezema                          c/o Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                   P.O. Box 6064                          Church
in This Issue. . .                                                                                 Grand Rapids, Ml                     B. Van Herk
                                                                                                     49516                              66  Fraser St.
   Care to try a "fill in the blanks" exe&se?                                                      PH: (616) 243-3712                   Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                       ( 6 1 6 1   5 3 1 - I   4 9 0
   "...the              b very virtue of its mechanism, easily becomes the chief entertain-        SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
ment, recreation and
              -cclucation medium in the home.... Far more attractive than the news-                Subscription price: $12.00 per year in the U.S.,
                                                                                                   $15.00 elsewhere. Unless a definite request for dis-
                                                                                                   continuance is received, it is assumed that the
                                                                                                   subscriber wishes the subscription to  cont.inue
                                                                                                   without the formality of a renewal order, and he
                                                                                                   will be billed for renewal. If you have a change of
                                                                                                   address, please notify the  Buriness.Office  as early
                                                                                                   as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
                                                                                                   delayed delivery. Include your Zip Code.
                                                                                                   ADVERTISING POLICY
                                                                                                   The Standard  Bearer  does not accept commercial
                                                                                                   advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
                                                                                                   and school events, anniversaries, obituaries, and
                                                                                                   sympathy resolutions will be placed for a $3.00
"both the movie and the theater are to be                                                          fee. These should be sent to the Business Office
   That was before television. The lead  para                                                      and should be accompanied by the 33.00 fee.
                                                                                                   Deadline for announcements is the 1st and the
ing as it did in a January, 1942 SB article                                                        15th of the month,  previbus  to publication on the.
fore TVs were commonplace in our homes. Radio has `hanFed,  of course - most of the                15th or the 1  st respectively.
worst of it having been taken u by television. But I couldn  t help but wonder, as I read          BOUND VOLUMES
the earnest admonition above,atout  radio, how much we have been desensitized to the evil          The Business Office will accept standing orders
of drama by the easy accessibility of all kinds of it in our own living moms.                      for bound copies of the current  volume;  such
                                                                                                   orders are filled as soon as possible after comple-
   Refreshing it is therefore to see a question in `The Reader Asks" about oruforio, and           tion of  a  volume.
about story felling, as they relate to drama. Look to Rex  C. Hanko's response for a timely        16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and  105mm
reminder also of wherein lies the real threat.                                                     microfiche, and article copies are available
   And...keep the questions coming.                                                   -D.D.        through University Microfilms International.

386 I The Standard Bearer I June 1,199O


                                            Begotten Unto a
Meditation                                  Living Hope
Rev. Jason Korterjng


  "Blessed be the God and Fa-               words from his own experience.            We have a future.
ther of our Lord Jesus Christ,              He never forgot that night when           Hope encompasses the future..
which according to his abun-                the cock crew and Jesus looked          "For we are saved by hope, but
                                                                                    hope that is seen is not hope, for
dant mercy hath begotten us                 upon him and he went out and
                                            wept bitterly. Dark, terrifying         what a man seeth, why doth he yet
again unto a lively hope by the             night when the tears flow and the       hope for? but if we hope for that
resurrection of Jesus Christ from           heart cries out convulsively. It        we see not, then do we with pa-
the dead, to an inheritance in-             seems the windows of heaven are         tience wait for it" (Rom. 8:24,25:1.
corruptible, and undefiled, and             shut and we are alone with our          We expect something good in the
that fadeth not away, reserved              guilt and shame. After the night,       future. We are sure of this and
                                            however, comes the day. The same        therefore long for it.
in heaven for you, who are kept             Peter never forgot the message of         More amazing yet, it is a living
by the power of God through                 the women, "Go tell my disciples        hope. To be sure, hope for the fu-
faith unto salvation ready to be            and Peter that I am risen from the      ture includes many things. It is de-
revealed in the last time" (I Pe-           dead and lo, I go before you into       scribed here, in verse 5, as "salva-
ter 1:3-5).                                 Galilee." Of that he writes, "...be-    tion ready to be revealed in the last
                                            gotten unto a living hope by the        time." Also, in verse 4, as an "in-
                                            resurrection of Jesus Christ from       heritance incorruptible and unde-
                                            the dead."                              filed and that fadeth not away, re-
                                              The way to overcome hopeless-         served in heaven for you." Wha.t
  Hope is an inseparable part of            ness is to look by faith upon Jesus     makes all this special? Is it that `we
our salvation.                              the Living One! Our hope is se-         will become rich in the new heaven
  The Holy Spirit says, "...hath be-        cured in Him.                           and earth? To be sure we will. Is it
gotten (literally regenerated) us to          What a joy it is to know we have      that we will be free from pain and
a living hope." The work of salva-          a future.                               suffering, and all enmity will be
tion within us produces hope.                 The Holy Spirit led Peter to think    put away? Indeed it will. It is
  To be hopeless is to be lost.             of the future. When we are in de-       more than anything of such a kind,
  There are moments in our lives            spair we focus upon the past. We        for it is a living hope! Life is fellow-
when it seems that we come terri-           mull things over and over, again        ship with God! Our greatest dis-
bly close to that. Peter wrote these        and again, and each time it seems       tress in the night of sin is our fear
                                            worse than before. The furrows of       of losing favor with God. A future
                                            fear get deeper and deeper. We be-      that includes living hope is one that
                                            come so engrossed in fear that          includes God's smile of love and1
                                            there is no future for us. It is im-    reconciliation. Our hope is that Fa-
                                            possible to imagine things can be       ther will receive this prodigal son
                                            different. There is nothing to live     or daughter, home.
                                            for, much less do we anticipate           For this reason, it is an inheri-
                                            something wonderful in the future.      tance. It is a gift without obligation
                                            If you have ever been in this state     on the part of Father, for He be-
                                            of soul, you can appreciate that the    stows it in love for His children.
                                            Holy Spirit accurately describes the      It is reserved in heaven. That
                                            change that Peter experienced as        word "heaven" holds forth all the
                                            `being born again," the same word       prospect of eternal pleasure, for
                                            for regeneration.                       that heavenly home rises above ,a11
Rev. Kortering  is pastor of the Protes-      He cries out, we are begotten         the effects of sin and death and ra-
tant Reformed Church of Grandville,         unto a living hope.                     diates the presence of Jehovah.
Michigan                                      Amazing grace and love of God!          It is incorruptible, that is, beyond

                                                                                        June 1,199O I The Standard Bearer I 387


the influence of becoming contami-       His glory. The living hope was            vary and inspect the empty tomb.
nated by sin from without, as well       real.                                     Our certainty for the future glory
as undefiled, that is, beyond the in-       Central to all of this are the         rests right here.
fluence of becoming contaminated         words, "by the resurrection of Jesus        How can God ever forgivse us for
by sin from within. Hence the            Christ from the dead."                    our sins? We do not deserve it. Pe-
promise is given, that it will never        It was the Living Lord that made       ter did not either. How could Jesus
fade away.                               all the difference.                       m-instate him in the office of disci-
  Do you clasp this hope to your            When Peter first heard the report      ple and urge him to greater apostle-
breast?                                  of Mary that they had stolen the          ship? It was in the way of his tears.
  May the Spirit of God beget each       body of Jesus, he and John raced to       God forgave him for the sake of Je-
of us unto such a hope.                  the tomb; and we read so graphi-          sus' suffering and death. The de-
  Peter had to-be born again in or-      cally how John outran Peter and           nial of Peter added to the burden of
der to lay hold of this hope. He         waited outside, but when Peter ar-        Calvary. Guilt is clearly established,
was the man who was so self-confi-       rived he barged right in. They saw        but love covers a multitude of sins.
dent. He was the one who said,           the evidence of the tomb and be-          The resurrection of Jesus from the
"though all forsake thee, I will be      lieved the. resurrection. This was        dead forms the judicial basis for di-
faithful." Oh, he meant it. Impetu-      confirmed when Jesus appeared to          vine forgiveness. We have every
ous Peter assumed the role of            Peter later that day (I Cor. 15:5),       reason to approach God in hlumility
leader among the disciples. It got       and also by the greeting extended         and to seek forgiveness became  our
to be too much for him, for being        to the travelers to Emmaus when           sins have been paid by His blood.
number one meant he had to stay          they returned to Jerusalem, "The          Our acceptance before God is not
number one. He swrmg  the sword          Lord is risen indeed and hath ap-         based upon our performance. Je-
to defend his Master. But when Je-       peared unto Simon!"                       sus is the One Who calls, "Come
sus gave Himself to His enemies,           Peter was deeply moved when             unto me, all weary ones, laden with
when He stood silent in the midst        Jesus publicly forgave him and re-        the guilt of sin, I give you rest. The
of His accusers, when He went            instated him in his place of labor as     work of bearing such sin before the
bound from Annas to Caiaphas,  Pe-       a disciple when they had breakfast        Righteous God is done. Come and
ter cried out, THAT MAN I don't          on the shore of Galilee. Remember         rest in me."
know. He denied his Lord three           that amazing interplay. "Simon,             The energy for that new life
times.                                   son of Jonas, lovest thou me more         comes from our Living Savior. He
  He had to be begotten (born            than these?" Peter could not say,         is the One Who works faith within
again) unto this living hope.            Lord I Zove thee; he could say only, I    us so that we cry unto Him iin re-
  And he was.                            like thee (I'm your friend). Even         pentance of sin and seek forgive-
  The crowing of the cock and the        after the third time, Peter could         ness. The gospel comes to u.s and
look of Jesus worked repentance.         only say, I like thee. And Jesus ac-      we respond by that faith and be-
As Jesus said, "Satan hath desired       cepted his humility and confession        lieve that our only hope is in Jesus
to sift you as wheat, but I have         and in the presence of the others in-     Christ. We confess that our
prayed for you, that your faith fail     structed him to be involved in feed-      strength to carry out our calling
not."                                    ing the sheep and lambs.                  comes from His gracious hand day
  The same power which is re-              He was begotten unto a living           by day.
quired to beget in us such hope,         hope.                                       The response that the Ho1.y Spirit
must also keep us in that hope.            The resurrection of Jesus made          prompts in Peter and in us is,
Our nature remains the same. Pe-         all the difference.                       "Blessed be the God and Father of
ter had to struggle with his same          Who preached the first sermon           our Lord Jesus Christ, for all these
impulsive, proud self, all his min-      on Pentecost Sunday? Peter. And           blessings come from Him alone."
istry. He was well aware of that as      being born again unto the living            He has shown us mercy. Why
he wrote to the saints who were          hope, he explained how Jesus was          has God begotten us and kept us in
"scattered abroad for the sake of        not the victim of crime. Rather "be-      this hope? It is due to His overflow-
the gospel" (vs. 1). They needed         ing delivered by the determinate          ing mercy. Mercy is the marvelous
divine power to remain in the            counsel and foreknowledge of              virtue of God that He is touched by
hope. Many of them, Peter in-            God," He was taken by wicked and          compassion to deliver us from our
cluded, were destined to become          cruel hands and crucified. But God        distress. He does this for rmde-
martyrs for the sake of the gospel.      raised Him from the dead, and as          serving sinners. That is free and
  When God keeps us in this hope,        the living Christ He was responsi-        sovereign love.
we say with the apostle Paul,            ble for the power seen in the               In mercy He has given us Jesus
`Nothing can separate us from the        church that day.                          Christ our Lord.
love of God which is in Christ Je-         If you struggle with your doubts          Blessed be that God! We eulo-
sus" (Rom. 8:35-39X                      and fears, the burden of guilt and        gize Him, we speak well to Him,
  Did you ever ask yourself why          shame, and sink into the dark night       for our hope is in Him alone. Cl
dying people speak so much about         of hopelessness, this gospel calls
heaven? The martyrs saw Jesus in         you to gaze upon the cross of Cal-

388 I TheStandardBearerl  June1,1990


                                        Editorially Speaking . . .

  Several meetings in which the            n Psalmody Conference,                Grand Rapids, Mi August 20-23
readers of The Standard Bearer will     Bonclarken Assembly, Flat Rock,          (participation is by invitation only,
be interested are scheduled for this    NC, August l-3 Professor H.              but the evening addresses will be
summer. We list them, their loca-       Hank0 will be one of the speakers;       open to the public-watch the local
tions, and their dates:                 for information, call Arthur Lam-        papers).
  w PRC Synod, Southeast PRC,            oureux at 401-739-1699, or write the      n Reformed Family Conference,
Grand Rapids, Mi, convening on           PR Seminary, 4949 Ivanrest Ave.,        Wales, United Kingdom, August
June 5 (pm-synodical  worship and        Grandville,  Mi 49418).                 31, September  1,2 (speakers will be
prayer service on June 4 at 730            n PR Young People's Conven-           Professor D. Engelsma and Rev. I'.
PM).                                     tion, Redlands, CA, August 6-10.        Rawson;  for information, write Mr.
  n Conference of Sister Churches          n International Congress on           Tony Home, 9 Church Road,
sponsored by the PRC, First PRC,         Calvin Research (Fifth Quadren-         Thombury, Bristol BS12 lEJ, Eng-
Grand Rapids, Mi, June 12-14.            nial), Calvin College and Seminary,     land). 0                         - DJE





Editorial                               PRC Synod, 1990

  The outstanding characteristic of        The Foreign Mission Committee         tinction in missions: church exten-
the 1990 Synod of the Protestant         (officebearers in NW Iowa and           sion work by the local congrega-
Reformed Churches will be a posi-        Minnesota) maintains contact with       tion; domestic missions in the "na-
tive, zealous determination to           Ghana, Africa, and with Singapore.      tive continent"; and foreign mis-
abound in the work of the risen          It proposes putting the Reformed        sions in a foreign country. One ef-
Lord denominationally. This, at          Witness Hour on a European radio        fect of Synod's adoption of the
any rate, is the promise of the          station at a cost of about $100 a       overture of the FMC would be a
agenda. Evident in the agenda are        week. The FMC asked Synod, 1989         more equitable division of the mis-
the capable work and the reasoned,       to divide mission labor between         sion work of the churches in com-
but aggressive recommendations           the Domestic Mission Committee          mon between the two synodical
of the denominational committees.        (MC) and itself along geographical      committees for mission.
It becomes unmistakably plain that       lines. Basically this would mean          The Mission Committee  (MC)
in the goodness of God the PRC are       that the MC (which would be re-         informs Synod that it has discon-
standing steadfast on the Reformed       named the Domestic Mission Com-         tinued sending preachers to the
foundation (there is no challenge to     mittee) would regulate denomina-        group in Alameda, CA because the
creedal doctrine or practice), but       tional missions in the United States    group did not intend that our work
are also willing to carry out the        and Canada, while the FMC would         lead to the formation of a PRC.
work of Reformed churches in the        be responsible for missions in for-      The MC recommends that Synod
world, as Christ gives them the          eign countries. The synod&l             declare the Venice, FL area a de-
ability. It should be a joy to the       study committee is advising Synod       nominational mission field and ap-
delegates to engage in Synod's           to adopt the overture of the FMC.       point Kalamazoo, MI the calling
work.                                    This would involve a threefold dis-     church. Five families in the Venice

                                                                                    June 1,199O ! The Standard Bearer I 389


area have requested a PR mission-          for work in Jamaica is not a pru-         that twelve of our churches favor
ary. (The MC secretary has given           dent expenditure of our means.            the reorganization, although dis-
more information about this possi-         This overture includes the request        agreeing on the divisions, and fif-
ble field in his article in the May 1,     that Synod appoint a committee to         teen oppose it. The committee ad-
1990 issue of The Standard Bearer.)        review the work in Jamaica over           vises Synod to reject the overture of
The Committee is also advising             the past thirty-five years in order to    Southeast. But it recommends in-
Synod to call a missionary for the         avoid mistakes that possibly were         creasing the delegation to synod
British Isles. The missionary would        made in similar work in the future.       from each of the two classes from
be located in the area of Lame,              A study by four men outside the         eight (four ministers and four el-
Northern Ireland, where five fami-         MC on our denominational radio            ders) to twelve (six ministers and
lies with fifteen children and two         work has been completed. Since            six elders). Its grounds are that
individuals have asked for a mis-          the MC has not had time to study          many of the churches recom-
sionary. But he would be available         the report in order to make necom-        mended this; that this provides
for work also in England, where            mendations to Synod, the report           greater representation at synod;
the PRC have developed several             will be brought to Synod, 1991.           and that this makes possible a
significant contacts. An informa-          The MC remarks that this study            greater number of committees of
tive article on this possible field by     recommends some significant re-           pm-advice. Synod will have to
Rev. Jay Kortering, who recently           structuring of our radio work.            weigh these grounds against: the
spent some six weeks in Northern           Presently, the denomination spends        disadvantages of increased travel-
Ireland, appears elsewhere in this         about $20,000 a year supporting the       ing costs and, since more delegates
issue of The SB.                           Reformed Witness Hour on six ra-          will be participating in the deliber-
   The Jamaica mission field will re-      dio stations in the United States         ations, of longer synods.
quire wisdom on the part of the            and Canada.                                 Two, sizable appeals contend
delegates. First Church, Grand               The Contact Committee informs           that the presence of a cross on the
Rapids, calling church for Jamaica,        Synod of various levels of contact        chancel wall of a church building
urges Synod to continue the work.          with the PRC of Wellington, New           constitutes transgression of the sec-
It proposes guidelines that call for       Zealand; the Evangelical Reformed         ond commandment of God's law.
the instruction of the preachers and       Churches of Singapore; Covenant           The consistory against which the
leaders in Jamaica by means of two         Reformed Fellowship, Lame,                appeals are directed holds that a
four-week sessions per year for the        Northern Ireland; the Evangelical         cross in a church building is only a
next four years, conducted by a PR         Presbyterian Church of Australia;         symbol or emblem and thus is no
preacher and layman (elder) from           and the Measbro Dyke Church in            violation of the second command-
the States. This would be an in-           England. The Committee is in              ment. Classis East has sustained
terim measure.as  long as there is no      charge of the Conference of Sister        the position of the consistory.
missionary in the field. The MC            `Churches scheduled for June 12-14,         The PRC have enjoyed steady
desires to continue the work in Ja-        1990 at First PRC, Grand Rapids.          numerical growth again in 11989.
maica by sending an ordained rnin-         The secretary of the Committee in-        The yearbook committee reports an
ister with a capable elder or former       forms our readers concerning this         increase of thirty-two families.
elder as his co-worker. To achieve         conference. elsewhere in this issue.        Synod meets at Southeast PRC,
this, the MC is overturing Synod to        Synod will be asked to approve            Grand Rapids, MI on June 5, the
declare the decision of Synod, 1983,       sending observers to NAPARC               Lord willing. The pm-synodical
that the two who must carry out            (National Association of Presbyte-        prayer service will be held o:n Mon-
the work in Jamaica must be or-            rian and Reformed Churches) at its        day evening, June 4, in the south-
dained ministers, in error.                meeting in 1990, should we again          east sanctuary at 230 PM. The
  The Council of Sound Holland,            be invited.                               president of last year's synod, Rev.
IL PRC has an overture on the                The Theological School Commit-          James Slopsema, will lead the ser-
agenda, that Synod close the Ja-           tee presents several important pro-       vice and preach the sermon.
maica field. The grounds are that          posals concerning an endowment              Our people are urged to a:sk
after thirty-five years there is still     fund for the seminary, an intern          God's blessing upon Synod, 1990.
no possibility of establishing             program, and the pre-seminary di-         For "except the LORD build the
soundly Reformed churches; that            vision of the school. The rector of       house, .they labor in vain that build
there is resistance to the honoring        the seminary reports on these pro-        it: except the LORD keep the city,
of marriage and covenant homes;            posals and on other aspects of our        the watchman waketh but in vain"
that our work takes the form of            seminary elsewhere in this issue.         (Psalm 127:l). Those who live in
working with children, rather than           The Council of the Southeast            the Grand Rapids area are encour-
with the adults (parents); that            PRC, Grand Rapids, MI overtured           aged to attend the Monday evening
Synod has a decision that the work         Synod, 1989 "to approve a reorga-         service of worship and prayer.
must be done by two ordained               nization of classical boundaries to a     Why should Southeast not be filled
ministers, which decision our re-          three-classis church structure." The      to capacity?- All are also welcome.
cent work has not observed; and            synodical study committee report-         at the sessions of synod. It would
that the men and money required            ing to Synod, 1990 informs Synod          seem that the entire agenda will be

390 I The Standard Bearer I June 1,199O


treated in open session. Visitors         tees of pm-advice. Regular sessions      work of the PRC, and magnify
should keep in mind that the first        will begin then on Wednesday at 9        Himself through Synod, 1990! Cl
day - Tuesday - is usually de-            AM.                                                                        - IDJE
voted to the work of the commit-            May Christ our Head prosper
                                          our congregations, advance the




                                          The Seminary
Prof. Roberf Decker                       and Synod

  We have enjoyed under God's             formed Church, has completed his         tionship with the Theological
blessing a profitable year at the         first year in the seminary.              School Committee. That the fac-
seminary. The faculty and students          Assuming synod approves of             ulty meets regularly with the Alca-
have worked together harmo-               the Theological School Commit-           demic Affairs Committee (a three-
niously, and we believe the overall       tee's recommendations, we look           man sub-committee of the TSC)  is
progress of the students has been         forward to having three new semi-        an important contributing factor to
very good. Seminarian Mitchell            narians in September. These are          the fine spirit of cooperation which
Dick, a member of our Grandville          Messrs. Patrick  Baskwell (origi-        exists between us and the Theolog-
Protestant Reformed Church, has           nally from our Norristown, PA            ical School Committee. This can
completed his third year. As many         church and currently a member of         only be for the good of our semi-
of the readers know, Mr. Dick has         Southeast Protestant Reformed            nary and churches under the bless-
been licensed by the faculty to           Church in Grand Rapids), Scott           ing of God.
speak a word of edification in our        Haaksma (from Cornerstone Chris-           The following activities of the
churches. Seminarian Dick eagerly         tian Reformed Church, Hud-               faculty will be reported to the
anticipates delivering his first ser-     sonville, Michigan), and Daniel          synod and, we think, are of interest
mon in the Protestant Reformed            Kleyn (a member of the Evangeli-         to our people. Prof. Robert Decker,
Church of Lynden, Washington              cal Presbyterian Church, Bumie,          Rector and Professor of Practical
where he will, D.V., be conducting        Tasmania). Mr. Haaksma plans to          Theology and New Testament, con-
the worship services June 10,17,          enter the ministry of the CRC and        ducted his course on the office and
and 24. May God bless this brother        Mr. Kleyn intends to enter the min-      work of the elders in our Loveland,
and make him to be a blessing to          istry of the EPC in Australia. In        Colorado PRC in June of 1989 and
the churches. Seminarian                  addition there are several young         at the Seventh Reformed Church in
Leonard Holstege, a member of             men from our churches enrolled in        Grand Rapids during the month of
our Byron Center Protestant Re-           various colleges in both the United      January 1990. The course was well
                                          States and Canada who plan to en-        received in both places. Some sev-
                                          roll in the seminary upon attaining      enty men from area Reformed and
                                          their Bachelor level degrees. For        Christian Reformed Churches were
                                          this we are certainly grateful to our    in regular attendance at all four
                                          faithful God Who is answering our        sessions at Seventh Reformed
                                          prayers for students.                    Church. Prof. Decker also repre-
                                            The faculty is deeply apprecia-        sented our seminary at the com-
                                          tive of the work of Mr. Donald           mencement exercises of  Mid-
                                          Doezema as our Registrar and of          America Reformed Seminary, Cjr-
                                          the work of Mrs. Judi Doezema as         ange City, Iowa in May of 1989. He
                                          our secretary. Mr. and Mrs.              gave the Reformation Day lecture
                                          Doezema help in so many ways             ("The Believer and His Bible") in
                                          and are so efficient that we hardly      Randolph, Wisconsin, and spent
                                          know what we would do without            his Christmas-New Year break
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical    them.                                    preaching in the Hope Protestant
Theology in the Protestant Reformed         We have enjoyed again this past        Reformed Church in Redlands,
Semina y.                                 school year a good working rela-         California, where he also install.ed

                                                                                      June I,1990 / The Standard Bearer .I 391


their new pastor, Rev. Arie denHar-        pastor prior to their being ordained        We continue to purchase books
tog. In addition Prof. Decker gave         into the ministry of the Word.            for our library. The library was in-
the keynote address entitled,                The faculty also strongly favors        creased significantly through the
`Treaching  In the Reformed Tradi-         the proposed Endowment Fund for           donation of much of the late Prof.
tion," at the officebearers confer-        the seminary. The Theological             H. C. Hoeksema's library. M&y of
ence sponsored by Classis West in          School Committee is recommend-            these volumes are difficult to find
March 1990 at South Holland, Illi-         ing that Synod establish such a           and very valuable for both students
nois.                                      fund, mainly for future expansion         and professors. Rev. Robert  C. Har-
   Prof. David Engelsma, Professor         of the faculty and improvements           bath also donated part of his li-
of Dogmatics and Old Testament,            and/or additions to the building.         brary as well as some of his corre-
in addition to his teaching load is        This fund will be built by the vol-       spondence, to the seminary We are
still working diligently on his the-       untary contributions of our people        grateful to the Hoeksema family
sis for the Master of Theology de-         and carefully supervised. No              and to Rev. and Mrs. Harbach for
gree at Calvin Theological Semi-           monies will be budgeted for the           these books. Gradually our library
nary. The thesis deals with the in-        fund. We believe that this fund           is reaching the point where it sup
ner, trinitarian life of God as fel-       `will provide our people an oppor-        ports the Master of Divinity cur-
lowship, with reference to its being       tunity  to support our school. We         riculum offered at our school. We
the ground and source of the life of       believe too that this will enable         note in this connection with appre-
God's children in the church, in           synod to exercise good stewardship        ciation the kind assistance our li-
marriage, and in the home. Prof.           of the resources with which God           brarian has received from Peter
Engelsma traveled to Lynden,               has blessed our churches.                 deKlerk,  who recently retired as
Washington in October of 1989 to             We are grateful to God for the          Theological Librarian of Calvin
give several lectures and to preach        many gifts the seminary has re-           College and Seminary.
in our church there, and attended          ceived in the past year. These              Finally, brothers and sisters, pray
the Calvin Studies Colloquium at           monies have been placed in our            for us that we may have grace to
Davidson College (North Carolina)          Special Fund for major purchases          commit the truth of Holy Scripture
in January 1990. He also gave one          and in our Library Fund. In addi-         as summed in the Reformed Con-
of the keynote addresses at a family       tion a group of donors from one of        fessions which God has so merci-
conference sponsored by our South          our congregations provided suffi-         fully preserved in our churches to
Holland, Illinois congregation in          cient funds to enable us to pur-          "faithful men, who shall be amble to
September of 1989, and lectured at         chase a laser printer. We are now         teach others also" (II Timo&ry 2~2).
the three sessions of "Family Fo-          able to do all of the typesetting for     We pray that the truth of the
rum," held in First Church (G.R.) in       our Journal and other seminary            sovereign grace of God in Christ Je-
the spring of this year.                   publications in our own office. To        sus may be faithfully preached in
   Prof. Herman Hanko, now com-            receive gifts such as these is a          our churches and on the mission
pleting his 25th year as professor of      source of great encouragement to          fields to God's glory until Jesus re-
Church History and New Testa-              us.                                       turns. cl
ment, spent his Christmas break
serving the people of God in Lame,
Northern Ireland. He continues
also to work with Mrs. Gertrude
Hoeksema on the finishing of sev-
eral writing projects begun by the
late Prof. H. C. Hoeksema. Prof.                              M O R E ,   M Y   G O D ,   O F   T H E E
Hank0 presented a sectional on the
elders' calling to supervise the
preaching, at the officebearers' con-      Less, less of self each day,              Riper and riper now,
ference sponsored by Classis West;                And more, my God of                     Each hour let me become;
and he also attended the Calvin                      Thee;
Studies Colloquium at Davidson                                                       Less fond of things below,
College in January 1990.                   Oh keep me in Thy way                          More fit for such a h.ome.
   The faculty is enthusiastic in its             However' rough it be.
support of the proposed Intern Pro-                                                  More moulded to Thy will,
gram coming from the Theological
School Committee to Synod. We              Less of the flesh each day,                   Lord, let Thy servant be;
hope synod approves of this pro-                  Less of the world and sin;         Higher and higher still --
gram because we are convinced it           More of Thy love, I pray,                     Nearer and nearer Thee.
will provide our seminarians with                 More of Thyself within.
valuable practical experience in the
various aspects of the work of a                                                             - SB, December 15,193O

392 I The Standard Bearer I June I,1990


                                           Missionary for the
Rev. Jason Korfering                       British Isles.

  A proposal is coming to synod            eventually to the establishment of a     tial for work. The Holy Spirit has
from the Mission Committee to de-          sister church relationship with that     blessed these labors to the extent
clare the British Isles a field of mis-    congregation. For various reasons,       that two more families have joined
sion labor for our churches and to         Pastor Hutton decided that it was        the three that came out of the B.P.C.
appoint a calling church for the           better for the congregation to break     One of these families was alreadiy
purpose of calling a missionary to         the sister church relationship with      attending when the church split
labor there. This was recom-               us and to seek membership in the         took place. The other family has
mended to the Mission Committee            Free Presbyterian Church of Scot-        come from the Free Presbyterian
by the Committee of Contact which          land. This forced the membership         Church of Northern Ireland. Two
was given the mandate by a previ-          of the already small congregation        individuals have also left their for-
ous synod to make a careful study          to make a decision whether to go         mer church affiliation in order. to             '
by means of personal labor in the          along with this proposed change.         join with the Covenant Reformed
area. As reported previously, Pas-         They faced a doctrinal as well as a      Fellowship, the name the group has
tor Ken Hank0 worked there for             practical issue. The F.P.C. of Scot-     taken for themselves. In addition,
approximately six months, fol-             land holds to the Westminster Con-       there is interest shown by others:
lowed by about four months of la-          fession of Faith, but also common        one family regularly attends the
bor shared by Prof. Hanko, Rev.            grace and the free offer of salva-       worship services; other individuals
Kortering, and Rev. VanBaren.              tion. The issue of the marriage of       attend occasionally both the wo:r-
  The British Isles, comprised as it       divorced persons was once again          ship services and the public lec-
is of Great Britain (England, Scot-        opened up. This was a very trying        tures that are given. Most recently,
land, Wales) and Ireland (Northern         time for three families and one in-      when Rev. VanBaren gave lectures
Ireland and the Irish Republic), is        dividual who turned to the l?R.C.        in Ballymena, about 15 miles north-
admittedly a large field of pro-           for advice and help. Our churches        west of Lame, 20-25.visitors  were
posed labor. A word of explana-            were careful not to involve our-         present at each of five lectures. Ad-
tion is in order.                          selves in the internal affairs of a      vertisements of, pamphlets were
   Most of our readers will recall         former sister church, but at the         placed in the local papers and these
that Northern Ireland, more partic-        same time we realized the faith          drew an average of 3590 requests.
ularly the Lame area, was the loca-        struggle of these families. Synod        The Fellowship is governed by the
tion of the Bible Presbyterian             sent a committee to meet with the        six men who have business meet-
Church of Lame, pastored  by Rev.          families who asked for help and to       ings at least once a month. They
George Hutton. Contact with our            try to evaluate whether there was a      have made provision for the in-
churches, especially by delegations        possible field of labor. It soon be-     struction of their children in a cate-
traveling from that church to              came evident that such an evalua-        chism program. They meet regu-
America and by our sending men             tion required more than a visit of a     larly for Bible study. They express
from our churches to visit them, led       few weeks. It required an extensive      appreciation for the labors of.our
                                           period. After this period of eight or    ministers among them. They work
                                           nine months of intensive work            hard to promote the work, to visit
                                           which included preaching on the          personally with anyone who shows
                                           Lord's days, lecturing every week,       interest, to contribute financially.
                                           visiting those who showed some           And they pray for God's blessing
                                           interest, all the brothers who la-       upon these labors. The great need
                                           bored there expressed agreement          they feel in their hearts is for a mis- .
                                           with the request of the families con-    sionary. It is also noteworthy that
                                           cerned that there is an open door        they do not feel the least uncom-
                                           for mission work in that area.           fortable in asking for a missionary
Reu. Kortering is pastor of the Protes-      The Northern Ireland aspect of         to labor among them. Though they
tant Reformed Church of Grandville,        the field holds the greatest poten-      themselves are thoroughly  commit-
Michigan.

                                                                                       June 1,199O  I The Standard Bearer 1' 393


Leaders of the Covenant Reformed Fellowship.                       Youngest Catechism Class of the Fellowship.



ted to the truth of the Reformed          Rev. Philip Rawson; Mr. Tony                the life of the believer, as well as
faith, they desire to reach out to        Home and his magazine, The Pres-            ways in which individuals and
others. Without a missionary pas-         byterian;  and other influential indi-      churches can reach out to witness
tor, they gather each Lord's day to       viduals and churches that show in-          concerning this truth to others. A
listen to recorded sermons sent to        terest in the Reformed faith in Eng-        second meeting is scheduled for the
them from our churches. We can            land. The religious situation in            latter part of May to continue this
appreciate their concern that such        England is so much different from           discussion. Out of this contact,
recorded messages don't hold              Northern Ireland that viewing Eng-          plans are developing to have a fam-
much appeal for those who inquire         land as a field of labor requiring a        ily conference later this summer in
about their worship services. In          full-time missionary is premature.          a campground in England when
this day of "little things," they have    One statistic alone, namely that            Prof. Engelsma will be with them.
to learn, as we do, only the Lord         only about 4% of the general popu-          They intend to advertise this, and
can answer the call for laborers in       lation attend church on the Lord's          see if any other families of Re-
the fields that am white unto har-        day, indicates the pervasive secu-          formed and Presbyterian persua-
vest.                                     larism within the communities.              sion might be interested in attend-
  The reason that the field of labor      Add to that the tragic fracturing           ing.
for the proposed missionary is des-       among those who have some re-                  It is comforting to us that .the Son
ignated as the British Isles, and not     mote connection with Presbyterian           of God gathers, defends, and pre-
just Northern Ireland, is twofold.        or Reformed faith by the presence           serves His church by His Spirit and
  First, the missionary has to have       of Neo-Pentecostalism, and you              Word out of the whole human race.
a place of residency for intensive        can see the difficulties involved.          This gathering takes place by the
labor. This quite naturally is the              There is already a beginning          still small voice of the faithful
Lame area. It appears that there is       work in England. Pastor Philip              preaching of the gospel. The suc-
plenty of opportunity for such la-        Rawson is busy distributing our             cess of this work may not be mea-
bor there. The members of the             printed material and taped mes-             sured by numbers, or how much
Covenant Reformed Fellowship              sages throughout the United King-           impact it makes upon our secular
also take interest in the broader pic-    dom. Mr. Tony Home has given                society, or how much attention it
ture of the British Isles and recog-      our churches much exposure in his           generates in the public press,, reli-
nize that any missionary sent to          magazine. This includes book re-            gious or secular. The fruit .of the
live in the Lame area will also be        views and mention of the activities         gospel is seen in the lives of those
involved in travel to England, Scot-      that are taking place in the British        who come under the preachjig of
land, and Wales as the opportunity        Isles. As Pastor Ken Hanko re-              that Word. This is true for each one
presents itself.                          ported, last December there was a           of us who is involved in sending
  Secondly, the rest of the British       meeting between those who ex-               the Word. The same is true for
Isles holds little prospect for any       press this interest in the Reformed         those across the Atlantic W~ID re-
immediate intensive labor. We             faith in England with the men of            ceive it. Lives so changed bring
have important contacts with oth-         the Covenant Reformed Fellowship            glory to the God Who rules the
ers in England. Most of us are            of Lame. At this meeting they dis-          hearts of men through His Son, Je-
aware of the Measbro Dyke Church          cussed what the nature of the Re-           sus Christ. May that glory be given
of Bamsley, England, pastored  by         formed faith is and how it affects          to Him forever. Cl

394 I TheStandardBearerI  Junel,1990


                                              The International Re-
     Prof. Herman Hanko                       formed Conference

       An important event in the his-          meet in Southeast Protestant Re-        Rawson  will speak on `The Work
     tory of our churches is scheduled         formed Church of Grand Rapids.          of the Church in Barnsley." In the
     for the second seek in June, imme-        And all our people from through-        evening, beginning at 730, Rev.
     diately after the meeting of Synod.       out our churches have been issued       Lau Chin Kwee will speak on "The
     The plans for this event were be-         a special invitation to attend. This    Acceptance of Baptisms from Other
     gun several years ago, and the            latter needs underscoring, for it       Churches."
     Contact Committee has worked              seems as if there has been some           On Thursday morning, begin-
     long and hard for it since the idea       confusion on the matter. All our        ning again at 9:00, Rev. Rodney
     was first suggested. It is the Inter-     people are cordially invited to at-     Miersma will speak on "The Pro-
I    national Reformed Conference to           tend the meetings, and it is the        motion of More Meaningful Sister-
     which will be coming, the Lord            hope of the Contact Committee that      Church Relationships." In the af-
     willing, people of God from many          many will find the time to attend.      ternoon session, Rev. Jaikishin
     different parts of the world.             This invitation is extended also to     Mahtani will speak on "The Work
       Saints will be coming from              all other readers of The Standard       of the Evangelical Church in Singa-
     Northern Ireland and from Eng-            Bearer who are interested in attend-    pore."
     land; from Singapore, New                 ing this historic event.                  Thursday evening is set aside for
     Zealand, and Australia. These will          The theme of the Conference is:       a banquet which is not open to the
     include representatives from the          "Fellowship in the Gospel."             public, but is`reserved for the dele-
     Covenant Reformed Fellowship of             A brief resume of the program         gates to Synod and the representa-
     Lame; Rev. Philip Rawson  from the        will perhaps whet the appetite of       tives from other parts of the wo:rld.
     Measbro-Dyke Evangelical Church           our readers. The Conference be-         At the banquet Rev. Philip Rawson
     of Bamsley, EngIand; Revs. Lau            gins on Tuesday, June 12. At 9:00       wiI1 speak on "The Beauty of Chris-
     Chin Kwee and Jaikishin Mahtani           AM Rev. Charles Terpstra will de-       tian Fellowship."
     from Singapore; Rev. Rodney               liver the keynote address-entitled,       All the speeches will be followed
     Miersma and an elder from the             "The Holy Spirit - His Word in the      by a time for refreshments and fel-
     Protestant Reformed Church of             Economy of Salvation." After            lowship. The Committee has pur-
     Wellington, New Zealand; and              noon-lunch, at 1:30, Rev. Chris         posely set aside time for this so that
     Revs. Chris Coleborn  and Philip          Coleborn  will speak on "The Holy       there will be abundant opportunity
     Burley from the Evangelical Pres-         Spirit and the error of Pentecostal-    to visit with others, especially the
     byterian Church of Australia. Pre-        ism." In the evening, beginning at      delegates from foreign lands. At
     sent also will be the delegates to        230, Rev. Rodney Miersma will           noon, lunch will be served for all
     our Synod which is scheduled to           speak on `The Work in New               who wish to stay.
                                               Zealand by the Protestant Re-             We are looking forward to this
                                               formed Church of New Zealand."          important event with eagerness
                                               At 8:30, Rev. Philip Burley will ad-    and anticipation. We believe that it
                                               dress the audience on, `The Work        will `be a time of good fellowship
                                               of the Evangelical Presbyterian         for all who attend, that it will serve
                                               Church of Australia."                   to strengthen the bonds which
                                                 On Wednesday morning, begin-          unite us with others of like pm-
                                               ning at 9:00, Prof. Robert Decker       cious faith with us, and that it will
                                               will speak on "The Holy Spirit -        have the fruit of appreciating more
                                               The Call to Mission Work and the        fully the great truth of the gospel
     Prof. Hanko, a secreta y of the Com-      Spread of the Gospel." After noon-      that the church of Christ is truly a
     mittee@ Contact with Other                lunch, beginning at 1:30, Rev. Jaik-    catholic church.
     Churches, is professor of Church His-     ishin Mahtani will speak on "A Re-        We urge strongly that our read-
     toy and New Testament in the Protes-      formed Theological Seminary in          ers consider attending these meet-
     tant Reformed Semina y.                   the Pacific Area," and Rev. Philip      ings, if they are able. 0

                                                                                          June 1,199O / The Standard Bearer .I 395


into A/i                                      Mission Principles
the World
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                        (1): The Calling

   In this article we begin a series in          We must hear this "Commis-              required only when the majority
which we will consider what the                sion" as if Christ were speaking it       are moved to give it. Obedience to
Scriptures have to say concerning              to us. We must hear Him speak             this command of the Almighty
the principles and methods of mis-             with authority, "Go ye."                  Lord is not a matter of preference.
sions.                                           The word of Christ is a living'         A church may not be deterred from
          *******                              word. It does not have power yes-         fulfilling her mission calling by the
   The definition of "missions" un-            terday alone, but possesses the           presence of problems, by perceived
der which we will be working is                same power today also. It is not          inability, or by lack of means.
the following:  Missions is that work          binding upon the apostles only, but                *al-*****
of God in Christ, through the official         has authority upon the church of            The demand of the Lord of the
ministry of the Word by the church, by         all ages, and upon every Christian.       church to do mission work is as
which Christ, the Chief Shepherd of the        The Captain of salvation requires         much the calling of an established
sheep, gathers His elect out of all the        from us obedience as prompt and           congregation as is the preachting of
nations of the world. EssentiaIZy the          as perfect as He expected it from         God's Word twice a Lord's day
risen Lord accomplishes this by means          the Apostles.                             from the pulpit of their church
of the preaching of the gospel to all            It is necessary for the church to       building. It is as much the calling
creatures.                                     do the work of missions because it        of the established congregation as
          *  *  *  *  *  *  *                  is the means by which Christ, the         is the catechizing of the seed of the
   The church of Christ has the ex-            Chief Shepherd, gathers His elect         covenant in her midst.
plicit duty by the command of                  sheep out of all the nations of the         It is not legitimate to give one of
Christ, the King and Head of the               world. Of course, Christ can do as        these divinely-given callings a
church, to go into all the world,              He pleases. However, it is the good       higher priority than the other. It is
and to preach the gospel to every              pleasure of God that Christ gather        improper to make the judgment
creature. This duty is commonly                His sheep through the use of              that God's command to evangelize
called "The Great Commission."                 means, specifically through the use       is less important than His com-
   And Jesus came and spake unto them          of the church's activity of missions      mand to preach in the local congre-
saying, All power is given unto Me in          and evangelism. Therefore, mis-           gation. Just as the individual be-
heaven and in earth. Go ye threfore, and       sions is to be viewed as a necessity      liever is not allowed to divide the
teach all nations, baptizing them in the       in the life of the church.                ten commandments and give them
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of             *******                           different levels of priority, so the
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to obseroe
all things whatsoever I have commanded           The church of Christ, as mani-          church of Christ does not have the
you: and lo, I am with you alway, ewm          fested in the local congregation and      right to make the preaching on her
unto the end of the                            in the denomination, MUST labor           own pulpit a matter of greater ur-
                    world  (Mdt. 2898-20).
  And He said unto them, Go ye into all        to fulfill this sacred calling and        gency and importance than the
the world, and preach the gospel to every      privilege according to the measure        preaching on the mission fields.
creature (tirk 16:15).                         of its God-given ability.                   This is not to suggest that we
                                                 This command is without any             should be ready to send all osur
                                               limitation, and obedience to it is re-    ministers to labor in mission fields
                                               quired without conditions. There is       throughout the world and le'ave
                                               no legitimate excuse for non-com-         our own pulpits vacant. Sanctified
                                               pliance - not ignorance, not weak-        judgment must be used in our try-
                                               ness, nothing.                            ing to determine the will of the
                                                 Obedience to this call of Christ        Lord with respect to specific calls to
                                               may not be delayed till after or          "come over and help" -judgment
Rev. VanOverloop is pas for of Bethel          when the majority are of the united       which takes into account also the
Protestant Reformed  Church in Elk             opinion that the work should or           matter of comparative needs; but,
Grove  Village, Illinois.                      can be performed. Nor is obedience        and this is the point, we may never

396 I TheStandardBearerl  June1,1990


so concentrate on meeting our own          pending on the adequacy of my re-            have serious results. Not only is
needs as a denomination, and as            sources at the moment. When God,             the peace of the church of Christ
congregations in it, that we neglect       in the same wise and good provi-             disrupted as brothers eye each
the great calling of Christ to be          dence, places an interested individ-         other suspiciously, but also the
busy in missions. To speak frankly         ual or a small group of interested           ones on the mission field, to whiom
a denomination may not be hesi-            people in our path, it is not our            all the attention should be given
tant in its efforts to call and send       choice to determine whether we               and who are so much in need of the
missionaries and to establish mis-         will or can help them because our            attention, continue to lie injured in
sion fields at those times when            resources are limited. Would the             the road, as the doctors and
there are not enough ministers to          good Samaritan have been a proper            paramedics argue over who should
fill every local congregation and          neighbor to the wounded man if he            determine the method of treatment.
each professorial position in its          first considered the cost and then           Of course, resolutions to problems
seminary Nor may a local congre-           on the basis of his ability to help, or      and misunderstandings must be
gation stop its local evangelism ef-       lack thereof, would or would not             reached (and that in a brotherly
forts at those times that it is with-      have given his help? Note well               manner), but obedience to Christ!s
out a pastor of its own.                   that Jesus did not tell us, in that          command must be given higher
  Admittedly mission work is               Parable, how much time and                   priority.
more difficult when there is a             money the good Samaritan had -                            *  *  *  **  *.
shortage of ministers. But our re-         it did not make any difference to               The Almighty Lord has given the
sponse to that difficulty should not       Him. Nor should it to us.                    command to do mission and evan-
be to neglect one aspect of our                     **x-*x-**                           gelism work. Obedience by His ser-
God-given calling and to concen-               Sadly, but necessarily, a few            vants must be joyfully and zeal-
trate only on the other. Disobedi-         words must be said concerning the            ously rendered.
ence is never permitted. Rather the         supervision of domestic and for-               The all-encompassing authority
solution is to be found in doing the       eign mission work. It is absolutely          and power of our Lord makes us
best that can be done with both.           vital that the Mission Committee             very careful to adhere to the Word
The needs of the local congregation        and the consistory of the calling            of Christ in the totality of our e:n-
are great-just as great as those of        church labor conscientiously to-             deavors. How can we be careless
its "neighbors" who are either nor-        gether in the spirit of brotherly            about the goals, when the One Who
mally without or always without             trust and cooperation. Much im-             defines the goals has all power? In-
the faithful and regular exposition        portant time and the valuable gifts          difference is not to be tolerated,, for
of God's Word.                             of capable men can be wasted if              the mandate is of our sovereign
  When God, in His wise and good           consistory and Mission Committee             Lord.
providence, places a neighbor in           are stymied in the work because it              King Jesus has spoken! He is
my path, it is not my choice to de-        has not been determined who has              worthy of being obeyed. Cl
termine whether I will help, de-           ultimate authority. Squabbles can




                                         "ONE DAY AT A TIME"

One day at a time with its failures and fears,                   Swift cometh His answer so clear and so sweet;
With its hurts and mistakes, with its weakness and               `Yes I will be with thee, thy troubles to meet;
  tears,                                                         I will not forget thee, nor fail thee, nor grieve;
With its portion of pain and its burden of care;                 I will not forsake thee, I never will leave."
One day at a time we must meet and must bear.
                                                                 Not yesterday's load we are called to bear,
One day at a time to be patient and strong,                      Not the morrow's uncertain and shadowy care;
To be calm under trial and sweet under wrong;                    Why should we look forward or back with dismay?
Then its toiling shall pass and its sorrow shall cease;          Our needs, as our mercies, are but for the day.
It shall darken and die, and the night shall bring peace.
                                                                 One day at a time and the day is His day;
One day at a time -but the day is so long,                       He hath numbered its hours, though they haste or delay,
And the heart is not brave, and the soul is not strong;          His grace is sufficient, we walk not alone;
Oh Thou pitiful Christ be Thou near all the way;                 As the day, so the strength, that He giveth His own.
Give courage and patience and strength for the day.
                                                                                                                       - SB, 1930


                                                                                             June 1,199O I The Standard Bearer I397


                                                     n Dry Rot and Worms
                                                     n Appearances Can Deceive
                                                     n Gay Soap Opera
All Around Us                                        n Persecution a Reality for
 Prof. Robert Decker                                           Many Christians

 H Dry Rot and Worms                                 H Appearances                            tive, contributing members. !$ se-
                                                     Can Deceive                              rious is the problem that Schuller
    D. Stuait Briscoe in A Passion For                                                        himself reports that from 1980 to
 Preaching tells this story from                                                              1986 "The Hour of Power"
                                                       While on a preaching assignment
 which both those of us who preach                                                            (Schuller's TV ministry> con-
                                                     at the Hope Protestant Reformed
 and those of us who hear the                                                                 tributed some 14.7 million dollars
                                                     Church in Redlands, California
preaching might learn:                                                                        toward the support of the Crystal
                                                     during the Christmas - New Year's
    An English vicar with his mind on de-                                                     Cathedral. (The above is gleaned
                                                     holidays my wife and I in company
 caying buildings announced one a?ay that                                                     from a report by Scott Fagerstrom
 the offerto y abouf                                 with a couple from the church took
                         fo be taken would be de-                                             which appeared in The Seattle
 voted in its entirety to the extermination of       a guided tour through the campus         Times, March 8,199O and which is
 ay rot in the pulpit and worms in the pew.          of Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathe-      reprinted  in Christian Renewal.)
 Inadvertently he had touched a nerve. Not           dral in Pasadena. We were im-              Aside from anything else (and
 infrequently the rot in the pdpit is so ay          pressed on two counts. The place         that's a big "aside"!), if the above
 that it causes the people to wriggle wearily        is huge! The cathedral itself, the       be true is it not foolish for so lmany
 through the dark, subterranean passages of          chapel, bookstore and other build-       evangelicals  (including many in
 thought without any real sense of direction         ings, and the grounds are stun-
 or hops of arrival. Whefher the problem be                                                   churches in the Reformed tradition)
                                                     ningly beautiful. We were also im-
 worms in pews or owls on tombstones, we                                                      to flock to the sessions of the
                                                     pressed with the fact that Schuller's
 need to ask, "How is it possible for a mes-                                                  Robert Schuller Institute for S,uc-
 sage as electrifying as fhe Christian gospel        "power of-positive thinking"             cessful Church Leadership?
 to be presented in such a way that it is            (Schuller is a disciple of Norman
 greeted with something less than euphoria           Vincent Peale) as espoused by the
 and responded to with something less than           tour guide is a long way removed
 enthusiasm?" (quoted in Christianity To-            from the truth of Scripture as           n Gay Soap Opera
 day).                                               summed in the Reformed Confes-
                                                     sions.                                     We live in a day of unprece-
                                                       As to our first impression, ap-        dented evil. Fox Network, a cable
                                                     pearances can be deceiving. Ac-          TV network, produced a soap
                                                     cording to recent reports, the           opera,  Forbidden Passions,  which de-
                                                     Cathedral is in trouble. And the         bated on several community access
                                                     trouble is a declining membership.       channels in early February. This
                                                     In 1984 there were 7,623 active          show features homosexuality.
                                                     members; by 1989 that number had         David Gadbury  of Golden West
                                                     dropped to 2,027. While the Cathe-       Productions who produces, writes,
                                                     dral is packed with worshipers on        and acts in Forbidden Passions was
                                                     Sunday mornings, many of these           quoted as saying, "We're going to
                                                     are visitors, not active members;        tackle issues that daytime series
                                                     and visitors do not put much             have been afraid to approach."
                                                     money into the collection plate.         Passions is taped in Orange County,
                                                     Schuller has no problem attracting
 Prof. Deckzr is professor of Practical                                                       California where Gadbury  lives.
                                                     visitors to his church. His problem
 Theology in the Protestant Reformed                                                          "A lot of the story line is based on
                                                     is converting those visitors into ac-
 Semina y.                                                                                    real events," says Gadbury, who

 398 I `Ike Standard Bearer I June 1,199O


adds that many scenes will reflect        the church. Before the December          all of God's people among thena-
his own life. Gadbury  explains,          revolution Romania was among the         tions must be for the biblical truth
"I'm just trying to promote a posi-       worst Eastern European oppressors        of God's providence so eloquently
tive image for the gay community          of the church. But according to          expressed in The HeideZberg  Cate-
and better understanding for the          Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), who has         chism: "The  almighty and every-
non gay ~0mmunity.~  If successful,       visited the country several times,       where present power of God;
Gadbury  hopes Passions can move          the provisional governmenYs  per-        whereby, as it were by his hand, he
to broad-based cable TV next year.        petuation of a religion bureaucracy      upholds and governs heaven,
  The non gay, Christian commu-           has raised fears that little may         earth, and all creatures; so that
nity understands very well that ho-       change for evangel&&s.  Rather           herbs and grass, rain and drought,
mosexuality is the worst, most fla-       than abolish the Department of           fruitful and barren years, meat and
grant manifestation of the repro-         Cults, which held an iron grip over      drink, health and sickness, riches
bate mind (cf. Romans 1:18-32).           religion, the National Salvation         and poverty, yea, and all things
These ungodly `know the judg-             Front has elevated it to ministry        come, not by chance, but by his fa-
ment of God, that they which com-         level. Several recent actions by the     therly hand." Knowing and be!iiev-
mit such things are worthy of             new Ministry of Cults have caused        ing this precious truth, "we may be
death," yet they, "not only do the        concern among Christians. For ex-        patient in adversity; thankful in
same, but have pleasure in them           ample, government officials told         prosperity; and that in all things,
that do them" (Romans 1:32).              the newly formed Evangelical Al-         which may hereafter befall us, we
  Surely God's judgments cannot           liance to make several changes in        place our firm trust in our faithful
be faroff.  Let us recognize this as a    its by-laws to qualify for recogni-      God and Father, that nothing shall
sign from God that "the end of all        tion. Among the requested                separate us from his love; since all
things is at hand," and let us `be        changes were government ap-              creatures are so in his hand, that
sober and watch unto prayer"              proval of all Alliance decisions and     without his will they cannot so
(U. S. A. Today).                         the confinement of religious activi-     much as move" (Qand A. 27-28). Cl
                                          ties to church buildings. Alliance
                                          leaders finally compromised by
                                          promising to respect the laws of the
n Persecution a Reality                   country Fears of interference re-
                                          main, however, because the Min-               HE LOVED ME -
for Many Christians                       istry of Cults is contemplating               HE SOUGHT ME
                                          passing a new religion law based
  Some 150 to 250 Christians face         on the 1928 law of the pre-commu-        I have a friend, whose faithful love
charges for violating laws against        nist era. Under that law the Roma-          Is more than all the world to
conversion and proselytization in         nian Orthodox Church had virtu-
the Hindu state of Nepal. Persecu-        ally unlimited power, while other        "Iis rgher than the heights above,
tion of Christians, according to sev-     religions were severely restricted          And deeper than the soundless
eral reports, has increased sharply       (Christianity Today).                        sea:
during the past year. About 180             It will interest our readers to              So old, so new,
cases of prosecution were reported        know that there is a rather large de-          So strong, so true;
in 1989, compared with only one or        nomination of Reformed Churches          Before the earth received its frame
two in 1979 according to a report         in Romania whose creedal basis is        He loved me. - Blessed be His.
issued by the Pueblo Institute, a         the Ha'delberg  Catechism. Whether           name!
Washington, D. C. based human             these churches are part of the Evan-
rights group. Though most of the          gelical Alliance or not, we do not       He held the highest place above,
Christians charged am free on bail,       know. However that may be,                  Adored by all the sons of
at least 10 are seiving jail sentences    surely the Reformed Churches suf-            flame,
and at least 50 are in police cus-        fer under these laws and restric-        Yet, such His self-denying love,,
tody. Protestant evangelicals  have       t i o n s .                                 He laid aside His crown and:
borne the brunt of government per-          Rev. Bernard Woudenberg, pas-              came
secution because of their persistent      tor of our Kalamazoo PRC, is plan-             To seek the lost,
efforts to evangelize CChristianity       ning a trip to Romania this coming             And, at the cost
Today).                                   summer to confer with leaders in         Of heavenly rank and earthly fame,
  All is not well for the churches in     the Reformed Churches. Perhaps           He sought me. - Blessed be His
Romania, in spite of recent events        he will be able to tell us mom of the       name!
in that country. Many leaders of          situation in that country.
the churches in Romania as well as           Let us pray daily for those perse-                   - SB, October 15,293O
church leaders in the West are be-        cuted in Nepal, Romania, China,
coming increasingly concerned that        and other countries.
the new political freedoms in Ro-            How thankful these Christians,
mania may not mean freedoms for           we Christians in the U.S., as well as

                                                                                       June1,1990/TheStandardBearez/  399


 The Reader
Asks
Rev. Cornelius Hanko                         Is Oratorio Drama?

   Coda you explain the moral differ-               Drama is defined in Webster's             On the other hand, when the ac-
ence between drama and oratorio?             Dictionary  as, "A composition, now            tor relives the sinful deeds of an-
   Maybe I should explain my ques-           usually in prose, arranged for en-             other he is placing himself in that
tion. Pve sung in several oratotios          actment, and intended to portray               sinful situation. Can he do thlat
which required the chorus to sing an         life and character, or to tell a story         without sinning? Can he, for exam-
evil crowd chorus (e.g., "Let Him de-        by actions, and, usually, dialogue,            ple, enact a love scene and remain
Ever Him" in Handel's Messiah,               tending toward some results based              coldly indifferent? The successful
"Bad, We C y to Thee" in                     upon them; a play."                            actor takes his audience along with
Mendelsshon's  Elijah,  and  "CrucijiJ`             The key word is enactment, i.e., a      him, so that they also experience
from Bach's Passion According to St.         "playing the part of." The actor               the same sinful emotions that ac-
John.  Such choruses hold essential          places himself in the situation of             company the deed. They sin vicari-
meaning for the overa message, but           another individual, either imagi-              ously, often even making them-
they require the singer to imitate evil.     nary or real, pretending to be that            selves guilty of sins they would be
(I have the same dilemma regarding ef-       person and taking his place in cer-            ashamed to commit.
fective sto y telling or even Bible read-    tain experiences.                                We do well to give this our seri-
ing.) It seems necessa y, but it seems              Therefore, to be a successful ac-       ous consideration, especially as we
to have that same ekment  of wrong-          tor he must be able to enter into the          live in the midst of a godless .world,
ness as other drama (overacting). Can        thoughts and feelings of the indi-             in which God is no longer recog-
you explain it? I'd be grateficl.            vidual he is enacting, or imperson-            nized, God's law is violently trod-
   Let me say at the outset that I           ating. For in the minds of the audi-           den under foot, and sin is no longer
can appreciate your disapproval of           ence that actor must be so com-                regarded as sin!
drama, your antipathy toward it,             pletely associated with the real per-            The question is, Is oratorio the
and even your dilemma in singing             son, as if he were that person. The            same as drama? Does the choir ac-
in an oratorio that expresses evil.          actor and the audience must be                 tually involve itself in the contempt
Personally I have a strong dislike           able to put heart and soul into that           and hatred expressed by the angry
for anything that resembles playing          experience in order really to enjoy            mob that cries out, "Crucify!"? Or
or acting out that which is sacred,          it.                                            does the choir carry the audience
or that which is sinful. We can well                It is exactly at this point that the    along in actually joining the E&l
be aware of this in a time of spiri-         evil of drama becomes evident.                 worshipers who are seeking help
tual lukewarmness or indifference.           This hardly needs to be shown. For             from Baal? The difference is obvi-
  Yet it must be granted that there          example, when the life of Luther is            ous. There is a definite difference
is a definite difference between             acted out on the stage his personal            between  impersonation  and
drama and oratorio from an ethical           spiritual struggles and prayers are            imitation,  or  portrayal.  While drama
point of view.                               also acted out. Does the actor actu-           is definitely impersonation, involv-
                                             ally experience the same soul-                 ing heart and mind, imitation
                                             struggles? Are his prayers divinely            merely places strong emphasis
                                             acceptable? Of course not! And                 upon a certain act or speech. The
                                             that means that his acting is noth-            singer is not at all in agreement
                                             ing short of blasphemy. How about              with the crowd, but is strongly op-
                                             the audience? Should they show                 posed to them, when taking tlheir
                                             reverence during such a prayer by              evil words upon his lips. The one          .
                                             folding their hands and closing                who portrays another makes :no ef-
                                             their eyes? Or should they stare at            fort to pretend to be that other per-
                                             the scene in indifference? In any              son.
                                             case it would be sacrilege to partici-           It must be admitted that por-
                                             pate in such evils.                            trayal can readily become imper-
                                                    This would also be our objection        sonation. When one reads a novel,
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in         to any sort of Passion Play.                   even a "Christian" novel, one can
the Protestant Reformed Churches.

400 I The Standard Bearer 1 June $1990


become so involved with one of the       as with a deep consciousness of our       and walk in love, as Christ also
characters, that he becomes guilty       own depravity. In telling these sto-      hath loved us, and hath given hi-
of the sins that are described in the    ries to children the same reaction        self for us an offering and a sacri-
story. We can allow ourselves to be      should be sought in them. On the          fice to God for a sweet smelling sa-
carried along to the extent that we      other hand, there is an intimate          vor. But fornication, and all un-
become guilty by substitution, that      bond of communion with the saints         cleanness, or covetousness, let ii:
is, allowing ourselves to become         of Scripture when they cry out in         not be once named among you, as
guilty of the sins portrayed in the      the midst of their trials and tempta-     becometh saints; neither filthiness,
book.                                    tions, confess their sins, express        nor foolish talking, nor jesting,
   The same thing applies to story       their joy of salvation, and give          which are not convenient: but
telling and Bible reading. The evils     praise to the God of our salvation        rather giving of thanks" (Eph. 5::1-
that are recounted in the Scriptures     in worship and adoration.                 4). 0
are placed there for our instruction       The admonition of Scripture
and admonition, and must be read         comes to mind, "Be ye followers
with a great aversion to sin, as well    (imitators) of God, as dear children;




A Cloud                                  Anthony and
of Witnesses
Prof. Herman Hanko                       the Ascetics

  The general title of this rubric in    the church's theologians concern-         more favor with God. This higher
The Standard Bearer, "A Cloud of         ing salvation by grace. It was            level was the life of poverty and
Witnesses," presupposes that the         thought by some that salvation            celibacy to which many aspired.*
men whose lives we discuss were          came, at least in part, through our         Coupled with this was the no-
"heroes of faith." Sometimes, how-       own works.' This idea was rooted          tion that especially the Nazarites in
ever, it is necessary to depart from     in a wrong interpretation of the          Scripture had made an effective
this description to describe men         words of our Lord which com-              protest against apostasy and
who can hardly be "witnesses" to         manded disciples to sell all that         worldliness in the church by with-
us because of important failures in      they had and give to the poor, and        drawing from the life of the natiion
their lives, but who are worth dis-      of the words of Paul that it is better    of Israel as a whole and by denying
cussing because of the warnings of       not to marry.                             themselves many of life's comforts.
their theological and ethical errors       Taking these instructions as              So, when the church in her early
which can easily creep into our          rules of conduct in the church,           history, enjoying a measure of
lives.                                   many recognized that it was im-           surcease from persecution, became
  Such was Anthony and the as-           possible for every member of the          worldly and carnal, men arose who
cetics.                                  church to follow these injunctions        attempted to protest this worldli-
  Their strange conduct can only         of Scripture lest the church cease to     ness by withdrawing from the
be understood by some description        exist; but they nevertheless contin-      church and from society to live the
of the theological thought current       ued to consider them to be authori-       life of an ascetic.
in the age in which they lived.          tative commandments. To solve               Two things were, therefore,
  Already in the third century of        the problem, many began to think          thought to be accomplished by
the history of Christ's church, er-      in terms of a "two-level morality."       such conduct: one was an effective
rors were present in the thinking of     The lower level was for the               protest against encroaching world-
                                         majority of God's people. They            liness; the other was the attainment
                                         kept their possessions and married        of a higher morality which would
                                         and brought forth children. But           win special favor with God.
                                         them was a higher level of morality         The founder of asceticism was
Prof. Ha&o is professor of Church        as well. Those who chose to live on       Anthony.
Histo y and New Testament in the         this level lived on a higher plain of       Anthony was born in 251 in
Protestant Rejbmed Semina y.             holiness and, consequently, earned        Egypt from wealthy parents who

                                                                                      June 1,199O  I The Standard Bearer 1' 401


left all their possessions to him.              he broke through the wall of his caw and          disciples whom he took along to
But in keeping with the words of                filled the room with roaring lions, howling       bury him in an unknown place.
the Lord to the rich young ruler,               wolves, growling bears, fierce hyenas,            Athanasius gives us his dying
Anthony sold all his possessions,               crawling serpents and scorpions; but An-          words:
gave the money to the poor, and re-             thony turned manfully toward the mon-                Do not let them carry my body into
                                                sters, till a supernatural light broke in from
treated to the desert to live in soli-                                                            Egypt, lest they store it in their houses.
                                                the roof and dispersed them. 3
tude. His possessions consisted of                                                                One of my reasons for coming to this
                                                   Only twice, in his long ascetic
300 acres of fertile land in the Nile                                                             mountain was to hinder this. You know I
                                                life, did he emerge from his isola-
Delta. The only exception he made                                                                 haw  never reproved those who have done
                                                tion. Both times, by his ragged                   this, am-l charged them to cease from the
in the distribution of the money to             dress and emaciated and ghost-like                custom. Buy, then, my body in the earth,
the poor, was a small sum which                 appearance, he made a powerful                    in obedience to my word, so that no one
was set aside for the care of his sis-          impression upon Christians and                    may know the place, except yourselves. In
ter who had been entrusted by his               heathen.'                                         the resu77ection of the dead it will be re-
parents to his care.                               The first time he emerged was                  stored to me incorruptible by the Savior.
   To conquer the temptations of                during a time of persecution when                 Distribute my garments as follows: Let
the flesh, he engaged in rigorous                                                                 Serapion, the bishop, have the other sheep-
                                                he appeared, almost like Elijah of
acts of self-denial. For a time he                                                                skin. As to the hair shirt, keep it for your-
                                                old, to gain for himself the martyr's
lived in a cave, then in a ruined                                                                 selves. And now, my chikiren, farewell;
                                                crown. He did everything he could                 Anthony is going, and is no longer with
house. The last years of his life               to antagonize the persecutors. He                 you. 4
were spent on a mountain about                  visited Christians in the mines and                  His example was followed by
seven-hour journey from the Red                 in prisons; he argued with the                    thousands, some of whom went far
Sea. He wore only a hair robe and               judges in court; he accompanied                   beyond his excesses. Some oongre-
denied himself all but the basics of            martyrs to the scaffold to encour-                gated in colonies never spoke to
food and drink. His food consisted              age them; he defended their cause                 each other, except on Saturday and
of bread and salt and some occa-                at every opportunity. But no one                  Sunday. Hilarion never ate before
sional dates. He ate but once a day,            dared lay a hand on him, and he                   sunset. He cut his hair only once a
usually after sunset. He felt shame             was forced to retreat again to the                year and engaged only in prayers,
that he needed even this. Days of               desert.                                           psalm singing, Bible recitations,
fasting completely were inter-                     The second time he emerged was                 and basket weaving. Others m-
spersed with his sparse diet. He                during the Arian debate when he                   fused to sit or lie, standing for days
slept on bare ground or a straw pal-            was 100 years old. He argued in                   on end and sleeping by leaning
let, but often slept not at all, spend-         support of his friend Athanasius                  against a rock. Others permitted
ing his time in prayer through the              and against the Arians, declaring                 themselves to be covered with
night. His entire wardrobe con-                 that the Arian heresy was worse                   stinging and biting ants in the
sisted of a shirt, a sheepskin, and a           than the venom of the serpent, and                desert sands. Still others drank
belt. In later years he rarely                  no better than heathenism which                   only what water could be collected
bathed, thinking, perhaps, that filth           worshiped the creature instead of                 from the dew which occasionally
was next to godliness. He spent his             the Creator.                                      fell.
time in struggling with temptation                 When asked to remain in                           Perhaps the most unusual of all
through prayer and meditation on                Alexandria, he refused: "As a fish                were the Stylites, who lived on pil-
the Scriptures. Philip Schaff, lean-            out of water, so a monk out of his                lars.
ing on the biography of Athana-                  solitude dies."                                     The sect was founded by
sius, writes of these stru les:                    By his example, he attracted                   Symeon, who himself lived on a
   Conflicts with the &oil gB
                             and is hosts of    thousands to the monastic life.                   pillar sixty feet high for 36 ye!ars.
demons were, as with other solitary saints,     Many more thousands, while ap-                    Yet another spent 68 years on the
a prominent part of Anthony's experience,
and continued through all his life. The         parently unable to emulate his way                top of a pillar, refusing to come
devil appeared to him in visions and            of life, flocked to his cave to visit             down, having bits of food and
dreams, or even in daylight, in all possible    him and seek his prayers. To feed                 drops of water raised to him from
forms, now as a friend, now as a fascinat-      them in the howling wastes of the                 admiring throngs. In the blazing
ing woman, now as a dragon, tempting            desert, he cultivated a large garden,             heat, under the cruel sun, soalked
him by reminding him of his former wealth,       from which he was said to have ex-               by cloudbursts, buffeted by tlhe
of his noble family, of the care due to his      pelled wild beasts by the Word of                wind, enduring the bitter chill of
sister, by promises of wealth, honor, and        the Lord. Miracles were ascribed to              the nights, these strange men found
renown, by exhibitions of the dificulty of      him, and his prayers were thought                 yet stranger paths to holiness.
virtue and the fadity of vice, by unchaste      to have unusual efficacy. He                         They were the founders of
thoughts and images, by terrible threaten-                                                        monasticism which spread ra.pidly
ings of the dangers and punishments of the       spumed learning of every sort: "He
ascetic life. Once he struck the hermit so       who has a sound mind has no need                 into the northern Mediterranean
violently, Athanasius says, that a friend,       of learning."                                    world and then into Europe. This
who brought him bread, found him on the             He died in 356 at the age of 105,             monasticism continued in the Ro-
ground apparently dead. At another time          after retiring to his cave with two              man Catholic Church until today,

402 / The Standard Bearer I June I,1990


but was harshly condemned by the               cave, a pillar, a cold and dank cell     seek the things which are above..
Reformers in the 16th century who              of a monastery, or a barren dune in      The battle to attain holiness is born
understood its evils. The way to               some far-off desert. The struggle        by the sanctifying power of the
holiness is not the strange way of             with the world is the most difficult     Holy Spirit, is carried on in the
the ascetics.                                  on the battlefield of our flesh - as     day-to-day struggle to attain obedi-
  It is between two extremes that              the hermits and monks learned. In        ence in our daily calling in life, and
the faithful child of God must find            fact, such disobedience to Christ as     has its sure victory in faith; for faith
his way. On the one side lurks the             world-flight makes the battle with       is the victory that overcomes the
dangers of the monastic life; on the           the world in our own natures the         world. cl
other the ever-present threat of               more difficult.
worldliness. Worldliness destroys                This world is God's world. It is       1 It must be remembered that the truths of sov-
the church; but asceticism destroys            destined to be redeemed and glori-       ereign grace in the work of salvation were not de-
                                                                                        veloped in the church until Augustine's contro-
the soul.                                      fied. God loves His creatures, and       vexsy  with the Pelagians  and Semi-Pelagians  in the
  Our Lord has specifically said               every creature of God is good and        5th century While, germally the chnrch surely
that, although His children are not            nothing to be refused, if it be re-      held to the truth of salvation by grace, the place of
                                                                                        works (a vexing problem which has troubled the
of the world, they are nevertheless,           ceived with thanksgiving (I Xmo-         church until the present) in salvation was not
in the world. They are not called to           thy 44). It is a grievous sin to         clearly understood.
                                                                                        2 This thinking has persisted  to the present in Ro-
unite with the world, but they are             spurn it, and a slap in God's face to    man Catholic theology and is evident in the
not faithful to their Lord by fleeing          despise it.                              celibacy practiced by the clergy and in the whole
the world.                                       Being citizens of a heavenly land      monastic structure of the church.
                                                                                        3 Schaff, History of the C7oisfiun Church, Vol.  ICI, pp.
  Ultimately, fleeing the world is             does not excuse our contempt for         l&3,184.
impossible, for we carry the world             God's world; it rather urges us Qn       4 Quoted from Encyclopedia of Biblical, Theologicd
                                                                                        and Ecclesiastical Lihafure, in Lx.
in our flesh - whether we flee to a            in our calling to use God's world to


When Thou
Sittest in                                     Responsibilities
Thine House.                                   Towards Children (1)
Rev. Kenneth Koole

                                                                           .-
  That the family structure in                 the changes may claim &be, the           cludes then such "minor" infrac-
twentieth century America is in a              results are troubling. With chagrin      tions as burglary, shoplifting, and
state of &isis is denied by no one.            they adinit some re-evaluation may       auto theft) committed by children
It is not only the moral majority              be necessary.                            (under 15) increased by 11,000
and the conservative political ac-               In particular, the most troubling      (eleven thousand!) percent. The
tivists that sound the warning, but            statistics have to do with the           more "minor" crimes increased by
the major news weeklies have ad-               youth, the troubled .youth. The          8,300 percent. And though all the
dressed the issue as well. They ac-            studies of their behavior, values,       figures are not in yet, the decade of
knowledge that the family struc-               interests, knowledge (or educa-          the 80s indicates no slowing of the
ture has changed dramatically over             tional ignorance, if you prefer), and    trend. In New York the epidemic is
the past half century, and they are            goals in life have yielded statistics    so alarming that children from the
forced to concede that, however                that can only be classified as alarm-    ages of 13-15 can be tried in adult
"enlightened" those who applaud                ing.                                     courts and be assessed with similar
                                                 Statistics show that the number        p e n a l t i e s .
                                               of crimes committed by juveniles             What has also pricked the na-
                                               (pre-teens even) has simply been         tional conscience is the al&g
                                               skyrocketing. John W. Whitehead,         increase in teenage suicide, the act
                                               in his book, The Steding  of America,    of ultimate despair and isolation.
                                               gives some interesting statistics.       By the young it is usually the em-
                                               According to his information, from       phatic statement, "No one cares for
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protes-          1950 to 1980 the rate of.adult crime     me. I do not mean that much to
tant Reformed Church in Jenison,         ,,    increased 300 percent. In that same      anybody. I can not make you love
Michigan.                                      time span serious crime (which ex-       me. I have concluded that by liv-

                                                                                              June 1,199O I The Standard Bearer I' 403


ing I will never be important in           them develop properly? The an-                How this comes to expression,
YOUR eyes. Therefore, I have               swer, I believe, can be stated in one      and what the modern philosophy
killed myself. At least I will make        word - love and attention.                 behind it is, we will consider in fu-
you feel guilty for your lack of love.        Now, admittedly, we used two            ture articles, D.V. But first let us
You have driven me to this." And           words here and not just one, but           consider the scriptural perspective.
following the despairing shout of          we do that on purpose. This is the            Scripture makes very plain that
suicide there is, indeed, a huge           whole point, love without attention        the strength of the home is to be the
body of guilt left behind that the         Q3ersonal  attention) is not love.         covenant of love, love that trans-
targets of the suicide must deal           "Attention" belongs to the very            lates into attention for one's family
with. But that is another matter.          definition of love. Without it,            and children.
   The point is, suicide speaks of es-     `love" is but an empty word, a                At the heading of this rubric is a
trangement and deep hurt. Now,             sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal.         phrase. The phrase is `When thou
what must society conclude when            Adding the words "personal atten-          sittest  in Thine house...." That is, of
its youth, upon whom it is lavish-         tion" to the word "love" should be         course, a Scriptural phrase. It is
ing such staggering amounts of             redundant, unnecessary, under-             lifted from Deuteronomy 6. :Moses
material "blessings" and goods,            stood. But, sad to say, that is pre-       is calling the heads of the families
continue to choose in increasing           cisely what is not understood to-          of Israel to instruct their children in
numbers rwf fo live? Or they drug          day.                                       the law, and the wonders, and the
themselves into mental oblivion. Is           Here we put our finger on the           worship of Jehovah God. Thou art
the "grace" of "goods" really the          single most contributing factor to         to do this "when thou sittest in
answer, ever? Is it what the souls         the breakdown of the twentieth             thine house...."
of the young are really looking for        century family (and with it the               Mothers and fathers of Israel,
and need? Is this what their behav-        whole of society): the absence of          think of that a moment. `When
ior tells society?                         "love," that is, the absence of what       thou sittest in .thine  house...."
   The answer, like the blood of           love is according to any true defini-         Here is one of the great questions
Abel, cries from the ground. It            tion of it.                                of the day. Dost thou sit in thine
shouts in society's face. The multi-          Society uses the word "love."           house? When? When, fathers?
tude of things is not the answer. It       The word is used ad mzuseam. But           How often? And how long?
is not what they need and crave.           for all that, they do not know what           And if thou dost, WHAT dlost
But who listens? Are we listening?         `love" really means (perhaps I             thou do when thou sittest in thine
   It is important in my judgment          should say "demands"). They will           house? How is the time commonly
to consider what the factors are that      not count the cost or make the sac-        spent? Doing what? Perhaps
have led twentieth century society         rifices "love" requires.                   watching television for hours on
and the modern family to the crisis,          In fact, they have been pervert-        end? And the children too?
not to say "messp  it now is in.           ing the truth of love so completely          Can that possibly be what Moses
   I say it is important for US as be-     that what they mean by love is re-         had in mind?
lieving parents to consider the vari-      ally nothing else than sheer self-           That is obedience to the text?
ous factors that have led to this          centered self-love. Our society has          That describes a covenant `home,
volatile mixture of anger, isolation,      taken this mentality to new heights        the homes of the church?
rebellion, and despair that so char-       (perhaps I should say new depths).           I fear that in our day and a.ge it
acterize society's youth, because if       When the only thing that stands be-        does to an increasing measure. But
we think we and our youth are im-          tween an unborn child and exter-           is that strength and love, or is it
mune to the factors which have             mination is whether it is conve-           weakness and transgression?
brought the evil of our day about,         nient for the parents to have "it" at      Surely our consciences tell us what
we are sadly mistaken. The ease            the moment, you are dealing with a         God's judgment of the matter will
with which we can adopt society's          selfishness that resembles sheer           be.
life-style and values is simply too        d e v i l t r y .                            What you have in Deuteronomy
apparent to deny; but if we con-              Spare the life of the rapist and        6 is the truth of the covenant ap-
tinue to do so, without consciously        murderer. This is love of the neigh-       plied to family relationships, and,
and vigorously resisting it, what          bor. Snuff out the life of the child       in particular, the relationship be-
we and our children will reap              developing in the womb. This is            tween fathers (parents) and chil-
(right along with the rest of society)     love of the neighbor too. Does such        dren.
is going to be frightening, namely,        a society have a clue as to what             The family relationship is to be a
estrangement from the ways of              love is? It is towards those who           reflection of the relationship be-
godliness and from God in our gen-         promote such monstrous things as           tween God as Father and His chil-
erations, and that without remedy.         good that I believe the imprecatory        dren, the church, that is to Salk a
  First of all, what is the answer?        Psalms are aimed. And this selfish,        covenant relationship.
What does a person need through            loveless (except for self) spirit is de      What stands at the heart of
the formative years of his child-          vouring the 20th century home,             God's covenant? Well, essentially
hood and youth? What must we               and with it the whole of the fabric        two things, fellowship and
give our own children if we will see       of life.                                   promise. This is apparent from the

404 I The Standard Bearer I June 1,199O


Scriptural record. When God made         promises (in marriage, and at bap-           This is devastating. If my father
His covenant with Abraham He             tism)? And what is it that betrays         and mother (especially mother)
did not just reveal a doctrine about     and works contrary to that                 care little or nothing for me and :my
something, but He drew Abraham           covenantal life? What else but ig-         character and have no time for me,
into His fellowship, and He              noring the covenant-al members in          who in this world does? Can I be
counted Abraham as His friend.           their needs and being unfaithful to        sure of anybody? (This is part of
And He assured Abraham of that           one's vows? In such an environ-            the shock of learning that one has
in countless ways. In His friend-        ment of rejection there can only be        been adopted. I was unwanted
ship with Abraham God spoke to           estrangement; and the fruit of es-         even by my own mother!) A child
Abraham, revealing what was in           trangement is bitterness and going         that grows up feeling "isolated"
His own divine heart, and Abra-          one's own way in resentment.               and "rejected" (ignored) grows up
ham responded with prayer and              This has become the environ-             a bitter, resentful child, and that
petitions. They had conversation.        ment of the twentieth century              bitter resentment will show itself in
   And we well know the promises         home. It is the antithesis of the          the end, as it has today in explo-
God made, promises concerning            covenant of love. This is demon-           sive fashion.
the inheritance of the land,             strated by what has happened to              Such a small matter: begetters of
promises concerning the birth of         the promise (vow) of marriage.             children having not time for them,
the seed, promises that pertained to     How meaningless it has become is           paying little attention to them.
his generations. God promised            evidenced by the skyrocketing di-          Such tremendous consequences: a
faithfulness. And part of His faith-     vorce rate (the naked enmity of            lawless generation.
fulness was certainly that He dwelt      which certainly wounds children              I am not suggesting that this is
with His children, the seed of           deeply).                                   the reason for the waywardness ,of
Abraham When His children                  And if the heart of love is the          every child who is a grief of heart;
needed Him, He was there. He             covenant of fellowship in the home,        but when rebellion is not the excep-
was always just a "w away.               we see just the opposite today.            tion, but a widespread and even a
  The same was true with Israel,           What do we see? Homes filled             skyrocketing phenomenon, as it is
God's peculiar people. According         with parents who have no time for          today, conclusions can be drawn.
to His covenant, God had fellow-         their children. Home is not a place        And from those conclusions, warn-
ship with them in the tabernacle,        where the young get sufficient or          ings - warnings we must take to
and made promises concerning the         proper attention. In home after            heart, lest the judgments which
Kingdom. In this, God was faith-         home they do not grow up feeling           God brought upon Israel in their
ful.                                     wanted or valued by their parents.         generations, and which we see vis-
   And this is to be reflected on the    Their parents do not speak with            ited upon our own society today,
earthly level in the family. What is     them. They yell at them perhaps,           visit our homes as well. What some
at the heart of the Reformed fam-        but there is no interest in the child's    of these things are that are tearing
ily? What else but God's covenant?       daily activities. The child feels that     at the fabric of the home life, we
How is this to come to expression        he is little more than an inconven-        will consider in our next article,
in our homes? How else but in            ience.                                     D.V. Cl
friendship (or fellowship) and




                                         Book Reviews

TWO HUNDRED YEARS OF                        TWO Hundred Years is a survey           also with theology in England and
THEOLOGY: REPORT OF A                    and analysis of Protestant theologi-       in the United States. Among the
PERSONAL JOURNEY, by Hen-                cal thought from the 18th century          theologians whose teaching
drikus Berkhof. Translated by John       to the present. It begins with Kant        Berkhof describes are Schleierma-
Vriend. Grand Rapids: William B.         and ends with Xllich (and this tells       cher, Kierkegaard, the Lux Mund!i
Eerdmans Publishing Company,             the tale about the spiritual state of      school in England, Ritschl, Herr-
1989, pp. i-316. Hardcover, $24.95.      modem Protestant theology).                mann, Barth, Bultmann, Kuitert,
(Reviewed by the editor.)                Berkhof's scope is broad: He con-          Rauschenbusch, and the Niebuhrs.
                                         cerns himself not only with theol-            Berkhof's grasp of all these the-
                                         ogy on the continent of Europe, but        ologians is masterful. His descrip-

                                                                                        June 1,199O / The Standard Bearer I 405


tion for the sake of "pastors, teach-           gospel to this world's godless and      accompany Hendrikus Berkhof on
ers of religion, and advanced theo-             anti-Christian  thought, and to the     this theological straying from the
logical students" is clear. The work            apostasy of Protestantism generally     Way. 0
lends itself admirably to use for a             is the rejection of Scripture as di-
course in contemporary Protestant               vine revelation. The issue for           STUDIES IN JOHN'S EPISTLES:
theology.                                       Protestant theology since A.D. 1700     FELLOWSHIP IN THE LIFE
   But the Leiden professor of the-             has been the simple question, "Is       ETERNAL, by George G. Findlay;
ology is not intent merely on de-               Scripture the inspired Word of God      Kregel Publications, 1989; (paper).
scribing prominent Protestant the-              and therefore the sole source, by       (Reviewed by Prof. H. Ha&o.)
ologians in the past 200 years. He              the Holy Spirit, of the knowledge          Because this book is anothler in
sees a line, a consistent intellectual          of God and truth?" Protestantism        Kregel's reprint series, it might be
development, in Protestant theol-               has said "no." This "no" to God's       well to say a bit about the author.
ogy. This line is determined by the             revelation makes Protestantism's           The cover tells us that he lived
desire of Protestant theology to                search for the knowledge of God         from X348-1919, "and was born in
`bring about a reconciliation be-               both futile and wicked. Protes-         Welshpool, Montgomeryshim,
tween the gospel and the spirit of              tantism has a zeal of God, but not      Wales. He studied at Wesley Col-
modernity" (p. 131). Protestant                 according to knowledge. For being       lege, Richmond Theological  Col-
theologians have adapted and ac-                ignorant of God's knowledge, and        lege, and London University Find-
commodated the gospel to modem,                 going about to establish its own        lay was a well-known, respected
secular thought, in order "to make              knowledge, it has not submitted it-     Bible scholar. His many contribu-
the gospel understandable in their              self to the knowledge of God.           tions to biblical literature include
world" (p. 308). Although the at-                 -The book holds special interest      commentaries on Paul's Epistles in
tempt has failed, inasmuch as "sec-             for those in the Dutch Reformed         The Expositor's Bible, The Exposi-
ularized culture manifested polite              tradition. In the chapter, "Coming      tor's Greek New Testament, The
indifference if not outright intoler-           up from Behind in the Nether-           Cambridge Bible, and The Pulpit
ance" (p. 309), the result for Protes-          lands," Berkhof sets the reform of      Commentary/
tant theology has been the aban-                the Dutch church through A.               The book, as the title suggests, is
donment or corruption of every                  Kuyper and H. Bavinck in the con-       not really a commentary; it is rather
Protestant, and indeed Christian,               text of the modernism of the time.      a collection of essays on sections of
doctrine as established in the ecu-             The influential role of G.C. Berk-      all three of Johns epistles. The es-
menical and Reformation creeds.                 ouwer in opening up the Reformed        says are, however, expository, and
   The history of Protestant theol-             churches to the unconfessional the-     one can learn much of the meaning
ogy from A.D. 1700 to the present               ology of modern Protestantism is        of John. The style chosen by the
is apostasy.                                    indicated (pp. 114,212).                author makes the book more suit-
   Not that Berkhof thinks so. The                And in an intriguing discussion       able for devotional reading, Ihow-
reason is that Berkhof, like the                of A. Kuyper, in which Berkhof en-      ever, than for use as a commentary.
Protestant theologians he describes,            tertains the possibility that Kuyper      A good book, well written, and a
regards Christianity as a search and            "drifted far away from Calvin,"         helpful aid in studying Johns let-
a journey in the never-ending quest             Berkhof concludes that Kuyper did       ters. Recommended.  0
for truth, rather than as a revealed            follow the Calvinistic tradition,
body of doctrines to be known with              "apart from his broad development
certainty by the believing mind and             of the doctrine of common grace"
to be asserted with confidence by               (p. 109). I suggest that this defi-
the mouth (and pen).                            nitely unreformed teaching was          0 worldly pomp and glory,
   The truth of the gospel is a ve y differ-    Kuyper's concession to modern
ent onefrom the truths of the natural sci-      Protestant theology's determina-           Your charms are spreadi in
ences because in them people start at the       tion to accommodate the gospel to             vain!
point where their predecessors left ofi. In     the culture of the world. Opposed       I've heard a sweeter story,,
contrast, the truth of the gospel is a road
everyone must travel by himself. This road      to modernism in other respects and         I've found a truer gain.
is itself the truth. One does not "stand" in    insistent on the antithesis between     Where Christ a place prepareth,
the truth but "walks" in it on the way to-      the gospel and the unbelieving             There is my loved abode:
ward the goal that is not attainable this       world, with his doctrine of com-
side of eternity (p. 306).                      mon grace Kuyper was engaged in         There shall I gaze on Jesus,
   For Berkhof, "ever learning, and             what Berkhof refers to in another          There shall I dwell with1  God.
never able to come to the knowl-                connection as `building a bridge                       - SB,Januay  1,193l
edge of the truth" (II Tim. 3:6,7) is           between the church and the mod-
an ideal for theology. For the apos-            ern world" (p. 229).
tle, it is the characteristic of silly            The last word to Berkhof's "re-
women in the last days.                         port of a personal journey" by one
   Basic to this view of "truth," to            who is, and intends to remain, Re-
the accommodation of God's                      formed must be that he refuses to

406 I The Standard Bearer I June 1,199O


                                         News From
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                      Our Churches

Ministerial  Calls                         The Consistory of the Lynden           Free Christian School in Edgerton,
   Our Randolph, WI congregation         PRC in Lynden, WA authorized             MN celebrating its 40th anniver-
has talled Rev. B. Gritters, of Byron    their Church Extension Committee         sary. With thanks to Rev. Michael
Center, to be their pastor. Included     to sponsor a class for the commu-        De&es, pastor in Edgerton, I now
with Rev. Gritters on the trio were      nity on the Golden Chain of Salva-       have some more information about
the Revs. C. Haak of Lynden, WA          tion. The classes began on May 1.        that night, April 20.
and R. Moore of Hull, IA.                  Also from Lynden: At the re-                 Rev. DeVries spoke on the theme,
Congregational Activities                quest of a number of their Cana-         `Hitherto Hath the Lord Helped.
   At a special congregational meet-     dian families, the Consistory will       Us." There were also remarks by
ing held in late March, the mem-         be examining the feasibility of -        former teacher and principal, Peter
bers of the Pella PRC in Pella, IA       starting a Bible Study classin           Brummel; by present teacher and
approved plans to put an awning          Canada this coming fall.                 principal, John Hilton; board mem-
over the front steps and to put a          On Wednesday, May 9, the con-          ber Andy Brummel, who presented
new cement floor in the garage at        gregation of our Loveland PRC in         some historical information; and\
their parsonage.                         Loveland, CO sponsored their an-         board president Ron Brands.
   By now all of our churches have       nual Spring Lecture. Their pastor,       Presently the Free Christian School
concluded catechism classes for the      Rev. Ron Cammenga, spoke on the          has thirty-four students in grades
year. The students of the Byron          topic, "Biblical Amillennialism."        K-9. The school has two teachers:
Center PRC in Byron Center, MI           Many important questions were            Miss Beverly Hoekstra, who is
celebrated that event by playing         answered including, `What is the         completing her 14th year in the
what has become an annual softball       interpretation of Revelation 20?"        school, teaches grades K-4, and Mr.
game after the classes were fin-           The Evangelism Committee of            John Hilton, who teaches grades 5-
ished.                                   the Redlands  PRC in Redlands, CA        9.
   The Young Adults of Byron Cen-        also sponsored a special commu-                Friends and supporters of
 ter extended a special invitation to    nity evening on April 26. ..Their        Adams Street Christian School vis-
 those who had not attended their        pastor, Rev. Arie denHartog,  spoke      ited the school on May 4 for a
 meetings in the past. For their last    on the theme, "Acknowledging the         closer look at the new construction
 three meetings in April they prac-      Lord's Authority." There was also        which had just recently been com-
 ticed answering the arguments of        a special number by the Men's            pleted. Visitors could see the new
 those who use certain texts to dis-     Quartet.                                 gym, the new faculty/board room,
 prove the Reformed faith (John            The elders of the Southeast PRC        the new remedial room, and the
 316; I John 2~2; II Peter 3:9; Ezek.    in Grand Rapids, MI decided to           newly carpeted hall with lowered
 l&23,33:11).  Visitors were wel-        add an elder to their consistory.        ceiling. The "Open House" also in-
 come to participate or simply listen    Since 1985, when an elder was last       cluded a short program to celebrate
 in.                                     added, there has been an increase        the completion of the building pro-
                                         of mom than 20 families at South-        ject and to commemorate the 40th
                                         east.                                    anniversary of Adams School.
                                           The Young People of First PRC          Denominational News
                                         in Grand Rapids, MI sponsored a                And one final item for this news
                                         travelogue entitled, `This is            column. The Young People in the
                                         Britain," presented by one of First's    West Michigan area were invited to
                                         members, Mr. Jim Swart. Those in         a Resurrection Sunday Mass Meet-
                                         attendance could travel to England,      ing held in our newest church audi-
                                         Scotland, and Wales without leav-        torium, Grandville PRC in
                                         ing the auditorium.                      Grandville, MI. Rev. Kortering in-
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-    School News                              troduced the topic, "Christian Lib-
fant Reformed Church of Hudsonvilfe,       The last issue of The SB con-          erty:' 17
Michigan.                                tained a brief news item about the

                                                                                         June I,1990  I The Standard Bearer  ! 407


    7F-E
sl!AND!~                                                                                                      SECOND CL4SS
  i!?MR                                                                                                        Postage Paid at
                                                                                                               Grand Rapids, Michigan

  l?O. Box 6064
  Grand Rapids, MI 49506



NOTICE!!                                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             tinue to bless MARTIN AND TENA
   According to the decision of                  On June 17,199O we are thank-                DOEZEMA.
Synod 1989, the Southeast Protes-             fully anticipating the 60th wedding               "The Lord shall bless thee out of
tant Reformed Church was ap-                  anniversary of our beloved parents              Zion: and thou shalt see the good
pointed the calling church for the            CHARLES AND JEAN PASTOOR.                       of Jerusalem all thy life" Psalm
1990 Synod. The Consistory                       "For the Lord God is a sun and               128:5.
hereby notifies our churches that             shield: the Lord will give grace and              They were predeceased by a
the 1990 Synod of the Protestant              glory: no good thing will he withhold           daughter, June Timmer, and a
Reformed Churches in America will             from them that walk uprightly. 0                grand daughter, Sandra Timmer.
convene, the Lord willing, on Tues-           Lord of hosts, blessed is the man               Son-in-law John and Margaret Timmer
day, June 5th, 1990 at 9:00 AM in             that trusteth in thee." (Ps. 84:11,               Grandson-in-law Ken  8. Edie Timmer
the Southeast Protestant Reformed             12)                                                       (4 children)
Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan.                  Cornelius  & Joyce Pastoor                     Ron and Sue Timmer (2 children)
The Pre-Synodical Service will be                Harry 8 Thelma Boonstra                      Jay and Ruth Doezema
held Monday evening, June 4th at                      7 grandchildren                           Marvin and Kathy Doezema
7:30. Rev. James Slopsema, Presi-                     4 great grandchildren                             ( 3   c h i l d r e n )
                                                                                                Lary and Deb Doezema (2 children)
dent of the Synod of 1989, will                                           Grand Rapids, MI
                                                                                              Kenn and Gloria Doezema
preach the sermon. Synodical dele-            WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                               Bern and Kaye Wigger (4 children)
gates are requested to meet with                On June 10, 1990 our parents                    Wes and Glenda Koops (4 children)
the Consistory before the service.            and grandparents will celebrate                   Kenmart Doezema
Delegates in need of lodging should           their 70th wedding anniversary.                   Karl Doezema
contact Mr. R. Moelker, 1448 Calvin             We are thankful for God-fearing                 Kristi Doezema
S.E., Grand Rapids, Ml 49507,                 parents and pray that God will con-                        First Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan
phone: (616) 452-5753
              In the service of our Lord,
                       For the  Consistory
                               R. Moelker

NOTICE!!
   Reminder: The RFPA Board will
soon be photocopying and binding
old Standard Bearers to make more
bound volumes of past issues (cf.
March 1, 1990 "In This Issue...").
The number of volumes bound will
be determined on the basis of re-
quests received. Interested parties
are therefore urged to contact the
Business Manager soon, so as not
to miss out on this opportunity to
obtain old bound volumes.


For every tribulation,
    For every sore distress,
In Christ I've full salvation,
    Sure help, and quiet rest.
No fear of foes prevailing;
    I triumph, Lord, in Thee;
0 Jesus, Friend ,unfailing,
    How dear art Thou to me!
                   - SB, Janua y 2,1931

408 1 TheStandardBearerlJune1,1990



                                                                         --


