 A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                     PRC Synod 1990
                   Southeast PRC, Grand Rapids, MI




Vol. 66, No. 19                                       m
August 1,199O


Contents                                                             August I, 1990                     ._  IL
                                                                                                  SIAlVDm
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema
   KEEPING THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT                                                         435        BELUZER
                                                                                                   ISSN 0362-4692
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma
   PRC SYNOD: MISSIONS AND CONTACT                                                                Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
                                                                                                  and  August.  Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
   SLAUGHTERING BAPTISTS?                                                                         lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                                  at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                                  POSTMASTER:  Send address changes to The
LETTERS                                                                                           Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
                                                                                                  49516.
Addresses to Synod                                                                                EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                  Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
   GREETINGS FROM MEASBRO DYKE EVANGELICAL CHURCH                                          444    Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
        BARNSLEY, ENGLAND                                                                         Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
                                                                                                  DEPARTMENT EDITORS
   GREETINGS FROM SYNOD OF E.P.C. OF AUSTRALIA                                                    Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
                                                                                                  Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
Special Article - Rev. Jaikishin Mahtani                                                          Critters, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman
                                                                                                  Hanko, Rev. Ronald Hanko, Rev. John  Heys.  Rev.
   A REFORMED THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL                                                           446    Kenneth  Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Mr. lames
        IN THE PACIFIC AREA                                                                       Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.  Marybeth  Lub-
                                                                                                  bers, Rev. lames Slopsema, Rev. Charles Terpstra,
                                                                                                  Rev.  Cise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop,
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                            Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard  Woudenberg.
   SYNODS AND GENERAL ASSEMBLIES                                                           450    EDITORIAL OFFICE               CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer            Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                  4949  Ivanrest                 6597  - 40th Ave.
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren                                                     Crandville,  Ml 49418          Hudsonville,  MI 49426
   "A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT"                                                               452    EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                                  Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
                                                                                                  of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
BOOK REVIEW                                                                                453    terest from our readers and questions for The
                                                                                                  Reader Asks Department are welcome. Contribu-
                                                                                                  tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES - Mr. Senjamin Wigger                                                      and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
                                                                                                  must be signed. Copy deadlines are the first and
                                                                                                  the fifteenth of the month. All communications
                                                                                                  relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                  editorial office.
In This Issue..                                                                                   REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                  Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
                                                                                                  articles in our magazine by other publications,
                                                                                                  provided: a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
   Synods figure prominently in this issue. The Meditation is a condensed version of              duced in full;  b) that proper acknowledgement is
                                                                                                  nade;   cl that a copy of the periodical in which
the pre-Synodical sermon, "Keeping the Unity of the Spirit," which set the tone for               ;uch  reprint appears is sent to our editorial office.
this year's Synod of the PRC. In one of two editorials, Prof. Engelsma reflects on the            BUSINESS OFFICE            NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                  The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
major decisions of that Synod. Further, we've transcribed two addresses to Synod,                 3011 Doezema               c/o Protestant Reformed
out of the five which were made to Synod 1990 by foreign observers. In his rubric,                P.O.  Box 6064               Church
Prof. Decker calls attention to some of the important decisions made this year by the             srand  Rapids, MI          B. Van Herk
                                                                                                    49516                    66 Fraser St.
major assemblies of Reformed and Presbyterian denominations "all around us."                      `H: (616) 243-3712       Wainuiomata,  New Zealand
   And finally there's a "Special Article" by Rev. Jaikishin Mahtani. Actually, it's the              (616) 531-1490
                                                                                                  SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
major part of a speech given at the International Reformed Conference. We draw                    Subscription price: $12.00 per year in the U.S.,
special attention to it hem because in it Pastor Mahtani addressed an issue which had             $15.00 elsewhere. Unless a definite request for dis-
also to be faced by Synod 1990, namely, how to respond to the request of the ERCS                 continuance is received, it is assumed that the
                                                                                                  subscriber wishes the subscription to continue
that the PRC assist them in starting a Reformed Theological School in Singapore.                  without the formality of a renewal order, and he
   A pipe dream, that would seem to be, on the surface. But, who would have                       will be billed for renewal. If you have a change of
thought it possible, twenty years ago, that there would be in 1990, in Singapore, two             address, please notify the Business Office as early
                                                                                                  as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
flourishing congregations, sister-churches to the PRC in America? A great work has                delayed delivery. Include your Zip Code.
been wrought by the Lord in the Orient. Today two Singaporeans, trained for the                   ADVERTISING POLICY
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ministry in the RR. Seminary are barely able to keep up with the work in their own                advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
congregations -let alone give serious consideration to work in India or Malaysia.                 and school events, anniversaries, obituaries, and
                                                                                                  sympathy resolutions will be placed for a 83.00
One cannot help but think of the words of Jesus, as He stood by Jacob's well in the               fee. These should be sent to the Business Office
land of the Samaritans, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields . . . . 0                      and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee.
   Is there, perhaps, "a great door and effectual" opening wide in Singapore? Pastor              Deadline for announcements is the 1st and the
                                                                                                  15th of the month, previous to  publicatiorl  on the
Mahtani insists that, in speaking of a truly Reformed seminary in Singapore, he is not            15th or the 1st respectively.
at all thinking of theological training for the sake of intellectual attainment, but to           BOUND VOLUMES
                                                                                                  The Business Office will accept standing  aorders
meet an urgent, compelling need for laborers. He speaks of "vision," of "hope"... and             for bound copies of the current volume; such
of all things being possible with God. After reading his "Special Article," think again           orders are filled as soon as possible after comple-
on his introductory paragraph, in which he expresses his hope that God will use our               tion of a volume.
                                                                                                  16mm  microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm
relationship with the ERCS to make us "even more mission-minded in the days to                    microfiche, and article copies are available
come unto the glory of God."                                                       -D.D.          through University Microfilms  Internation.al.


434 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


                                         Keeping the Unity
Meditation
Rev. James Slopsema                       of the Spirit

  I ther#ore, the prisoner of the         appeals. This work is vital to the         fess the same thing - the truth of
Lord, beseech you that ye walk            welfare of our churches. In all its        God's holy Word. Without this
worthy of the vocation where-             work the Synod must give dili-             unity of confession and doctrine
with ye are called,                       gence to keep the unity of the Spirit      there is no true unity. Any unity
                                          in the bond of peace.                      that lacks this doctrinal oneness is a
   With all lowliness, and meek-                     *******                         sham unity.
ness, with longsuffering, for-              The unity of the Spirit is the es-         The unity of the Spirit is also a
bearing one another in love;              sential unity that exists in the           unity of life. What we believe and
  Endeavoring to keep the unity           church among believers as a result         hold for truth determines how we
of the spirit in the bond of peace.       of the inner working of the Spirit.        live. Consequently, those who are
Ephesians 41-3                              From a natural point of view             united by faith in the truth of God's
                                          there is great diversity in the            Word also live one life together.
                                          church. God gathers His church             This life is the new life of Jesus
                                          from every tribe, tongue, and na-          Christ, a life of loving devotion to -
                                          tion. Consequently, the church is          and service of the living God.
  The theme of Paul's epistle to the      composed of male and female, rich            This unity expresses itself in tihe
Ephesians is the unity of the church      and poor, bond and free from every         bond of peace.
as the body of Christ. This truth is      race. From this point of view, of            When the Word of God speakls
first developed by the great apostle      course, there is nothing to unite the      here of the bond of peace, it speaks
in the first three chapters, then ap-     church together into one.                  of love. Elsewhere the Scriptures
plied practically in the last three         There is, however, something             speak of love as the bond of per-
chapters. This practical section is       that all the true members of the           fectness Kol. 3:14). Here love is
introduced by the verses we have          church have in common, that                viewed as an attraction which two
under consideration, which also set       unites them into one. That is the          or more have for each other so that
forth the main thought of this sec-       Spirit.                                    they are drawn and knit together in
tion: keep the unity of the spirit in       The Spirit referred to here is the       an inseparable bond. Love is called
the bond of peace.                        Holy Spirit of God. This Spirit is         a bond of perfecfness  because what
  This is also the mandate that           the One Who works irresistibly in          draws them to each other is the
God has for the Synod. The Lord           the heart of every elect child of God      perfections of Jesus Christ which
has given the Synod important             to bring him to faith and salvation        God's people see in each other.
work to do. It must deal with the         in Jesus Christ. And this explains           Now we read of the bond of
mission work of the churches, the         the unity of the church. The Spirit        peace. This is the same love, but
Theological Seminary., contact with       works the same faith in the heart of       identified as the bond of peace.
other churches, as well as various        every elect person. By that one faith      Love is called a bond of peace here
                                          the Spirit, in turn, draws every           because when two or more are
                                          child of God to the same Savior in         bonded together in love there is
                                          Whom they all find the same salva-         peace.
                                          tion. One Spirit, one faith, one sal-        And this is what characterizes
                                          vation - this is the unity of the          the unity of the Spirit. Without the
                                          church.                                    working of the Spirit in the mem-
                                            This unity is, first of all, a unity     bers of the church there would be
                                          of doctrine. Faith is a certain            hatred, envy, strife, and conflict,
                                          knowledge whereby we hold for              even as there is among the ungodly
                                          truth all that God has revealed in         The fruit of the Spirit is that the
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope           His Word. Hence, those who pos-            members of the church are united
Protestant Reformed Church in             sess a true faith in Jesus Christ and      together in the bond of peace.
Walker, Michigan.                         live in that faith all believe and con-      This unity is an object of faith.

                                                                                      August 1,199O  /The Standard Bearer / 4X


                                               means to keep in the sense of hold-     One who is meek is slow to :insist
                                               ing firm to what we have.               on what may be rightfully his, es-
                                                  This is what we must do as           pecially if asserting his rights will
                                               churches with the unity we enjoy in     hurt his neighbor. The meek would
                                               the Spirit. We must guard this          rather suffer wrong than inflict it.
                                               unity. The powers of darkness           The meek do not quickly enter into
                                               would destroy the unity we enjoy        strife with the brother but turn the
                                               as churches. They would do this         other cheek, walk the second mile.
                                               by leading us away from the Word        This meekness finds its source in
                                               of God, on which our unity is           lowliness.
                                               based. What better way to destroy         Closely related to this is longsuf-
Rev. Slopsema at work in Synod                 the unity of our churches than by       fering. Found in this sequence of
                                               leading the Synod to take binding       virtues, longsuffering is a slowness
   We say this because this unity is           decisions that are contrary to the      to avenge wrong. Longsuffering
not always so evident in the church            Word of God! Synod must be on           does not return evil for evil nor
today. In the church world gener-              guard as it does its work.              railing for railing but on the con-
ally there is not unity but division.            And, being on guard, the Synod        trary good. One who is longsuffer-
One church believes this; another,             must keep the unity our churches        ing loves his enemies, blesses them
something contrary. This church                enjoy by making decisions that are      that curse him, does good to them
heads in one direction; that church,           in harmony with God's Word. It is       that hate him and prays for those
in the opposite direction. Strife,             true that sometimes decisions that      who persecute and despitefully use
conflict, and discord characterize             are true to the Word of God divide      him.
the church world.                              the church. This has happened &so         Finally, there is forbearing one
   This is due to especially two fac-          in our own history. And therefore       another in love. Forbearance is the
tors. First, not all who belong to             there is often the temptation to        ability to bear with the weaknesses
the church institute are true mem-             compromise the truth for the sake       of each other. Stated bluntly, it is
bers of the church, in whose lives             of keeping the church together.         the ability to put up with eaich
the Spirit works. Secondly, the                However, any unity that results         other so that we are not aggravated
work of the Spirit is not yet com-             from compromising the truth is a        by the sins and weaknesses we find
plete in the lives of the true mem-            sham unity and not the unity of the     in each other. This is possible only
bers of the church.                            Spirit. The unity that the Synod        when we love each other in the
   Nevertheless, this unity of the             must endeavor to keep is the true       bond of perfectness. Hence,, we
Spirit does exist among true believ-           unity of the Spirit. This is accom-     read of forbearing one another in
ers, even though it does not always            plished by standing on the Word of      love.
manifest itself.                               God alone.                                It does not take a great deal of
   Thankfully this unity is to be                      **Et****                        insight to understand how the
found in the Protestant Reformed                 The church, like our Synod,           unity of the Spirit will be promoted
Churches. As churches we are                   keeps the unity of the Spirit by        and preserved when these virtues
united together in the truth of                walking with all lowliness, and         characterize the walk of the saints
God's Word as this truth is summa-             meekness, with longsuffering, for-      together.
rized in our Three Forms of Unity.             bearing one another in love.              This is also true at the Synodical
On the basis of the truth we also, as            Lowliness is often translated hu-     level. When brethren labor to-
churches, labor together in unity              mility. It means to have a low opin-    gether in the context of these
and peace for the cause of God's               ion of self, an opinion that is con-    virtues, there is a promoting of the
kingdom and covenant. Certainly                sistent with what we really am. It      cause of the truth and of the church
this unity we enjoy is not perfect.            is true that in Jesus Christ we are     rather than of self. When these
Yet by the grace of God it exists              new creatures, wonderfully gifted       virtues are present, brethren are in-
and flourishes.                                and of great value to the kingdom       clined to listen to each other, even
   Perhaps what is more remark-                This is true of the least of God's      to those with whom they disagree,
able is that we enjoy this same                saints. However, of ourselves we        rather than each one assuming that
unity with other churches and                  are nothing and can do nothing.         his position is the only one which
groups in faraway lands, whose                 Besides that, we have all sorts of      can possibly be correct. Only when
culture is far different from ours.            limitations and shortcomings, even      these virtues characterize th.e work
          *******                              in Jesus Christ. Hence, if our opin-    of Synod can the Synod truly delib-
  We are called to endeavor to                 ion of ourselves will be in harmony     erate and arrive at decisions that
keep this unity of the Spirit.                 with reality, we will not be proud      are better than any one man alone
   The word "to keep" means, first             and boasting but lowly.                 could make.
of all, to guard, suggesting that                Meekness is the gift of God's           May God lead the Synod to labor
there are those who would take                 grace that leads the child of God to    in all lowliness, meekness, longsuf-
from us what we have, so that we               put the welfare of others ahead of      fering, and forbearance.
must be on guard. Then this word               his own desires and convenience.                 **a.****

436 I `j'he Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


  The ground for this exhortation           According to this passage we          light of God's salvation. In addi-
to unity is the vocation or calling       walk worthy of our calling when         tion to this you have been called to
wherewith we are called. This call-       we walk with all lowliness and          the office of minister and elder.
ing is the saving call of God             meekness, with longsuffering, for-      You have also been called to labor
through the gospel which God uses         bearing one another in love; en-        at this Synod. Walk worthy of your
to bring all the elect to a saving        deavouring to keep the unity of the     calling!
faith in Jesus Christ. We are             Spirit in the bond of peace,              Walk with all lowliness and
charged to walk worthy of this call-        Brethren of Synod, walk worthy        meekness, with longsuffering,  fair-
ing, that is, in a manner that is con-    of your calling.                        bearing one another in love; en-
sistent with or in harmony with             You have been wonderfully             deavouring to keep the unity of {the
this calling.                             called out of the darkness of sin       Spirit in the bond of peace. Cl
                                          and unbelief into the marvelous





                                          n PRC Synod: Missions
                                                     and Contact
Editorials                                n Slaughtering Baptists?

n PRC Synod:                              the British Isles. Recently, several    two four-week sessions a year for
Missions and Contact                      men have formed an association          the next four years. The overture
                                          called the British Reformed Fellow-     of South Holland, Illinois PRC, that
                                          ship. Their purpose is a sound,         the Jamaica field be closed, was :re-
  The Protestant Reformed Synod           creedal Reformed church in Eng-         jetted.
1990 kept the promise of its              land. The Fellowship is sponsor-           Synod urged the Foreign Mis-,
agenda. Its decisions showed a            ing a conference in northern Wales      sion Committee @MC) "to more
readiness to witness to the Re-           late this summer, August 31-            aggressive investigation of possible
formed faith at home (the United          September 2, at which the under-        fields of labor." It specifically men-
States and Canada) and to the ends        signed will speak and preach. The       tioned a joint mission effort witht
of the earth (Jamaica; Singapore;         hope of the group is that the con-      the Evangelical Reformed
Australia; New Zealand; and               ference will bring together many in     Churches of Singapore (ERCS).
Northern Ireland). Missions and           the British Isles who have some         The ERCS had a request at Synod
contact with other churches domi-         heart for Calvinism.                    that the PRC send them "a senior
nated. Accentuating the emphasis             Several, significant decisions       minister or professor to help us
on looking outward were ad-               were taken concerning the Jamaica       start some kind of a Reformed the-
dresses to Synod by representa-           mission. Synod adopted the over-        ological training programme in
tives from several churches and fel-      ture of the Mission Committee that      Singapore." The man would also
lowships in foreign countries. Two        Synod declare the decision of           help the Singapore churches in
of these addresses appear in this is-     Synod 1983, that the co-worker in       their mission work. The Contact
sue of The St&d Bearer.                   Jamaica be another minister, to be      Committee of the PRC will study
  Synod made the areas of Venice,         in error. This allows the churches      this request and bring mcommen-
Florida and of Lame/Ballymena,            to work in Jamaica by means of a        dations to Synod 1991. A two-man
Northern Ireland denominational           minister and a capable layman.          delegation from the PRC, one from
mission fields. Information about         First Church, Grand Rapids, the         the Contact Committee and one
these fields was given in the June 1      calling church for Jamaica, was in-     from the FMC, will visit the Singa-
issue of The SB. The Kalamazoo,           structed to proceed to call a minis-    pore churches in the coming year,
Michigan PRC will be the calling          ter as missionary and to secure a       to discuss the request with them
church for Venice. The Hud-               co-worker. Until a missionary is        and to do some preliminary work
sonville, Michigan PRC is the call-       obtained, the PRC will work in Ja-      with regard to it.
ing church for Northern Ireland. A        maica by sending two men to teach          Pastors Lau and Mahtani were
missionary in Northern Ireland            the leaders in the churches there in    seated at Synod with advisory vote
will also pursue other contacts in

                                                                                    August  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 437


as delegates from the ERCS, sister           ing the differences between the two
churches of the PRC.                         denominations over worship will
   The overture of the FMC to                be published in the "Acts of Synod
Synod 1989, that the constitutions           1990" of the PRC.
of the FMC and of the (domestic)                The CC was authorized to attend
Mission Committee be changed so              the 1990 meeting of the North
that the mission labors of the               American Presbyterian and Re-
churches would be divided along              formed Council (NAPARC) as ob-
geographical lines, was rejected.            servers, if the PRC are again in-
The main reason for rejecting the            vited. The Presbyterian Church in
overture was the fear that the call-         America will host this meeting on        Officers of Synod: Rev. VanOverloop
ing of the churches to go to the hea-        November 7 and 8 in Atlanta,             - Vice-President; Rev. VanBaren  -
then would suffer. In the discus-            Georgia.                                 President; Rev. Gritters - First Clerk
sion of this matter, Synod virtually            Decisions concerning the Theo-
ignored the report of the study              logical School of the PRC included       church's worship. Third, "this is
committee appointed by Synod                 adoption of an internship program        not out of step with the Reformed
1989. This well-argued and  well-            for third or fourth year seminarians     tradition and the writings of the
written report recommended ap-               in order to give the students practi-    Reformed fathers." The decision in
proval of the overture of the FMC.           cal experience in all aspects of the     its entirety will be printed in the
Neither was there much reference             work of the ministry; adoption of        forthcoming "Acts of Synod 1990."
to the overture itself of the FMC.           the proposal of the Theological             Among other decisions, Synod
The discussion was controlled by             School Committee that the pre-           returned the overture of Southeast,
the advice of the committee of pre-          seminary program no longer be            Grand Rapids concerning the re-
advice. In the future, Synod should          considered a separate department         structuring of the denomination in
honor its special study committees           of the Seminary; and rejection of        three classes to the study commit-
by considering their recommenda-             the proposal to establish an endow-      tee for further study. The commit-
tions directly. The only role that a         ment fund for the Seminary. A ma-        tee is to report in 1991. The study
committee of pm-advice should                jority of the delegates thought that     committee had recommended the
have is that it brings the report of         an endowment fund might distance         rejection of Southeast's overture on
the study committee to the floor.            the Seminary from the members of         the ground that the majority of our
   Synod adopted rules drawn up              the PRC, to the hurt of the Semi-        churches did not favor it. A special
by the Committee for Contact with            nary. Information on these propos-       committee was appointed to inves-
Other Churches (CC) for assisting            als was given in the June 1,199O  is-    tigate the insurance and nursing
the Protestant Reformed Church of            sue of The SB.                           care needs of the ministers and
New Zealand (PRCNZ) in matters                 A full day of Synod was taken          emeriti ministers. Synod heard two
of discipline. The church in New             up with treating two appeals that        appeals in closed session because
Zealand asked that she be permit-            contended that a cross on the chan-      of the nature of the appeals.
ted to submit cases of discipline to         cel wall of a church building vio-         The synodical  budget remains
the Synod of the PRC for judgment.           lates the Second Commandment,            the same as last year: $450 per
Thus, the New Zealand church                 conflicting with the "regulative         family per year.
wisely seeks to avoid one of the             principle" of worship. Synod re-           Hope, Walker, Michigan will
great dangers of independency and            jected the appeals with regard to        host Synod in June, 1991, the Lord
desires a valuable expression of the         their basic contention on three          willing.
sister church relationship. Dele-            grounds. First, "a plain cross in or       In the midst of its deliberations,
gates at Synod from the PRCNZ                on a church building, of whatever        Synod was saddened by news of
were Rev. Rodney Miersma and                 size, does not violate the creedal       the death of the wife of seminarian
Deacon Kevin Inskeep.                        position of the PRC that we not          Mitchell Dick, Ellen, after a linger-
   The CC will continue working to           worship God `in any other way            ing illness. Synod conveyed. its ex-
help the Evangelical Presbyterian            than He has commanded in His             pression of sympathy and comfort
Church of Australia (EPC) by sup-            Word,' Heidelberg Catechism,             to Mr. Dick. Many of the delegates
plying the pulpit of their Burr-tie,         Lord's Day 35 (regulative princi-        attended a funeral service on Mon-
Tasmania congregation. Rev.                  ple)." In this connection, Synod         day evening, June 11.
Bernard Woudenberg, pastor of the            distinguished between an image             The officers of Synod were Rev.
Kalamazoo, Michigan PRC, will                and a mere symbol. Second, "the          Gise VanBamn, president; Rev. Ron
spend three or four months in                placement of a symbol on a church        Van Overloop, vice-president; Rev.
Burnie later this year. The EPC is           wall does not make that symbol an        Barrett Gritters, first clerk; and Rev.
conferring with the Theological              element of the congregation's wor-       Dale Kuiper, second clerk.
School Committee of the PRC                  ship." Synod asserted that there is        Interrupted in its meeting for
about the possibility of having their        freedom in the PRC's application of      three days by the International Re-
aspirants for the ministry taught in         the regulative principle in those in-    formed Conference sponsored by
the PRC Seminary. Papers explor-             cidental details connected with the      the PRC at the time of Synod,

438 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


Synod adjourned on Friday, June            very young human being to make a           Westminster, on the other hand,
15, at about 8PM. The debate is            confession of faith and thus become        maintains that "not only those tlhat
ended. The decisions are final, sub-       member of the church. But the is-          do actually profess faith in and
ject to appeal by the members of           sue is whether a Baptist church mc-        obedience unto Christ, but also :the
the churches and the judgment by           ognizes that Jesus Christ, the Ring        infants of one or both believing
the Ring of the Church. In answer          of the church, requires that not only      parents are to be baptized" (28.4:).
to the many prayers raised for His         believers be admitted into the                Pastor Oosterman has no reason
blessing, may Jesus Christ, the            church, but also the children of be-       to question the perfect accuracy of
Head of the Church, establish the          lievers, and that by virtue of their       my statement that "every Baptist
work of the Synod of the PRC 1990.         being children of believers, alto-         church denies membership to all
                                 - DJE     gether apart from a prior confes-          children. Only sheep belong to the
                                           sion of faith. "Allow the infants to       Baptist fold, no lambs."
                                           come to Me by being brought to the            But it is exceedingly hard for .a
                                           baptismal font by their parents, and       Baptist to face up to the implica-
n  Slaughtering                            forbid them not: for the church -          tions of Baptist doctrine, as indeed
Baptists? (2)                              the kingdom of God in the present          it should be. Would God that the
                                           age - is made up of such infants"          implications force some of them to
   If the historical aspect of the Bap-    (Luke 18:16).  This, every Baptist         reconsider their rejection of the
tist pastor, William Oosterman's,          church refuses to recognize. If a          children of believers.
objection to my explanation of the         Baptist church would recognize                I persist in holding every Baptist
Reformed doctrine of the covenant          this, it would, by virtue of this fact,    to the implications of his doctrine.
is mistaken, the theological aspect        cease to be Baptist. It is, therefore,     If our children are outside the
is surprising. (See the "Letters"          fundamental Baptist doctrine that          church, they are outside the sphere
column of the July 1,199O  issue of        children are excluded from church          of salvation. They do not differ
The Standard Bearer.  The first in-        membership.                                from lost heathens. For the church
stallment of my response to this              And is it really common for Bap-        "is an assembly of those who are
Baptist objection also appeared in         tist churches to allow five-year olds      saved, and...out of it there is no sal-
the July 1 issue of The SB.) Ooster-       to make confession of faith and            vation" (Belgic Confession, Art. 28).
man takes issue with my statement          thus to come to the Lord's Table? If          Baptists have no ground for any
that Baptists deny church member-          so, I have another objection against       hope of the salvation of their chil-
ship to the children of believers,         Baptist church practices. To permit        dren who die in infancy or child-
with the result that there are no          five-year olds to confess their faith      hood, i.e., before their personal
children in a Baptist church. This         and to come to the Lord's Supper is        confession of faith and baptism. I
analysis of Baptist ecclesiology is        ecclesiastically irresponsible and a       know very well that Baptists claim
"wrong," according to Oosterman,           threat to the holiness of the Supper.      hope for the salvation of such chil-
a setting up of a "false position," a        A comparison of the Presbyte-            dren. Nor is it the case that I deny
"misrepresentation." As my spiri-          rian creed, the Westminster Confes-        the salvation of the children of Bap-
tual ancestors are alleged to have         sion, with the Baptist Confession of       tists. But on his own, peculiarly
slaughtered Baptists literally, I am       1689 makes clear that the Baptists         Baptist doctrines, the Baptist him-
charged with slaughtering them             deny membership in the church to           self has no ground for hope in s~u.21
theologically.                             the children of believers. In Chap-        cases. If he appeals to the natural
  On the contrary, this analysis of        ter 25.2, Westminster describes the        innocence of the children, he is con-
the Baptist doctrine and practice of       visible church as consisting "of all       tradicted by the biblical doctrine of
the church is a sober statement of         those, throughout the world, that          original sin. If he appeals to the
fact. It cannot even be challenged.        profess the true religion, and of their    theory that all children who die in
By definition, a Baptist church,           children" (my emphasis - DJE).             infancy are saved, the children of
whether friend or foe of the doc-          The Baptist Confession of 1689, an         unbelievers as well as the children
tines of grace, denies membership          adaptation of the Westminster Con-         of believers, as does Pastor Ooster-
in the church to the children of be-       fession to Baptist purposes, limits        man, he is refuted by the fact that
lievers, much more to the children         membership in the congregations            this theory is not biblically revealed
of unbelievers. Being a child of be-       to persons who profess the faith of        truth. It is sheer human invention.
lieving parents does not qualify           the gospel (26.2). Deliberately, it        God nowhere has promised to be
one for church membership in a             excludes the children of believers         the God of the children of the un-
Baptist church. Only a confession          from church membership, excising           godly. On the contrary, sacred his-
of faith by one old enough and ma-         the covenantal phrase from West-           tory, e.g., that of the Flood, of
ture enough to make `such a confes-        minster. In keeping with its ban-          Sodom, and of Israel's destruction
sion qualifies one for membership .        ishment of believers' children from        of the Canaanites, as well as bibli-
in a Baptist church. This is the is-       the Body of Christ, the Confession         cal doctrine, e.g., the Second Com-
sue, as everyone understands per-          of 1689 also keeps from the chil-          mandment, warn unbelievers that
fectly well. The issue is not              dren the sign of church member-            they take their children to hell w:ith
whether a Baptist church permits a         ship, namely baptism (cf. 29.2).           themselves.

                                                                                       August  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I  839


   There is one ground for the hope             Here we come to the practical           bers who defect to the Baptist
of godly parents that their children         necessity of the Reformed faith's          church in the language of the Re-
who die in infancy are elect and             sharply distinguishing itself today        formed creed: "we detest the error
saved. This is the solidly biblical          from the Baptist faith in whatever         of the Anabaptists" (Belgic Confes-
truth that the children of believers         form. This practical necessity is the      sion, Article 34).
are comprehended in the covenant             calling of the Reformed church to             The effect of this uncritical ac-
of grace, as the Reformed creed, the         maintain the truth of the covenant         ceptance of the "Calvin&tic Bap
Canons of Dordt, teaches in I/17.            of grace in its full, rich reality; to     tists" as Reformed is the jeopardiz-
But this is exactly the truth that ev-       warn Reformed believers against            ing of the Reformed doctrine! of the
ery Baptist repudiates. In doing so,         abandoning this truth; and to ex-          covenant. At best, its importance is
every Baptist destroys all hope for          hort others to embrace the truth of        minimized -it is not essentiial to
the salvation of his children who            the covenant and practice its re-          the Reformed faith. At worst, the
die before confession of faith and           quirements.                                adherence of Reformed people to
baptism. Were I a Baptist, I would             Leading preachers in the                 the covenant is weakened - Re-
live in mortal terror at the possibil-       "Calvinist Baptist" movement sub-          formed men and women forsake
ity of the early death of one of my          ject the Reformed doctrine of infant       the Reformed churches for the
children - outside the covenant,             baptism, and thereby the Reformed          "Calvinistic Baptist" churches, or
outside the church, and outside the          doctrine of the covenant, to               even for free will Baptist churches.
sphere of salvation of God in the            scathing denunciation. They casti-           There must be a clear, unclom-
blood and Spirit of Jesus.                   gate it as false doctrine. Neverthe-       promising testimony to the essen-
   Oosterman's confusion of the Re-          less, these men are publicly wel-          tial importance of the covenant of
formed view of the salvation of              comed by prominent Reformed and            God in Christ with believers and
covenant children with the Roman             Presbyterian associations, confer-         their children. There must be a
Catholic doctrine of baptismal re-           ences, and theologians as genuinely        sharp, unmistakable warning that
generation ("The child died a pa-            Reformed preachers. They are               rejection of this covenant-doctrine
gan for lack of a few drops of wa-           given positions of honor in promot-        constitutes departure from, or op
ter," etc.) is inexcusable and de-           ing and defending "the Reformed            position to, historic, creedal :Re-
serves no refutation.                        faith." Rare is the spirited defense       formed Christianity.
   In rejecting the doctrine of the          of infant baptism against these              We give this testimony and
one covenant of grace, basic to              "Calvinist Baptists" by the Re-            warning.
which is the inclusion of the chil-          formed and Presbyterians who re-             It is not that we desire to slaugh-
dren of believers in the covenant            ceive them as genuinely Reformed.          ter Baptists.
and their baptism as infants, all            Rarer still is the blunt condemna-           But we desire their conversion to
Baptists part company with the Re-           tion of their Baptist rejection of in-     the Reformed faith. Cl          - DJE
formed faith. Pastor Oosterman               fant baptism and their Baptist re-
finds this judgment objectionable,           baptism of Reformed church mem-
inasmuch as some Baptists today
call themselves Reformed. They
suppose that they have a right to
this glorious name, because they                                     Christian Comforts
confess, more or less soundly, the
"Five Points of Calvinism."                  How sweet the promises of God             He giveth peace within our hearts
   But is it lawful for Baptists to            To a believer's ear;                      Which no one else can give,
claim the name Reformed when                 He giveth grace for every trial,          His Spirit working mightily
they reject a doctrine and corre-              He casteth out all fear,                  He giveth grace to live,
sponding practice that both the Re-          He comforts every aching heart            To trust Him for our every need,
formed tradition and the Reformed              Bowed down with grief and pain;           Though dark may em the day,
creeds designate as essential to the         We cast our burdens on the Lord           He sends His light within our hearts
Reformed faith? May a church                   And He doth e'er sustain.                 And drives all doubts away.
then also deny, let us say, the doc-
trine of sovereign, eternal predesti-        "Es sweet to feel His presence when       Oh, trust Him then, believe His
nation and yet claim to be Re-                 Our trials am multiplied;                     Word,
formed on the ground that it does            `Tis sweet to have a friend just then       Wherever you may be;
maintain other doctrines that are              In whom one can confide.                Remember that He's always near
taught in the Reformed tradition             We tell Him all our cares and woes,         On land or on the sea.
and confessed in the Reformed                  He guides us to the light               He always hears the pleading cry
creeds? May I similarly reject the           Of His blest Word which shows to            Rise to the throne above
teaching so precious to Baptists,                                                      And sends His answers graciously
namely `believer's baptism," but               The"tonders  of His might.,               As tokens of His love.
still present myself to the world as                                                                     - SB, September I,1931
a Baptist?

440 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


                                          Letters

A True Christian                          striving for godliness, i.e., crucify-            roots of asceticism are its motives, gu~rose
Asceticism?                               ing our flesh (Gal. 524) and being                and a&is, and strivings, its dual& aLi its
                                          crucified to the world (Gal. 614).                view of life in this world.  These can be
  I would like to present some                These things are accomplished in              known from an e2zmination of the thor-
ideas in response to Prof. H.              us by God by a continual, painful                oughly pagan type of asceticism as prac-
Hanko's article, "Anthony and the         process of conscious struggle. This               ticed by the Gnostic and Manichzean
Ascetics" (The Standard Bearer,  June     constant, often painful exercise of               sects....
1,199O).  Why in our age which is                                                              Asceticism, it is plain, is a pagan inven-
                                           struggle is absolutely essential in
so obviously carnal is it not time to                                                       tion. It is based on pagan views of God,
                                           our salvation. Without it we are on
advocate that we seek a more as-                                                            man, and the woriX...
                                           the broad way to destruction. To
cetic, "other-worldly" life-style in                                                           Brother Hilton speaks of a Bibli-
order to keep ourselves "unspotted        be constantly fleeing from that                   cal "asceticism," but fails to recog-
                                          broad way, in order to find the nar-
from the world" (James  1:27)? We                                                           nize that the asceticism as practiced
                                          row way of life, is to be constantly
should listen to I Timothy 63-11:                                                           by some in the early church, and
                                          engaging in a spiritual form of
"And having food and raiment let                                                            which led to monasticism, is con-
                                           "world-flight."
us be therewith content. But they                                                           trary to Scripture. - Prof. H. Hank0
                                              Should we not reevaluate our at-
that will be rich fall into temptation     titude toward "asceticism"?                      A preciation
and a snare, and into many foolish            I would like to have one of our                  r
and hurtful lusts, which drown                                                                   our editorials in recent issues of
                                          ministers or professors present a
men in destruction and perdition.                                                           The Standard Bearer  dealing with
                                           detailed discourse on the scriptural
For the love of money is the root of                                                        "The Covenant of God and the
                                           teaching concerning fasting and its
all evil: which while some coveted                                                          Children of Believers" afford your
                                           spiritual benefits.           John Hilton
after, they have erred from the                                                             readers a fresh insight into the
                                                                     Edgerton, MN
faith, and pierced themselves                                                               Scriptural and Reformed (distinc-
through with many sorrows. But             Response                                         tively Reformed, that is) view of
thou, 0 man of God, free                                                                    the Covenant of Grace.
                             these            Rev. G.M. Ophoff, in the syllabus
things...."                                                                                    I look forward yet to another m-
  I understand that obedience to           we used in Seminary on Ancient                   stallment in this series on the
                                           Church History, writes concerning
these words is not to be achieved                                                           Covenant of Grace. An article that
simply by selling our properties           asceticism as follows:                           will address itself to the "other
                                              Asceticism is from the Greek askeoo, to
and businesses, giving everything                                                           side" of this "jeweled coin" which
                                           exercise, to strengthen through exercise.
to the poor, and living meagerly                                                            will give expression to what is
                                           By the heathen the term was used for gym-
and frugally the rest of our days                                                           stated in the Form for Infant Bap-
                                           nastic exercises but by the fathers of the
(although I could conceive that for                                                         tism, "...whereas in all covenants
                                          early church, of moral self-discipline. Yet it
some this might be the only way to         would be a serious mistake to define asceti-     there are contained two parts . . . . N'
rid themselves of the snare of             cism simply as moral se$Wscipline. For              I may also believe from your
riches). Certainly, we should not try      moral self-discipline - the mortification of     writings that you gave your read-
to live like "cavemen" or "flagpole-       members which are upon the earth, the cru-       ers the "official doctrinal positio:n"
sitters." But how many of us are           cifixion of the works of the fresh-is a          of denominations with whom you
truly living according to this Word        Christian duty enjoined by the Scriptures.       state disagreement.
                                          It forms a part of the true conversion of
of God in I Timothy? Just because                                                              Thank you for giving your reaid-
                                          man, the other part of which is the quicken-
Anthony and others have gone to                                                             ers of The SB excellent Scriptural
                                           ing of the new man, the sincere joy of heart
extremes in "fleeing these things,"                                                         and Reformed materials for our ed-
                                           in God through Christ, and a living ac-
should we condemn the whole idea                                                            ification and knowledge of the
                                          cording to the will of God in all good works
of asceticism?                            with love aid &light. Every true Chris-           truth handed down to us from our
  My dictionary defines an ascetic         tian, certainly, engages in moral df-aid-        forefathers.
as "a person who leads a life of          pline. He must, for the life of Christ that          The Lord's blessings to all writ-
contemplation and rigorous self-          was planted in his soul, will assert itself.      ers of articles and readers of The SB.
denial for religious purposes." The       But the normal Christian is not an as-                                         Henry Doom
root meaning seems to be that of          cetic....
                                              If                                                                       Kentwood; MI
                                                asceticism (as it was practiced in the
exercise. For me, therefore, true         early church) is to be known as to its true
Christian asceticism is an earnest        character, its roots must be laid bare. The

                                                                                              August  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I  &l


A IO-Year Old Reader                        from 1978 until Rev. Morgan's ap-         baptism, the Baptist church that we
   I am ten years old and I really          pointment as interim Moderator in         attended thought she needed to be
enjoy Rev. A. denHartog's  articles         1982.               Peter  W. Morgan      baptized again. This time at ithe
in The Standard Bearer.                              Lilydale, Tasmania Australia     age of forty-four.
   I especially enjoyed "Little Chil-                                                    In stark contrast to the Baptist
dren Keep Yourselves from Idols"            From a Former Baptist                     view of baptism, the impetus and
and `Fear God and Not Man!' be-                I would like to thank Professor        efficacy of Baptism in the Reformed
cause they are so easy for young            Engelsma and The Sfandara Bearer          tradition lies solely in the Covenant
readers to understand.                      for the thoughtful and edifying se-       that God has established with His
                      Lindsey Baldwin       ries of articles on "The Covenant of      people and His sovereign eternal
                         Charlotte, NC      God and the Children of Believers."       decree of election. As Profesrjor  En-
                                            I was especially pleased with the         gelsma  has clearly illustrated in his
A Voice from Tasmania                       clear differentiation that was made       articles, the impetus for baptism in
   I write with regard to the article       between the Reformed and the              Reformed Churches is the
in your February 15,199O issue ti-          Baptist understandings of baptism.        Covenant that God has established
tled, "Committee for Contact with           The topic of this series is especially    between His people and their seed.
Other Churches," in which it is             close to my heart as I was raised         Thus in the new covenant ba:ptism
stated, concerning the Burnie Con-          and even baptized in a Baptist            occupies the same position that cir-
gregation of the Evangelical Pres-          church. Yet as I gradually learned        cumcision did in the old covenant.
byterian Church of Australia, that          and embraced the Reformed truth              I will never forget the words of
"The saints there grew in spiritual         in discussions with Rev. J. Korter-       Rev. H. Veldman when we dis-
understanding and knowledge of              ing and Rev. H. Veldman I realized        cussed these issues. He said,. "The
the Reformed faith under Prof.              the serious error of the Baptist posi-    doctrine of infant baptism is one
Hoeksema's ministry, for they had           tion. I am thankful to say that           that I hold most dear. Why you
long been without a pastor of their         these discussions amongst many            might ask? I will tell you why. The
OWll...." From all accounts it is true      others led to my confession of faith      doctrine of infant baptism pelrhaps
that the people of the Burnie con-          in Grandville Protestant Reformed         more than any other doctrine
gregation greatly appreciated the           Church.                                   teaches God's sovereign election in
ministry of Prof. Hoeksema while              The crucial difference between          salvation. You see, grace is not be-
he was in Burnie. I wonder,                 the Baptist and the Reformed con-         stowed upon every child that is
though, if you are aware that Rev.          ception of Baptism can be seen in         baptized, but only the children that
A.I. Morgan, while he was a minis-          how they view the impetus and ef-         are elect. What possibly could this
ter of the E.l?C. of A., faithfully         ficacy of baptism. The impetus for        child have done to deserve this
ministered in the truths of the Re-         baptism amongst Baptists is always        grace? It clearly is God's sovereign
formed faith in the Bumie Congre            the work of the one being baptized.       counsel that determines where
gation from May 1982 until Febru-           Whether this be in "Arminian Bap-         grace is bestowed." Infant baptism
ary 1987. (Prof. Hoeksema was in            tist" circles where one must have         is a compelling enactment of our
Burnie from August 1988 until               "accepted Christ into his heart" or       place in God's covenant. We are
April 1989.) For a substantial part         in the "Calvinistic Baptist"              not capable of doing anything to
of that period Rev. Morgan traveled         churches where in the words of            merit God's favor. Yet throu;gh
from his home in Launceston to              Rev. W. Oosterman (Standard  Bearer,      God's eternal mercy He sees us
Burnie, every weekend, to conduct           July 1,199O)  that if one "under-         through the shed blood of Christ.
morning and afternoon Lord's day            stand, believes, and repents he/she       Because the efficacy of baptism lies
services as well as other meetings          is baptized and becomes a mem-            in God's eternal decree of election, I
on occasions. This work was un-             ber."                                     need not be baptized again even
dertaken by Rev. Morgan while he              The efficacy of baptism is also         though I was baptized in another
was interim Moderator to the                dependent on the work of the one          church under a different method of
Burnie Church Session. While Rev.           being baptized in most Baptist            baptism.
Morgan was never called by this             churches. This is why the Anabap-           I would like once again to thank
congregation to be their pastor in          tists of the sixteenth century bap-       Professor Engelsma for his excel-
the full sense of the word, I believe       tized people again. They believed         lent series of articles that clearly
his labours there ought not to be ig-       that baptism must follow regenera-        distinguishes a grace that is :in
nored.                                      tion to be efficacious. The practice      some way earned from the Grace
  Please note that I do not wish, in        of baptizing people more than once        that is given by God in His
any way, to diminish the under-             still occurs in some Baptist              Covenant.  Cl         Steven J. Spencer
standing that the Burnie congrega-          churches today. I know this be-                                   Ann Arbor, MI
tion is in need of a pastor. I should       cause my mother was baptized
also note that Rev. R.A. Fisk was           twice. She was baptized once
pastor of the Burnie congregation           when she was twelve years old,
                                            and because she felt she had not
                                            "accepted Christ" at the time of her

442 I The Standard Bearer I August $1990


               Committee Work at Synod





                           4  o'clock





6 o'clock





10  o'clock                12  o'clock




                                          August  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I' 443


                                             l Greetings from Measbro
                                                      Dyke Evangelical
                                                      Church, Barnsley,
                                                      England
Addresses                                    n Greetings from Synod 6f
to Synod                                              E.P.C. of Australia

H Greetings from                             sweet to my taste. As a young min-       Protestant Reformed Churches vis-
Measbro Dyke                                 ister of the gospel, just coming to a    ited our congregation in Barnsley.
                                             knowledge and understanding of           We were encouraged and enriched
Evangelical Church,                          the Reformed faith, I knew my            by this communion of the saints.
Barnsley, England                            heart and soul to be edified and           Some of your ministers who vis-
                                             fed.                                     ited us to preach perceived the dif-
                  -Rev. Philip  Rawson         I immediately wrote the publish-       ficulties which we as a small con-
                                             ers of that book, the RFPA.              gregation were experiencing even
Mr. President and delegates to the           Through that first contact I began       in financial matters. I take this op-
Synod of the Protestant Reformed             to correspond with my good friend,       portunity from the floor of Synod
Churches,                                    Prof. Hanko.                             to  thank you for the financial assis-
   I count it a privilege and a joy to         Shortly after my first visit to the    tance given by your churches to
bring you greetings in the Name of           U.S. in 1985, the church of which I      our congregation in Bamsley
Christ Jesus our Lord.                       am Pastor in Barnsley went               When I met with my deacons the
  These greetings I bring from the           through a period of trouble and un-      evening before our departure for
office bearers and members of the            rest. I would have you understand,       Grand Rapids, they asked that,
Measbro Dyke Evangelical Church              brethren, that both the Measbro          with my greetings, I especially
in Bamsley, South Yorkshire, Eng-            Dyke congregation and I come             mention this kindness we have re-
land.                                        from a Wesleyan Arminian back-           ceived from you.
   I little thought, when I first came       ground. When I began, therefore,           I might also add that, under the
into contact with the Protestant Re-         to preach and teach the doctrine of      hand of our God in providence,
formed Churches, that I would, as            grace and the truth of the absolute      there was a time, but for the en-
at this time, be. standing upon the          sovereignty of God in all things, I      couragement and counsel of some
floor of Synod to bring you these            encountered a good deal of resis-        of you who are gathered in Synod
fraternal greetings.                         tance. My denial of the errors of        here this morning, I would hu-
  It was in 1976 that in the                 "Common Grace" and "the Free             manly speaking have left the Chris-
sovereign providence of the Lord I           Offer of the Gospel" brought the         tian ministry
obtained the book whosoever will,            charge of hyper-Calvinism,  and of         We give thanks to God as a
written by the late Rev. H. Hoek-            harshness, against my preaching.         church that these past two years
sema. That book, brethren, was               Sadly, 25% of the congregation de-       have seen peace restored to the
                                             parted over a difficult period of        congregation. We have been
                                             two years. Not only I but also my        blessed with additions to the
                                             dear wife and children began to ex-      church through conversions d
                                             perience the difficulty and loneli-      those from without, and public
                                             ness of the way the Lord had ap-         confession of some from within. I
                                             pointed for us to walk.                  pray, beloved brethren, that the
Rev. Rawson  is pastor of Mea&o                Over the years a goodly number         Lord Jesus Christ, the great Head of
Dyke Evangelical Church.                     of members and ministers of the          the church, will bless your delibera-
444 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


tions in the coming days to the fur-       Synod and to address you. This is           We have things in common not
therance of Christ's kingdom and           most unusual for us, and I think          only in the crucial area of the doc-
the glory of our God. I would              unusual for you too. Why is it un-        trine of God's absolute sovereignty
leave with you the word of God             usual that we would visit one an-         but also in our respective histories,
found in Ephesians 1:16-23:  "Cease        other's churches, and address one         and the various experiences the
not to give thanks for you, making         another's Synods? It is not because       Lord has led our churches through.
mention of you in my prayers;              we are so far removed that we do          We also have much in common in
that the God of our Lord Jesus             not have others to visit and address      seeking to apply the doctrines of
Christ, the Father of glory, may           us. It is not a geographical or social    God's Covenant to our daily life,
give unto you the spirit of wisdom         reason. It is unusual because we          such as in Christian education.
and revelation in the knowledge of         do not often find churches who are          The Lord in His providence has
him...." 0                                 fully committed to the absolute           brought our paths to cross. It is not
                                           sovereignty of God and His partic-        chance. I trust and pray we will be
                                           ular grace. We do not often find          able to have a relationship such as
                                           churches who are unashamedly              our Reformed fathers of Scotland
                                           historic Reformed/Presbyterian            and Holland had, where they as-
                                           Confessional churches. We are thus        sisted and helped one another in
                                           glad to be here because of this com-      the good fight of faith in their gen-
                                           monness, and to encourage one an-         eration. May our generation do
                                           other in these things.                    likewise. In this day and age, the
                                             We are also here to give expres-        glory of God and the welfare of the
                                           sion to our belief in the great bibli-    church demand it.
                                           cal truth of the catholicity of the         Because of our differences, your
                                           church. We believe in "the holy           churches' definition of a "sister
                                           catholic church." It is difficult in      church" makes it impossible for us
                                           these days of a perverted ecumeni-        to be "sister churches." We there-
                                           cal spirit to give a proper expres-       fore plead that your Synod would
                                           sion of our belief in the essential       spell out in practical terms what a
                                           unity and universality of the             "less than sister church" relation-
                                           church of our Lord Jesus Christ. It       ship means.
                                           is easier in fact for us to stay at         May the Lord Jesus Who walks
                                           home, and for you to stay at home:        in the midst of His churches by His
                                           you in your small comer and we in         Spirit be in your midst, to guide
                                           our own. But this calling to recog-       you in all your deliberations, and
Pastors Rawson  and Coleborn confer        nize the doctrine of the catholicity      to bless you in all your labors in
at Synod                                   of the church is from the Lord Him-       His cause. Cl
                                           self, and we cannot fail to heed His
                                           call. For this reason also we desire
n Greetings from the                       contact.
Synod of E.P.C. of                           There are differences between us.
Australia                                  We are in the process of discussing              The Weaver
                                           them with your Contact Commit-
                                                                                     My life is but a weaving
                 - Rev. Chris Coleborn     tee. Only time will tell where and
                                           to what extent these differences            Between my Lord and me.
Brethren of the P.R.C. Synod,              will affect our relationship. These       I cannot choose the colors
  Thank you for the privilege of           differences are in areas important          He worketh steadily.
inviting me to address you. I bring        to both our denominations, and            Oft times He weaveth sorrow
Christian greetings from the E.K.          therefore we must seek in the grace         And I in foolish pride
Synod, and the prayer that the             of the Holy Spirit to respect one an-     Forget He sees the upper
Lord would keep you in. His truth,         other as we discuss them, and to            And I, the underside.
and use you in His service in these        walk with understanding and pa-
days in which we live.                     tience. We trust these differences        Not till the loom is silent
  Pastor Burley and I have come            will not be stones of stumbling to          And the shuttles cease to fly
from a far land to observe your            us, but stepping stones to a greater      Shall God unroll the canvas
                                           understanding and appreciation of           And explain the reason why.
                                           one another, and a stimulus to a          The dark threads are as needful.
                                           greater study of the Word of God.           In the Weaver's skilful hand
                                           May  it be as iron sharpens iron to       As the threads of gold and silver
Rev. Coleborn is pastor of the Brisbane    make us better instruments in His           In the pattern He has planned.
Congregation of the Evangelical Pres-      service.
byferian Church of Australia.                                                                          - SB, April 15, :I931


                                             A Reformed
                                             Theolog.ical School
Special Article
Rev. Jaikishin Mahtani                       in the Pacific Area

                                               besides giving greetings this af-      Holy Spirit, that there now is an ur-
                                             ternoon on behalf of the ERCS, may       gent need to train more men.
                                             I express our thanks particularly to       The Lord, the Mighty God Who
                                             the Contact Committee of the             is on His throne, He Who has done
                                             Protestant Reformed Churches             whatsoever He hath pleased, has
                                             which has labored hard over the          graciously blessed us and our
                                             years to make this Conference pos-       churches in the island of Singapore,
                                             sible. May God bless your labors         and under His faithful blessings
                                             as you continue to seek the unity of     and with the wonderful guidance
                                             the Spirit through the spread of the     of His Holy Spirit, the churches
                                             gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and      continue to grow numerically as
                                             through further contact with the         well as spiritually. As you can well
                                             Lord's people all over the world.        remember, our church in Singapore
                                             Do not be discouraged when in the        began with a core group of some
                                             busyness of laboring to uphold the       very young people, whose average
                                             Reformed faith you are falsely ac-       age was between 14 and 20, with
                                             cused of having no desire to evan-       only a few married couples. We are
                                             gelize and to seek unity with other      still young in Singapore, compared
                                             brethren of like precious faith. This    to the people of God in your
                                             Conference is clear proof to the         churches, but the scene in Singa-
                                             contrary. Our prayer is that,            pore is fast changing. Eight years
                                             through our sister-church relation-      after the institution of our church,
                                             ship, perhaps God will encourage         half of the membership of our
                                             you to be even more mission-             churches is now families - either
Rev. Mahtani gives slide presentation
on India                                     minded in the days to come unto          young married couples or young
                                             the glory of God.                        families with young children. We
                                               With that I would like to enter        still do have many young people
                                             immediately into my speech. I am         and many unmarried single adults,
                                             to speak to you on the subject, A        but you can imagine what a change
                                             Reformed Theological Seminary in         that is in our church life with so
                                             the Pacific Area.                        many new and young families.
                                               I will divide my speech into five        This change is not just a physical
                                             main parts.                              one, so that we now have moire
                                                                                      than 50 children, but also veiy
                                             I. THE DEVELOPMENTS IN THE               much a spiritual development. Let
                                             ERCS WHICH POINT TO THE                  me explain. When we came to
                                             NEED TO TRAIN MEN                        know the Reformed faith somle
                                               I believe that the mention of our      years ago, we came to grips by
                                             development in Singapore is di-          God's grace and Holy Spirit with
                                             rectly relevant to my speech this af-    the doctrine of grace, and those
                                             ternoon. In fact it is due to this       truths filled our hearts with joy and
Reu. Mahtani is pastor of Covenant           positive development, clearly the        blessedness. Those truths pertain-
Evangelical Reformed Church of               evidence of the working of God's         ing to particular grace, as beauti-
Singapore.                                                                            fully explained and defended by

446 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


our Reformed Confessions, con-           opportunity came to go to India to         Singapore as a base to train and
tinue to be the hallmark of the          investigate the field and labor with       send these men out to many parts
churches in Singapore. God is on         the contacts we have there,                of the world.
His throne, and He has done what-        Covenant sent her pastor and his             This afternoon we do not have to
soever He hath pleased, over             family there for two months. It is         spend a whole lot of time looking
against the idol gods of man's           premature to decide anything               carefully into all the theological
hands. That is the gospel which          about this field, but the Lord is giv-     schools we have. You have to trust
continues to be preached and loved       ing us exciting work to do. If the         me. You have to believe me when I
in Singapore. However, a wonder-         Session of Covenant decides that           tell you that the schools available
ful development is taking place.         this is a field, she will bring it to      are not distinctly Reformed. As far
The infant church is suddenly see-       our Classis to see if we could make        as we know, before God and out of
ing her own infants - more than          it our denominational mission              love for God's glorious kingdom,
50 of them - gifts of God's gra-         field. Let us remember that the            and in particular with the convic-
cious covenant, the precious her-        harvest is ripe, but the laborers am       tion that we need a distinctively
itage of the Lord. This has meant        few, and let us pray that the Lord of      Reformed Theological School, we
that now our people are becoming         the harvest will send laborers into        can say that we have done enough
more and more conscious of the           His harvest. You can see how the           investigation to convince us at
truth of God's unconditional             churches in Singapore will have to         least, that there is not a good school
covenant-when we have to deal            think seriously of training more           in the Far East, nor perhaps in the
with questions of infant baptism,        men for the ministry.                      Pacific, where we could send our
the calling of covenant parents, the       These developments are more or           students to be properly trained for
responsibilities of Christian educa-     less directly related to our speech        the gospel ministry.
tion for our children, and many          this afternoon on the matter of              We feel that perhaps for "neu-
other related questions. You can         ERCS seeking to have some kind of          tral" subjects, like languages, we
understand that it is with these ex-     theological instruction in Singa-          could send our students to at least
periences that the people are now        pore. What I am about to speak on          some of the schools. However, in
beginning to grapple more and            is by no means the immediate goal          certain cases, due to the liberal and
more with the beautiful idea of the      or pursuit of the ERCS. We are far         pentecostal tendencies of these
covenant, as clearly taught              from being ready to start a Theo-          schools, there is reason for concern
throughout the Bible, and which          logical School in Singapore. But           about the very atmosphere into
you in the Protestant Reformed           the idea is there, the vision is there,    which we put our students. There
Churches love and steadfastly de-        the hope is there. And I believe that      are dangers of course when we
fend. This development is reason         this is indeed the Lord's will for us,     send our students to all kinds of
for great joy and thanksgiving, but      that we should start at least to talk      different colleges. Many churches
it also points our young churches        about and do preliminary work to-          have done such a thing, only to
to greater responsibilities and awe-     wards this great and blessed project       find that, in due time, the church is
some tasks. It all points us to the      of setting up a Reformed Theologi-         split with divisions and schisms,
need of good Christian schools,          cal School in Singapore. Therefore I       because the ministers all preach
and to the need to catechize our         appreciate the topic which has been        something different. But what if
beloved children. But more impor-        given to me, because I can speak to        these students only learn, so to
tantly it points to the fact that God    you from my heart.                         speak, "neutral" subjects? For ex-
is pleased now to establish those                                                   ample, our study committee for
churches in Singapore, and that we       ILTHE PRESENT  TH.EOLOGI-                  theological training has suggested
will need more ministers to serve        CAL SCHOOLS AVAILABLE IN                   that subjjcts  like Greek, Hebrew,
in the churches as they grow both        SINGAPORE                                  English and Philosophy/Logic can
physically and spiritually. We             This may sound a little surpris-         be taken in these various institu-
must have the vision, the foresight,     ing to you, since you may have in          tions if we cannot do it ourselves.
and the hope that this exactly will      your mind that Singapore is a hea-         Whatever our answer to this partic-
happen, according to God's good          then country, and therefore to find        ular question, it is still clear to us
pleasure.                                any Theological School would               that there is a need to give some
  Another major development in           probably be in your mind out of            solid systematic instruction of tlhe
Singapore has been the opportu-          the question. Well, as a matter of         Reformed faith to students aspiring
nity which Covenant ERC has              fact, although Singapore is basi-          for the ministry. It is now my pur-
faced in doing mission work in In-       cally made up of people who are            pose to try and persuade you of
dia. We are small and our re-            Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, Mus-           that need.
sources are limited; but, true to our    lims, and adherents of various
name - Evangelical Reformed              other religions, Singapore has be-         III.  TJ3E NEED FOR A  SOLID:LY
Churches of Singapore - we are           come the center of learning and of         REFORMED SEMINARY IN THE
seeking to spread the Reformed           communications, and many                   PACIFIC AREA
faith far and wide. Thus when the        churches and denominations have              All that we have said already
                                         taken advantage of that and used           does point us to the direction thiat

                                                                                     August  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer I 447


there is indeed a great need for             Christ is the calling to train men for     lieve is the biblical and wise one to
starting a Reformed Theological              the ministry. The church through           take. The theological instruction of
Seminary in that part of the world.          her pastor is called to do this work,      students is very much related to
But I would like to offer some spiri-        as is evident in II Timothy 2:2.           mission work. The churches in Sin-
tual and biblical grounds for this,          However, because it is quite impos-        gapore are not looking at this, as an
and ask you to consider these                sible for a man who has a flock to         abstract matter, a mere theological
carefully.                                   do this task alone, it is only proper      training for the sake of intellectual
   First of all, we need a Reformed          that the churches in common seek           attainment. They are looking at
Theological Seminary in that part            to set up a school where the minis-        this need in the light of further mis-
of the world because the Reformed            ters of the denomination could be          sion work that could be done in
faith is the truth of God which we           trained to serve the Lord in His           that part of .the world.
believe is founded upon the Holy             church in days to come.                      At this point it would be proper
Word of God and which is there-                Secondly, I believe this is the          for us to point out the legitimate
fore the truth which we must con-            very obligation of the Reformed            concern that is raised by our elders
tinue to seek to establish. What-            church in particular. The Reformed         that our men not go abroad for too
ever it takes us, if this is indeed our      church is one which does not hold          long a time. It is not that coming to
conviction and our heart's sincere           simply to an individualistic philos-       the USA would be in itself detri-
belief, that the doctrines which are         ophy which emphasizes only per-            mental, although bringing a poor
taught and defended in our Creeds            sonal salvation and leaves every           man from India, for example, may
are the faithful teachings of Gods           believer to fend for himself and to        indeed not be a very good idea; but
Word itself, then we must seek to            serve the Lord in whatever way he          the point is more this, that the
have a school which will uphold              chooses. The Reformed truth is             training given to men who enter
and disseminate these truths, and            covenantal - it recognizes that            the ministry could best be in the at-
prepare men to preach them faith-            God is the God of His people, of           mosphere of their own country and
fully A Reforrned theological                His church. The Reformed church            needs. At least most of the training
school in that part of the world, I          therefore is concerned, not in an          should be right where the candi-
am convinced, will be the means of           anxious way, but with an under-            date will fellowship and serve, so
establishing, and solidly ground-            standing of the Godgiven respon-           that the people know his ministry
ing, the Reformed truths in the              sibility to teach the children, as         and he also knows the people to
young church that God in His                 well as the generation to come, the        whom he will be ministering later.
providence has been pleased to               statutes of Jehovah God, to ensure         The concern raised therefore is le-
raise. There is simply a great need          that the men who are going to              gitimate. However, I do feel that
systematically and carefully to in-          teach are themselves well-trained          there is much to say also for train-
struct the people of God in the Re-          in the truths of the Scriptures.           ing which is abroad, at least for a
formed faith. Especially men who               Thirdly, we are called as the peo-       shorter period. There needs to be a
are seeking the ministry of the              ple of God, to raise a standard (Isa.      time where there can be objective,
Word, but also elders, teachers, fa-         62:6-10).  There may be many other         disciplined study and training
thers - there is a need to teach             schools around, but we are called          without the actual work and dis-
these men what the Reformed faith            to raise a standard; to hold up the        traction which must come while in
is in all of its different aspects.          banner of Gods truth high and as           the field. Therefore the view `we
  Now it is true that all this has to        clear in view as possible for all          are taking is that while the student
be done by and through the faithful          around us to see. This we must do          may need to go abroad for se~.ni-
preaching of the Word from the               first of all for the glory of God, and     nary, in order to shorten that time
pulpit. But is there not a need for          secondly for the welfare of Zion,          period he should be trained as
men who are going to have to lead            blest city of God.                         much as possible in a local context.
the people of God to be even more              There are also practical reasons
grounded themselves? This in fact            why we need a Reformed Theologi-           IV THE REASON WHY SINGA-
is a biblical injunction, given to us        cal School in that part of the world.      PORE WOULD SERVE AS AN
clearly in II Timothy 2:2. We are to         It is quite obvious that there is a re-    IDEAL LOCATION
instruct faithful men so that they in        quest for such an institution. This          Simply from the viewpoint of
turn will teach others the truths of         request is becoming more and more          her strategic geographical location,
God's Holy Word. This is a very              urgent. When people come to hear           Singapore, standing at the cross-
important calling which the church           of the Reformed faith for the first        roads of the East and West, wlould
of Jesus Christ must not neglect.            time in the Far East, they are asking      be an ideal location for such train-
She is to spread the gospel. She is          if there can be a way wherein they         ing. More and more, Singapore has
to care for the church in all her pas-       could be further instructed system-        become the center in all of South-
toral needs. She is to deal with all         atically so that. they could in turn       east Asia for communications and
the different problems and trials            bring these glorious truths to their       learning. Not only countries in
which face her in this world. But            homes and churches.                        Asia, but also Western countries
she must realize that intrinsic in her         This brings us of course to the          have come to know Singapore as a
very calling as the church of Jesus          very mission strategy which we be-         kind of center in Southeast Asia. If

448 I `he Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


I    Singapore would have a Reformed          edge, and the saints there realize,       coming year will be expected to
     seminary where instruction would         that we are unable to give such in-       teach. Hopefully, by our being
     be given on a regular and system-        struction. We are not trained, and        very busy with work, the PR
     atic fashion, we have reason to be-      we have limited time in our busy          churches will be encouraged to
     lieve that students from Burma,          congregations. Even if we tried our       send us a man as soon as possible.
     Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia,          best, our training could never be            However, as the Synod has de-
     India, Korea, Japan, etc. would          comparable to a systematic and for-       cided to send delegates for this
     come to be trained. Not only that,       mal instruction.                          coming year at least for a shorter
     but other Western countries in the         Therefore we have come to the           period of time, I believe that such a
     Pacific Area, like New Zealand and       Synod of the PRC this year with the       visit will help us as sister-churches
     Australia, would probably be inter-      request that they send us a man to        together to decide what truly is
     ested.                                   help us start this training. Singa-       best for our churches, and what
       It would of course be financially      pore is thinking of having a one-         truly will be according to His Holy
     a lesser burden for anyone from          year trial period in which this visit-    Word.
     Southeast Asia or the Pacific Area       ing professor or minister could              I would like to close with the re-
     to come to Singapore than to come        help also with the other work, like       minder that what seems impossible
     to the USA.                              missionary work, when he is pres-         with man is possible with God. Be-
       Consider, too, that although Sin-      ent with us. Having heard from            fore I end my speech, I have just
     gapore is a modem city, it remains       the Contact Committee as well as          one more remark to make - and
     a non-Christian society, and there-      the Mission Committee of the              that is this - the king's heart is in
     fore is not only a field for instruc-    PRC's interest in doing this kind of      the hands of the Lord, as rivers of
     tion, but also for missions. The         work with the ERCS, we have come          water, He turneth it whithersoever
     point is this, that Singapore would      to your Synod this year with a spe-       He will. The Lord has overruled
     be ideal for theological instruction     cific request to send a man to help       the position of the Government in
     because there is a constant need         us look into both theological train-      Singapore on Family Planning, and
     there now for further missionary         ing as well as missions.                  the people in Singapore are now
     work to bring the Reformed faith to        One must understand that start-         being encouraged to have more
     that part of the world. But we need      ing a Seminary or Theological             and more children. The Family
     men to be trained first, and from        School is not something we can do         Planning Board is now changed to
     here sent to the different parts of      overnight, or even in just a few          the nursing foundation. We can re-
     the world as the Lord opens the          years. Singapore understands that         joice at that, but let us also believe
     doors.                                   full well, and therefore suggests a       that this is God coming to Singa-
                                              feasibility study first.                  pore and saying - my people,
     V. CONCLUDING REMARKS -                    However, although your Synod            whom I have called by my Nam.e,
     THE PLANS WHICH THE ERCS                 has decided that it is not time yet to    they are going to continue to see
     ARE DELIBERATING UPON                    plunge into something like this, we       my blessings, and I am going to
       The churches in Singapore are in       fully understand the PRC's concern        raise up a generation. The Lord
     no way ready to begin any kind of        and in fact appreciate their caution      has so worked in the authorities.
     a theological school. Their re-          and wise advice.                          that we can now have covenant
     sources are limited, their present         Still, allow me actually to tell        families, and we can have more
     immediate needs outweigh what            you the plan which Singapore has.         children, as the Lord is pleased to
     we have tried to show in this paper      It is to give instruction to students     give.
     to be important. In no way must I        interested in the ministry until they       Perhaps the things I have said
     relay to you the idea that we are all    are ready to go to the Seminary.          sound impossible; but let us re-
     ready to start a seminary.               The instruction will therefore be         member this confession - our God
       However, we are in a situation         more pm-seminary level. Also stu-         is in the heavens, and He hath done
     now where the need is very real,         dents who may not be seeking the          whatsoever He hath pleased. Con-
     and various decisions have to be         ministry may attend - elders,             sider with me whether or not wlhat
     made. There are a couple of stu-         teachers, parents. Such pre-sem           I have shared with you is truly the
     dents, one from each congregation,       training will for now be on a more        will of God. And may God by His
     who have indicated deep interest in      informal basis. But this neverthe-        Holy Spirit guide us to do that
     studying for the ministry. Although      less means that the pastors in this       which is well pleasing unto Him. Cl
     the pastors are going to have to try
     to teach them in this coming year,
     in the long run it would be doing                            The Lord takes up none but the forsaken,
     injustice to their work. I know that                         Makes none healthy but the sick,
     preparation and instruction in the-                          Gives sight to none but the blind,
     ological training takes a lot of time                        Makes none alive but the dead,
     and energy, because I have tried                             Sanctifies none but sinners,
     doing this. However, we pastors in                           Gives wisdom to none but the foolish.
     Singapore simply have to acknowl-                                                     - SB, April 25,193l

                                                                                         August  1,199O   !  The Standard Bearer I 449


                                              Synods .and
All Around Us
Prof. Roberl  Decker                          General Assemblies

   June is the month when most of             the "headship principle" from mar-      gates to stay true to the Wordl.
the synods and general assemblies             riage to the church. Because this         The synod also approved of sep-
of various denominations in the               decision involves a change in the       arate incorporations of Calvin Col-
Reformed and Presbyterian tradi-              CRC Church Order (the word              lege and Calvin Theological !jemi-
tions meet. In what follows we                "male" must be deleted in refer-        nary which will mean separate
have gleaned some of the more im-             ence to officebearers), the synod of    boards of trustees for each institu-
portant, interesting, and significant         1992 must ratify the changes made       tion. We wonder if this is a first
decisions of some of these meetings.          to the Church Order before women        step in removing the college from
THE CHRISTIAN REFORMED                        may officially be ordained as elders    the control of the denomination.
CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA                       or ministers. The synod asked,            Synod approved the addition of
   The CRC Synod of 1990 will long            therefore, that churches refrain        a doctor-of-philosophy  (Ph.D) pro-
be remembered for its decision to             from ordaining women as elders or       gram at Calvin Theological Semi-
open the offices of elder and minis-          pastors until the ratification takes    nary, effective September 1991. The
ter to women. By a narrow margin              place in 1992.                          degree will be offered in the disci-
(99-84) the synod voted to "permit              It grieves us to see our "mother      plines of Systematic Theologll
churches to use their discretion in           church" take this step. These deci-     (Dogmatics) and Historical Theol-
utilizing the gifts of women mem-             sions are in clear violation of the     ogy.
bers in all the offices of the                teaching of Holy Scripture (I Cor.        The Rev. Howard Vanderwell,
church." This decision came after             11:2-16;  14:34,35; I Tim. 2:9-15)      pastor of the Hillcrest CRC in Hud-
nearly eight hours of debate center-          which forbids women to serve in         sonville, Michigan, served as
ing on the "headship principle."              church office. These decisions too      synod's president.
This principle states that men are to         indicate in which direction the CRC             (Synod 1990 News, The Banner)
be "heads" over women in mar-                 is going. What now will brothers        The Reformed Church in America
riage. Whether and how the princi-            and sisters in the CRC do who are         The issue of homosexuality pro-
ple applies to the roles of men and           grieved by these decisions? Per-        voked no little disagreement, even
women in the church has been a                haps it was these decisions which       controversy among delegates to the
subject of debate for the past                prompted two of the fraternal dele-     RCA's General Synod which ;met
twenty years in the CRC. Through-             gates to admonish the CRC. The          on the campus of Northwestern
out the years, synods have ap-                Rev. Glenn Jerell, representing the     College in Orange City, Iowa.. The
pointed six committees to study the           Orthodox Presbyterian Church, in-       Synod adopted a policy statement
issues related to women serving in            formed the synod that his denomi-       which reads: "To adopt as the posi-
church office. In 1984 the CRC                nation has withdrawn from the Re-       tion of the RCA that the practicing
opened the office of deacon to                formed Ecumenical Council be-           homosexual lifestyle is contrauy  to
women. This year's decision opens             cause of the continuing member-         Scripture, while at the same time
all church offices to women. The              ship in that council of churches        encouraging love and sensitivity
most recent study committee was               "moving in a liberal direction."        toward such persons as fellovv hu-
appointed in 1987 and reported to             Jerell added that he fears the CRC      man beings." The synod also in-
this year's synod. The synod, by              is walking only "a few blocks be-       structed its Commission on Theol-
adopting the above decision,                  hind" the Reformed Churches in          ogy to study the issue of hom.osex-
judged that the committee's report            the Netherlands (GKN) and               uality for two years.
did not provide clear biblical and            pleaded with the synod "to dispel         In the light of Romans 1:8ff. we
confessional grounds for extending            that as a wrong perception." The        wonder what there is to study
                                              Rev. Philip Pockras of the Re-          about this issue. In this passage,
                                              formed Presbyterian Church in           and others for that matter, Holy
Prof. Decker is professor                     North America expressed concern         Scripture teaches that homosexual-
                              of Pracfical                                            ity is the worst possible manifesta-
Theology in the Protestant Reformed           that the CRC is on "the down-           tion of the "reprobate mind."
Se&a y.                                       grade" and admonished the dele-

450 ! The Standard Bearer / August 1,199O


  By changing some of the termi-         mittee. Fears were expressed by            jetted a proposal for a major reor-
nology referring to kinds of mem-        some of the delegates that the PCA         ganization of the denominational
bers in the RCA, the synod "elimi-       was concentrating too much power           outreach committees, i.e., the Home
nated one of the major arguments         in its denominational committees.          Mission Committee, the Foreign
against the practice of allowing         Reports of the General Assembly            Mission Committee, and the Com-
baptized children to take Commu-         indicate that an overriding spirit of      mittee on Christian Education.
nion." The synod rejected all five       Christian unity prevailed even             This was seen by observers as a m-
overtures seeking to prevent chil-       when potentially divisive issues           jection  of a perceived trend in the
dren from taking Communion be-           were being debated.                        denomination toward hierarchy
fore making "formal, public confes-                       (Christian Obsemer~       The Assembly also rejected a pm-
sion of faith." Individual congrega-     The Orthodox Presbyterian                  posal to dissolve the Committee on
tions who wish to do so may now          Church                                     Foreign Missions and move man-
admit children to the table of the         Two issues relating to the role of       agement of foreign missions to
Lord.                                    women in the church came before            presbyteries (equivalent to our
  The synod also sent back to the        the Assembly in the form of ap-            Classis).
Commission on Theology its tex-          peals. The Assembly determined                This year's Assembly passed the
tual revision of The BeZgic Confes-      not to allow women to lead a Bible         largest budget in the history of the
sion. Objections to the revision cen-    study when men are present and             denomination.
tered on some changes made in the        when that study is under the aus-             The Assembly met on the cam-
1561 document which sought to in-        pices of the session (equivalent to        pus of Point Loma Nazarene Col-
corporate more current Reformed          our consistory). The Assembly de-          lege in Point Loma, California.
views on the relationship between        termined that when a session ap-              It will be of interest to our
the church and the state, on under-      points a person to teach, the person       Protestant Reformed readers that
standings of other religions, and on     bears authority from the session.          the OPC has recently addressed our
gender inclusivity.                      Appointment of a woman in this             Committee for Contact with Other
  Acting on a recommendation of          official capacity would violate I          Churches seeking correspondence
its Christian Unity Commission,          `Bmothy 2~11. In the second appeal,        with our churches and closer con-
the synod voted to continue.study-       the Assembly judged that a woman           tact with us. The OK has recently
ing the implications of becoming a       should not speak in worship ser-           withdrawn its membership in the
full participant in the Consultation     vices. Specifically, women should          Reformed Ecumenical Council be-
on Church Union (COCU). In 1992          not "give testimonies." This deci-         cause of liberal trends in churches
the synod will be asked to consider      sion the Assembly based on I               who are members of that Council.
full membership.                         Corinthians 14:3-35 where Scrip            The OPC was particularly con-
                  (Th Church Herald)     lure teaches that women should             cerned with developments in the
The Presbyterian Church in               not speak in the churches, as the          Reformed Churches in the Nether-
America                                  law teaches.                               lands (GKN) and the REC's failure
  The General Assembly of the              We hope and pray that the OK             to exclude the GKN from member-
PCA met in Atlanta, Georgia.             will continue to hold fast the truth       ship in the REC. Cl
Much of the time of the delegates        of Scripture on this point.                                    (Christian Obsaver)
was spent arriving at decisions on         Much of the OK Assembly's
the composition and scope of the         time was also spent on organiza-
Assembly's Administrative Com-           tional matters. The Assembly re-


                              Ask Ye What Great Thing I Know
Ask ye what great thing I know           Who is He that makes me wise             Who is life in life to me?
That delights and stirs me so?           To discern where duty lies?              Who the death of death will be?
What the high reward I win?              Who is He that makes me true,            Who will place me on His right,
Whose the Name I glory in?               Duty, when discerned, to do?             With the countless hosts of light?
  Jesus Christ, the Crucified.              Jesus Christ, the Crucified.            Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

What is faith's foundation strong?       Who defeats my fiercest foes?            This is that great thing I know;
What awakes my lips to song?             Who consoles my saddest woes?            This delights and stirs me so;
He who bore my sinful load               Who revives my fainting heart,           Faith in Him who died to save,
Purchased for me peace with God,         Healing all its hidden smart?            Him who triumphed o'er the grave,
  Jesus Christ, the Crucified.              Jesus Christ, the Crucified.            Jesus Christ, the Crucified.

                                                                                                 - Benjamin Hall Kennedy

                                                                                      August 1,199O  I The Skmiard  Bearer I 451


Search The                                   "A Word of
Scriptures                                   Encouragement"
Rev. Gise VanBaren


   Philippians 1:27-30 presents a            great concern of the apostle Paul.       is still true today. No wonder we
word of encouragement to the                 Re had written to the-church of          need the reminder again that in
church at Philippi. Without doubt,           Corinth, "I determined not to know       oneness we strive together for the
the church was in need of that en-           any thing among you, save Jesus          faith of the gospel. There must be a
couragement - and, in fact, every            Christ, and him crucified" (I Cor.       common struggle. There must not
church needs this same Word.                 2:2). The gospel is the good news        be evil speaking and devouring of
With that encouragement comes                of salvation through Jesus Christ.       one another in the church. Christ's
also instruction concerning a godly          That gospel was presented already        church must fight against the en-
walk. The Word is applicable to us           in the protevangel of Genesis 3:15.      emy: the devil, the world, and
especially today.                            The gospel was portrayed in the          one's own flesh. It is a great strug-
   In verse 27, the apostle speaks of        Old Testament through type and           gle which requires the full effort of
our "conversation." This word is             shadow - especially seen in the          the members of Christ's church to-
generally understood to mean not             temple with its sacrifices. The real-    gether.
one's speech, but rather his entire          ity and wonder of the gospel are           In striving  together, there is cer-
life and walk. Literally, the word           presented in the four New Testa-         tainly going to be opposition. Paul
speaks of "citizenship." We have a           ment accounts. The significance          reminds them of that too: they will
place, a citizenship, hem on the             and glory of the gospel are seen in      have adversaries. Adversaries can
earth. As such, we are actually              the epistles of the New Testament.       be frightening! Scripture reminds
good citizens in the nation where            That good news of Christ crucified       the church that one need not be ter-
God has placed us. In being good             is the norm by which the Christian       rified of them. Why not? Even suf-
citizens of the,kingdom  of heaven,          walks in his pilgrimage on this          fering for Jesus' sake is God's gift
we will at the same time obey those          earth.                                   to His people. God sends only that
in authority within our nation (cf.            Paul expects that this fruit will      which will be of spiritual ben.efit to
Romans 13). Our "conversation"               be present in the church of Philippi     His own.
must be in harmony with the                  whether Paul is present or absent.         The fearlessness of the saints
gospel of Christ.                            Those of the church do not obey          shows two things. First, it is ,a clear
   The standard for a godly walk,            simply because they are observed         sign (token) of perdition to the
then, is the gospel that presents            by Christ's officebearers. They          wicked. Their greatest endeavors
Christ. It can not be earthly human          rather obey from a willing heart -       come to nothing. They discover
standards. The gospel was the                an obedience before God even             that the "blood of the martyrs is the
                                             when Paul would be absent.               seed of the church." Whatever is
                                               The obedience of the church in         done against the church is in har-
                                             Philippi is seen in the oneness of       mony with the counsel of God Who
                                             that church. They are to stand fast      works together all these things for
                                             in "one" spirit, with "one" mind,        their good. The wicked are as
                                             striving together in the (one) faith     those who hit their heads against a
                                             of the gospel. This is not an artifi-    brick wall. It becomes clear that
                                             cial oneness in which all join to-       though the wicked would destroy
                                             gether despite great differences.        Christ's church, yet the church en-
                                             On the contrary, it is a oneness of      dures. The wicked are forced to
                                             "spirit," that is, a oneness which       recognize their own defeat -' and
                                             comes forth from the Spirit of all       final punishment in hell.
                                             truth.                                     At the same time, the steadfast-
                                               Oneness is often not seen prop-        ness of the saints is a clear sign to
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Pmtes-        erly within the church. Sin dis-         them of their salvation - that it is
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,         rupts the oneness which must be          of God. No man can work such
Michigan.                                    seen. That was true in Philippi and      confidence, such fearlessness, in the

452 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


saints. God has begun His good            Christ's sake. It is truly a token        mean that we seek to promote a
work and He will finish it. In            both to the believer as well as to the    oneness with those of many be-
standing confidently before the ad-       unbeliever.                               liefs?
versary, the Christian knows that            Nor were those of Philippi the            4. Does "oneness" mean that we
God is preserving him in the salva-       only saints who suffer. They can be       all say and believe exactly alike?
tion which Christ has obtained for        encouraged in the knowledge that          What passage in the book of I
him. So, why be terrified of the ad-      it is the same kind of suffering that     Corinthians shows the proper idlea
versary?                                  Paul himself had to face repeatedly.      of oneness?
  In fact, so verse 29 points out,        They had heard of that conflict              5. What is "gospel"? Where is
suffering is also God's gift to His       with which the apostle had to deal.       the gospel found in Scripture?
people. He does give to them the          He had been beaten many times.               6. How can we "strive together
blessing of faith: these believe on       He was stoned and left for dead.          for the faith of the gospel"?
Him. That is obviously His gift.          He had suffered shipwreck. And               7. Who are those adversaries of
The church has ever recognized it         now, he was imprisoned in Rome            verse 28? Do we have any adve:r-
to be so. But, suffering at the hands     for the Lord's sake. They had seen        saries today?
of the wicked? That too is God's          even some of Paul's sufferings               8. Why should one's lack of "`ter-
gift to His people.                       while he himself labored in               ror" be a token of perdition to
  Believing is itself the wonderful       Philippi. It was in this very city        some?
gift of God (Eph. 2:8). This is           that he was sent to prison after             9. Why should one's lack of "`ter-
worked within God's elect by the          healing the demon-possessed girl.         ror" be a token of salvation to us?
Spirit Who regenerates. That life of         So the suffering that some expe-          10. Does this lack of terror mean
Christ planted into the heart is          rienced in Philippi was neither           that the Christian is never con-
called forth to conscious expression      unique nor unexpected. Let the            cerned with nor fearful of his ad.-
under the preaching of the gospel.        church be encouraged when its             versaries? How would you react to
The confession, therefore, of the         members join the myriads who              imprisonment for Jesus' sake?
saved ones is the fruit of the free       have suffered for the sake of their          11. Why does God even deter-
and glorious grace of God.                Lord. May they believe it is God's        mine the existence and need for ad-
  But suffering for His sake is like-     gift.                                     versaries for the church?
wise His gift. The apostles testified     QUESTIONS                                    12. In what sense is "believin,g"
of this early in their ministry in           1. What are our responsibilities       given to the Christian? Is not be
Acts  5:41. After their interrogation     as citizens in this earth?                lieving the activity of man?
by the rulers of the Jews, they were         2. Can one say that citizens of           13. What is the meaning of the
beaten and released. We read,             the kingdom of heaven are at the          statement: Yt is given in behalf of
"And they departed from the pres-         same time good citizens of the            Christ...to suffer for His sake"?
ence of the council, rejoicing that       kingdoms of this earth? Give rea-            14. Why does Paul call attention
they were counted worthy to suffer        sons for your answer.                     tb his own conflict in verse
shame for His name." Likewise the            3. Does  the "oneness" of verse        30? 0
church of Philippi, and the church        27 mean that we are to join with
of today, can rejoice in suffering for    other denominations? Does it




                                          Book Review

WILLJAM III AND THE  REVO-                sary of the Glorious Revolution,             The first essay discusses how
LTJTION OF 1688  & GUSTAWS                the year in which the Stuart dy-          William III, stadhouder in the
ADOLPHUS  II ELECTED KING                 nasty was ended in the British Isles      Netherlands and of the House of
OF SWEDEN OF THE GOTHS                    and Ring William the III took the         Grange, became the king of Eng-
AND VANDALS, two essays  by               throne of Britain in the bloodless        land. The essay is particularly in-
Marjorie  Bowen; Inheritance Publi-       revolution. It contains an essay on       teresting because it does not only
cations, Box 154 Neerlandia, Al-          William III as well as an additional      record the historical events which
berta, Canada, 1988; 144pp:, paper.       essay on that great fighter of reli-      led to William's accession to the
(Reviewed by Prof. H. H&&o.)              gious freedom in Germany Gus-             throne, but it describes too the situ-
  1988, the year this book was            tavus Adolphus  II.                       ation in England (the overbearing
published, was the 300th anniver-                                                   and tyrannical rule of the Stuart

                                                                                     August  1,199O  I The Standard Bearer 1 433


kings and their bitter opposition to         In the view of the author, therefore,     through his intervention that
Presbyterianism  in the British              the Glorious Revolution, while en-        Protestantism was saved in Ger-
Isles). It records how James II at-          tirely without bloodshed (James II        many from Roman Catholic domi-
tempted to restore popery to Eng-            fled England when William landed          nation. The battles are known in
land and how William was brought             on English shores), was one of            history as the Thirty Years War.
to the throne to avoid this disaster.        those great events in history which       The account of them in this book is
William's claim to the throne was            changed the direction of a nation.        stirring. Although Gustavus  Adol-
through his wife, Mary, who be-                While the author does not treat         phus succeeded in defeating the
longed to the Stuart line, but who           this part of the history, this William    armies of the emperor who was
remained loyal to her husband                is the William who landed with his        closely allied with Roman
throughout his career and reign in           forces at Carrickfergus (a city near      Catholics, he himself was slain in
England. The essay speaks also of            to Lame), Northern Ireland in 1690        the last battle. The nobility of his
the political and ecclesiastical situ-       and defeated the Roman Catholic           character, his courage and commit-
ation in the Netherlands, and                forces at the great battle of the         ment to the Reformation, and his
dwells at length on the character of         Boyne, thus saving Ulster from Ro-        use of new strategies in battle are
William himself. The essay strikes           man Catholicism. This battle is           amply portrayed in this essay
me as being balanced; it does not            still celebrated in Ulster every year        The book gives us two stirring
regard William as deeply commit-             by the Ulster Protestants.                chapters in the battle for freedom
ted to Calvinism, although his                 Thus Dutch and English history          in the wars following the Reforma-
reign brought about a rescue of              were for a period of time interwo-        tion. It is an interesting boo:k and
Calvinism in England from the                ven.                                      well worth reading by all those
hands of the popish Stuarts.                   The second essay deals with             who are thankful for our own her-
   The point of the essay is impor-          Gustavus  Adolphus  II, king of           itage.
tant: the reign of William in Eng-           Sweden. His fame is due to the               The book can be obtained from
land effected radical changes in             fact that he crossed the Baltic from      the publisher or from the Re-
England's social, political, and ec-         Sweden to enter the struggle be-          formed Book Outlet in Hud-.
clesiastical institutions, changes           tween Protestant forces and Roman         sonville, Michigan.  0
which remain until the present day.          Catholic forces in Germany. It was




                                             News From
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                          Our Churches.

                                               The congregation of the Byron           rather than remembering it. It
                                             Center PRC in Byron Center, MI,           seems that the day is no longer the
                                             sponsored a special Sunday                Lord's, or that only part of it be-
                                             evening church service recently.          longs to Him.
                                             On the evening of June 24, Byron            When one considers the pres-
                                             held a special service which dealt        sures put on Christians to open
                                             with the proper observance of the         their businesses on Sunday, to pa-
                                             fourth command - the command              tronize businesses open on Sunday,
                                             to rest. Through press ads and by         to use the day for sports, recreation,
                                             personal witness, Byron made a            or travel, to skip at least one `of the
                                             special point of inviting the public      worship services on Sunday, then it
                                             to attend this service.                   becomes obvious that the Word of
                                               Our congregation in Byron               God should be consulted.
                                             wanted to address a serious prob-           Is this a special day? What is
                                             lem, one that faces each one of us.       proper Christian behavior on that
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Pro tes;       In the 20th century, and especially       day? What did Jesus teach about
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,         in these last decades, it seems that      that day?
Michigan.                                    Christians are forgetting that day,

454 I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


   Interested in finding out the an-      success of this newly added class.      meeting of the Sunday School As-
swers to these and other questions           Since this year's Synod and the      sociation on the subject of `The Ge-
about this subject? Just drop a note      International Reformed Conference       nealogy of Jesus, or Jesus, the Son
to Byron Center PRC at 1945 34th          were scheduled to be held in Grand      of Nathan."
St., P.O. Box 71, Byron Center, MI        Rapids, MI right after each-other,        Kyle Flikkema, son of Rev.
49315 and ask for a cassette tape of      many ministers from our churches        Richard and Marcia Flikkema, of
the sermon that Sunday night.             out West or up in Canada were           our Covenant PRC in Wyckoff, NJ,
   And also from Byron Center. At         away from their pulpits for an ex-      submitted to open heart surgery in
their annual congregational meet-         tended time. This meant that there      mid-May. Part of that surgery in-
ing held in mid-Jtme,  the member-        were a lot of reading services out      cluded the insertion of a permanent
ship of Byron gave approval to a          West and a lot of guest ministers in    pacemaker. After about two weeks
proposal to investigate the possibil-     the Grand Rapids area churches.         Kyle was able to return home
ity of building a new parsonage on           Interestingly, Rev. Dale Kuiper,     where, according to God's will, he
their church property. You may re-        pastor in our Immanuel PRC in La-       continues to recover.
member that Byron bought a home           combe, Canada, conducted the            MINISTERIAL CALLS
in the area long before property on       evening service on June 10 at the         The congregation of our Ran-
which to build a church was pur-          Hudsonville PRC in Hudsonville,         dolph PRC in Randolph, WI called
chased.                                   MI. What made this special was          Rev. C. Haak to serve as their pas-
   Most of our churches schedule          that on that evening Rev. Kuiper's      tor from a trio which also included
Sunday School classes for the sum-        son, Brad, who is a member of           Pastors T. Miersma, and R. Moore.
mer months. Our congregation in           Hudsonville, made public confes-          And the consistory of our Hope
the First PRC in Pella, Iowa is one       sion of faith along with two other      PRC in Isabel, SD presented to their
of those that does. However, along        young men. Rev. I&per chose for         congregation a trio consisting of the
with the classes for the children,        his theme, "A Life of Liberty,"         Revs. R. Hanko, C. Haak, and T.
there was an attempt made to begin        based on Psalm 119:45.                  Miersma, from which to call a
a class for adults as well. Inter-        DENOMINATIONAL                          pastor. Cl
ested adults were requested to fill       ACTIVITIES
out a form and return it to a consi's-       Thursday, June 21, Prof. David
tory member. No word yet on the           Engelsma spoke at the annual


Ever patient, gentle, meek,               NOTICE!!!                                  "But the mercy of the Lord is
  Holy Saviour, was Thy mind;                Classis West of the Protestant       from everlasting to everlasting
Vainly in myself I seek                   Reformed Churches will meet in          upon them that fear Him, and His
  Likeness to my Lord to find;            South Holland, Illinois, on Wednes-     righteousness unto children's chiil-
Yet that mind which was in Thee,          day, September 5, 1990, at 8:30         dren; to such as keep His
May be, must be formed in me.             AM, the Lord willing. All delegates     covenant, and to those that remem-
                                          in need of lodging or transportation    ber His commandments to do
Days of toil `mid throngs of men,         from the airport should notify the      them" (Ps. 103:17,  18).
  Vexed not, ruffled not thy soul;        Clerk of South Holland's Consis-           Pete and Jan Westra
Still collected, calm, serene,            tory.                                          Peter, Kevin, Jason, Brian
  Thou each feeling couldst control:         Rev. R. Hanko, Stated Clerk             Mitch and the late Ellen Dick
Lord, that mind which was in Thee,                                                   Fred and Cathy Hanko
May be, must be formed in me.             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                            Amanda
                                             The Lord willing, our parents,          Brian and Carrie Dykstra
                                                                                         Lynnae, Carleen
Though such griefs were Thine to          MR. and MRS. FRED HANKO, will              Dave Hanko
      bear,                               celebrate their 35th wedding an-           Dan Hanko
  For each sufferer Thou couldst          niversary on August 11,199O.               Mary Hanko
           feel;                          Many and great are the sacrifices                      Faith Church, Jenison, Michiganx
Every mourner's burden share,             which they have made over the
  Every wounded spirit heal;              years on our behalf. Our thanks is      NOTICE!!
Saviour, let thy grace in me              to our heavenly Father Who,                Classis East will meet in regular
Form that mind which was in Thee!         through them, has provided us with      session on Wednesday, Septemlber
                                          instruction in a godly home, an ex-     12, 1990 at the Hudsonville Protes-
                    - SB, June 15,193l    ample of faithfulness, and a contin-    tant Reformed Church. Material1 to
                                          uous source of guidance and en-         be treated in this session must be
                                          couragement. We pray that God           in the hands of the Stated Clerk by
                                          will richly bless them with His         August 13,199O.
                                          strength and presence in the years        Jon J. Huisken
                                          to come.                                   Stated Clerk

                                                                                   August  1,199O   / The Standard Bearer  if 455


   THE
STANDARD                                                                                                                               SECOND CLASS
  B E A R E R                                                                                                                          Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                        Grand Rapids, Michigan

  PO. Box 6064
 Grand Rapids, MI 49506



WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                             tion to the Word of God as we find it
   On August 17,1990, our beloved                     The faculty and staff of the                    in Psalm 60:4 - "Thou hast given a
parents, grandparents, and great-                  Protestant Reformed Seminary ex-                   banner to them that fear thee, that it
grandparents REV. and MRS.                         tends sincere sympathy to seminar-                 may be displayed because of the
GEORGE LUBBERS will remember                       ian Mitchell Dick in the loss of his               truth." A rich heritage of the ,truth  is
their 60th Wedding Anniversary. In                 dear wife, Ellen, whose confession                 ours. An effective means of *wit-
days when there is so much un-                     was: "For me to live is Christ, to die             ness has been given us in T/`7e
faithfulness to the marriage vows, it              is gain" (Phil. 1:21).                             Standard Bearer- for defense of
is good to celebrate the preserving                   Prof. Robert  II. Decker, Rector                the faith, preservation of the ,truth,
grace of God Who has kept our                                                                         and inspiration to faithfulness.
parents through the many years of                                                                     Great is our calling, in the battle of
their married life. As they approach               WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                faith, to hold aloft the banner.
the end of their earthly sojourn, we                  With joy and thanksgiving we                              Are you - men, women, young
confess with them the faithfulness                 celebrate the 40th Wedding An-                     people - really serious about that?
of our Covenant keeping God. We                    niversary of our parents EVERETT                   Yes, you're  all  invited. Members
look in hope with them for the day                 and AUDREY VAN VOORTHUY-                           only will take part in the shorit busi-
when we will all perfectly say: "Lo,               SEN on August 4,199O. We thank                     ness meeting; but, for the rest, we
this is our God: we have waited for                our gracious Lord for blessing us                  hope for a full house in Southwest
him, and he will save us: this is the              with faithful, God-fearing parents                 Church on September 20. The truth
Lord; we have waited for him, we                   bound in His love. We pray that our                is God's; the cause is Christ's; the
will be glad and rejoice in his salva-             heavenly Father may grant many                     battle intensifies...can we be indif-
tion" Isaiah 239.                                  more years together, for them, and                 ferent?
   Agatha Lubbers                                  for us, their children and grandchil-                        Board of the RFPA
   Thomas and  Garretta  Newhof                    dren.                                                        Peter Koole, Secretary
   Case and Frances Lubbers                           "The Lord taketh pleasure in
   Lamm and  MaryBeth Lubbers                      them that fear Him, in those that
          19 grandchildren                         hope in His mercy. Praise the Lord,
          7 great-grandchildren
                         Grand Rapids, Michigan    0 Jerusalem; praise thy God, 0
                                                   Zion" (Ps. 147:11, 12).
                                                      Gory and Karen Koot
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                       Michael, Jamielyn,  Kristen
   The consistory and congregation                    Ken and Gail Kamps
of Bethel Protestant Reformed                                Jesse, Justin, Jean                      ,-:.A-- / / ~~>;a 8.                                           .,,,(
                                                                                                      ~~~;~~d~~~~~~E;s;ant'~~f~,~~
Church express their sorrow at the                    Ron and Laura VanVoorthuysen                    -:~~~~~~~.~f~~~~;;;.~~s~,~~n'
death of the oldest member of their                          Lorianne, Ronda, Mark
congregation, MR. ABEL BOS. Our                       Ron and Barb Schut                              $ k$f&i$$.i~ t(i$33t$(KKI in @es`,
sympathy is extended to his daugh-                           Bradley, Shauna, Leah                    2:. ~:~~~~~~~thk~~rti~~ of: I'
                                                                              Redlands, California
ters, Mrs. Alice Stob and Mrs. Mar-                                                                   ~~qGi$~~~~~~~~ ~(~;yieqrS:.  8%;, '(
garet Folkerts, to their husbands,                                                                    1;
                                                   NOTICE!                                                       `Y*:  *-e*  lUy??wk5%f   `.  `.
                                                                                                        *I _`. ., `, ,.,,/. :'
and to the grandchildren and great-                   On September 20,199O at 6 PM                    i<: yghe"e;,~ot~s ly ,+ ~~Silqd?n j I
grandchildren.                                     the                                                c ,*.`.:i r 1 :
                                                           RFPA will  hold its annual meet-                           -' j`-.~~ltipl~spf$!;000,                       .(
   May the Word of God expounded                   ing. Our readers in the Grand                      $$ble oh $&imd+vith~ int&pt
at the funeral be a constant source                Rapids area (and beyond) are                        : :<' ;; ; ; _  `I'~&  &&&&~fl~~   `  :
of comfort - "Precious in the sight                urged to attend - not first of all for             ~~`i.;~s.:&:&.&~r  &&.&.&I,, :  :
of the LORD is the death of His                    the business aspect of this gather-                _`: ,.i ;-;
                                                                                                        d-l ` 
                                                                                                                `- :j:j-$&$&&$ &a&: .
saints" (Psalm 116:15).                                                                                  . .
                                                   ing, but for the address. It is true                   -.  * .  `.,;`$j;*;~j.j&  &&&   I"_  -:  1  :
   Rev. Ronald VanOverloop, President              that short reports will be read and                 .`~;-`*,:-;.`  i  (/  5.  (_  -  _`*"",  ,;
                                                                                                      :;..                                                         .s (
   Elder Richard  Reyenga,                                                                               x  :. ...              :y:1(j3$M&~&)~d.                                 ,.
                                                   new board members will be elected                  ~ 7_j - I:.~~=~i`aii;,~wA.98248 -- : L ,:
       Vice-President                                                                                 .; .>.-
                                                   from a prepared nomination; but the                 i  ..=`-~l,"~   ~*-`*  /
                                                   purpose of this meeting is not pri-                 ,a  ,. 0 
                                                                                                                     `: 1 ir ; `~2Q6~~~~@44~ii8.-  ' c -, ,(_
                                                   marily organizational or economic,                  ;~Wc! &%:th@y@&$ye tl&yoyr
                                                                                                         ~ .`-*.`~~a~~fiil'~~.~side;ation;,  . /_ :
                                                   but spiritual. Our speaker, Prof.                  I (`/". ;
                                                                                                      ..T' <.
                                                                                                       k, , , / ( : ) _ *+ : . . :: `,", `;, : : ' ' '
                                                   Herman Hanko will direct our atten-                i: ,-,, . . ,, i `. (,.**"*`.2 --*s i       ._l<` ,Fe . .
                                                                                                                               . .  i  ,*"-".d;--   A,.`,  (_               L

456  I The Standard Bearer I August 1,199O


