                   STANDARD
A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine           '

                               SPECIAL ISSUE:
                            The Reformed Conflict With Rome





                                          Thesis 62:
                          "The true treasure of the Church is the-holy
                        Gospel of the glory and grace of God. "

Vol. 67, 
October 15,199O


Contents                                               October 15, 1990
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema                              :
  JUSTIFIED BY FAITH ALONE                                                      27
                                                                                      ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
   GOD'S CONTINUING CONTROVERSY                                                       and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
       WITH UNCHANGED ROME                                                      28    lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
                                                                                      at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                      POSTMASTER:  Send address changes to The
BY WHAT AUTHORITY? - Prof. Herman C. Hank0                                      30    Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
                                                                                      49516.
                                                                                      EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
THE PAPACY - Mr. John Clarke                                                    33    Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
                                                                                      Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
"THE" CHURCH - Rev. Thomas C. Miefsma                                                 Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
                                                                                      DEPARTMENT  EDITORS
                                                                                      Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
AN ACCURSED IDOLATRY - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                   37    Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                      Critters, Rev. Carl Haak, Prof. Herman  Hanko,
                                                                                      Rev. John  Hey!,  Rev. Marvin Kamps, Rev. Kenneth
PRAYING: TO MARY OR TO CHRIST? - Rev. Russell J. Dykstra                        38    Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr.
                                                                                      James Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.
                                                                                      Marybeth  Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
THE CONTINUING CONTROVERSY WITH ROME -                                                Charles Terpstra, Rev.  Cise   VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald
   Rev. Gise J. VanSaren                                                        41    VanOverlooo.  Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev.  :Bernard
                                                                                      Woudenberg.
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26 I The Standard Bearer  I October 15,199O


                                        Justified By
Meditation                              Faith Alone
Rev. James Slopsema


  Thert$ore we conclude thaf a          declares us righteous, or He de-           pecially on the cross. This payment
man is jqstified by faith without       clares us guilty. Should we appear         of sin is our righteousness before
the deeds of the law.                   before God as sinners, God declares        God.
                                                                                     But there is more.
                      Remans 3:28       that we are guilty. Should we ap-
                                        pear before God with so much as              God's law lays many obligations
                                        even one sin, God will find us             and duties upon us. In our sin we
                                        guilty. And remember that God              have failed to meet these divine
  Man is justified by faith alone,      knows and sees all, even the secrets       obligations. Nor can we be righ-
without works!                          of our heart. On the other hand,           teous before God until every obli-
  Martin Luther's rediscovery of        should we appear before God with-          gation of the law is met and we ap-
this precious truth sparked the         out sin, in perfect obedience to His       Rear as those who have kept all
great Protestant Reformation of the     law, God will declare us to be righ-       obedience to the law. It is not
16th century.                           teous. For righteousness has the           enough, therefore, that Jesus
  This truth is stated most con-        idea of obedience to the law.              merely pay for our sins. If we will
cisely by the apostle Paul in his         Justification means that God de-         be righteous before God, Jesus
epistle to the church of Rome.          clares us righteous before Him.            must also keep the law for us. This
`Therefore we conclude that a man       And how important this justifica-          too He has done. Through all of
is justified by faith without the       tion is! For God is a righteous God,       His inexpressible sufferings on our
deeds of the law."                      Whose eyes are too pum to behold           behalf He also walked in perfect
  The great apostle is drawing a        sin. Should, therefore, `God find us       love and obedience to the Father,
conclusion. In the preceding verses     guilty, even if it is 0nly:of  one sin,    fulfilling every obligation of the d.i-
Paul demonstrates that no one shall     He will damn us to eternal ruin un-        vine law.
be justified in God's sight by the      der His wrath. God's blessing and            This is the righteousness of God
works of the law. Rather, by the        favor are reserved for those only          of which Scripture so often speaks.
law is the knowledge of sin. Paul       who are righteous in His judgment.         It is a righteousness prepared by
adds that the law bore witness to a              *  *  *  * *;*  *                 God for His own in Jesus Christ. If
righteousness that God would pro-          A most important question               we will be justified by God, we
vide for His own without the law        pushes itself to the fore.                 must stand in God's courtroom
but by faith alone. This righteous-       We are sinners all! How, then,           with this righteousness.
ness God has provided through the       can we be justified by God?                         **x-E+***
blood of Jesus Christ.                    The answer is very beautiful.              The righteousness of God in Je-
  Now Paul sums this all up in one      God has provided for His own a             sus Christ becomes ours by faith.
grand conclusion: "Therefore we         righteousness in Jesus Christ.               Faith is our spiritual connection
conclude that a man is justified by        According to the apostle Paul           to Jesus Christ. As a branch is one
faith without the deeds of the law."    this righteousness was spoken of           with the tree from which it grows,.
                                        both by the law and by the                 so we become one with Jesus Christ
  Just&ati*on*pla*ce~u~inGod's          prophets of the Old Testament.             by faith.
courtroom.                              This righteousness consists, first of         This is due to the character of
  God is our Judge, Who judges          all, of payment for sin. We have all       faith. Faith is clinging to Jesus
our lives every day according to        sinned and come short of the glory         Christ, a relying upon Him for all
His holy law. As Judge, God gives       of God. For us to appear righteous         things. Faith also relies upon Jesus
either of two verdicts. He either       before God, payment must be                Christ to be righteous before God.
                                        made for all our sins. Jesus Christ        For when the believer falls into sin,
                                        has made this payment by taking            his faith leads him, first, to confess
                                        our sins upon Himself and bearing          his sins before God in true sorrow
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope         the punishment of sin in the form          and repentance. But his faith also
Protestant Rqformed Church in           of God's eternal wrath. This Jesus         leads him to cling to the righteous-
Walker, Michigan.                       did all His life on the earth, but es-     ness of the cross. His prayer is that
                                                                                    October 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer I 27


God will forgive him and receive              ficient for justification. If a man      the work of Jesus one must add his
him back on the basis of Jesus' sac-          will be justified, he must, in addi-     own works. These works are pre-
rifice on the cross.                          tion to having Jesus' righteousness,     scribed by the church. They consist
   Through this faith we are justi-           present God with a righteousness         primarily in the reciting of the
fied.                                         of his own. This righteousness con-      rosary, fasting, pilgrimages, and
   In the next chapter of this epistle        sists of the deeds or works of the       various services performed :for the
to the Romans the apostle Paul                law. We must observe the Mosaic          church.
points out that God counted the               laws, said these Judaizing teachers,       In this system Martin Luther
faith of Abraham as righteousness.            especially the rite of circumcision.     grew up and labored, seeking justi-
Abraham also clung by faith to the            This is part of our righteousness        fication with God. But he found
works of Christ as they were                  before God. A man is justified by        neither justification nor peace with
promised in the Old Testament.                faith in Christ and the deeds of the     God. The more he sought to estab-
When God saw the faith of Abra-               law.                                     lish his own righteousness accord-
ham, He accounted the righteous-                Not so, says the apostle Paul.         ing to the prescription of the
ness of Christ to be Abraham's                The purpose of the law is not to         church, the more he became con-
righteousness, so that Abraham,               work righteousness before God.           vinced that he stood as a gujity,
even though a sinner, appeared                The purpose of the law is to show        damnable sinner before God\.
righteous before Him.                         to us our sin and our need for             It was not until he rediscovered
   In like manner does God count              Christ's righteousness. By the           the great truth that we are justified
the faith of every believer as righ-          works of the law shall no flesh be       by faith alone, without the works of
teousness. The righteousness of               justified. We are justified by faith     the law, that Martin Luther found
Christ becomes ours through faith             alone, without the works of the          justification with his God and the
so that we are justified.                     law. The righteousness of Christ is      peace for which he so desperately
   Therefore we conclude that a               perfect, lacking nothing. To it noth-    sought.
man is justified by faith.                    ing need be or can be added.               Let us, as children of the Refor-
          *******                               Over the course of history the er-     mation, embrace with all our hearts
   But let us hasten to add that a            ror of the Judaizing teachers crept      this glorious truth of the Reforma-
man is justified by faith without the         into the church again. In fact, it       tion.
deeds  of  the law!                           took hold of the Roman Catholic            Man is justified by faith without
   There were certain Jews (Judaiz-           church. The church of Rome has           the deeds of the law.
ing teachers) in the church of Paul's         taught for centuries that the work         Being justified by faith, wle have
day, who claimed that the righ-               of Christ alone is not sufficient for    peace with God through our Lord-
teousnessof  Jesus Christ is not suf-         one to be righteous before God. To       Jesus Christ. 0





                                              n God's Continuing
                                                      Controversy with
Editorial                                             Unchanged Rome

   In March of 1545, less than a              formation. The title itself is con-      ume 41, pp. 263-376). God's great
year before he died, Martin Luther            demnation of the Roman Church,           scourge of the Roman Catholic
published the most vehement con-              inasmuch as the papacy ti the Ro-        Church went to his grave warring
demnation of the Roman Catholic               man Church. But Luther made ex-          against the Church of Rome..
papacy that he had ever written,              plicit the condemnation of the              The conflict continues at the end
"Against the Roman Papacy, An                 church that has the papacy as her        of the 20th century The Reformed
Institution of the Devil." It was             head: "devil's synagogue...the           church has a controversy with
timed to coincide with the opening            devil's church...an un-Christian         Rome. It is the continuation of the
of the Roman Catholic Council of              and anti-Christian church, i.e., a       war opened up by the Refonma-
Trent, the council that was in-               papal school of scoundrels" (cf.         tion.
tended to resist the Protestant Re-           Luther's  Works, Fortress Press, Vol-

28 / The Standard Bearer I October 15,199O


  It is necessary to remind our-             true, dost thou not judge and              nounce  her official curse upon ev-
selves of this because the notion            avenge our blood on them that              ery church and upon every pertjon
prevails in Protestant churches that         dwell on the earth?" $Rev. 6:lO).          that holds the Reformation-gospel:
Rome has changed. Men suppose                  Let no one respond that present-         "Let him be anathema!"
that since Vatican II, the Roman             day Rome may not be held respon-              Consider only two instances `of
Catholic council that met from 1963          sible for those deeds of a bygone          Rome's damning of fundamential
to 1965, Rome is no longer the en-           age. For, first, Rome ihas never re-       Reformed doctines in these
emy of the gospel that once she              pented for these sins. Second,             "Canons and Decrees." Against the
was. Now it is possible for Protes-          Rome today takes the very same             truth that is the cornerstone of the
tants to commune and co-operate              stands, e.g., the absolute                 Reformation-gospel of salvation,
with Rome.                                   supremacy of the pope over                 "justification by faith alone," Rome
  Lutheran and Anglican churches             church, state, and purgatory, and          declares, "If any one saith, that lby
are conducting official conferences          maintains the very same doctrines,         faith alone the impious is justi-
with Rome that have union as a               e.g., th.e sacrifice of Christ for sins    fied...let him be anathema."
goal. These conferences have al-             in the mass, that moved her to             Against the doctrine that is the
ready resulted in statements of doc-         slaughter God's people in the 16th         heart of the church, sovereign pre-
trinal agreement. Protestant                 and 17th centuries. Third, corpo-          destination, Rome inveighs, "If any
churches in the British Isles have           rate responsibility means that a           one saith, that a man, who is balm
recently reorganized their ecumeni-          church in the 20th century contin-         again and justified, is bound of
cal set-up to include Rome. Re-              ues to be responsible;for  the sins        faith to believe that he is assumdly
formed churches in The Nether-               she committed in the distant past.         in the number of the predestinate:
lands swap preachers and priests at          Jesus said to the Jerusalem of His         let him be anathema" (cf. "The
worship services. A prominent Ro-            day, "ye slew (Zacharias)," even           Canons and Decrees of the Council
man Catholic lawyer in the United            though Zacharias had been slain            of Trent," "On Justification,"
States pleads in Christianity Today, a       hundreds of years earlier by men           Canons 9 and 15).
leading evangelical magazine, for            long dead (Matt. 23:35).  Hundreds            Not only did Vatican II not
co-operation of evangelical Protes-          of years after the dee$ God visits         change a single Roman Catholic
tants and the Roman Catholic                 the righteous blood of His martyrs         doctrine, but it also expressly reaf-
Church (RCC) in matters of social            upon the apostate church that shed         firmed every important Roman
action. Recently, there have been            this blood. During all this time, He       doctrine. In the "Dogmatic Consti-
significant defections to Rome on            sees such a church as a bloody             tution on Divine Revelation," the
the part of leading evangelicals  and        church.                                    RCC reaffirmed that tradition is an
Presbyterians in the U. S. And it is           When the present @ape visited            equal authority in the church with
common today that neighborhood               Chicago a few years ago, I could           Scripture: "It is not from sacred
Bible study groups include staunch           never see the white-cl,ad,  saintly,       Scripture alone that the Church
Roman Catholics, not as objects of           benevolent old man that millions of        draws her certainty about every-
evangelism, but as full,                     others saw. I saw only a man               thing which has been revealed.
participating members of the class.          whose garments were drenched               Therefore both sacred tradition and
  Rome has not changed. Al-                  with blood, a man whose hands ex-          sacred Scripture are to be accepted
though God rebuked her sharply               tended in blessing of the mu1 ti-          and venerated with the same sense
and plagued her severely in His              tudes dripped blood, and a man             of devotion and reverence." In the
great controversy with her that we           who was drunken with blood-the             "Dogmatic Constitution on the
know as the Reformation, Rome                blood of the saints an(l the blood of      Church," Rome reaffirmed, among
has proved incorrigible.                     the martyrs of Jesus. This is why,         other things, that as head of the
  Rome continues to carry a huge             when Reformed ministers in the             Church "the Roman Pontiff has
load of guilt for her persecution            Chicago area were praying for the          full, supreme, and universal power
and killing of untold thousands of           pope as a "man of God," I was              over the Church"; that "it is a holly
Reformed and Presbyterian saints.            praying in my congregational               and wholesome thought to pray :for
To name only two instances, she              prayer "From the tyranny of the            the dead that they may be loosed
murdered scores of thousands of              bishop of Rome and all his de-             from sins," i.e., to believe the mon-
Reformed Christians in The                   testable enormities, 0 `Lord, deliver      strous fiction of purgatory; and that
Netherlands and perpetrated un-              us."                                       Mary, the mother of Jesus, is to be
speakable atrocities upon the                  Rome has not changed.                    worshiped and preached ("Let th.e
French Huguenots in the 16th and               Her doctrines remain the same.           entire body of the faithful pour
17th centuries. At the moment of             The RCC maintains as`her confes-           forth persevering prayer to the
my writing this and at the moment            sion "The Canons and Decrees of            Mother of God . . . . "1 as "Mediatrix"
of your reading this, there goes up          the Council of Trent." This is             (this blasphemous title was ex-
in heaven a cry from these souls,            Rome's official rejection of every         pressly given Mary by Vatican II).
killed by Rome for the Word of          -    distinctive doctrine of the Protes-           In the "Decree on the Ministry
God and for their testimony to the           tant Reformation. Maintaining this         and Life of Priests," the RCC reaf,-
truth, "How long, 0 Lord, holy and           confession, Rome continues to pro-         firmed its teaching that its mass is a

                                                                                         October  15,1990   I The Standard Bearer  /  29


repetition of the sacrifice of Christ         troversy with Rome by the Re-             mation-gospel. She sharply and
for the sins of men: "Through the             formed confessions. In Question 80        clearly exposes the Roman errors.
hands of priests...the Lord's sacri-          of the Heidelberg Catechism,              She refuses to have any commu-
fice is offered in the Eucharist in an        church and believer condemn Ro-           nion with Rome in ecumenical or-
unbloody and sacramental manner               man Catholicism as "a denial of the       ganizations; in local services of
until He Himself returns."                    one sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus     worship; or in co-operative ven-
  As though to rub the noses of               Christ and an accursed idolatry."         tures of social action. She warns
Protestantism in unchanged Roman              In Article 29 of the Belgic Confes-       Reformed people against an rm-
doctrine, Vatican II deliberately             sion, they judge the RCC a "false         equal yoke with Rome, especially
"proposes again" all the past deci-           church." Every condemnation by            in marriage. She engages in evan-
sions of the RCC on the meritorious           the Canons of Dordt of the teach-         gelism with Roman Catholics, call-
works of saints; the intercession of          ings of Arminianism is a condem-          ing them away from the pope to
saints in heaven; prayers to the              nation as well of Rome. For Rome's        Christ. And in the end she will
saints; and indulgences granted by            gospel too is a message of salvation      once again suffer at Rome's hands,
the church because of the merits of           by the "free will," the working, and      as the Lord foretold in His answer
the saints (cf. the "Dogmatic Con-            the worth of man.                         to the martyrs' cry in heaven:: "rest
stitution on the Church").                      If a Reformed church has no con-        yet for a little season, until (your)
  Rome is unchanged in her doc-               troversy with Rome, the reason is         fellowservants also and  <youId
trinal apostasy.                              not that Rome has changed, but            brothers...should be killed as (you>
  This is the issue between Rome              that this Reformed church has             were . ..." (Rev. 631).
and the Reformed church. Our                  changed. Doctrinally, she is one            Why there must be controversy
conflict with Rome is theological.            with Rome. She has made her               with Rome, and what the contro-
It has to do with God's gospel of             peace with Rome's rebellion               versy is, the old Luther pointed out
sovereign grace; with the pure wor-           against God. Reunion with Rome            in his parting blast against Rome.
ship of God; with the authority of            will follow. God has a controversy        In the midst of all the invective, vit-
God in His Word, Holy Scripture;              also with such a Reformed church.         riol, and vulgarity of "Against the
with God's one Mediator, Jesus the              The Reformed church worthy of           Roman Papacy," Luther wrote,
Christ; with God's Headship of the            the name, the church faithful to the      with unerring insight into the real
church in Jesus.                              sole authority of Scripture and to        issue to the very end:
  God has a continuing contro-                the gospel of salvation by grace            Here it is firmly forbidden to preach
versy with the RCC. God has pro-              alone, cannot but have a contro-          or hear human teachings in the (church,
nounced His decisive "anathema"               versy with Rome. God has sum-             for they do not give honor and glo y to
upon the RCC: "If any preach any              moned her to the battle under the         God, but instead seduce people firway
other gospel unto you than that ye            banner of His own Name. She en-           from the faith and seek the $0 y of
have received, let him be accursed"           gages in the controversy in a spiri-      man. For God alone would speak,
(Gal. 1:9).                                   tual manner-by the Word-not by            work, and govern in His church, so
  Every Reformed church and ev-               earthly force and political action.       that He alone is glorified, which we
ery member of the Reformed                    She instructs her own people thor-        have, praise God, managed to achieve
church is committed to God's con-             oughly in the truths of the Refor-        in our churches. Cl              - DIE




                                              By What Authority?'
Prof. Herman Hanko


                                                It is not an exaggeration to say        anything else was what the R~~;wY?zu-
                                              that the question of authority was        tion was all about. '
                                              the chief issue between Rome and             The question of authority had
                                              the Reformers. A. Skevington              been developed over the centuries
                                              Wood is right when he says:               of the Middle Ages by the Romish
                                                The tissue  at stake was whether the    Church, but was codified and
                                              authority (of Scripture) stood on its     made confessional in the Decrees
                                              own feet, or was derived from or          of the Council of Trent. While
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church            needed to be supplemented by that of      Trent began its sessions in Febru-
Historyand  New Testament in the              the  Roman Church. This more than         ary of 1546, nothing new was said
Protestant Refon72ed  Semina y.
30 I The Standard Bearer I October 15,199O


concerning this matter of authority             (14151, which burnt John Hus and            manv of the Confessions of the Re-
which had not already been said by              Jerome of Prague, condemned also fhe        fo&ed and Presbyterian churches.
the church in past centuries.                   writings and the bones of Wiclif,  ihe      The Belgic Confession, e.g., under
   Alongside of Scripture, Rome                 first franslator of fhe whole Bible into    the heading, `The Sufficiency of the
first of all made tradition authorita-          the English tongue, to fhe flames. 5        Holy Scriptures, to be the only
tive. This body of tradition, handed               The Reformers were unanimous             Rule of Faith," speaks of this in tlhe
down from Christ and the apostles,              in rejecting this concept of author-        stirring language of Article VII.
but not contained in Scripture, was             ity, but the ground work was done              The principle of the Reformers
given an authority equal with                   by Luther.                                  that Scripture alone is authoritative
Scripture itself. 2 This tradition in-             The issue arose early in Luther's        meant for them that they did not
cluded what was called the consen-              life. Although early in his develop-        reject dut of hand all that the fa-
sus pafrorum,  the unanimous teach-             ment, even before the writing of the        thers had written, all that the
ings of the church fathers, 3 and the           95 theses, Luther had been moving           Councils of the ancient church had
decrees and decisions of various                in the direction of Sokz Scripfuru          decided, and all that the church
councils. This was affirmed in                  (Scripture alone), the issue was            had taught. They did insist that all
"Profession of the Tridentine                   made explicit in the summer of              these were subject to the final aw
Faith," Article 3.                              1518 (less than a year after Luther         thority of Scripture and could be
   To this authority of tradition was           posted his theses) when Prierias            believed by the church only when
added the authority of the church,              prepared a case against the 95 the-         they met the standard of Scripture.
by which was meant, the authority               ses for adjudication in Rome. "The          The Reformers insisted that to ac-
of the pope. This was expressly                 linchpin in Prierias's argument was         cept any other authority was to in-
stated in the "Dogmatic Decrees of              that the pope was equally as infalli-       terpose between the absolute au-
the Vatican Council," which Coun-               ble as the church as a whole." 6            thority of God's Word and the be-
cil was held in 1870. Chapter IV                But the crisis came at the Leipzig          liever the opinions of men; and the
was entitled, "Concerning the Infal-            Debate in July of 1519. Luther was          believer is required to bow in sub-
lible Teaching of the Roman Pon-                debating with the able scholar, John        mission before God, not man.
tiff," and reads:                               Eck. Eck accused Luther of resur-              Sola Scripfura meant for the Re-
   . . . The Roman Pontiff. . . is pos-         recting the old doctri&s  of John           formers that Scripture alone pos-
sessed  of  infallibility. . . . Definitions    Hus which had been condemned                sesses authority because it alone is
of fhe Roman Pontiff are irreformable           by the Council of ConStance one             the Word of God. God is
of themselves, and no f from the con-           hundred years earlier. \ Luther             supremely God and before Him
senf of the Church. (                           strenuously denied that he was de-          alone must men bow. Because
   This final authority of the pope             fending Hus, but took the break for         Scripture is God's Word, it alone
was not only an authority along-                lunch as an opportunity to read the         can govern and regulate our life in
side of Scripture; it was an author-            records of the Council; In the after-       all its parts, for through the Word
ity superior to Scripture. Rome be-             noon session he surprised his op-           God rules over us. He demands
lieved that the Bible itself could not          ponent and the audience by saying,          obedience, and before Him we
be understood apart from the inter-             "Ja, ich bin ein Hussite.`?  From that      must render account. Whatever
pretation of the church. The Scrip-             point on he was comrnftted  to the          men may say, no matter how nobHe
tures received their authority there-           principle of Sola Scriptyra;  and it        and good, remains the words of
fore from the church and the                    became his motto whef he ring-              men, and before men we need noit
church alone possessed authority                ingly affirmed at the Diet of Worms         and may not bow.
to interpret it. For this reason it             in 1521 that his conscidnce  was cap-          In close connection with this, the
was considered unnecessary and                  tive to the Word of God: "Here I            Reformers believed that Scripture
even dangerous for the people of                stand. I can do naught else. So             possesses authority because it is in-
God to possess the Scriptures.                  help me God."                               fallibly inspired. While this was
   Pope Innocent III was of the opinion            In his "Babylonian Captivity of          not a crucial issue in the days of the
that fhe Scriptures were too deep for           the Church," he stated the doctrine         Reformation, mainly because Rome
the common people, as they surpassed            clearly: "What is asserted without          itself did not challenge this central
even the undersfanding  of the wise             the Scriptures or proven revelation         doctrine, the Reformers held firmly
and learned. Several synods in Gaul,            may be held as an opinion, but              to the principle that Scripture's au.-
during the thirteenth cenfu y, prohib-          need not be believed."                      thority rested upon and was rooted
ited the reading of the Romanic  trans-            In this all the Reformers con-           in Scripture's infallible inspiration.
lation, and ordered fhe copies to be            curred.                                        In keeping with this principle of
burnt. Archbishop Beth&-l,  of Mainz,              What was the teaching of the Re-         the sole authority of Scripture, the
in an edict of Janus y 4th, 1486,               formers on this question?                   Reformers taught too that Scriptme
threatened with excommunication all                The Reformers held to the princi-        is perspicuous, an open book, eas-
who ventured to lranslate  and to circu-        ple of Sola Scriptura, i.e:, the princi-    ily understood by the child of God.
late franslafions of sacred books, espe-        ple that Scripture alone is our au-         Rome had insisted that the Scrip-
cially the Bible, withouf  his permis-          thority for all of faith and life. This     tures were difficult to understand
sion. The Council of Consfance                  truth has been incorporated into            and that the church needed the au-

                                                                                             October  15,199O  I The Standard Bearer  I 31


thoritative teaching of the church            minds of the Reformers was not an          ture's authority. If one permits ho-
in order to understand what God               abstract doctrine. It was a matter         mosexuality in the church, o:ne de-
was saying. In this way the                   of the soul's salvation. To believe        nies Scripture's authority. If one
Romish Church set up the church               the fathers or the church or the           permits women to hold office in the
itself as authoritative. But the Re-          pope meant nothing. To believe             church, one denies Scripture's au-
formers insisted on the principle of          anything else but what Scripture           thority. And in denying Scripture's
the priesthood of all believers.              taught because Scripture taught it         authority, men set up their own
Nothing may stand between the                 meant hell and eternal desolation.         minds and rational powers over the
believer and his God. Scripture is            To believe in humble submission to         Scriptures. Men determine what in
given to God's people in a way that           Christ what Scripture did teach            Scripture must be believed and
the lowliest and least educated can           was to believe in Christ Himself;          what must be rejected. Perhaps
hear and understand it. Thus                  and this was salvation - the only          Rome's position of the supreme au-
Scripture% authority is supreme in            way of salvation given unto men.           thority of the church or of the pope
the lives of the saints.                        The battle over Scripture's au-          is not taught in modem Protes-
   From this followed various other           thority goes on. It is a never end-        tantism; but the "pope" of man's
tI-UthS.                                      ing battle, for wickedness and un-         mind is a far more tyrannical pope
   In the first place, the Bible had to       belief are of such a kind that men         than the bishop of Rome can ever
be in the hands of all God's people,          will not bow before God and His            be. Before that pope too we :may
and in their native tongue. Hence             Word. Only the work of sovereign           notbow.
the Reformation spawned a great               grace enables man to come to Scrip-           We have a precious heritage
deal of Bible translation.                    ture as a little child.                    from the Reformers. To that her-
   In the second place, only the be-            The battle goes on with Rome,            itage we must be faithful. And that
liever could really understand                for Rome has not changed her posi-         means not only some sort of con-
God's Word, for the Spirit of Christ,         tion on authority in even the least        fession concerning the truth d Sola
the same Spirit Who had inspired              bit. It is a position which has been       Scripfura, but it means too that we
the Scriptures, opened the eyes of            sharply reaffirmed by Vatican II un-       in fact live in such a way that Scrip-
the elect so that Christ spoke to             der the leadership of Pope John            ture controls and determines the
them in the Word of God.                      XXIII. But not only with Rome              whole of our life - what we be-
   In the third place, this was im-           does the battle go on; it continues        lieve and how we live. That is
portant for the defense of the Re-            with all those who deny Scripture's        faithfulness to those who gave their
formation because Rome charged                supreme authority.                         lives for the great truth of Scrip-
the Reformers with splintering the              It goes on with those who today          ture's supreme authority.  0
church. Rome insisted that if every           too, even in Reformed circles, deny
man was his own interpreter, every            Scripture's infallibility. The battle,        1. A. Skevington Wood, Captive to the
man could also make Scripture                 after all, is not in the final analysis    Word, Wm. B. Eerdmans  Publishinn- Co.,
teach what he wanted it to teach,             a battle over the nature of inspira-       (Grand Rapids, MI:  1969),  p. 119.
                                                                                            2. Cf. The Creeds of Christendom. ed. bv
and every man would have his                  tion and whether or not inspiration        Philip  Scbaff, Baker  I&ok House  (&and'
own opinion of what Scripture                 is infallible and inerrant. That is        Rapids: 1983) Vol. II, p. 80.
taught. The church was necessary              something like a smoke screen.                3.  Schff,  p. 83.
to keep uniformity of doctrine.               The battle is basically over Scrip-           4. Schaff, pp. 267-271.
And when the churches of the Re-              ture's authority. Will one bow be-            5. Philip Gaff, The History of the Chris-
                                                                                         tian Church. Vol. VII: Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub-
formation did in fact split into a            fore Scripture? Unbelief says, No.         lishing Co.`(Grand  kapids:  1950) p. l8.
multitude of different churches and           Faith says, Yes.                              6. James M. Kittelson, Luther the .Ue-
denominations, Rome with glee                   If one accepts evolutionistic the-       firmer,  Augsburg Publishing House (Min-
castigated the Reformers for de-              ories of creation, one denies Scrip-       neapolis:  1986)  p. 117.
stroying the unity of the church
with their denial of the church's au-
thority.
   The answer to this charge was
exactly that not only could those
who possessed the Spirit under-                     Thesis 1. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said,
stand the Scriptures because the                    "Repent" (Matt. 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers
Spirit was the only Interpreter of
Scripture, but those who did not                    to be one of repentance.
possess the Spirit could make any-
thing they pleased of God's Word.                   Thesis 27. They preach only human doctrines who saj
That is, the Spirit Who dwelt in the                that as soon as the money clinks into the money chest,
hearts of God's people also brought
the church into the unity of one                    the soul flies out of purgatory.                 -
faith based upon the Word of God.
  The question of authority in the

32 / The Standard Bearer / October 15,199O


                                           The Papacy
Mr. John Clarke


  Who is the head of the church,           reign, in an unbroken line until the       destroyed, the Pope is unmasked as
Jesus Christ or the Pope? In our           end of time. Those who claim to be         the great deceiver, displaying all
controversy with Rome over their           his successors have made some re-          the hallmarks of Antichrist (II
doctrine of the Papacy, this is the        markable claims for themselves.            Thess. 2:4,9,10).
fundamental issue at stake. Our            Pope Innocent III enacted in writ-            The  passage of Scripture most
Reformed forefathers recognized            ing this: "We may according to the         quoted by the Romanists for the
this, and it is on this point that the     fullness of our power, dispose of          prerogatives of Peter and the bish-
Westminster Confession of Faith            the law and dispense above the             ops of Rome is Matthew l&17-1'9.
makes its damning condemnation             law. Those whom the Pope of                After Peter had made declaration
of the Pope, when it states in chap        Rome doth separate, it is not a man        of his faith that Christ was the Son
ter 25, paragraph VI: "There is no         that separates them but God. For           of God, Christ signalized the im-
other head of the Church but the           the Pope holdeth place on earth,           portance of Peter's confession by
Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope        not simply of a man but of the true        saying, "Blessed art thou, Simon
of Rome in any sense be head               God" (I Book of Gregory 9 Decret           Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath
thereof; but is that Antichrist, that      C3).                                       not revealed it unto thee, but my
man of sin and son of perdition,              Pope Nicholas went further still.       Father which is in heaven. And I
that exalteth himself in the church        His words are: "I am in all and            say unto thee, that thou art Peter
against Christ, and all that is called     above all so that God `Himself, and        (Petros),  and upon this rock (petm) I
God." Was this statement justified,        I, the Vicar of God, hath both one         will build my church; and the galtes
and should we continue to make             consistory, and I am able to do al-        of hell shall not prevail against it."
the same condemnation today?               most all that God can,do.... Where-           There is in ChrisYs statement to
  In order to answer this question         fore, if those things that I do be said    Peter a play on the words Peter and
we must first examine the claims           not to be done of man, but of God,         rock, which come from the same
made by Rome for the Papacy, and           what can you make me but God?"             Greek word, but differ. The one,
then subject those claims to the              Claiming equal authority with           petros, from which Peter is taken,,
light of Scripture. We can summa-          Christ, Pope Leo XIII in his Encycli-      means a loose piece of rock, such1 as
rize Rome's teachings on the doc-          cal, Satis Cognitum, states: "Christ       one could throw; the other, petra, is
trine of the Papacy as follows. Jesus      assigned to Peter and his succes-          a fixed and permanent rock. In
Christ appointed Peter to be the           sors that they would be His Vicars         verses 22 and 23 of this same chap-
first Pope. In this office Peter was       and would for ever exercise the            ter we see what a poor foundation
to be Chr&`s  representative on            same power in the Church that He           Peter would have made, when
earth, exercising a position of head-      Himself exercised in this mortal           Christ has to rebuke him with the
ship with absolute authority over          life."                                     words, "Get thee behind me, Satan:
the church and endowed with in-              The claim for the absolute au-           thou art an offence unto me."
fallibility in his office, to guide and    thority of the Pope, ashead  of the           The rock upon which Christ
direct the church in all matters of        church, is crucial. Let that claim be      would build His church was not
faith and doctrine. Peter was to ex-       granted and then we have no alter-         the person, but the faith of Peter,
ercise his authority over the univer-      native but to accept every doctrine        the great truth he had just con-
sal church as the Bishop of Rome           the Pope cares to promulgate and           fessed which was evidently the
where his successors would also            we must submit without reserva-            main topic of the whole conversa-
                                           tion to his complete autocracy. No         tion.
                                           appeal to the clearest teaching of            Even by her own testimony
                                           Scripture can have any validity un-        Rome cannot build her doctrine of
                                           less it is interpreted according to        the-Papacy upon this text. A clause
                                           the sense approved of by the infal-        in the creed of Pius IV asserts that it
                                           lible teacher. If, however, these          is necessary "to take and interpret
Mr. Clark is a member of the               claims cannot be supported by              them (the Scriptures) according to
Covenant Reformed Fellowship  of           Scripture then the very rock upon          the unanimous consent of the Fa-
Lame, Northern Ireland, a mission of       which the Romish Church is built is        thers."
the PRC.

                                                                                       October  15,199O  I The Standard Bearer  I  33


   Only sixteen out of the eighty-               In contrast to the complete lack        preting these key texts in harmony
four early Church Fathers believed             of evidence in support of Rome's          with Rome, that apostate ecumeni-
that the Lord referred to Peter                claim, there are many passages of         cal Protestants can clear the way for
when He said "this rock," the ma-              Scripture that clearly contradict the     eventual reunion with Rome, under
jority holding that it applied to the          belief in Peter's supremacy and           the headship  of the Pope.
faith which Peter confessed. It is            headship of the church. When the             There is a danger that the ecu-
impossible to believe that God                 disciples disputed who should be          menical spirit of this apostate age
would permit such a fundamental                the greatest, the very question here      may have its influence also upon
doctrine as this, if it were the truth,        at issue, Christ did not say, "Of         us, so that we no longer view the
to sink into obscurity and uncer-              course, Peter - for he is the Pope";      Papacy  with the same hatred and
tainty for so long a time, only to be          but He rather taught them their           abhorrence, as our fathers did.
rediscovered by leaders of the Ro-             equality (Matt. 181-4). In Galatians         Let us not be deceived, as are the
man Catholic Church when they                  2:11-14  we read of Paul's rebuke to      multitudes who believe the Papacy
were struggling to assert their au-            Peter. Here two important things          has changed. It is inherent in the
thority centuries later.                       are stated. First, that Peter "was to     doctrine of Papal infallibility that it
   In this passage Christ also                 be blamed" and therefore not infal-       cannot change. Were the Pope to-
promises that He will give Peter the           lible. Secondly, that Paul "rebuked       day to reject the audacious claims
keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.                 him before them all." Can it be           of previous Popes he would be ad-
Without seeking to give a full ex-             imagined that any of the Pope's un-       mitting their fallibility. This he will
planation as to what this verse                derlings would publicly rebuke            never do.
means, it is sufficient to answer              him today?                                  While there has been no change
Rome's claim by pointing out that                The Roman claim that Peter was          in the doctrine of the Papacy, there
the authority to bind and loose was            the first Pope, can be tested by the      have been some changes in the be-
not given exclusively to Peter, for            record of the first days of the           havior of the Popes. The more
in Matthew 1818  we read how the               church as given in the Acts of the        modern Popes have not showm,  at
same power was given to all the                Apostles. We would expect to find         least publicly, the same degree of
disciples.                                     that now that Christ is no longer         tyranny as their predecessors; but
   Another passage quoted by                   present in body, His Vicar and rep-       our view of the Papacy does rtot al-
Rome in support of her claim is                resentative would have assumed            ter because of that. The vile lives
Luke 22:31,32.  "And the Lord said,            the rulership in His stead. Yet we        lived by the Popes never was, the
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath               never find Peter exercising such          point at issue. The great evil of the
desired to have you, that he may               supreme authority. No doctrinal           Papacy lies not in the debauched
sift you as wheat: But I have                  question is entrusted to his final        behavior of many of the Popes, but
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail           judgment. On no occasion does he          in its attempt to rob Christ of His
not: and when thou art converted,              act as Head of the church. In Acts        Kingly office by exalting the Pope
strengthen thy brethren." In this              10:25,26, when Cornelius would            to His royal seat as Head of the
passage the Lord prayed specially              show him the homage commonly              church and Head of the worlld for
for Peter, not because he was to be-           demanded by the Popes, Peter              the church.
come the infallible head of the                protested and said, "Stand up; I            That a mere sinful man should
church, but because the Lord fore-             myself also am a man."                    claim for himself the Headship of
saw the attack Satan would make                  Nowhere in Scripture does Peter         the church and the divine attribute
upon Peter, and his particular lia-            claim supremacy or enlighten the          of infallibilifjr should fill all those
bility to that attack because of his           church as to the glorious office into     who love the Lord Jesus Christ
self-confidence. Jesus saw also that           which Christ had placed him.              with righteous anger and indligna-
in the purpose of God his fall and             There is not a word in Scripture to       tion.
experience of forgiveness would                inform us that Peter was Bishop of          That countless millions of people
better equip him to strengthen oth-            the church at Rome or that Rome           should accept the diabolical claims
ers in temptation.                             was to remain the center of power         of the Pope and admire him as a
   The third passage cited by Rome             for the church.                           great Christian leader reveals to us
is John 21~15-17,  where Christ com-             We have deliberately spent a siz-       how great is this deception. :No
mands Peter, "Feed my sheep."                  able portion of this article examin-      wonder our Reformed Fathers saw
This command of Christ did not                 ing Rome's claim for the Papacy in        the Papacy as being clearly identi-
confer on Peter some special privi-            the light of Scripture. It is impor-      fied by Paul in II Thessalonians 2:1-
lege, but it is equally applicable to          tant for us to know that there is not     12. Does any other system more
all the apostles. The reason why it            the slightest support in Scripture        aptly fit the description given -
is given personally to Peter at this           for the doctrine of the Papacy. It is     "all deceivableness of unrigh~teous-
time is to assure him that he has              imperative that we have a proper          ness"?
not forfeited his pastoral mission,            understanding of those texts that           The deceivableness of Rome is a
as one of the twelve, by his apos-             Rome through her perverted inter-         deceivableness that goes beyond all
tasy.                                          pretation has used to substantiate        others. It poses as the true church
                                               her claims, for it is only by reinter-    of Christ out of which there can be

34 I The Standard Bearer / October 15,199O


no salvation, and yet all who accept        whom it calls "the mother of God."         Apostasy. We hold the usurpation
her teachings shall be eternally              All around us we see apostate            of Rome to be evidently pointed at,
damned. It is, in all of its chief          Protestantism being devoured by            and therefore let us maintain our
characteristics, a counterfeit of the       this great deception. Let our              distance and keep up our resolute
true church. It has its own founda-         prayer be that of Dr. Thomas               protest against its great abomina-
tion - the rock of Peter. It has its        Chalmers, one of the founding fa-          tions."
own head and infallible guide -             thers of the Free Church of Scot-            Let us not fear to tear the mask
the Pope. It has its own sacrifice -        land: "Save us, 0, Lord,`fmm               from off the Pope and cry out in
the mass; its own mediator - the            falling away, lest we share the            recognition, "I know thee who thou
priesthood; its own advocate                perdition that waiteth on the great        art, the Antichrist from Hell." Cl




                                            "The" Church
Rev. Thomas Miersma


   The reality of the Reformed con-         officials in law enforcement and           and invisible but defines the
troversy with Rome over the doc-            "the" church.                              church as the visible institute. It
trine of the church is one which is            The inherent doctrine of the            distinguishes rather between the
easily recognized as it forms part          church which Rome teaches, and             teaching church and the hearing
of the background of our daily life,        which the news media promote, is           church. The teaching church con-
not only in North America, but              that "the" church is a visible insti-      sists of the clergy and hierarchy of
wherever the church of Rome is              tution, an external, visible society,      the church, especially the pope. It
found. Rome regards itself as               centered in Rome. It is a visible in-      is the teaching church who alone
"The" church, as "the catholic              stitution of which Christ is the in-       possesses the Holy Spirit and His
church." A member of the Roman              visible hezd and the pope is the           gifts and has the right to declare
Church regards himself and speaks           visible head on earth. 1 The Roman         catholic doctrine. The hearing
of himself as "a Catholic," not a           Church finds its idea of the church        church of the laity receive grace
Roman&t.  Events, actions, or scan-         as a visible institution in the incar-     through the sacraments, are depen-
dals occur in "the" church; pro-            nation. God, the Word, became              dent upon the teaching church, and
nouncements are made by "the"               man in Jesus Christ and appeared           are under the necessity of receiving
church, of which the pope is the            in the world as the visible manifes-       by faith the teaching of the church.
head on earth. The news media in            tation of God. So also Jesus now             Faith for a believer is therefore
North America not only swallow              carries on His work through the            first of all a matter of faith in the
this camel but implicitly promote it        visible institution of the church          church, the institute and its teach-
in their reporting, giving us "the"         and does so by that organization           ings. From Rome's point of view
church's view on birth control,             He provided when He appointed              the institute of the church is first
abortion, government policies, or           the apostles, and Peter as the head        and precedes the church as an or-
poverty in Latin America. For over          of the apostles. The Church of             ganism or body. The Roman
a year, in Canada, we have been             Rome is therefore "the" apostolic          Church is therefore also the only
presented with the latest develop           church because its popes are the           apostolic Christian church, "the"
ments of the scandal in "the"               successors of Peter, and its clergy        catholic or universal church as it is
church, of sex offenses committed           the custodians of the word and tra-        found in every country. It, as a vis-
by priests and monks in parishes            di tion of the apostles. The Roman         ible institution, is the mother of
and orphanages in the Atlantic              institution is therefore, as it were, a    faith and the ark of salvation.
provinces. The news media have              continued form of the incarnation          Anyone who stands outside that
reveled in the unseemly details, the        of the Word, ascribing,unto  itself        visible institution is not a Christian
seeming collusion and cover-up of           and its teaching the authority of          and cannot be saved. It alone is
                                            Christ, the sole right to explain the      "the" church.
                                            Scriptures or declare what is Chris-         This view of Rome, which re-
                                            tian doctrine, and ascribing to its        quires faith not'first of all in Christ
                                            popes infallibility.  _                    but in the church and its teachings,
Rev. Miersma is pastor of First Pro tes-      In harmony with thi,s view the           and which requires primary alle-
tant Refomred Church in Edmonton,           Church of Rome does not distin-            giance to a visible institution, is a
Alberta, Canada.                            guish between the church visible           form of idolatry The Roman

                                                                                       October 15,1990!TheStakiardBearerI  35


Church would, as an institution,              Christ, by election, by His particu-        can be known as a true church of
stand in the place of God as if it            lar atonement as the head of the            Christ, over against that which is
were God as far as the hearing                body, by faith through His Spirit.          falsely called church, by specific
church, the ordinary believer is              The church in its essence is not seen       marks. Those visible marks are the
concerned.                                    with the eye nor limited to one visi-       pure preaching of the Word, ad-
   Denomination worship is a form             ble institute but is an object of faith.    ministration of the sacraments, and
of idolatrous thinking about a visi-          Moreover we maintain that that              Christian discipline in obedience to
ble church or denomination which              spiritual organism, in harmony              the Scriptures. It confesses Christ
is not at all unknown among                   with its true spiritual character, is       as its only head. It is that church
Protestant churches. Those who                such that every living member is a          which seeks to manifest the
cling to and remain in apostate               partaker of the gifts and works of          broader and essential unity of the
Protestant denominations out of a             the Holy Spirit and His anointing.          church of Christ, not by becoming
false sense of loyalty to "the"               We repudiate the distinction of             one massive super-church, but by
church fall into the same error.              Rome between a teaching and a               denominational and ecclesiastical
Those who blindly receive what-               hearing church. We maintain that            unity in the truth and in the ,marks
ever synods or ecclesiastical bodies          there is a priesthood of all believers      of the church and in spiritual com-
decide as the leading of the Spirit,          who are anointed with the Spirit to         munion in Christ. Therein the life
without setting such decisions                discern and understand the truth of         of "the" church which is spiritual,
against the touchstone of Scripture,          God's Word. The clergy and office-          invisible, and catholic is also mani-
walk in Rome's doctrine of the                bearers in the church are not a             fested in the world. The Roman
church.                                       higher form of church as Rome               Church is not that church, it is not
   The Reformed doctrine of "the"             teaches but are members of the              "the" church, either in its local
church is essentially different from          body of Christ, set in the body by          form or in its denominational life,
Rome's and opposed to it. The                 Christ as the only head of the              but a false church and a comuption
Word of God teaches us to confess             church, by which Christ through             of the body of Christ. q
that the church is, as to its essence,        His body edifies and builds up His
an invisible spiritual organism con-          church.
sisting of the elect of all ages gath-          That spiritual organism of "the"
ered out of all nations, which is the         church becomes manifested in the                   Here and There!
true body of Christ, redeemed in              world by the gathering together of
His blood. Thus we confess in the             elect believers and their elect seed        Here there are hours of sadness
Heidelberg Catechism, LD XXI,                 into one body and one spiritual               And trials hard to bear;
Q&A 54, "What believest thou con-             communion of saints in the Spirit, a        There all is joy and gladness
cerning the `holy catholic church'?           congregation which is the temple              Without a passing care.
That the Son of God from the be-              and dwelling place of God. It is the
ginning to the end of the world,              organism which is first and pre-            Here  there are heavy crosses,
gathers, defends, and preserves to            cedes the institute of the church,            Which weigh the spirit down;
himself by his Spirit and word, out           and not the institute which is first        There every brow circled
of the whole human race, a church             as Rome would have it.                        With an immortal crown.
chosen to everlasting life, agreeing            That invisible spiritual organism
in true faith; and that I am and for-         comes to expression in a visible and        Here  there are separations
ever shall remain a living member             institutional form as the gathering           That almost break the heart;
thereof." That spiritual organism             of believers and their seed in local        There loved ones meet, and never
of the elect body of Christ is                autonomous congregations. It is               Know what it is to part.
catholic or universal because it is           apostolic because it is bound and
gathered and redeemed out of all              united in the truth of God's Word,          Here oft in bitter anguish
nations, and Rome has no propri-              in the doctrine of the apostles and           We weep from day to day;
etary right to the name catholic at           prophets, not by succession of per-         There God's hand so gently
all. `We believe and profess, one             sons or popes. It is Christ Who               Wipes all our tears away.
catholic or universal Church, which           governs it by His Spirit and Word
is an holy congregation, of true              as the head of the church and it            Here sin  and imperfection
Christian believers, all expecting            needs no earthly visible head. Its            Our purest actions taint;
their salvation in Jesus Christ, be-          visible form is not a church of one         There  in their spotless beauty
ing washed by his blood, sanctified           city, Rome, but of many churches,             Appears each white-robed saint.
and sealed by the Holy Ghost. This            each a complete manifestation of
church hath been from the begin-              the body of Christ in its own place,        Here we a little longer
ning of the world, and will be to             as were the churches not only of              Must life's brief story tell;
the end thereof;..." (Confession of           Rome, but of Corinth, Philippi,             There in the home prepared
Faith, Art. XXVII).                           Ephesus, and Jerusalem.                       We shall forever dwell.
  The essence of the church is spir-            Moreover the church in its visi-
itual, rooted and grounded in                 ble and institutional manifestation                       -SB, February IS,2932

36 I The Standard Bearer / October 15,199O


                                                                     :

                                              An Aqmrsed
Prof. Roberf D. Decker                        ldolatiy

   Everyone familiar with the Hei-              In our ecumenical age many in          ily under the form of the bread and
delberg Catechism  recognizes that            Reformed churches want this an-          wine, and therefore is to be wor-
this is what the Catechism calls the          swer deleted from the Catechism. It      shiped in them? If it does we must
"popish mass" in its 80th question            is no secret that there is increasing    by all means retain Q. and A. 80. If,
and answer. This question and an-             dialogue between Protestants and         however, Rome has changed its
swer dealing with the difference              Catholics. Even pastors in Re-           teachings we will have to remove
between the Lord's Supper and the             formed churches both in The              this answer from the  Catechism.  It
"popish mass" was added to the                Netherlands and in this country          is our contention that Rome has not
second edition (some historians               have held combined worship ser-          changed and, therefore, Q. and A.
think at the suggestion of John               vices with neighboring Roman             80 must be retained. The mass, ac-
Calvin) of the Catechism which ap-            Catholic churches. These and oth-        cording to Rome's own interpret,a-
peared shortly after the first edition        ers are embarrassed by the strong        tion of it, remains a denial of the
in 1563. Question 80 asks: "What              language of Q. and A: 80. In large       one sacrifice and sufferings of Jesus
difference is there between the               measure this dialogue and coopera-       Christ, and an accursed idolatry.
Lord's Supper and the popish                  tion between Protestants and Ro-            We will allow Rome to speak for
mass?"                                        man Catholics is due to the Second       itself. (The books from which we
The answer is:                                Vatican Council convened by Pope         quote were obtained from the Re-
   The Lord's supper testifies to us,         John XXIII on October 11,1962.  Vat-     source Center of the Catholic Dio-
fhaf we have a full pardon of all sin by      ican II, it is argued, introduced a      cese of Grand Rapids and represent
the only sacrifice of Jesus Christ,           number of changes in the mass and        post-Vatican II, official Roman
which he himself has once accom-              other ceremonies and practices of        Catholic teachings.) This is what
plished on the cross; and, that we by         the Roman Catholic Church. It is         Rome says about the Lord's Supper
fhe Holy Ghost are ingrafted into             argued that the abuses within the        or Eucharist:
Christ, who, according to his human           Romish Church which made Q.                 What was the Lord's Supper?
nature is now nof on earth, but in            and A. 80 necessary in 1563 no              The night bqfore  he died, Jesus gafh-
heaven, at the right hand of God his          longer obtain.                           ered with his closest disciples, the apos-
Fafher, and will there be worshipped            There can be no doubt that Vati-       fles, and, anficipating  his death, had
by us: -but fhe mass teaches, thaf the        can II introduced changes, even          fh& partake in a special meal. As in
living and dead have not the pardon of        significant changes, in Roman            all important Jewish meals, Jesus
sins through the sufferings of Christ,        Catholic Liturgy. The altar has          blessed God, his Fafher. When he said
unless Christ is also daily offered  for      been moved closer to the congrega-       the  blessing over the bred, however, he
them by the priests; and further, that        tion, the congregation no longer         offered it as his "body"; similarly,
Christ is bodily under the form of            kneels to receive the elements, the      when he said the blessing uver the cup
bread and wine, and therefore is to be        priest faces the congregation while      of wine, he offered it as his "blood."
worshipped in them; so fhat the mass,         conducting the mass, and the             This action of Jesus forms the ritual of
at botfom, is nothing else than a denial      liturgy is no longer given in the        the celebrafion  of the Eucharist by the
of fhe one sacrifice and sufferings of Je-    Latin language but in the language       Chrisfian Church. (See I Corinthians
sus Christ;and an accursed idolatry.          of the people.                           11:23-26  for the earliest wriften ac-
                                                The question is, however, has          count.) In word, we recall his deeds;:
                                              Rome changed its teaching con-           in action, we re-presenf fhe blessing of
                                              cerning the mass? Does Rome still        the Last Supper.
                                              teach that both the living and the          Why did Jesus give bread and1
                                              dead have not the full pardon of         wine as his body and blood?
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical        their sins unless Christ is offered        Jesus gave the bred and wine in or-
Theology in the Protestant Reformed           daily for them by the priests? Does      der to: (1) give his disciplesYa  share in
Semina y.                                     Rome still teach that Christ is bod-     his deafh and resurrection; (2) provide

                                                                                        October  15,199O  I The Standard Bearer .I 37


a means by which he would continue              share in our burden of iin and death.          anything so complete and in so short a
to be with them after his death. Is this        The last Supper was his way of invit-          time. This has been a sharp "hairpin
meal only a memorial?                           ing his disciples into the sacrificial giv-    turn" back toward the Mass as it used
   Catholics believe this meal is far           ing of himself. The Eucharist continues        to be said in the time of the e&y
more than a memorial because,                   this sacrificial gKng as it invites all        Christians.
through it, we share -in the present- in        his followers to be one in his self-offer-        Thanks to Vatican 11 and Pope Paul
the ve y life of the Lord.                      ing. 2                                         VI, we have a new liturgy t&q. But
   How can this meal be a present                  Another author puts it as fol-              with all the changes, what we have is
sharing in the Lord's life?                     lows:                                          truly the Mass of Christ. What has
   When we celebrate this meal as a                The liturgy (of the mass, RDD) cap-         changed is the manner of its celebra-
"memorial" of Jesus, he becomes pre-            sulizes a Catholic's faith in Jesus. The       tion, the liturgy. For there can never
sent through the bred and wine which            Mass recalls Jesus' saving acts                be a new Mass. At its heart, the Eu-
are  transformed into his body and              through his life, death, and resurrec-         charist is the same yesterday, today,
blood. They are the means by which              tion. It is the entire Paschal Myste y         and forever. 4
]esus is present. If ]esus did not rise         brought to reality in a sacramental               The mass, therefore, according to
from the dead, this meal could only be          way. The Eucharist makes Christ pre-           current Roman Catholic teaching
a  memorial. Precisely because he rose          sent once again, no less powerful than         has not changed. It is a denial of
and is present with his people, this            he was to the early Christians assem-          the one sacrifice of Jesus and: an ac-
meal is also union with him. '                  bled in prayer. Jesus is not only re-          cursed idolatry May God give us
From the above it is obvious that               membered but present in a unique               grace to hold fast to the truth of the
Rome has not changed its teaching               sacramental  manner under  the appear-         Lord's Supper over against the
concerning the mass. Jesus, accord-             ance of bread and wine.                        blasphemous lies of the popish
ing to Rome, is bodily under the                   We believe that, of ourselves, we           mass. Cl
form of the bread and wine. In this             have little of worth to offer God. The
way Jesus is present with His peo-              offering of Jesus to the Father in the
ple. The Catechism is correct in its            Mass is the perfect gift o love to God.           1. Frank I? De&no,  Presenting the
assessment of the mass.                         Jesus renews, in a bloodfess way, his          Catholic Faith: A Modern Catechism for Inquir-
   From the same source we learn                sacrificial death on the cross. 3              "g,5 (New York. Paulist Press, 1987I,  pp. 68-
that the mass remains indeed a re-                 If there be any doubt as to the               .2. Ibid. p. 72.
peated sacrifice of Jesus.                      validity of Q. and A. 80 of our Cat-              3. Sister Charlene Altemose,  why  Do
   Is this sacrament a sacrifice?               echism it ought to be dispelled by             Cnfholics . . . ?: A Guide to Catholic B.&f and
   Jesus made the giving of his body            the following:                                 Practice  (Debuque, Iowa: Brown Publishing),
and blood a sign                                                                               p. 64.
                     of sharing in his death       In the entire histo  y of the Mass             4. Pierre Loret,  How Tke Mass Came To Be:
and resurrection. His death ~a.4 the            there has never been a rt$orm like the         From fke Last Supper to Today's Euckwist
offering of himself in obedient love to         one made by Vatican II. There were             (l&guori, Missouri:  Liguori  Publications), p.
the Father; his death was his generous          changes made in the past, but never




                                                Praying: To Mary
Rev. Russell Dykstra                            or to Christ?

                                                   Consider for a moment these                 short and all fall silent. They have
                                                scenes. The first is in a Roman                come upon a statue (idol) of Mary.
                                                Catholic Cathedral where a junior              But that is not what started them.
                                                high teacher leads a handful of his            Rather it is the sight of a gray-
                                                students on a tour. The students               haired, devout woman, on h.er
                                                speak in awed whispers of the                  knees before the statue, bowed in
                                                beautiful stained-glass windows                humble adoration and prayer to
                                                and of the statues, pictures, and or-          MARY!
Rev. Dyks tra is pas for of the Pro tes-        nate fixtures that fill the church.               The second scene is in the hum-
tant Reformed Church of Doon, IA.               Suddenly the group is drawn up                 ble village of Lion in Nicaragua,
38 / The Standard Bearer / October 15,199O


predominately a Roman Catholic             fend even the title "Mediatrix of all        can.9 most pity us poor exiles, still
village. The people are celebrating        Graces" for Mary as follows: `This           doomed to sigh in this vale of tears?
the annual feast of the Immaculate         designation in no way excludes or            Offer to ]esus but one drop of His Pre-
Conception of Mary [that Mary              even obscures the fact that Jesus            cious Blood, but one pang of His
was born without sin]. A Roman             Christ is the sole mediator. It              adorable Heart; remind Him that thou
Catholic describes (with approval)         means to express only that Mary,             art our life, our sweetness, and our
what he experienced there. `We             with her `Yes' [i.e., her submission         hope, and thou wilt obtain what I ask,
walked for about an hour and a             to God's will in the birth of Christ         through Jesus Christ our Lord.
half in a poor and crowded part of         - RJDI, has accepted on behalf of            Amen.  4
the city...and  in every hut there was     all the coming of this mediator of           Such a prayer makes a Reformed
a statue of the Virgin with candles,       all graces, so that Jesus' mediation         believer shudder. It ought to drive
and a crowd would stop at each             of salvation is permanently accom-           us to our knees in thankful ac-
house and it was a kind of ritual;         panied by her intercession." 3               knowledgment of God's grace
they would call out `Who has given         Rome argues that because Christ              manifested in the Reformation and
us happiness?' And the reply               (and thus salvation) came through            in our lives. But for the grace of
would come from the crowd, `Mary           Mary, we must go to Christ (and              God, we would be on our knees,
Immaculate!"' 1                            this salvation) through Mary. Thus           praying to Mary.
  Many more pictures you may               they insist Christ is still the One             Over against this, the Scriptures
have seen yourself. Occasionally           Mediator Who stands between God              nowhere give to Mary the role of
the news media will carry stories          and man; but Mary stands between             Mediator. Certainly, as the one
about how thousands of people              Christ and man.                              chosen and prepared by God to be
gather at a certain spot nightly be-          The reason for this "media&ix,"           the mother of Jesus according to
cause someone claimed to have              according to Rome, is that Mary is           the flesh, she was "highly favored"
seen a lighted picture of the virgin       closer to us in our suffering. She is        and "hlessed...among  women"
Mary miraculously appear on a              the Mother of Sorrows. She experi-           (Luke 1:28). But this does not make
wall. At another location a man            enced horrible disappointment,               her the "Mother of the Church" OI
claims an infirmity was healed by          pain, and sorrow because of the              the "gate of heaven." The Bible
the Virgin Mother! Still others in-        suffering and death of Christ. Mary          does not emphasize Mary's role in
sist they have experienced spiritual       can be counted on to be sympa-               Jesus' public ministry or in the
renewal through a visit to a special       thetic. In addition, she is the              work of the church after His death.
shrine of Mary.                            mother of Christ. She has His ear.           Nowhere in Scripture are we en-
  These scenes all indicate the            He will never turn down a request            couraged, much less commanded,
place the virgin Mary has in the           from His own blessed mother! This            to go to God or Christ through
lives and theology of the Roman            is captured in one of many ap-               Mary.
Catholic Church. The more careful          proved form-prayers and songs                   The only Mediator between God
modern Roman Catholic writers              written for Mary.                            and His people is Jesus Christ, His
who try to answer Protestant objec-           0 most blessed and afflicted Virgin,      Son. That the Bible is so clear on
tions to these teachings must              Queen of Martyrs, who didst stand            this makes one realize how blind
scramble to cover the tracks of            generously beneath the cross, behold-        the Romish Church is to God's
Rome's doctrines and practices             ing the agony of thy dying Son; by the       Word. Jesus is plainly identified as
concerning Mary. They claim that           sword of sorrow which then pierced           the only Mediator in I Timothy 2:5;
the adoration (worship) given to           thy soul, by the sufferings of thy           - "For there is one God, and one
Mary is different from that given to       sorrowful life, by the unutterable joy       Mediator between God and men,
God. They admit that excesses              which now more than repays thee for          the Man Jesus Christ." Heis re-
have appeared in history and exag-         them; look down with a mother's pity         ferred to three times in Hebrews
gerated claims of Mary's power             and tenderness, as I kneel before thee to    (8:6; 9:15; 12:24) as the mediator of
have been made. But the bottom             compassionate thy sorrows, and to lay        the covenant. No one else (except
line for Rome is still that without        my petition with childlike confidence        Moses as a type of Christ) is given
Mary there is no salvation. One of         in thy wounded heart. I beg of thee, 0       this title in Scripture, and there is
the most significant aspects of this       my mother, to plead continually for me       not a single incidence of prayer be-
exaltation of Mary is that she is still    with thy Son, since He can refuse thee       ing offered to Mary or any other
"invoked in the [Romish] Church            nothing, and through the merits of His       saint. Christ is the only Mediator.
under the titles of Advocate,              most sacred Passion and Death, to-             The fact is that Jesus is the perfect
Helper, Benefactress, and Media-           gether with thy own sufferings at the        mediator.  He is the one eternally or-
trix." z [A media&ix is simply a fe-       foot of the cross, so to touch His Sacred    dained by the Father to be the Me-
male mediator.] In effect the Ro-          Heart, that I may obtain my request.         diator of the covenant, a priest for-
man Catholic Church sets aside the         [Here the specific requests are given.       ever after the order of Melchisedec
mediating work of Christ and re-           CRJD)] For to whom shall I fly in my         (see Heb. 7). He was anointed with
places it with the work of Mary.           wants and miseries, if not to thee, 0        the Holy Spirit to fill the office of
  Rome of course denies that she           Mother of mercy,  who, having so             prophet, priest, and king (Luke 4).
has done this. Her theologians de-         deeply drunk the chalice of thy Son,

                                                                                         October 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer  I :39


   Not only that, but the two na-             "through him [Christ] we...have ac-        ful. How often does not the Bible
tures of Christ united in one Person          cess by one Spirit unto the Father"        record Jesus' compassion on the
make Him the perfect Mediator.                (18).                                      multitudes or on the sick and de-
He is eternally God, of one essence              Thus Christ removed the sins            mon-possessed? How compassion-
with the Father and Spirit. Know-             which separated us from God, es-           ately He dealt with publicans and
ing God, His will, and counsel,               tablished peace, reconciled us to          sinners, with the woman caught in
Christ is able to bring the prayers           God, and continues to make inter-          adultery, and with Peter after his
of His people into perfect harmony            cession for us even now. How won-          denial of Christ!
with God's will. But He is also very          derful for us, that the very One              Besides, all the suffering of this
man. He knows the nature of man               Who made the payment for our               life prepared Him to be our merci-
and is united to His people by the            sins pleads before the Father to           ful and faithful high priest! From
common nature. Who could better               give us the forgiveness of sins (I         personal experience He knows our
present our needs to the Father               John 2%. We can shout with confi-          struggles with doubt, trial, tempta-
than the Mediator Who is one with             dence, `Who is he that condemn-            tion, and all forms of human suffer-
us?                                           eth? It is Christ that died, yea           ing. "For we have not an high
   Further, Jesus is the perfect Me-          rather, that is risen again, who is        priest which cannot be touched
diator because He made mediation              even at the right hand of God, who         with the feeling of our infirmities;
between God and man possible.                 also maketh intercession for US"           but was in all points tempted as we
The work of Satan in the garden of            (Ram. 8%). This work of Jesus is           are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4,:16).
Eden violated God's relationship of           an unending intercession which re-         No one in heaven or on earth is
friendship with Adam. The sin of              sults in the sure salvation of all         more compassionate than our Sav-
Adam caused a horrible breach,                those who "come unto God by                ior! How foolish, how devilish, to
bringing hatred between God and               him" (Heb. 7~25). The fact is, Jesus       put aside the mighty, glorious,
man. God cannot fellowship with               is the only way to God. He Him-            compassionate Mediator and sub-
iniquity. But all men are born dead           self said, "I am the way, the truth,       stitute one of our own making.
in sin, by nature the children of             and the life: no man cometh unto           "Let us therefore (in Christ!)' come
wrath, unwilling and unable to                the Father, but by me" (John 14:6).        boldly unto the throne of grace,
make any attempt at reconciliation.              But there is one more very real         that we may obtain mercy, and find
And so the just wrath of God                  concern for the child of God which         grace to help in time of need" (Heb.
would have remained on all men                he faces daily, every time he begins       4:17).  0
forever had not God sent His Son,             to pray. Do I dare to come to Jesus?
the Mediator, to remove the offense           He is, after all, very God; He is the
- our sins -by the atoning suffer-            sinless One, the righteous Judge.             1. Graham Green, quoted by  John Deedy,
ing and death of the cross. Paul ex-          Would it be better to go to His            "Immaculate Conception: It's probably not
plained the same to the Ephesians.            mother Mary, a woman of compas-            what you think." U.S. oltholic, February,
                                                                                         1990, p. 36.
Through that work, we, who "were              sion, and ask her to bring my re-             2. `The Dogmatic Constitution on the
without Christ, . ..strangers from            quest to Jesus? Rome's arguments           Church (1964),"  quoted in 7'he Churches Con-
the covenants of promise, having              do strike a responsive.chord in our        fession of Faith: A-Gztholic Catechism for
no hope, and without God," are "in            souls. But this is a wicked response,      Adults. Vol. 2. San Francisco: Comnhnio
Christ Jesus...made nigh by the               not the response of faith.                 Books;  Ignatio  Press, 1987, p. 144.
                                                                                            3. Ibid., p. 145.
blood of Christ" (2:12,13). He es-               To pray to Mary not only denies            4.  Keane, Rev. James R., Ed., Nozwzn   in
tablished peace between God and               Scripture, it rejects Jesus the merci-     Honor of Our Sonwwfil Mother, 1938,,
His people. And, Paul concluded,              ful high priest. Our Lord is merci-        Chicago: The Servite Fathers, pp.  5,6.



                                                          Safe in the Ark
Shut in by God within the ark,                But floods that rise and floods that      And as it was, so shall it be.
  Not more secure could mortals be;                    fall,                              When judgments, oft and long
Encompassed with the judgment                   In vain the ark of God assail;                    foretold,
floods,                                       While over all without it found,          Shall sweep the earth with cleansing
   And yet from judgment wholly                 The torrents of His wrath prevail.         f i r e ,
free.                                                                                     As waters did the world of old.
                                              And as it was, so is it now,
Beneath the surging tides that rise             The message of the Lord refused;        Then all who have in Christ
  The unbelieving find their graves;          The strivings of His Spirit spumed,             believed,
While those within'the sacred ark               And priceless days of grace               And in Him rest and refuge found,
  In safety ride upon the waves.                          abused.                       Shall safe with Him in glory be,
                                                                                          With everlasting joys abound.

                                                                                                                  - SB, May I, 1932
40 1 The Standard Bearer 1 October 15,1990


Rev. Gise VanBaren


  The time of the Reformation is          ferent from Protestantism. Did not         October 21 and 22. Monday sessions
long past. Over four hundred              the Second Vatican Council call            tiill be held, 9 AM - 4 PM, at Fifth Re-
years have gone by. In most coun-         Protestants "separated brethren"?          formed, and  a  Sunday evening worship
tries there is not even the hint that     Has not Rome changed? Is Rome              service will be held at 7 PM at Do-
Rome would persecute Protestants          not now a "kinder and gentler"             minican Chapel\Ma  ywood. These
anymore. Ought we not allow by-           church - far different from that           events will be hosted by GRACE on
gones to be bygones - and con-            which persecuted and martyred              behalf of the Grand Rapids ecumenical
tinue with the high calling of            Protestants after the Reformation?         community.. . .
preaching the gospel to the .four           The attempt in our day and land             The Most Rev. Robert Rose, Bishop
comers of the earth? And is our           is to unite the churches. In the past      of the Grand Rapids Roman Catholic
controversy so much with Rome as          several decades, the efforts to unite      Diocese, will be preacher at the morn-
it is with the apostatizing churches      churches under one denomina-               ing worship, opening the forum at 9:tOO
of Protestantism?                         tional roof have not been as suc-          AM in the sanctua  y of Fifth Re-
  Two opposite views are present.         cessful as some had hoped. As an           formed  Church....
One notes in Northern Ireland that        alternative to denominational              . ..The MEF (which replaced Michigan
the battle with Rome appears still        unity, there is a growing attempt to       Council for Churches in 1987) is a
fierce and intense. During a ques-        promote ecumenism on the "grass            state-wide ecumenical organization,
tion-period after a lecture there, I      roots" level. Many examples could          independent from local agencies such
was asked what the Protestant Re-         be given of this. I will point out         as GRACE and from the national or
formed Churches would do if a Ro-         only one in this brief article.            international groups. MEF  afj%rns
man Catholic priest were to preach          I regularly receive Grace Notes.         "the unity within the body of-Christ,
from a Protestant pulpit. Would           "GRACE" stands for: Grand                  which is a gift from God . . .seeking a
the PRC have pickets in front of the      Rapids Area Center for Ecu-                more visible, tangible and daring ex-
church? The questioner was from           menism. The acronym is a beauti-           pression  of  that unity. Through joint
the Rev. Ian Paisley's denomina-          ful word - and apparently very             Bible study, common  prayer and our
tion. Paisley's opposition to Rome        suitable to describe the attempts at       faith stories, we grow in the knowledge
is widely reported in the press.          cooperation between many denom-            of our unity and witness to the reality
Ought we not to imitate him and           inations. Is not this, after all, the      of our oneness in Christ.
show the world that we oppose the         fruit of God's grace to His church?           The admitted goal of MEF is th(e
kind of ecumenism which joins that        The board of "Grace" consists of           "seeking a more visible, tangible
which formerly was divided?               men and women from the Christian           and daring expression of...unity."
  There is the opposite view, com-        Reformed, Reformed, as well as Ro-         This is to be accomplished through
mon in our land and in Europe             man Catholic Churches (and oth-            joint Bible study and common
generally, that Rome is not that dif-     ers). These `Notes" indicate a large       prayer - and, understand, this is
                                          measure of cooperation between             with all denominations including
                                          the various denominations. One             the Roman Catholic Church.
                                          report is given in the last issue             One sees here a pattern which
                                          about the "Michigan Ecumenical             becomes increasingly prevalent.
                                          Forum."                                    Ecumenism is being established ait
                                            The Rev. Joan B. Campbell will be        the "grass roots" level. Local
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protes-    the featured speaker at the fall events    churches have their pulpit ex-
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,      of the Michigan Ecumenical Forum           changes - also between Protestant
Michigan.                                 (MEFJ to be held in Grand Rapids on        and Roman Catholic. Bible studies

                                                                                      October 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer / 41


with those of many different de-              church is not to picket or to raise a     There is generally a fear today of
nominations - including also Ro-              great cry in public assemblies            saying anything against another re-
man Catholic - are becoming very              against the pope and the Romish           ligion. Allow each to maintain his
popular. And who would oppose                 Church.                                   own position without opposition.
Bible studies?                                  Three things are essential in our       Live and let live. In fact, there have
   Bible societies are publishing             continuing controversy with Rome.         even been some restrictions :placed
translations of the Bible acceptable          First is that we must know what is        upon radio broadcasts which con-
to Roman Catholics as well as to              going on in the religious world of        demn the errors of others.
many Protestants. These transla-              our day. We hear often that so              Still, in writing, speaking, and in
tions include the books of the                many people are ignorant of basic         the preaching, the errors of Rome
Apocrypha,  which Rome has                    information about such things as          must be exposed. Our Heidelberg
adopted as part of the Bible. Usu-            history or geography. That is             Catechism does this when it calls
ally Roman Catholic scholars have             surely true with respect to religion.     the "mass" an "accursed idolatry."
incorporated their own notes of in-           How many know about Rome to-              Though many in Reformed circles
terpretation in these all-purpose             day? How many understand what             wish to remove this statement be-
Bibles.                                       Rome teaches? Is it not true that         cause it hinders ecumenism, we
   Intermarriage of Protestant and            differences between Protestant and        must insist that this is still true.
Roman Catholic individuals is re-             Roman Catholic are minimized in             We must do this for the sake of
garded asacceptable. After all,               our own day? The child of God             our people and the children in the
Rome no longer requires the                   must be informed!                         church. But we must also do this
Protestant partner to promise to                This issue of The Sfunrhzrd  Bearer     for the sake of those outside of our
have the children instructed in Ro-           is one which ought to be read by all      churches. Let it be known to all
man Catholic doctrine. Formerly,              the members of our churches - es-         why we oppose Rome - and what
the non-Roman Catholic partner                pecially by our young people.             is our position against these things.
had to sign a promise to have any             Other periodicals also can be prof-         In opposition to the teachings of
children instructed in the Roman              itably read to keep up with devel-        Rome, let it still be heard that we
Catholic Church. This restriction             opments in the world of religion.         are saved alone by grace through
has been removed.                             There are many indications that the       faith. Let it be clearly stated that
   But let us not forget, we still            one-world church is evolving.             we hold to one infallible and. in-
have a controversy with Rome.                 Rome will likely have a prominent         spired Word: Holy Scripture. Only
Other articles in this issue surely           place in that antichristian establish-    then will the church prosper under
show that clearly. Rome has not               ment. It is imperative, therefore, to     the blessings of our God. 0
changed with respect to its teach-            know what is taking place.
ing on the mass nor on "transub-                Secondly, there must be continu-
stantiation." Rome still recognizes           ing instruction of and warning to
the Pope as the head of the church            our children and young people.
and the infallible teacher in all mat-        They must never be left with the
ters of faith and morals. Rome still          impression that the battle against
holds that the decrees of the church          Rome is won. They must not be-
councils are binding and equal to             lieve that there are no longer many
Scripture in authority. Rome insists          major problems with Rome. But             Thesis 32. Those who believe
on the "immaculate conception" of             they too must learn of Rome's er-
the Virgin Mary and her bodily "as-           rors. They must be reminded that          that they can be certain of
sumption" into heaven. Rome con-              there are to be no alliances with         their salvation because they
tinues to teach its. idea of "purga-          those who have "another gospel."          have indulgence letters will
tory." The basic errors of Rome re-           Even though Rome has lifted some          be eternally damned, to-
main indeed.                                  restrictions on marriage require-
  How are we to deal with this                ments, still a marriage in which          gether with their teachers.
controversy today? We can not ap-             each partner will worship in a dif-
prove the tactics of an Ian Paisley           ferent way is simply intolerable.         Thesis 36. Any truly re-
and his denomination. These raise             Even unbelievers will admit that.         pentant Christian has a right
a great hew and cry against the er-           How can a person allow his chil-
rors of Rome and popery (though               dren to be taught by Rome? How            to full remission of penalty
they themselves do not hold to all            can one have these children view          and guilt, even without in-
of the doctrines of Calvinism). If            the Pope as infallible in matters of      dulgence letters.
one pickets those who walk in er-             morals and doctrine? How can
ror, as Paisley's followers like to do,       there~be  unity in a marriage where
where would this stop? Why                    there is not oneness of faith?
choose this one error of Romanism               Finally, the church must continue
- when the world is filled with all           to expose the errors of Rome. That
kinds of errors? The calling of the           must be done without compromise.

42 I The Standard Bearer I October 15,199O


                                          The Reformed Doctrine
                                          of Salvation by Grace
                                          Versus Rome's
Rev. Charles Terps tra                    Salvation by Work

  While we Reformed Christians            ing of meritorious works. To un-             Against this very first step in
differ with Rome on many key doc-         derstand how Rome arrives at this         Rome's error the Reformed faith
trines, none perhaps is more crucial      erroneous position we must see            stands in sharp contrast. Rome's
than the doctrine of salvation. This      that it is rooted first of all in her     teaching on the Fall and its effects                 '
is in the nature of the case, for the     doctrine of original sin. Rome            on man is nothing but a denial of
doctrine of salvation lies at the core    teaches that Adam was created             the biblical doctrine of original sin.
of the gospel. No question is more        with a free will which is inherent to     The Scriptures are clear that
vital than, How is man delivered          his nature and an original righ-          Adam's Fall brought on himself
from his sin and death? None of           teousness which is a specially            and on all men not only guilt but
our differences with Rome is minor        added gift not inherent to his na-        also death, death which is a total
and this applies as well to our dif-      ture. This extra gift is sanctifying      corruption of man's nature (Ram.
ference over how man is saved.            grace, i.e., grace that enables him to    5:12). Jesus said that he who is
  At bottom there are only two            make himself pleasing to God and          born of the flesh is flesh (Jn. 3:6),
possible positions on the doctrine        to earn his favor. When Adam fell         meaning that the natural man is de-
of salvation: either the sinner is        into sin and received the sentence        praved in heart, mind, and will.
saved by God alone or the sinner is       of death, all that happened accord-       And the apostle Paul declared that
saved by himself. Rome teaches            ing to Rome is that he lost that spe-     "the carnal mind is enmity against
(and practices!) the latter, and with     cial gift of sanctifying grace. His       God: for it is not subject to the law
this we take issue. If the Reformed       nature did not become wicked and          of God,-neither indeed can be"
faith stands for anything, it stands      depraved; he did not lose his pow-        (Rom. 8:7). Man is a spiritual
for God's sovereign work of grace         ers of free will by which he is able      corpse, dead in trespasses and sins
in the salvation of sinful man. It is     to choose the good. Man simply            (Eph. 2:l). Consequently, the sin-
this controversy with Rome with           lost that supernatural ability to         ner is so corrupt that he is "wholly
which this article is concerned.          please God and merit His favor.           incapable of doing any good and
  When one has stripped away all            It should be plain that this doc-       inclined to all wickedness" (Heid.
of Rome's double talk and decep-          trine of original sin does not leave      Cat., LD III, Q&A 8); he is "utterly
tive language, he finds that Rome         man in such a serious and desper-         indisposed, disabled, and made op-
makes salvation a joint, cooperative      ate state, in absolute need of God's      posite to all good, and wholly in-
venture between God and man,              saving grace. To be sure, Rome says       clined to all evil" (West. Conf.,
with man being the determinative          that fallen man cannot redeem him-        Chapt. VI, Sect. IV).
party. Man is saved by the exercise       self and says that he needs God's            because of this truth of total de-
of his own free will and by the do-       grace; but what she means is that         pravity, the Reformed faith posits
                                          man cannot do it alone and that           over against Rome that the natural
                                          Gods grace helps man save him-            man is in no position and has no
                                          self. In accordance with this, Rome       ability to contribute to his salva-
                                          teaches that the natural man has a        tion. He has no power to prepare
                                          certain ability to do the will of God     himself to receive salvation from
                                          and to merit His favor. In this way       the Lord; he cannot cooperate with
Rev. T stra is pastor of the Profes-      the sinner can prepare himself to re-     God in the work of'salvation; and
fanf R                                    ceive and merit God's grace so that       he has no ability to do anything
       7omed Church of South Hol-
land, Illinois.                           his salvation can become a reality.       good to merit the grace and salva-

                                                                                     October  15,199O   I The Standard Bearer  /  415


tion of God. The testimony of the             glory (glorification). Hence, ac-          In the third place, Rome's doc-
Word of God is clear and condemn-             cording to Rome salvation is a joint     trine of salvation by works is
ing: "There is none righteous, no,            venture between man and God, but         rooted in her whole system. of meri-
not one: There is none that under-            with man having the key role. Man        torious good works for those who
standeth, there is none that seeketh          saves himself with God's help.           have been baptized into the church.
after God. . . . There is none that             The Reformed faith finds Rome's        She has cleverly but deceptively
doeth good, no, not one" (Rom.                strange mixture of divine grace and      devised a system of human works
3:10-12).  "So then they that are in          human merit contrary to the Word         by which one earns his salvation.
the flesh cannot please God" (Rom.            of God and repulsive to the spiri-       We have in mind especially
8:B).                                         tual mind. To Rome we say, "Make         penance and indulgences. IRome
   Man's great need therefore, ac-            up your mind! Is man saved by            teaches that the sins which bap-
cording to the Reformed faith, is             grace or by works?" The Scriptures       tized members commit malce them
the sovereign grace of God. If man            assert that grace and works are mu-      guilty before God and bring on
is to be saved, God must work, and            tually exclusive: "And if by grace,      them temporal punishments from
God alone. God must bestow His                then is it no more of works: other-      God, including a period of ,time in
grace of regeneration, raising the            wise grace is no more grace. But if      the cleansing fires of purgatory af-
sinner from death unto life; God              it be of works, then is it no more       ter death. These sins must be satis-
must bestow His grace of the effica-          grace: otherwise work is no more         fied for, therefore, and this is what
cious calling, drawing the sinner             work" (Ram. 11:6). At the same           the sacrament of penance does.
out of darkness into His marvelous            time they declare that it is by grace    Penance is the Romish sacrament in
light; God must bestow His grace              and not by works: "For by grace          which the baptized person's sins
of saving faith, enabling the sinner          are ye saved through faith; and that     are forgiven by the priest on the ba-
to see and believe; God must be-              not of yourselves: it is the gift of     sis of the treasury of the combined
stow His grace of justification,              God. Not of works, lest any man          merits of Christ and the saints
granting the sinner complete par-             should boast. For we are his work-       when the sins are confessed. But in
don of his sins; God must bestow              manship, created in Christ Jesus..."     almost every case, the pena:nce
His grace of sanctification, making           (Eph. 2:8-10).  "Not by works of         given by the priest does not: fully
the sinner holy so that he flees sin          righteousness which we have done,        satisfy for one's sins nor tak:e away
and walks in all good works; God              but according to his mercy he            the temporal punishment, and
must bestow His grace of preserva-            saved us, by the washing of regen-       therefore works of penance are pre-
tion, causing the sinner to endure            eration, and renewing of the Holy        scribed: prayers, fastings, works of
to the end in faith and holiness;             Ghost" (Titus 3:5X                       mercy, giving of alms, the patient
and God must bestow His grace of                The Reformed doctrine that sal-        bearing of sufferings, and the ob-
glorification, giving the sinner his          vation is of God's sovereign grace       taining of indulgences.
final reward, everlasting life in             alone is given its greatest support        An indulgence is the bestowal of
heavenly glory. This is what God              from the biblical doctrine of pre-       limited periods of release from
does according to the Scriptures.             destination. The Bible teaches that      punishment in purgatory by the
Salvation is of the Lord alone.               God's grace is so sovereign because      doing of certain church-determined
   Rome's doctrine of salvation by            it is a grace which God determined       works, including payment of
works is rooted in the second place           to bestow on certain persons in His      money (e.g., paying for masses for
in her teaching on the sacrament of           eternal decree of election, even be-     the dead). We may recall from our
baptism. The Roman Catholic                   fore they were born and had done         knowledge of church history that
Church teaches that when the sin-             good or evil (cf. Rom. 9:10-12).         indulgences were prevalent and
ner receives the sacrament of bap-            Ephesians 1:3,4 proclaims that the       much abused during the time of
tism, his original sin is taken away          saved children of God have re-           the Reformation. But Rome has
and his soul is regenerated. That is,         ceived all the spiritual blessings of    never retracted her doctrines and
through baptism the sinner's guilt            salvation in Christ because God          practices concerning penances and
in Adam is cancelled and he is re-            chose them in Christ before the          indulgences. The Second Vatican
stored to the state of original righ-         foundation of the world. II Xmo-         Council (1963-65) indeed corrected
teousness by being given the sanc-            thy 1:9 heralds the truth that God       certain abuses by making new
tifying grace which Adam lost in              "hath saved us, and called us with       rules, but Rome upheld the whole
paradise. And with this gift of               an holy calling, not according to        system of salvation by meritorious
sanctifying grace, Rome teaches               our works, but according to his          works.
that man is now in a position of              own purpose and grace, which was           With this teaching too the Re-
meriting an increase of grace and             given us in Christ Jesus before the      formed faith has a controversy with
everlasting life. In other words, af-         world began." God's uncondi-             Rome. The Word of God em:phati-
ter he has received the grace of God          tional election of some men, there-      tally denies that man can merit
in baptism, he still has to earn his          fore, rules out salvation by works       anything with God. The good
salvation, including both a right             and instead grounds it in sovereign      works the saved sinner does, are
standing with God (justification)             grace alone. On this pillar the Re-      simply his duty before God; there is
and an esteemed place in heavenly             formed faith stands.                     no merit in them whatsoever. But

44 I The Standard Bearer I October 15,199O


besides that, the best works the            But as children of the Reforma-         of the doctrines of sovereign grace.
saved sinner does are all tainted by      tion we are equally insistent and         For this we are thankful to God, not
sin and imperfection. To be sure,         serious about defending and main-         only because they have seen the
the Reformed faith teaches that the       taining the doctrine of salvation by      truth, but also because they have
saved sinner is able to do good           sovereign grace alone. We will not        contributed greatly to the defense
works, that God regards these             compromise with Rome on this              of the true doctrine of salvation.
works as good, and that He even           point; nor may we. For at stake is        We call on these members to use
rewards them - but only on the            the truth of our God and the glory        their gifts and experience for the
basis of Christ's merits and as a         of His name. As long as Rome per-         conversion of other Roman
fruit of God's own grace. Rome's          sists in this error, as well as in her    Catholics caught in the snare of the
system of meritorious good works          others, we as Reformed believers          error of salvation by human works.
is nothing but a denial of Christ's       refuse to join ecumenical hands             And we ourselves earnestly call
all-sufficient sacrifice and saving       with her. Our church fathers were         those in the Church of Rome to ex-
merits, and that is intolerable blas-     willing to die for these truths, and      amine and evaluate their church's
phemy. Christ is our complete Sav-        many of them did. We are also             teachings on the doctrine of salva-
ior and we find all our salvation in      willing, if need be.                      tion. Search the Scriptures and lis-
Him.                                        Let us end on a positive note.          ten to what the Lord of salvation
  Rome is insistent and serious           Many former members of the Ro-            Himself says about the way of de-
about her position on salvation by        man Catholic Church have been             liverance. May the Spirit of truth
the works of man. That is evident         converted to the Reformed faith           work in the hearts of many others
from her official declarations. In        and have joined Reformed                  to bring them to the knowledge of
the Decrees and Canons of the             churches, including our own               the truth of Gods sovereign
Council of Trent (1545-15631,  which      Protestant Reformed Churches, be-         grace. 0
was Rome's response to the Refor-         cause they were led to a conviction
mation, Rome pronounced anathe-
mas (curses) on the Reformers who
held to salvation by sovereign
grace alone. For example, in her
Canons on Justification, Rome said,
`Whosoever shall say that the
freewill of man, moved and excited
by God, does not at all cooperate                                     Report of
with God..., that thus he may dis-
pose and prepare himself for ob-
taining the grace of justification,-                                 Classis West
. ..let him be anathema" (Art. IV).
And in Article XXX11 she said,
`Whosoever shall say that the good
works of a justified man are in such
a sense the gifts of God, that they          Classis West met on Wednesday          Three protests from members of
are not good merits of the justified      September 5,199O in South Hol-            the Pella, Iowa congregation
man himself, or that a justified man      land, IL. Classis met in two ses-         against their Consistory were re-
by good works...does not truly            sions, a full morning session and a       turned on the grounds of Article 30
merit increase of grace, eternal life,    brief afternoon session, finishing        of the Church Order.
and the actual attainment of eternal      all its business at about 1:OO PM.           The next meeting of Classis West
life..., together with increase of        Rev. R. Hanko served as President         will be in Randolph, Wisconsin, on
glory, let him be anathema" (cf. J.       of the meeting.                           March 6,1991.  q
Calvin's Selected Works, Vol. 3              Most of the business of Classis                                    Rev. R. Hanko
["Tracts"] for all the Canons and         was routine. Classical appoint-                                         Stated Clerk
Decrees of the Council of Trent           ments were granted to the congre-
along with Calvin's rebuttals).           gations of Hope, Isabel, South
  That the Roman Catholic Church          Dakota, and Randolph, Wisconsin.
is serious about her views is also
evident from her outright opposi-
tion to and persecution of Protes-
tant evangelicals  and Reformed
missionaries who preach against              Thesis 54. Injury is done the Word of God when, in the
Rome and for the doctrine of grace           same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted
in various parts of the world, for
example, in South America and the            to indulgences than to the Word.
Philippines.

                                                                                     October  15,199O   I The Standard Bearer  I 45


                                             Book Reviews

GOD AND POLITICS: FOTJR                      tians, to think about what implica-       sphere of earthly life in obedience
VIEWS ON THE REFORMATION                     tions Christ's lordship held for civil    to the will of the Lord Christ -
OF CIVIL GOVERNMENT, Gary                    government." The intention of the         law! - as His will is revealed in
Scott Smith, Editor. Phillipsburg,           sponsors was "to clarify areas of         Scripture is the clear, compelling,
New Jersey: Presbyterian and Re-             agreement and divergence among            calling of the gospel. That believ-
formed Publishing Company 1989.              Reformed Christians in order to           ers must transform the United
300 pages, $13.95, (paper). (Re-             achieve consensus where possible          States of America, or any nation,
viewed by the Editor.)                       and, where not possible, to pro-          into a kingdom of Christ is al com-
   The four views of civil govem-            mote further discussion of differ-        mandment of men. The notion is
ment and its duty, all held and ad-          ences." The book indicates that the       replete with errors, of which it is
vocated by Reformed men, are                 conference served this worthy pur-        not the least that the kingdo:m  of
theonomy; principled pluralism;              pose well.                                God realized in the blood of the
Christian America; and national                The various positions that claim        Crucified and coming in the
confessionalism. Greg L. Bahnsen             to be the Reformed view of civil          preaching of the gospel is an
presents the case for the theonomic          government are clearly described          earthly, carnal kingdom.
position. Gordon J. Spykman ar-              and ably defended. The criticisms            Of particular interest to me is the
gues for the position of pluralism.          leveled by the proponents of the          theonomic view of Greg L.
Harold O.J. Brown contends for the           other views serve to clarify the dif-     Bahnsen, the most biblical, rea-
Christian America position. And              ferences and to highlight the prob-       soned, moderate, and therefiore
William Edgar defends the view of            lem areas of each view. This is a         persuasive of the major champions
a national confession. Each sets             very useful, and usually very inter-      of theonomy, or "Christian Recon-
forth a prominent view in Re-                esting, work on Reformed Chris-           struction." Excellent as his descrip-
formed circles today as to what the          tianity's doctrine of the state.          tion of the state's limited mandate
Reformed faith requires the U.S.               If I were asked, however, which         is on pages 44,45, positively and
government to be and to do. The              of the four views represents the          negatively, his insistence tha.t the
subject is the intriguing and contro-        biblical, and therefore Reformed          state in the New Testament must
versial issue of the Reformed view           doctrine of the state, my answer          enforce the civil and judicial laws
of civil government. What makes              would be, `None of the above." A          binding on Israel in the Old Testa-
the book especially interesting, and         pervasive weakness of all four            ment shuts him up to the position
clear as regards the differences             views is the failure to determine         that the state must punish all idola-
among these four views, is that the          the nature of the state and its call-     try with death. Not only all unbe-
controversy is made an integral              ing from Christ, the King of kings,       lievers and heathen worshipers of
part of the content. Each of the first       by careful exegesis of the New Tes-       other gods besides the God and Fa-
four chapters consists of the pre-           tamen  t passages on civil govern-        ther of Jesus Christ, but also all
sentation of one of the four views,          ment, especially Matthew 22:15-22;        false Christians, who corrupt the
followed by response from the                Romans 13:1-7;  and I Peter 2:13-17.      pure worship of God, must be
spokesmen for the other three posi-          There is in addition a fundamental        judged and executed by the state.
tions. The fifth and concluding              assumption, shared by all the writ-       Does Dr. Bahnsen believe that God
chapter contains responses by the            ers, that it is the calling of Chris-     gives this mandate to the state in
advocates of the various positions           tians to transform this world, or to      the New Testament? Does tlhe state
to the criticisms raised by the oth-         reclaim every sphere of life for the      have this authority and compe-
ers.                                         King, or to re-lay the biblical foun-     tency? I know that the Belgic Con:
  The book is the fruit of a "Con-           dations on which our society is           fession (in the original wording of
sultation on the Biblical Role of            based. For this, of course, Chris-        Article 36) and the Westminster
Civil Government" held at Geneva             tians must somehow get hold of the        Confession (in Chapter 23) go in
College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylva-          mighty engine of the state, in order      this direction. But does the !3crip'
nia in 1987. The purpose of the              to re-tool it into an instrument that     ture permit the state so to intrude
conference was "to challenge the             will effect this transformation of so-    itself in the business and warfare of
evangelical Christian community,             ciety and its life. That every be-        the church; so to undertake the de-
and especially Reformed Chris-               liever must live and work in every        fense of the gospel and the over-

46 / The Standard Bearer I October X,1990


throw of false doctrine and idola-          This is a new, thorough, critical         Christ can even entertain the possi-
trous worship; and so really to          examination of Masonry (also                 bility of allowing Masons to be
make of the steel sword the spiri-       known as Freemasonry or the Ma-              members. No believer may main-
tual sword of the heavenly king-         sonic Lodge). From its own                   tain his membership in a church
dom?                                     sources, the authors expose Ma-              that approves and accepts mem-
  In the interests of his earthly,       sonry as an idolatrous, blasphe- .           bers of the Masonic Lodge. Under
postmillennial kingdom, Bahnsen          mous, Christ-denying, false reli-            the provisions of Article 61 of the
denies that the kingdom of Christ        gion.                                        Church Order of Dordt ("None 1
is identical with the church. How           Mason y turns men away from               shall be admitted to the Lord's
does he reconcile this denial with       Christ in at least five ways. (1) Ma-        Supper except those who...have
the teaching of the Heidelberg Cat-      son y deliberately deletes the name of       made a confession of the Reformed
echism in Lord's Days 31 and 48          Christ from its prayers and Scripture        religion, besides being reputed to
that the kingdom and the church          quotations; (2) Mason y requires a           be of a godly walk...."), the Protes-
are identical? How does he harmo-        Christian to disobey Christ by of-i-         tant Reformed Churches must con-
nize his denial with the confession      cially prohibiting all discussion of         tinue to exclude impenitent Ma-
of his own creed, the Westminster        Christ from Lodge activities; (3) Ma-        sons from membership in the
Confession, in Chapter 25: `The          son y blasphemously offers  the titles       churches as those who are outside
visible church...is the kingdom of       and offices of Christ to unbelievers; (4)    the Kingdom of Christ.
the Lord Jesus Christ..."?  Cl           Mason y denies the deity of Christ;             The book is clear, concise, and
                                         and  (5) Mason y purposely downplays         well-structured. It is written for
THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF                   the unique role of Christ as Savior,        the layman. It will serve well the
THE MASONIC LODGE: A                     e.g., by teaching that the Christian         high-school student doing research
CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE, by                message of divine redemption is              on Masonry.
John Ankerberg and John Weldon.          merely a revival of earlier pagan sto-         $7.95 is a reasonable price.  q
Chicago: Moody Press, 1989,199O.         ries (p. 1261.
333 pages. Quality Paperback.               It is incredible that any institu-
$7.95. (Reviewed by the Editor.)         tion that claims to be a church of




                                         N e w s ,   F r o m
ML Benjamin Wigger                       Our Churches

CONGREGATIONAL NEWS:                     DENOMINATION ACTIVITIES:                       Rev. J. Kortering declined the call
  On a rainy Friday night and a             The annual meeting of the East-           he had received to serve as mis-
cool, windy Saturday in September,       ern League of Men's and Ladies'              sionary to Lame, Northern Ireland.
16 fathers, along with their sons,       Societies met September 18 at                  The congregation of our Ran-
took part in what is hoped will be-      Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids.               dolph, WI PRC extended a call to
come an annual Father/Son                Rev. Key treated the subject of the          Rev. R. Cammenga to serve as their
overnight fishing trip for members       place of the deaconesses in the              pastor. Also on the trio with Rev.
of the Hudsonville PRC. As you           church.                                      Cammenga were Rev. M. DeVries
might have guessed, the weather             The annual R.F.P.A meeting was            and R. Moore.
was not ideal, but a good-sized fire     held September 20 at the Southwest             And finally, the congregation of
burning all night helped take the        PRC in Grandville, MI. Prof. H.              our Hope PRC in Isabel, SD met a:f-
chill out of the air.                    Hanko spoke on the subject "Our              ter their afternoon services,
  A few fish were even caught.           Raised Banner."                              September 23, and called Rev. M.
                                         NEWS CONCERNING                              DeVries  to serve as their pastor
                                         MINISTERIAL CALLS:                           from a trio which also included the
                                            Rev. S. Key declined the call he          Revs. Ron Hanko and Barry Grit-
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-    was considering to serve as mis-             ters. 0
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,     sionary to Venice, FL.
Michigan.

                                                                                       October 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer / 47


                                                                                                                                                                 SECOND CILASS
                                                                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at
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 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                             "Abide in Me,
   The Council of the Southeast                          The Adult Bible Class of Faith
 Protestant Reformed Church ex-                       PRC wishes to extend its heartfelt                                                                      and I in You"'
tends Christian sympathy to Elder                     sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit
 Gerald J. DeVries  and his family in                 VanDenTop in the death of his fa-                                                          0 Saviour, who has loved so much,
the deaths of his father, MR. JOHN                    ther, MR. THOMAS VANDEN TOP.                                                               Shame covers me that ever such
 DEVRIES, and his stepson, MR.                           May they be comforted by the                                                            A poor return I make to Thee
 KEVIN BOS.                                           words of our Lord in John 11:25,  "II                                                      For all Thy wondrous grace to me.
   "But thanks be to God; which                       am the resurrection and the life. He                                                       Upon my poor cold heart now
giveth us the victory through our                     that believeth in me, though he                                                               shine;
 Lord Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 15:7).                    were dead, yet shall he live."                                                             Inspire me with a warmth divine;
 Rev. S. Key, President                               Rev. Kenneth Koole, President                                                              Let no cloud ever come between
 C. Pastoor, Clerk                                    Sandy Tinklenberg, Secretary                                                               Me and Thy countenance's sheen.
                                                                                                                                                 Thy glorious beauty now d:isplay,
 NOTICE!!!                                            RESOLUTION OF SYMPjITHY                                                     _              And win my raptured soul away
   Grace Uncommon - A Protes-                            The Consistory of Faith Protes-  :                                                      From everything, however fair,
tant Reformed Look at the Doctrine                    tant Reformed Church extends her `.                                                        That would from truth to Tlhee
of Common Grace by Rev. Barry                         Christian sympathy to Elder Gerrit                                                           ensnare.
Gritters                                              VanDenTop in the death of his fa-                                                1         Oh, let me in Thy presence `bask;
   This booklet is the substance of                   ther, MR. THOMAS VANDEN TOP.                                                               For sense of nearness, Lord,, I ask;
a presentation given at the request                      May the Lord comfort th.e family                                                        This best shall drive away my foes,
of a local Men's Society. Although                    in the knowledge that "now is Christ                                                       Which spoil my peace, and cause
this booklet does not give an ana-                    risen from the dead, and become                                                              my woes.
lytical treatment of the "three points                the firstfruits of them that slept" (I                                                     The fears, the doubts, the
of Common Grace," it is a late 20th                   Corinthians 15:20).                                                                          faithlessness,
century consideration of that doc-                    Rev. Kenneth Koole, President                                                              The coward failing to confess
trine as the author sees it doing                     Bill Huber, Vice-Clerk                                                                     Thy Name, or as good soldier fight
damage especially to three vital                                                                                                                 In truth's great battle for the right.
doctrines of the Reformed faith.                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                                         - SB, March I,2932
   For a free copy, write to:                            The Martha Society of the Doon
       The Evangelism Society                         Protestant Reformed Church
            Byron Center PRC                          wishes to extend sincere sympathy
              1945 84th St.                           to Mr. and Mrs. Jowan VanOort and
               P.O. Box 71                            family in the loss of their mother
      Byron Center, Ml 49315.                         and grandmother, MARRIETTA
                                                      VAN OORT.
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                      May they continue to experience
   On August 29, our parents, MR.                     the Lord's sustaining grace and the
and MRS. JAKE REICHERT, cele-                         comfort of His Word in Psalm 23:
brated their 50th wedding anniver-                    "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
s a r y .                                             not want.... Yea, though I walk
   We thank God that He has given                     through the valley of the shadow of
them to us for these many years. It                   death, I will fear no evil: for thou art
is our prayer that our Heavenly Fa-                   with me; thy rod and thy staff they
ther will continue to guide them in                   comfort me."
their remaining years together.                       Rev. R. Dykstra, President
   "The Lord shall bless thee out of                  Gert Burgers, Secretary
Zion; and thou shalt see the good
of Jerusalem all thy life" (Ps.
l28:5).               I' .
Jerrold and Renita Reichert and family           -
                      Hope Church, Isabel, SD




48 I The  Standard Bearer I October 15,199O


