A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
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Vol. 67, No. 6
December 15,199O


Contents                                                                                               THE
                                                           December 15, 1990                      STANDARD
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema
   RETURNING TO NAZARETH                                                                              BELZRER
                                                                                                   /SSN  0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July,
   THE APPROACH TO COVENANT CHILDREN (4)                                                   125    and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
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The Reader Asks                                                                                   EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
   CONCERNING LAYING ON OF HANDS                                                           129    Editor: Prof. David  1. Engelsma
                                                                                                  Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                  Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema            .
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                             DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
   THE PLEASURE OF GOD                                                                     130    Arie  denHartog,  Rev, Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                                  Critters, Rev. Carl Haak, Prof. Herman  Hanko,
Special Article - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                          Rev. John  Heys,  Rev. Marvin Kamps, Rev. Kenneth
                                                                                                  Kc&e, Rev. Jason Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr.
   WHAT`S HAPPENING AT 4949 IVANREST?                                                      132    James Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.
                                                                                                  Marybeth  Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
                                                                                                  Charles Terpstra, Rev.  Gise   VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald
When Thou Sittest  in Thine House - Rev. Kenneth Koole                                            VanOverloop,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard
   RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS CHILDREN (2)                                                   134    Woudenberg
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   THE CRECHE AND THE CONSTITUTION:                                                               Crandville,  MI 49418          Hudsonville, MI 49426
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   CAN WE TALK?                                                                                   Reader Asks Department are welcome. Contribu-
   CAN WE LISTEN TO EACH OTHER?                                                            138    tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
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Search the Scriptures - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren                                                     the fifteenth of the month. All communications
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   PRESSING ON TO PERFECTION                                                               140    editorial office.
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In This Issue...                                                                                  The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                  Don Doezema                c/o  Protestant Reformed
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  HOW did it ha pen that Jesus was born in Bethlehem? It was occasioned by an imperial            Grand Rapids, Ml           B. Van Herk
decree; for, as CaP-
                  vm put it, what was Caesar Augustus but "God's secret herald, sum-                49516                    66 Fraser St.
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Nazarene. Rev. Slopsema in this issue addresses the "why" of G                                    as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
fairs of the Jewish nation that Joseph and Mary settled, not again in Bethlehem, on their re-     delayed delivery. Include your Zip Code.
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turn from Egypt, but in Nazareth of Galilee.                                                      The Standard Bearer does not accept commercial
  Jesus' being a Nazarene, says Rev. Slo sema, contributed significantly to His rejection.        advertising of any kind. Announcements of church
A Christ born of a commoner who haileBfrom Nazareth did not square at all with the                and school events, anniversaries, obituaries, and
popular conce tion of the nature of the promised Messiah.                                         sympathy resolutions will be placed for a  4i3.00
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Christmas caroling the order of the day? Am them not those even who  press for the right          Deadline for announcements is the 1st and the
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122 / The Standard Bearer / December 15,199O


                                         R e t u r n i n g   t o
Meditation                               N a z a r e t h
Rev. James Siopsema


  But when Herod was dead,                 Providentially God led them to           child back to the land of Israel,
behold, an angel of the Lord ap-         the city of Nazareth in Galilee so         their intention was to return to
peareth in a dream to Joseph in          that the prophets might be fulfilled.      Bethlehem.
                                           For being raised in Nazareth Je-            However, when Joseph heard
QYPf.                                    sus would be called a Nazarene.            that Archelaus reigned in the plaice
   Saying, Arise, and fake the           And this would contribute signifi-         of his father, Herod, he was afraid
young child and his mother, and          cantly to His rejection by the peo-        to proceed to Bethlehem. Herod's
go into the land of Israel: for          ple in fulfillment of the prophets.        domain was divided, after his
                                                   *  * *  *  *  *  *
they are dead which sought the                                                      death, among his three sons.
young child's life.                        Herod died.                              Judea,  Samaria,  and Idumea were
                                           How long this was after Joseph           taken over by his son Archelaus.
  And he arose, and took the             and Mary were in Egypt with the            And Archelaus was as great a mon-
young child and his mother, and          baby Jesus we do not know. Evi-            ster as his father had been. Almost
came into fhe land oflsrael.             dently not very long, for we learn         immediately after assuming power
  But when he heard that                 from secular records that Herod            he slaughtered 3,000 Jewish pil-
Archelaus did reign in Judea in          died shortly after Jesus' birth. We        grims in the Temple on the feast of
the room of his father Herod, he         also learn that he died a most horri-      the Passover in retaliation for a riot
                                         ble death of many diseases, the re-        that had broken out in Jerusalem~.
was afraid to go thither:                sult of many years of wanton liv-          So cruel did he become that after
notwithstanding, being warned            ing.                                       six short years he was dethroned.
of God in a dream, he turned               After Herod's death the angel of         by Caesar Augustus and banished
aside into the parts of Galilee:         the Lord appeared to Joseph in a           to Gaul. Small wonder, then, that
  And he came and dwelt in a             dream with instructions to take the        when Joseph heard that Archelaus
                                         young child and his mother to the          reigned in the place of his father
city called Nazareth: that it            land of Israel. The reason stated for      Herod, he hesitated to return to
might be fulfilled which was             this instruction was that those who        Bethlehem. This fear was also con-
spoken by the prophets, he shall         sought the young chikl's  life were        firmed by God, who warned
be called a, Nazarene.                   now dead. It would be safe to re-          Joseph in a dream.
                   Matthew 2:19-23       turn to the land of Israel. Another           Hence, Joseph and Mary trav-
                                         reason is implied. The Christ child        eled into Galilee and made their
                                         in Joseph and Mary's care was the          home in the little city of Nazareth.
  Having been warned by God in a         future king of Israel. He must not,           This was only logical. Galilee
dream, Joseph and Mary had taken         therefore, be reared in Egypt. He          was ruled by the more reasonabkz
the baby Jesus from Bethlehem into       must return to His own land, the           and stable Antipas (another son of
Egypt to escape Herod, who sought        land of Israel.                            Herod). The baby Jesus would be
the baby Jesus' life.                      It was Joseph's original intent to       safe in Galilee. Besides, Nazareth1
  But now in Egypt Joseph re-            return to Bethlehem. Bethlehem             was Joseph and Mary's home town.
ceived another revelation of God.        had become their home. Before the             And so it was that God provi-
Herod was dead. Joseph and Mary          baby Jesus had been born, Mary             dentially led Joseph and Mary with
must return with the Christ child to     had accompanied Joseph to Bethle-          the Christ child to Nazareth.
                                                                                              *****x-z+
the land of Israel.                      hem to pay his taxes. After the
                                         baby was born, they had stayed in             All this was done that prophecy
                                         Bethlehem. Their purpose was evi-          might be fulfilled.
Rev. Slopserna  is pastor                dently to fulfill the prophecy of             For Joseph and Mary with the
                              of Hope
Protestant Reformed Church in            Micah 5:2 that the Christ would            child came and dwelt in a city
Walker, Michigan.                        come out of Bethlehem. Hence, as           called Nazareth: that it might be
                                         Joseph led his wife and the Christ         fulfilled which was spoken by the
                                                                                  December 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer / 123


prophets, He shall be called a                  grief: and we hid as it were our          "Shall Christ come out of Galilee?"
Nazarene.                                       &es from him; he was despised,            (John 741).
  Were we to look in the Old Testa-             and we esteemed him not."                    Besides being from the region of
ment Scriptures for a passage                     In the same vein did other of the       Galilee, Jesus was also from the
prophesying that Jesus would be                 Old Testament prophets speak.             town of Nazareth. It was conn-
called a Nazarene, we would look                   These prophecies were all ful-         monly accepted that nothing good
in vain.                                        filled in the life of Jesus.              came out of Nazareth. In fact one
   Nor need we look for such a pas-               It started at His birth. There was      of Jesus' own disciples, Nathanael,
sage.                                           no room for Him in the inn of Beth-       initially stumbled over this very
   For notice, first, that Matthew              lehem, so that He was born in a           fact. When told by his brother
speaks not of one prophet but of                lowly cattle stall.                       Philip that they had found the
the prophets (plural). Hence, we                  During His public ministry the          Christ, and that He was Jesu:s of
must not look for a quote from one              multitudes initially embraced Him         Nazareth, Nathanael responded,
prophet but for what many                       enthusiastically. They even sought        "Can there any good thing come
prophets spoke.                                 to make Him their king. But               out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46X
   Secondly, there is a matter of               quickly their support for Him                Hence, that the word of the Old
translation. The Ring James Ver-                eroded: first in Galilee, then in         Testament prophets might be ful-
sion has, "that it might be fulfilled           Judea. It all climaxed in His cruci-      filled, God providentially directed
which was spoken by the prophets,               fixion, a crucifixion demanded by         Joseph and Mary to Nazareth. For
he shall be called a Nazarene."                 His own people.                           then Jesus would be called a
This suggests that Matthew is quot-               He came to His own; and His             Nazarene.
ing a number of prophets. There is,             own received Him not!                                 *******
however, another way to translate                 Of importance is the reason for            How significant this rejection of
this passage: "that it might be ful-            this rejection of Jesus by the people.    Jesus is for our salvation!
filled which was spoken by the                  His own rejected Him because He              First of all, Jesus' rejection led
prophets, for he shall be called a              was not the kind of Savior they had       Him to the cross, where He suf-
Nazarene." This suggests that the               envisioned. They were looking for         fered the wrath of God as payment
prophets of old had prophesied                  an earthly king and savior, who           for our sins and obtained oulr salva-
something about the Christ. And                 would restore Israel to the glory         tion.
this prophecy would now be ful-                 days of David and Solomon. Ini-              Secondly, His rejection by His
filled, because, moving to                      tially the crowds perceived Jesus to      own became the occasion for God
Nazareth, Jesus would be called a               be this kind of savior. They there-       to bring salvation to the nations.
Nazarene. If you will, that Jesus               fore followed Him enthusiastically.       Up until this point in history salva-
would be called a Nazarene, con-                However, Jesus is a heavenly Ring.        tion was limited to the Jewislh na-
tributed significantly to the fulfill-          He came to establish a heavenly           tion. But upon their rejection of the
ment of what the Old Testament                  kingdom in which His people find          Savior, God has gone to the nations
spoke.                                          salvation from their sins. In this        with His salvation and saves the
  What did the Old Testament                    salvation the people had no inter-        world.
prophets speak?                                 est. And when they finally realized          Do you receive this Savior?
  They spoke of the rejection of the            what Jesus had come to do, they vi-          Remember, He is a Nazarene.
Christ on the part of the people.               olently repudiated Him.                      This points us very clearly to the
   David was such a prophet. In                   His being a Nazarene con-               fact that His salvation and king-
many of his psalms David de-                    tributed significantly towards this       dom are not earthly or material.
scribed events in his own life that,            rejection.                                They are strictly heavenly and spir-
in turn, pointed ahead to various                 In harmony with their vision the        itual.
events in the life of the Savior.               people were looking for a particu-           Many have stumbled over this
  David more than once spoke of                 lar kind of man as their savior: a        fact and rejected Him.
rejection. Listen to what David                 refined, educated man of rank that           Let us rather receive and em-
wrote in Psalm 22:6,7:  "But I am a             could not only stir up the people to      brace Him as the Savior of Giod! El
worm, and no man; a reproach of                 action but also have the social skills
men, and despised of the people.                to go in and out with the rulers of
All they that see me laugh me to                the world.
scorn . . . . II This describes an experi-        This Jesus was not.
ence in David's life; but it also is a            He was an uneducated peasant            Be comforted, 0 heart of mine,
prophecy of what would happen to                from the hill country of Galilee.                   God ever lives and loves.
the promised Christ.                            More than once the people stum-           Yea lives, and loves eternally,
  Others prophesied the same re-                bled over this fact. On one occa-                   As day by day He proves.
jection. There was Isaiah in chapter            sion, when Jesus was at the Temple,
53:3 of his prophecy, "He is de-                some claimed that He was the                                   - SB, April 15,193l
spised and rejected of men; a man               Christ. But others objected, saying,
of sorrows, and acquainted with

124 I The Standard Bearer I December 15`1990


Editorial

  From the teaching that covenant        No unbeliever has any right to               church encourages them to abst,ain
children are to be viewed as unre-       church membership in any sense               from the Supper because she re-
generate until they are converted        whatever. One who maintains                  gards them as unregenerated. Eiut
comes the practice of confession of      membership by professing a faith             baptism and the Lord's Supper lbe-
faith by the unconverted (cf. the        that he does not possess is a hyp-           long together. Baptism requires
December 1 issue of The Sfandard         ocrite. This is the clear teaching of        partaking of the Lord's Supper. Ar-
Bearer).  The result of this practice    the Belgic Confession in Article 29:         ticle 59 of the Reformed Church Or-
for a Reformed church is that it be-     `With respect to those who are               der of Dordt shows the relationship
comes full of adult members who          members of the church, they may              between the two sacraments in the
are unbelievers. By their confes-        be known by the marks of Chris-              case of those who are joined to the
sion of faith, these unbelievers en-     tians: namely, by faith...."                 church by baptism as adults:
joy a full membership in the con-          Baptized children who grow up                 AduIts are through baptism incor-
gregation. It is very well possible      unbelieving will ordinarily leave            porated into the Christian church, and
that these unbelieving members are       the church under the powerful, an-           are accepted as members of the church,
in the majority in the church. They      tithetical preaching of the gospel,          and are therefore obliged also to par-
freely acknowledge themselves to         which is an offense to those whom            take of the Lord's Supper, which fhey
be unconverted and unbelieving.          it does not savingly draw to Christ.         shall promise to do at their baptism.
The church recognizes them as un-        If one does not voluntarily leave               Implied is that baptized children
believing. But they hold member-         the church, but yet refuses to be-           are required to come to the Lord.`s
ship in the church.                      lieve on the Son of God, and there-          Table upon arriving at years of dis-
  What confusion!                        fore refuses also to confess Christ,         cretion in the way of confession of
  How can they be called to lead         he must be worked with by the el-            their faith.
holy and unblamable lives? How           ders in a disciplinary way. The re-             Things become even worse, if
can they even be expected to lead        sult of this patient labor will be ei-       this is possible, when two baptized,
godly lives since the corrupt tree       ther that he is converted or that he         confessing, but unconverted  me:m-
cannot bring forth good fruit (Matt.     is cut off. It is the official stand of      bers of the church marry, have a
7:18)? How can they be disciplined       the Reformed churches that one               child, and present the child for bap-
for even the most scandalous walk        who declares himself unbelieving             tism. Although they are, by the
since they are not disciplined for       and ungodly by confession and life           reckoning of the church and on
the worst sin of all: unbelief? Is it    must be excluded from member-                their own admission, umegener-
not all but certain that, as regards     ship in the Christian church (Heid.          ated and unbelieving, they are per-
the behavior of these members, the       Cat., Questions 82-85).                      mitted to have their child baptiz'ed.
church will encourage and enforce          When adult unbelievers are nev-            Rev. G.H. Kersten, theologian of the
an outward conformity to the law         ertheless accepted as members of             Reformed Congregations in The
of God, thus making Pharisees of         the congregation, and that by con-           Netherlands, writes, "Moreover
them since they have no love for         fession of faith, yet another inde-          children of graceless parents must
God in their heart as the root of        fensible practice gains currency in          also be baptized if they belong to
their external obedience?                the church. There is separation be-          the visible church" (Reformed Dog-
  But the fundamental question is        tween the two sacraments, baptism            matics,  1983, Vol. II, p. 510). The
this: How is it that these unbeliev-     and the Lord's Supper. Grown                 church allows unconverted persons
ers hold membership in the church        men and women abstain from the _             to answer the questions of the Re-
of Christ?                               Lord's Supper, although they have            formed form for baptism and ac-
  Membership in the instituted           been baptized and although they              cepts from unbelievers a vow to
church is not open to unbelievers.       have made confession of faith. The           rear their child in the nurture and

                                                                                    December 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer / 125


admonition of the Lord. By ap-                   heaven. In addition, they are hos-         never able to confess the first ques-
proving this practice, the church                tile to it.                                tion and answer of the Heidelberg
proclaims that the covenant of God                  If the parents take the children to     Catechism, that they enjoy the only
is with unbelievers and their chil-              church on the Sabbath, they cannot         comfort of belonging to their faith-
dren. That is blatantly to contradict            permit the little children to partici-     ful Savior Jesus Christ. Tauglht
the covenant at its very heart.                  pate in the worship of the congre-         from earliest childhood that they
   It is not only the Reformed                   gation. Unregenerated persons can-         are unregenerated, and convinced
church that is forced into indefensi-            not sing God's praises; cannot join        that they must ground any assur-
ble practices by the covenant con-               their hearts to the minister's calling     ance of salvation on a later conver-
ception that regards the baptized                upon God in prayer; cannot say             sion, they live their entire life in
children as unregenerated. Also                  amen to the gospel; cannot even of-        doubt. And when, as is often the
Reformed parents find themselves                 fer their gifts to the poor in the col-    case, the all-important conversion
in a well-nigh intolerable situation.            lection in thankfulness for God's          is presented as a mystical experi-
Suppose that the parents are true                redemption of them from the                ence and mysterious feeling, rather
believers. Suppose, moreover, that               poverty of the guilt of sin.               than as daily sorrow for sin, trust in
they take seriously their church's                  The deepest and most precious           Jesus Christ, and thankful love to-
teaching (as they should!) that all              communion of life of parents with          ward God, assurance is effectively
children are unsaved until con-                  their children is lacking: spiritual       rendered forever impossible jfor the
verted in later life. What follows               oneness in Christ by the Spirit.           covenant children.
from this for the parents' dealings              There is no fellowship for believing         This is grievous injury to tihe
with their Children?                             parents with any of their children.        lambs of Christ's fold.
   They must not allow the children              For all the children are outside of          The view of baptized children as
to participate in the parents'                   Christ and outside the "essence" of        unregenerated is not Reformed. It
prayers. As unregenerate, the chil-              the covenant. Later, much later            is not historically Reformed.
dren cannot pray. Besides, the                   usually, according to the Nether-          Among the Dutch Reformed, it has
prayer of the unrighteous is abomi-              lands Reformed Congregations and           its historical origin in the %&.ere
nation to God (Prov. 28:9). Parents              others who hold this view, there           reformatie"  (the "nearer reforma-
cannot allow the children to recite              may be communion with one or               tion") in The Netherlands, a 117th
with them the Lord's Prayer, or                  more of the children, if he is con-        century puritan-pietist movement.
even to think themselves included                verted; but during childhood the           Among the Presbyterians, it has its
when the parents pray this prayer.               children are spiritual strangers and       historical origin, as Lewis Bevens
For God is not the Father of these               foreigners.                                Schenck  notes, in the "revival
children in Christ. The children                    All that the parents can do is be-      movement" in the United Stakes.
must sit by with their eyes open                 seech their children to be con-            Schenck entitles the chapter in
and their hands unfolded.                        verted. They must treat them as            which he criticizes as unpreslbyte-
   Father and mother cannot call                 they would treat an unconverted,           rian the view of baptized children
the little children to honor and                 heathen neighbor. This is exactly          as unregenerated, "The Threat of
obey them in obedience to the fifth              what J.H. Thomwell, who held the           Revivalism to the Presbyterian
commandment. For the children                    view that the baptized children are        Doctrine of Children in the
do not love God. Nor do they love                unsaved, declared: "Their (the             Covenant" (cf. The Presbytetirn  Doc-
their neighbor for God's sake. As                baptized children's+DJE)  spiritual        trine of Children in the Covenant,
unsaved, they cannot obey the fifth              condition is one that is common            1940, pp. 8Off.1.
commandment. The parents must                    with the world. She (the church              Essentially, this view is the Bap-
tell them this. Order in the home is             and by implication the parents             tist view. The only difference in
purely a matter of external behav-               -DJE) deals with them, therefore,          this regard between those in the
ior motivated either by natural love             in this respect, as the Lord has di-       Reformed churches who view the
or by fear of the rod.                           rected her to deal with the world"         children as unregenerate, needing a
  Reformed parents really cannot                 (The collected Writings of James Hen-      future conversion in order re(a.lly to
teach the children anything about                ley Thornwell, 1974, Vol. IV, p. 341).     be in the covenant, and the Baptists
the kingdom of heaven. There is                     What the effect of all this may be      is that the Reformed inconsistently
absolutely no nurture of the chil-               expected to be in the children is all      sprinkle water on the unsaved chil-
dren in the life of the covenant. For            too painfully evident in the               dren.
the children do not possess                      churches that have held and prac-            Doctrinally, the source of this
covenant life. Their relationship to             ticed this covenant doctrine. Many         view is the notion that baptis,m is
the covenant is merely outward.                  of them never come to the assur-           merely the sign that the children
All godly instruction, whether in                ance of salvation that God wills for       are put in an external relationship
the home or in a Christian school,               His people, even though they con-          to the covenant in a visible church.
is fruitless in the lives of the little          fess the Reformed religion and are         But baptism is not a sign of mere
ones. For as unregenerate, they                  reputed to be of a godly walk as           outward connection with the
cannot even see the kingdom of                   long as they live. Lifelong mem-           covenant of God. Nor was circum-
                                                 bers of a Reformed church, they are        cision in the Old Testament such a

126 I The  Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


poverty-stricken sign. Baptism is         thus of fellowship with God by the           12:13). And baptism is a sign and
the sign and seal of the covenant of      regenerating work of the Holy . .            seal of real covenant fellowship
grace. It is a sign and seal of real,     Spirit. "For by one Spirit are we all        with God for believers and their
spiritual union with Christ and           baptized into one body..." (I Cor.           children.  0     ( t o   b e   continuai)    -JW





                                          Letters

n Church Relations                           May God continue to bless the             Lord say to all the wicked that He
                                          PRC as they strive to uphold the             has no pleasure in their death? If
   I am writing in response to Rev.       truths of His Word.                          so, why is it that the Lord does lnot
P. Burley's article in the July 1,199O                                 Ina Kleyn       save all the wicked? What possible
Sfundard Bearer, in which he wrote                           Bumie, Tasmania           reason can there be why all the
about the Evangelical Presbyterian                                                     wicked are not saved?
Church of Australia. Not all of us                                                                             Herman Boon&a
within the EPC fully agree with the       n Thanksgiving                                                                   Lynden, WA
emphasis placed on the regulative
principle, and on the "purity of             We appreciate the Standard
worship." I for one feel that a sis-      Bearer. All of the writers are good.         n Response
terchurch relationship must be            And we are thankful that this is
grounded, not on the basis of how         from our Protestant Reformed                    Rev. Woudenberg answers this
the regulative principle is applied       Churches. Our prayer is that this            question in his article, "The Plea-
in that church, but on whether the        may continue and that God will               sure of God," elsewhere in this is-
true preaching of God's Word is           richly bless your faithful labors.           sue.                                         - E d .
practiced and upheld in that              How good this faithfulness is in a
church. God's blessing is on His          declining spiritual age.!
people if they diligently seek to           The Reformation issue (October             n Sponsors for
serve Him according to His Word,          15,199O)  is especially appreciated.
and this is first and foremost done       What a danger Rome is to the                         Covenant Children
through the true preaching of that        church. How good to be enlight-
Word. God's blessing is not re-           ened as to these dangers.                       I am writing to say a hearty
moved from churches who don't               At this Thanksgiving time, we              thanks for the editorials in support
uphold the purity of worship as it        express our thanksgiving for the             of infant baptism (The Sfandard
is practiced within the EPC. The          SB and all who contribute to it.             Bearer, March 15-September  15,
matters of the application of the         Enclosed is an exnression  of our            1990).
regulative principle are of small         appreciation (a g&erous  gift to the           I was born and reared in the old
importance and significance in            SB -Ed.).                                    Presbyterian Church of Englandl.
comparison to the true preaching            Christian love to all of you and          Although there are Presbyterians
of the Word.                              our encouragement to keep up the            in Scotland and in Northern Ire-
  I among many others in the EPC          good work.                                  land, we Presbyterians are few in
find the preaching of the Word of                       Joe and Marge Folkerts        number in the more populous Eng-
God in the Protestant Reformed                               Al and Alice Stob        land and Wales. I subscribe witlh-
Churches in America a great bless-                        Elk Grove Village, IL       out reservation to the Westminster
ing. We are greatly encouraged                                                        Standards.
and built up in the faith through                                                        The editorials on "The Covenant
the many sermons we receive from          n Reprobation                               of God and the Children of Believ-
the Evangelism Committees of sev-                                                     ers" have left me with a questioln
eral of the PR Churches. Truly this         In the March 15 issue of The              that I request you answer in The
sound preaching should be viewed          Standard Bearer under the heading           SB.
as the basis for sister-church rela-      "Taking Heed to the Doctrine" the              In B.M. Palmer's little book,  The
tionships, and not whether the            author writes, `We are told here of         Broken Home,  Palmer describes the
PRC exactly agree with the form of        that in which God has no pleasure,          deaths of his children and his wife
worship upheld and practiced in           the death of the wicked." The               and his reactions. The Banner of
the EPC.                                  questions that I have are: Does the         Truth has reprinted T.C. Johnso~~`s

                                                                                    December 15,199O  / The Standard Bearer I 127


life of Palmer. When his first child              May I ask a very busy man to              infant cannot believe, the parents
died at the age of two years, he                make the position on sponsors               must believe for them.
struggled with the question of                  clear, please?                                 God's covenant with the children
sponsors and sponsorship.                         I send greetings from Liverpool,          of believers means that it pleases
   If I quote some of his words, you            city of the Beatles, and tell you that      God to gather His elect church not
will see what he argues. On page                The SB is read here eagerly as it           exclusively (for He also gathers it
18 he states that he stood for his              comes out. I am immensely grate-            by missions) but importantly from
dead child and that his faith must              ful for The SB's generosity.                the offspring of believing parents in
lay hold upon the covenant on be-                 You have to remember that En-             the line of generations. As a rule
half of the infant "and plead for its           glish free churches (outside evan-          God regenerates the elect children
salvation as he once pleaded for his            gelical Church of England) are al-          in early childhood, infancy, or even
own." On page 19 he introduces                  most entirely independent/isola-            in the womb (cf. Ps. 139:13ff.;  Luke
"double sponsorship." By one he                 tionist and Baptistic. For my soul's        1:41,44). Invariably and necessar-
"became the channel through                     sake I go to a Gospel Church which          ily God regenerates every elect
which a corrupt nature was trans-               is "Reformed Baptist." In the ab-           child who dies in infancy before he
mitted. By the other he was the                 sence of Presbyterian witness you           dies, for no one can enter the king-
representative of his child in the              will find isolated believers like me        dom of God unless he is born. again
eternal covenant which pledged                  all over the United Kingdom. We             (cf. John 3:5). This is the teaching
eternal life to the faith which                 long for what we do not have.               of your Westminster Confession:
would accept its provisions."                   Count yourselves very blessed,              "Elect infants, dying in infancy, are
   On page 20 he says, "the law of              American brethren!                          regenerated and saved by Christ
grace...demands faith of its recipi-                                      D. J. Stephens    through the Spirit, who worketh
ent (and that) requires its vicarious                             Liverpool, England        when, and where, and how he
exercise for such as in the covenant                                                        pleaseth" (10.3). The infant obvi-
(are) dealt with by and through a               n Response                                  ously does not exercise the activity
            " Therefore "he must now                                                        of faith prior to death. But he or
~!%%~this  faith fo; the child                    The notion and practice of spon-          she does enjoy the mystical union
which the child cannot exercise for             sors for covenant children, whether         with Christ of the bond off&! that
itself." Palmer "had been ap-                   living or dead, is erroneous.               regeneration establishes.
pointed a sponsor to plead."                      For a parent to stand as a spon-            One important aspect of this
  My questions are simple. I can-               sor for a dead child, pleading for it       truth is that regeneration is imme-
not recall ever seeing the question             with God, is as superstitious as the        diate, i.e., worked by the Spirit
of sponsors being discussed within              Roman Catholics' praying for the            without the means of the preaching
a Reformed context. Plainly the                 dead. Immediately upon death, the           of the gospel. Otherwise, of course,
sponsor here is the father. But is              soul goes either to eternal bliss or        the salvation of infants is impossi-
Palmer right that his faith is ac-              to eternal woe according. to the            ble.
cepted in place of the deceased                 righteous judgment of God (Luke               We parents are not and need not
child's?                                        16:19-31;  Heb. 9:27). The elect soul       be sponsors for our children, as
  And what about living covenant                in Paradise needs no sponsorship            though we must bear the awful re-
children? Are they "covered" by                 and pleading. The reprobate soul            sponsibility of representing them
parental faith until they are person-           in hell cannot be profited by any           before God in the matter of their
ally converted (or sadly become                 sponsorship or pleading. And                salvation. But the covenant Jesus
covenant breakers)?                             there is no purgatory.                      Christ is Sponsor and Surety :for us
  I thought that in view of the                   Sponsorship by a believing par-           and for our children. And ex,actly
common Baptist objections to Epis-              ent for a living covenant child,            because of His covenant with our
copal/Roman Catholic "godpar-                   while the child is young, betrays a         children, believing parents whose
ents" standing as sponsors it would             complete misunderstanding of the            child dies in infancy have no rea-
be well to put our view on spon-                covenant of God with the children           son to doubt that Jesus was the
sors clearly. We reject sponsors                of believers. God does not require          Surety of that child in the moment
who are not parents, I assume.                  parents to believe for their children       of death.
  I have just now recalled that                 while they are young. The salva-              Your warm greeting from "`the
What About Baptism? by Robert                   tion of the elect children of the           city of the Beatles" is the best
Rayburn (Baker, 1979, pp. 83-85)                covenant does not depend upon               sound we have ever heard from
contains similar thoughts to those              the parents' believing for them.            that place.
of Palmer. One sentence will show               Parents cannot believe for their              Be assured that we do ardently
this: "Instance after instance could            children. Indeed, no one can be-            pray for you and your spiritual
be cited (from Scripture) where the             lieve for another. Nor is the activ-        brothers and sisters in the British
faith of one person brought heal-               ity of faith necessary for salvation        Isles that God will be gracious to
ing, blessing, and salvation to an-             in the case of elect children who die       you in giving you the great good of
other" (p. 84).                                 in infancy, as is the assumption of         true, sound, confessional Reformed
                                                those who conclude that, since the          (Presbyterian) churches. - Ed. Cl

128 I The Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


                                             Concerning Laying
The Reader
Asks                                         On of Hands

  The following questions were re-             We answer your second question          struction that hands must be laid
ceived from the Bible Study Class            first. The laying on of hands sym-        on elders and deacons. In the Re-
of the Evangelical Presbyterian              bolized the fact that the man was         formed tradition this practice was
Church in Burnie, Tasmania.                  being called to the office of the         not  followed because elders and
   Our quesfion  concerns Acfs 6:6:          ministry of the Word and qualified        deacons are installed for specific
"Whom (the seuen deacons) they set           for that work by the gifts of the         terms (usually three years) of office
before the apostles: and when they had       Holy Spirit. The practice was cor-        and not for life. Ministers are
prayed, they laid their hands on             rupted by the Roman Catholics             called for life. We might also point
them."                                       who regarded it as a sacrament            out that at least two of the deacons
  Today in fhe ordinafion  of ministers      through which the one being or-           mentioned in Acts 6 were also
in  Reformed churches, fhe laying on of      dained received the necessary             Evangelists who were called anid
hands is still being practiced, also in      graces for the office from those al-      qualified by the Holy Spirit
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church          ready ordained. It was because of         through the church to preach the
of  Australia. But fhere is no laying on     this that the Reformation churches        gospel.
of hands in the ordination of elders         in the Netherlands feared the prac-          If your Bible Class is interested
and deacons. Why not? Since Acts             tice of the laying on of hands. The       in further study of this question.,
6:2-6 is used to establish the ofice of      practice was reinstated in the            we call your attention to the follow-
deacon in the Reformed church, should        Dutch churches by the Synods of           ing books: Dr. H. Bavinck, Gere-
not fhe laying on of hands still be prac-    1581 and 1586. It is used only in         formeerde Dogmatiek, IV, #54, pp.
ticed in the ordination of deacons?          the ordination of ministers of the        354-424; Dr. H. Bouwman, Gere-
Whaf was the significance of fhe lay-        Word. It is not repeated when a           formeerde Kerkrechf, I,  p. 410; Ds.
ing on of hands in fhe apostolic time?       minister is installed in a second or      Joh. Jansen, Korfe Verklaring van de
  You really have two questions: 1)          third charge.                             Kerkorcle Der Gereformeerde  Kerken,
Why in Reformed Churches is there              In answer to your first question,       p. 28 of the 1952 edition; I. Van
no laying on of hands at the ordina-         let us point out that Acts 6:1-6 is       Dellen and M. Monsma, The Church
tion (installation) of elders and dea-       not the only passage used in sup-         Order Commenfa y, p. 32 of the 1954
cons? and 2) What was the signifi-           port of the office of deacon. There       edition; and J. L. Schaver,  The Polify
cance of the laying on of hands in           are others. Nowhere in the New            of the Churches, I, pp. 114-115, II, p.
the apostolic time?                          Testament do we find an explicit in-      107. 0          -Editorial Committee





                                                                                     December 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer / 129


Taking Heed To
The Doctrine                               The Pleasure of God
ReK Bernard Woudenberg


  Say unto them, As I live,                     the elderly and respected professor         clear he then went on to draw out a
saith the Lord God, I have no                   of theology at the University of Lei-       further distinction:
pleasure in the death of the                    den. Arminius had come to the                  Wherefore if seems that fhe whole
                                                                                            course of this argument will be more
wicked; but that the wicked turn                conclusion in his studies that, if
                                                God ordained certain men to                 easy, if we regard fhaf saving decree of
from his way and live: turn ye,                 damnation, He must necessarily be           Divine predestination in fhis  orcl!er:
turn ye from your evil ways; for                the author of sin.                          That God predestinated us fo the adop-
why will ye die, 0 house of Is-                    To begin the debate, therefore,          tion of sons of God in Christ "to Him-
rael?                                           Arminius laid down what might               self," and fixed before hand fhe way
                       Ezekiel 33:11            seem to be a rather mild but accept-        and end of that adoption by His efer-
                                                able definition of predestination:          nal decree: that the way, indeed, is
                                                   God by an eternal and immutable          fhaf of grace, leading us in the path of
                                                decree defer-mined to give to cerfain       ad-y, by our call and jusfificafio;n:
  Elsewhere in this issue is found a            men - ofhers being passed by - life         that the end is that of life, which we
letter-to-the-editor to which I am              eternal and supernafural,  and to afford    shall obfain by our perfect glorification
particularly pleased to be able to              fo the same men fhose means which are       (Ram. 8:30) which are fhe effects of
reply. The reason is that it provides           necessa y and efficacious for obtaining     fhaf grace, and  the unmisfakable con-
me an opportunity to focus on one               fhaf life.                                  sequences of our adoption.
of the central concerns of Reformed                Junius, however, immediately                The distinction which Jumus
theology., that which marks the di-             objected. The definition, he                wished to make was between those
viding line between it and one facet            pointed out, was deficient at a very        things which God sees as ends or
of "Hyper-Calvinism."                           important point; it failed to under-        goals in themselves, and those
  The question relates closely to               stand the nature of "eternal life"          which He has ordained as rnazns to
one brought to the fore by James                and give it its proper place:               the obtaining of these ends.
Arminius, at the time when he as a                 Eternal life is not here primarily          The point is not greatly dihferent
troubled young minister in the Re-              and of itself the work of that Divine       from one which Rev. Hoeksema
formed church at Amsterdam took                 predestination, but rafher secondarily      was want to make when he dlealt
up a debate with Francis Junius,                and by consequence the result of adop-      with election and reprobation. He
                                                fion...Eph. 1:5, "Havingpredestinated       too would often speak of the jim-
                                                us unto the adoption of children...."       portance of distinguishing between
                                                Thus...fhe proper expression is that we     those things which are ends in the
                                                are predestinated  to "the adopfion  of     mind of God, and those things
                                                children" by the special grace of our       which are ordained by him as
                                                heavenly Fafher.                            means to the gaining of those ends,
                                                   In Junius' mind, those who be-           as in his Reformed Dogmatics (1~. 164)
                                                lieved in predestination had always         where he introduces his own idea
                                                understood there to be something            of a modified Supralapsarianisnx
                                                more important than predestina-                We must emphasize not so much
                                                tion itself, namely, "the adoption          whaf is firsf or last in the decree of
                                                unto children" and the eternal life         God, but much rafher place ourselves
                                                which proceeds from it. For Jumus           before the question: what in those de-
                                                this was always to be remembered            crees is conceived as purpose, and
                                                - adoption is first in the mind of          what as means? What is fhe main ob-
                                                God and predestination is sec-              ject in those decrees, and what is sub-
                                                ondary to that; not the other way           ordinate and subservient fo fhaf main
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the                around.                                     object? In this way we escape the dan-
Protestant Re@-med  Church of Kala-                In order to make this even more          ger to leave the impression fhaf fhere
mazoo, Michigan.
130 1 The Standard Bearer 1 December IS,1990


after all is a femporal order in fhe de-    within Himself as the triune God.            things to come; all are yours; and
cree  of God. And in the second place,      Father, Son, and Holy Ghost abide           ye are Christ's; and Christ is
according to our way of presenting the      within themselves as one being               God's" Or even more beautifully,
a0ctri~ of predestination we may            subsisting in a fellowship of life,          II Corinthians 4:15: `For all things
open the way fo find an answer fo fhe       giving to each other existence in            are for your sakes, that the abun-
question: why is there a reprobation?       love. In fact, so rich and full is this      dant grace might through the
         *******                            life which God lives that Jesus              thanksgiving of many redound to
  In trying to understand this there        speaks of it as "glory" - "And               the glory of God."
are a number of important consid-           now, 0 Father, glorify thou me                  Included in this, on the one
erations which must be borne in             with thine own self with the glory i         hand, are the countless means of
mind.                                       which I had with thee before the             grace by which He separates His
   To begin with, we must under-            world was" (John 17~5).                      people from this world and pre-
stand what is meant when we say               And that is where God's gra-               pares them unto glory; and all of
that God is efernal.                        ciousness comes in. So overwhelm-            this for no other reason than that
   In the first place, it means that        ingly great is this glory of God that,       they are the objects of His love, as
God is not a creature of time as we         like a fountain that cannot be con-          He said to Pharaoh, in Exodus 4c:22:
are; He made time and is not sub-           tained, He wills to express His              "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my
ject to its limitations. We, as Au-         glory outside of Himself by bring-           son, even my firstborn"; and evfen
gustine often pointed out, are crea-        ing into existence a people who can          more expansively in Isaiah 43:l::
tures of time, and therefore we are         be taken into His own intimate cir-          "But now thus saith the Lord that
subject to constant change. What            cle of love, who can be adopted              created thee, 0 Jacob, and he that
we were yesterday, we are not to-           unto Himself and become His chil-            formed thee, 0 Israel, Fear not: for
day; and what we are today, we              dren; and to do this through His             I have redeemed thee, I have called
will not be tomorrow. We are al-            Son, Jesus Christ. Of this, Jesus            thee by thy name; thou art mine...."
ways in the process of changing for         went on Himself to speak in John                But then Isaiah goes on and
no other reason than that we are            17~21: "That they all may be one; as         adds, in verse 4, "Since thou wast
necessarily reacting to all of the          thou, Father, art in me, and I in            precious in my sight, thou hast
various influences which are enter-         thee, that they also may be one in           been honorable, and I have loved
ing into our lives. By them we are          us." This is the same as the "eter-          thee: therefore will I give men for
changed and made different; but             nal life" which Junius found im-             thee, and people for thy life." It is
this is not true of God. This was           plicit in Ephesians 1:5: "Having             not just the positive means of grace
what He meant when He said to               predestinated us unto the adoption           that God uses, it is also the pres-
Moses, Exodus 3:17, "I AM THAT I            of children by Jesus Christ to him-          ence of sin in this world, and of sin-
AM...Thus  shalt thou say unto the          self, according to the good pleasure         ful men. In spite of the fact God
children of Israel, I AM hath sent          of his will."                                hates the workers of iniquity (I%.
me unto you." God is what He                  Now when this is understood,               5:4,5), and has no pleasure in their
alone determines himself to be, and         that the ultimate will of God is to          death (Eze. 33:11),  He gives them a
is in no way fashioned by re-               glorify Himself by giving life to His        place in His plan. They all serve as
sponses to any other being (Isa.            people in Jesus Christ, we can go            means for the salvation of God's
40:13; Rom. 11%).                           on to the second important point,            elect, which is explicitly what Paul
   What that means, in the second           the fact that God wills to bring this        says in Romans 9:22,23:  `What if
place, is that all things are in the        about by the use of secondary                God, willing to shew his wrath,
present tense for God. He holds all         means. Certainly it is within the            and to make his power known, en-
things which we see as past, pre-           ability of God to have created His           dured with much longsuffering the
sent, and future as present before          people immediately in glory with-            vessels of wrath fitted to destruc-
His mind. That is why He does not           out having them pass through the             tion: and that he might make
need to change or adapt Himself to          sad history of this world of sin; but        known the riches of his glory on
circumstances and situations, as He         He did not. And all we can say is            the vessels of mercy, which he h.ad
said in Isaiah 46:9,10,  "I am God,         that in His infinite greatness He            afore prepared unto glory."
and there is none else; I am God,           knows it to be better this way. It is           This was the point which Rev.
and there is none like me, declaring        His will that His people should be           Hoeksema wished to make. God
the end from the beginning, and             brought unto this adoption by                did not create the wicked so that
from ancient times the things that          passing through the experiences of           He might destroy them. To say that
are not yet done, saying, My coun-          time, so that all of history is but a        He created them simply to show
sel shall stand, and I will do all my       means in His hand to bring them to           forth His justice is not enough. The
pleasure:'                                  this glory, as Paul said in I                reprobate exist for the sake of His
   Furthermore, within this eternal         Corinthians 3:21-23: "Therefore let          elect, "that he might make known
being of God there is one thing             no man glory in men. For all things          the riches of his glory on the ves-
which is first in importance before         are yours; whether Paul, or Apol-            sels of mercy." Election and repro-
everything else, and that is the eter-      los, or Cephas, or the world, or life,       bation are not equally ultimate.
nal covenant life which He lives            or death, or things present, or              Election is implicit in God's ulti-

                                                                                       December 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer .I 131


mate purpose, and reprobation is                Him crucified, the only answer to        pleases Him, that His people turn
but a means to bring it to pass.                the bondage of sin.                      to Him and live; and all other
         *******                                  Nevertheless, should anyone            things are but means to that end.
  Which brings us to our question,              ask, or the occasion warrant, it cer-       For those who are concerned
are we to proclaim this to all men?             tainly is not out of place to explain    with pleasing God, what greaker
   And certainly there is no reason             that this world, with all its sinful     incentive can there be to turn in re-
that we should not.                             deeds and wicked men, are here           pentance to Him? And for those
  Not that we are to lead with this.            not because God loves them, or has       who care not, what greater warn-
These are deep things, and hardly               pleasure in what they are and what       ing? In such, they must be told,
the kind with which one ap-                     ,He hopes they may become; they          God has no pleasure at all.
proaches people on a mission field              are here rather as means in God's           "And who is sufficient for .these
or in evangelical work of any kind.             hand to bring His people to be           things?" (II Cor. 2:13). 0
To such we preach Christ Jesus and              with Him in glory. That is what





                                                What's Happening at
Specid Article 4949 Ivanrest?
Prof. Robert Decker


  4949 Ivanrest Avenue in                       and make use of the library to do        men for the gospel ministry. `We
Grandville, Michigan is of course               their research and write the as-         thank God for giving us four semi-
the address of the Protestant Re-               signed papers.                           narians this school year. Seminar-
formed Theological Seminary.                      One would expect that these ac-        ian Mitchell Dick, a member of our
What happens here is that men re-               tivities would happen on a semi-         Grandville PRC, is completing. his
ceive instruction in the various dis-           nary campus. What many of our            fourth and final year. In addition
ciplines of the theological curricu-            readers may not know is that a           to his studies and his preparing for
lum designed to prepare them to                 great many others things happen at       the oral examinations before the
serve the Protestant Reformed                   4949 Ivanrest. The Staff of  The         up-coming synod of our churches,
Churches as ministers and mission-              Standard Bearer conducts its annual      Mr. Dick teaches several catechism
aries of the Gospel of God's                    meeting here in the Spring of-the        classes in two of our churches and
sovereign grace in Jesus Christ.                year. At this meeting the next vol-      preaches in the area churches. Mr.
Here the professors teach their                 ume year of The Standard Bearer is       Dick will be busy preaching in our
classes in the mornings and spend               planned. The Editorial Committee         Doon, Iowa congregation during
the rest of the day reading and                 of The Sfandard  Bearer meets here       the Christmas recess. Seminarian
studying, preparing for those                   during the course of the year as         Patrick Baskwell, who recently
classes and various other lectures              need occasions. The Standard Bearer      transferred from our Norristown,
and preaching assignments in area               is type-set and mailed from 4949         PA church to Southeast PRC in
churches. Here too the professors               Ivanrest by Mr. and Mrs. Don             Grand Rapids, is in his first year of
complete their writing assignments              Doezema and Mr. and Mrs. John            study at the seminary. Seminarians
for The Sfandard  Bearer and The                Veldman. The Committee for Con-          Henry DeJong  from our Soutlh Hol-
Profesfanf Reformed Theological Jour-           tact With Other Churches meets           land, IL congregation and Scott
nal. The students attend the classes            monthly here. The Mission Com-           Haaksma from our Byron Center,
                                                mittee and its various sub-commit-       MI congregation are both in the
                                                tees all meet here. The Book Pub-        first year of a special five-year pro-
                                                lishing Committee of the RFFA also       gram of study. The reason fo:r the
                                                meets in this building.                  extra year is that these men, both of
                                                  As important as all these activi-      whom have their A.B. degrees (Mr.
                                                ties may be for the defense and          DeJong also graduated from `Val-
Prof. Decker is professor of Pracfical          proclamation of the gospel of Jesus      paraiso Law School), need to com-
Theology in  the Profesfanf Reformed            Christ, the most important activity      plete certain required college
Semina y.                                       at this address is the instruction of    courses. Four pre-seminarians are
132 I The Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


taking their Greek and Hebrew             the two-day annual meeting of the         ation/Science debate, the issue of
classes at our seminary. In addition      North American Presbyterian and           women in church office, and oth.er
there are five more pre-seminarians       Reformed Council in Atlanta, GA           issues plaguing the Presbyterian
pursuing their A.B. degrees at vari-      during the month of November.             and Reformed denominations in
ous colleges and universities               The Theological School Commit-          our day.
(Calvin and Dordt Colleges, Grand         tee (TSC)  has been busy as well.            Our people and churches may
Valley State University, The Uni-         The library has-been expanding            rest assured that in all these labors
versity of Wisconsin, and Simon           rapidly through the acquisition of        the TSC and faculty are working to-
Fraser University in British              new books and magazines. We take          gether in a brotherly spirit for the
Columbia).                                this opportunity to thank publicly        welfare of our seminary and our
  The faculty continues to be busy        those many members of our                 churches. For this we thank God.
in various activities on behalf of the    churches and friends in Christ from          Mr. Jon Huisken, with the assis-
churches in addition to their teach-      other churches in North America           tance of Mrs. Judi Doezema, contin-
ing assignments. Professor Her-           and other parts of the world who          ues his work as archivist for our
man Hanko led a seminar spon-             so generously support our library         churches. Our ministers, elders,
sored by our Byron Center Church          with their gifts. Because of the          and all our people are urged to
on the subject of Post-millennial-        growth of the library we have need        send to Mr. Huisken any materials
ism. Prof. Hank0 will be spending         of more space. There is also need         relating to the history of our
four weeks during December and            for space suitable for students to do     churches and/or particular congre-
January in Singapore. He and Rev.         their research. The TSC is carefully      gations which would be of value to
Russell Dykstra will be working           studying the possibility of propos-       future generations.
with the two Evangelical Reformed         ing an addition to the building to           Both faculty and students greatly
Churches on foreign mission mat-          meet these needs. The Pre-semi-           appreciate the faithful and diligent
ters and the possibility of setting       nary program which was begun in           work, the sound advice, the compe-
up a Bible college in Singapore.          1973 is being carefully studied by        tency, and the friendship of Mr. and
  Prof. David Engelsma attended           the TSC as well. Should we con-           Mrs. Don Doezema, our registrar
the International Congress on             tinue to offer pre-seminary (college      and secretary.
Calvin Studies hosted by Calvin           level) courses at our school? How            Finally, we covet the prayers of
College and Seminary in late Au-          does this affect faculty teaching         God's people. Pray that God will
gust. In early September Prof.  En-       loads? Is the faculty able to do jus-     give the professors grace to "stand
gelsma spoke at a Family Confer-          tice to their seminary classes while      fast and hold the traditions they
ence in Wales and preached in             also teaching college courses?            have been taught" (II Thessaloni-
Northern Ireland. Later in the same       These and more are the questions          ans 2:15). Pray that God will give
month, he lectured in Wyckoff, NJ         being considered by the TSC.              the students grace to "give atten-
on the subject, "God's Grace: Par-          Through a subcommittee and              dance to reading, to exhortation, to
ticular or Common." Professor  En-        the faculty the TSC is also planning      doctrine" (I Timothy 4:13). In this
gelsma also preached in the               a Conference to be hosted by our          way only will the Reformed Faitlh
Covenant PRC in Wyckoff. October          seminary on the subject of the doc-       as God has so graciously given it to
found the professor giving the            trine of Holy Scripture. This sub-        our Protestant Reformed Churches
"keynote address" at the Protestant       ject will be examined, the Lord           be preserved among us to the glory
Reformed Teachers Convention              willing, in the light of the Cre-         of God. 0
held in Grand Rapids and giving
the Reformation Day lecture in
Redlands, CA and preaching for
our Hope PRC in Redlands. Prof.                                         The Hidden Life
Engelsma is busy completing his
thesis on an aspect of the doctrine       We live our inmost lives alone:           Alone! Alone! We long in vain
of the Trinity and expects to receive     At best we are but little known,          For sympathy to ease our pain;
the Master of.Theology  degree            And even those who know us best           For some heart that can understan(d.
from Calvin Theological Seminary          Have probed to find within our            But no! How wisely God has
in May of 1991.                                 breast                                    planned
                                          That secret plan, that hidden source      To keep life's center and its throne
  Prof. Decker was guest preacher         Of life's expression. But, of course,     Reserved to Him, and Him alone!
at the mid-week services of the           They probe in vain. The life lived        We turn to God, and, seekin , find
Seventh Reformed Church in                      there                               What friends, however goofand
Grand Rapids during the month of,         No mortal soul may with us share,               kind,
October. "The Believer and his            Deep in the confines of the heart,        Gave not. He understands and feels;
Bible" was the title of the Reforma-      Where all life's misty issues start,      He every bleeding heart-wound
tion Day lecture delivered by Prof.       There is a hidden sphere, unknown               heals.
Decker at the Christian Reforma-          To others. There we live alone.           The realm we occupied alone
tion Church in Grand Rapids. Prof.                                                  He fills. Our lives to Him are known.
Decker represented our churches at                                                                      - SB, April 15,1932

                                                                                   December 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer I133


 When Thou
Sittest In                                      Responsibilities-
 Thine House                                    Towards-Children (2)
Rev. Kenneth Koole


   In our last article we referred to           love. This, quite simply, has very         we will address the matter of disci-
evidences of forces of evil which               little to do with lavishing all kinds      pline.
were tearing at the fabric of the               of gifts upon them (in order to              Discipline is probably the rnost
family in 20th century society evi-             salve the conscience for neglecting        controversial of the four things
dences which have alarmed even                  them so much), but it has much to          mentioned. It may not be readily
unbelieving society itself. These               do with personal attention, spend-         apparent how this enters in at all.
things, as we have seen, have                   ing time with them. This covenan-          In fact it may seem just the oppo-
shown themselves especially                     tal responsibility with its demands -      site of what is needed. If whait is
amongst the youth, the troubled,                has been forgotten and dismissed.          needed is the attention of love, and
oft-times violent youth - things                Certain things have intruded into          the reassurance to the child that his
such as exploding criminal behav-               the family and become a wedge be-          parents love him, then discipl.ine,
ior among the young, their use of               tween parents and children, break-         with its harsh indication of disap-
mind-twisting drugs, and an esca-               ing the fellowship and life of the         proval, would seem to be the last
lating number of incidents of                   home. The result has been that             thing the child needs. He needs ev-
teenage suicide, the ultimate cry of            children are left to drift, and the di-    idence of approval, not the physical
despair. The youth give more and                rection into which they have               pain of disapproval. This, it is said,
more evidence of feeling estranged              drifted is that of bitterness, which       works resentment, not the security
from their parents and alone in so-             is the root evil.                          of love. What our children need is
ciety, unwanted and unloved.                      What are some of the factors that        less physical punishment, not
Never has any generation of youth               have contributed to the breakdown          more. This is the common mental-
had so many material things                     of the child-parent relationship in        ity and is worth considering exactly
handed them. Never has a genera-                contemporary society?                      because it is so prevalent and
tion been so unhappy and filled                   Four things come most immedi-            deeply rooted.
with resentment. The antagonism                 ately to mind, four things that have         The opposition to physical disci-
between parents and children is ex-             become dominant characteristics of         pline takes us back to the roots of
treme. "You do not love me" is                  the contemporary scene, and have           the philosophy of modem-day edu-
their theme.                                    served as the seeds that have sown         cation. Those roots find themselves
   The question is, what are the                the wind that now is bringing the          in the father of the philosoph;y  be-
things that have led to the growing             harvest of the whirlwind. These            hind modemday education, John
estrangement in the home and fu-                things are (without reference to or-       Dewey. This is a name worth re-
eled the spirit of rebellious youth?            der of importance), first, marital         membering. This is a man who
What has led to the "mess" in                   strife in the home leading to so           was powerfully infected by the
which the vast majority of families             many divorces and divisions, the           spirit of Anti-christ.  He was anti-
in our enlightened, educated age                greatest victims of which are chil-        Christian by public creed. He was
find themselves? What are the fac-              dren; second, lack of proper disci-        the one, more than any, who con-
tors?                                           pline (in fact a settled refusal to ex-    vinced educators and government
  The central thing, I have sug-                ercise, and opposition toward, this        that the Christian religion with its
gested, is ignoring the demands of              necessary child-rearing device);           insistence on God's laws being the
                                                third, mothers working long hours          perpetual standard of right and
                                                out of the home, leaving the chil-         wrong was the great hindrance to
                                                dren to their own devices; and last,       human development and progress.
                                                but not least, the intrusion of televi-    There is a utopia to be obtained.
Rev. Koole is pasfor of Faith Profes-           sion into our homes.                       Man holds within his grasp
fanf Reformed Church in Jenison,                  Having dealt with divorce to             (through scientific knowledge) the
Michigan.                                       some extent in the previous article,       wherewithal to control his own as-
134 I The Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


cent to worldwide unity and pros-         teacher deems appropriate and                  Upon reflection, however, its ap-
perity. But mankind will be able to       beneficial to greater humanity.              peal becomes clear. This philoso-
do so only at the expense of the            Notice what power the teacher              phy plays right into the hands of
biblical, Christian religion, that is,    appropriates to himself. The parent          parental sloth. Man is by nature ir-
by its dismissal. Creedal Christian-      is out of the picture. The child be-         responsible. Raising children is a.
ity is the hindrance to moral and in-     longs to mankind and society, not            demanding and time-consuming
tellectual progress.                      to any one set of parents. The               occupation. Especially this is true
  And what was to be the means            teachers are the experts and profes-         of discipline conscientiously ad-
of this extinguishing of the Chris-       sionals. They are set up as the              ministered. Man is selfish. What
tian religion with its standards?         child's gods. The parents are basi-          could be easier? Have a few chil-
State directed public school educa-       cally breeding pairs and providers           dren and make them the burden
tion. As one of Dewey's disciples,        of basic bodily necessities, little          (problem) of someone else, the
John J. DunphF wrote, "I am con-          more. Fathers and mothers are not            state, teachers, what have you.
vinced that the battle for hu-            to impress their values on their             Meantime, parents can go out and
mankind's future must be waged            children. Our values are most                pursue the things that have more
and won in the public school class-       likely outdated, filled with preju-          appeal and are more profitable, as
room by teachers who correctly            dice, and restrictive. Turn the chil-        the world counts profit.
perceive their role as proselytizers      dren over to society, that is, the all-        And besides that, this perspec-
of a new faith: a religion of human-      wise teacher. Teachers will evalu-           tive gives parents someone else to
ity.... These teachers must embody        ate and determine what and how               blame for the failures of and prob-
the same selfless dedication as the       this particular child can contribute         lems caused by their children. It is
most rabid fundamentalist preach-         to the advancement of mankind.               the teachers' fault. They are to
ers.... The classroom must and will       Parents simply follow the lead of           blame. They have not channeled
become an arena of conflict be-           these teachers.                              the energies and abilities-of their
tween the old and the new - the             And, secondly, what is promoted            children into productive ways.
rotting corpse of Christianity, to-       is the spirit of "permissiveness."           They have not given the child a
gether with all its adjacent evils        What was once considered wrong               sense of worth. Blame the schools.
and misery, and the new faith of          is no longer wrong, and therefore            And, of course, the government's
humanism, resplendent in its              must not be punished. The very               schools are not without fault in
promise of a world in which the           idea of punishment, the inflicting           these matters. But the point is, par-
never-realized Christian ideal of         of sensible physical pain, is to be          ents are able to absolve themselves
"love thy neighbor" will finally be       denounced as uncivilized and                 of almost all guilt, and, hence,
achieved" (The Humanist, 1983).           counterproductive in the extreme.            refuse to consider changing their
Notice what the agenda is - re-           It suppresses the true character and         ways. They are the products of
moving from society the standards         natural insights children have. It is        their own absurd, ungodly educa-
of Christianity, which is described       the "spare the rod, spoil the child"         tion. Educators may decry the lack
as a "rotting corpse." Therefore,         mentality, they say, that has caused         of parental and home involvement,
society is to bury it. And education      children to become afraid to ex-             but if they check their philosophy
of its children in govemment-di-          press themselves in a natural and            of education they will find they a.re
rected  schools is to be one such         useful way. And, as a result, the            the victims of their own absurd ed-
tool, in fact the major one.              true gifts and insights of the child         ucational principles. There is for
  For Dewey's philosophy to pre-          never come to proper expression.             them no way out.
vail, the biblical perspective of the     And so the inalienable rights of                If you add the horrifying stories
child must be dismissed, and cer-         children to be themselves have               of child-abuse to this philosophy
tainly the whole perception of what       been violated. They have been ru-            (many of which are all too true --
is good and what is evil must be          ined by parental-discipline.                 faces bruised, bones broken) you
radically altered as well. It must          This is the mentality that has             have the makings of a persuasive
not reflect the biblical standard.        won the day. This is the permissive          argument bolstering the contention
Dewey claimed that the impressing         "wisdom" that has bred the ap-               that parents are not to be trusted to
of the absolutes of biblical ethics       palling promiscuity and defiance of          discipline their own children.
and morality upon children is sup-        the "do it if you like it!' generation.        We maintain however, not only
pressive. It suppresses the natural       Youth are accustomed to having               that physical discipline is necessary
and spontaneous "genius" that is          things done their way No evil do             for proper child-rearing, but also
found in almost every child. We           they fear to do. They suffer no con-         that, when wisely and persistently
must encourage the child to ex-           sequences.                                   applied, it is the expression of love.
press himself in spontaneous ways           At first glance it might seem              This is Scripture. "For whom the
without all kinds of restrictions.        strange that parents would adopt             Lord loveth he chasteneth, and
And it is especially the teacher who      Dewey's philosophy of child-rear-            scourgeth every son whom he re-,
must seek to channel the child's          ing since it shoves them out of the          ceiveth. If ye endure chastening,
creative urges into functions the         picture and dismisses their control          God dealeth with you as with sons;
                                          over their children.                         for what son is he whom the father

                                                                                     December 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer / 135


chasteneth not?" (Heb. 12:6,7). It is            don't care what I do," reveals a            sary if you will teach your child
God's pattern of love. As we need                spirit that has withered through            that you care very much for him
it and profit from it, so do our chil-           lack of attention. His parents are          and what he does. He wants your
dren. Children do not need it re-                indifferent. They could not care            approval and attention. Outra-
gardless of their behavior, but they             less. The fact that there is little that    geous behavior is often the cry for
need it when they have done what                 this one does that could displease          such parental attention. The undis-
is wrong. And Scripture deter-                   his parents reveals that `there is lit-     ciplined child knows his parents do
mines for us and them what is                    tle he could do that would please           not have the time or desire to give
wrong.                                           them either. This is killing. Dewey         him much attention at all. Scrip-
   Discipline shows the child that               calls this refusal to discipline ex-        ture asks, what son is he whom the
what he does is important to us.                 pressing love to the neighbor. Ac-          father chasteneth not? We may also
Nothing is more disheartening to a               cording to Scripture it is the way of       ask, what father is he who chias-
child than the impression that                   death.                                      teneth not his son? One not worthy
nothing he does means much to his                  Have you hugged your child of             of the name. For such fathers chil-
parents at all. The statement,                   late? If he has done wrong have             dren have no respect or love. 0
"Nehh. My old man and old lady                   you spanked him? Both are neces-




                                                 The Ctkhe and the
                                                 Constitution: May
Church                                           Municipalities Sponsor
and State
Mr. James Lanting                                Nativity Scenes?

The Establishment Clause                         ligious exhibit" is unconstitutional,       cases in recent years. Both cases,
   The ACLU and other such orga-                 even though the display was                 however, resulted in a bitter divi-
nizations are beginning to establish             erected and maintained by a citi-           sion of opinion among the justices
a new holiday tradition: suing lo-               zen's committee.                            and seemingly contradictory re-
cal governments to prohibit their                  The constitutional issue raised           sults. In 1985, the Court consid-
sponsorship of Christmas creche                  here concerns the First Amend-              ered a challenged Christmas, creche
displays in public buildings and                 ment's prohibition of any govern-           display sponsored by the city of
parks. Several cities have again                 mental body from passing a law or           Pawtucket, Rhode Island, pl,aced  in
been sued this season. San Diego,                engaging in conduct "respecting an          a private park in the downtown
for example, is presently in federal             establishment of religion, or prohibit-     shopping district. In addition to
court defending its annual Christ-               ing the free exercise thereof...."          the creche, the city's display in-
mas display in a public park of                  The Supreme Court has interpreted           cluded: a Santa Claus with a live
eight sets of life-size figures depict-          the Establishment Clause to mean            Santa distributing candy; reindeer;
ing the birth and life of Jesus. An              that, in order to pass constitutional       a 40-foot  decorated Christmas tree;
organization calling itself the Soci-            muster, the challenged govemmen-            statues of carolers in traditional
ety of Separationists challenged                 tal conduct must pass three tests:          dress; a "talking" wishing well;
San Diego's allowance of this dis-               (1) it must have a secular purpose;         candy-striped poles; and various
play, arguing the governmental in-               (2) its principal or primary effect         "cut-out" figures including a
volvement in such an "intensely re-              must be one that neither advances           clown, a dancing elephant, a. robot,
                                                 nor inhibits religion; (3) it must not      and a teddy bear.
                                                 foster excessive government entan-            The Court held that Pawtucket
                                                 glement with religion.                      did not run afoul of the Establish-
Mr. Lanfing,  a member of South Hol-             The Pawtucket Creche                        ment Clause by endorsing religion
land Protestant Reformed Church, is a              The Supreme Court has decided             through its display of the creche.
practicing affornq.                              two government sponsored creche             The Court ruled that because (1)

136 I `Ihe Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


the creche is "a traditional symbol"     sent suggested, the creche is per-           precedence over religious ones." In
of Christmas, a holiday with strong      missible because "government poli-           other words, the implication is that
secular elements, and (2) because        cies of accommodation, acknowl-              government sponsored Christmas
the creche's secular setting             edgement, and support for religion           creche displays are constitutionally
"negates any message of endorse-         are part of our political and cultural       permissible because Christmas has
ment" of "the Christian beliefs rep-     heritage." The dissent further ar-           now become a predominantly secu-
resented by the creche." A vigor-        gued that since in this instance the         lar holiday. The manger and Christ
ous dissent voiced the opposite          government is not using the creche           child are now indistinguishable
opinion that secular elements of the     to "proselytize" or "coerce" anyone          from Santa, his reindeer, and "talk-
Pawtucket display did not negate         or to further Christianity, such             ing" wishing wells.
the implied endorsement of the           "passive and symbolic accommo-               Ceremonial Deism
Christian religion.                      dation" presents no realistic risk of           The Justices favoring these
The Pittsburgh Creche                    the establishment of any religions.          creche displays cite as a precede:nt
  Then last year the Court con-          Endorsement or Accommodation?                the Supreme Court's approval of
fronted another challenged Christ-         Because of the 5-4 split and the           legislative prayer in the 1982 deci-
mas creche display and came to the       noticeable disparity of opinions ex-         sion of Marsh v. Chambers. In that
opposite conclusion. For numerous        pressed in these recent cases, it has        case the Court addressed an Estab-
years each Christmas season, the         become clear that the federal courts         lishment Clause challenge to the
Holy Name Society, a Roman               are still desperately struggling to          Nebraska state legislature's prac-
Catholic group, was permitted to         find a workable standard to distin-          tice of opening each session with
display a creche in downtown             guish permissible government ac-             prayer led by a paid Presbyterian
Pittsburgh, PA. The creche, like         commodation  vis b uis unacceptable          chaplain. Noting that the chaplain
other creches, included a visual         governmental endorsement of any              had removed all reference to Christ
representation of the scene in the       religion. Apparently the only dif-           in his prayers after an earlier com-
manger in Bethlehem, including           ference between the acceptable               plaint from a Jewish legislator, the
figures of the infant Jesus, Mary        Pawtucket creche and the unlawful            Court held that such generic
Joseph, farm animals, shepherds,         Pittsburgh creche was the setting:           prayers at governmental functions
etc. An angel held a banner pro-         the Pawtucket display was placed             %erve  the legitimate secular pur-
claiming "Gloria in Excelsis Deo."       in close proximity to reindeer, a            pose of solemnizing public occa-
This creche was displayed by itself      Santa Claus, "talking" wishing               sions, expressing confidence in the
on the Grand Staircase in the center     wells, and other secular exhibits,           future, and encouraging what is
of the Allegheny County Court-           which supposedly "detracted"                 worthy of appreciation in society"
house.                                   from its religious significance. This           It has been suggested that this 0
  In a closeWdecision  (5-4, the         result led dissenting Justice                view of legislative prayer is "cere-
Court held the Pittsburgh creche         Kennedy to remark wryly that ma-             monial deism," and indeed it is.
display, unlike the one in Paw-          jority's jurisprudence has been re-          One might even argue that this sec-
tucket, violated the Establishment       duced to "little more than intuition         ularized view of prayer (and the
Clause because (1) the angel's           and a tape measure."                         creche)  is tantamount to blas-
words endorse a patently Christian         Although Establishment Clause              phemy.
message, and (2) unlike the Paw-         issues never admit of easy answers,             In conclusion, even though the
tucket case, nothing in the creche's     the Supreme Court's ostensibly               Reformed Christian would reject
setting detracted from that mes-         subjective and intuitive wander-             both private and public displays of
sage. Although the government            ings in this area of constitutional ju-      the creche as a violation of the Sec-
may "acknowledge" Christmas as a         risprudence is somewhat disturb-             ond Commandment, it is indeed
cultural phenomenon, said the            ing. But even more troubling is              disconcerting to learn that our
Court, it may not observe it as a        some of the dissenting Justices' rea-        Supreme Court is willing to "ac-
Christian holy day by suggesting         soning for allowing government in-           commodate" public prayer and
that the people praise God for the       volvement in and sponsorship of              Christmas creches only because
birth of Jesus.                          the Christmas creche displays.               they have lost their religious signif-
  The minority filed a bitter dis-         For example, Justice Kennedy's             icance and serve only to "solem-
sent suggesting that the Pittsburgh      opinions permitting government               nize" public occasions and con-
creche was essentially no different      sponsorship of such religious dis-           tribute to the seasonal celebration
from the Pawtucket one which had         plays suggest that the creche is a           of what is now a "predominantly
passed constitutional scrutiny.          "traditional symbol that over time           secular" holiday If the Supreme
They accused the majority of "la-        has acquired a secular component."           Court is willing to accommodate
tent hostility" toward religion, sug-    Other Justices quoted authorities            prayer and Christmas for these rea-
gesting that the majority's interpre-    who claim that the "cultural aspect          sons, then perhaps Christians have
tation of the Establishment Clause       of Christmas in this country now             won a Pyrrhic victory.
would "require a relentless extirpa-     exceeds the theological signifi-                Accordingly we ought to be very
tion of all contact between govern-      cance" and that "the folk-secular            wary of the view of many evangeli-
ment and religion." Rather, the dis-     aspects of Christmas are taking              cals and Catholics who suggest that

                                                                                    December 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer / I37


because this is a "Christian" nation,            gue that the government should ac-        tility? Surely it is not the govern-
generic prayers at governmental                  commodate religious practices; it is      ment's fault that our national motto
functions or in public schools and               quite different to suggest that gov-      ("In God We Trust!`), Christmas,
public creche displays sponsored                 ernment itself should sponsor these       and public prayer have become
by local government should be fa-                religious activities. If the practical    meaningless; but if they have, then
vored. The inevitable result of such             outcome of such "accommodation"           Christians should not insist that
state involvement is always the                  is a national ceremonial or secular       our government continue such per-
trivialization and degradation of                deism, maybe what this country            nicious practices. 0
true religion. It is one thing to ar-            needs is a little dose of "latent hos-




                                                 Can We Talk?
                                                 Can We Listen to
Contribution                                     Each Other?
Rev. Russ Dykstra  _I


   Being Reformed is a great privi-              shiping the one true God only,            truly to esteem the other better
lege. A Reformed believer, family,               about buying and selling on Sun-          than ourselves (Phil. 2).
and church all stand securely on                 day, about adultery, etc. The main           But it is also self-evident that our
the solid rock of the Scriptures.                lines are drawn, allowing us the          communication should have a pur-
Not only that, but the area in                   freedom to serve God and to de-           pose. Allow me to suggest that,
which they stand is distinctly                   velop the truth of Scripture. We          among other things, we must LB+
fenced off by the confessions. The               are "freely-bound"! What a bless-         TEN in order to LEARN from each
doctrines and the godly walk                     ing!                                      other; we must TALK in order to
taught in the Bible are clearly set                 However, problems can arise            INSTRUCT and ENCOURAGE
forth in the Reformed confessions.               over disagreements among mem-             each other in the truth.
As a Reformed believer, you know                 bers of the same denomination on             My great concern is that as Re-
what you believe, you know what                  non-confessional matters, or mat-         formed believers, we have lost
your church teaches, and you                     ters discussed in the confessions         much of our ability to communi-
know what the man in the pew                     but open to some difference of in-        cate with each other in non-confes-
next to you confesses - all the                  terpretation. It is here that Re-         sional matters. The problem often
doctrines contained in the confes-               formed Christians all too often fail      is that our emotions, rather than
sions. There ought not be any                    to TALK properly TO each other            our heads, rule our discussions,
questions about the doctrines of                 and, even more importantly, to LIS-       making good Reformed communi-
God, creation, Christ, or salvation;             TEN. This comment is based, not           cation all but impossible. Specifi-
for these truths are set down in the             only (or even primarily) on obser-        cally, consider four roadbloclks  to
creeds and consequently are                      vation of others, but rather observa-     good communication between Re-
confessed by all the members. Es-                tion of self. We can be too easily        formed believers.
sentially the same thing holds for a             satisfied that we have listened be-          We do not listen well:
proper walk. Although there are                  cause we heard the arguments,                1) When we are proud. A.
differences in life style among the              carefully analyzed them, and then         proud listener does not care `about
members of one denomination,                     refuted them. That is not necessar-       the brother, or his concerns. The
and even of one congregation, due                ily listening.                            proud man wants only to reveal
to Christian liberty, all know what                 It should be obvious to all that       his splendid debating skills, and
the confessions teach about wor-                 proper talking and listening de-          win the argument. With that atti-
                                                 mands, at the very least, the love of     tude, I do not listen in order to un-
                                                 Christ for the fellow member of the       derstand the brother's position; I
                                                 body of Christ. The experience of         only analyze his arguments in or-
Rev. Dyksfra  is pastor of the Profes-           Christ's love for us, wretched, un-       der to refute them. When I should
fanf Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa.              deserving sinners, will enable us         be listening, I am marshaling my
138 / The  Standard Bearer / December 15,199O


own arguments. Besides, there is            2) When we are unsure of our              humbly acknowledge our lack of
no need to listen, for I am right and     own position. A common reaction             understanding. It also removes
he is wrong. How sad.                     to being unsure in a discussion is to       suspicion, making us able "after
  2) When we are unsure of our            talk louder. -We cannot prove our           the example of the apostle, to judge
own position. Let me demonstrate          point immediately, so we try to buf-        and speak of (the other) in the most
this from my experience. As a             falo the brother with pomp and              favorable manner" (Canons, III, IV,
preacher, I am asked many ques-           noise and an abundance of words             Article 15). And God's grace
tions in catechism, societies, etc.,      that do not make much sense.                causes us to stand on the Rock who
some of which differ with my in-          Have you ever done that? To my              is Christ, secure and unmovable, so
struction. I have noticed that when       shame, I must confess this sin.             that we are not swept along by the
I have a good grasp of the truth at         3) When we are suspicious of              strong tides of public opinion.
issue and know it well enough to          the other. Why does this destroy               Pray for this, people of God.
prove it from Scripture, I can listen     good talking? Because he is not re-         Without this grace a congregatio:n
very well. The opposite is true           ally worth convincing. After all, he        or group of churches is sure to be
when I am unsure. Then I become           has evil motives. Besides, he is           battered by one storm after another
tense. I dare not allow the discus-       bullheaded; he is a radical or a bor-       - over non-confessional controver-
sion to continue long for fear it will    derline heretic. Why bother talking         sies. The smallest disagreement
go where I am lost - that I will          to him to teach and encourage him.          then brings quick and bitter polar-
have no answers. This fear pres-          It will only give him more opportu-         ization around opposite positions.
sures me to cut the discussion            nity to rant and rave. So maybe we          Suspicions and evil thoughts arise;
short. I do not listen well. Do you       will shout at him, or talk about him,       the name-calling begins again; gos-
ever have that in your discussions?       but it is no use trying to fdk to him.      sip maims and kills the brother.
  3) When we are suspicious of              4) When we are hysterical. (Re-           Soon few on either side are willing
the other. This happens when we           call my private definition given            or able to communicate. No one
harbor within evil thoughts about         above.) In this state we cannot talk        gains, except the devil, who has di-
the brother's orthodoxy, his life         to each other well because, for one         vided the church for a time, and `di-
style, or his motives. If we are sus-     thing, we tend to exaggerate. We            verted attention away from the one
picious, we judge. If we have             overstate our case and grossly cari-        great calling of the church, namely,
judged (and thus condemned), then         cature the brother's concerns. We           to preach the gospel.
why listen? We already know he is         jump to illogical conclusions and              But by the grace of God we can
(liberal/radical/a "200                   our condemnations are quickly               USE apoint of disagreement as an
percenter"/un-Reformed/pick               pronounced. We are not really talk-         OPPORTUNITY to develop the
your term).                               ing to the brother; we are justifying       truth and grow in our understand-
  4) When we are hysterical.              our fears, our hysteria.                    ing of it. We will be able comfort+
What follows is no formal defini-           What do you think? If you are             ably to sit down with any other
tion, but what I mean by hysterical       ready to pound the table and shout,         member of the church of Christ
is this - that without good reason,       "Right on! That is exactly the prob-        who confesses and walks in the
we are convinced that the fellow          lem in my church. We do not lis-            same Reformed truth we love. We
member is bent on destroying our          ten/talk to each other!" -be care-          will be able to listen, to talk, and to
churches, and if his way prevails,        ful. Too often "we" means "they."           extend the right hand of fellowshJp
we are all doomed. (Remember, we          And if you are shaking your head            when we part, even if the differ-
are discussing non-confessional is-       in pity for the writer, and patting         ences (over these non-confessional
sues - not necessarily unimpor-           yourself on the back because you            matters) are unresolved. For we
tant issues -but still, not confes-       do not have such problems with              are one in the truth of the Scrip-
sional ones.) When hysteria reigns,       Reformed communication, then,               tures as set forth in the confessions.
we cannot listen. They say "7," we        frankly, I pity you for the beam in            Isn't it a great privilege to be Re-
hear "7000." They write "A," we           your eye. Do not consider this arti-        formed? Cl
read "Z." They say, `Warning," we         cle to be correct until you can say,
hear, "ACCUSATION!" They say              "I see myself in this. I do not listen
"Liberty," we hear "HERESY, SIN!"         as I ought, nor speak as I should to
And we are not listening.                 my fellow believer." Let each of us        When I read God's precious truth.,
  The same emotional roadblocks           see his own personal weaknesses,            (Which I've loved from early
prevent us from talking to each           his own sins, the roadblocks he sets              youth),
other. We cannot talk to each other:      up (knowingly or not) to listening         Then I realize His grace,
  1) When we are proud. Then we           and talking to another.                    As I humbly seek His face.
do not care about the brother. Our          Can we, then, listen/talk to each        When I tread the narrow way,
words are not spoken to help, to          other? Yes, but only by the grace of        (All by grace), His will obey,
lead, or to teach. We speak only to       God. The grace of God alone hum-            `Tis in mercy I am blest;
be heard and to win the argument          bles our proud hearts. Grace               In the Lord have peace and rest.
for our glory.                            builds us up in the faith so that we
                                          are confident of our position or                                - SB, March 1,1932

                                                                                    December 15,199O  / The Standard Bearer / 139


Search The                                      Pressing On
Scriptures                                      To Perfection
Rev. Gise VanBaren


Read and study Philippians                      on that prize even as Christ had         labors on this earth were directed
3:12-21.                                        "laid hold" of Paul in regeneration      towards this great goal. It is that
   After speaking of his own attain-            and in conversion.                       worthy goal towards which every
ments, which Paul counted as                      Notice how Paul runs. Note             child of God earnestly strives.
"dung" that he might win Christ,                first: he knows that he has not yet        Verses 15 and 16 point out the
the apostle continues by showing                attained. There is a necessary effort    proper mind of the "perfect" ones
the urgency of striving for the                 which must be put forth. Also, he        -perfect of course in principle
"prize of the high calling of God in            runs with full concentration on the      and on the basis of Christ's com-
Christ Jesus."                                  race: "If by any means I might at-       pleted work. These are "single-
   Verses 12-14 describe the striving           tain...." With all that he has, with     minded." They are not easily
saint in terms of a foot race. The              every ounce of strength, he will run     turned aside or distracted from
apostle appears to be very well ac-             to the goal.                             their high calling. Where there are
quainted with such a race. The                    Consider, too, that this exertion      instances when the child of God
course for it was, we are told, some            of Paul is very great. It is the "one    does turn aside, God speaks
607 feet in length. Races could in-             thing" which he will do. He must         through His Word and appliles  that
volve one or more circuits around               not be distracted by anything about      by His Spirit, so that he is turned
the track. The striving of the run-             him. Usually the man who ran the         back again to the course which he
ners and the desire to attain the               race would lay aside all unneces-        must run.
goal were known to Paul and his                 sary clothing so that nothing would        In verses 17 through 21 the apos-
readers. The crown was usually a                interfere in the running. So Paul is     tle calls God's people to imitate
wreath of leaves placed upon the                fixed upon one thing: the goal be-       Paul. Imitators are flfollowers.N  It
head of the victor.                             fore him.                                is true that Scripture elsewhere
   So does this apostle describe his              Nor will Paul look back. He            commands us to be imitators of
own spiritual race. He has not at-              forgets the things which are be-         God (Eph. 5:1X There is, however,
tained nor yet was he made perfect.             hind. This surely does not mean          no conflict. Paul teaches in I
He had earlier described the zeal               that Paul no longer remembered           Corinthians  11:1, "Be ye followers
he displayed before his conversion.             the past. In fact, he has just re-       (imitators) of me, even as I also am
But he had not "attained" through               counted much of his past life in the     of Christ." Paul is not simply re-
all of that effort. Nor has he now at-          earlier verses. Nor would he want        quiring church members to imitate
tained. He is still in the process of           to forget his conversion on the road     him -but to imitate Christ in the
running the race.                               to Damascus. But he "forgets" in         same way that Paul does. The
   There is before him the mark:                the sense that he is not resting on      church is to note all those who
the prize of the high calling of God            his laurels. He will not boast in        walk as.Paul  does.
in Jesus. This prize is the glory of            that which is already accom-               There are many who do not run
the heavenly in fellowship with his             plished. That represented only the       the race and hold to the course. Of
Lord, Jesus Christ. All else is of no           means whereby he attained to his         this Paul speaks "weeping." It
worth compared to that great prize.             present position.                        grieves him greatly to observe
He would "lay hold" (apprehend)                   Now he reaches forth to those          those who claim to hold to the
                                                things which are before. As the          Word of God, who insist that they
                                                runner strains to touch the ribbon       are running. the same race as does
                                                marking the finish line, so Paul         Paul, but they lie.
                                                strained toward the final goal: ev-        The apostle points out that there
                                                erlasting glory with Jesus.              are those within the church also
                                                  The reward is clearly in Paul's        who do nothing but seek the satis-
Rev. VunBaren is pastor of the Profes-          mind's eye: it is the high calling of    faction of their flesh. Some call
fanf Refomzed Church of Hudsonville,            God in Christ. He anticipates the        them "sensualists" - those con-
Michigan.                                       glory of the heavenly All of his         cerned only with that which

140 I The Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


pleases their senses. Their "god" is       been able to prevent the aging pro-             5. How is one to "forget the
their belly. These work with the           cess from continuing, or death from        things behind"?
goal of eating and drinking. They          coming. It is humiliating indeed to             6. Verse 12 points out that we
glory in their shame - that is, they       have a body which falls prey to ev-        are not already perfect, but verse 15
find joy in an earthly, sinful walk.       ery disease and can be racked with         says that we are. How are we to
They "mind earthly things." Paul           various pains. But we look for that        harmonize these two statements'?
paints a sad picture of those who          which is to come. Even as Christ                7. In what ways do we reach
are in the church for earthly, selfish,    received the resurrection body, so         forth to those things which are be-
sinful reasons. Some of these had          shall those who belong to Christ.          fore?
earlier been helpers of Paul, but          Christ, who has subjected all things            8. How, then, do verses 12-14 af-
had turned against him.                    to Himself, will also change our           fect our own lives? Is this our ex-
   The faithful Christian is not so.       bodies in the great day of the resur-      perience?
His "conversation" (citizenship) is        rection. Then we shall possess                  9. How does God "reveal" to us
in heaven. He knows that he is a           what He has even now.                      when we are "otherwise minded"
pilgrim and stranger on this earth.           It is no wonder that the Chris-         (vs. 15)?
He is not here to satisfy his flesh.       tian, understanding all of this, does           10. What is the rule (vs. 16) that
He is not seeking merely earthly           not set his heart on what fills his        has directed us in the past, and
things. He looks to heaven for the         belly but on what shall be in glory        must direct us also in the future?
return of Jesus Christ. It is a pow-       for his body. Only a fool, and all              11. Why should Paul insist that
erful, moving emotion which is             unbelievers are fools, would be so         the Philippians be followers of
presented! It is a desire, a longing,      concerned with the earthly that the        Paul? Ought they not to be follow-
far stronger than the desire of            truth concerning the heavenly is           ers of God?
husband for wife, or parents for           simply scorned. The believer                    12. What does Paul state in Ro-
children. The Lord is in heaven -          knows that the glorious resurrec-          mans 9:2 of his concern about
and soon He is coming again.               tion causes all other earthly things       brethren? Why was Paul so con-
  Why should there be such an ob-          to pale into insignificance. All of        cerned as to "weep" (vs. 18)? How
vious and strong desire? Verse 21          this explains why the apostle is so        do we show this sort of attitude?
shows to us the hope of the child of       insistent upon running the race                 13. Can you mention instances
God: our "vile" (humiliated) bod-          with his undivided attention. "If          of the sins mentioned in verse 19
ies shall be changed like unto His         by any means I might attain unto           that occur today?
glorified body. One may read of            the resurrection of the dead" (vs.              14. How do men "glory in their
the body "before and after" in I           11).                                       shame" and "mind earthly things"?
Corinthians 15. When Christ was            QUESTIONS:                                      15. How did Paul point out and
raised from the dead, He did not              1. In verse 12 Paul states that he      refute those who "minded earthhy
lose His humanity or His human             had not attained. Does not the             things" in Romans 3:8; 6:l; 16:18?
body. The Divine Son remains for-          Christian "attain" in his regenera-             16. How are these "enemies of
ever united to the human. We shall         tion and conversion?                       the cross of Christ"?
see Him in glory and shall be able            2. What is the point in "run-                17. What is the "conversation"'
to talk to Him. Scripture reminds          ning" when we know that God has            of verse 20? How do we reveal
us that "flesh and blood" shall not        chosen unto Himself a people in            that?
inherit the kingdom of heaven. But         Christ from eternity (Eph. 1:4)?                18. Find in I Corinthians 15 the
Christ says of His resurrection               3. Verse 12 mentions "appre-            references to our present body, and
body that it is "flesh and bones."         hend" and "apprehended of" (laid           compare that body with the body
(Can you find the Scriptural refer-        hold of). What can be said of this         which shall be ours after the resur-
ences for this?) It is a body that is      play upon words?                           rection.  17
perfect, and perfectly adapted to            4. How many times does Paul
the heavenly. It is without sin, not       use the word "brethren" in the
subject to suffering or death; it          chapter? What would this indicate?
abides forevermore. Can the scien-
tist explain all of that? Of course
not. But Scripture testifies of the
truth of it.                                              I have a friend, whose faithful love
  Even so shall the Christian's                                    Is more than all the world to me,
body be changed. Now it is a                              `Tis higher than the heights above,
"vile" or humiliated body It is not                                And deeper than the boundless sea:
a very lovely thought to think of                                       So old, so new,
my body decaying in the grave.                                          So strong, so true;
On this earth, a person pampers his                       Before the earth received its frame
body and tries to keep it function-                       He loved me - Blessed be His name!
ing as well as possible through ev-                                                  - SB, October 15,193l
ery possible means. But no one has

                                                                                    December 15,199O  I The Standard Bearer I IL41


                                                Book Review
THEONOMY: A REFORMED                               But other issues are also ad-           in this reviewer's thinking, a major
CRITIQUE, ed. by William S.                     dressed. The different uses of the         fault. Postmillennialism is an error
Barker & W. Robert Godfrey; Zon-                word law in Scripture are dis-             which lies at the bottom of theon-
dervan Publishing House, 1990;                  cussed; a comparison is made be-           omy and no criticism of theonomy
413pp., $14.95 (paper). [Reviewed               tween Dispensationalism, theon-            is effective without a repudiation of
by Prof. Herman Hanko.]                         omy, and Reformed theology; a cri-         the error of postmillennialism.
   Theonomy is a movement with                  tique of Meredith Cline's position           That the book is weak at this
which the church has had to reckon              (described in the book as `anti-           point is evident from two consider-
in the last couple of decades.                  neonomist") is offered; a criticism        ations. In the first place, in a chap-
Closely associated with a conserva-             of the position that the magistrate        ter by Timothy J. Keller entitled,
tive postmillennialism, theonomy,               must uphold both tables of the law         "Theonomy and the Poor: Some Re-
in one form or another, has had                 (a view which is, of necessity, main-      flections," the author makes a major
much influence in fundamentalistic              tained by theonomists) is included;        concession to post-millennial
and evangelistic circles. While there           and the claim of theonomists that          thought when he emphaticallly  af-
is no complete `unity among conser-             they stand in the tradition of             firms the calling of the church to
vative post-millennialists on some              Calvin, the Westminster Confes-            transform culture: "I heartily agree
of the details of theonomy, all agree           sions, and Puritan theology is sub-        that Christians should seek t:o bring
that the Old Testament civil laws               jected to careful examination.             about biblical reform and tramsfor-
are still in force in the new dispen-              For all these reasons, the book         mation of our whole society" (p.
sation, and, when these laws are                offers an abundance of material on         288). While it can perhaps be ar-
enforced by civil governments, the              the position of theonomy and               gued that this position does not
kingdom of Christ will be realized              Christian reconstruction. And it in-       necessarily commit one to post-mil-
in this present history as all the in-          cludes some helpful discussions as         lennialism, it remains a fact that the
stitutions of society become Chris-             well on how the theonomists' posi-         idea of transforming culture lies at
t i a n .                                       tion must be criticized.                   the root of post-millennial thtinking.
  While Greg Bahnsen's views re-                   Nevertheless, the book has its          And it remains to be proved that
ceive the most attention in this                weaknesses. There are some in-             Scripture anywhere calls the church
book (chiefly because of his influ-             stances of higher criticism in the         to this task. Indeed, if this is indeed
ential work entitled Theonomy), the             book. One illustration of this is in       the calling of the church, she has
views of others also, such a Rousas             the chapter by Bruce K. Waltke. He         miserably failed in this calling
Rushdoony and Gary North, are                   writes:                                    throughout the centuries; and the
addressed. The critique is offered                 In fact, the Book of the Covenant       present time holds little hope of the
by the professors of Westminster                probably draws heavily from the Code       church having any more suocess  in
East in Philadelphia and Westmin-               of Hammurabi,  and without contro-         our degenerate age. But it has yet
ster West in Escondito, California.             versy the Book of Proverbs finds inspi-    to be proved that Christ, the King
  Most attention is given to the po-            ration in Egyptian sapiential litera-      of a heavenly kingdom, indeed
sition of Greg Bahnsen: Old Testa-              ture. The Ten Commandments give            calls the church to this impossible
ment civil laws are still in force in           cause for obeying thefirst  four com-      task.
the new dispensation. Four whole                mandments . . . but none for the last        In the second place, in the same
chapters and parts of other chap-               five, probably because  the former are     chapter, the author grants a funda-
ters are devoted to this subject.               unique in ancient Near Eastern litera-     mental point of post-millennial
Some of the criticism offered is                ture and the latter are found com-         (and theonomic) thinking when he
telling and the difficulties of apply-          monly . . . (p. 84).                       agrees that Israel's theocracy is au-
ing Bahnsen's principles are clearly               While Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.            thoritative for government today.
enumerated. Especially Bahnsen's                writes an excellent criticism of           By making this concession, the au-
problems with the Old Testament                 postmillennialism, the rest of the         thor not only loses sight of the fy@-
penal code (the punishments which               book does not deal with this impor-        cal character of the Old Testament
the civil law required for various              tant aspect of theonomic thinking.         theocracy,, but grants the argument
infractions, especially the sins                In fact, in other places in the book,      of the theonomists at a crucial
which required capital punish-                  postmillennialism is tacitly or ex-        point. He states, in fact, that room
ment) are explored.                             plicitly assumed to be true. This is,      can easily be made for theonomy

142 I The Standard Bearer I December 15,199O


although only on the basis of a so-      therefore, while offering some criti-      movement. John R. Muether  points
cial agenda for the church (p. 397).     cisms of theonomy, are on the              out this union on page 258 and D.
  In other words, while the book         whole careful to avoid any criti-          Clair Davis seems to approve of it
contains some criticisms of theon-       cisms of substance because they            in his concluding chapter (see pp.
omy, it never deals with funda-          are agreed with post-millennialist's       397,399).
mental errors of the theonomic po-       basic ideas. If only theonomists              The book impressed upon me
sition. Indeed, D. Clair Davis, in a     would modify their position some-          the need for a thorough study of
concluding chapter, argues that          what, all would be well.                   Scripture on the whole question
room must be made for theonomy              There are even some suggestions          of the law in order that a gen-
in the thinking and life of the          in the book that at least some of the      uinely Reformed apologetic can be
church, for the two can and must         authors approve of the union of            forged to combat the wrong of
co-exist. The authors of the book,       theonomy with the charismatic              Theonomy. Cl



                                         News From
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                      Our Churches

CONGREGATIONAL                           young people ages 13 and up were           place, and most of the brick-work is
HIGHLIGHTS                               encouraged to attend. Bible study          finished. And, by the time we read
  Many of our congregations are          was also taken from Mark's gospel.         this in the "News," no doubt much
growing. This fact showed itself in         Secondly, many of our congrega-         more will be accomplished.
two different ways lately.               tions are busy either in making               And a building committee has
  First, many of our congregations       plans to build, or in already work-        been appointed by the consistory of
are adding societies.                    ing on various construction pro-           the Hull, IA PRC. Their mandate is
  Recently an Adult Bible Study          jects.                                     to determine the size and type of a
was organized in the Hope PRC of            The congregation of our Faith           new church building, and as close
Redlands, CA. This group was in-         PRC in Jenison, MI, for example, re-       as possible the cost as well. It is the
tended to target couples with a          cently approved in concept, plans          opinion of Hull's consistory that it
combined age of over 70 and sin-         to add a double-wing addition to           would serve the welfare of the comn-
gles with an age of over 35. They        their building. One side would             gregation if building could take
began their study with Behold He         provide classroom space, while the         place in 1992.
Cometh, the  commentary on Revela-       other would serve as a social room.        MISSIONARY NEWS
tion by Rev. H. Hoeksema.                Existing rooms in the sanctuary               Rev. M. Kamps has declined the
  The consistory of our Bethel PRC       would be removed, adding much-             call he was considering to serve as
in Elk Grove Village, IL is behind       needed seating capacity in the main        missionary to Larne, Northern Ire-
the formation of a Bible Study           auditorium. Plans also call for the        land.
group in their congregation as well.     auditorium to be air-conditioned.             Rev. R. Dykstra has declined the
Currently this group is functioning      This project is scheduled to begin         call he was considering to serve as
without formal organization. The         in May, D.V.                               missionary in the Venice, FL area.
group has chosen to spend their             In mid-October the congregation            You may also remember that our
time together studying the gospel        of our Hope PRC in Walker, MI ap-          last news column contained an
of Mark.                                 proved plans to remodel their              item regarding the Interim Guide-
  In mid-September there was an          church building. Plans call.for a          lines Conference in Jamaica to be
organizational meeting of what is        narthex addition, re-roofing, air-         held January `91, D.V. Mr. Clare
now known as the Young People's          conditioning, lighting improve-            Prince will be unable to participate,
Society of the Pella, IA PRC. All        ment, and sanctuary window re              and Mr. .Ed Gritters from our Hope
                                         p l a c e m e n t .                        Redlands, CA congregation will go
                                            The past weeks have seen fast           in his place.
                                         development in the building of the         MINISTERIAL CALLS
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-    new church sanctuary of the Lyn-              Rev. R. Moore has received the
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,     den, WA PRC. The walls are up,             call to serve as pastor from our
Michigan.                                the roof is on, the steeple is in          Randolph, WI congregation.  q

                                                                                  December 15,199O  /The Standard Bearer I 143


  THE
STANDARD                                                                                                       SECOND CL4SS
                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
 BEARER                                                                                                        Grand Rapids, Michigan
 l?O.  Box 6064
 Grand Rapids, Ml 49506



WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                         great, and that our Lord is above all
   On September 13,1990, our                      The Adult Bible Study of the                 gods. Whatsoever the Lord
beloved parents, MR. and MRS.                   Southeast Protestant Reformed                  pleased, that did he in heaven, and
BARTEL ZANDSTRA, SR., cele-                     Church wishes to extend sincere                in earth, in the seas, and all Ideep
brated their 40th wedding anniver-              sympathy to our sister, Martha Velt-           places."
sary. We, their children and grand-             ing, in the loss of her-husband,               Rev. J. Kortering, President
children, thank our covenant God in             LOUIS VELTING.                                 Tom Bodbyl, Clerk
heaven, who has given them to us                  "I will lift up mine eyes unto the
and to each other these years. Our              hills, from whence cometh my help"             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
prayer for them is that God will con-           (Psalm 121:i).                                    On December 30,1990, our par-
tinue to keep them in His care, until           Rev. Steven Key, President                     ents and grandparents, MR. and
the time it pleases Him to make all             Beth Kuiper, Secretary                         MRS. LARRY HUISKEN will cele-
things perfect for them.                                                                       brate their 30th wedding annliver-
   "I will lift up mine eyes unto the           WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                            sary. We give thanks to our
hills, from whence cometh my help.                On November 23,199O our par-                 covenant Father for the love, guid-
My help cometh from the Lord,                   ents and grandparents, REV. and                ance, and instruction they have
which made heaven and earth" (Ps.               MRS. RICHARD MOORE, cele-                      given us. May the Lord continue to
121:1, 2).                                      brated their 30th wedding anniver-             bless and keep them in His care in
John and Claire Zandstra                        sary. We are thankful to our heav-             the coming years.
   Lindsay and Kelli                            enly Father for giving us God-fear-               "From everlasting to everlasting
Peter and Julie Zandstra                        ing parents, and for the love and              the Lord's love is with those `that
   Brenda, Sandra, Laura, Dale,                 Christian instruction we have re-              fear Him, and His righteousness
Pamela, Joanna, Brett                           ceived from them in these years.               with their children's children"
David and Karla Zandstra                          "But the mercy of the Lord is
   Bat-t, Rhonda, Krysta                                                                       !I!!?r!na~do%~t?zr  Huisken
Charles and Karla Zandstra                      from everlasting to everlasting upon              Jeanette, Mary, and Sara
   Charles Jr., Jodi, Holly, Dana, Alyssa       them that fear him, and his righ-              LaRae Huisken
Wilbur and Mary Bruinsma                        teousness unto children's children"            Jared Huisken
   Brad, Heather, Mandi, Megan                  (Ps. 103:17).                                  Leah Huisken
Daniel and Dawn Zandstra                        Brian and Carolyn Tolsma                       Jan Huisken
   Todd and Michelle                               Derek, Cindy, Curtis, Justin, and                                           Redlands. CA
Joanne Zandstra                                   Julie
Bartel Jr. and Jan Zandstra                     Henry and LeeAnn  Ferguson
   Brianna                                        Ashley, Scott, Todd, and Kelsey
Jeff and Betty `Berens                          Brian and Denise Gritters
Mark Zandstra                                      Michon  and Britany          -.
Roseanne  Zandstra                                                                                    T W O   F O R   O N E
                                Lansing, IL     Jack and Brenda Brands
                                                David Moore
CONGRATULATIONS!                                Melanie Moore                                                 Lecture Tape
   Rev. Jason Kortering has, by                 Joel Moore                                     Reformation For the Church Today
God's grace, completed thirty years             Rachel Moore                                          Rev. R. Moore, speaker
in the ministry of the gospel. The              Stacie Moore                                                October 30,199O
                                                Stephanie Moore                  Hull, Iowa
Congregation of Grandville Protes-                                                                         Reformed Witness
tant Reformed Church extends con-                                                                          Committee Lecture
                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
gratulations to him in observing this              The consistory with its congrega-
milestone and, in particular, gives             tion of the Grandville Protestant Re-               Wars and Rumors of Wars
thanks to God that six years of that            formed Church express their Chris-                    Rev. R. Moore, speaker
ministry have now been given to us.             tian sympathy to Randy and Peggy                            October l&l990
   "How beautiful are the feet of               Scott and family in the loss of their                 Ladies' League Lecture
them that preach the gospel of                  son and brother, BENJAMIN
peace, and bring glad tidings of                BRECKENRIDGE, on October 31,                          Cost: $3.00, payable to
good things" (Romans 10:15).                    1990.                                                      Ref. Wit. Committee
   May God richly bless Rev. Kor-                  May they continue to experience                             order from
tering in the remaining years of his            the Lord's sustaining grace and the                            Rev. Moore
ministry.                                       comfort of His Word in Psalm                                  1204 3rd St.
Congregation of the Grandville PRC              1355, 6: "I know that the Lord is                      Hull, IA 51239-0497

144 / The Standard Bearer / December 15,199O


