A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





Vol. 67, No. 7
lanuary I, 1992


Contents                                                             January I, 1991
Meditation - Rev. Jason L. Korfering
   BEHOLD, I COME QUICKLY                                                                     147

Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
   THE APPROACH TO COVENANT CHILDREN (5)                                                      149     Semi-monthly, except monthly during  June, July,
                                                                                                      and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                                      lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
Decency-and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                           at  Grand  Rapids,  Mich.
   FAMILY VISITATION (2)                                                                      151     POSTMASTER:  Send address changes to The
                                                                                                      Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand  flapids,  MI
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A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C,Hanko                                                           EiTORlAL  COMMITTEE
                                                                                                      Editor: Prof. David  J.  En&ma
   COLUMBA: MISSIONARY TO SCOTLAND                                                            153     Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                      Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                             DEPARTMENT  EDITORS
                                                                                                      Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
   CONTENTMENT                                                                                156     Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                                      Critters, Rev. Carl Haak, Prof. Herman Hanko,
From Holy Writ - Rev. George C. Lubbers                                                               Rev.  Jqhn  Hey!, Rev.  M,arvin  Kamps,  Rev.  Kenneth
                                                                                                      Koole,.Rev.  Jason Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr.
   EXPOSITION OF THE SONG OF MOSES (EXODUS 15:lff.)                                           156     James  Lanting,  Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.
                                                                                                      Marybeth  Lubbers, Rev. James  Slopsema,  Rev.
                                                                                                      Charles Terpstra, Rev.  Cise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald
ALL AROUND US - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                        158     VanOverloop.  Mr. Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard
                                                                                                      Woudenberg.
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146 I The Standard Bearer I January 1,199l


                                          Behold, I
Meditation                                Come Quickly
Rev. Jason Kortering


  And he said unto me, These              quickly," it is not a reference to the    us, the church. It required His lo,ve
sayings are faithful ad true:             angel, but to the One who sends           of self-denial even unto the lonely
                                                                                    cry out of hell, "My God, my God,
and the Lord God of the holy              the message through the angel,
                                          namely, JesusChrist.                      why hast thou forsaken me?"
prophets sent his angel to shew             The context also establishes              What love!
unto his servants the things              clearly that Jesus speaks of His            But, there is more. Having satis-
which must shortly be done.               coming as a bridegroom. In the            fied divine justice, Jesus was ap-
Behold, I come quickly: blessed           previous chapter we read, "And I          proved by God and raised from the
is he that keepeth the sayings of         John saw the holy city, new               dead. Having ascended into
                                                                                    heaven He now ministers to His
the prophecy                              Jerusalem, coming down from God
                 of this book.            out of heaven, prepared as a bride        bride-to-be from heaven. By I-l%
                  Revelation 22:6,7       adorned for her husband" (21:2).          Holy Spirit He deals with her
                                          In the subsequent verses, the New         whorish nature and brings her into
                                          Jerusalem is described as the bride       conformity with the holy law of
                                          (vs. 9ff.). Later, toward the end of      God. To be sure, it requires tears of
  Behold, I come quickly!                 chapter 22, we read, "And the             repentance and daily struggle of
  Jesus speaks these words as the         Spirit and the bride say, Come" (vs.      faith, but it is real. From His ex-
Bridegroom to His Bride.                  17). The urgency by which Jesus           alted position in glory, Jesus has
  Are they spoken to you? Are             speaks the words of this text is that     written His Word, the Bible, for the
you part of the Bride of Christ?          of a bridegroom assuring his bride        well-being of His bride. He has
  That makes all the difference as        that he is coming quickly.                commissioned pastors to speak on
to the seriousness by which we re-           There is a wedding in the future.      His behalf to His bride. All of this
ceive these words.                           The bride awaits it with expecta-      is to encourage her, to urge her to
  There is no doubt but that these        tion.                                     remain faithful and to resist all
are the words of Jesus spoken to             As ChrisYs bride, we have be-          temptation to be faithless and com-
His beloved church. On the sur-           come endeared to Him. Our Eter-           mit fornication. He holds before us
face, I know, it might appear as if       nal Father has ordained our mar-          the great day when He will come
they are the words of the angel. In       riage in His counsel of election. In      for the wedding, when He will
verse 6 we read, "And he said unto        the fullness of time, God revealed        clothe His bride with the white
me, These sayings are faithful and        His love to us by sending His Son         wedding garments of His perfect
true: and the Lord God of the holy        for the express purpose of obtain-        righteousness and take her to him-
prophets sent his angel to shew           ing the marriage license. This He         self for the perfect marriage in
unto his servants...." The angel is       has done by meeting the penalty of        heaven, to the glory of the Father.            .
communicating the truth of God to         the law of God, namely death. You           He is the One who says, "Be-
John by way of the vision. Accord-        see, we are not attractive or beauti-     hold, I come quickly"
ing to verses 8,9 John subsequently       ful as a potential bride, in our-           His coming is not an isolated
bows down to the angel and is cau-        selves. The ravages of sin are            event at the end of the ages.
tioned that he must worship God           deeply ingrained in our nature, and         Behold, I am continually coming!
alone. The message which he               by that nature we have practiced          This is the idea of the book of Reve-
brings is from Jesus. When we             every abominable form of spiritual        lation. The three main divisions of
read in verse 7, "Behold, I come          whoredom. This did not just hap-          the book revolve around the seven
                                          pen. It was exactly according to          seals of the book, the seven trum-
                                          God's word: "The day thou eatest          pets, and the seven vials. There :is
                                          thereof, thou shalt surely die"; and      progress in the unfolding of the se-
Rev, Korterkg is pastor of the Protes-    "The wages of sin is death." It was       cret counsel of God regarding all.
tant Reformed Church of Grandville,       no small thing for Jesus to obtain        events in nature and history, which
Michigan.                                 the legal right to become married to'     finally bring forth the Christ. All
                                                                                     January 1,1991/  The Standard Bearer / 147


through history, Jesus is completing          Peter 3:9, `The Lord is not slack         prophets, who are instructed by Je-
the gathering of His church. He               concerning his promise, as some           sus, who carries the authority of
sends forth the gospel ministry to            men count slackness; but is long-         the Lord God Himself? Some
the ends of the earth in order that           suffering to us-ward, not willing         Greek manuscripts suggest the
His bride may be made perfect. At             that any should perish, but that all      translation, "Lord God of the spirit
the same time, He is bringing judg-           should come to repentance."               of the prophets." Whichever one
ment upon the wicked, in order                  Jesus understands that we might         we use, the point is the same: The
that in the end He may justly cast            grow impatient.                           word of the prophets is not that of
all the workers of iniquity into ev-            Love is that way. When you              men, but of the Spirit of the Living
erlasting perdition.                          long for His presence, it seems to        God.
   His coming then is directly re-            take so long. With eagerness we              One conclusion we may draw
lated to the events that take place           await the wedding, and we ask,            from this is that we can safely place
in the world about us. Jesus de-              where is Jesus? There is also the as-     our future in the hands of our
scribed it in Matthew 24 as `birth            pect of temptation. Our faithful-         Bridegroom who is coming for us.
pangs." Wars, natural calamities,             ness to Jesus is being sorely tested.       No wonder then that we read in
apostasy, and all the rest are the            The devil comes with every form of        verse 10, "Seal not the sayings of
birth pangs of history which finally          evil. He flirts with us, trying to get    the prophecy of this book; for the
deliver Christ to us at the end.              us to be unfaithful toward our            time is at hand." This book must
   Are you aware of this? Oh, bride           Lord. How frequently we commit            be open and read for now. It forms
of Christ, the events taking place            spiritual fornication. This wears on      the content of the gospel for the
about us shout loudly, Jesus is com-          us. There are moments when we             precious bride of Christ who ea-
ing! The great upheavals in Russia            are inclined to give up. Often we         gerly awaits His coming. The day
and the Eastern Bloc countries have           sink into deep despair, fully aware       will come when it is too late. This is
changed the political structure of            that we are not worthy of awaiting        expressed in verse 11, "He that is
the world forever. The polarization           a marriage to the Son of God. We          unjust, let him be unjust still: and
of the third world countries and the          fear whether we will be able to en-       he which is filthy, let him be filthy
increasing threat of terrorism tell us        dure unto the end, threatened as          still: he that is righteous, let him be
of the nearness of the Antichrist.            we are by the wiles of the devil as       righteous still: and he that is holy,
Even the bowels of the earth are              he tempts us, and by the prospect         let him be holy still." In the end
rumbling and the rocks are rent.              of the suffering required if we are       there will be no more opportunity
Terrible plagues of diseases and              to be loyal to our Husband.               for salvation. Now is the day of
famine are causing a rise in the                Hence He added words of assur-          salvation!
death rate throughout the world.              ance that we can count on it, He is         Let us then respond as the bride
The gospel is being brought                   coming.                                   by appreciating the closing lexhor-
throughout the world as never be-               Expressions of this are found in        tation, "Blessed is he that keepeth
fore.                                         verse 6. The first one reads, "These      the sayings of the prophecy of this
  Yes, Jesus is coming, and that              sayings are faithful and true."           book."
quickly.                                      "Faithful" reminds us that they are         Are you one of the bride of
  You may say, thousands of years             not fictitious, not a pipe dream, but     Christ? Out of true faith we say
is not very quick.                            authentic. They come to us from           with the spirit, "Come!" By saying
  Jesus did not say, I come "imme-            the Lord Jesus and are exactly ac-        this we realize the great calling we
diately," but "quickly." The idea is          cording to His promise. They are          have to be faithful. The grace for
"with all due speed." When Presi-             "true" in that we can count on            such faithfulness comes in tlhe way
dent Bush declared to Saudi Arabia            them, we can place all our trust in       of prayer, reading the Scriptures,
that we would come to their rescue            them. May God give us the eyes to         regular worship on the Lord's day
and protect them quickly, it took             perceive the meaning of all the           (see vs. 9).
time. We had to move more than                events taking place about us and to         Come, Lord Jesus, come
200,000 troops; all the heavy ar-             cling to the blessed hope of His          quickly! Cl
tillery had to be `shipped by air or          coming. It is real!
sea; the support services had to be             Such a guarantee, however, is no
arranged; and political pressures             better than the person making it.
had to be applied. It was amazing             How often we get burned in busi-
how quickly all this was done, yet            ness deals because of empty               I need not know the path ahead;
it did take time. So with Jesus' com-         promises. The Lord understands              My Saviour's walked that way,
ing again. All the events are taking          and adds, "The Lord God of the            And knows each step that I should
place with speed. God's time clock            holy prophets sent his angel to                   take,
is ticking away steadily and persis-          shew unto his servants the things           He'll show me day by day.
tently in order that all the plans of         which must shortly be done." Can
God and the events which must                 anyone find a more sure founda-                            - SB, February 1,1932
come to pass are fully realized.              tion for future glory than words
How reassuring are the words of II            which come by way of the

148  I The Standard Bearer/January  1,199l


                                           The Approach
                                           to Covenant
Editorial                                  Children (5)

   In response to a letter from a the-        Perhaps others have asked them-           been under the influence of the gospel,
ologian and a Christian educator in        selves as they read my defense of            he does nof have any living part with
the Netherlands Reformed Congre-           approaching the children of believ-          it and is nof able fo see the things of
gations  (The Standard Bearer, Nov. 1,     ers as saved children of God, "Does          the kingdom of God, and that he con-
1990),  I have examined the                he then suppose that all the natural         tinue in fhis state for 40,50, or 60
covenant conception that views             children of believers are elect, re-         years, while all fhis time he has the
baptized children as unregenerated         born children of God?'                       seed of regeneration within his head..
until such time as they are con-              Before taking up the matter of            Thus a person may probably be con-
verted by the gospel. I have judged        presumptive regeneration, I should           vet-fed  when he is 70 or 80 years of age,
this conception to be biblically and       give a word of explanation about             although he is regenerated from in-
creedally unreformed. A main crit-         the charge of the men of the NRC             fancy. With this we cannot agree. Ii
icism is that it makes good, healthy       that the PR position involves the            may very well be that a seed in nature
child-rearing impossible, practi-          teaching of "dormant regenera-               can continue fo live if it has no contacf
cally.                                     tion." Not only do they suggest              wifh the soil whatever for many years.
   It remains to explain and defend        this in their letter, but one of them,       But it is quite inconceivable fhaf a seed
the Protestant Reformed approach           Mr. James W. Beeke, also explicitly          can be implanted in the soil and be un-
to the baptized children as elect          states that this is the doctrine of the      der the influence of rain and sunshine
and regenerated. This must be              PRC in his book, Bible Docfrine  for         without sprouting into life and bring-
done in light of the fear, or charge,      Teens and Young Ad& (Vol. I, pp.             ing forfh fruit. And the same may be
that the view of the Protestant Re-        367,368,372).                                said of the seed of regeneration that ti
formed Churches (PRC) amounts to              By "dormant regeneration" is              implanted in the heart and that comes
the theory of "presumptive regen-          meant that one may be born again             under the influence of fhe preaching Iof
eration.N This was the implied             with the new life-of Christ in early         the gospel. If will certainly reveal it-
charge in the letter of the Nether-        childhood but remain unconverted             self in faith and conversion, and that
lands Reformed men:                        for many years even though he                too, without delay. The work of God is
   The NRC view disagrees with both        lives under the sound preaching              fhroughouf  characterized by perfect
presumptive and dormant  regenera-         and teaching of God's Word. The              wisdom. It would be foolish to suppose
tional views which imply regarding         seed of regeneration lies inactive in        that the seed of regeneration could lie
children as regenerate b.$orefruits  of    the heart of the person. It does not         dormant and inactive for many years
regenerafion  are eddent.                  sprout into the fruit of faith, repen-       without ever showing any signs of life
   This was also the fear of a sym-        tance, and a godly walk.                     (p. 650; cf. also his Believers and
pathetic correspondent in a letter in         The PRC have always rejected              Their Seed,  pp. 134,135).
The SB of November 15,199O.  Re-           dormant regeneration. Herman                    It is rather the teaching of the
ferring to my assertion that we            Hoeksema expresses their rejection           PRC that the Word of God, taught
must "approach them (the baptized          of dormant regeneration in his Re-           by godly parents at home and
children of the covenant) as elect         formed Dogmatics in the chapter on           preached by the minister at church
children in (our) teaching and disci-      "The Preaching of the Word":                 and in catechism, brings the new
pline," the correspondent asked,              Some maintain thaf fhe seed of re-        life of Christ in the elect child's
"Does this perhaps not lean to-            generation implanted in fhe heart of         heart to fruition in faith, repen-
wards presumptive regeneration,            man may lie dormant for many years           tance, and good works when the
that is, an equally dangerous error        before it dt70eIops into conscious and       child is very young. With keen in-
of presuming our children to be re-        active life. They claim that if is possi-    sight into the ways of the Holy
generated unless it shows other-           blefor a man fo live in sin and iniq-        Spirit with the rearing of children
wise in their lives?"                      uify;  fhaf although  all his life he has    as regards both earthly life and

                                                                                         January 1,199l I The Standard Bearer I 1.49


heavenly life, Hoeksema asserts the           silently at the reading of the Scrip-    deeply into what the Canons of
early influence of the Word on re-            tures; and listened to father and        Dordt calls "great and heinous
generated children in the covenant.           mother sing a Psalm. I rejoiced al-      sins" (V/4). But it is impossible
   No one can say, of course, at how          most as much to hear that they had       that a regenerated child completely
early an age the Holy Spirit and the          resolved to banish television from       fails to respond to the pure `Word of
living and abiding Word of God can            their home - the most destructive        God for years. It is not possjible that
and do quicken the seed of regeneration       influence upon covenant children         the Christ in one's heart is totally
and thus bring the faculty of faith to a      in the long history of the devil's       unresponsive to the Christ in the
more or less conscious activity.              war with the church's children.          gospel.
Worldly educators realize rather              This is real power for the conver-          No, the PRC emphatically do not
clearly that from earliest infancy the        sion of regenerated children in their    hold dormant regeneration.
whole outside world streams in upon           earliest years.                             `Dormant regeneration," in fact,
the consciousness of the child and              In keeping with their belief that      is an oxymoron - a combination of
makes its impression upon that con-           the Spirit will not allow the seed of    contradictory words, like "cruel
~ciousnfss.  Modem educators stress           regeneration to lie dormant, par-        kindness." Regeneration is the re-
the `importance of surrounding the            ents in the PRC take their children      newal of the heart with the lnew life
child even in its cradle with objects,        to church as soon as they can sit        of the risen Jesus Christ. This  new
sounds, shapes, and colors and smells         quietly. Nor do they send them out       life is fairly crying out to God for
that are calculated to make the most fa-      to a "children's church," whatever       the Word so that it may sprout and
vorable impression upon  the little in-       this may be. But they keep them in       blossom and bring forth fruit for
fant. Why then cannot the Holy Spirit         Christ's church where the Savior is      the comfort of the one regenerated
in connection with the living Word of         in the midst of His people and           and for the glory of the regenerat-
God impress the little child with all the     where the Spirit binds Himself to        ing God.
influence of a truly covenant home, the       work faith. Also, the PRC give in-          The rejection of dormant regen-
singing of psalms or hymns, the play-         struction in the Word to the little      eration by the PRC takes concrete
ing of sacred music, the simple prayer        children in catechism from the age       form in the life of the congrega-
uttered by the parents at the cradle, the     of five or six.                          tions. When a young person comes
folding of the little hands of the infant       Another implication of the early       to years and manifests no faith, no
in prayer at the table in the high-chair,     influence of the Word upon regen-        heartfelt interest in confessing
and many other influences of the              erated covenant children is that         Christ, no repentance, and no god-
Christian home, to bring the faculty  of      their conversion is a gradual pro-       liness of walk, he is not tolerated in
faith into some sort of conscious activ-      cess, rather than the dramatic, in-      the church as one who probably
ity? We know ve y little, of course, of       stantaneous event envisioned by          possesses a dormant regeneration
the life of an infant. But it is certain      those who view the children as un-       (or for that matter as one who may
that long b#ore what is usually con-          saved. As the wheat seed in rich         someday come to a conversion-ex-
sidered the age  of discretion  there can     soil sprouts gradually and almost        perience). Instead, after patient  la-
be and is a decided influence of the          imperceptibly under gentle rain          .bor by the consistory, he is cut off
Word of God upon the covenant child           and warm sun, so does the seed of        from the church by discipline as an
(Reformed  Dogmatics, p. 653).                regeneration sprout in the life and      unbelieving and ungodly person.
   In support of Hoeksema's con-              experience of the covenant child         Thus the congregation is preserved
tention that the Holy Spirit of               under father's prayers and Bible-        as a "new lump" from the `old
Christ brings regeneration to activ-          reading, mother's Bible stories and      leaven" of unbelief and unholiness
ity in the covenant child at a very           singing, and the preacher's ser-         (I Cor. 5:7ff .) in the carnal seed of
young age is the biblical witness to          mons in church and teaching in cat-      the saints.  0  (to  be continued)  -DJR
John the Baptist's exuberant leap of          echism.
joy at Christ's presence when the               As for those elect children born
regenerated John was still in his             and raised in the sphere of the
mother's womb (Luke 1:41,44).                 covenant who are not converted
   One implication is that godly              until much later in life (and there
parents establish a spiritual atmo-           are such children, even though they      When I'm lonely, tempted, tried,
sphere for their children from in-            are the exception), they were not        Christ is ever by my side,
fancy. Recently, I spent a weekend            regenerated in infancy, but at the       He will never fail, nor lose
with a young married couple in the            time of their conversion.                One whom God in Him did choose.
PRC. I praised God to see that it               It is certainly possible that a re-    When my path is smooth or steep,
was their deliberate practice to in-          generated child has a fierce strug-      When I wake, or when I sleep,
volve their little son, not quite two,        gle with the doubt and lust of his       God in mercy, and in love,
in daily prayer, singing of the               sinful nature. Indeed, this is al-       Gives me grace to look above.
Psalms, and reading of the Scrip              ways his experience. This is the
tures. He folded his hands, closed            experience also of the regenerated                          - SB, March 1,1932
his eyes, and said his "amen" at              grownup. It is also possible that a
prayer; said "Bible" and then sat             regenerated young person falls

ISO I The Standard Bearer I January 1,1991


Decency
And Order                                 Family Visitation (2)
Rev. Ron Cammenga                                              -


Method of Conducting                      cemed.  For one thing, the needs of          A word of caution may be in o:r-
Family visitation                         the family being visited will have a      der at this point. Individual prob-
  No matter what the specific             bearing on the method used. For           lems that arise in the course of a
method followed in family visita-         another thing, one minister or elder      visit should not be pursued in the
tion, thorough preparation on the         is going to be more comfortable           presence of the entire family. In-
part of elders and ministers is nec-      with one method, while another            stead, arrangements should be
essary. They must know the spe-           minister or elder will be more com-       made by the elders for a private
cific family situation of the family      fortable with another method. Just        meeting at a later time.
being visited. And they must be           as there are differences in pulpit        Threats to Family Visitation
prepared to bring the Word of God         style, there must be some freedom            There are various threats to fam-
to the specific situations in that        in the method of conducting family        ily visitation that we ought to be on
home and family.                          visitation. Rigid insistence on a         our guard against.
  Because these are official visits,      particular method must not take              One serious threat is that family
family visitation must be con-            precedence over the purpose of            visitation is discarded altogether.
ducted by a committee of elders,          family visitation. Instead, method        Often family visitation is criticized
usually two. In some Reformed             must be subservient to the over-all       as being of little practical value, a.
churches today, family visitation is      purpose being aimed at.                   practice that has outlived its useful-
conducted by individual elders.             No matter what method is fol-           ness in the life of the church, a mere
This is both dangerous and un-Re-         lowed, it is usually most profitable      tradition that can safely be dis-
formed. Decency and good order            to conduct the visits around a spe-       pensed with. This is the trend in
demand that this work be done by          cific theme and passage of Scrip-         many Reformed churches today.
a committee of at least two elders.       ture. This should be chosen by the        From time to time sentiments of
  Various methods have been fol-          consistory. It is well that at the be-    this nature are expressed even in
lowed. Use has been made of the           ginning of the family visitation          our own churches.
question method, some even fol-           schedule the minister preach on              There is also the danger that
lowing a prescribed list of ques-         this text, or a fitting passage con-      family visitation deteriorates into  a
tions. The discussion method has          nected to the general theme. This         mere social visit. Where family vis-
been used, attempting to involve          will provide him the opportunity of       itation has not been totally dis-
the members of the family as much         reminding the congregation of the         carded, it has often been reduced to
as possible in the visits. The best       importance and the benefits of fam-       a mere social call by the pastor and
method is perhaps a combination           ily visitation, as well as prepare the    the elders. This is wrong! It must
of the two. There are certain impor-      congregation for a discussion of the      never be forgotten that family visi-
tant questions that should be             theme on the visits.                      tation, as much as preaching, cate-
asked, that need to be asked, year          One warning: Do not neglect the         chetical instruction, discipline, an.d
after year. A general discussion          children! Make them as well as            dispensing of alms, belongs to the
will hardly lend itself to the obtain-    their parents feel involved in the        official labor of the church. The el-
ing of information the elders must        visit. Ask them questions relating        ders and ministers must be aware
have before leaving each home.            to their faith in their Savior, their     of this. The members need also to
  Nevertheless, there ought to be         conduct in the home, in church,           keep this in mind. In this connec-
flexibility as far as method is con-      and in school. The children expect        tion, Prof. Hoeksema writes:
                                          to be asked some questions, and             Family visitation is conducted by
                                          feel slighted if they are overlooked.     those who are called fo ofice by Ch&f
                                            Written reports of each visit           Himself, When a pasfor or elder visits
                                          made should be submitted to the           in the home of the sheep on the occa-
                                          consistory. The reports should be         sion of famdy  visifafion, if is nof fhe
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of fhe            specific and not general. Mention         same as when fhaf same pasfor and el-
Protestant Reformed Church of Love-       should be made of any problems            der make a socia2 call or come on a
land, Colorado.                           encountered on the visits.                Sunday evening's visit. The converw

                                                                                     January 1,199l I The Standard Bearer / 151


fion of family visitation between pastor      bers must be pointed to the right         Word, covenant instruction of chil-
and sheep is not fhe same as a mere           way to deal with their grievances,        dren, attendance at divine worship
brother-to-brother conversation, even         if they are convinced that their          services, supporting faithfully the
fhough the latter should be a highly          grievances are legitimate  and            ministry of the Word, and con-
spkifual  conversafion.  Family visifa-       weighty.                                  tributing to the relief of the poor.
fion involves - bofh for those who            Benefits of Family Visitation               God grant that family visitation
visit and for fhose who are vi&fed  -           The benefits of the practice of         remain an institution in our
an  official  visit. ("Family Visifafion,"    family visitation are many. We            churches. And God grant that we
PRTJ, p. 29.)                                 must be convinced of these benefits       continue to enjoy the benefits that
    There is also the danger - real           if the practice is not only going to      result from family visitation.  0
in our churches where family visi-            survive in our churches, but flour-
tation is a long-standing practice -          ish.
that family visitation degenerates              First of all, there are benefits for
into a mere formality. The neces-             the elders. Family visitation pro-
sary questions are asked; the ex-             vides an opportunity for the elder-
pected answers are given. Every-              ship to become acquainted first-           "Fear Not, Thou Worm
body goes home heaving a sigh of              hand with the spiritual condition of
relief that family visitation is over         the flock over which they have            Jacob; I Will Help Thee"
for at least another year. Nothing            been given oversight by Jesus
could be more destructive to the              Christ. The elders will also be able      Before the hills, ere time began,
practice of family visitation - as to         to determine whether or not the           Thy love was shown for guilty
any aspect of religion - than mere            members, especially the young                 man;
formality. Better we ban the prac-            people, are making progress in the        Such wonders in Thy Word we see,
tice than that it degenerate into             Christian life by diligent use of the     Unfold them, Lord, our Helper be.
such a worthless counterfeit.                 means of grace. Family visitation
    Yet another threat to family visi-        will aid the elders in their oversight
tation is a lack of cooperation on            of the preaching, not only by pro-        While of the serpent's curse we
the part of the family being visited.         viding occasion for analyzing                 read,
At times it happens that the family           whether and to what extent the            There's triumph in the woman's
resents really the presence of the            preaching is edifying and instruct-           Seed,
minister and the elders and views             ing the members, but also by bring-       From sin and death to set us free,
family visitation as an unwelcome             ing to their attention needs that         Because Thou would'st our
intrusion into their personal lives.          ought to be addressed in the                  Helper be.
The result is that they do not "open          preaching. Family visitation will
up" to the minister and the elders.           also give the elders opportunity to       Prophets and patriarchs of old
Their answers are as brief and                engage in necessary pastoral work,        Desired the Saviour to behold;
vague as possible. Visits under               thus giving occasion to demon-            They longed His glorious day
these conditions accomplish little            strate the care and concern of the
or nothing. In family visitation the          office of Jesus Christ for His peo-           to see,
people of God must willingly give             ple.                                      Believed Christ would our
themselves to the inspection of the             Also for the members of the con-            Helper be.
elders. They must be honest and               gregation, the benefits of family
open with the elders, and attempt             visitation are outstanding. In fam-       Accomplished all the wondrous
to make family visitation as benefi-          ily visitation the members are re-        plan,
cial as possible for themselves and           minded of and exhorted in their           Designed to rescue guilty man;
for the other members of their fam- -         calling as God's people in the midst      Yet to believe, we come to Thee,
il y.                                         of the world. Needed instruction,         Lord, give us grace, our Helper be.
    Finally, it is also a danger that         encouragement, comfort, and re-
family visitation degenerates into a          buke are received. Through the            Because Thou hast our Helper been,
gripe session. Then family visita-            visits the congregation is built up       A little in Thy Word we've seen;
tion becomes the occasion on which            in its unity. The visits result in a
all kinds of complaints are lodged            deeper appreciation for the office-       Do Thou give faith increasingly,
against fellow church members and             bearers. Family visitation espe-          And still `we pray our Helper be.
all kinds of criticism leveled against        cially serves to strengthen family
the minister and the elders. Elders           life, fostering proper spiritual rela-                   - SB;February 15,1932
and ministers must not allow this             tions between husbands and wives,
to happen on family visitation;               parents and children, and the chil-
This is not the purpose of family             dren mutually. And the visits serve
visitation nor the place for this sort        to encourage the members in their
-of thing. When this begins to hap-           Christian duties, as for example,
pen, it must be stopped, and mem-             prayer, reading and study of God's

152 I The Standard Bearer I January 1,1991


A Cloud                                Columba: Missionary
of Witnesses
Prof. Herman Hank0                     to Scotland

  Noah, after awaking from his         byterian churches. From them the          characterized by a rough individu-
drunken stupor, had blessed his        great truths of Calvinism spread,         alism. All these native characteris-
two sons, Shem and Japheth.            especially into our own country.          tics were woven into the makeup of
Japheth's blessing was that the day    None fought so fiercely and bitterly      Columba.
would come when he would dwell         against every corruption of the             Under the influence of his tutor,
in the tents of Shem. With the         pure gospel as the Scats.                 a priest named Cruithnechan, he
work of the apostle Paul, and in         It is hard to imagine, then, that,      soon became religiously inclined.
subsequent centuries, God brought      prior to the sixth century, Scotland      His habit of spending a part of each
Japheth into the tents of Shem as      was inhabited by some of the most         day in a little church soon earned
the church was established first in    fierce, warlike, superstitious,  idol-    him the affectionate nickname,
Antioch, then in Syria, Greece, and    serving and reprehensible heathen         Columcile - Colum of the church.
Italy, and finally in the whole of     among all the barbarian tribes, the       Under the later tutelage of two dif-
Europe. Gradually Europe, where        Picts and the Scats. It was the           ferent Finnians, he began a system-
during the time of the apostle Paul    gospel which subdued them; and it         atic study of Scripture and was in-
and for many centuries later cruel     was the gospel which established          troduced to the monastic life. Even-
and fierce barbarians lived, was       in Scotland the church of Christ.         tually he became a deacon and a
brought the gospel, was Christian-       The story of the conversion of          priest. As an ordained minister of
ized, and in time became the center    Scotland is the story of the great        the gospel, Columba was instru-
of the church.                         missionary Columba.                       mental in the establishment of a
  At the time of the Reformation,        Columba was born probably on            couple of monasteries and several
when Rome had become apostate,         December 7,521 in County Done-            churches in Northern Ireland.
Europe was split between Protes-       gal in that part of Ireland which is        However, in about 561 two
tants and Roman Catholics. Only        known today as Ulster, or Northern        events took place which altered
very few countries became com-         Ireland. He was born a Celt from          Columba's life forever.
pletely Protestant, and these were     royal parents. The Celts were an            The first arose out of his interest
not Lutheran, but Calvinistic. One     ancient barbarian tribe in Western        in the Scriptures. Eager to have his
can count them on one hand: The        Europe who were supplanted by             own copy of the Scriptures, he
Netherlands, England, and Scot-        the Germanic tribes and who were          copied secretly the Psalms and the
land.                                  the ancestors of the Irish, Welsh,        Gospels from a manuscript which
  Some of the greatest heroes of       Scats, and Picts. He is pictured by       Finnian had taken with him from
the faith were to be found in Scot-    later biographers as a rather wild        Rome. When Finnian unexpectedly
land. There the Covenanters shed       child, full of energy and mischief        came upon Columba while he was
their blood for the cause of the       and always looking for a good             copying,  Finnian demanded the
gospel as they fearlessly raised       fight. He was tall and strong, pos-       copy. When Columba refused, the
their voices in protest against all    sessed a powerful and pleasing            matter was submitted to the king
forms of papacy and prelacy There      voice, and had a mischievous sense        who ruled in Finnian's favor. But
was established the purest of Pres-    of humor. Raised from childhood           Columba was adamant in his re-
                                       in the Christian faith, he soon           fusal and was consequently
                                       showed promise of intellectual            branded a rebel.
                                       achievement. He grew up in the              The second incident arose out d
                                       company of a people who were              the first. The king who ruled
                                       quarrelsome and given to fighting;        against Columba was Columba's
                                       who though in some superficial            cousin. A rift developed between
                                       sense were Christian, nevertheless        them to the point where it led to
Prof. Ha&o is professor of Church      retained many pagan customs and           open war. Columba, at the head of
Htifo y and New Teslamenf  in the      superstitions; who were fond of           his clansmen, went to battle against
Protestant Reformed  Semina y.         music and song; and who were              the king and decisively defeated

                                                                                  January 1,199l I The Standard Bearer I 153


him. The slaughter was great and               Druids (the priests of pagan reli-         his fellow monks arrived, took the
at least 2,000 of the kings followers          gion who hated with all their souls        few moments he had left to `bestow
were killed.                                   the arrival of Christianity). Here         on them his final blessing, and died
   After the slaughter, Columba                too the Picts and Scats  lived, who,       peacefully in the early hours of
was so smitten with remorse over               though Christianity had made               Sunday, June 9,597.
the body-strewn battlefield that he            some inroads into their land, were           The character of Columba was
determined to live the rest of his             still basically the barbarians they        never changed throughout his life,
life in penance. Whether he was                were long before our Lord was              for God gives to each man his char-
forced to flee Ireland because of              born in Bethlehem.                         acter and personal characteristics at
these two events, or whether the                 The stories that are told of his         birth. But his love of fighting, his
choice to leave was his own, is not            work are, in many instances, leg-          robust constitution, his tendency
known. But, shortly after these                endary. His biographers relate how         towards entering into every contro-
events, in 562 or 563, when                    he counteracted the magic of the           versy, were tempered by the grace
Columba was over forty years old,              Druids with miracles of healing;           of the Holy Spirit. And, under the
he took with him twelve compan-                how he drowned out the chanting            tempering powers of sanctification,
ions and sailed for the coast of Scot-         voices of the Druid priests with           he became the powerful missionary
land. After a rough and perilous               songs of praise to God sung in his         that he was.
journey and a lengthy search for a             own booming voice; how he gained             He possessed great leadership
good place to settle, he found the             the respect of Brude the king of the       abilities. He was a man of impres-
small island of Hy, now known as               Picts who lived in a castle on the         sive and attractive appearance.
Iona, where he determined to live.             shores of Lock Ness; how he la-            God had blessed him with a. pow-
The island was a treeless, some-               bored with unrestrained zeal for           erful voice. His singing, unusually
what barren piece of land measur-              the cause of the gospel. But,              beautiful, could be heard above all
ing about three miles in length by             stripped of all these legendary sto-       the gathering. His melodious voice
one mile in width, but had a                   ries, the work of Columba shines as        was eloquent as he brought the
breath-taking view of the sea and              a light in the midst of the darkness       gospel to the heathen among the
of the coast of Scotland.                      of heathendom. His missionary              Scats  and Picts. But he was also
   Hem, on this small island, he               labors were blessed by God in Scot-        forthright and uncompromising in
built a monastery, which was not               land so that the true gospel was           the cause of the gospel. An old
an imposing structure, but a small             proclaimed there and the church of         Gaelic eulogy speaks of him1 as "not
group of huts which included a re-             Jesus Christ was gathered. His             a gentle hero." He had no patience
fractory, a library, a guesthouse, a           missionary zeal is an example to all       with evil-doers and could not abide
kiln, a mill, two barns, and a small           those whom God throughout the              duplicity. He was and always re-
church. Here the monastic life was             years calls to this difficult work.        mained quick to reprimand sinners,
organized around Columba and                     He returned briefly to Ireland,          and he would tolerate no shame
consisted of three groups of resi-             the land of his birth, to attend vari-     upon the gospel which he loved
dents: the seniors, who were re-               ous meetings of the church. His            and preached.
sponsible for leading in worship,              prestige and the respect in which            There was also another side of
preserving manuscripts, and teach-             he was held made all his past trou-        his gifted personality He was a
ing the other residents; the work-             bles in Ireland seem irrelevant. He        man who showed great love for the
ers, who performed the manual la-              worked towards the settlement of           poor and downtrodden. His deeds
bor necessary to keep the                      various disputes which had begun           of mercy and compassion were
monastery functioning; and the ju-             to trouble the church in Ireland,          known throughout the land. He
niors, who were responsible for                and his influence often led to a suc-      possessed a deep love for the beau-
miscellaneous tasks. It was a hive             cessful solution to these difficulties.    ties of God's creation and reveled
of activity, but was devoted espe-               But his heart was in Scotland. To        in the glories of God's handiwork
cially to the training of missionaries         Scotland he returned, and in Scot-         in trees and moors, flowers `and
to the inhabitants of what is now              land he died. On the last day of his       sunshine, heather and wildlife. All
Scotland. Columba, in his own                  life at the age of seventy-five, he        this was possible because he pos-
words, had now dedicated his life              spent his time in transcribing a           sessed a poetic soul. Some of his
to bringing as many heathen to                 Psalter. In the late night, at mid-        poetry has remained and thle read-
Christ as were killed in the battle            night, he arose with difficulty from       ing of it is still enjoyable.
with his cousin, the king.                     his hard bed to take part in the tra-        It is true that he lived in an age
  Missionary work in those days                ditional midnight service. He ar-          when the Romish Church had al-
was difficult. It required that the            rived somewhat earlier than his fel-       ready departed from the pure wor-
monks who were trained on Iona,                low monks to kneel in prayer be-           ship of God. But Columba was his
and Columba himself, go to the                 fore God. Weakened by years of             own man more than he was a son
mainland, where they were in con-              difficult labor, burdened with cares       of his church. That is, he was more
stant peril of fierce people, wild an-         of the church, and bearing the rav-        Christ's man than a man in all
imals, rugged terrain, an unforgiv-            ages of many years, he suddenly            things loyal to the Romish f(aith.
ing climate, and the enmity of the             collapsed. He revived.briefly  when        This is especially evident in his

154 I The Standard Bearer I January  1,199l


deep devotion to the Scriptures.         ing was simple, direct, and, above        Through these labors (as well as
Although he loved the poetry of          all, biblical. He urged God's peo-      those of ithers who braved the
the Scriptures more than other           ple to study and meditate on God's      dangers of heathen lands to bring
parts, to the whole of the Scriptures    Word. And he preached that great        the gospel to barbarians - for
he was faithful. He carried them         and glorious theme of the Scrip         Columba is only one example
with him wherever he went. He            tures: Christ crucified. If it could    among many) God was pleased to
taught his fellow monks to honor         be said of Patrick, missionary to       begin to bring Japheth into the
and study the Scriptures. He             Ireland, that he `lived with the        tents of Shem. Cl
preached from them and taught            Bible," the same could be said of
God's people in them. Hispreach-         Columba.



                                                  Paradox
                                               (I Corinthians 1:18)

HeisIAM.                                                       And all creation left its perfect song unsung
Before the world began                                         Because of him. Better had void remained
He was and is.                                                 Than this - God's great Creation stained.
And by His great command                                       Then His Creative Will
That which was nothing                                         Gives birth to One more foolish still.
Came to light and life as planned,                             He scoops the dust again,
And void became His vast domain of praise.                     Presents Himself as man -
Ancient of Days,                                               Creator, now Redeemer.
He drew a time out of eternity                                 Now from less than dust He'll raise
And scooped the dust to form a man,                            An even finer instrument of praise.
And breathed eternity into a lump of clay and                  Who else with blood would wash away
     sand.                                                           a stain?
Such foolishness for One                                       Who else from dust distill-a cleansing rain
Who shines more brightly than the sun                          Of tears to be the only sacrifice of any worth?
And moon and stars of all the universe                         And then He promises another birth?
     combined!                                                 More foolishness. One who has proved
Who could approach unto the Mind or                                  his worthlessness before
Know the ways                                                  Is granted even more!
Of One Who makes His highest instrument                        The mortal, fallen by his own rebellious
     of praise                                                       choice,
To be a man with'feet of clay?                                 Shall yet receive immortal voice,
And would not wisdom say                                       A perfect song, a heavenly place
That suns-a million shining bright,                            With His Creator, face to Face.
An endless day to swallow up the night -
Be fitter worshipers than this unworthy speck                  0 foolishness of God - far wiser than
In all the universe's wide expanse?                            Collected wisdom of the ages known to man!
What builder takes a chance                                    The more I contemplate what should
And uses dust to make a wall?                                        have been my end,
Did He not know that man was only fit to fall?                 The higher must my praise to Him ascend.
And fall he did. His sin and shame
Brought no more praise to his Creator's Name                                                  - Suzanne Looyenlga
Than pipes untuned or violins unstrung.


                                                                                  January1,1991/TheStandardBearer/  155


     A WORD FITLY  SPOKEN
     Rev. Dale Kuiper                            Contentment
        The Christian virtue of contentment is expressed in Scripture with a word that is, to say the least, surprising.
     Contentment is translated from a compound Greek word meaning "self" and "sufficient." Literally it means
     "to be sufficient of one's self, to possess enough to need no aid or support," hence, "to be independent." How
     surprising, in light of the fact that Scripture on every page instructs us that we are dependent upon God! We
     live and move and have our being in the God who is near to every one of us. And the Christian depends upon
     the unchanging faithfulness of God for faith, preservation, and all things. How can it ever be said that it is a
     virtue for the child of God to live and confess that he is independent and self-sufficient?
        Contentment means that our inward state of heart and mind and soul is completely independent of the out-
     ward circumstances of life. How often it is true of us that the outward circumstances of life determine how we
     feel. If our way is pleasant and easy, if we have more of earthly things than we need, and if there are no trou-
     bles and problems, then we are happy and content. But if there are pain, operations, oppositions, and persecu-
     tions, then we are dissatisfied and ready to rebel. This is the very opposite of contentment. How we feel must
     be independent of the circumstances of life, not determined by them.
        Contentment has to do with the mind; with our minds we know that all things are well for us. It has to do
     with the will;-we do not want things to be different from what they are. It has to do with the soul; because -the
     mind knows and the will is satisfied, the soul is at ease, filled with peace and joy.
        True contentment is grounded in three great truths. First, that everything that befalls us in this life comes to
     us from the hand of our heavenly Father. Chance or fate have nothing to do with it. There is not a single as-
     pect of our life that is not known by God and that was not determined by Him before the world was created.
     Second, contentment comes only to those who know that their way was determined in love, and the hardships
     of life are the loving chastisements of our Father. And finally, contentment belongs to those who believe that
     all things are working for their eternal salvation. All our days, God leads us according to His counsel that I!Ie
     may afterwards receive us into glory.
        Thus the Scriptures come to us with many exhortations: be content with your wages (Luke 3:4), with rai-
     ment (I Tim. 699, with such things as we have (Heb. 13~5). Paul writes from prison, after a life crowded with
     affliction (II Cor. 111, that he has learned, in whatsoever state he is, therewith to be content. Have you and I
     learned this? Let us apply ourselves assiduously and faithfully to the learning of this kingdom lesson. Cl

     Rev. Kuiper is pasfor of Emmanuel Profesfanf Reformed Church in Lucombe, Alberfa, Canada.




                                               Exposition of the
From                                           Song of Moses
Holy Writ                                      Exodus  15:lff.
Rev. George Lubbers


                                                 The song, which Moses sang to-               This was a song which is clenom-
                                               gether with all the children of Is-      inated fhe song of Moses, the ser-
                                               rael, is also a psalm, in the true       vant of the Lord (Rev. 15:3). We
                                               sense of the word. In fact, we may       hold that it is the very keynote of
                                               properly call it the prototype of all    the Song of Moses and of the Lamb.
                                               the Psalms in the Old Testament          Here the singers are those wlho
Rev. Lubbers is a minisfer  emeritus in        Scriptures. We trust that this will      have gotten the victory over the
the Profesfanf  Refoi-med  Churches.           be evident in our exposition.            beast and his image, and over the

156  1 The Standard Bearer I January 1,199l


number of his name, who stand at           glory and immortality and life           of God, lived. Says the Holy Spirit
the sea of glass before the great          (Matt. 22:32; Mark 12:27;  Luke          centuries later by the mouth of
white throne. And the keynote of           20:38).                                  Hosea, "Out of Egypt have I called
this song is this: "Great and mar-           Yes, the hour has struck which         my Son." It was the voice of the Is-
velous are thy works, Lord (Teho-          prefigures the great hour of Christ's    rael of God, the church, the mother
vah) God Almighty; just and true           atoning death on the Cross and of        of Jesus that cried in her birth
are thy ways, thou King of saints."        His resurrection. This is Christ's       pangs (Hos. 11:l; Matt. 2:15).
Such is the keynote here also in Ex-       "exodus" (Luke 92931). For the             And God led Israel, the children.
odus 15:lff.                               time had come to the "fourth gen-        of Jacob, out of Egypt like a flock.
  We should also bear in mind that         eration" to go up out of Egypt with      His great Shepherd's staff com-
this song is not of private interpre-      their thousands. The hour has            forted her that night. Yes, He led.
tation, but was written by a holy          struck to destroy the Amorites,          them toward the Red Sea. He de-
man, Moses, moved by the Spirit of         whose iniquity was now full (Gen.        liberately led them into an impasse,
God (II Pet. 1:19-21).  Also here          15:16).  All things are now ready for    where they were helpless, seem-
Moses really is searching out the          God to fulfill His promise concern-      ingly easy fodder for Pharaoh's
time and the manner of the time of         ing the multitude of the seed as         war-machine. Had Pharaoh suc-
the suffering to come upon Christ          they came forth from Isaac, a son        ceeded, the Shiloh from Judah's
and of the glory to follow (I Pet.         out of Abraham's own loins (Gen.         tribe could not have been born
l:lO, 11).                                 15:4-6)!                                 from the virgin Mary! What
  The entire psalm here in Exodus            And what a timely "moment"! It         hellish, satanic glee must have been
15:lff. is indicative of the universal,    was so full of divine wisdom,            on the faces of Pharaoh and his fel-
just dealings of God in which He           power, and glory. It came when the       low henchmen. They hastened
deals sovereignly both with the            water was nearly overflowing Is-         their war steeds to the battle, fear-
vessels of wrath fitted for destruc-       rael, and there was no human help        lessly crying out "hea,"  to the
tion, and with the vessels of mercy        possible. It was the darkest hour of     sound of the roar of the horses
to make known to them the riches           Jacob's children. Then God came,         hoofs. In maddening pace they de
of His glory. This is upon vessels         and it was with rapid, trip hammer       scended upon Israel.
before prepared unto glory (Rom.           blows, that the mighty Pharaoh is          Then Israel cried unto the LORD
9:19-23).                                  crushed to submission. God is            in their distress. Yes, some cried in
  Of this we hope to see more in           showing the awful majesty of His         hopeless unbelief against Moses
our exposition of this song.               wrath upon Egyptland. All this be-       and against God. But God in His
The Historic Monenf                        cause God had heard the cry of His       longsuffering over Israel answered
of This Song                               beloved people in boundless grace        and rescued Israel speedily. He
  It is the hour on the clock of God       and mercy. Says God to Moses,            came and made a path through the
that has struck; it is the predeter-       "Now therefore, behold, the cry of       sea for Israel to march to the
mined "hour" of Egypt's utter de-          the children of Israel is come unto      promised land. It was such that the
struction as a great world-power. It       me: and I have also seen the op-         sea saw God and fled. It obeyed
is the hour to destroy the cruel           pression wherewith the Egyptians         the mighty voice of God. And Is-
despot Pharaoh, to whom God had            oppress them" (Ex. 3:9).                 rael obeyed the command of God1
said "for this self-same purpose             God in heaven was moved with           to Moses and "went forward!" (Ex.
have I raised thee up, that I might        divine empathy. Egypt had                14:15).  They were walking on the
shew my power in thee, and that            touched the apple of His eye! And        blood-sprinkled way to the great
my name might be declared in all           God is the great avenger of evil         land of promise, the Sanctuary.
the earth" (Ex. 9:16; Rom. 9:17).          perpetrated against them without a         And God was their rereward.
  Yes, the hour has struck for Is-         cause - except that they are a holy      He became a protective wall be-
rael's promised deliverance (Gen.          people who will have nothing of          tween Israel and the pursuing
15:12-16).  God, who is the Holy I         Egypt's idol gods! It is a terrible      army of Pharaoh. It was the cloud
Am, who cannot lie, heard the cry          thing to persecute the saints.           of glory which was God's face
of Israel and had pity on them in            It is a terrible thing to fall into    shining upon Israel as a gracious
wondrous love (Ex. 3:7,8).  He             the hands of the living God.             face, coming to bless and help in
came down from heaven on the                 Then He bowed the heavens and          saving power and mercy. His face
holy Mount Sinai. He appeared in           came down. He sent ten plagues           was against the wicked to cut off
the holy fire of the burning bush.         upon Egypt and her king. He hon-         their remembran&from  the earth.
He will fulfill all these promises         ored the difference between them,        And they all sank as a stone into
made to Abraham and to his Seed            the good and the evil. It was just       the depths of the sea, to be seen
forever. He is not a God of the            judgment upon the vessels of             nevermore!
dead but of the living; He will            wrath. Their firstborn died in the         It was a new day that dawned
bring Israel out of the grave of           night of the Passover, when the          upon Israel that morning on the
Egypt's bondage. Ultimately He             blood of propitiation was on the         other side of the sea. It was a festal
will bring all the children of Abra-       doorposts of the houses of believ-       day. It was a day to see in proper
ham out of the grave into eternal          ing Israel. And Israel, the Firstborn    perspective what God had

                                                                                     January  1,199l  I The Standard  Eka~er I157


wrought. That is the genius of the         very name "psalm" means ?om-             of Moses" and "the song of the
song which Moses and the children          positions." They are not merely          Lamb." Both are songs that reflect
of Israel sang. God had fulfilled          read as prose. They are sung from        the great deeds of God's judg-
His promise to Abraham. He had             the believing heart and with sancti-     ments, as these are seen in the
shown that He was unlike any               fied lips.                               pouring out of the vials of God's
other god. He was glorious in holi-        The Prophetic Perspective                wrath upon the wicked beast, the
ness, fearful in praises, doing won-       of this Song                             antichristian world-powers as they
ders. Yes, truly God is a mighty             In the first place we would point      aim to destroy utterly the people of
warrior, a man of war is He. Jeho-         out that this song is, beyond a          God, the church of Christ in the
vah is His name! He is the I-AM-           shadow of a doubt, in its very warp      world. And because the bealst as
THAT-I-AM. Thus He would re-               and woof prophetic. Unless this is       represented by Pharaoh, and the
veal Himself in all future genera-         seen, the song is not clear and lu-      beast as represented by a godless
tions. I, Jehovah, change not, in my       cid. When studied it will be seen        Nero, are the same in nature, be it
sovereign mercies upon you, 0 Is-          how true it is that also here we         at a different-date, they both. fall
rael, therefore you are not con-           have the testimony of Jehovah-Je-        under the final outpouring of the
sumed (Mal. 3:6).                          sus. It "is the spirit of prophecy"      vials of the wrath of God, and are
   At this point in her history, Israel    (Rev. 19:lO).                            cast by God Almighty into the sea
received by divine inspiration the           This we indicated briefly- in our      as a stone (Ex. 15:5,16;  Rev. 1820,
first psalm recorded in the Bible.         introductory observations in this        21). cl                  (to be continued)
Psalms are sacred songs. They are          essay. In Revelation 15 there is
musical, victorious anthems. The           mentioned in one breath "the song




                                           All Around Us
Prof.' Robert Decker


H Jesus is coming soon!                    South Africa. Nelson Mandela, a          million children in Southern Africa
                                           black political leader in South          died war-related deaths-nearly a
   The year of our Lord, 1990 saw          Africa, was freed last February af-      half million of these in Mozam-
several terribly significant events        ter nearly 26 years in prison. In        bique alone. In the U.S. 12.5 mil-
occur. Who at the beginning of the         November leaders of both white           lion children live in poverty, and
year would have dreamed that               and black churches in that country       between 6 and 10 million children
Communism would collapse in                met to condemn apartheid, seek           under the age of 12 are hungry or
Eastern Europe?! Who would have            reconciliation, and plan for a segre-    vulnerable to hunger.
thought that the "cold war" would          gation-free future. In the U. S.           Add to these things the fact that
come to an end? Who would have             abortion dominated the headlines.        persecution of the saints persists in
predicted that in 1990 the Berlin          After the November national              many countries. The Middle East
Wall would be broken down and              elections it is unclear whether a        Christian Outreach  (MECO) issued
the two Germanies reunited?                pro-life or pro-choice position is       a "desperate cry for prayer for
Would any one of sound mind                the greater political asset.             Christian believers in Lebanon."
have predicted a year ago that Rus-          Because of the unprecedented           Lebanese Christian refugees fleeing
sia would pass a law guaranteeing          prosperity we enjoy in North             East Beirut report numerous
religious freedom during 1990, or          America we hardly realize that           killings by Syrian troops since the
that Romania would allow free-             hunger and death are daily realities     Syrians ousted Lebanese General
dom of worship?                            for millions in this world. Over 14      Michel Aoun last October. Also, ri-
  There were other events as well.         million children under the age of        val Muslim and Druze forces have
Apartheid is on the way out in             five died in 1990 from infection         entered East Beirut and attacked
                                           and malnutrition. At least 100 mil-      Christians.
                                           lion children of primary school age        At the moment of this writing
                                           worldwide will never enter a class-      the world is poised for what could
                                           room. Almost 23 million children         be catastrophic war in the desert
                                           are classified as severely malnour-      sands of the Persian Gulf area.
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical     ished. About half of these live in         Among the churches there con-
Theology in the Protestant Reformed        the seven nations of South Asia.         tinues to be appalling apostasy.
Semina y.                                  Between 1980 and 1988 nearly one         Homosexuals are not only allowed
158 I  TheStandardBearer/January1,1991


full membership in the churches,            I The Reformed                           tained that the measure would lend
but are even serving in church of-                                                   credence to. press reports that the
fice. Not only is this true in "main-             Alliance                           Alliance is schismatic. Supporters
line" churches, it is happening                                                      argued that the Alliance needs a fo-
among denominations which stand               The Reformed Alliance of fhe Chris-    rum to discuss the issue of with-
in the Reformed tradition, notably          tian Reformed Church met in Lyn-         drawal and be ready for it, even if
the GKN in the Netherlands. More            wood, Illinois from November 13 to       the majority oppose it.
and more denominations are allow-           15 to discuss the recent synodical         Probably because of the women
ing women to serve in church of-            decision to open the office of minis-    issue as well as the writings of
fice. The creation/science debate           ter and ruling elder to women in         three science professors of Calvin
continues in spite of the clear testi-      1992. Thirty-nine congregations          College, the Cornerstone Christian
mony of Holy Scripture on this is-          sent official delegates, while twenty    Reformed Church in Hudsonville,
sue. Increasingly the churches turn         more churches sent observers. Ac-        Michigan has decided to withholld
their attention away from the               cording to Rev. Ralph Pontier,           its quotas from Calvin College and
preaching of the Word, the                  about 100 other observers were also      Seminary.  Classis Georgetown, in
administration of the sacraments            present, bringing the total number       which Cornerstone CRC resides, of-
according to the institution of Jesus       of participants to around 350. Ac-       ficially reprimanded the congrega-
Christ, and the exercise of Christian       cording to its constitution the Al-      tion and strongly urged the church
discipline, and they concentrate in-        liance is an "association of Chris       to reconsider its decision not to pay
stead on social issues, economic is-        tian Reformed Councils united in         quota for the college and seminary.
sues, and world peace.                      effort to give effective testimony to      What the final outcome of all this
  How shall we react to all this? In        God's truth within the Christian         will be, only time will tell. We cer-
faith! We shall not be discouraged          Reformed Church and to promote           tainly do not glory in another de-
or dismayed. We shall not fear. We          the denomination's heritage and          nomination's troubles, especially
shall understand that in the light of       confessional nature." Most mem-          when that denomination happens
Holy Scripture (especially a pas-           ber churches came to the Novem-          to be our "mother church." Our
sage such as Matthew 24) all these          ber meeting asking for advice in re-     sympathies, of course, lie with the
things mean "our redemption                 plying to the June synod's decision      brothers and sisters who want to
,draweth  nigh." We shall, therefore,       to open all offices to women. The        remain confessionally Reformed.
by God's grace neither attempt to           Alliance advised the councils to         If, and it appears that this is going
flee this world nor become its              reaffirm the historic position and       to be the case, it is impossible to re-
friends. We shall seek God's Ring-          refuse to cooperate with the             main confessionally Reformed
dom and righteousness in the con-           synod's action. While the council        within the CRC, then the calling of
fidence that God will supply all our        refused to accede to the request of      the conservatives is to secede, as
need. And, we shall live in hope,           two congregations that it endorse        painful as that process may be.
because world events and ecclesi-           secession, the Alliance did appoint        May God give all of us who
astical events in the light of the tes-     a committee (the vote was 41-35          stand in the Reformed tradition
timony of Holy Scripture assure us          and the issue was sharply debated)       much grace to "stand fast and hold
that Jesus is coming. . . soon! Our         to study the practical implications      the traditions which we have been
fervent, daily prayer shall be:             involved in possible withdrawal          taught" (II Thessalonians 2:15). I7
"Come Lord Jesus; yea, come                 from the denomination. Opponents                         The Christian Observer
quickly." -                                 argued the measure would send                                         The Bamer
                     Chrisfianity  Today    the wrong message and might scare
               National  8 International    people away. Further, they main-
                        Religion Report




                                            When I wait on God in prayer,
                                            And I cast on Him my care,
                                            Then I know His love is great
                                            And my sins I loathe and hate.

                                                              - SB, March I,1932



                                                                                      January 1,199l /The Standard Bearer / 159


 &king Heed k The Bible Is God's Word::
 The Doctrine                                 Infallible Inspiration
Rev. Marvin Kamps


   Many  men happily confess that             however, either that there are errors     freed to preach the gospel and do
the Bible is an inspired book. They           in matters of history, geography,         the work of missions, and would
will even say that this inspiration is        and science, or that to ask the ques-     no longer have to concern itself
of God. After all, the Scriptures             tion whether the Bible is inerrant        with the pronouncements of its
themselves declare that "All !3crip-          about such secular matters is itself      members in matters about which
ture is given by inspiration of               inappropriate. Very few men are so        the Bible does not speak authorita-
God." Most men then would rec-                bold as straight forwardly to as-         tively. The authority of Scripture
ognize that, if they would be taken           cribe error to Scripture. Rather,         would be limited to the matiters of
seriously by the church, they must            men tell us that to read the Bible for    sin, grace, and salvation in Christ
at least pay lip service to the doc-          factual information on history, sci-      Jesus. Maybe then the church of
trine of inspiration. But they are            ence, and geography is to look for        Christ could have some peace.
determined to deny that the Bible is          answers to these questions in the            But is it really that simple? And
without error. It is the infallibility        wrong place. The gospel is the con-       are our difficulties so easily :set
of the Word of God that is offensive          tent of Scripture. The Bible is not a     aside? Can the worldwide flood
to so many in our day. Conse-                 science textbook. God's purpose           narrative of Genesis be declared
quently, they studiously avoid con-           with Scripture is to make known           non-factual without "corrupting
fessing that God's inspiration of             the good news of the gospel in            the gospel"? Is it possible to reject
men was infallible. Inspiration -             Christ Jesus. With such an exclu-         the doctrine of an instantaneous
yes. Infallibility - no! According            sive perspective on the content of        creation, and by that very denial
to a report by Montgomery, far                Scripture, these same men stand           not also reject something of the
more than one half of the American            aghast at the church of Jesus Christ      gospel, if not all the gospel? Would
clergy in the major Protestant de-            condemning their teachings of evo-        not Jesus Himself of necessity be
nominations could not agree with              lution, their denial of a worldwide       viewed as mistaken (or, worse, dis-
the statement that the "Scriptures            flood in Noah's day, their denial of      honest), for He spoke of the flood
are the inspired and inerrant  Word           the historic@ of Adam and Eve, or         in Noah's day as a worldwide
of God not only in matters of faith           their assertion that Adam had a           flood and as an actual miraculous
but also in historical, geographical,         mother. They are dismayed by the          work of God (Matt. 24:36-39;: II Pet.
and other secular matters" (God's             church's lack of acceptance and un- .     3:1-7).
Inerrant  Word, J.W. Montgomery, p.           derstanding, for they assure all             It is my observation that rnen re-
22).  Let us also note that to confess        who will hear, that they truly be-        sent the miraculous! They refuse to
that the Scriptures are inspired by           lieve in and love the Lord Jesus.         believe that which they can not ex-
God would, it seems, also imply               For them there is no contradiction.       plain by appeal to natural causes.
that they are inerrant. But many                Such an understanding of inspi-         In addition they feel restricted and
will not accept that implication.             ration may appear to be helpful for       fenced in by a church that would
   The claim is made today that the           the church. If we can divorce the         appeal to Scripture to condemn, as
Bible is indeed inerrant with regard          gospel from the actual event of the       unbiblical, theories that contradict
to spiritual matters, that is, the            self revelation of God, then all de-      the plain testimony of God's Word.
gospel of Jesus Christ. It is argued,         bate with a world of unbelieving          This is the reason, too, why they re-
                                              scientists, historians, and others        ject the doctrine of infallible inspi-
                                              about these so-called secular mat-        ration. The writing of the Bible
                                              ters would cease. Besides, then too       was a miracle. It was God's work
                                              the Christian scientist, historian,       alone. This work of God cannot ul-
                                              philosopher, and men of other "sec-       timately be explained. It is to be
                                              ular disciplines" could pursue their      believed in faith. To explain this
Rev. Kamps is pastor of Southwest             studies and work without fear of          work of God is to deny it. C(an one
                                              contradiction by the church insti-
Protestant R$omzed  Church in                                                           explain the sending of manna out
Gramidle,  Michigan.                          tute. The church then would be            of heaven to the Israelites in the

160 I The Standard Bearer I January 1,1991


wilderness? Jesus gave sight to the          simple meaning of Hebrews 1:l:           Hoeksema warns us that this ex-
blind. Can anyone explain how &is            "God, who at sundry times and in         pression must be understood in the
was done, other than to say that it          divers manners spake in times past       passive sense. It means that Gods
was by the word of His command?              unto the fathers, by the                 breath is the source of Scripture.
   So too the truth of divine, infalli-      prophets...." Surely, the very rea-      Some have tried to argue that this
ble inspiration. Faith has as its ob-        son to assert the fact that it was       passage teaches only that the Scrip-
ject God. Whenever one comes                 God speaking is that these menin         tures are "breathing the divine
face to face with God's work, he             and of themselves could not bring        spirit" (cf.  Protestant Reformed Theo-
stands before the miraculous. The            us God's self revelation. They were      logical Journal, Dec. 1970, pp. 26-2,8X
Bible states the fact of inspiration.        only finite, error-prone men and           The manner in which the Bible
We are commanded to believe this             sinners besides. How could they          itself expresses its own origin and
fact. Only the elect regenerated             then be the authors of the Word?         coming into being leaves no other
sinner can believe this truth. Here,         They were not the source of their        conclusion possible than to confess
too, they that are in the flesh cannot       own pronouncements. God was              that it is a miraculous work of our
please God (Rom. 8%). The fact of            speaking in and through them to          sovereign God. Scripture never  a.t-
divine, infallible inspiration is to be      our fathers.                             tributes the source of its contents to
believed on the testimony of God's              In addition, Peter writes:            men. The Bible itself claims to be
own Word. Those who deny di-                 "Knowing this first, that no             exclusively from God.
vine, infallible inspiration of the          prophecy of the Scripture is of any        The absolute sovereignty of God
Scriptures have fallen into unbelief.        private interpretation. For the          is the bedrock upon which the doc-
They will not hear what the Bible            prophecy came not in old time by         trine of the divine inspiration of
says about itself. They  have                the will of man; but holy men of         Scripture is to be understood.
stopped up their ears to the Word            God spake as they were moved by          Deny the absolute sovereignty of
of God, as did those who heard               the Holy Ghost." Here, it is em-         God and one will be forced logi-
Stephen, when he declared to them            phatically stated that the prophets      cally, sooner or later, to deny the
the miracles of the incarnation of the       did not prophesy "by the will of         doctrine of the infallibility of Scrip
Son of God and His resurrection              man." They did not concoct their         ture. Only a sovereign God can
(Acts 7:57X                                  own messages. Rather, they were          bring into realization the infallible
   Gresham Machen writes con-                "moved by the Holy Spirit." That         Word through the instrumentality
cerning the meaning of inspiration           is, their prophecies were first given    of time-bound and culturally-con-
this:                                        them and then they spake. Without        ditioned men. These men were im-
   The latter doctrine means that the        the Holy Spirit in them they could       perfect, forgetful, and sinners be-
Bible not only is true, the writers hav-     not have given us one solitary           sides, and, therefore, could never in
ing been so preserved from error, de-        word of the gospel. They would           their own strength give us the Holy
spite a full maintenance of their habits     have not been able to declare that       Scriptures. God so moved, di-
of thought and expression, that the re-      the great historical events of God's     rected, guided, and ruled over
sdting Book is the "infallible rule of       self revelation were indeed Jehovah      them, in respect to their persons,
faith and practice" (Christianity and        God's works. They could not have         their time and history, the sources
Liberalism, p. 73).                          understood and interpreted those         used, and every detail necessary to
   Further, he states:                       miraculous events. Nor could they        the writing of sacred Scripture, that
   As a matter of fact, the doctrine of      have applied their significance to       never once did their limitations and
plena y inspiration does not deny the        the church. God was speaking!            imperfections taint or corrupt the
individuality of the Biblical writers; it       It must not escape our attention      record of God's self revelation.
does not ignore their use of ordiruz y       that the prophecy that was spoken        God chose and prepared the writ-
means for acquiring information; it          is identified with the written record    ers from all eternity. Think of
does not involve any lack of interest in     of that revelation of God. Peter         Jeremiah and of the apostle Paul.
its historical situations which gave rise    identifies the two. If you will, the     In regard to Jeremiah we read: "IBe-
to the Biblical books. What it does          spoken prophecy and the written          fore I formed thee in the belly I
deny is the presence of errors that mar      record coalesce. They are one and        knew thee; and before thou camest
all other books.... But according to the     the same. The written record is not      forth out of the womb I sanctified
doctrine of inspiration, the account is      inferior to the spoken prophecy in       thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
as a matter of fact a true account... Cp.    content or in power. The written         unto the nations" (1:5). And the
74).                                         record is God's Word.                    great apostle to the Gentiles testi-
   scripture  teaches that God has              In II Timothy we read: "All           fied: "But when it pleased God,
spoken. The content of the Old               Scripture is given by inspiration of     who separated me from my
Testament Scriptures from Genesis            God, and is profitable for doctrine,     mother's womb, and called me by
to Malachi is the speech of God.             for reproof, for correction, for in-     his grace, to reveal his Son in me,,
Not Moses, Joshua, David, Ezekiel,            struction in righteousness" (3:16).     that I might preach him among the
and Isaiah were speaking; but God            Here the word translated "inspira-       heathen..." (Gal. 1:15). In this con-
was speaking, and these men were             tion" is literally "God breathed         nection, it would be most beneficial
but His mouthpieces. That is the             forth." The late, beloved H.C.           to quote J.I. Packer:

                                                                                       January1,1991/TheStandardBearerI  161


   To limit God's sovereignty is to un-       of making mistakes" (God's Inerrant        a confessional  consciousness  of
dermine "sola Scriptura." This is not         Word, p. 57).                              God's absolute sovereignty in the
simply because the Bible views God's                 Let the above serve as a warning    affairs of men. And Arminianism,
sovereignty as unlimited, though it           today to Reformed men and                  with its denial of God's absolute
does; it is because any such limitation       women. Deny God's sovereignty              sovereignty leads to Modernism.
strikes at the truth of inspiration. If       in the area of soteriology and one         Modernism is rank apostasy.
God is not in absolute control of the         inevitably in his generations will           May the Lord give His people
free human acts generally, then he was        accept a lower view of Scripture, to       the grace ever to confess the
not in absolute control of the writings       state it mildly Error leads inex-          sovereignty of God and thus, too,
done by the biblical authors, and it          orably to more error. One cher-            the miraculous character of the
cannot in that case be fully true that        ished error requires more error, if        composition of sacred Scripture,
"the mind of the Spirit is understood         one will not turn from his folly.          which was made possible by the
when the text of the document is un-          Those who have been defending              sovereignty of God over the human
derstood." It was inevitable that             for decades, at all cost, an               writers.
Arminian and Deist theology, which            Arminian doctrine of the "offer of           May our witness to the truth be
both take God's governing hand away           salvation to all" dependent upon           used of God to turn men from the
from man's self-determined actions,           the free-will of the sinner, now find      fatal error of rejecting the truth of
should have produced lowered m'ms of          themselves within a church affilia-        divine, infallible inspiration,, and to
inspiration and a style of exegesis           tion that must wage a bitter battle        comfort and enlighten those who
which convicted the inspired authors          for the doctrine of inspiration.           love the Lord and would honor His
                                              Many Reformed churches have lost           Word. Cl




                                              The End Times (8):
The  sfrengfh The Lawless
of Youth
Rev. Barrett Gritters                         Generation

   One sign of the end that ought             the world, Jesus and His apostle           "change times and laws." He shall
to jump right out of the news into            said would be a sign of the end.           not only despise law or even ig-
our faces is the sign of lawlessness.                Are your eyes open?                 nore law, but actually change it
When Jesus prophesied in                             Our age is a lawless age, our       into the very opposite. And be-
Matthew 24 that iniquity would                generation a lawless people. It is         cause the spirit of Antichrist is al-
abound, He said, "lawlessness                 not that people do not know the            ways present, lawlessness is pre-
would abound." Paul emphasizes                law, but that they hold the law in         sent and increasing.
the lawlessness of the last days              contempt. They violate the law be-           This is not so difficult to see.
when he says that the Antichrist is           cause they acknowledge no law                When the government  protects
called the "man of sin," literally,           but their own. The law is laughed          children who dishonor their par-
the "man of lawlessness" (II Thess.           at.                                        ents (getting abortions and pur-
2:3), and adds that the Antichrist                   Behind this contempt for the law    chasing birth control medicine
will be produced by the "mystery              is contempt for the Lawgiver. The          without their consent), but punishes
of iniquiv - again, of "lawless-              law is the will of God; the author-        parents who discipline their chil-
ness" (vs. 7). The very thing we              ity behind the law is the authority        dren, it shows itself to be a lawless
see today in our country and in all           of our sovereign God. The heart of         government. When our govem-
                                              the law is "Love God"; and the             ment teaches the opposite of God's
                                              essence of lawlessness is, "I hate         Word regarding the origin o;f the
                                              God." That is lawlessness at its           universe, and refuses to allow
Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protes-        heart.                                     God's Word to be heard, it shows
tant Reformed Church of Byron Cen-                   Daniel prophesies that the head     itself to be a lawless government.
ter, Michigan.                                of Antichrist's empire will seek to        And when our own government,

162  I  TheStandardBearerl   January1,1991


beginning already in January of           bellion is proper, and the audacity        years until there is a good reason to
1973 with the Roe vs. Wade deci-          to fly the flag of Christ over its dev-    become responsible, make confes-
sion, allows the murder of unborn         iltry. A few years back, the leader        sion of faith, and live a godly life of
infants, and at the same time re-         of one of the largest Protestant de-       love for God. Let the Word of God
fuses to execute lawless citizens, it     nominations in our country said,           warn you here: there is no guaran-
removes all doubt. Ours is a law-         `When a government fails to pro-           tee that your lawlessness will not
less government.                          vide justice, peace or freedom for         blow an icy wind on your heart so
  When the government is lawless,         all its citizens, it is distorting true    that there is no love of God, and
it breeds a lawless generation of cit-    order; then Christians should . . .        you will never find your way back!
izens. Students rebel against their       seek to bring the needed change,             Lawless behavior also cools your
teachers and against the govern-          even at the cost of disobeying the         love for your neighbor. Has your
ment itself. Wives rebel against          govemment." That is lawlessness.           behavior been lawless in your dat-
husbands, employees against em-              Deeper yet is the church's failure      ing relationships? Think about it,
ployers. And citizens rise up             to preach that the standard, the au-       very, very carefully. What we sow,
against the government that feeds         thority, for all law is the Word of        we also reap. If we sow the wind,
them. All of this is the bitter fruit     God. Now the Scripture is out-             we reap the whirlwind of a dread-
of the lawlessness that began with        dated (stopped being applicable            ful chilling of love.
our first parents when they re-           some years ago). Now the Bible is                    ****x-x-*
volted against God in the garden of       not to be taken literally ("in six           Many shall wax cold in love. A
Eden: `We will decide for our-            days," you say?). The law is man;          majority of church-goers will prac-
selves what is good and right."           the standard, science; the goal,           tice lawlessness with the "Lawless
  Nor is the family immune to             pleasure.                                  One." And the love of the majority
lawless behavior. "For every                 With overwhelming grief the be-         of churchgoers will be blown cold
cause" husbands and wives are             liever weeps who loves God's law.          with an icy wind that rages
telling their lawyers to go to work          "Because iniquity abounds, the          through the church. This is Jesus"
on their marriage. Now, marriage          love of many shall wax cold." An-          testimony.
is no longer needed for sex; one          other translation might be, "Be-             This gives us a different picture
needs only to be "ready" for it,          cause lawlessness abounds, the             of the end times than some would
whatever that means. The law of           love of many shall be blown cold."         paint. This is different from the
God in the seventh commandment            The love of man for God, for               view of the end times that looks for
is despised. I think of the rampage       Christ, for the Scripture, for the         the world to become better and bet-
the homosexuals are on across the         neighbor, is chilled by an icy wind        ter and for the size of the church to
land, `leaving the natural use of         blowing through the churches.              be swelled through the conversio:n
the woman" and burning "in their             This is a result of lawlessness,        of multitudes and even nations.
lust one towards another" (Rom.           and not the other way around. Je-          No, the world is always the world,
1:26). Justly, they receive "in them-     sus did not say, "Because love             exhausting the resources of sin.
selves that recompense of their er-       waxes cold, lawlessness will               The church becomes smaller and
ror which was meet" (vs. 27). Chil-       abound." It is not true that first         smaller. Many will be deceived by
dren are abandoned by their par-          love cools, and then there is law-         false doctrine; many will follow af-
ents so that the awful question of        lessness. That may happen, but             ter the Antichrist; many will be of-
the prophet, "can a mother forget         that is not what Jesus said. Because       fended because of persecution; the
her sucking child?" must be an-           lawlessness fills the church today,        love of many will wax cold because
swered with an equally horrifying,        love for God, God's Christ, God's          of iniquity.
"Yes, and frequently." The institu-       Word, and God's people, waxes                This is possible in some because
tion of marriage and the family is        cold.                                      their love was never true love.
set on its ear by our lawless genera-        ThaVs practical, especially for         They are baptized in the church,
tion.                                     you young people.                          brought up in the ways of God,
  But this is not even the worst.            Some think that, they can be law-       even confess their faith. Others join
  Matthew 24's prophecy of iniq-          less in the church, without worry.         the church because it is fashionab,le,
uity abounding refers to the  church.     Claiming they will be able to rekin-       or because their future spouse is a
Jesus had an eye on the woeful con-       dle the love of God in their hearts,       member. But because they abounld
dition of the church, whose love          or that lawlessness does nothing to        in iniquity, what love they thought
waxed cold. You see, only those           quench their love for God, they are        they had for God and for the
who "loved" can "wax cold" in             reckless in their lives. They are          church is blown cold. The end of
love.                                     mistaken! The man who lives in             them is damnation, for only those
  The church is lawless today al;         lawlessness will also find that in-        that endure to the end shall be
most beyond imagination. Failing          evitable result - his love cools.          saved.
to preach about the authority of             I say, that is practical for young        In others, love waxes cold but
God vested in the government and          people. Young people, young                will not be lost. Children.of  God
elder and school-teacher, the             adults, please do not think that you       cannot perish; but the flame of their
church has the gall to teach that re-     can "sow your wild oats" for a few         love for God and their neighbor

                                                                                      January 1,1991  I The Standard Bearer I 163


grows so dim, one would think                 about it. Pray fervently for              son's duty toward the lawlessness
there was no life there. But God is           strength.                                 of our government and society?
faithful to take them to glory. Still,          In that way, the Holy Spirit of Je-     What is his duty toward the law-
the horror in that case, often, is that       sus Christ preserves you unto the         lessness in the church? Make sure
their children are cut off. They are          end, the very end. By the grace of        your answers are based on the
not taught the love of God. There             God, nothing will be able to sepa-        Bible.
is no love for God in them. Thq               rate you from the love of God!            4. In connection with the quotation
perish.                                       And your love for Him and for             from the church leader where he
   Young people, endure to the end!           your neighbor will flame on               called the people to disobey the
You are called to stand opposed to            brightly into eternity.                   government, discuss Romans 13.
the lawless world. Be those who               Questions for Discussion:                 5. Discuss the Psalmist's (para-
keep the law of God, the law that             1. What are some further examples         phrased in The Psdfer) expression,
calls you to love Him and love                of the world or the church "chang-        "with overwhelming grief I weep."
your neighbor. In the maelstrom of            ing times and seasons," that is,          In what context was this said?
this wicked world, stand strong               turning laws inside out?                  Does it apply today?
against the current. Guard against            2. Discuss some ways that young           6. Discuss how lawless behavior in
the entrance of iniquity in your life         people are tempted to be lawless.         dating can affect a dating relation-
and in your circle of friends. Talk           How can this be combatted?                ship (see the reference to that in the
                                              3. What is the Christian young per-       article).  Cl




into All                                      Mission Principles
The World                                     (II): The Objects
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop


   One of the concerns of any true            principles. The truth is to be the        THE WORLD, and preach the
church is that for missions and               force which leads or drives gen-          gospel to EVERY CREATURE"
evangelism. It is biblically inaccu-          uine, God-honoring activity.              (Mark 1615).
rate to say that evangelism and                 The first principle, which was             It is immediately obvious; that
missions is the chief purpose or the          described in a previous article of        the task is very great. Do I hear
exclusive purpose of the church. It           this rubric, is that the church of        someone say that such a task is im-
is equally inaccurate to say that             Christ MUST do this work. The ex-         possible? That seems to be the
evangelism is not one of the chief            plicit command of Christ, the Ring        case. It is far beyond not only the
concerns of the church. The true              and Head of the church, is to go          ability of any individual congrega-
church will have a genuine, Scrip             into-all the world (Matt.  28:19), and    tion but even the resources of the
turally-directed concern to pro-              to preach the gospel to every crea-       largest of denominations to teach
claim the gospel to the fullest of its        ture (Mark X151. The church of            all nations and preach to every
ability.                                      Christ MUST labor to fulfill this sa-     creature. If the object of mission
   It is essential that clear, biblical       cred calling and privilege accord-        work is to be "all nations," then it
principles are hitched to the wagon           ing to the measure of its God-given       would seem that the task is impos-
of fervent, biblical activity. A team         ability. Obedience must be joyfully       sible.
of horses without a loaded wagon              and zealously rendered. Ring Je-             Two considerations must be
is as useless as a wagon without              sus has spoken!                           made. First, Jesus presents two en-
the team of horses. We do not                         *x-z+****                         couragements equal in greatness to
want principles without activity.               In this article we will consider        the task He gives. He tells the dis-
Nor do we want activity without               the objects of mission work.              ciples and us that He is given all
                                                To whom does Ring Jesus direct          authority in heaven and on earth,
                                              this work?                                and that He, with this all-encom-
                                                The answer is strikingly clear          passing authority, is with the
Rev. VanOverZoop is pastor of Bethel          and simply stated. "Go ye there-          church unto the end of the age.
Protestant Reformed  Church in Elk            fore, and teach ALL NATIONS"              The second consideration is that Je-
Grove Wage, Illinois.                         (Matt. 28:19). "Go ye into ALL            sus gives this seemingly impossi-

164 ! The Standard Bearer / January 1,199l


ble task to the true church of Christ       portant thing they must know: the         gospel to the Macedonians of
collectively as she is manifested           true nature of their miseries and sin     Philippi and Thessalonica. Al-
both around the world and in every          and of the good news of forgive-          though nationalities do distinguish
age. Any given individual congre-           ness in Christ. Teach all.                mankind, that which unites all of
gation does not have to go into ev-           This awesome task the church            humanity is that they all are the
ery nation by itself.                       must do fearlessly. There is no in-       children of Adam, and in Adam
  In light of these two considera-          dividual and there are no nations         they are dead in sins and trespasses
tions, we can draw two quick con-           incapable of being taught by the ir-      and in need of the Savior.
clusions. First, the fact that the indil    resistible and efficacious Holy             The illegitimacy of deliberate re-
vidual church cannot go every-              Spirit.                                   striction and exclusion in the ob-
where does not remove from it the             We may not direct our evangelis-        jects of a church's missions is best
responsibility to obey her Lord. As         tic and mission efforts only toward       understood when one considers
is the case with all responsibilities,      those of the same nationality, so         that the goal of mission and evan-
that of the local congregation to do        that, for example, those of Dutch         gelistic work is the glory of God in
mission or evangelistic work is not         extraction limit their mission efforts    the way of the edification of the
determined by its providentially set        exclusively to those who are Dutch.       church of Christ. The goal of this
limitations, but by divine com-             Regenerated saints have a citizen-        work is not making Christian a na-
mandments. Each local church                ship which makes them pilgrims            tion or a nationality, but the mak-
must obey the command of its                and strangers on this earth, regard-      ing of disciples of Christ, whose cit-
Lord. Secondly, the church's obedi-         less of their bloodline and roots.        izenship is not of any earthly na-
ence must be characterized by zeal.         No Christian of Dutch extraction          tion but of the spiritual kingdom of
It must do whatever it can, and it          should have the bumper sticker, "If       heaven.
must do so to the best of its ability,      you ain't Dutch, you're not much."          No true mission work will be
whether that be in its own evange-          If a Christian who happens to be          characterized by exclusivism.
lism work or in combining its ef-           Dutch needs a sticker with which                     *******
forts with its fellow churches in a         to cover his bumper, then do so             Having said the above, we recog-
denomination.                               with one which says, "If you aren't       nize the obvious fact that there are
  Now let us ask the question               in Christ, you're in danger of hell-      limitations to a congregation's and
again. To whom is the work to be            fire."                                    denomination's ability to do the
directed?                                     While saying that Christians of         work. There are limited resources,,
  Going back to the words of                one nationality should not limit          limited manpower, limited time,
Christ in the "Great Commission"            their evangelistic efforts to those of    limited finances. These limitations
we find that our work is to be di-          the same nationality to the exclu-        prohibit the church from doing all
rected to "all."                            sion of all others, it must be recog-     it wants to do.
  There may be no limits or restric-        nized as a fact that generally those        The wisest and best use of lim-
tions made. No Evangelism Com-              of one nationality are better suited      ited resources demands that the re-
mittee and no denominational mis-           to bring the gospel to those of the       sources be concentrated on doing
sion committee may deliberately             same nationality. A Christian Jew         the best with what is available. Je-
restrict its efforts only to a certain      is often the best suited to speak to      sus did not tell the early New Tes-
kind of people, or, worse, exclude          an unconverted Jew. Converted             tament church to go into China and
any nation, nationality, or kind of         Chinese will usually know best            Africa and Europe immediately.
people. It must be toward both the          how to present the gospel to the          The same Lord who gave the com-
churched and the unchurched, Jew            Chinese. When going into India            mand to teach all nations, com-
and Gentile, black, brown, yellow,          with the gospel, a Christian of In-       manded them to begin at Jerusabm
and white. It is to be directed to          dian extraction would be better           and Judea,  then spread to Samaria,
anyone God puts in our path. The            suited for the work than would the        and then proceed unto the utter-
neighbor whom God calls us to               Chinese or Anglo-Saxon Christian.         most part of the earth.
love is anyone who is brought, by           Such is generally the case because          Wisdom is the best use of the
divine providence, into the path of         those of the same nationality usu-        means unto the highest end. The
our life.                                   ally know better the background           wisest use of limited resources is to
  Who, does Jesus say, are to be            and understand better the mind-set        concentrate on a few aspects of the
taught? All. The Greek philoso-             of those who are the objects of their     work. The danger of spreading
phers must be taught, for they are          mission work.                             thinly one's limited resources over
only fools who think themselves to            However, this fact has not and          several areas is that shoddy work is
be wise. Those who are intellectual         should not stop one from speaking         done and the church ends up not
giants must be taught, for unless           to and teaching someone of a dif-         being a faithful steward with the
they become as a little child they          ferent nationality. Obviously, the        limited talents and opportunities it
cannot enter into the kingdom of            first missionaries to any foreign         has been given. On the other hand,
God. Teach the poor, not first in           land were not of the same national-       when the church operates within
priorities health care or agricultural      ity. Paul did not let his nationality     the limited resources God has
trades, but teach them the most im-         hinder him from bringing the              given it, then it must not feel guilty,

                                                                                       January  1,199l  I The Standard Bearer I 165


as long as it is being faithful (doing        for the best performance in their         Domestic missions is the work
its best) with what it has.                   work.                                   which the churches of the d.enomi-
   Never forgetting the calling to                     +******                        nation perform collectively for the
reach all we can possibly reach, we             The conclusion of the matter          spread of the gospel and for the es-
must do the best we can possibly              must be that, while maintaining a       tablishment of new congregations
do with the neighbors whom God                clear vision of the great calling to    in its own land. This work is per-
places in the path of our life. God           preach to "every creature," the         formed through the coopemtive  ef-
has providentially led some Evan-             church strives to be an obedient        forts of the denominational Mission
gelism Committees to "specialize,"            and faithful steward, using the fi-     Committee and a local consistory,
or have an emphasis, in their work.           nances and manpower God has             which is appointed to serve as the
Some have settled into that aspect            given her to the best of her ability    calling church of a missionary
of the work of missions which con-            for the glory of God and the edifi-     (Miitt. 24:14). Normally the goal of
sists in publishing pamphlets for             cation of the church of Christ.         this work is the establishment of an
those who have a knowledge of the                      x-x-*****                      instituted church which is a sister-
faith. This "specialization" is good,           Mission work is most easily and       congregation within the denomina-
for they are able to provide materi-          usually divided into three aspects:     tion.
als for many of their fellow Evan-            local evangelism, domestic mis-           Foreign missions is the work
gelism Committees. Others make                sions, and foreign missions.            which the churches of a denomina-
the emphasis of their evangelistic              Local evangelism (also called         tion perform collectively in a for-
work that of tape duplication and             church extension) is the work per-      eign land for the spread of the
distribution. From this perspective           formed by a local, established con-     gospel and for the establishment of
the individual churches and evan-             gregation in order to maintain a        indigenous congregations. Nor-
gelism committees should lean on              witness and testimony of the Re-        mally, the goal of this work is the
each other, using each other's tools          formed faith in its own community       establishment of a sister-church re-
                                              and for the increase of its own         lationship with them.  q
                                              membership (Acts  1:8).




                                              Book Review

DICTIONARY OF CHRISTIAN-                      available. No layman will have          liance of Reformed Churches
ITY  IN  AMERICA,  Editors:                   any difficulty understanding it. It     (WARC); and the Christian Re-
Daniel G. Reid, Robert D. Linder,             is abundantly cros~referenced.          formed Church.
Bruce L. Shelley, Harry S. Stout.             Every article concludes with a se-         Many of the articles are fascinat-
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity               lect bibliography.                      ing, especially those on the various
Press, 1990. 1305 pages. Hard-                  Reformed readers will recognize       theologies or religious movements.
cover. $39.95. (Reviewed by the               some of the 400 contributors:           The article on "Arminianis:m"  cor-
Editor.)                                      James D. Bratt; Harvie Corm;            rectly states that the "distinguish-
   Breaking new ground, InterVar-             Richard B. Gaffin, Jr.; and George      ing feature" of Arminianism is "a
sity has published an enormously              M. Marsden, among others from           conditional view of grace" (p. 78).
interesting and extremely helpful             the Reformed and Presbyterian              Some are controversial. Norman
religious dictionary. 2,400 articles          community.                              Geisler, who is not Reformed,
and 1,500 biographical entries                  A random sampling of the arti-        writes the article on "Predestina-
cover the ideas, events, people,              cles indicates the scope of the dic-    tion." With reference to the doc-
movements, traditions, institu-               tionary: Baptism in the Spirit; Sep-    trine of predestination taught by
tions, and denominations that have            aration of Church and State; Four       the Synod of Dordt, Geisler speaks
made up the history of Christianity           Spiritual Laws; the Auburn Affir-       of "Dortian, or Extreme Calvin-
in the United States and Canada.              mation; the Fundamentalist-Mod-         ism." Evangelicalism, on the other
The work is thorough, scholarly,              ernist Controversy; Louis Berkhof;      hand, which believes "in unlimited
incisive, and generally accurate.             M.R. DeHaan; C.G. Finney;               atonement"; teaches "some form of
The preacher, seminarian, and                 Kathryn Kuhlman; the Biblical           cooperation between people's wills
Christian schoolteacher will find it          Theology Movement; the Charis-          and God's grace"; and holds "that
the best single source of informa-            matic Movement; the Great Awak-         only predestination to life is made,
tion on Christianity in America               ening; the Altar Call; the World Al-    denying any implication that God
166  /  'IheStandardBhrerI   January1,1991


ordains people to hell," Geisler de-      political views of V.I. Lenin repre-     sion in the next edition. If they do,
scribes-as "Moderate Calvinism"           sented `Moderate Democracy."             they should characterize the theol-
(p. 928). On this reckoning, the the-       There is no entry in this volume       ogy of these churches as "Dortian,
ory of political liberty that came        for the Protestant Reformed              or Genuine Calvinism." Cl
out of Philadelphia in 1776 was           Churches in America. No doubt,
"Extreme Democracy," whereas the          the editors will rectify this omis-




                                          News From
                                          Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger


Congregational  Highlights                  You may also remember an item         administer the sacrament of bap-
  Neither the prediction by area          from our last issue dealing with an     tism to his great-granddaughter,
weather forecasters calling for near      update on our Lynden, WA congre-        Megan  Leigh Lubbers. This he did
blizzard conditions, nor the call for     gation's new sanctuary. Well, as        -on October 28.
a major earthquake along the New          usually happens with updates, they      Evangelism Activities
Madrid Fault, kept the men at our         are outdated by the time you               Rev. R. Cammenga, pastor of our
Hudsonville, MI PRC home on the           read them. So it is time to update      Loveland, CO PRC writes that his
evening of December 3. They met           the update. The Decorating Com-         work in the Santa Cruz, CA area
that night for their annual congre-       mittee has progressed to the point      was very profitable. Approxi-
gational meeting.                         where various paint colors, light       mately eight families, all with chil-
  One proposal that might be of in-       fixtures, cabinets, etc. have been      dren, are part of the work. Besides
terest to our readers was the ap-         picked out and installed. A             conducting four worship services
proval to finance the Reformed            different committee'has been man-       and teaching the weekly Bible
Witness Hour's plan to begin              dated by Lynden's Consistory not        Study, Rev. Cammenga made sev-
broadcasts over three Trans-World         only to make provision for the          eral visits and established some
Radio stations in Great Britain.          sound system, but also to look into     new contacts. Plans are being
These broadcasts would cover all          information on various new or-          made to continue to supply the
of Great Britain and Ireland. And it      gans. And the Consistory has also       group with preaching. Revs. D.
is hoped that these programs might        gone so far as to appoint a Dedica-     Kuiper and A. denHartog  were
generate contacts in the future for a     tion Program Committee. All             there in November, and plans were
missionary working in the Lame,           things considered, the construction     for Rev. M. DeVries to go there the
Northern Ireland field.                   seems to be going pretty close to       first two Sundays of December.
  A proposal for financing a new          schedule; and, unless unforeseen        Ministerial Calls
parsonage was defeated at the an-         problems arise, Lynden should be           Rev. J. Kortering has declined the
nual congregational meeting of the        able .to worship in their new church    call he was considering to serve as
First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI.            by Christmas, 1990.                     a missionary to the Protestant Re-
                                            The newly formed Young Peo-           formed Churches of Jamaica.
                                          ple's Society of our Pella, IA PRC         Rev. R. Moore has declined the
                                          sponsored Gordon and Marilyn            call extended to him to serve as
                                          Wassink (members of our Holland,        pastor of our Randolph, WI PRC.
                                          MI congregation), in a travelogue-         At the December 6 Council melet-
                                          type slide program. It was held on      ing of our Hudsonville PRC, the
                                          November 16 and was entitled, "Be       following duo was made for mis-
                                          Still My Soul." This presentation       sionary to Lame, Northern Ireland:
                                          follows the theme of the three parts    Revs. C. Haak and T. Miersma. The
                                          of the Heidelberg Catechism.            congregational meeting to decide
                                            The Consistory of the Southeast       this call will be held immediately
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-     PRC in Grand Rapids, MI asked           after the Christmas Day service.  11
tant Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville,    emeritus pastor, the Rev.-George
Michigan.                                 Lubbers, in honor of his office, to

                                                                                   January1,~991/TheStandardBearerI  167


   THE
STANDARD                                                                                                                                                     SECOND CLASS
  BHRER                                                                                                                                                      Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan

 F10. Box 6064
 Grand Rapids, MI  49506



WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                      II:25 26, "I am the resurrection,              ,L.'..'_
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richly blessed their years together                      Rev. Ron Cammenga, President                                           ; ;  ~---.~`
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                                                                                                                                                                 ,joi&f   815%
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such loving, God-fearing parents.                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                           "%&se
                                                                                                       "                            '
                                                                                                          %&se ridte~
                                                                                                                                    'ridte~  will be 
                                                                                                                                                              will be issued-in
                                                                                                                                                                           issued-in multi-
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We hope and pray that we will have                          On January 9,1991, the Lord                  iRi~s,dfl$iidBq,ipa~~l~lon,demand
                                                                                                         iRi~s,dfl$iidBq,ipa~~l~lon,demand
many more years with them. Their                        willing, our parents MR. and MRS.              I: 
                                                                                                       I:  *,with=mterest
                                                                                                                               I..
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                                                                                                                               I..                               p&$Semt-annually.
                                                                                                                                                                p&$Semt-annually.
wedding text was Proverbs 31:10,                         HENRY HOEKSTRA will celebrate                 `:(&(& `:  **   `c`c   ,.-For:
                                                                                                                                 ,.-For:    frit%ior:information;
                                                                                                                                                           frit%ior:information;                                  ""
                                                                                                        ,.,.
which says, "Who can find a virtu-                      their 35th wedding anniversary. We                            :I:I   ~`
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ous woman, for her price is far                          rejoice  with them and are thankful           ;L;L  :-:-  .:.:                  +*
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above rubies." They have certainly                       to our covenant God for blessing us            ;:                     : 3067 WjflcwCr&k  Dr.
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been virtuous and diligent in raising                    with God-fearing parents. It is our            **  *?*?  `L`L`.
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us, and we pray that our heavenly                        prayer that God will continue to               _._. . 
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                                                                                                       :/*.  5  `.-  / ;.*..                                                                     ,,
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Father will continue to bless them                       bless them in the years ahead.                 2.
                                                                                                       ..";   ~~,~1545,Wiisbii~~~enue
                                                                                                                            ~_,.1545,Wijso;j:-Aie~lie    S~.\v.
                                                                                                                                                                                               S.\N.   "
                                                                                                       ; .:                                                                                                             "
as they travel down the pathways of                         "For the Lord is good; his mercy           ",
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                                                                                                                                                             @q$~;~MI    $3504
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life together.                                           is everlasting and his truth endureth         :<r;:"
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Their children:                                          to all generations" (Ps. 1005).
  Amy, Becky and fianc'e Cornelis                        James  & Gladys Koole
   Kleyn, Andy, Heidi, Lindy, Rusty,                     Brian  & Pauline Kroese                       formed Church express their heart-
   Katie, Holly, Emily, Bethany                          Henry  & Linda Kamps                          felt sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Art
           Grandville Protestant Reformed Church         Harlan  & Lenora Hoekstra                     Schwarz in the death of her sister,
                                                         Vern  & Kari Hoekstra                         MRS. BETTY DAUM.
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                   Mark Hoekstra                                              May our brother and sister be
  The consistoty  and congregation                       Mary Hoekstra & Jeff Kalsbeek (fianc'e)       comforted in the assurance of
of the Loveland Protestant Re-                           Jeff  & Rosie Andringa                        God's Word that "... all things work
                                                         Patty Hoekstra
formed  Church express their Chris-                         15 grandchildren                           together for good to them that love
                                                                                         Hull, Iowa
tian sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Fritz                                                                    God,`to them who are the called ac-
Schwarz in the death of her brother,                                                                   cording to his purpose" (Remans
                                                         RESOLUTlON  OF SYMPATHY
MR. GIDEON GRIESS.                                                                                     8:28).
                                                            The consistory and congregation
   May the bereaved be comforted                                                                       Rev. Ron Cammenga, President
                                                         of the Loveland Protestant Re-
by the words of our Lord in John                                                                       Glen Griess, Clerk


                                                  The Covenant of God and the Children of Believers, by Professor David J.
                                                 Engelsma.
                                                  The most recent of our publications (1990),  this 23-page pamphlet sets forthi,
                                                 briefly but comprehensively, the central biblical truth of God's covenant with Hlis
                                                 church. The author boldly contends that the explanation of the covenant given
                          and the                here should be recognized widely as THE Reformed doctrine of the covenant.
                                                 The emphasis is on the place of children in the covenant. With this, the question
          CmmN  OF BELIEVERS
               prof. David                       about the conversion of the covenant children is addressed. In a period of re-
                               J. EwlSma         newed theological interest in the covenant and in view of the confusion and con-
                                                 troversy among Reformed and Presbyterian churches over the covenant, as well
                                                 as the Baptist attack on the covenant, this pamphlet is timely.
               ~~;I~~~~;~$$22                     Limited number of copies, 2 or 3, are free. When ordered in quantity, we ask
               www~;~$;g:y                       $1 .OO- per copy - below our cost - or, in the case of limited finances, a contribu-
               .d God.               L"k.18G-    tion will be gratefully received.
                                                              The  Evangelism Committee          Protestant Reformed Church
                                                               16511 South Park Avenue, South Holland, Illinois 60473


168 / The Standard Bearer 1 January 1,199l


