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Vol. 67, No. 22
March 25,2991


Contents                                                  March 15, 1991
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema                              -  1
  THE PARTING OF HIS GARMENTS                                                   267
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                       ISSN  0362-4692
   AN "ELECTION THEOLOGY" OF COVENANT                                           269      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June.  July,
                                                                                         and August. Published by the Reformed Free Pub-
                                                                                         lishing Association, Inc. Second Class Postage Paid
LETTERS                                                                         271      at Grand Rapids,  Mich.
                                                                                         POSTMASTER:   Send address changes to The
                                                                                         Standard Bearer, P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                             49516.
   BONIFACE: APOSTLE TO-THE GERMANS                                             275      EDITORIAL         COMMITTEE
                                                                                         Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
                                                                                         Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Into All the World - Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop                                          Managing Editor: Mr. Don  Doezema
                                                                                         DEPARTMENT   EDITORS
   MISSIONS PRINCIPLES (IV): THE TASK                                           277      Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev.
                                                                                         Arie  denHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
When Thou Sittest  in Thine House - Rev. Kennefh Koole                                   Critters, Rev. Carl Haak, Prof. Herman Hanko.
                                                                                         Rev. John  Heys,  Rev. Marvin Kamps, Rev. Kenneth
   RESPONSIBILITIES TOWARDS CHILDREN (3)                                        279      Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering, Rev. Dale  Kuiper,  Mr.
                                                                                         James Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.
Strength of Youth - Rev. Russell J. Dykstra                                              Marybeth  Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsems, Rev.
                                                                                         Charles Terpstra, Rev.  Cise  VanBaren,  Rev. Ronald
  JOHN CALVIN AND WOMEN DEACONS                                                 282      VanOverloop,  Mr. Benjamin Wigger. Rev. Bernard
                                                                                         Woudenberg.
                                                                                         EDITORIAL   OFFICE             CHURCH   NEWS   EDITOR
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Carl J. Haak                                                The Standard Bearer            Mr. Ben Wigger
  THE BOOK OF RUTH: LESSON I                                                    284      4949  Ivanrest                 6597  - 40th Ave.
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                                                                                         EDITORIAL   POLICY
The Day of Shadows - Rev. John A. Heys                                                   Every editor is solely responsible for the contents
  THAT PROPER WEEPING AND LAUGHING                                              285      of his own articles. Contributions of general in-
                                                                                         terest from our readers and questions for The
                                                                                         Reader Asks Department are welcome. Contribu-
NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                                    287      tions will be limited to approximately 300 words
                                                                                         and must be neatly written or typewritten, and
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In This Issue...                                                                         relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                         editorial office.
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                                                                                         Permission is hereby granted for the reprinting of
  According to an article in U.S. News and World Report six years ago, there             articles in  our'magazine  by other publications,
were in the U.S. at that time no fewer than 33 million children whose moth-              provided: a) that such reprinted articles are repro-
                                                                                         duced in full;  b) that proper acknowledgement is
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                                                                                         BUSINESS   OFFICE        NEW   ZEALAND   OFFICE
claimed, is "forcing" many women out of the home and into the labor force.               The Standard Bearer The Standard Bearer
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266 I The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


                                          The Parting of
Meditation                                His Garments
Rev. James Slopsema


  Then the soldiers, when #hew            also an outer tunic or robe, some-        describes this very graphically. He
had crucified Jesus, took his &r-         what looser and longer than the in-       was poured out like water. All his
ments, and made four parts, to            ner tunic. There was a girdle or          bones were out of joint. His heart
                                                                                    melted. His strength was dried up
every soldier a part; and also his        belt about six inches wide, made ei-
                                          ther of leather, linen, or silk. There    like a potsherd. His tongue clung
coat: now the coat was without            was an outer garment or mantle,           to the roof of his mouth.
seam, woven from the top                  much like an overcoat, worn year            David was also close to death.
throughout.                               around in both warm and cold              His enemies were either about to
  They said`therefore among               weather. For His feet there were          kill him or to leave him to die.
themselves, Let us not rend it,           sandals. For His head there was a         David speaks of the fact that they
                                          turban.                                   had stripped him of his garment,
but cast lots for it, whose it              Just before being nailed to His         staring at his wasted form.
shall be: that the scripture              cross, Jesus was stripped of His            They had even parted his gar-
might be fulfilled, which saith,          clothing.                                 ments among them. For his vesture
They parted my raiment among                Then, while the crowds scoffed          they had cast lots.
them, and for my vesture they             and jeered at Jesus hanging on the          It is not sure when this incident
did cast lots. These things               cross, the four soldiers in charge of     in David's life took place. It is
                                          His crucifixion proceeded to divide       likely that this took place when
therefore the soldiers did.               Jesus' clothing among themselves,         David was being pursued by Saul.
                     - John 19:23,24      each receiving a part.                    Some are inclined to cite the inci-
                                            Special mention is made of Jesus'       dent recorded in I Samuel 23:25,26,
                                          inner tunic or shirt. The inner tunic     when Saul had David surrounded
  The Roman soldiers had cruci-           was without seam, woven from the          but was suddenly called away by
fied Jesus, nailing Him to the cross.     top throughout. This fact made the        an invasion of the Philistines.
  It was customary for one being          tunic of greater value than the             Our first reaction to all this llli3y
crucified, first to be stripped of his    other garments. Instead of tearing        be to wonder how this is prophecy.
clothing. After nailing a man to the      it up and dividing it among them-           In that connection we must bear
cross, the soldiers, usually four in      selves, which would have reduced          in mind that many individuals in                I
number, would proceed to divide           its value to nothing, the four sol-       the Old Testament were types or
up his clothing among themselves.         diers decided to cast lots to deter-      pictures of the great Savior that
This was considered the execution-        mine whose it would be.                   was to come. This was true of ev-
er's right.                                          *+***c**                       ery prophet,,priest,  and king in Is-
  Jesus received similar treatment          Matthew sees in this a fulfill-         rael. They pointed ahead to the
at His crucifixion.                       ment of Old Testament prophecy.           great Prophet, Priest, and King God
  His clothing was no doubt that            The Scripture Matthew quotes is         had promised. David, therefore, as
which was commonly worn by the            Psalm 22:X3: "They parted my rai-         king of Israel, was a picture of
people. There was an inner tunic or       ment among them, and for my ves-          Christ.
shirt worn next to the skin. This         ture they did cast lots."                   In turn there were often events in
tunic, made of leather, hair-cloth,         Psalm 22 is a psalm of David. In        the lives of men like David that
wool, or linen, was sleeveless and        the first part of this Psalm, David       were typical, pointing ahead to
came down to the knees. There was         recalls a most desperate situation,       things that would happen to the
                                          in which he had at one time-found         promised Savior. These events
                                          himself. He had been surrounded           therefore served as prophecies of
                                          and captured by his enemies, who          the life and work of the coming
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope           were much stronger than he.               Savior.
Protestant Reformed Church in               In the hand of his enemies,               We find several instances of this
Walker, Michigan.                         David had lost all strength. David        in Psalm 22.

                                                                                     March  1$1991  I The Standard Bearer  I 267


   In verse 1 David cries out, "My           dent from the rest of Psalm 22 in           surrounded Him, captured Him,
God, my God, why hast thou for-              which David relates how he had              condemned Him to death,
saken me?" It was David's experi-            anticipated deliverance at the hand         whipped Him, and then finally cru-
ence that God had forsaken him.              of God. David recounts how that             cified Him. His enemies even di-
David, however, experienced this             the Lord had delivered His people           vided His garments among them-
as a type of Christ, so that his expe-       in the past, when they trusted in           selves. Jesus was as good as dead.
rience was a prophecy of what                Him. David expresses the certainty             Surely if God did not comic
would befall the promised Savior.            that the Lord will also return to           down to rescue Him at this point, it
   In like manner, David writes in           help him. David even describes the          could only be that He had forsaken
verses 7,8, "All they that see me            glory God will have as David                His Son.
laugh me to scorn: they shoot out            praises the Lord in the congrega-              But God did not come to deliver
the lip, they shake the head, saying,        tion and as the nations eventually          Jesus from His enemies. Instead
He trusted on the Lord that he               bow before David's dominion as              God left Jesus on the cross to die
would deliver him, seeing he de-             king.                                       the accursed death. At high noon
lighted in him." See Matthew 27~43             Whereas God did not forsake               God even sent a horrible darkness
for the fulfillment of this in Jesus'        David, He did forsake Jesus Christ,         that lasted for three long hours,
life.                                        the great Savior of whom David              during which time Jesus fell under
   The same is true of what David            was but a type.                             the full weight of God's infinite
writes in verse 16: "They pierced              Even as the Lord was David's              wrath.
my hands and my feet." This was              God, so was He also Jesus' God. Je-            Hence, Jesus cried out, `My God,
obviously fulfilled when Jesus was           sus is the eternal Son of God, who          my God, why hast thou forsaken
nailed to the cross.                         is eternally in the bosom of the Fa-        me?"
   And then in verse 18 David                ther. He is also the Lords                     This brings us to the great gospel
writes, "They part my garments               Anointed. As the Lords Anointed             of salvation.
among them, and cast lots upon               Jesus walked perfectly in the ser-             God forsook His only begotten
my vesture."                                 vice of His God, enjoying Gods              Son on the cross for our salvation.
   This prophecy was also fulfilled          friendship and fellowship in ways             We have sinned and fallen short
on the cross, as the Roman soldiers          David could not. Of the great love          of the glory of God.
took Jesus' garments, and made               God has for Jesus, God more than               We deserve to be forsaken by
four parts, to every soldier a part;         once gave public testimony with a           God.
and also his coat....                        voice from heaven, `This is my                 But God has forsaken His own
          *****Et*                           beloved Son in whom I am well               Son on the cross instead.
   In this prophecy fulfilled we find        pleased."                                      Through this horrible agony Je-
the blessed gospel of grace.                   Even as the Lord delivered                sus paid the full penalty of our sin
   It had been David's great con-            David into the hands of his ene-            and obtained for us perfect righ-
cern that God not forsake him.               mies, so too did God deal with Je-          teousness and life eternal.
This concern is expressed in the             sus. These enemies were the Jew-              Hence, we will never be forsaken
opening verse of Psalm 22: "My               ish leaders, Judas Iscario t, Pontius      by God but will enjoy the bliiss of
God, my God, why hast thou for-              Pilate, Herod, and eventually the           God's covenant friendship for-
saken me?"                                   whole of the Jewish nation. They            ever. IZl
   David recalls in this psalm how
that the Lord has been his God
from his mother's womb. The Lord
had been his God and not the God
of his enemies.                                                      Certainty Of Blessings
   But for a time it had appeared to
David as though God had forsaken                                       If what I wish is good,
him. David, as the Lords own                                           And suits the Will divine,
anointed, had been captured by his                                 By earth and hell in vain withstood
enemies and was near death. Even                                       I know it shall be mine.
his enemies considered him a dead                                      Still let them counsel take
man. For they had stripped him of                                      To frustrate His decree;
his clothing and divided it up                                     They cannot keep a blessing back
among themselves. If the Lord did                                      By Heaven designed for me.
not rescue him at this point, it                                       If what my soul requires
could only be that the Lord had                                        Evil to me would prove,
forsaken him.                                                      His Love shall cross my fond desires,
   But the Lord would not forsake                                      His kindly-jealous Love.
David!
   Even in the depths of his trou-                                                                    - SB, December X5,1932
bles David knew this. This is evi-

268 / The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


                                         An "Election
                                         Theology" of
Editorial                                Covenant

  This at bottom is the objection of     doctrine of the "Liberated" and the         covenant promise is to them all.
"Liberated" Reformed theologian          doctrine of the PRC concerning the          The covenant promise is a gracious
Dr. J. DeJong  to the Protestant Re-     covenant of God with the children           promise. At the very least, it makes
formed doctrine of the covenant (cf.     of believers are two, sharply differ-       known the gracious attitude of Giod
the letter in this issue of the Stan-    ing doctrines. Their difference con-        toward the object of the promise, as
dard Bearer). He expresses this fun-     cerns basic truths of the Reformed          well as His desire to save the one to
damental objection when he writes,       faith; exegesis of crucially impor-         whom the promise is given. This is
"And Engelsma is only perpetuat-         tant passages of Holy Scripture; un-        certainly what the PRC understand
ing the same kind of `election' the-     derstanding of the Canons of                by the covenant promise, although
ology which refuses to entertain the     Dordt; and the practical matter of          we also hold that the promise is
Scriptural teaching of faith as the      the approach to the baptized,               gracious in the sense that it works
way or condition to salvation...."       covenant children.                          the renewing power of salvation in
He says the same thing when he ac-         The "Liberated' teaching is that          the one to whom it is given.
cuses me of misreading the Re-           God makes the covenant promise,                But the "Liberated' too regard
formed creeds "through the glasses       "I will be the God of your children,"       the promise as gracious in the sense
of the typical Protestant Reformed       with all that this promise contains,        that it makes known the favorable
interpretation that makes election       to every child of believing parents.        attitude of God toward those to
dominate all other doctrines."           With this promise comes the de-             whom He gives the promise. The
  For the "Liberated," the one, ba-      mand that the child believe in God          "Liberated' have always con-
sic error of the Protestant Reformed     when he grows up as a condition             demned the disciples of Abraham
doctrine of the covenant is the          upon which the promise  depends  for its    Kuyper for restricting "grace" to
place -- the foundational and deter-     realize tion in the child.                  "subjectively-realized grace," i.e.,,
minative place - it gives to God's          The doctrine of the PRC is that          regenerating power in the heart,
eternal election. For the "Liber-        the covenant promise, with all that         and for failing to recognize that
ated," "election theology of             it contains, is for the elect children      also the word of promise itself is
covenant" is the charge that finally     of believing parents only. The de-          grace. The "Liberated" theologian J.
disqualifies the Protestant Re-          mand or calling that accompanies            Kamphuis makes this very point
formed covenant conception. For          the promise, rather than being a            against the Kuyperians in his book,
the PRC, this very "charge" is the       condition upon which the fulfill-           An Everlasting Covenant 0?ublica-
vindication of our doctrine of the       ment of the promise depends, is             tion Organization of the Free Re-
covenant as soundly Reformed.            based upon the promise and consti-          formed Churches of Australia,
Since the charge against our             tutes both the way in which God             1985). Criticizing the Kuyperian
covenant doctrine by the "Liber-         realizes the promise (the way of            view of the covenant and infant
ated' implies that the "Liberated'       faith) and the part in the covenant         baptism, Kamphuis writes:
doctrine of the covenant is not an       (believing) of the one taken into              This means (i.e., the teaching of
election theology of covenant, the       Gods covenant by the promise.               Abraham Kuyper and his folluuxrs  -
charge is itself the condemnation of        In order that the issue between          DIE): If that grace will be real grace,
the "Liberated" covenant concep-         us not be obscured or confused,             it has to be innerly present in man,
tion, as far as the PRC are con-         several points in the debate must           and cannot be "only" a word, a
cerned.                                  be clarified. First, I did not misrep-      promise. Is not the choice of words re-
  One thing becomes clear from           resent the "Liberated' doctrine             vealing? Only that which has been re-
Dr. DeJong's contribution to the         when I wrote that it teaches that           alized  subjectively  can  really  be
discussion concerning the Re-            God extends His covenant grace to           called grace, and is to be clearly distin-
formed doctrine of the covenant          all the children of believers. This is      guished from the contents of God's
with the children of believers: the      simply what it means that His               speaking in a promising way.  Real

                                                                                      March  15,1991/ The Standard Bearer  / 269


grace is here subjectively-realized          resentation to describe the "Liber-         But the PRC differ from the "Lib-
grace (p. 44; all emphasis his -- DJE).      ated" covenant view as one which          erated" in that we deny that the de-
   According to the "Liberated," the         has God extending His grace to all        mand to the children is a condition
word of promise is "real grace." I           the baptized children. This is in-        upon which depends the fulfill-
agree. But DeJong  must not then             herent in their fundamental doc-          ment of the promise. Rather the
charge me with misrepresenting               trine that the covenant promise is        demand to believe is the way in
the "Liberated" when I say that              for all the children. And this            which God realizes the covenant in
they teach that God extends His              means that the "Liberated" must ex-       the case of the elect children. Their
grace to all the baptized children of        plain both to themselves and to           obedience to the demand, namely,
believers. For they maintain that            others, why their covenant view           believing, is itself the fruit of the
the word of promise is for all the           does not necessarily involve them         promise in their lives. The promise
children.                                    in serious transgression of two fun-      does not depend upon the demand
   That there is in the "Liberated'          damental truths of the gospel as          (faith). But the demand (faith) de-
doctrine of the covenant the teach-          confessed by the Reformed                 pends upon the promise. With re-
ing that God desires to save all bap-        churches: the irresistible nature of      gard to the reprobate children, the
tized children is plain from Klaas           Gods grace and the impossibility          same demand, namely, repent and
Schilder's explanation of the cru-           of falling from grace (which the          believe!, is their duty, regardless of
cially important phrase in the Re-           Canons of Dordt describe as God's         their inability. Indeed, their respon-
formed baptism form, "sanctified in          not allowing the elect to "lose the       sibility is heightened by the fact
Christ": "It belongs to the contents         grace of adoption," V/6).                 that they receive the covenant sign,
of the promise that has to be em-              A second point that must be clar-       are reared in the covenant truth,
braced in faith, that the Holy Spirit        ified is that the PRC do indeed em-       and have membership for a time
desires to sanctify us, (indeed) im-         phatically hold and freely preach         among the covenant people.
parting to us that which we have in          demands in the covenant. We                 The third point that requires
Christ (in the promise, by rights)"          would not like to think that we           clarification so that the real issue
(quoted in Kamphuis, p. 80). Kam-            come a whit behind the "Liberated"        can be profitably discussed is that,
phuis explains that in the covenant          in this regard. There is in baptism       for the PRC, "faith-as-a-demand" is
promise of baptism, which accord-            the demand to the children to re-         not the same as "faith-as-a-condi-
ing to the "Liberated' is given to all       pent, believe, and obey God's law.        tion." Dr. DeJong  simply identifies
the children, "the Holy Spirit               The Declaration of Principles             "demand' and "condition." He
promises us that He wants to sanc-           adopted by the PRC in 1951 states         writes: "Paul stresses  the condition
tify us." Kamphuis adds, "the                that the promise of God in baptism        of the covenant: the call to faith!
LORD really means it when He                 "confronts us with the obligation of      And the requirement of faith as the
says to all children of the Covenant:        love, to walk in a new and holy           way to salvation does not detract
`holy,' `sanctified'..." (p. 81).            life." There is also in the baptism of    one iota from the certainty of God's
   There is good reason, in fact, to         the infants a demand of the               promises." The implication is that
analyze the "Liberated' position as          covenant to the parents to instruct       the "call to faith" and the "require-
teaching that God extends His                their children in the truth to the ut-    ment of faith" are the same as "faith-
covenant grace to all the baptized           most of their power. The PRC              as-a-condition." Again, he writes,
children in the sense that He be-            maintain Article 21 of the Church         "(the theology of the PRC) refuses
stows upon them all a significant            Order of Dordt which requires par-        to entertain the Scriptural teaching
blessing of the covenant. I refer to         ents to instruct their children in        of faith as the way or condition to
their explaining "sanctified in              good Christian schools as one of          salvation...." Faith as a "way" is
Christ" as meaning that all baptized         the "demands of the covenant." A          supposed to be the same as faith as
children "have been adopted as               theology of the covenant that has         a "condition." The effect of this
Gods children (as `sons')" by a              election as its foundation in no          identification of "way" and "cie-
"public, judicial act of God." Of this       wise weakens, much less abrogates,        mand" with "condition" is that the
public, judicial adoption of every           the responsibility of children, par-      impression is left that by denying
baptized child as a child of God,            ents, or church. On the contrary!         "faith-as-a-condition" the PRC are,
baptism is a sign and seal, accord-            The PRC also preach the warn-           in fact, denying demands in the
ing to the "Liberated" (Kamphuis,            ing - the awful warning of He-            covenant. The impression is also
p. 83).                                      brews 10:25-31--  that the baptized       left that in affirming "faith-as-a-con-
  I frankly find this incredible in a        member of the covenant people             dition" the "Liberated" are only af-
Reformed church. Adoption unto               who violates the covenant by his          firming demands in the covenant.
children of God by a public, judi-           unbelief will be beaten with double         Leaving out of sight for the time
cial act of God of all the children of       stripes. Nor are these empty words        whether Scripture and the Re
believers, the Esaus as well as the          with us. When our own physical            formed creeds permit the church to
Jacobs, those who perish under the           children manifest themselves as           call faith a condition, I only want to
wrath of God now and eternally as            profane despisers of the covenant,        establish here that the PRC make a
well as those who have eternal life?         we exclude them from the kingdom          sharp distinction between faith as a
But this is certain: it is no misrep-        of Christ by Christian discipline.        demand and faith as a condition.

270 I The Standard Bearer / March 15,199l


The former, we teach; the latter, we      God, particularly in baptism,             dependent upon the child; that it:
as firmly deny. And such a distinc-       promise the blessing of the               necessarily implies that the death
tion rings perfectly true to every-       covenant of grace to eve.ry.baptized      of Christ fails to secure the salva-
day life. A Reformed husband re-          child on the condition of faith? Is       tion of some for whom Christ died;
quires godly submission from his          the covenant conditional in its es-       and that it expressly teaches that
wife, not as a condition for becom-       tablishment with the children of be-      the promise of God fails in some in-
ing his wife, but as a demand based       lievers personally? The "Liberated'       stances.
on her being his wife. Submission         Reformed Churches say yes. They              Dr. DeJong  answers these
is also the way in which she ex-          hold that all children of believers       charges in his letter, rejecting each
presses what it means to be a wife.       alike are in the covenant in this         of them as without substance and
Similarly, the honor that a father re-    sense that God promises them all          false.
quires from his child is not a condi-     salvation and extends to them all            The editorial in the next issue of
tion that the boy must fulfill in or-     His covenant grace in Christ.             the SB will examine the "Liberated"
der to become a child, but rather         Against this view, I charged that it      theologian's refutation of these
that which is demanded exactly be-        conflicts with cardinal doctrines of      charges. Cl                          - DJE
cause he is a child.                      the Word of God. Specifically, I
   The issue between the PRC and          charged that this view makes the
the "Liberated" is just this: Does        covenant promise and grace of God




                                          Letters

n Also Yet the                            ham and his offspring. And in a           But, living in a Christian environ-
    Canadian Reformed                     following issue he says that the          ment, they have a better chance of
                                          children of believers are included        being converted than other chil-
    ("Liberated")                         in the covenant. In opposition to         dren. The second view he presents
    Covenant View                         the Baptists who deny a place in          is that of the Canadian (and Ameri-
                                          the covenant to the children of be-       can) Reformed Churches. En-
  In your editorials entitled "The        lievers, Engelsma says that our           gelsma puts it this way:
Covenant of God and the Children          creeds are clear: they belong to             All the children of believers without
of Believers" of April-December           God in the covenant!                      exception are in the covenant in this
1990, you have made some strong             Then Engelsma proceeds to con-          sense, that God promises them all sal-
allegations against the Canadian          front the age-old problem concern-        vation and extends to them all His
Reformed Churches.                        ing those children of believers who       covenant grace in Christ. However,
  Considering such strong allega-         upon reaching the age of maturity         the actual f2fillment  of the promise,
tions, could you publish our re-          do not accept the gospel in true          the actual reception of covenant  gnrce,
sponse to your statements? You            faith. What are we to think of            and the actual realization of the
may then take this submission as a        them? Engelsma says that we can-          covenant with them personally depend
"Letter to the Editor" and give your      not presume them to be regener-           upon their believing in Christ and
response to it.                           ated for this is contrary to Scripture    thus taking hold of the covenant when
  Let me first summarize Engel-           and experience. Here, too, we can         they grow up.
sma's position. One can only laud         agree! Indeed, presumptive regen-            Then Prof. Engelsma presents
his initial description of both the       eration was the heart of the conflict     his own view, to which we shall. re-
centrality and importance of the          of 1944!                                  turn later.
doctrine of the covenant in Scrip           Prof. Engelsma then proceeds to
ture. One can agree with most of          give three possible explanations          Engelsma's Critique
what he says. Engelsma begins             concerning the meaning of the chil-
with stressing the fact that the chil-    dren of believers being included in          First, let us consider Engelsma's
dren of believers are included in         the covenant. The first view he           critique of the Netherlands Re-
the covenant. His concern is with         presents is that of the Netherlands       formed and the Free Reformed po-
the place of the children of the be-      Reformed Congregations and the            sition. This view, says Engelsma,
lievers. Hence he points out that         Free Reformed Church. This view           must be rejected. "God does not
the covenant was made with Abra-          states that the children of believers     merely put the children of believ-
                                          are unregenerate and unsaved.             ers in a more advantageous posi-

                                                                                     March  15,199l  I The Standard Bearer  I 271


tion, so as to make it likelier that         point out that he has not accurately         Thus, there is no substance to
they will be saved; but He estab-            represented the view of the Cana-          Engelsma's charge, nor to his Scrip
lishes His covenant with them, so            dian Reformed Churches. We do              ture proof. He cites Romans 9:16 -
as to be their God." Who could not           not teach that God extends to all the      a text which makes no direct refer-
agree?                                       children of believers His covenant         ence either to children or to the
  Then the Canadian Reformed                 grace. Rather, He includes them            covenant, but to God's sovereign
position gets its turn. This view,           with their parents in the covenant         work of election. Who can deny
says Prof. Engelsma, "conflicts with         of grace and He promises to them           this? Pointing out conditions that
cardinal doctrines of the Word of            His covenant blessings in Christ,          exist in the covenant does not in
God, doctrines which are precious            and includes with promise the de-          any way detract from God's
to every Reformed man and                    mand to believe the gospel and to          sovereign decree of election (see II
woman." Three arguments are                  receive Christ's blessings in true         Cor. 6:X--7:1).
brought forward:                             faith. We also do not teach that the         The same holds for Engelsma's
   1. This view makes the promise            actual reception of covenant grace         references to the Canons of Dordt.
of the covenant grace of God                 and the actual realization of the          He quotes I/9,10, but why does he
depend on the work and will of the           covenant depend on the faith of the        ignore I/3,4, and 12 or II/5, where
covenant child. The covenant and             children of believers. Rather, God         the means or conditions of the
its salvation are conditional and de-        fulfills His covenant promises in          covenant are mentioned? Canons
pendent on the faith of the child,           His time and in His way in the             I/3 speaks about the preaching of
and this is "diametically  opposed           lives of the children of believers         the gospel; I/4 speaks about the
to the teaching of Scripture...."            whom He chooses. We also confess           twofold effect of this preaching.
Here he quotes Romans 9:16. It is            that such faith is a work and gift of      Canons II/5 says that the Lord
also against the confession, says            the LORD, according to His                 sends the gospel wherever He wills
Engelsma, quoting the Canons of              sovereign good pleasure and elect-         and adds with the promise the
Dordt, I/9,10 ("Election is not              ing love. Yet in this work, He is          command to repent and believe
Based on Foreseen Faith" and "Elec-          pleased to use the means. He ful-          this gospel. Engelsma quotes III-
tion is based on Gods Good Plea-             fills His promise in the way of            IV/14, but why does he not read
sure"); the Rejection of Errors I/3          faith.                                     V/14 as well? Canons V/14 says
(The act of faith is not the cause for         We then proceed to answer Prof.          that the use of means are included
salvation, but only God's good               Engelsma's arguments:                      in His sovereign work of grace.
pleasure); Canons III-IV/14 (Faith              1. Engelsma holds that we make          One cannot successfully argue a
is a gift of God); and Rejection of          the covenant and its salvation con-        case by upholding only a part of a
Errors III-IV/6 (Faith is not an act         ditional and dependent on the faith        creed, and silently passing over the
of man but a gift of God). The ba-           of the child. But this is a fiction. As    other parts. And here I have not
sic argument: the Canadian Re-               Prof. K. Schilder pointed out to           even mentioned I/17, where all the
formed position is Arminian.                 Rev. Hoeksema long ago (!), it all         children are explicitly included in
  2. This view implies that Christ's         depends on what one means by               the covenant.
death for some persons fails to se-          "conditional." If one means with             2. In the second argument, En-
cure their redemption. At baptism            this term that one can earn his sal-       gelsma  holds that we teach univer-
God promises salvation to the chil-          vation, or merit any part of it by his     sal atonement as regards the chil-
dren on the basis of Christ's blood          own act of believing or any other          dren of believers. Frankly it is a
shed for them. But some of these             work, then we join in rejecting the        mystery to me how this is even log-
children perish. This denies the             word "conditional." But if one             ically possible, let alone actually
doctrine of limited atonement, "at           means by this term that God is             true. "Universal" means: "all men"
least within the sphere of the               pleased to establish certain means         and thus logically incorporates a
covenant." Thus we are held to               through which His covenant                 category incongruous with "chil-
teach universal atonement. Again:            promises come to realization, then         dren of believers." There is little
the Canadian Reformed position is            this term can never be disqualified.       clarity in this way of speaking.
A r m i n i a n .                            Indeed, there are many examples of           Aside from this strange terminol-
  3. This view means that the                conditional language in Scripture,         ogy - which only reflects Prof. En-
promise of God fails in many cases.          as Prof. Engelsma well knows.              gelsma's difficulties in hunting up
God's promises are considered to             Think of Isaiah 7:9: "If you will not      critique against sound Reformed
have failed. The Word of God is              believe, you will not be estab-            doctrine - we also must reject the
made of none effect. And this, too,          lished." Think of Acts X31: "Be-           sense of Engelsma's argument. We
is contrary to Scripture and confes-         lieve in the Lord Jesus, and you           do not teach that the children1 of be-
sion.                                        will be saved, you and your house-         lievers are promised the covenant
                                             hold." This latter text not only           on the basis that Christ has washed
Are we Arminian?                             shows that the covenant is condi-          them all in His blood. We say:
                                             tional in its existence, but also          God in Christ promises them that
  These are Engelsma's arguments.            shows how the children were in-            He will wash them in His blood
Before we consider them we must              cluded!                                    from all their sins and adds with

272 / The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


the promise His demand that the           Engelsma's View                            into. the confessions, and hence en-
children turn from evil and believe                                                  tirely misinterpreting their mes-
His Word, and that the parents in-           We will now consider the view           sage.
struct their children in these things.    that Engelsma himself defends                What Scriptural references does
When children grow up not believ-         with regard to the children of the         Engelsma bring forward to support
ing Gods promises, it does not            covenant. We have already no ted           his view? He refers to God's words
mean that Christ takes back what          that all along he has argued for           to Moses in Romans 9:15: "I will.
He first gave them. It means that         their inclusion in the covenant. He        have mercy on whom I have mercy,
His gifts are spumed, and the             has insisted on this position in op-       and I will have compassion on
covenant breaker incurs the wrath         position to the Baptists and the           whom I have compassion." But as I
of God's covenant. God has thus           view of covenant held by the               have previously stated, this text
instituted His covenant in order to       Netherlands Reformed Congrega-             does not deny for a moment the se-
stress how serious our covenant           tions and the Free Reformed                riousness and the validity of God's
obligations are in His service.           Church. Here then is Engelsma's            covenant promise made to the cJail-
   3. Engelsma's final objection is       view.                                      dren of all believers in the
that the Canadian Reformed view              Although all our children are in the    covenant. Engelsma reads this cie-
implies the Word of God fails. For        sphere of the covenant and thenfore re-    nial into the text. The focus of Ro-
those who do not believe, Gods            ceive the sign of the covenant and are     mans 9 is on the fulfillment of the
promise does not hold true. But           reared as covenant members, the            covenant promise through God's
this, too, is a caricature of our         covenant of God, the relationship of       own sovereign act, and it does not
standpoint. Faced with the unbe-          friendship in Jesus Christ, is estab-      touch the validity (legal reliability)
lief of many of Israel's sons, the        lished with the elect children only.       of the covenant promise made to all
apostle Paul takes pains to point            Here the truth of his position fi-      the offspring. Then, quoting Ro-
out, "But it is not as though the         nally appears. The children of be-         mans 4:16, Engelsma says: `The
Word of God had failed" (Rom. 9:6).       lievers are included in the                promise of God is sure to all the
The unbelief of men can never nul-        covenant, but actually they are also       seed." But then he must have
lify the grace of God. God's Word         excluded from the covenant.                strange glasses on, for Romans 4:16
never returns empty but always ac-           What is anyone to make of this          says: `That is why it depends on
complishes its purpose  - effecting       reasoning? What does it mean to            faith, in order that the promise rnay
grace to one, and wrath to the            be included in the sphere of the           rest on grace and be guaranteed to
other, all in accordance with His         covenant? Here Engelsma's lan-             all his (Abraham's) descendants -
sovereign good pleasure (Is. 55:ll).      guage suddenly becomes vague.              not only to the adherents of the `law
But the covenant promise remains          And there is a clear reason for this       but also those who share the faith
the same for all children of believ-      turn to the vague concept of the           of Abraham, for he is the father of
ers.                                      "sphere of the covenant." When             us all." Paul stresses the  condition
                                          one closes the door to the simple          of the covenant: the call to faith!
Engelsma Uses                             teaching of Scripture, one begins to       And the requirement of faith as the
Strong Words Against                      reach for whatever might fit the oc-       way to salvation does not detract
                                          casion in order to salvage the situa-      one iota from the certainty of God's
the Canadian                              tion.                                      promises!
Reformed Churches                            Once Engelsma begins on this              The reasoning of Prof. Engelsma
                                          road there is no end. Whereas he           is an unending circle, fraught with
  Their teaching stands "in diamet-       began with denying presumptive-            self-contradictions. First the chil-
rical opposition to the teaching of       regeneration, in the  end  he says:        dren are included, then they are ex-
Scripture" and "conflicts with cardi-     "Viewing their children as Gods            cluded. First there is no pmsump
nal doctrines of the Word of God."        children, believers must approach          tive regeneration, then we must
But when it comes to developing a         them as elect children in teaching         presume our children to be elect
case for these statements, one dis-       and discipline, even though there          children. Where does this end? In
covers that he has not one sound          may indeed be reprobate and unre-          effect, there is not much difference
argument in his arsenal to support        generate children among them.              in the view on the position of chil-
such strong allegations. On the one       Election determines the approach."         dren in the covenant between the
hand he makes us say things we do         What is this but presumptive re-           Protestant Reformed and the Bap-
not say, and on the other hand he         generation? He even goes on to say         tists and Netherlands Reformed
misreads our (and his own) confes-        that the Canons of Dordt restrict          Congregations that Engelsma is op
sions through the glasses of the          the promise of the gospel and the          posing. They each differ in degree,
typical Protestant Reformed inter-        sacraments to believers, (quoting          but not in essentials: they all do
pretation that makes election domi-       III-IV/@ a statement which the ar-         not reaZZy include all the children of
nate all other doctrines. Hence we        ticle quoted does not make, and            believers in the covenant of grace.
are falsely accused of Arminianism.       which flies in the .face of the clear        The sad part of all of this is &at
                                          language of 11/5. Ultimately we            the theory of the "sphere of the
                                          find Engelsma reading his view             covenant" as propounded by En-

                                                                                      March  15,1991   I The Standard Bearer  i 273


gelsma is foreign to the Scriptures.         am asking that he publish an adap              For anyone to expose its evils and
It is a "sphere of the covenant" the-        tation of my editorial response to             unimaginable atrocities was to in-
ory much in the same vein as pro-            his article as a letter in Clation.            vite the ridicule of being called a
pounded by several church leaders              My original analysis of the "Lib-            "Right-wing, John Birch, Mc-
opposing the simple view of Scrip-           erated" covenant view (held by the             Carthyite, Anti-Communist Cru-
ture upheld at the time of the Liber-        Reformed Churches in The Nether-               sader." Remember the scorn
ation in 1944. And whereas Rev.              lands, the Canadian Reformed                   heaped on President Reagan for his
Hoeksema took a good stand op                Churches, and other churches), to              remark that Russia was "an evil
posing the `Three Points of Kala-            which Dr. DeJong responds, can be              empire"? In my own experience
mazoo" which made the doctrine of            found in the May 1,199O  issue of              since the early 195Os, I was often ig-
common grace binding in 1924, in             the SB (pp. 341,342). My defense               nored or ridiculed, even by F:e-
1950 all his gains were lost when he         of the covenant view of the PRC                formed "intellectuals," for daring to
made a binding statement of his              against the view of the "Liberated"            expose the brutal truth about Com-
own excluding the view of the con-           can be found in the July 1,199O  SB            munism, truth which was readily
fessions defended by Schilder. And           (p. 4131.                                      available to anyone who really
Engelsma is only perpetuating the              Anyone interested in studying                Cared.
same kind of "election" theology             the PR defense of an unconditional               You are absolutely correct in stat-
which refuses to entertain the               covenant on the basis of the Re-               ing, "the theological liberals in the
Scriptural teaching of faith as the          formed creeds should read the                  West will carry into the Judgment
way or condition to salvation and            "Declaration of Principles," adopted           complicity in Communism's evils."
the notion of Gods wrath against             by the PR Synod of 1951. This doc-             The story of how the liberals and,
covenant breakers.                           ument, intended to be used "only               yes, many theological conserva-
  In sum we reject the allegations           by the Mission Committee and the               tives also, aided and abetted this
of Prof. Engelsma that we are                missionaries for the organization of           monstrous criminal conspiracy by
Arminian in our view of the                  prospective churches," is found in             refusing to condemn it forth-rightly
covenant, and we reject his charges          the book of Church Order of the                and without qualification is truly a
that we teach doctrines diametri-            PRC.                                           shocking chapter on the hardness
cally opposed to the Scriptures. We             Since I suppose that there can be           and blindness of heart of 20tlh cen-
teach those confessional doctrines           no additional objection to the doc-            tury Christian "intellectuals."'
which are clearly maintained in the          trine of the covenant that I have                Thanks for a very penetrating
creeds and which he does not ap              been setting forth in these pages,             succinct commentary. Cl
pear to notice: the covenant has             objections from all possible quar-                             (Rev.) Norrninm~~;
conditions.                                  ters having already come in, I take                                                I
  The crux of this debate is ulti-           this opportunity to express thank-
mately very practical. How do we             fulness -- and pleasant surprise --
view our children? How are we to             that there is still obviously a great
approach them in teaching and in-            deal of interest in the vital truth of
struction? The Lord demands a                Gods covenant with believers and
great sacrifice precisely because            their children. It is disheartening,
they are included in the covenant --         however, that after almost 500                           Do I Ever Pray?
a covenant in which our responsi-            years of Reformed church history,
bility is never abrogated. Let no            there are still so many and so great           I often say my prayers,
one bury the clear demand of the             differences among Reformed and                   But do I ever pray?
gospel under a smoke screen of               Presbyterian churches over this                And do the wishes of my heart
"sphere" theories, but simply do his         truth.                                           Go with the words I say?
duty in the place he is called. Then                                                -DTE
we will also see the rewards!                                                               I may as well kneel down
                         (Dr.) J. DeJong     n A Horror Out of Hell                           And worship gods of storre,
           Theological College of the                                                       As offer to the living God
      Canadian Reformed Churches                Your editorial "The Collapse of               A prayer of words alone.
                    Hamilton, Ontario        Communism" (the Standard Bearer,
                                             Feb. 1,1991) was a very accurate               For words without the heart,
w Response                                   diagnosis of the horror out of hell              The Lord will never hear;
                                             known as Communism. (Of                        Nor will He to those lips attend,
  My answer to Dr. DeJong ap-                course, it is still the ruling tyranny           Whose prayer is not sincere.
pears as the editorial in this issue of      in many countries.) It has been a
the  Standard Bearer.  Dr. DeJong has        curious thing to me that until re-                           - SB, December 1,1932
published the above letter as an ed-         cently the atrocities and utter
itorial in the January l&1991 issue          bankruptcy of Communism was al-
of Clarion, the magazine of the              most an unmentionable subject in
Canadian Reformed Churches. I                supposedly sophisticated circles.

274 1 The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


A' Cloud                                 Boniface: Apostle to
of Witnesses                             the Germans
Prof. Herman Hanko


  When in the early history of the       centuries, so entered into the warp        great were his grammatical ski&
new dispensation church God was          and woof of the life of these barbar-      that he prepared a Latin granunar
pleased to bring the gospel to Eu-       ians that not only were the barbar-        for use in the school. It seemed .as
rope, the continent was overrun          ians brought into the church, but          if a life of leisurely teaching and
with many different barbarian            Christianity itself became part and        learning were to be his calling.
tribes which were in darkest pa-         parcel of all the institutions of soci-      But God called him to other
ganism and were constantly on the        ety. Society as a whole became             labors. Reports reached the quiet-
move. They were uncivilized, war-        Christian. The missionary work of          ness of his monastery of a catastro-
like, worshipers of idols, and per-      the church produced Christian na-          phe that had taken place in the
petually fighting with each other.       tions. And we in this land are heirs       Lowlands, now Netherlands. A
They were a threat to the Roman          to this heritage.                          missionary by the name of Willi-
Empire and finally destroyed the           This was not, of course, outside         brord had labored there. This faith-
empire in the West in the fifth cen-     Gods purpose. These very Chris-            ful servant of Christ had had solme
tury All the institutions of society     tian nations (of Europe and Amer-          success in his work among the bar-
in the Roman world were de-              ica) have, over the course of the          barian tribes which inhabited the
stroyed - except for the church.         years, while retaining an external         land on the far west of Europe. But
The church alone remained                form of Christianity, become An-           his work had been completely de-
through all the turmoil and de-          tichrist and will, in Gods time, pro-      stroyed by a fierce Frisian king
struction of this terrible time.         duce the great beast of Revelation         named Radbob, who rooted all
  The church was deeply con-             13. In this way they are separated         Christianity out of his lands.
scious of her missionary calling         from "Gog and Magog," the nations            When these reports reached Win-
and without interruption sent out        on the four comers of the earth            frith, he determined to travel to the
her servants to bring the gospel to      who remain in all their history pa-        Lowlands to attempt to restore the
these barbarian tribes. It took men      gan -- even though God is pleased          work. He forsook his life of ease,
of self-sacrifice, of courage, and of    to gather His church also from             his home with his parents, and his
conviction to venture into the           them.                                      homeland, to travel to the dark
lonely forests and mountains of Eu-        One of the great missionaries to         forests and swamps of northwest-
rope to fulfill the command of           bring the gospel to the barbarian          ern Europe to bring the gospel to
Christ. The dangers were many,           tribes in Europe was a man by the          the fierce Frisian barbarians. With
not the least of which was the con-      name of Boniface. He was born in           two or three companions, he set sail
stant threat of vicious tribes who       Craediton, near Exeter, in the little      and soon landed on the coast. Elut
knew nothing of Christ and who           Saxon kingdom of Wessex in the             his work met with little success,.
despised all that belonged to Ro-        land of England, around 675. He            and he determined to press on into
man culture.                             was given the name of Winfrith by          the interior (into what is now Gler-
  God was pleased to bring the           his parents who belonged to the            many) to bring the gospel there..
gospel to these barbarian tribes in      nobility. Because royal blood                 Before traveling to Germany,
such a way that Europe was "Chris-       coursed through his veins, he had          however, he decided that he would
tianized." By this term I mean that      the opportunity to engage in stud-         attempt to gain the end0rsemen.t  of
the gospel, over the course of many      ies, and he received the best educa-       the most powerful man in Europe,
                                         tion available in his times. In his        in the hopes that this would assist
                                         early years he proved to be an able        him in his missionary enterprise.
                                         scholar and soon advanced in his           Traveling first to what is now
                                         career. He entered a monastery             France, he secured the endorse-
                                         and was busy there until the forti-        ment of Pepin, the ruler of the
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church       eth year of his life. In the               Franks, and then went on to Rolme
His toy and New Testament in the         monastery he was teacher, poet,            to secure the endorsement of the
Protestant                               grammarian, and theologian. So
           Refo77d  Semina y.                                                       pope-

                                                                                     March 15,199l  I The Standard Bearer I 275


  This latter endeavor was filled            were turned to the church by his         again and he resolved to return to
with important consequences for              labors. The most famous                  the place of his earlier failures. He
his work. In order to understand             monastery which he erected was in        traveled there in 754 taking his
this, we must know a bit about the           Fulda, where eventually he was           shroud with him, apparently aware
currents of history running through          also buried. He met with fierce op-      of the fact that in the Lowlands he
Europe at this time. The barbarian           position, and his life was constantly    would die and be buried. Rere  he
tribes themselves were constantly            threatened.                              labored with some success in the
at war in efforts to expand their ter-         Perhaps his greatest victory was       brakes and swamps of what is now
ritories. Among the Franks a                 scored early in his labors in Ger-       Friesland in the Netherlands. But
strong centralized government was            many. The Saxons venerated a large       his work was early cut off. The en-
gradually emerging, and the kings            oak tree as the sacred tree of their     emies of the faith were aware of his
of the Franks were attempting to             god Thor, the god of thunder. The        work and determined to destroy it.
extend their empire into Germany             people not only worshiped the            While he was near the village of
by subduing the Saxons. An en-               huge and solid tree, but held their      Dockum to baptize a number of
dorsement by the king of the                 tribal meetings under the "divine"       converts, a part of the fierce
Franks would, in the opinion of              protection of its branches. When         Frisians fell upon the company.
Boniface, aid him in the work.               Boniface saw that the oak was an         While the Christians wanted to IV-
From another direction, the bishop           obstacle to his work and that it was     sist and protect their leader, :he ad-
of Rome was attempting to extend             a barrier to the reception of the        monished them: "My children, do
his influence and rule over the              gospel, he took an axe and in the        not fight; let us follow the example
whole of Europe, and he saw mis-             presence of a quivering throng of        of our Lord in Gethsemane. We
sionary work as an instrument to             idol-worshipers, began to hack           shall soon see him in his glory. I
accomplish this. Between the                 away at its trunk. While the gasp-       have longed to see him, and to be
Franks and the pope an alliance              ing people were convinced that           with him. Let us pray." As they
had been formed which was to last            Thor would come in judgment              knelt in prayer, the mob, yelling
for centuries. Boniface was, there-          upon this presumptuous mission-          and shrieking, fell upon them and
fore, convinced that to receive cre-         ary, the tree was felled without any     killed Boniface and 51 of the peo-
dentials from both the Frankish              interference from the heathen idol.      ple. He died on June 5,754.
king and the pope of Rome would              Legend has it that a powerful wind         We would surely want to criti-
advance his work greatly.                    from a thunderstorm arose as Boni-       cize Boniface for his strenuous ef-
  Having received commendation               face was chopping and assisted           forts to establish churches loyal to
from the pope, Boniface became a             him by blowing the tree down and         the papacy, and he must be criti-
loyal son of the church who fought           splitting the oak into four pieces of    cized for this. Yet he was a faithful
with great energy to advance the             wood of equal length. At any rate,       preacher of the gospel and was
cause of the papacy in Europe. He            Boniface boldly used the wood of         willing to live a life of hardship and
would tolerate no opposition to the          the oak to construct a chapel in the     self-denial in the cause of missions.
church of Rome whatsoever. This              area for the worship of God.             In the course of his work he lhad
involved him in struggles with                 As his success among the Saxons        himself defined his labors: ":Let us
other missionaries who had come              increased, he rose in the estimation     die for the holy laws of our fathers.
to the continent from England and            of the pope, who appointed him           Let us not be dumb dogs, silent
who wanted to establish a church             bishop in 722 and archbishop in          spectators, hirelings who flee from
far more independent from Rome               732. In the meantime, he applied         the world, but faithful shepherds,
than anything either the pope or             his not inconsiderable abilities to      watchful for the flock of Christ. Let
Boniface wanted. These Scottish              the organization of the churches in      us preach the whole counsel of God
and Irish missionaries became                Saxony and to the rooting out of         to the high and to the low, to the
Boniface's opponents.                        evils. He traveled and preached,         rich and to the poor, to every rank
  Germany itself was still under             presided at Synods called to rectify     and age, whether in season olr out
the sway of barbarianism. Some               abuses, and settled disputes. He         of season, as far as God gives us
missionary work had been done                was unsparing in his labors to root      strength."
there, but the constant wars be-             out the superstition and immorality        Boniface was surely an example
tween the tribes and the general             which plagued these peoples, and         of that mixture of holiness and
paganism and superstition of the             he was totally intolerant of the         weakness which characterizes all
people had resulted in an almost             Scottish and Irish missionaries who      Gods servants. One of his biogra-
complete destruction of earlier mis-         wished to labor with him, but who        phers says of him that "He had a
sionary work.                                were not, in his judgment, as loyal      restless, unsteady, complex nature,
  Into these streams and currents            to the church of Rome as they            dangerously wracked by the black
of life Boniface set out to preach the       ought to be. He extirpated pagan         homours of despair, and he was ex-
gospel. He had a rare gift for               customs, set rules for life, and pun-    tremely self-effacing and timid; al-
preaching and soon established               ished heretics and wicked men.           though (he) accomplished an im-
churches and monasteries in many               When he was an old man, the            mense work, it was done almost re-
different locations as thousands             tug of the Lowlands came once            luctantly and without his ever hav-

276 / The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


ing had the slightest desire to push      away by his enthusiasm, and his          became not only Christian but, af-
himself to the forefront. The supe-       boldness knew no bounds...."             ter the Reformation, the cradle of
rior interests of the Church alone          Today a statue stands in the           the Reformed faith.
guided him, but when they were in         Frisian city of Dockum commemo-            God uses weakest means to ful-
play this timid man was carried           rating his work. The Netherlands         fill His will. 0




Into All the                              Missions Principles (IV):
World                                     The Task
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop


  The task of the church in her           is. Our inspiration is to be found,      disciples is to be in the way of
work of missions is to teach. Not to      not in successes, but in Gods char-      teaching them (we will say more
save souls. Not to create church          acter! Another motivation is the         on this later). First, let us consider
growth. In His "Great Commis-             great gratitude each believer has to     the fact that the task Jesus gave to
sion" Jesus stated the task in the        his God for so great a Savior and        His church through the apostles
most simple terms:  teach.                for the salvation of so worthless a      was to make disciples.
  In previous articles we have al-        person and people. Another moti-            They were not to make of a per-
ready established some of the prin-       vation is the conviction of, love of,    son one who would be a conserva-
ciples of missions. First, the church     and zeal for the truth. And the          tive citizen of his or her country.
of Christ performs the work of mis-       Bible speaks of our being moti-          Nor were they to help everyone
sions in obedience to her Ring, Je-       vated by confidence and trust in         have high self-esteem.
sus. Mission and evangelism work          the irresistible work of the Holy           This command to make disciples
is not a matter of choice, but one of     Spirit and in the power of the           or to teach came to men who were
obedience. This work must be per-         preaching. A final, but certainly        already disciples. They knew what
formed to the fullest of the ability      not the least, motive for the perfor-    it meant to be Jesus' disciple. They
God gives.                                mance of missions is love for the        knew that it meant to deny them-
  The objects of mission work are         neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40).  The sec-     selves, to take up their cross, and to
all whom God in His providence            ond, great commandment is chiefly        follow Him. They knew that it
brings into their path. The church        manifested in a concern for the          meant to follow Him who did nlot
must do its best with all the, means      eternal state and spiritual well-be-     have what foxes and birds have..
it has been providentially given by       ing of my neighbor.                      They knew that to be a disciple
God.                                              ***x-x-**                        meant coming to Jesus weary and
  Along with its labors within its          Now we begin to consider those         heavy laden under the burden of a
own membership, the labors of             principles which undergird the           nagging conscience, and taking up
missions puts the church in the po-       work itself. First we answer the         His easier yoke, bowing to His au-
sition of serving as God's servant        question, What is the nature of the      thority (Matt. 11:28-30).
in the accomplishment of His eter-        work of missions and evangelism?            Thus the disciples were to work
nal purposes of election and repro-         Teach. Baptize. And teach.             and pray, not for decisions for
bation. Thus God is glorified.            Matthew 28:19,20.                        Christ, but for trustful and sub-
  The supreme motive for the                It must be noted that although         jected servants of the Ring, Jesus
church's obedience to her Lords           the King James translation (not in-      Christ.
command to "Go ye into all the            correctly) gives us twice the word          The disciples were to pray be-
world" must be to glorify God by          "teach," these are two different         cause they could not make disci-
proclaiming Him as the One who is         words in the original language.          ples in their own strength or wit.
so abundantly worthy to be known          The first word translated "teach'        The carnal mind, the deceitful
and praised for who and what He           literally means "to disciple, to         heart, and the hardened nature .will
                                          make disciples." Jesus says, "Go         never give sincere subjection to Je-
                                          ye, therefore, and disciple all na-      sus. Nothing but omnipotent
                                          tions." But to translate this as         power can subdue the unregener-
Rev. VanOverloop is pas for of Be the2    "teach' is not an error, for the word    ate. No one in this fallen world
Protestant Reformed Church in Elk         clearly implies that the making of       will believe the truth unless there
Grove Village, Illinois.

                                                                                     March  15,1991   I The Standard Bearer  I277


is added to the presentation of the          ent to the calling of her Lord, is an         in righteousness. It is by taking heed
truth the omnipotent power of the            instructional  presentation of  the           thereto that a young man may cleanse
Holy Spirit, which power causes              Gospel wherever and whenever                  his way.
them to receive the truth in love.           she can.                                        Evangelism is the exposition of the
The Bible teaches that while God's              In order to support the emphasis           Scripture. God will do the regenerat-
Spirit is the cause, His truth is the        on teaching, allow me to quote                ing.
instrument of man's great transfor-          from a book recently published by               A clear implication is that true
mation. It is the truth which affects        The Trinity Foundation, Today's               evangelism or mission work is not
us, and it is the Spirit which causes        Evangelism:  Counterfeit  or  Genuine?        anything quick. It is a long-range
us to receive the truth.                     by Dr. Gordon H. Clark. In the                task. It requires self-denying love
   The disciples understood that             foreword, John Robbins says that              which identifies with people in
their Master was commanding                  "One of the sins for which Christ             their need and in their spiritual
them to be instruments to bring              condemned the scribes and Phar-               thinking. It requires teachin;g  and
others into the same relationship            isees was their dynamic evangelis-            catechizing people so they can
with Christ that they had with               tic program." Then he quotes                  learn what sin is and who God is.
Him. They would be instruments               Matthew 23:15: `Woe unto you,                 It is teaching with the confidence
of His grace. They were only to              scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!            that the exalted Lord will work in
teach, unreservedly trusting in              for ye compass sea and land to                the heart, open it, and seal it unto
their Lord to add to the church              make one proselyte, and when he is            Himself.
daily such as He was saving.                 made, ye make him twofold more                            *******
   Jesus does not command the                the child of hell than yourselves."             Secondly, Jesus said that tlhe task
apostles and the church to make              He continues:                                 of missions and evangelism :is to
the heathen wonder, or to dazzle                The message, the teaching, the doc-        baptize the disciples (Matt.  28:19).
them with splendor, or to amaze              trine of the evangelist is what separates       Baptism locates and identifies
them with mystery. Rather He                 genuine Christian evangelism from             the local community of saints.
commanded the church simply to               counterfeit  evangelism. . ..fhe concern        The task is much more than the
"teach."- Illustrate, explain, ex-           and the focus of the Christian euange-        salvation of individuals. It is the
pound, tell, inform, narrate. Be             list is not growth, but truth, and if         building and planting of God's
content to sit down and tell them            that truth is preached clearly. Growth,       church. It is bringing the profess-
the very plainest and most com-              as a goal, is the ideology of the cancer      ing believer into the visible com-
mon things. Teach them first the             cell. True euangelism has a difierent         munity of a local congregation.
very rudiments of the cross of               goal: the propagation  of  God's truth.         Think of how the disciples of Je-
Christ. This takes away the dark-            If the Gospel is preached to eve y crea-      sus understand this command. On
ness of foolish ignorance.                   ture, God will convert all His people,        Pentecost they baptized those who
   Teach! Not argue or debate. The           all He has chosen for heaven.                 were pricked in their hearts, and
great Greek philosophers needed to              Dr. Clark writes that because the          thus they were added to the church
be taught, for they were but fools           Gospel is a message, he "insists that         (Acts 2:41,47).  The church to
who thought themselves to be                 evangelism is preaching the                   which Jesus added them is not the
wise. The same is true for the great         Gospel; that a few sermons are in-            organic Body of Christ, but tlhe lo-
philosophers, scientists, geologists,        adequate; that as much elucidation            cal congregation. Jesus daily
and doctors of today. Teach those            as possible must be given." Further           added to the local congregation the
who have great knowledge, for un-            he says, `The Gospel is a message             ones He was saving. This clearly
less they become as little children,         to be understood. Knowledge is                implies that membership in the lo-
they cannot enter the kingdom. Do            the first and an essential part of            cal institute is not a matter of
not debate and argue with them.              faith." The book concludes:                   choice, but a most delightful man-
Position yourself not as a combat-              The aim is to teach. Teach pa-             date.
ant concerning certain teachings.            tiently, calmly, and in great detail.           Jesus teaches that no evangelism
Rather teach, insisting that you             The aim is to teach the system of doc-        or mission work is adequate unless
have been sent and that Christ will          trine that the Scriptures teach. The          it views the church as an organism
back up your claim.                          Scriptures are not a haphazard collec-        in which God has ordained to man-
   Therefore, the central emphasis           tion of bits of information and theo y.       ifest His glory and through which
of the church's calling is not the cre-      They present an integrated, logical sys-      He builds up His saints. I Timothy
ation of emotional pressure points           tem.                                          3:15 teaches us that the church is
and conversions. It is not her call-            It is impossible to teach the system       the pillar and ground of the truth,
ing to pressure people into quick            of doctrine in five minutes, or to re-        the same truth which must b2
decisions, often on the basis of             duce it to five spiritual laws. . ..The       taught in order to make disciples.
lengthy emotional appeals accom-             Christian message is the whole Bible; it      Ephesians 3:lO shows that the
panied by inspiring and moving               is the whole counsel of God. All of it        church makes known the manifold
music. Rather the central emphasis           must be taught, not just a small part,        wisdom of God. Ephesians 4
of the congregation or denomina-             for it is all profitable for doctrine, for    shows that Jesus gave the gift of
tion, which is striving to be obedi-         reproof, for correction, for instruction      preachers to the church for the per-

278 I The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


fecting of the saints and for the edi-      This observance of Christ's com-       spective of its practical implications
fying of the body of Christ. It is in     mandments implies knowledge.             and demands.
the local congregation that there are     Obedience must have roots in               Jesus requires the church to te'ach
the means of grace, especially the        knowledge of what must be                in the preaching, in the catechism
preaching and loving discipline.          obeyed. There can be no observers        class, and in the seminary.
  Any mission work and evange-            of Christ's commands without                      *******
lism which does not build the             some grasp of Christ's doctrines.          The task Jesus gives the churclh  is
church, no matter how sincere it          This knowledge must be accompa-          gigantic. Men and women must
may be, is wrong.                         nied with active and practical obe-      first be brought into a trusting and
  When we pray for our neighbors'         dience, or the profession of faith       submitting relationship to Jesus
salvation, we should not be satis-        and discipleship is an empty pro-        Christ. Secondly, the church must
fied until they take their place in       fession.                                 bring these disciples into a lively
the visible congregation.                   To be secured for the baptized         relationship with a local congrega-
            *  *  *  *  *  *  *           disciples was a teaching ministry,       tion which manifests the marks of
  Thirdly, and closely related to         whose responsibility it is to show       the true church. And, thirdly, the
the former duty., Jesus commanded         to the disciples the mind and will       church must constantly strive to
His disciples to teach those who are      of their Lord. His disciples must        bring its membership into practical
made disciples to observe all the         put their knowledge into practice.       conformity to the Word of God.
things He commanded them. Jesus           They must be doers as well as hear-        God has given the whole task to
wanted His disciples to be taught         ers of the Word. They are to ob-         the church.
and baptized unto the goal of their       serve what He has commanded.               Evangelism is from God. It is
conforming to His Word.                     Therefore the church, whether          through the church. It is to the
  This assumes that the true disci-       the local congregation or the mis-       world. It is feeding back into the
ple of Christ takes his or her place      sion station, must have a teaching       church. In this manner God is glo-
in the church and world under the         ministry. Pastors and missionaries       rified and the church receives His
rule of the Lord Jesus. The true dis-     must strive to make the people ac-       blessing.  Cl
ciple wants to obey and to please         quainted with the whole spectrum
Christ.                                   of apostolic teaching from the per-




When Thou
Sittest in                                Responsibilities
Thine House                               Towards Children (3)
Rev. Kenneth Koole


  We have been considering the            youth in terms of alienation and re-        In many instances they (the
factors that have contributed most        bellion. Those who have to deal          teachers) themselves become the
heavily to the breakdown of the           with today's youth on a regular ba-      recipients of this pent-up anger
home and family in 20th century           sis, the school teachers (whether in     and resentment as it comes to ex-
society, and in particular those          public or private schools), see the      pression in the classroom. Witness
things which have affected chil-          adverse effects most clearly. They       the number of news reports of bod-
dren and young people most ad-            see firsthand the bitterness, the in-    ily assaults upon those who teach.
versely.                                  security, the resentment building           Frustration characterizes every
  That the youth have been the            up in the youth, all of which dis-       group dealing with the increas-
primary "victims" of the crumbling        plays itself in various disturbing       ingly dissatisfied youth. "Just what
home-structure is indisputable.           ways, such as challenging those in       is it that you want?" we ask.
Even worldly society speaks of the        authority, or in increasing aban-           Without their realizing it, or
                                          donment of self to immorality and        wanting even to admit it, what the
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protes-     drugs, or again, in growing num-         youth "want" is the attention of
tant Reformed Church in Jenison,          bers, to suicide itself, the ultimate    love, and adult approval and guid-
Michigan.                                 statement of bitter despair.             ance as well.

                                                                                    March  15,199l   I The Standard Bearer I 279


   You ask, `Why don't they say              "working-mothers." That must be            Nonetheless, as this matter con-
this, then?' It is quite simple. They        readily acknowledged first of all.      fronts our homes and threatens our
too have their pride. And to admit              In the second place, I recognize     families and we must make wise,
this need is to admit being depen-           that we deal here with a sensitive      spiritual decisions, there are things
dent in some way upon the very               issue with complicating factors.        that must be kept in mind.
ones with whom they are angry                The circumstances of families can          First of all, what John W. White-
and who are neglecting them. To              vary so widely; some are well off,      head says in his book,  The Stealing
admit this is to make oneself vul-           some struggling. And the bills for      of America,  is pertinent. He states
nerable. Who wants to have to do             living in an adequate home, for         that
that? Do you and I . . . when we             paying tuition, and for supporting         . . . the sharp, sustained increase of
have differences with our spouses?           all the kingdom causes besides,         employment of married women over
No. We are more inclined to say,             have become staggering. A second        the past lfourl decades is one of the
"Well, who needs you anyway? I               income seems necessary just to          most profound changes in Ams<om
can live without you." But we can            make ends meet.                         family patterns. The statistics tell us
not. Not in any "happy," secure                Will it do simply to state an ab-     the sto y, In 1890 less than 5 percent
way. And neither can children and            solute law here, "If you are a          of all American wives worked outside
youth, without our attention of              mother with school-age children or      the home for wages and salaries. By
love. Do not expect them to tell             younger, thou shalt not work at all     1940 this figure had increased to 17
you that. Did you tell your parents          outside the home for wages"?            percent, but the most dramatic in-
that? Be wise enough to know that.           What about the unmarried mother         creases followed World  War II. In
   Society, in its foolishness, asks         of a child? Should she work or rely     1947,20  percent or one out of every
concerning its alienated youth,              entirely upon relatives and the         five married women was mployd  in
what has gone wrong? It does not             church? What about the wife             the labor force. The proportion .mse to
much care for Scripture's answer,            whose husband has left her and          one in four (25 percent) by 1950, one
but we will give it anyway.                  provides inadequate alimony (if         in three (32 percent) by 1960, to one
   We have suggested four factors            any at all)? Or the woman whose         out of two (48 percent) by 1980 (p. 63).
that have shaken the home founda-            husband is simply a lazy lug who           He goes on to say that it was
tions: first, the refusal to keep the        shows little ambition to support the    forecast that by 1990, two  out of
vows of marriage (which means the            family? Or he is incapacitated? Or      three (67 percent) of all wives
bitter warfare of divorce, children          temporarily laid off? What is the       would be in the labor force.
being the primary casualties); sec-          wife to do in such circumstances, if       These statistics are instructive.
ond, the refusal to correct disobedi-        for her some work is available          Surely it can escape no one's atten-
ence in the home by discipline (`We          whereby she can keep the family         tion that this sharp upswing in
love them too much to cause them             solvent and help pay basic bills?       married women joining the work
pain!"); third, mothers working out            And how old must the children         force coincides ominously with the
of the home (and longer and longer           be before the mother may leave the      sharp increase of juvenile delin-
hours all the time); and last but not        home with a good conscience and         quency and crime in our society, as
least, the intrusion of television           take on some kind of job? And           well as of blatant immorality
(and videos) into our homes.                 how many hours is permissible?          These things are not unrelated.
   We have dealt with the first two.         One work day? Two? Only if the          Whitehead is surely correct when
It remains for us to look briefly at         hours run from 9:OO AM to 3:OO          he states that of all the changes in
these last two. And keep in mind             PM, or during the night when chil-      contemporary family patterns the
as we do, that our main thesis is            dren are in bed?                        growing number of married
that children are not receiving                And what about the mother who         women becoming employed is one
enough parental attention today              earns no wage working outside the       of the most profound, which is to
(which belongs to the very heart of          home, but who nonetheless is gone       say, having consequences most far
love, especially COVENANTAL                  just as much or even more than a        reaching.
love), but are being left to raise           "working mother" because she is ei-       Now it is not that our society is
themselves, and with disastrous re-          ther gadding about, or perhaps is       unaware of what has been happen-
sults.                                       even donating many hours to             ing. It is. Today they have even
 We turn first to this matter of             "good causes"? Still, the mother is     coined a phrase to describe chil-
mothers working outside the home.            not home when the children come         dren whose parents are both `off
I say "outside" the home, because            through the door. The one is per-       working. They are called
what mothers do within the home              missible, the other not? Says who?      "latchkey" children. They are ex-
is also certainly "work" and very              And so it goes. Who in the            pected to be independent enough
demanding. There are those mak-              world can lay down enough laws          to unlock the door when they come
ing good money performing for                to cover all the circumstances?         home from school and supervise
others exactly those services that           Giving the answer that addresses        their own lives for a few hours
mothers provide in their own                 every situation is impossible, nor      without parental supervision. Dur-
homes for "free." Those who tend             do I intend to try to do so.            ing this unsupervised period prob-
to the home-fires certainly are                                                      lems crop up, and the older the

280 1 The Standard Bearer 1 March 15,199l


children become the more serious          praise them. This they are to con-       spiritually a child is a dependent,
become the problems -- drugs, alco-       sider spiritually fulfilling.            communal creature. Children need
hol, sexual promiscuity, and so on.         Further, keep in mind what is          their parents through their forma-
It is not that modern day parents         happening to the latchkey genera-        tive years, which runs into the later
are not aware of this. They are.          tion and the mess it is in. Is it any    teens.
Painfully so. They simply refuse to       wonder?                                    For all man's intended majesty
cut back and go back to the old             The children come home day af-         amongst created things, his depen-
ways. Two incomes are essential.          ter day to an empty house. There         dency when young is striking.
The woman is not going to be tied         are no arms to welcome them              And this itself ought to speak to us
down like her grandmother. It is          home, no ears to hear what is most       about God's whole purpose and
the price the family is going to have     immediately on their minds, no           will in raising the children given
to pay.                                   wise voice settling their disputes or    us. They are not ours to neglect or
  We are certainly very foolish if        consoling them because things did        to unload on others, they are ours to
we do not observe what is happen-         not go well, or eyes to supervise        raise. As it is true that "it is not
ing to the children and homes of          their behavior. They are on their        good that man should be alone,"
our latchkey society, evaluate the        own. And when mother and father          wherefore, the Lord made a helper
problems, assess the reasons and          come home, time is short. Mother,        suited for him, namely, woman, so
the consequences, and order our           who has been gone all day, must do       it is true that it is not good that our
own lives, homes, and priorities ac-      the washing, ironing, meal-fixing        children should be alone; and
cordingly. We are not immune.             yet too (with father's assistance,       therefore the Lord provided for
  Society may appear bewildered           perhaps -but then again he may           them parents, and one in particular,
as to what the solution is to this        have church work, school obliga-         mother, whose greatest assets are
problem. Scripture is not. It gives       tions, and a business to attend to).     her love and patience and arms
us clear, fundamental principles.         Common sense tells us nerves are         that embrace and hold.
  You have a passage such as              going to be frayed, and we short.          Staying at home may well in-
Psalm 128:3. "Thy wife shall be as a      And so even when mother and fa-          volve sacrifices. It is such wives,
fruitful vine by the sides of thine       ther have come home, there can be        however, whose children (and hus-
house: thy children like olive            precious little time to give the fam-    band) will rise up and call blessed.
plants round about thy table." No-        ily and the children the attention       "She looketh well to the ways of her
tice, the wife is tied in with the        they need and crave. And we ex-          household, and eateth not the
house, it is her proper sphere.           pect tranquility will rule the home      bread of idleness. Her children
There she proves a fruitful vine; not     as we all rush madly about hurting       arise up, and call her blessed; her
simply in having children, but in         for time? Or we wonder why our           husband also, and he.praiseth  he:?'
nurturing her children, so they, like     older children will not listen to our    (Prov. 31:27,28).  And remember,
olive plants, blossom and bear            advice and instruction? What,            Proverbs 31 is the "last" word on
godly fruit.                              when they have been making all           wisdom. Cl
  There is I Timothy 2:15.                their own decisions in our ab-
"Notwithstanding she shall be             sence?! Let us not be naive.
saved in childbearing...." And cer-         In this whole sensitive issue of
tainly the apostle includes child-        mother-working as a source of sec-
rearing with child-bearing. This is       ond income, let us keep something
a matter central to the spiritual life    in mind, namely, children do NOT              Reading The Bible
and development not only of her           WANT to raise themselves; chil-
children, but of the believing            dren CAN NOT raise themselves            Within this ample volume lies
woman herself. This is the way in         (properly); the Lord God DID NOT         The mystery of mysteries;
which she is SAVED, no less.              INTEND for children to raise them-       Happiest they of human race
  In I Timothy 5:14 we read, "I will      selves. If He did, He would not          To whom their God has given
therefore that the younger women          have made them so helpless to be-           grace,
marry, bear children, guide the           gin with, and ordained that they re-     To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
house...." How much plainer can           main so dependent for such a long        To lift the latch, to force the way;
the Apostle and Scripture be? In          period of time, much longer than         And better had they ne'er bee;
Titus 2:4,5 the Apostle declares          nearly every other creature.               born
that younger women are to be                The development of the human           That read to doubt, or read to scorn.
taught to be "keepers at home." In        offspring is amazingly slow. The
other words, they are not to be           wolf cub is already beginning to                           - SB, January 1,1933
gadding about, but homemakers,            catch its own game when the hu-
making the home their first prior-        man "cub" is just starting to stand
ity. To this they give their atten-       up by holding on to furniture to the
tion. This is how they show `their        applause of his admiring parents.
love to husband and children. For         This is how the Lord God made
this their (your) Lord Jesus will         "man." Physically, psychologically,

                                                                                    March  X5,1991  I The Standard Bearer I  281


Strength                                      John Calvin and
of Youth                                      Women Deacons
Rev. Russ Dykstra


[Some time ago, we began a discussion         gave one, clear, unambiguous an-           hooves us to embrace in love all the
of how Calvin can be, and often is,           swer, but that is not always true.         members of Christ, we ought
misused to support an un-Rejormed             There is just enough ambiguity in          surely to regard and especially to
position. Briefly, three common meth-         the great theologian's writings that       love and honour those who per-
ods for this are: 1) Quoting Calvin on        some attempt to make a case that           form a public off ice in the Church."
an issue that he did not face, at least in    Calvin supported women as dea-             These two passages are the
its modern-day form; 2) Quoting a             cons. The references normally              strongest that have been brought to
"Calvinist " fYom a later age, maintain-      quoted from Calvin's works are es-         light in Calvin's writings
ing that this is what Calvin taught. 3)       pecially two. The first is in his In-      suggesting support for women in
Taking Calvin's words out of context.1        stitutes, Book 4, chapter 3, section 9,    the office of deacons. They do cer-
  In Reformed churches, colleges,             on deacons. On the basis of Ro-            tainly speak of women holding
and even some high schools the de-            mans 12:8 ("He that giveth, let him        public office, the office of deacon.
bate over women in church office              do it with simplicity; . ..he that           But before we desert Calvin and
has raged for some time now. In               showeth mercy, with cheerful-              regretfully rank him with those
some circles it is quieting down be-          ness"), Calvin maintains that there        who promote women deacons, we
cause women have been ordained                were two distinct orders of deacons        ought to look a little deeper. First
to the special offices (minister, el-         in the early church. The first clause      of all, notice that Calvin distin-
der, and deacon) and the churches             in the verse refers to the deacons         guishes between two different
are content, or at least willing to           who administered the alms; the             kinds of deacons -- those who bring
live with it. However, for you, the           other clause refers to those who de-       alms to the needy, and those who
Reformed student, who maintain                voted themselves to the care of            help the poor and sick with their
that the Scriptures allow only men            poor and sick persons - such as the        time and personal provision of
into these offices, the issue does not        widows mentioned by Paul to Tim-           their needs. Calvin spelled this out
go away, for, on the one hand,                othy (I Tim. 5). For, writes Calvin,       in the Ecclesiastical Ordinances
some professors insist on bringing            "women could execute no other              used in the churches in Geneva.
the issue into the classroom and              public office, than by devoting            Under the "Fourth Order of Ecclesi-
giving their personal "defense" of            themselves to the service of the           astical Government, namely, Dea-
women in office. In addition, if              poor."                                     cons," Calvin distinguished be-
and when you, in discussions or in              The second oft-referred-to pas-          tween stewards and hospitallers.
papers, set forth your convictions,           sage is in Calvin's commentary on          Stewards were appointed "to m-
your ideas may well be summarily              Romans l&l-- on Phebe. He                  ceive, dispense, and keep the goods
dismissed, and you informed that              writes, "He [Paul] first commends          for the poor, not only daily alms,
you differ with Calvin on this. This          to them Phebe, to whom he gave             but also possessions, revenues, and
is a bit hard to take, but you ought          this Epistle to be brought to them;        pensions." The others, hospitallers,
not be immediately deflated and               and, in the first place, he com-           were "to care for and remember the
give up. However, in order to de-             mends her on account of her office,        sick and administer the allowance
fend your views, it is best to know           for she performed a most hon-              for the poor." Both apparently held
exactly what Calvin did teach on              ourable and a most holy function in        the office of deacon and were
women deacons.                                the Church; and then he adduces            elected as the elders were. Yet the,
  What did John Calvin say about              another reason why they ought to           stewards had more authority,. for
women holding the office of dea-              receive her and to show her every          they decided who should get help.
con? One could wish that Calvin               kindness, for she had always been          The hospitallers worked in the
                                              a helper to all the godly. As then         communal hospital and in the hos-
                                              she was an assistant of the                pice for wayfarers, and maintained
                                              Cenchrean Church, he bids that on          a room for the special care of poor
                                              that account she should be received        in the city However, the aid was to
Rev. Dykstra is pastor of the Protes-         in the Lord.... And since it be-           be given only at the word of the
tant Reformed  Church of Doon, Iowa.

282 / The Standard Bearer / March 15,199l


stewards. Although Calvin does            were received on the condition that        deacons, but it is clear that Calvin
not address the issue of women in         the Church should relieve their            did not advocate women in the of-
these offices, the quotation from the     poverty, and that, on their part,          fice of deacon as the office exists in
Institutes (above) reveals that he        they should be employed in minis-          the Reformed church today. While
was in favor of having women only         tering to the poor, as far as the state    we might wish that Calvin had
in the office of hospitaller.             of their health allowed." (Com-            written a treatise forcefully reject-
  The problem for us today is that        mentary on I Timothy 5:9-13; see           ing the concept of women in the of-
we do not have this twofold dis-          also Calvin's Commentary on Ro-            fice of deacon (or elder or minister
tinction and function in the office of    mans 161.1                                 for that matter), we must keep in
deacon. This practice did carry on          That sheds an entirely new light         mind that Calvin lived in a day
in some Reformed churches in the          on Calvin's supposed support of            when virtually everyone agreed on
Netherlands, at least for a time.         women deacons. His "support"               the Scriptural prohibition of
The (Church Order) Articles of We-        was not that women should be dea-          women holding an office in the
se1 (1568)  encouraged this, al-          cons who collected and distributed         church. That Calvin agreed with1
though they did not mention               alms. He did not even say that the         this is evident from the fact that :he
women deacons (Chapter 5, articles        hospitallers had to be, or should be,      nowhere promotes or defends
5 and 6). Yet the Synod at Middel-        women. Rather he endorsed only             women in church office, except for
burg (1581) answered the question         that widows, over 60 years old,            the widows described in I Timotlhy
of whether it would be possible to        who were themselves in need of             5. It is well known that Calvin was
reintroduce the office of deaconess       alms, be put into the office of dea-       bold and outspoken in setting forth
(question 16). So some churches           con only as "hospitallers," i.e., those    the doctrine and practice taught in
used this distinction between the         who cared for the aged, the sick,          Scripture regardless of whether or
deacons who handled the alms and          the extremely poor, and the travel-        not it was popular with the people,
the deacons, sometimes women,             ers.                                       the rulers, or the theologians. If 1he
who cared for the sick and needy.           This is important from another           believed women should hold office,
  The office of deacon in the Re-         point of view in that the position of      he would certainly have said so
formed tradition became almost            "hospitallers" (which these widows         plainly.
strictly the handling of alms (with,      might hold) was not a position of            I hope this is helpful to you, the
of course, the comforting word of         authority in the church. The "stew-        Reformed student, struggling to
the Scriptures), not the direct care      ards" (those who collected and dis-        maintain the doctrines and biblical
of the sick and needy by operating        tributed alms - our deacons) de-           traditions of the historic Reformed
hospitals and hospices. Therefore,        cided who received the mercies of          faith. May God give you the grace
it is plain, that Calvin was not ad-      Christ. Calvin saw that deacons            and wisdom to stand in and for
vocating women in the office of           have authority in the Church of            God's truth.
deacon as we have it.                     Christ, being part of the God-or-            If you wish more information Ion
  A second point must be made             dained government of the Church.           the subject of women in church of-
about both of the above mentioned         In his Irzstitutes (Book 4, Chapter 3,     fice, two pamphlets will be of much
passages from Calvin (Institutes          section 11, Calvin shows that Christ       value. They are: "Phebe," by Prof.
and Romans l&l commentary). In            governs His church on earth using          H. Hanko, and "Women in Church
both instances he explained the po-       men, who exercise and administer           Office," by Rev. R. Cammenga. If
sition of such women deacons with         the government by the Word. Tl-Se          you cannot find them in your
a reference to I Timothy 5. Even if       calling of each office bearer, includ-     church, write to The Reformed Wit-
you agree with Calvin (which I do         ing deacons, therefore (according to       ness, l?O. Box 381, Doon, IA 51235.
not) that Phebe held a public office      Calvin and the Reformed faith gen-         Feel free to do so, and order a few
in the church, and even if you like       erally), is to speak the Word. How-        more for your friends. Every Re-
the distinction in the office of dea-     ever, Calvin knew full well that           formed college student should
con of stewards and hospitallers,         Scripture forbids women to take a          have these aids. Cl
keep in mind what Calvin meant.           position in the church where she
He meant that Phebe and the               speaks the Word of God with this
women deacons were widows over            authority -- see I Timothy 212-14
60 years old who had been married         and I Corinthians 14% and Cal-
to only one man, were well re-            vin's explanation that women are to        My Father! what am I, that all
ported of for good works, had             keep silent in the church. Com-            Thy mercies sweet like sunlight fall
brought up children, had lodged           menting on Acts 21:9 and the four            So constant o'er my way?
strangers, had washed the feet of         prophesying daughters of Philip in         That Thy great love should shelter
saints, and had relieved the af-          Caesarea, Calvin makes the bold
flicted. Such women, according to         statement that the Holy Spirit "doth       And $de my steps so tenderly
Calvin, would never marry again,          not suffer women to bear any pub-            Through every changing day?
"for they consecrated themselves to       lic office in the Church."
the ministry of the Church." Into           This is a rather brief treatment of                  - SB, November 15,1932
this position, writes Calvin, "they       the subject of Calvin on women

                                                                                      March 15,199l  /The Standard Bearer I 283


Search the
Scriptures
Rev. brl Haak


H "Trust and Obey"                           "sickness"; Chilion - "wasting") he        3. Was the death of Naomi's, hus-
                                                                                        band and sons a punishment?
   Ruth l:l-18                               severed his tie with his holy inheri-
                                             tance. This was sin.                       4. Should Naomi have encouraged
                                               The Lord is faithful to chasten,         her daughter-in-law to return with
  Under Joshua's guidance, the               and to work in all of this His own         her so they could be with behevers?
land of Canaan had been divided              gracious purpose, namely the               Explain why she handled the situa-
among the twelve tribes (Joshua 13-          bringing in of Ruth as a mother in         tion the way she did.
19). Every family had its own in-            the line of Christ. This does not ex-      5. Give a character sketch of
heritance, within which the family           cuse, but shows God's power and            Naomi. Did she have self-pity, bit-
was to continue to live in its gener-        grace. Elimelech died in Moab.             terness, godliness, a loving heart?
ations (I Kings 21:3; Num. 36:7).            His sons, after marrying Moabitish         6. Study in Names
This represented the Lords gra-              women, also died. Thus, after ten             Find the meaning and signifi-
cious care for them, and their inclu-        or more years, Naomi is left a poor        cance of the following:
sion in the covenant rest of God             widow, living with her two daugh-             Elimelech
0%. 16:5,6). Yet, sometimes the              ters-in-law (see Isaiah 47:9).                Naomi
faith of the Israelites grew weak,             Naomi decided to return to Ju-              Mahlon
especially when outward circum-              dah, for she had heard that the               Chilion
stances of famine and apostasy               Lord had granted deliverance and              Mara
were heavy; and of themselves they           bread to His people. She urges her            Ruth
severed that link with their inheri-         daughters-in-law to turn back.. But        7. Ruth's beautiful confession:
tance. This was unbelief, a lack of          Ruth reveals the work of God's love           a. Memorize Ruth  1:16,17.
steadfastness, an unwillingness to           in her heart, implanted by the faith-         b. Give the main points of her
bow under the judgment upon the              testimony of her mother-in-law.                   confession.
land and await the time of deliver-          She is bound to Israel's God and              c. Find other powerful profes-
ance.                                        desires to live with Gods people.                 sions in Scripture (i.e., Pe-
  The book of Ruth opens with the            She returns with Naomi.                           ter's, Joshua's, etc.)
history of Elimelech and his family.         Points to Ponder:                             d. Are these words appropriate
These were true, believing children          1. Why did Elimelech take his                     for weddings?
of God who had never shared in               family to Moab? What does the                 e. What does Ruth's confession
the idolatry and wickedness which            presence of a famine indicate?                    teach us about the bonds be
had become so prevalent in the na-           Deuteronomy  2815-18                              tween us as Christian sis-
tion as a whole. But this does not           2. Was Elimelech's action justifi-                ters/brothers?
mean that the wickedness of the              able? Why or why not? Are there               f. On another sheet of paper,
day did not have its effect upon             similar examples of this same thing               write out your own profes-
them. In the midst of a famine,              in the Old Testament? See Genesis                 sion. (Thinking through,
Elimelech moves his family to                12                                                and writing, can strengthen
Moab. Did he believe it was only a                 In light of your answer"                    faith. Using Scripture's pat-
temporary move? No doubt he                        a. In what ways do we show                  tern and words is help-
did. Yet, under the distress of the                   we are more concerned                    ful.) Cl
famine upon his family (Mahlon --                     about the needs of our
                                                      earthly life than with what
                                                      we need spiritually?
                                                   b. How do we sometimes at -
                                                      tempt to escape the cross
Rev. Haak is pastor if the Protestant                 laid in our way by changing
Reformed Church of Lpden,  Wash-                      our place, rather than to take
ington.                                               up that cross as we ought?

284 I The Standard Bearer I March 15,199l


                                           That Proper
The Day                                    Weeping and
of Shadows
Rev. John Heys                             Laughing

  In Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 we read: "To         Surely we are all agreed that the       likewise should in that praise be
every thing there is a season, and a       time was not there for them to            performing spiritual and musical
time to every purpose under                laugh the way they did. Abraham           laughter in our souls.
heaven.... A time to weep, and a           being one hundred years old and             Let us then go back to this tragic
time to laugh; a time to mourn, and        Sarah ninety, they surely should          event when both Abraham and
a time to dance."                          laugh in joy at this promise of God.      Sarah laughed sinfully. Abraham
  It is important, however, to weep        They, however, were not laughing          was asked why Sarah laughed.
at the right time, and because of          in joy. They laughed rather at the        When Sarah denied that she had
what truly calls for weeping; and to       folly of thinking that such a thing       done so, the Lord answered, "NaJy
laugh at the right time, and for           could happen. It was not for the          but thou didst laugh." It makes no
what our God wants us to laugh             joy of getting a covenant child. It       difference whether we laugh with
about in this vale of tears and sor-       was the laughter of unbelief. They        our lips, or whether we do it only
rows. This truth we find clearly re-       questioned God's promise and did          with the soul. Laughing with the
vealed in the life of Abraham and          not rejoice for having been given it.     soul is sinning before our God,
Sarah, as recorded in Genesis 17           It was time to laugh, but not the         when we do not take hold of that
and 18.                                    way they laughed, and not in unbe-        which He tells us. What is more,
  The Lord our God appeared to             lief but in faith in our God and in       does not the fact that Abraham was
Abraham and told him that Sarah            the assurance that He fulfills all His    asked why she laughed reveal that
his wife would be blessed and be           promises.                                 Sarah did in fact laugh with her
given a son, so that she would be "a         There is now a time for us to           voice? Abraham otherwise could
mother of nations." What we read           mourn, and every sincere child of         not have known that she had
then is that Abraham "fell upon his        God will weep as he sees his sins         laughed.
face and laughed and said in his           and corrupt nature. There is also a         In both instances Abraham and
heart, Shall a child be born unto          time for him to laugh with joy in         Sarah revealed unbelief. In both
him that is an hundred years old?          the faith and hope of being fully         cases the lack of faith in what God
and shall Sarah, that is ninety years      delivered by our God, through His         told them and promised them was
old, bear?" (Gen. 17~17).                  Son and His cross and Spirit and by       revealed. Yes, they were believing
  Still more. In the next chapter          His love, mercy, and grace. Cor-          children of God. Hebrews 11:8-111
we read that after Sarah heard this        rectly we read in Psalm 98:1, "0          presents both Abraham and Sarah
truth spoken to Abraham, she               sing unto the Lord a new song; for        as believers. We are told that Abra-
laughed within herself, saying, "Af-       He hath done marvellous  things:          ham, when he "was called to go
ter I am waxed old shall I have            His right hand and His holy arm           into a place which he should re-
pleasure, my lord being old also?'         hath given Him the victory." And          ceive for an inheritance, obeyed."
(Gen. 18:12).                              then again in Psalm 1Ol:l we read,        And of Sarah we read that through
                                           "I will sing of mercy and judgment:       faith she "received strength to con-
                                           unto thee, 0 Lord, will I sing."          ceive seed, and was delivered of a
                                           And singing here is musical laugh-        child when she was past age, be-
                                           ter. It is spiritual laughter whereby     cause she judged him faithful who
                                           the soul expresses with the mouth         had promised."
                                           and voice what our God does so              And the awesome truth here is
                                           wonderfully through His Son.              that we who are believing children
                                           When also we sing, "Praise God            of God have only a small beginning
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the    from Whom all blessings flow," we         of that new obedience, and of faith
Protestant Reformed Churches.

                                                                                      March 15,1991  I The Standard Bearer I 285


in our God, and in His Son as our                Now go back to that laughing of        bath. Our God declares that in six
Savior. Not only must we be deliv-             Abraham and Sarah. They sinned           days which are 24 hours long we
ered from the hellish agony which              by doing that. Doing so they re-         must labor, and on one day that is
we deserve because of our sins, and            vealed the sinfulness of their minds     also 24 hours we must rest.
which comes upon all those who                 and hearts. Get this and hold on to        How then, when in that l(aw God
are not believers in Christ Jesus our          it tightly: Whenever we reject what      declares that "In six days the Lord
Lord. But we must also be deliv-             God calls us to do, we are heeding         made heaven and earth . . . a:nd
ered from our unbelief and love of             Satan's lie that we can become           rested the seventh day," dare we
sin. Here is an extremely impor-               gods. Yea, every sin that we corn-       say that in one instance the word
tant element in our salvation.                 mit reveals that we think that we        day means thousands upon thou-
When our God said to Adam in                   are gods. For every sin is an act        sands of years, and in the other in-
paradise, shortly after He had cre-            against the one and only God, and        stance it means only 24 hours?
ated the world, that the day he                maintains that we need not do            When in a sentence or paragraph
sinned he would die, He was refer-             what He commands. Every time             we read the word ounce several
ring first of all, and chiefly as well,        we sin we accuse God of sinning          times, may we call one of these
to the truth that he would die spiri-          against us by forbiddingus to do         ounces a pound, when the author
tually that day. Physically Adam               this which He calls evil and we          in no way indicates that he imeans a
did live nine hundred and thirty               think is good. Satan told Adam           pound? God Himself nowhere in
years after that sin. But he and Eve           and Eve that God had lied to them,       Scripture indicates that by six days
died spiritually that day when Sa-             and Adam and Eve believed him!           of creating He means thousands of
tan got them to hate God. Physical               That same sin we find here in          years rather than six 24-hour days!
death began to wear out their bod-             Abraham and Sarah. When they             Shall we then listen to.unbelieving
ies and bring them to death. But               laughed in response to God's word        men of this world instead of to our
spiritual death came at once!                  that at their ages they would still      God who certainly could have
   Let it be interjected here that the         bring forth a covenant son through       pointed out that He means years
deed which outwardly seemed so                 whom many covenant sons would            instead of hours in those days?
little, and was committed in less              be born, they believed that God            Turn to Luke 1:21. What .a hu-
than a minute, was a terrible act              lied to them. Most assuredly they        manly impossible miracle! Mary
that rightly called for everlasting            did not believe that what He             will conceive and bear a son with-
punishment in hell. Eating that for-           promised them would happen. Do           out any contact with 2 man! And
bidden fruit not only manifested               not look at their sin as anything        she believed, when the angel said
hatred against God, because it was             less than Adam and Eve's sin of not      that this miracle would take place.
going against His will, but also dis-          believing God, when He said that         Why should we not believe God's
played lack of trust in Him. They              they would die if they ate of that       word when He speaks of days, not
believed what Satan said, not what             forbidden fruit. Let us be careful       years, in Genesis-l and 2 and in His
God commanded them not to do.                  not to defend any sin of any kind to     law in Exodus 20? Could not our
They wanted to be different from               any degree! Literally Abraham and        God, who had the power to bring
what God had made them to be.                  Sarah did not say that God was ly-       forth our Savior in this humanly
The awesome truth is that by going             ing to them. Literally they did not      impossible way, create the world in
against God's will they denied that            call Him a liar; but their laughs re-    six days of 24 hours? And shall we
He is God. Instead, as Satan got               vealed that they did not believe         listen to unbelieving scientists
them to believe, they wanted to be             what He told and promised them.          rather than to our God? Shall we
gods. He got them to believe that              Note the response of God Himself         believe what men who reject the
God had closed their eyes, and that            to this laughter. In Genesis 18:14       whole Bible say of God, and let
here was a way for them to get                 we read that He asked Abraham,           them explain what God meant?
them opened and see that they are              "Is anything too hard for the Lord?'       These false doctrines should
gods, knowing what is good for                 They did question His power after        cause   us to.weep.  We shoulld  walk
them, and that it was evil that they           He told them what He in His              as Abraham and Sarah did as pm-
were by God kept from this by be-              power would do.                          sented in Hebrews 11, not as they
ing commanded not to eat the fruit               And let us be aware of the fact        did as recorded in Genesis 17 and
of that tree (Gen. 3:5). Satan's lie           that in the church-world today           18. Let us in our hearts laugh be-
was that God had lied to them.                 there is so much presentation of         cause of what our God did through
And let us bearin mind, and never              God as a liar. Every (get that!) eu-     His Son. Let us weep about the sin
put it aside, that the truth is that           cry false doctrine accuses our holy      and works of unbelief that c,ause us
every sin which we commit reveals              God of saying that which is not          to laugh at worldly things of unbe-
that we think that we are gods and             true. In His love He tells us that He    lief. What Abraham and Sarah did
may do what we please. It means                created the heavens and the earth        when told that they would have a
that we tell ourselves that God has            in six days. And then in that same       son is a shadow of the worldliness
no right to tell us what we may and            law wherein He says this, He on          and false doctrines Satan brings
may not do. The "gods" can go                  Mount Sinai used the word day as         into the church-world today. There
their own way.                                 to what we must do on the Sab-

286 I The Standard Bearer / March 15,1991


is that proper weeping and laugh-        fill you with joy, and let your sins     build up the spiritual joy within
ing which ought to be found in us.       cause you to weep, because you           your soul. Such weeping and
  Be sure then that you laugh at         know them as acts of hatred.             laughing glorify God and reveal
the right time and weep for the          against our true and holy God. Let       that He is glorifying you. Cl
proper reason. Let the truth of          your sins fill you with grief, and
what God promises you in Christ          the gifts of God's grace in Christ



                                         Ntiws From
                                         Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger


Congregational Activities                ship and a good meal consisting of       of Heritage Christian School. She
  Are you as anxious for the ar-         barbecued hamburgs and other             spoke on ways to improve your
rival of some spring weather as I        good things to eat.                      child's learning at home. She
am? I know that for us in the Mid-         About this time every year our         stressed what she called the five
west, about the time March rolls         churches come out with new mem-          "As." 1. Attitude, 2. Atmosphere at
around we all have had enough            bership directories for their congre-    Home, 3. Attention to Need, 4. Ac-
cold and snow. Well, we can all          gations. Well, it seems that the         ceptance of child, and 5. Ability to
take heart; spring can't be too far      members of our Randolph, WI PRC          commumcate.
off. At least that's what some of our    made arrangements for a pictorial        Ministerial Calls
churches think. Several of our con-      directory last fall. However, they         The congregation of our Ran-
gregations have already scheduled        were informed by the company that        dolph, WI PRC called Rev. S. Key ,to
their annual picnics. And our PRC        after printing the black and white       be their pastor. With Rev. Key on
in Edmonton, AB, Canada has even         pictures for the directory the nega-     the trio were Revs. M. Kamps and
made plans for a golf tournament         tives were damaged. This accident        G. VanBaren.
between themselves and the con-          meant that the company would be            The Council of our Hudsonville,
gregation of Immanuel PRC in La-         unable to supply Randolph with           MI PRC formed a new trio from
combe, AB, Canada.                       their free pictures and the pictures     which one was to be called to serve
  Instead of a Christmas Party           that were ordered. They would            as missionary in Northern Ireland.
during the busy month of Decem-          however receive the directory.           This trio consisted of Revs. C.
ber, the party committee of the Jr.,       And, also from Randolph, there         Haak, S. Key, and D. Kuiper. A
and Sr. Mr. & Mrs. Societies of our      were two related announcements           congregational meeting was to be
Faith PRC in Jenison, MI decided         on bulletins in January. One, a          held February 24.
on a post-holiday party. Plans           thank-you to those who painted             At  a Congregational Meeting af-
called for a night of volleyball and     and cleaned the church basement,         ter the evening service on Sunday,
games at Heritage Christian School,      and another asking for help in           February 17, the congregation of
followed by pizza and a make-            painting the inside of the parson-       the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI
your-own sundae for dessert.             age.                                     called Rev.Haak  to serve as mis-.
  On January 11 the young people           The young people of our South          sionary to Jamaica, from a trio of
of the Hope PRC in Redlands, CA          Holland, IL PRC sponsored a ski          Revs. B. Gritters, C. Haak, and R.
sponsored a special appreciation         trip on February 2 to Hot Dog            Moore.
for all the support received from        Mountain, near Lake Geneva, WI.            Rev. Haak declined the call he
the members for last summer's            From the announcement, it looks as       was considering to serve as pastor
Young People's Convention. This          if the young people from Bethel          to the congregation of Hope PRC in
was not a fund-raiser. It was a          and Peace PRC were also invited to       Isabel, SD.
thank-you from the young people.         attend.                                    And, finally, Rev. Cammenga re-
The congregation was invited to          School Activities                        ceived the call to serve as mission-
come out for a nice time of fellow-        Dr. Arden Ruth Post, Education         ary to the Venice, FL area from the
                                         Professor at Calvin College, spoke       Kalamazoo, MI PRC. On trio witht
MY. Wigger is a member of the Protes-    for the P.T.A. of Hope PR Christian      Rev. Cammenga were the Revs. Ko-
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,     School on February 7, and one            rtering and Moore. Cl
Michigan.                                week later she spoke for the P.T.A.

                                                                                   March 15,199l  /The Standard Bearer ! 287

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

/?o. Box 6064
Grand Rapids,  MI 49506


TEACHERS NEEDED
  Adams Street Protestant Re-
formed Christian School is in need                        "Jehovah Tsidkenu" *
of an elementary grade teacher for
the 1991-1992 school year. If inter-               "The Lord Our Righteousness"
ested, please send resume to the
school (1150 Adams St. S.E.,
Grand Rapids, MI 49507) or con-              I once was a stranger to grace and to God,
tact Mr. Peter Hoekstra, administra-         I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;
tor, at the school (616) 452-0523.           Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,
                                             "Jehovah Tsidkenu" was nothing to me.
                NOTICE!!!
     Hope Protestant Reformed                I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage.
             Christian School                But e'en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree,
     of Grand Rapids, Michigan               Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page,
 is offering up to $200,000 in notes         "Jehovah Tsidkenu" seemed nothing to me.
      to finance the renovation
              of the school.                 Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,
           5-year notes: 8.0%;               I wept when the waters went over His soul;
           1 O-year notes: 8.5%              Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree
   These notes will be issued in             "Jehovah Tsidkenu": `t was nothing to me.
           multiples of $1,000,
 payable on demand with interest             When grace awoke me, by light from on high,
           paid semi:annually.               Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;
          For further information,           No refuge norsafety  in self could I see,
           please call or write:             "Jehovah Tsidkenu" my Savior must be.
             Gordon Schipper
          3007 Willow Creek Dr.              My terrors all vanished before the sweet name,
          Grandville, Ml 49418               My guilty fears banished with boldness I came
             (616) 531-2322                  To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free;
           or the school office:             "Jehovah Tsidkenu" is all things to me.
     1545 Wilson Avenue S.W.
      Grand Rapids, Ml 49504                 "Jehovah Tsidkenu!" my treasure and. `boast,
             (616) 453-9717                  "Jehovah Tsidkenu!" I ne'er can be lost:
                                             In thee I shall conquer, by flood and by field,
NOTICE!!!                                    My cable, my anchor, my breastpl.ate,  and shield.
  All standing and special commit-
tees of Synod, as well as individu-          Even treading the valley, the shadow of death,
als who wish to address Synod                This "watchword" shall rally my faltering breath;
1991, are hereby notified that all           For if from life's fever my Got\ set me free,
material for the 1991 Synod of the           "Jehovah Tsidkenu" my death song shall be.
Protestant Reformed Churches
should be in the hands of the                *Jer. 23:6, margin- SB, 1929
Stated Clerk no later than April 15.
Please send material to the Stated
Clerk:
             Rev. M. Joostens
           2016 Tekonsha S.E.
      Grand Rapids, Ml 49506





288 I The Standard Bearer / March 15,199l


