A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                          Lynden WA)
                  Protestant Reformed Church

                  See "News From Our Churches" - page 311




 April 1, 1991


Contents                                                                April I, 1991

Meditation  - Rev. Jason L. Kortering
    HOPE THROUGH THE RESURRECTION                                                         291

Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma
    AN "ELECTION THEOLOGY" OF COVENANT (2)                                                293      ISSN 0362-4692
                                                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
LElTERS                                                                                   295      Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Assoclatlon, Inc.
                                                                                                   Second Class Postage Paid at Grand RapMs, Mlchlgan.

A Cloud of Witnesses  - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                      Postmrrter:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
    ALCUIN, EDUCATOR                                                                      298      P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapids, MI 49516.

                                                                                                   EDITORIAL COMYllTEE
Church and State - Mr. James Lanting                                                               Edltor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
    U.S. SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS                                                                   Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
    TAX PROTESTER'S CONVICTION                                                            300      Managlng Edltor: Mr. Don Doezema

                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
ALL AROUND US - Prof. Robert D. Decker                                                    302      Rev. Ronald Cammanga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arle
                                                                                                   denHartog, Rev. Russell Dyketra, Rev. Barry Grlttsrs, Rev.
                                                                                                   Carl Haak, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Marvln
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev., Marvin Kamps                                                   Kamps, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jason Korterlng, Rev. Dale
    The Bible is God's Word -                                                                      Kulper, Mr. James Lantlng, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.
    SUFFICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE                                                                       Marybeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Charles
                                                                                          303      Terpstra, Rev. Glse  VanEaren, Rev. RonaldVanOverlwp.  Mr.
                                                                                                   Benjamin Wlgger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Carl J. Haak                                                          EDlTORlAL  OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
    The Book of Ruth - Lesson II                                                                   The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wlgger
    "NAOMI-MARA: JEHOVAH - PLENTEOUS IN MERCY"                                            306      4949 kanrast                 6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                   Grandville, Ml 49416         Hudsonvilla, MI 49426
                                                                                                   BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
When Thou Sittest in Thine House - Mrs. Mary Beth Lubbers                                          The Standard Bearer         The Standard Bearer
    The Reformed Family:                                                                           Don Doezema                  c/o Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                   P.O. Box 6064                   Church
    PLAYGROUNDS AND BAlTLEGROUNDS                                                         307      Grand RapMs,  Ml             B. VanHark
                                                                                                     49516                      66 Fraser St.
BOOK REVIEWS                                                                              309      PH: (616) 2433712            Walnulomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                         (616) 631-1460

NEWS FROM OUR CHURCHES - Mr. Benjamin Wigger                                              311      EDITORIAL POLICY
                                                                                                   Every edlfor Is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                   articles. Contrlbutlons of general Interestfrom our readers and
                                                                                                   questlons for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
In This Issue . . .                                                                                Contrlbutlons will  be llmited  to approximately 300 words and
                                                                                                   must be neatly written or typewritten, and must bs slgned.
                                                                                                   Copy deadllnes are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                                                   communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                   edltorlal office.
      Something new!                                                                               REPRINT POLICY
      Actually, several things new.                                                                Permlssloi  Is hereby Qrantedforthe reprlntlngofartlclesln  Our
                                                                                                   magazine by other publlcatlons, provldsd: a) that such
      First of all, of course, there's the new place of worship for our Lynden PRC, as it          reprinted articles are reproduced In full:  b) that proper
is pictured on the cover and described  on  the last page. We rejoice with that                    acknoWladQment  Is made: c) that a copy of the periodlcal In
congregation in this milestone in their history.                                                   which such reprint appears Is sent to our edltorlal  office.
                                                                                                   SUSSCRlPTlON  POLICY
      Then there's the rubric "When Thou  Sittest in Thine House.. .  ." The rubric                Subscrlptlon  price: 012.M) per year In the U.S., $15.00
itself is not new. But the contents are different-for the Standard Bearer. We've long              elsewhere. Unless a definlta request for discontinuance Is
been convinced that our young people could well begin reading, with profit, at an early            racehrad.   lt Is assumed that the  subscrlber   wishes the
                                                                                                   subscrlpdon to continue, and he will be blllad for renewal. If
age, many of the kinds of articles which appear regularly in the SB. Well, now there's             you have a Change of address, please notify the Business
something also for the young                                                                       Office as early as possible In order to avokl the InconvenIence
                               chddren  - not just about them, butfor  them. So, parents,
slip this one into the hands of your 8-12 year-olds. Mrs. Lubbers wrote for them, and              of lntenupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
                                                                                                   ADVERTISING POUCY
then tested the article on a couple of them (ages 8 and lo), and found that they not only          The SfandardBearerdoes  not accept commercial advertislng
handled it with ease but also enjoyed it. The title, "Playgrounds and Battlegrounds,"              of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                                   annlversarles, obltuarles, and sympathy resolutions will be
suggests  that the enjoyment  will be spiritual in nature. In fact, the reading of it is surely    placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to the Business
part of putting on the armor of which Mrs. Lubbers writes so interestingly. We are                 Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee. Deadllne
confident your children will find it to be such. Perhaps we'll see more of this type of            for announcements Is the 1Oth and the 25th of the month,
                                                                                                   previous to publication on the 1st or the 15th respectively.
writing - so that the SB can become truly a family magazine.
     And, finally, there's something new with respect to the entire magazine. The                  BOUND VOLUMES
StandardBearerhas  finally caught up to desktop publishing. Thanks to a very generous              The Euslness Offica will  accept standlng orders for bound
                                                                                                   coplesofthecurrentvolumi   Suchordersarefilledassoonas
gift by a group of supporters, there is in the office in which the SB also has a home a high-      possible after completion of a volume year.
powered laser printer. The capability therefore for in-house composition of every issue            16mm  mlcrofllm,  35mm mlcrofllm  and 105mm mlcroflche, and
                                                                                                   attlde copies are avallable through Unlverslty MlCTofllmS
is now ours. You`re looking at the results of our very first attempt.  0              - D.D.       Intarnatlonal.

290 / Standard Bearer/April 1,199i


                                             Hope Through the
Meditation
Rev. Jason Kortering                         Resurrection
         Blessed be the God and Father of    cup pass from me, nevertheless, not         we are sure that we will receive it.
our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to    as I will, but as thou wilt." The sol-      There is no doubt about it. Hence we
his abundant mercy hath begotten us          diers came, and, faithful to his com-       long for it, we openly and unasham-
again unto a lively hope by the resurrec-    mitment, Peter swung the sword and          edly think about the future when we
tion of Jesus Christfiom the dead, to an     cut off the ear of Malchus. But Jesus       shall obtain that for which we long.
inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled,    reprimanded him: "Put up thy sword.              A living hope ("lively," in the
and that fadeth not away, reserved in        He that uses the sword shall perish         Authorized Version) indicates to us
heavenforyou, whoare kept by the power       with the sword," Peter followed,            what the content of this hope is, what
of God untosalvation ready to be revealed    and soon we hear him say, "THAT             it is that we treasure for the future.
in the last time.                            MAN I know not." And he went out            The answer is, life itself. It is nothing
                            I Peter 1:3-5    and wept bitterly.                          else than covenant fellowship with
                                                  The saints to whom Peter wrote         the ever blessed God. As we sing, "to
         Hope!                               these words knew something of this          live apart from God is death," so life
         A living hope - that's even         dark night. They were scattered             is "dwelling with God forever." In
better!                                      throughout Asia Minor at the time of        the context here, Peter describes it as
         Without it, we sink into the        the Babylonian captivity. Others were       an inheritance incorruptible, unde-
horrible depths of doubt and depres-         Christians who fled the persecution         filed, which does not fade away, re-
sion.                                        at the time when James was beheaded         served in heaven.
         Peter knew something of that as     in Jerusalem. For some it meant                  Our lively hope is to see Jesus,
well. Having experienced personally          separation from family, giving up           and see in Him a fuller revelation of
the mighty work of God in Jesus, he          good means of income, not finding           the glory of God, and then to praise
had all sorts of hope. His own mother-       their way in a foreign land, the fear of    God forever. Imagine, that we can do
in-law was healed of a fatal fever. He       imprisonment. There are times when          that without any distraction of sin,
participated in the mighty catch of          the night can become very dark.             suffering, or sorrow. Our hope is
fish when Jesus said, "Cast the net on            What about you? Do you know            unmixed pleasure in God.
the other side of the boat." He walked       what it is to cry in the night for sins          To that hope, we are begotten.
on the water to Jesus. He saw the            committed and for the consequences               Literally, that word means "to
glory of Jesus on the Mount of Trans-        they bear? How many of God's saints         bebornagain." Lookingat Peter, that
figuration. He himself had confessed,        carry the burdens of afflictions, lone-     was exactly what it took for him to
"Thou art the Christ the Son of the          liness, sorrow, pain, and suffering.        get hope after the terrible denial of
Living God." But then things turned          There are those who suffer separa-          Jesus.      Almost immediately God
around. At the Passover, Jesus spoke         tion because of war and the horrible        worked in his troubled soul. Even
of the shepherd being taken and the          consequences of battle and blood-           the bitter weeping must be viewed in
sheep scattered. With firm resolve,          shed. Many suffer for Jesus' sake.          stark contrast to Judas, who went out
Peter committed himself to following         They do good, but suffer evil, even at      and hanged himself. Jesus did not
Jesus. Jesus poured out His soul to          the hands of unfaithful spouses,            forget Peter the morning of the resur-
the Father, "If it be possible, let this     parents, or children.                       rection: "Go tell my disciples, and
                                                  The sunshine that dispels the          Peter!" And witness the breakfast of
                                             darkness is nothing less than hope.         fish. To whom does Jesus turn, but to
                                                  Hope is something good, some-          Peter. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest me
                                             thing very precious which we desire         more than these? Three times Peter is
                                             very much. As we look to the future,        forced to examine himself in the pres-
                                             we gaze upon that for which we hope.        ence of Jesus and the other disciples,
Rev. KorteringispastoroftheProtestant        We do not have it as yet. It is the         and each time he says, humbly, "I like
Reformed Church of Grandville, Michi-        nature of hope that we look ahead           thee" (friendship love). He could not
gan.                                         (Rom. 8:24, 25). As we look ahead,          say, "I love thee" (divine love). What

                                                                                                   April 1,1991/ Standard Bearer/ 291


encouragementz "Feed my sheep!"                     The answer is, our Lord Jesus            unto the end of the world" (Matt.
He was publicly restored to the office      Christ!                                          28:20). He is the One who is at the
of apostle.                                         Blessed be the God and Father            Father's right hand and carries out
     This begetting, being born again,      of our Lord Jesus Christ.                        the details of His eternal good pleas-
is the process of conversion. It begins             He hath begotten us according            ure. He is the One through whom the
in the wonderful work of regenera-          to His abundant mercy by the resur-              Father controls the king's heart, and
tion and extends all through the life-      rection of Jesus Christ from the dead.           turns it as a river of water, whitherso-
time of each saint. It is God's work of             The resurrection of Jesus left an        ever He will. In the midst of all our
renewal. He causes our hearts to            indelible mark on the soul of Peter.             needs of life, our trials and cares, He
reach up for God and for the desired        He was one of the first to run to the            both controls the forces that seemto
fellowship that follows. He opens           tomb, to see and believe. He received            hurt us and nurtures us that we may
our eyes to enjoy meaningful pur-           a personal visit of Jesus the first res-         be able to endure unto the end.
pose in this world, to enjoy serving        urrection Sunday (I Cor. 15:5). Yes, it               Blessed be the God and Father
God in all areas of our lives. He gives     took the Holy Spirit of Pentecost to             of Jesus!
to us thevision of the future, ablessed     put it all together for Peter: "Ye have               He is the ultimate source for our
hope that one day we will be perfect        taken Jesus and with wicked hands                hope.
in heaven, the salvation ready to be        have crucified and slain him, but God                 He is the One who has begotten
revealed.                                   raised him from the dead!" (Acts 2:23-           us unto this hope. He is the One who
     Just as important, however, is         32).                                             has raised Jesus from the dead. He is
the phrase, "kept by the power of                   Two things make it plain why             the One who keeps us by His power
God through faith." Our future hope         the resurrection of Jesus from the               through faith unto salvation, ready to
is rooted in God's divine beginning,        dead is the key to our future hope.              be revealed;
but it also includes God's careful pres-            First, the resurrection is the divine         This is a doxology, a statement
ervation. This was equally important        certification that the work of Jesus on          of praise that we lift heavenward.
to Peter, to the scattered saints, and      the cross was acceptable to God. True,           The Greek word is, literally, to eulo-
to us. There are so many forces of evil     with triumphant voice Jesus shouted              gize, to speak well to our Heavenly
that would take this hope away from         from the cross, "It is finished. Father,         Father. Shall we do that?
us. Satan is cunningly devising ways        into thy hands I commend my spirit."                  There is hope, no matter how
to sow seeds of doubt and tempta-                                                            dark the moment may appear. While
tion. Evil men abound, only too will-                                                        our souls sink into the dark depths of
ing to have us join their convivial         Jesus paid it all. There is                      despair, look to Jesus. God raised
company, or, if we turn from that, to       reason for hope.                                 Him from the dead. No matter how
stab us in the back and work intently                                 Our sins are           horrible our sins, no matter what
to destroy us. Oh, what relief, we are      forgiven . . . .                                 punishment they deserve, God for-
kept by the power of God. The grace                                                          gives us when we come to Him in
of the Holy.Spirit  is the source of our    The earth shook, the rocks were rent,            true repentance.
strength in dealing with all such           the veil of the temple was torn from                  Are you struggling with the
opposition. The wonder of it is that it     top to bottom. Yes, God answered                 power of sin? Are you addicted to
is through faith. Our faith is what         the word of the cross. The centurion             another power that seems to have
needs strengthening. The bond that          could rightly say in response to the             you under its control: drugs, drink-
unites us to Jesus must be made             event, "Surely, thisis the Sonof God!"           ing, smoking, eating too much `or not
stronger and stronger, for it is our        Yet, nothing speaks so eloquently of             enough, spending money foolishly,
lifeline to all the blessings of salva-     divine approval as does the resurrec-            illicit sex, political power, or a drive
tion. The power of God's grace,             tion. "Who was delivered for our                 for business success? Look to Jesus.
administered through the Holy Spirit,       offenses and raised again for our jus-           There is hope. It is the power of God,
preserves that union.                       tification" (Rom. 4:25). Jesus paid it           the grace of the Holy Spirit, that is
     No wonder, then, that our hope         all. There is reason for hope. Our sins          able to deliver us and keep us from
is sure and steadfast, incorruptible        are forgiven in the blood of Jesus.              such destruction.
(cannot be contaminated from with-                  Second, who can better keep us                Are you afraid, lonely, hurting
out), undefiled (cannot be contami-         in the direction of heaven, our eternal          with your pains or difficulties? Does
nated from within), and cannot fade         hope, than our Living Lord? We                   heaven seem a long way away, and
away (cannot be lost forever).              rejoice as Christians, that the One in           you wonder whether you will ever
     We ask, why does God do this?          whom we place our trust for time and             have the strength to attain?
What does He find in us that draws          eternity is not one who was alive and                 We are begotten and kept unto a
the cords of His love to our hearts so      is now dead. We have more than a                 living hope by so great a God.
as to give us hope in a world of hope-      memory, we have a Living Lord. He                     Blessed be God, now and for-
lessness?                                   said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even             ever. 0

292 / Standard Bearer/April 1,199l


                                               An "`Election
                                               Theology" of
Editorial                                      Covenant (2)

     In the Standard Bearer of March           the child's believing. DeJong sup-             love, but also because that loathsome
15,199l appeared a long letter from            poses that the "Liberated" escape this         girl, daughter of an Amorite and a
Canadian Reformed ("Liberated")                charge by maintaining that, although           Hittite, polluted in her own blood,
theologian Dr. J. DeJong in response           faith is a condition, it is not a "merito-     neither attracted the love of Jehovah
to my editorials on the Reformed               rious" condition.                              nor did anything to make His love
doctrine of the covenant. The letter                Reformed theologians in the past          effectual in her salvation (Ezek 16:lff.).
defends the "Liberated" teaching on            have sometimes referred to faith as a               The Canons of Dordt defend the
God's covenant with the children of            "condition," meaning by this that faith        sovereignty of grace in salvation, not
believers against my charge that this          is the necessary means by which God            only by repudiating the profane no-
teaching "conflicts with the Reformed          realizes the promise in the elect sin-         tion of merit, but also by condemning
gospel of salvation by sovereign               ner. The "Liberated" doctrine of a             the more subtle error that maintains
grace." It also criticizes the covenant        conditional covenant means some-               that faith is man's act of distinguish-
doctrine of the Protestant Reformed            thing radically different. Inasmuch            ing himself from others as a worthy
Churches as an "election theology"             as "Liberated" doctrine maintains that         recipient of grace and man's act of
of the covenant. The editorial in that         God makes the promise of the cove-             "appropriating" grace.
SB clarified the issue between the             nant to all the children alike, its teach-       The Synod (of Dordt) rejects the er-
"Liberated" and the PRC. The issue             ing that faith is the condition neces-           rors of those . . . who teach . . . that
is the "Liberated" doctrine that the           sarily makes of faith a work of the              (God) chose out of all possible condi-
promise of God at baptismis made to            child upon which depends the saving              tions . . . the act of faith which from its
all the children on the condition of           grace of God. To make faith a condi-             very nature is undeserving . . . as a
faith.                                         tion in the context of a promise to all the      condition of salvation &Rejection of
          In this editorial, I begin to re-    children is to fix faith as an act of man        Errors/ 3).
                                                                                                    The Synod (of Dordt) rejects the
spond to Dr. DeJong's defense of the           that precedes, grounds, attracts, and            errors of those.. . who use the differ-
"Liberated" doctrine of a conditional          renders effectual the grace of God.              ence between meriting and appro-
covenant against my charges that this               The "Liberated" cannot escape               priating, to the end that they may
teaching "conflicts with cardinal              this charge by merely denying that               instill  into the minds of the impru-
doctrines of the Word of God, doc-             faith is "meritorious." For there is             dent andinexperienced this  teaching
trines which are precious to every             another way to compromise the sov-               that God, as far as He is concerned,
Reformed man and woman." Al-                   ereignty of grace in salvation besides           has been minded of applying to all
though I will be summarizing Dr.               teaching that faith earns salvation. This        equally the benefits gained by the
DeJong's defense at every point, I can         other way is to teach that man by his            death of Christ; but that, while some
do so only very briefly. The reader,           act of faith distinguishes himself from          obtain the pardon of sin and eternal
therefore, should refer to DeJong's            others as a worthy recipient of grace            life, and others do not, this difference
                                                                                                depends on their own free will, which
defense in its entirety in the previous        and that man by his act of faith makes           joins itself to the grace that is offered
issue of the SB.                               the offered grace of God effectual in his        without exception (II, Rejection of
          One charge against the "Liber-       soul. A man's marital love for a                 Errors/ 6).
ated" covenant doctrine was that a             woman is not gracious if the woman                   To the charge that a conditional
conditional promise to all the chil-           bought it with a large amount of               promise to all the children is a denial
dren necessarily makes the saving              money. But neither is it gracious if           of the graciousness of salvation within
grace of -God dependent upon the               she attracted it by her irresistible           the sphere of the covenant, the "Lib-
work and worth of the child. The               loveliness. Jehovah's covenant love            erated" respond  by  affirming that it
fulfillment of the promise in the ac-          for Jerusalem was gracious, not only           is God who enables certain children
tual saving of the child depends upon          because Jerusalem did not earn that            (the elect) to fulfill the condition. Dr.

                                                                                                       April 1,1991/ Standard Bearer/ 293


     DeJong writes, "We also confess that          grace of God. But this in no way              the contents of His promises unless
     such faith is a work and gift of the          relieves-Rome of the heresy of teach-         these obligations have been met.
     LORD, according to His sovereign              ing that righteousness depends upon              This is the "Liberated" doctrine
     good pleasure and electing love."             the works of man himself.                   of the covenant in practical applica-
              This response fails for four rea-         Fourth, although the "Liberated"       tion. So frightened is the "Liberated"
     sons.                                         are ready to ascribe the fulfilhng  of      theologian by the specter of "pre-
              First, it commits the "Liberated"    the condition to God in controversy,        sumptive regeneration" that, rather
     to the very same "election theology of        this is strikingly lacking when they
     covenant" that they criticize in the          are developing and applying their           Regeneration is God the Holy
     PRC. If this response is seriously            doctrine of the covenant among them-
     meant, it teaches that God all along          selves.                                     Spirit's part in the covenant.
     intended the promise for the elect                 This is seen in the September 15,
     children alone and that God realizes          1990 issue of Z&a San&a, magazine           than gratefully confess regeneration
     the promise in the elect children alone.      of the Free Reformed Churches of            to be the work of God that is signified
     But this is exactly the doctrine of the       Australia.     The editor, Rev. C.          and sealed by baptism, he rnakes
     covenant so vigorously rejected by            Bouwman, presents the "Liberated"           regeneration the demand of God upon
     the "Liberated."                              view of the covenant in an article          the baptized child. The truth is that
              Second, this response plays fast     entitled, "Not Saved by the Cove-           the demand which our baptism. form
     and loose with language. "Condi-              nant." He writes, "We and our chil-         calls our part in the covenant presup-
     tion" means an act of one party upon          dren do not receive the content of the      poses the regeneration of the child.
     which depends the act of another              promises God gives in the covenant          The "new obedience" that consists of
     party. Everyone understands per-              unless (his emphasis-DJE) we an-            cleaving to the triune God is nlot the
     fectly well that a nation's offer of a        swer to the obligation of that cove-        act of regeneration, but the life of
     cease-fire on the condition that the          nant." Editor Bouwman then refers           good works that flows out of regen-
     enemy lay down its arms means that            to the covenant demand in the Re-           eration. Regeneration is not our part
     peace depends upon an act of that             formed baptism form, namely, that           in the covenant. Regeneration is God
     enemy. The act of the enemy is deci-          "we cleave to this one God," etc., and      the Holy Spirit's part in the covenant.
     sive in the matter, regardless of the         describes it as "a demand for regen-        This is the teaching of the baptism
     overwhelming superiority of the na-           eration, for being born again." Thus        form: "In like manner, when we are
     tion that stipulates the condition. It is     he teaches, as "Liberated" doctrine,        baptized in the name of the Holy
                                                                                               Ghost, the Holy Ghost assures us, by
I    precisely in order to express this that       that reception of the content of the
     one speaks of a "condition." From             covenant promise, i.e., salvation,          this holy sacrament, that He will dwell
     the point of view of the integrity of         depends upon the baptized child's           in us, and sanctify us to be members
     language alone, one may not defend            regenerating himself.                       of Christ."
     his deliberate use of "condition" by               That Rev. Bouwman means                     But our concern here is that when
     insisting, when "condition" is chal-          exactly what he says is plain when he       the "Liberated" apply their covlenant
     lenged, that it is after all God who          immediately adds:                           conception practically, "condition"
     fulfills the condition.                        Here we may recall such biblical fig-      keeps its real meaning. The salvation
           Third, even the explanation that          ures as Esau, Saul and Judas Iscariot.    of the baptized child depends squarely,
     God fulfills the condition in the child        Though all three were equally as           exclusively, and emphatically upon
     fails to rescue the "Liberated" doc-           much covenant children as were, say,       the child's complying with the condi-
     trine of the covenant from its teach-          Jacob, David and Peter, these did not      tion demanded of him. Astounding
     ing that the grace of God depends              obtain the goods promised to them          to relate, this conditionis nothing less
     upon the act of the child. For now it          at their circumcision. For they evi-       than that he give birth to himself
                                                    dently did not respond to the obliga-
     is only asserted that the work of the                                                     spiritually! Nothing is said about
                                                    tion of the covenant.
     child upon which the grace of God                                                         God's fulfilling the condition. The
                                                   The "Liberated" minister becomes
     (the covenant promise) depends is a                                                       closest that the "Liberated" minister
                                                   exceedingly bold:
     work that the child is enabled to do                                                      comes to suggesting that God has
                                                    Not a single one of us, though he be
     by the help of God. But the grace of           a covenant child a hundred times           something to do with the realizing of
     God still depends upon the work of             over, shall receive forgiveness of sins    the covenant promise in the child is a
     the child!                                     and life eternal simply by virtue of       statement later in the editorial that
           I remind Dr. DeJong that also            the promises of the covenant and no        parents are entitled to "implore God
     the Roman Catholic Church is willing           more. In the covenant the Lord has         to work regeneration in the children
     to acknowledge that the works of the           been pleased to make us all respon-        He has given us." Whatever force
     sinner upon which, according to Rome,          sible  (his emphasis-DJE); He de-          this might have for ascribing the ac-
     depends his justification are performed        mands our response, demands faith          tual salvation of the child to God is
     by the sinner with the help of the             and conversion, and does not impart        blunted by the sentence that immedi-

     294 / Standard Bearer/April 1,199i


ately follows: "But we are not to                      Dare a Reformed parent ap-             instruct his child that it is not: the
think that our children will one day              proach his child as the doctrine of a       covenant promise alone upon which
be saved just because God was pleased             conditional covenant requires him to        everything depends; that it is not the
to establishHis covenant with them."              do? Dare he convince his child that         covenant promise alone that saves
        Dr. DeJong is correct when he             the covenant promise of God and the         him; and that, in fact, a child can be
closes his letter to the SB with the              whole of God's covenant salvation           the object of the promise of God and
words, "The crux of this debate is                depend upon the act of the child?           yet perish, because he himself did not
ultimately very practical. . . . How are          Dare he teach the child to regard his       fulfill a condition? 0
we to approach (our children) in teach-           faith, repentance, and holy life as a                                           --D JE
ing and instruction?"                             condition unto salvation? Dare he


                                                  Letters
                                                  has a rich historical legacy as well as     Ezekiel 33:ll. He writes, "In spite of
n       The Puritans on Common Grace              being eminently Scriptural.                 the fact God hates the  workers of
        Thanks again for all the fine and                                     Greg Fields     iniquity, and has no pleasure in their
edifying articles that you publish in                                   Hamilton, Ohio        death, He gives them a place in His
the Standard Bearer. Very recently in                                                         plan. They all serve as means for the
my reading of a great Puritan classic             n    The Death of the Wicked                salvation of God's elect . . . . N In other
Directions for a Comfortable Walk-                     and the Pleasure of God                words, God's pleasure is not the death
ingwith Godby Robert Bolton (origi-                    The December 15,199O issue of          of the wicked, but rather the salva-
nally published 1626; reprint edition             the Statrdard  Bearer includes an ar-       tion of the elect.
1991 -SoliDeo Gloria), I fastened on              ticle by Rev. Woudenberg entitled,               Although I agree with the au-
a passage that is clearly indicative of           "The Pleasure of God." The article is,      thor's conclusion, I think he has cho-
the Puritan's firm grasp of the dia-              in part, a response to a question re-       sen an inappropriate proof text. By
metric differentiation that exists be-            garding the correct understanding of        using Ezekiel 33:ll to support the
tween the elect and the reprobate,                Ezekiel 33:ll. The article raises a few     truth that reprobation must serve
delineating forcefully what the Puri-             questions in my mind.                       election, I feel that the author has
tan and Reformed attitude would be                     First, I do not think that I would     misinterpreted the text. The way the
towards the chimerical notion of                  refer to Arminius as "a troubled young      author uses the passage indicates that
"common grace":                                   minister."    Calling him troubled          he regards the "wicked" mentioned
     If thou be not justified by faith, and       implies that he had a troubled con-         in the text to refer to the reprobate
     accepted through CHRIST, aZI thy             science. This tends to convey the idea      wicked. This is not only shown biy his
     actions, natural, moral, recreative,         that Arminius was sincere and               use of the text noted above, but is also
     religious, whatsoever is within thee or      struggled to understand the Scrip-          confirmed when he writes that these
     without thee, the use of the crea-                                                       wicked are to be equated with the
     tures,                                       ture, but developed some wrong ideas.
                all thy courses, ways, and
     passages, are turned into sins and           I view Arminius as a wolf in sheep's        vessels of wrath mentioned in Ro-
     pollutions unto thee,                        clothing, who lay in wait to deceive        mans 9:22.
                               enlarge and ag-
  gravafe thy woe and damnation: even             God's people. This man was a false               I am not comfortable with1  this
     "the sacrifice" and whole "way of            teacher who privily and deliberately        interpretation for several reasons.
     the wicked is an abomination to the          brought in a damnable heresy.               First, the death of the reprobalte is
     Lord" (Prov. 15:8, 9) (p. 175 -                   My main question, however,             surely in harmony with Gods good
     emphasis added).                             pertains to Rev. Woudenberg's ex-           pleasure (Rom. 9:22,23; Ps. 2:4). God
        As this is the defining issue that        planation of Ezekiel 33:ll. I under-        delights in maintaining His holiness
standardizes the authenticity of a                stand the main point of the article to      against those who were sovereignly
Reformed church or individual and                 be the truth that reprobation must          appointed to be damned in the way
is the measure that gives the most                serve election. I agree that the high-      of their sin. Also, Ezekiel33:lO  speaks
accurate assessment of their doctrinal            est purpose in the counsel of God is        of those who saw the horror of their
and creedal integrity, I was constrained          the realization of His eternal cove-        transgressions and sins. They feared
to share with the readers of the SB               nant of grace. Reprobation is there-        that their sin was so great that God's
and all PRC brethren, that the noble              fore not an endin itself, but is a means    mercy was no longer able to reach
Puritans almost to a man were classic             for the realization of God's purpose        them. They cry out, "our sins be
"Dortian" Calvinists and the PRC's                of election. Rev. Woudenberg dem-           upon us" and ask, "how should we
stance on the common grace issue                  onstrates this idea by referring to         then live?" This is never the cry of the
                                                                                                      April 1,199l / Standard Bearer/  295


reprobate. Finally, I would note that        should not consider him "a wolf in          which it is found. (In fact, we may
the text does not address the wicked         sheep's clothing." I suppose it de-         note, this is the rule most frequ.ently
in general, but is limited to the house      pends on what is meant by that. It is       abused in almost every Arminian
of Israel, that is, the church.              true, of course, that he was the chief      misinterpretation of Scripture.) And
      Positively, I take the text to mean    means  of introducing into Dutch            in this instance the context is rather
that God, with an oath, declares to          Reformed theology an error which            simple.
the repentant wicked in spiritual Is-        has never ceased to trouble God's                   The basic figure upon which our
rael, that He does not desire their          church. In doing so he has certainly        text is built is that of a watchm,an  on
death. With an urgent and effica-            worried the sheep of God; and this          the walls of a city, laid out inverses l-
cious demand, Jehovah God calls them         must be recognized.                         6. His is a most serious duty, upon
to turn from their way and live. Those            On the other hand, whether we          which the well-being of the city rests.
who are truly sorry for their sin, find      are to conclude that thereby he was         When danger approaches he is to
much comfort in the truth that God           insincere and a purposeful enemy of         give warning, and he is to do this
will abundantly pardon.                      God, is another thing. After all, those     regardless of whether he thinks any-
      Although I agree with the main         who worked with him, men like Plan-         one will listen or not. By giving the
point of the article, I feel the author      cius and even Gomarus, as disgusted         warning, the watchman leaves the
misinterprets Ezekiel 33:ll when he          as they could become with his theol-        responsibility to the people of the
uses the passage to support the truth        ogy, never accused him of that. To be       city; but should he fail to do so, and
that reprobation is subordinate to           sure, his exegesis was often faulty,        the citybe destroyed, the responsibil-
election. Using the text in this man-        and his arguments more philosophi-          ity becomes his.
ner implies that God has no pleasure         cal than theological; but that was not              So Ezekiel was told that he was
in the death of the reprobate. I con-        uncommon in those days, and his             the watchman of Israel (vs. 7), and his
tend that the text cannot refer to the       ideas were hardly original with him,        duty was to warn them of their im-
reprobate. The "wicked" mentioned            even if they have become identified         pending doom. Just exactly how
in the passage must be limited to the        with his name. For the most part they       important this was is brought out
repentant wicked - the elect.                were carried over from that segment         next (vss. 8,9). Israel was headed in
      I refer the interested party to        of Dutch society to which he belonged       the way of death, and Ezekiel was to
Volume 44, #l of the Standard Bearer         and which had come into the Refor-          tell them, "0 wicked man, thou shalt
for a meditation on this text. If I have     mation under the influence of Philip        surely die." Indeed, given the history
misunderstood Rev. Woudenberg, I             Melanchthon, the cohort and lifelong        of Israel, there was little reason to
will gladly stand corrected.                 friend not only of Luther but also of       expect them to listen; but this was not
                         Gordon Schipper     Calvin and most of the other first          his judgment to make. Should he not
                 Grandville, Michigan        generation Reformers, but an enemy          give warning, the guilt for their death
                                             of the Reformed concept of predesti-        would be his. But, should he `warn
w RESPONSE:                                  nation. The Reformers disagreed with        them, even if they did not listen, he
      Iappreciate theletterboth forits       Melanchthon in his theology on this         would be free, and the responsibility
tone and for the fact that it brings to      point, but they never questioned the        would lie only on those who refused
the fore what is to me an important          sincerity of his Christianity. And I do     to repent. They would die in their
matter, the proper presentation of           not know if it is for us to do so with      sin.
the Gospel to those who walk in the          his follower, James Arminius, as                    Clearly, at this point we can
way of death.                                unhappy as his influences may have          hardly suppose that Ezekiel's next
     To begin with, I would like to          become. Considering our own fre-            remarks (vss. 10, 11) were to be di-
make a few comments about my                 quent errors and sins, all of which         rected only to part of the people, the
designation of Arminius as "a troub-         hurt the church too, is it not better to    elect remnant of promise (Rom. 9:6-
led young minister." That such he            leave such judgment to God? (Matt.          9). It was exactly this he had justbeen
was is certainly so. The youngest of         7~1-5;  Rom. 12:19.)                        told not to do. He was to warn every-
the ministers in Amsterdam in the                 More important, however, is our        one, those who would not listen as
late sixteenth century, his life was         understanding of Ezekiel 33:ll: "Say        well as those who would. (The dan-
spent in troubled debates about his          unto them, As I live, saith the Lord        ger of "Hyper-Calvinism," the ten-
views on predestination. At the same         God, I have no pleasure in the death        dency to speak only to those who
time, however, he was doing his              of the wicked; but that the wicked          willingly listen, was as real then as
pastoral work well and was well re-          turn from his way and live: turn ye,        now.)
ceived by his fellow pastors, includ-        turn ye from your evil ways; for why                And so we come to verse 10:
ing even Peter Plancius, his strongest       will ye die, 0 house of Israel?"            "Therefore, 0 thou son of man, slpeak
opponent on the matter of predesti-               The first thing that we must           unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak,
nation.                                      always consider in interpreting a           saying, If our transgressions and our
     The question is whether we              passage of Scripture is the context in      sins be upon us, and we pine away in

296 I Standard Bearer/April 1,199l


     them, how should we then live?" The            ian evangelists, to be sure, but not          Church here in St. Louis, and a gradu-
     thought here is not the easiest, but           according to Scripture, and hardly            ate of Trinity Christian College in
     clearly it is a part of a string of cynical    Reformed. And finally, it would leave         Palos Heights, IL, I have experienced
     arguments to which Ezekiel must                little meaning to the expression, "For        an entire spectrum of Reformed
     reply, going something like this, "If          why will ye die, 0 house of Israel?"          thought. I just wanted to tell you that
     we pine away because of our trans-             other than to suggest that some are to        your magazine has served in an ex-
     gressions and sins, is it not because          be offered grace who may in the end           cellent way for me as a source of good
     God is pleased to have us die? And,            go lost.                                      solid Reformed and Calvinistic work.
     how should we then live? or, what                   Far preferable, is it not, to find in    It is very refreshing to me to find such
     chance do we then have?" and con-              this a simple affirmation of fact over        a publication amidst wishy-washy
     tinues (vss. 17,18), "The way of the           against the cynical distortion of those       periodicals from all different direc-
     Lord is not equal." After the manner           who would excuse their own sin? No            tions. I admit that my subscription
     of Satan, they were accusing God of            one may caricature God as a cruel             has been a gift from my brother
     being cruel and unfair.                        tyrant who punishes people simply             Andrew, a member at the Protestant
           Anyone who has ever been called          because He delights in seeing them            Reformed Church of South Holland,
     to warn those who live in sin knows            die. He does punish them, to be sure,         and because it is difficult to find time
     how real such accusations can be.              but for the sake of maintaining his           to read it between studies I almost let
     One need only tell such that their             justice (Rom. 9:22) and because in his        my subscription run out. I have de-
     miseries (of which there are usually           infinite wisdom it serves to save his         cided, however, to renew my sub-
     plenty) are God's warning to them to           elect (vs. 23), but not because He            scription (enclosed) if for no other
     repent, to bring forth the heated re-          enjoys seeing people perish. The              reason, to read the special feature
     sponse that, if that be so, God would          delight of God is rather only in that         articles and to have current Calvinis-
     be most unfair. In a God who would             men turn from their sin and live (Lk.         tic thought par exceZZence in our hiome.
     think to punish them, they cannot              15:7), which all who sincerely seek                                John Owen Elirkett
     believe - as though thereby to ex-             what is pleasing to God will certainly                                 St. Louis, MO
     cuse their continued living in sin.            do. While in turn the searching ques-
           Of just such, Ezekiel was told           tion goes forth, "Why will ye die, 0          n Response:
     (vs. ll), "Say unto them, As I live,           house of Israel?" To which all who                 Good reasons for subscribing.
     saith the Lord God, I have no pleas-           reject His warning can only ever                   Thanks to Andrew.
     ure in the death of the wicked; but            answer - because they have them-                                               - - E d .
     that the wicked turn from his way              selves chosen the way of death.
     and live: turn ye, turn ye from your                               Rev. B. Woudenberg        n Grandparents
     evil ways; for why will ye die, 0                                                                 The article, "The  Refo.rmed
     house of Israel?" And that gives rise          n Amen                                        Family: Grandparents," by Mrs. Mary
     to our question: what does this text                Amen! Perhaps this is too strong         Beth Lubbers (the SB, February 1,
     mean?                                          a use of language, but it does signify        1991) brought tears to my eyes. I
          If, as is suggested, the expres-          how I feel in response to your Febru-         wholeheartedly agree with Mrs.
     sion "I have no pleasure in the death          ary 1, 1991 special article by Rev. C.        Lubbers. It is my prayer that God
     of the wicked" is indeed an affirma-           Haak entitled, "Applicatory  Preach-          may grant us the privilege of becom-
     tion of grace, and, as we have seen, it        ing," in particular, and to your maga-        ing grandparents one day and. that
     is to be addressed to all Israel, to           zine in general.                              we may be this blessing to them and
     those who would reject the Lord's                   The article by Rev. Haak was of          our children.
     warning as well as to those who would          special interest to me because I am                                      Carole Faber
     not, the implications are rather seri-         currently a student at Covenant Theo-                             Grand Rapids, MI
     ous. In the first place, it would indi-        logical Seminary (Presbyterian Church
     cate a kind of common grace, an as-            in America) in St. Louis, Missouri.           H    Interest in Amillennialism
     surance of divine favor to all, includ-        Rev. Haak's article sounded like my                It was with considerable inter-
     ing those who refuse His Word. It              first semester of Homiletics boiled           est that I read your good response to
     might be a grace within the sphere of          down in one article....                       Mr. Cole's letter in the Februa.ry  1,
     the covenant, as some might have it,                I also want to thank you for your        1991 Standard Bearer. I would in-
     but a grace common to elect and                excellent publication. As a member            deed like to suggest a book that you
     reprobate nonetheless. Secondly, it            of a congregation in the Reformed             will find most interesting: Less Than
     would seem to suggest that an af-              Church of America (my wife's back-            Conquerors: How Evangelical!; En-
     firmation of divine love is the appro-         ground in the Orthodox Presbyterian           tered the Twentieth Century,  by
     priate incentive for repentance, rather        Church), enrolled in a Presbyterian           Douglas W. Frank, Eerdmans, 1986.
I    than a pointing out of the seriousness         Church in America Seminary, cur-              The book traces the origins of dispen-
     of sin-a favored view of the Armin-            rently attending a Christian Reformed         sationalism and Finney-style revival-

                                                                                                         April 1,1991/ Standard Bearer/ 297


ism and shows how these phenom-            evangelicalism. The author is prop-         their modern-day successors....  Ll
ena, although relatively recent in         erly quite critical of the doctrines of                          Robert A. Caldwell
church history, have deeply pene-          Scofield, Finney, Billy Sunday, and                                   Jackson, TN
trated twentieth century American


A Cloud
of Witnesses
Prof. Herman Hanko                         Alcuin, Educator
      In the 8th century, the time in      better known as Charlemagne. He                  Not only was the library the best
which Alcuin lived, Europe was in a        was the founder and first ruler of the      in England, but Ethelbert was him-
sorry state. In the 5th century the        Holy Roman Empire - which some              self a great lover of books. Periodi-
Roman Empire had fallen before the         waggish historian has characterized         cally he traveled to the monasteries
barbarian hordes that swept over           as neither holy, nor Roman, nor an - of Europe and to other centers as far
Europe, and the old Graeco-Roman           empire. But it was important, for it        south as Italy to search for books. He
culture of the Roman Empire had            was the realization of papal dreams:        had the financial resources available
ceased to exist. In its place, the rov-    a political empire under the rule and       to him to spend vast sums of money
ing and militant tribes of uncivilized     control of the bishop of Rome, the          in the acquisition of such books as, in
barbarians hadinhabited Europe and         pope*                                       his opinion, would enhance the value
a great darkness had settled on the                 Alcuin was the educator of this    of his library. When Alcuin was a bit
continent. Although by the 8th cen-        kingdom during the time of Char-            older he accompanied his master on
tury a great deal of missionary work       lemagne.                                    these trips and gained additional
had been done, Europe remained for                  Alcuin was born in England in      respect for his broad knowledge and
the most part under the control of         the year 735, in the shire of York, now     learning and unerring instinct for good
illiterate and superstitious pagans who    known as Yorkshire, and near the            books.
had obliterated all learning and re-       city of York, where now stands one of            In 766 Ethelbert became Arch-
duced Europe to chaos.                     England's great cathedrals, Yorkmin-        bishop of York, and Alcuin became
      Europe's most powerful kings         ster. He was born of royal blood, but       headmaster of the monastery school,
were to be found in what is now            was left an orphan while still an in-       responsible for the education offered
France. The Merovingian Dynasty            fant, although he was heir to many          there. He served with distinction in
ruled there, not powerful by today's       possessions of his parents. Because         this capacity for 15 years.
standards, but nevertheless the strong-    of the untimely death of his parents,            In 780 Ethelbert was awarded
est among all the barbarians. While        he was given over to the monastery in       the "pallium"l and Alcuin was sent
nationalboundaries had not yet been        York, known then already as Yorkmin-        to Rome to fetch it. While in Rome he
formed, the power of France's kings        ster. Here he was well cared for by         met Charlemagne, a meeting which
was expanded throughout much of            the abbot, Ethelbert, who was also his      was to change his entire life.
present-day France and into Germany.       teacher.                                         It is at this point that Charlemagne
This dynasty had been forced out of                 Alcuin soon showed signs of        enters the story.
power by papal intrigue and the            great ability and became a favorite of           Charlemagne was one of Eu-
connivance of high officials in the        the abbot. He was given perhaps the         rope's great kings.2  He was a mon-
realm. The Carolingian Dynasty had         best education available in England         strous man, seven feet tall, anld so
taken its place.                           at the time, for the monastery in York      huge that he needed a special horse to
     The first and greatest ruler of       possessed one of the greatest librar-       carry him. He was a mighty man of
the Carolingians was Charles the Great,    ies in the whole kingdom. It con-           war who waged many campaigns
                                           tained manuscripts from the church          against the Saxons of Germany and
                                           fathers and from ancient Roman au-          finally subdued them, forcing them
                                           thors, and it gave Alcuin access to         to become Christians under penalty
                                           classical Roman thought as well as          of death. He gave 2,000 Saxons the
                                           church theology. Alcuin found him-          choice of being baptized or losing
Prof. Hank0 is professor of Church His-    self in a literary paradise, and he         their heads. It is not difficult to sur-
tory and New Testament in the Protes-      eagerly devoured every scroll he could      mise what option the Saxons pre-
tant Reformed S&inary.                     find.                                       ferred.

298 / Standard Bearer/April 1,199l


     Charlemagne was a strange man               In 790 Alcuin returned to Eng-        point of the sword) was faithfulness
of complex character. He was a friend       land, but came back to France in 796,      to the church.
of the church and, outwardly, a pious       settling in Tours, where he established         Many of Alcuin's works are
and faithful member. One of his             a famous abbey school and built an         extant. He wrote widely in the fields
"capitularies"3  reads: "It is necessary    extensive library. While heading this      of exegesis, theology, liturgy, ethics,
that every man should seek to the           school, he not only developed educa-       biography, and education. Nearly
best of his strength and ability to         tional theories, but also supervised       300 of his letters are still available,
serve God and walk in the ways of           the copying of ancient manuscripts,        letters which are enormously impor-
His precepts; for the Lord Emperor          including those of the Bible. These        tantforanunderstandingofthe times
cannot watch over every man in per-         latter became part of the great body       in which he lived.
sonal discipline." But his private life     of manuscripts which form the basis
left much to be desired. He com-            for our Ring James Version of Scrip-       . . . even today much of edmation
bined in his character a generous           ture. Here he died peacefully in 804.      owes its ideas to Alcuin, the educa-
disposition with murderous and brutal            Charlemagne so thoroughly
hatred of his enemies. He had four          trusted him that all kinds of difficult    tor of France.
wives and numerous concubines and           and wearisome responsibilities  were
lived immoderately. He was himself          laid upon him. He took part in vari-            His educational theories included
never completely literate, although         ous doctrinal controversies, was           a stress on the mastery of the ancient
he strove mightily to learn to read         constantly sought for advice on all        classics of Rome, along with a study
and write. In his kingdom he opened         sorts of political questions, was given    of the church fathers and various
roads, gave his attention to the small-     responsibilities for supervision of        theological works. This labor was to
est details of the empire, introduced a     various imperial enterprises, and was      have great influence on education in
settled order in the realm, and welded      called upon to engage in almost con-       Europe. Alcuin is really the father of
many different barbarian tribes into a      stant preaching. All these activities      Europe's educational system. He
political and economic unity. But his       were more than he could perform,           began the famous monastery sclhools,
main interest was in education. He          and his healthwas almost completely        schools which later developed into
gathered about him the ablest schol-        undermined. This may very well             France's famous universities. His
ars of Europe and enjoined education        have been one reason why he re-            theories of education and his devel-
on all males within his realm.              treated to England, and returned again     opment of the curriculum were to be
     It was in connection with this         to France only when he could enjoy         continued in Europe for hundreds of
latter that he persuaded Alcuin to          the relatively peaceful life of the ab-    years, and even today much of edu-
come to France and help him in his          bey in Tours.                              cation owes its ideas to Alcuin, the
educational enterprises.                         Not only was he the heir of his       educator of France.
     Charlemagne established what           father's fortune, but Charlemagne, in           As Europe was gradually Chris-
we can probably call a court school,        appreciation for all his labors, gave      tianized under the efforts of the Romish
over which Alcuin was the head. To          him additional estates. Most of his        church, education became a part of
this school came Charlemagne him-           vast fortunes were used in the paying      this process. It is true that, after
self, plus the members of the royal         of the expenses of the schools he es-      Charlemagne, the Renaissance of
family and court. Here Alcuin began         tablished and in the acquisition of        France disappeared and France too
his important work of bringing edu-         manuscripts (books) to fill the librar-    sunk back into intellectual darkness.
cation to barbarian France.                 ies. He was a moral reformer of no         Charlemagne's empire was divided
     The court of Charlemagne was a         little ability and was instrumental in     among his three sons, and the great
migratory court, moving about from          bringing morality and piety to the         work of Charlemagne did not long
place to place as Charlemagne waged         monasteries and churches of Char-          endure. Yet Alcuin's work was pre-
his wars against the Saxons and sought      lemagne's empire.                          served in the monasteries, and the
to bring effective rule to his empire.           He was a man of gentle disposi-       time of its fullblossoming came when
This gave Alcuin the opportunity to         tion, willing, patient, and humble,        Europe emerged from the "Dark
work at the establishment of schools        and an unwearied student. He mas-          Ages."
throughout France and parts of Ger-         tered Greek, Latin, and Hebrew as               As Rome worked her will on
many, something at which he was             well as his native language and the        Europe, it was through education that
very successful. From 781 to 790 he         barbaric "French" of Charlemagne's         Europe became Christian. The spread
busied himself in this work. Because        empire.    He constantly protested         of the gospel brought the principles
his interest had alwaysbeeninbooks,         Charlemagne's determination to force       of Christianity to barbarians. Along
he was instrumental in building li-         Christianity on the conquered, but         with this gospel went the forces of
braries wherever he went and bring-         with little success. Charlemagne was       education, for Christianity is always
ing to his schools valuable and im-         too drunk with the notion that to          vitally interested in education and
portant works from all over Europe.         Christianize the pagans (even at the       considers education an integral part

                                                                                                 April 1,199l I Standard Bearer1  299


of her calling. When Europe was                  this was brought about through edu-             this information, see GreatLeaders  ofthe
civilized through education, it was              cation. In this Alcuin played a major           Christian Church, ed. by John D. Woo-
also Christianized, and the principles           role. Q                                         dbridge;  Moody Press, 1988, p. 122.
of Christianity were woven into the                              Endnotes:                       2     Perhaps our readers are acquainted
warp and woof of all the institutions            1                                               with the legends of Roland, legends which
                                                       The  Pallium  was a yoke-like gar-
of society. Thus Europe (and Amer-               ment worn over the shoulders, and indi-         many children read in their grade-sclhool
ica, settledby Europeans) became the             cated that the wearer had a share in the        days. These legends concern events which
                                                                                                 purportedly tookplace during the time of
Christian nations that they are. But,            pontifical office. In more recent times, all    Charlemagne.
over the ages, this Christianity be-             archbishops petition for and receive it as      3.    Laws, answers to queries, questions
comes antichristianity and the nations           a condition of office, but in the days of       to officials, moral counsels, etc.
out of which Antichrist himself                  Alcuin it was a distinction of honor.
emerges. In God's eternal purpose,               Al&n's  errand was a high privilege. For



                                                 U.S. Supreme Court
                                                 Overturns Tax
Church
and State                                        P r o t e s t e r 's
Mr. James Lanting                                Convictions
      It was therefore error for the trial       tax laws are invalid and unconstitu-            evasion conviction overturned by the
  judge to instruct the jury to disregard        tional. In the last decade, many of the         U.S. Supreme Court. John Cheek
  evidence of Cheek's understanding              movement's leaders themselves have              joined the tax protest movement in
  that . . . he was not a person required        been convicted of tax evasion, con-
  to file a return or to pay income taxes                                                        the late '70s and refused to file tax
  and that wages are not taxable in-             spiracy, and fraud, chiefly due to their        returns or pay taxes on his pilot's
  come, as incredible as such misun-             failure to report the prodigious in-            wages  from 1980-1983. Moreover, by
  derstandings of and beliefs about the          come generated from their lucrative             the mid-1980s,  he was claiming over
  law might be.                                  seminars and publications.                      60 exemptions on his W-4 forms.
         Cheek  v. U.S., Supreme Court                 Some evangelical Christians,                    Federal law provides that  (any
                                       (1991)    understandably distressed by the                person who "willfuZZy  attempts in any
                                                 government's perennial squandering              manner to evade or defeat any tax" is
Tax Protesters  -                                and abuse of our tax dollars, have              guilty of a felony. Mr. Cheek was
      The tax protest movement is a              been persuaded by these charlatans              indicted and tried on three counts of
loosely organized group of Ameri-                to entertain the notion that federal            willfully attempting to evade his in-
cans who refuse to file income tax               income taxes are voluntary. Tragi-              come taxes.
returns and pay income tax. Leaders              cally enough, many of them are now                    Although Cheek admitted at trial
of the movement conduct seminars                 languishing in federal penitentiaries           that he did not file returns or pay any
and distribute tapes, books, and "legal          and are insolvent following the gov-            tax for the years in question, his de-
opinions" contending that the U.S.               ernment's seizure of their bank ac-             fense was  that his actions were not
                                                 counts and real estate to satisfy their         "wilh%.Y  evasion. Cheek testified that
                                                 delinquent taxes, accumulated inter-            he was indoctrinated at tax protest
                                                 est, and heavy penalties.                       seminars and consequently sincerely
                                                                                                 (albeit mistakenly) believed that (1)
                                                 Cheek Convicted by Jury                         his wages were not "income" and
                                                       A 47-year old veteran airline pi-         that he was not a "taxpayer" within
Mr. Lanting, a memberofSouth  Holland            lot, described by his lawyer as a               the meaning of the tax laws; and (2)
Protestant Reformed Church, is a prac-           "gullible victim of the tax protest             that the tax laws were unconstitu-
ticing attorney.                                 movement,N recently had his tax                 tional. He therefore argued that he

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acted without the wilhulness  required       ing the judge to exclude Cheek's            his case; it was merely remanded for
for conviction.                              unconstitutionality defense but to          a new trial. Cheek now faces the
     The trial judge ruled that these        permit a jury to determine whether          expense, risk, and burden of a re-trial
unusual beliefs were not "objectively        Cheek's unusual notions regarding           and perhaps even years of appeals or
reasonable" and essentially instructed       the definition of "income" and "tax-        incarceration if he is convicted a,gain.
the jury to ignore these purported           payer" were sincerely-held misun-                   Fourth, although a good-faith
defenses. After lengthy deliberations,       derstandings which may have negated         misunderstanding may be a defense
the jury convicted Cheek on all counts.      his criminal intent. "Of course," said      to criminal charges, the Cheek Ideci-
He was sentenced to one year in jail         the Court, "the more unreasonable           sion in no way shields one from civil
and five years probation.                    the asserted beliefs or misunderstand-      liability for all back taxes plus inter-
                                             ings are, the more likely the jury will     est and onerous penalties. (In Chleek's
Good-faith Misunderstanding                  consider them to be nothing more            case, he eventually paid over $150,000
Negates Willfulness                          than disagreement with known legal          in delinquent taxes, interest, and
     Cheek appealed his conviction,          duties."                                    penalties in addition to $40,000 for
arguing that it was error for the trial                                                  attorney's fees during his years of
court to instruct the jury to disregard      A Caveat                                    appeal.)
hisadmittedlymistakenbeliefsabout                 Although the tax protest move-                 Finally, Cheek prevailed on
the tax laws just because they were          ment will undoubtedly consider the          appeal only because his attorney
not, in the judge's opinion, "objec-         Cheek opinion to be a favorable rul-        argued that Cheek had been victim-
tively reasonable."                          ing, a careful reading reveals other-       ized and indoctrinated by unscrupu-
     The U.S. Supreme Court, con-            wise, for several reasons.                  lous tax protest leaders who had duped
fronting its first tax protester case,            First, the Cheek decision is very      him into believing the mistaken no-
partially agreed with Cheek and re-          limited; it merely held that jury may       tion that his wages were not "inco:me."
manded his case for a new trial. The         consider the defense that a sincerely-      The Cheek decision can hardly be
Court held that the trial judge erred        held misunderstanding of the tax laws       championed nowby taxprotestlead-
in condemning as unreasonable                negates criminal intent. That is not to     ers.
Cheek's mistaken belief that he was          say that any jury anywhere is going                 Justice Blackmun,  in his dissent,
not a "taxpayer" and that his pilot's        to "buy" such a defense. The Su-            voiced some realistic warnings  about
wages were not "income." The Court           preme Court itself ventured an opin-        the  Cheek  decision:
ruled that it should have been a jury        ion that such a defense appears to be               It is incomprehensible to me how,
determination whether or not these           "incredible."                                 in this day . . . any taxpayer of compe-
beliefs were good-faith misunder-                                                          tent mentality can assert as his de-
standings of his duty to pay taxes. In                                                     fense  to statutory willfulness  the
other words, the Court held that it                                                        proposition that the wage he receives
was the jury's function, not the judge's,    . . . disqreement with the                    for his labor is not income, irrespec-
to decide whether these beliefs ne-                                                        tive of the cult that says  otherwi,se
gated the requisite criminal intent.         tax laws or a belief they are                 and advises the gullible to resist in-
                                             unconstitutional is not a de-                 come tax collections. The Court's
                                                                                           opinion today, I fear, will encourage
Unconstitutionality No Defense               fense.                                        taxpayers to cling to frivolous views
     However, in a second part of its                                                      of the law in the hope of convincing
opinion, the Court unequivocally                                                           a jury of their sincerity.
stated that his belief in the unconstitu-                                                        Accordingly, Reformed Chris-
tionality of the tax laws is not a de-                                                   tians must again be reminded that
fense. Should Cheek have thought                  Secondly, the Court clearly held       our Supreme Court still considers
the tax laws unconstitutional, said          that a defendant's belief in the inva-      income tax payment a legal duty of
the Court, he should have paid the           lidity or unconstitutionality of the tax    all citizens and a willful evasion t'o be
taxand thenfiledforarefund.  Inthat          laws is simply disagreement, not a mis-     a felony in our land. And perhaps
legal way, he could have challenged          understamling  of the laws. Under the       even more seriously, such unlawful
the constitutionality of the tax laws.       Cheek  decision, disagreement with the      activity consequently is also a viola-
Thus the Court held that a defen-            tax laws or a belief they are unconsti-     tion of God's Word which commands
dant's belief in the invalidity or un-       tutional is not a defense. By far the       us to obey our magistrates  and un-
constitutionality of the tax laws is         majority of tax protesters do not mis-      conditionally to render "taxes to whom
irrelevant and inadmissible, since it        understand the tax laws, they simply        taxes are due" (Rom. 13:7; I Pet. 213;
smacks of mere disagreement with the         disagree with them. Such a purported        Matt.  22:21;   Belgic Confession, Art.
laws -which is never a defense.              defense is now clearly illegal and          36). ci
     Accordingly, the Court re-              improper.
manded the case for a retrial, instruct-          Thirdly, Cheek has not yet won

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                                      All Around Us
Prof. Robert D. Decker


The World Council of Churches              presentation in dance and voice to          dialogue, Dr. Wesley Ariarajah, said
      Thousands of observers, guests,      one of the plenary sessions. She called     it was inconceivable to him that God
advisors, and visitors joined the 811      on the spirits of all those who had         listened to Christian prayers but ig-
official delegates to the Seventh As-      suffered and died unjustly to be pres-      nored those praying to their particu-
sembly of the World Council of             ent at the Assembly. These included         lar versions of God. fl As a Sri Lankan
Churches (WCC) in Canberra, Aus-           victims in biblical history as well as      Christian who has read the Hindu
tralia, February 7 - 20. The theme of      contemporary victims, such as those         writings and the scriptures of the
the Assembly was "Come Holy Spirit,        in the Bhopal tragedy. Finally she          Hindu saints I simply cannot believe
Renew The Whole Creation." Most            called on the spirit of Jesus. All of       that there have not been other people
of the issues, we are told, were not at    these together, said she, are "icons of     (than Christians) who are familiar
all related to the theme. The issues       the Holy Spirit who became tangible         with God," he said. "It is beyond
which most excited the participants        and visible to us." Later in her speech     belief that other people have no ac-
dealt with politics, racism, feminism,     she suggested that the Buddhist             cess to God or that God has no alccess
and ecology.                               Bodhisattva Kwan In (or "Kuanyin"           to other people.... My understanding
      The host country, Australia, was     in Chinese) might be the feminine           of God's love is too broad for rne to
the object of a scathing indictment        image of Christ. Human survival,            believe that only this narrow seg-
concerning its treatment of the Abo-       she claimed, depends on putting all         ment called the Christian church will
riginal peoples on its continent. "The     life, including trees, and people of all    be saved. If you are a Christian you
impact of racism by Australians on         faiths or none, at the center of belief.    must be open and broad, not narrow
the Aboriginal peoples in this nation      Indigenous people of the world, she         and exclusive."
is not just horrific, but genocidal....    said, believed nature WAS "sacred,               Several thoughts come to mind.
How can this society justify the de-       purposeful, and full of meaning." The       Scripture teaches that the heathen
struction of an indigenous culture,        "old culture of death," exemplified         change the glory of God into am im-
language and spirituality?" Need-          by the Gulf War, should be replaced         age made like to corruptible man (Ram.
.less to say, the Aussies were out-        by such a "culture of life."                1:18ff.).  Holy Scripture also teaches
raged, not merely by the hyperbole of           Chung's  presentation was ended        that there is, besides the Name of
the above criticism, but by the failure    with a vigorous dancing troop with          Jesus, no other Name under heaven,
of the WCC critics to concede that         Korean instruments. The presenta-
Australia did not seek justification       tion brought the delegates to their         The WCC is not worthy of the
but had long been attempting consci-       feet, cheering and applauding. Some
entiously to find solutions. Notewor-      participants said it was the point in       name church.
thy too is the fact that the WCC put       the Assembly where the Holy Spirit
forthno solutions of its own, but only     was most present. Other delegates           given among men, by which we must
condemned the Australians.                 calledit " syncretism" (a combination       be saved (Acts  4:12). And we are
      The Assembly struggled long          of heathen and Christian practices)         reminded of what the inspired Apostle
with the issue of the War in the Per-      or "paganism." We agree with the            John wrote to the church, N . . . even
sian Gulf. After hours of debate it        latter. Chung may be a member of a          now are there many antichrists;
finally voted on a resolution calling      Presbyterian Church in Korea, but           whereby we know it is the last time"
for an immediate ceasefire, without        her "theology" is a blatant form of         (I John 2:18). The WCC is not worthy
Iraq first having to leave Kuwait.         pantheism.                                  of the name church. Nor is it difficult
      On the second day of the As-              The WCC also took ecumenism            to understand that it will not be that
sembly, a young Korean woman, Prof.        to its farthest limits - suggesting         long before those who by grace through
Chung Hyun-Kyung,  made a dramatic         that Muslims, Hindus, and others            faith believe in the Lord Jesus will be
                                           achieve salvation in the same way as        persecuted for their faith.
Prof. Decker is professor of  Practical    Christians, and warning the latter                        New York Times Service
Theology in the Protestant Reformed        against "narrow" thinking.         The                         REC News Exchange
Seminary.                                  Council's Director of Inter- Faith                                            Time

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                                                                                                      \


Muslims Torture Christians                   ber. This ruling was appealed and              Famine Again
     Some Muslims at least are not as        they were rearrested. They now face
friendly to Christians as the WCC is         newly created charges and a possible                   Parts of Africa are facing starva-
to them, according to recent reports.        sentence of up to eight years in prison.       tion equal to or greater than the fam-
Three Muslim converts to Christian-          They have been released on condi-              ine in the mid-1980s. About twenty
ity have been tortured repeatedly since      tion that they promise to leave the            million people in the nations of Ethio-
their arrest and subsequent trial last       country. The church of which the               pia, Sudan, Liberia, Angola, and
November on charges of crimes against        three are members is under increas-            Mozambique face starvation without
the government of Egypt, reports             ing pressure from the Egyptian Min-            immediate aid. The famine is caused
Amnesty International. The three,            istry of the Interior to reduce the profile    byfailingcrops,lowrainfall,andcivil
according to AI, were in "bad physi-         of its ministry to Muslims.                    war.
cal condition" when they appeared at              The WCC refuses to acknowl-                       This too is a sign of the times.
a mid-December hearing, "suffering           edge the fact that Islam and other             Scripture tells us we shall hear of
from hunger and the effects of con-          heathen religions are false and that           famines and earthquakes, in divers
tinuing torture, including electric          their adherents are enemies of the             places, as well as of wars and rumors
shocks." The three men all converted         Christian faith. But Muslims know              of wars (Matt. 24). Let us not fear
from Islam to Christianity within the        this and certainly regard Christianity         these things, but let us be a people
past six years. They were declared           as their enemy and a threat to their           who live in joyful anticipation of the
innocent of the charge of having             religion.                                      coming of the Lord Jesus. 0
conducted "actions against a heav-                                 Christianity Today                               Christianity Today
enly religion [Islam]," last Novem-


                                             The Bible is God's Word
 Taking Heed                                 Sufficiency of
to the Doctrine
Rev. Marvin Kamps                            Scripture

     (Correction: An error in editing             The Reformed church manifests             for the knowledge of God in Christ
in Rev. Kamps' article in the March 1        itself as the church of our Lord Jesus         Jesus unto salvation. It is one of the
issue not only confused the meaning          Christ, above all other manifestations         outstanding characteristics of sectar-
of a sentence, but also left it not a        of itself, by its earnest confession of        ian groups that, with a great show of
sentence. The correct reading of the         the sufficiency of sacred Scripture.           piety and religious zeal, they claim
sentence in the middle of the center         This is no little matter. Any "church"         direct revelations of God by means of
column on page 255 should be as              that would question or deny the suf-           dreams and visions. On the basis of
follows: "If only men would learn            ficiency of Scripture would by that            these so-called revelations of God they
that the New Testament, which de-            very fact forfeit its claim to be the          enslave millions of persons to the
clares to us the great victory of Christ     church of Jesus Christ. Every "church"         control of charlatans, who themselves
Jesus over sin, guilt, death, and Hell,      that claims the necessity of revela-           are enslaved by the lust for filthy
testifies that this victory was accom-       tions of God in addition to that re-           lucre.
plished for the elect of God alone,          corded for us in sacred Scripture is                   The apostle Paul condemns all
they would have no problem confess-          really a sect and therefore a false            these deceivers in Titus 1:ll: N Whose
ing the unity of Scripture." Our             church. Many thousands and even                mouths must be stopped, who sub-
apologies to Rev. Kamps.)                    millions of people hold for truth, given       vert whole houses, teaching things
                                             by God, the so-called revelations              that they ought not, for filthy lucre's
                                             claimed by various persons who were            sake." Paul describes these false
                                             the founders of new religions. Every           prophets and their end as those who
Rev. Kamps is pas tar of Sou thwest Prot-    sect is identified by its insistence upon      "through covetousness shall they with
estant Reformed Church in Grandville,        extra-biblical revelations. The sects          feigned words make merchandise of
Michigan.                                    do not consider the Bible as sufficient        you: whose judgment now of a long

                                                                                                      Aprli 1,199l I Standard Bearer1  303


time lingereth not, and their damna-       the book of salvation. There is no           beautiful declaration: "For by a kind
tion slumbereth not" (11 Pet. 2:3). The    other. When our fathers figuratively         of mutual bond the Lord has joined
love of money and all that wealth          designated God's revelation in na-           together the certainty of his Word
brings motivates men to corrupt the        ture "as a most elegant book" to the         and of his Spirit so that the perfect
Scriptures and deny the sufficiency        believer, they did not intend that we        religion of the Word may abide in our
of the Bible.                              should see this bookalongside of and         minds when the Spirit, who causes us
      But the Reformed church is           altogether separate from Scripture,          to contemplate God's face, shines;
committed to the doctrine of the suf-      nor as something whereby men may             and that we in turn embrace the Spirit
ficiency of Scripture. The Presbyte-       challenge the testimony of Scripture.        with no fear of being deceived when
rian fathers confessed this truth: "The    But, rather, as a  book subordinate to       we recognize him in his own image,
whole counsel of God, concerning all       Scripture and one that can only be           namely, the Word."
things necessary for his own glory,.       properly "read" in the light of Scrip-            The doctrine of the sufficiency
man's salvation, faith and life, is ei-    ture (Art. 2, Belgic Confession).            of Scripture has ever led the Reformed
ther expressly set down in Scripture,      Revelation is one, and the sacred            church to disallow the attempts of
or by good and necessary consequence       Scriptures reign supreme in the Ring-        vain men to supplant the preaching
maybe deducedfromScripture: unto           dom of God. Theology is the queen of         of the Word by intruding their vatmted
which nothing at any time is to be         all sciences.                                opinions and theories. One dear aged
added, whether by new revelations               We must be careful to point out         brother in our congregation in Red-
of the Spirit;or traditions of men..."     that the doctrine of the sufficiency of      lands often expressed this conviction
(Westminster Confession, I, 6). Con-       Scripture must not be used as a basis        with these words: "Man's word goes
sider also the confession of the Re-       to deprecate the church's task to preach     six feet under."
formed saints of Europe in the six-        the Word. This has often been done.               Nor may we ever claim a spiri-
teenth century: "We believe that those     But it is rooted in a misunderstand-         tual necessity for the use of Christian
Holy Scriptures fully contain the will     ing. Romans  10:14-17  makes very            symbols, other than the Sacraments,
of God, and that whatsoever man            plain that salvation is ours upon the        in the worship of the church. The
ought to believe, unto salvation, is       wings of the preaching of the gospel         demand for Christian symbols as a
sufficiently taught therein..." (Belgic    by one sent of God to stand in the           part of the worship of the people of
Confession, Art. 7). Read those con-       service of the living Christ. The Bible      God is rooted in a lack of apprecia-
fessional statements over again and        is sufficient as it forms the content of     tion for the truth of the sufficiency of
take special notice how absolutely         the preaching of the Word.                   Scripture and the centrality of the
our fathers expressed their confidence          In close connection with the            preaching of the Word.
in the Bible. Nothing may ever be          above we must not lose sight of the               In faithfulness to its confession
added to these Scriptures. They do         fact that the Scriptures receive their       of the sufficiency of Scripture, the
fully contain the will of God. And         saving power through the operation           Reformed church is compelled to reject
"whatsoever" ought to be believed,         of the Spirit of Christ Jesus (and not       the many evil innovations which men
unto salvation, is sufficiently taught     apart from Him). This is not to demean       would introduce as new and enter-
therein.                                   the Scripturesin themselves, but only        taining ways to present the Word of
      ThelReformed  church, of course,     to emphasize that the Scriptures are         God. I have in mind the so-c,alled
makes this confession on the basis of      the Word of the Spirit of Christ. Apart      liturgical dance and Christian mov-
God's Word. Paul called down the           from the gracious operation of the           ies, among other innovations, which
curse of God upon anyone who would         Spirit of the exalted Christ in the heart    are used to supplant the preaching of
bring another gospel than he had           of the reader, Scripture does not save,      the Word of God. The Bible calls for
preached: "But though we, or an            but kills. Calvin writes: "The letter,       preaching alone, whenever men would
angel from heaven, preach any other        therefore, is dead, and the law of the       StandinHisservice  tobringthe  Word.
gospel unto you than that which we         Lord slays its readers where it both is      God in His Word has given to preuch-
have preached unto you, let him be         cut off from Christ's grace (II Cor.         ing the exclusive right to be the con-
accursed" (Gal. 1:8).                      3:6) and, leaving the heart untouched,       veyance of the gospel. This is n.ot to
      What does the doctrine of the        sounds in the ears alone" (Instihstes,       deny the proper place of songs of
sufficiency of Scripture imply posi-       I, 9, 3). The sufficiency of sacred          praise and prayers in the church.; but
tively? Scripture is all we need. in       Scripture for our salvation, therefore,      these serve only as a response to the
order to know God in Christ Jesus as       must be understood in the context of         glorious presence of God, who comes
                                           the truth that Scripture forms the           to us through the Word preached.
The Bible is the book of salvii-           content of the message of the Spirit of           We must note carefully that our
tion. There is no other.                   Christ and is His means to the salva-        confessions limit this sufficiency of
                                           tion of the elect of God. Calvin con-        Scripture. The sufficiency of Scrip-
                                           cludes this section on the Word and          ture is limited to matters of salvation
the God of our salvation. The Bible is     Spirit in the Institutes with a most         and sanctification of life, that is, to

304 / Sfar?dard  Bearer/April 1,199l


faith in Christ to the glory of God.          saints of the old dispensation than           guage of the day. Such information
Some wish today to pervert this doc-          directly with us of the new dispensa-         may be relevant for academic study
trine of the sufficiency of Scripture by      tion, but they are not for that reason        of one sort or another but makes little
claiming that when Scripture makes            unimportant or insignificant to us in         or no impact on our experienlce  of
various statements supposedly not             regard to our faith in Christ Jesus.          redemption. Taking the Bible seri-
                                              God's redemptive work is the redemp           ously does not require us to treat
       Never is Scripture                     tion of a church. We must not be              such matters as the product of divine
                                                                                            revelation; on the contrary, taking
         to be corrected!                     individualistic and say that if it had
                                              nothing to do with my redemption,             the Bible seriously requires, I believe,
                                              then it is of no spiritual significance.      giving such incidental information
directly related to matters of salva-         What was inseparably a part of the            the lesser status that I have suggested"
tion, then the Bible sometimes gives          redemption and salvation of other             (p. 13). Note carefully the progres-
"misinformation."       Supposedly in         saints, of the old dispensation ac-           sion in thought. To say first that the
these areas the record of Scripture           cording to Scripture, is a part of my         narrative re the man of Gath is irrele-
stands in need of the "light" of secu-        redemption.                                   vant to redemption, and then to pro-
lar luminaries. Unbelieving men, who               By way of example, Howard                ceed to the narrative of creation and
allegedly have been informed by God's         VanTill takes the position that certain       draw the same conclusion, is calcu-
general revelation through the op-            facts recorded in the Bible are, in-          lated to get the student/reader to ac-
eration of the Spirit of grace common         deed, irrelevant to his redemption.           cept VanTill's  rejection of the historic
to all men, can shed light upon the           He writes: "And finally it must be            Christian doctrine of creation. Be-
pages of Scripture. We reject this            noted that much (emphasis, MK) of             sides, note the progression from my
theory as false doctrine. Never is            what we find in many parts (empha-            redemption to our experience of re-
Scripture to be corrected!                    sis, MK) of the Bible is merely inci-         demption.
     Besides, it is false to assert that      dental information of little impor-                I wonder if Pilate's having the
certain portions of Scripture have not/z-     tance or relevance to its gospel mes-         tomb of Jesus sealed shut with the
ing to do with salvation. What por-           sage. I open my Bible randomly and            Roman seal and the stone placed before
tion would that be? Some of the               happen on I Chronicles 20:6, for in-          the tomb opening was a similar inci-
accounts of Jesus' miracles? One or           stance, in which I am informed that           dental element of the narrative and
two of the accounts of God's works?           there was a man from Gath who had             not particularly significant for my
Has the account of creation nothing           six fingers on each hand and six toes         redemption experience.
to do with our salvation? Paul de-            on each foot, twenty-four digits in all.           Can we divorce theredemption-
clares that we know the origin of all         Now that's interesting, but not par-          gospel themes of Scripture from the
things by faith. That is the only way         ticularly important or relevant to my         historical circumstances of God's
one can know this reality. I believe          redemption" (The Fourth Day, p. 7).           revelation, when the historical circum-
that everything recorded in Scripture         Please be careful to note that accord-        stances were ordained and determined
has something to do with the salva-           ing to VanTill (and presumably many           by God to serve as the background
tion of God's people. I cannot think          others who approve of "his reading            for the revelation of Himself? The
of one event, person, or circumstance         of scripture") much of what we find           answer is an emphatic No! Let no one
recorded that could be considered             in many parts of the Bible is irrele-         be deceived!
incidental, irrelevant, insignificant, and    vant to his redemption. In itself this             But men are determined today
totally unrelated to the church's faith.      may appear to be a very innocent              to drive a wedge between the gospel
There are, of course, a multitude of          observation on the part of the profes-        (matters of salvation) and the events
facts recorded in the historical sec-         sor. But he is setting up his readers         and circumstances by which the gos-
tions of Scripture concerning, for            and students to accept the idea that          pel of God is revealed to us in Christ
example, various kings and soldiers,          the creation narrative of Genesis 1           Jesus. This is an evil work, for by it
both of Israel and of heathen nations;        "makes little or no impact on our             they violate the apostle's warning not
there are chronologies, genealogies,          experience of redemption." Allow              to take from sacred Scripture (Rev.
and numerical facts; and many of              me to quote the professor fully that I        22:19). The apostle John, in his gospel
these facts may have little to do with        may do him justice: "Such informa-            narrative, records many historical facts
our salvation. But that is not the            tion is incidental to the principle themes    in connection with the ministry of
same as saying they had nothing to            of Scripture and is drawn solely from         Jesus. Are any of these unimportant
do with the salvation of the saints of        human experience. This includes               and insignificant so that we may regard
the old dispensation, for all the facts       information about the persons, (such          some of them to be "inaccurate" or
of Scripture stand inseparably related        as the man from Gath who had twenty-          non- factual? Is the account of John in
to the salvation of the church of Christ.     four digits), information about events,       need of correction by means of the
These facts have more to do undoubt-          information about the material world          discoveries of various scholars? John
edly with the salvation of individual         expressed in the pre-scientific lan-          declares with regard to his whole

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narrative that "... these are written,       Jesus Himself, in that most signifi-             One can defend the sufficiency
that ye might believe that Jesus is the      cant passage on the sufficiency of         of Scripture in regard to the church's
Christ, the Son of God: and that             Scripture, Luke 16:29:  "They have         redemption and salvation only by
believing ye might have life through         Moses and the prophets; let them           holding to the truth that the historical
his name" (John 20:30).                      hear them." If one will not hear God       facts recorded in Scripture as back-
        We must receive the Scriptures       speaking in the Scriptures, which alone    ground to God's revelatory works
in their entirety believing that they        are sufficient to give the knowledge       are essential to the infallible recoird  of
are alone sufficient to give us the          of salvation, he lies under the wrath      revelation.  0
knowledge of God's will and of our           of God.
salvation. We have the testimony of

                                             The Book of Ruth
                                                     Lesson II
                                             "Naomi-Mara:
Search the
Scriptures                                   Jehovah - Plente-l
Rev: C&-l Haak                               ous in Mercy"
        In a sense we can call Naomi a
prodigal daughter (Luke 15:llff.). She               Jehovah is plenteous in mercy      industry, and in her trust in God's
left her spiritual Father's house and        (Ps. 1038; 86:5,15). Already in Naomi's    providence to lead her. Boaz recog-
lived for ten years in a place where         return, and then in the material pro-      nizes this in his words of blessing to
He did not reveal Himself in His love        visions God supplies, we begin to see      her in chapter 212: "under whose
in Christ. And she did return to             the handof God's grace. This was not       wings thou art come to trust."
Bethlehem- Judah, even as the prodi-         abitter deed of God, but a most pleas-           Boaz is a man who honors the
gal son returned to his father's house.      ant work of God, and both Ruth and         covenant of God. His faith in God
She returned because she realized that       Naomi begin to see that God is taking      hallowed his life as a master towards
there was ,no other place on earth           care of them in His grace. The Lord        his servants, and as a man among
where she could find blessedness. By         had not forsaken Elimelech's family        God's people. Ruth's love for God's
God's grace her return was in the            because of their unbelief, but in His      covenant touched Boaz, and he prom-
way of acknowledging her sin and             mercy would restore. What if there         ises her freedom andprotectionin his
her Lord's faithful chastening of her        were no mercy with God? We would           fields.
(Ruth 1:20, 21). Naomi's bitterness          all lose our portion in His covenant             Truly, those who wait upon the
was not a resentm.ent  towards God.          due to our faithlessness. But God          Lord shall not be ashamed. Bitter-
Nor when she says, "the Almighty             maintains our lot and inheritance (Ps.     ness over sin leads to the wonclrous
hath dealt very bitterly with me,"           16).                                       joy in the covenant mercy of God,
does she accuse God of cruelty. Rather               Rev. J. Heys makes an impor-       who not only puts away our sin and
her bitterness is the knowledge of sin       tant  observation at this point. "What     restores us again, but also gives us to
and its effects. She sees her afflictions    is striking is the fact that Naomi with    trust in His mercy to make straight
as the loving rod of God (Heb. 12:6).        her husband and sons left Bethle-          our way.
In all her actions and words she shows       hem-Judah, for earthly bread during
a spirit of humbleness before God            a `famine, and came back with a            Points to Ponder
and of submission to the afflictions         Moabitess who was seeking spiritual                   Memorize Ruth 232
she received (I Pet. 5:5,6). This con-       bread. This daughter-in-law, Ruth,
tains many  lessons  for us.                 sought the bread of life. Ruth came        1.    Why did Naomi's return cause
                                             for spiritual reasons.N                    such a stir in the city? What do1 you
                                                     Ruth displays that indeed she      think is meant by the question, "Is
Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant        was a true child of God in her care for    this Naomi?" (Lack of recognition,
Reformed Church of Lynden, Washing-          her mother-in-law, her humility (to        surprise, contempt, compassion on
ton.                                         glean was to beg, Luke 16:1-12), her       her poverty, or               ?I
306 I Standard Bearer/April 1,1991


2.       Though Naomi calls herself           4.    Naomi is a picture of the child of    3.     How are we to depend upon
"Mara,"  we do not see bitterness             God under affliction, and with pa-          andlive  our lives in the light of Gods
expressed. What spirit do we see              tience under it (Phil. 4:ll; Rom. 5:3-5,    providence?
expressed toward God and her pres-            etc.). Discuss this statement: It is not
ent condition? (Note in vs. 20,21 that        affliction itself, but how affliction is    4.     What salutations did Boaz and
she refers to God twice as Almighty           borne, that does us good.                   his servants exchange? (See Ps. 5.29:7,
and twice as Lord Uehovah].  Any                                                          8.1
significance?)                                               Ruth2:1-17                          What is the significance?
                                              1.    Study in names: Give the mean-               Should we use such?
3.       When Naomi speaks of being           ing and significance of the name Boaz.             Is there a danger in overuse?
full and empty, is she speaking in
earthly or spiritual terms?                   2.    Much can be learned in Ruth           5.     Why didBoaz show kindness to
In light of your answer:                      regarding practical godliness. Iden-        Ruth? In what ways did he dlo so?
      a. Is it often the case when earthly    tify, explain, and apply these virtues      What does this tell us?
        needs are abundantly satisfied        in Ruth.
        that we are spiritually lacking,            Humility:                             6.     How are you doing on your
        and vice versa? Why?                        Industry:                             memory work?!! 0
      b. Can you give examples from                 Devotion to parents:
        Scripture, or your own life?                Trust in God's providence:



                                              The' Reformed Family:
 WhenThou                                     Playgrounds and
Sittest in
 Thine House.. . Battlegrounds
Mrs. Mary Beth Lubbers                              (for young children)

        Far, far away in the country of       the city parks and playgrounds. I           No one should take playtime away
Denmark there is a wonderful play-            have seen you boys and girls on your        from you or discourage your play-
ground for children. This playground          ruggedly-built jungle gym sets. These       time activities. Even the Apostle Paul
is a "junk playground." All kinds of          play structures, too, let you "climb        recognized this when he said in I
scraps are brought here and children          mountains, N "cross rivers," or "travel     Corinthians 13:ll: "When I was a
are encouraged to build things out of         through space" -all without leaving         child, I spake as a child, I understood
pieces of wood and other odds and             your own back yard. I watch you at          as a child, I thought as a child:but
ends with their own tools. A child            school as you jump and skip and             when I became a man, I put away
such as you may go to this play-              twirl and balance dangerously on            childish things."
ground any time and begin building            monkey bars and swing sets. Chil-                  But, boys and girls, this world is
a cabin or a fort or an airplane or a         dren and play go together like kites        not just one big playground. Even
boat. There is no limit to the things         and windy days. You bubble over             though you are very young, you must
you can do here if you use the avail-         with energy and eagerness when you          soon find out, and perhaps already
able junk and your imagination.               play. And it seems as if you don't          know, that the world in which1 you
        Even though you may never get         need fancy, expensive toys to have          live is a battleground and you are a
to Denmark and play and climb and             fun either.        A few scraps of          soldier on it. Even the name of this
build in this playground, you can             lumber,some old tiles, a couple of          magazine,  Standard Bearer, tells you
enjoy play almost anywhere. In your           crates or old boxes, and your imagi-        that there is a war going on now and
own home, your back yard, and in              nation, and you are busy for a good         there has been ever since Satan,, that
                                              long time.                                  wicked serpent, tricked Adam and
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the            And it is good that you children      Eve into disobeying God. Do you
Protestant Reformed Church  of  Soufh         play. It is healthy. It will help you       know what a standard bearer is? He
Holland, Illinois.                            develop into strong young people.           is the person who carries the army's

                                                                                                   April 1,199l I Sfandard Bearer I 307


flag, letting everyone know for what       for this battle. So He has prepared         foot soldier, must be covered with
country his army is fighting.              divine armor and weapons with which         the swiftness which the Gospel of
      Perhaps many of you have seen        you must wage war (Ephesians 6:11-          Peace gives, allowing you to pass
pictures of the war which the United       18). As young children you must             unhurt over the battlefield and assur-
States fought against Iraq. Maybe          already be putting on this armor, even      ing your victory in this spiritual con-
you have evenbeen somewhat fright-         though it seems heavy and awkward.          flict.
enedby the explodingbombs and the          You may not say, "Well, I'll wait until
rat-a-tat-tat of rapid gunfire. If you     I'm a little older and then when I need     +         Above all, taking the shield of
are like me, you probably don't like       it I'll pick up a good stout stick some-    faith.
the gas masks which even little chil-      where along the road." Any attempt                    You will need a shield in this
dren were required to wear during          like this will mean certain death for       battle with Satan. You will need a
attacks by the enemy, making every-        you. You must be equipped with the          protection about the size of a door to
one look like a giant anteater. You        whole armor of God. Now! This is            cover completely your body in this
don't like war and the confusion and       your only hope against Satan's tricks       dreadful war. Satan launches sharp
unhappiness which go with it.              and traps.                                  and fiery darts at you which burn and
      However, the battlefield on                                                      kill. The shield of faith which be-
which you live is not one where you        +       Stand therefore, having your        lieves in Jesus Christ as the Son of
fight a war against the evil man,          loins girt about with truth.                God repels all the attacks of the devil.
Saddam Hussein, or any other mon-                  To be a Christian soldier, you      Boys and girls, begin already nolw to
strously wicked person. No, the enemy      must first put on the girdle or belt of     call on Christ for help!
with whom you are at war on this           truth. To ward off this enemy, Satan,
earth is a spiritual, invisible enemy.     you children must know and believe          +         And take the helmet of salva-
He has been fighting Gods people           the truth about God. Do you listen to       tion.
for a long, long time; so he is experi-    your parents and ministers and school                 Your head must be protected by
enced and very crafty. And because         teachers as they teach you the truth        the very best "hard-hat" available,
you can't see him even as you fight        about God? Knowing God will give            the hope of salvation. The helmet is
him, he is exceedingly dangerous. In       you strength when the enemy attacks         also the most ornamental part of your
addition, he has a huge army of fallen     you.                                        armor. You are adorned with God's
angels, all invisible, too, who fight                                                  salvation and protected by it. You can
fiercely any time and anywhere at his      +       And having on the breastplate       hold up your head with confidence
command.                                   of righteousness.                           and joy knowing that Jesus Christ has
      This great enemy is Satan. Do                In fighting Satan you must cover    died for you. Satan will never crush
you remember how he started the            yourbodyfromtheneckto the thighs,           your head, just as he was not able to
war with God's people in the Garden        front and back, with an armor of right-     crush Christ's head, because you are
of Eden? Can you recall how Satan          eousness. This righteousness is the         fitted with the royal helmet of salva-
vexed Job, taking away all his wealth,     obedience and suffering of your Sav-        tion.
his children, and finally even his         ior, Jesus Christ. It comes to you
health? Surely you know how Satan          from God by faith. When Jesus is            +         And the sword of the Spirit,
tried to kill the baby Jesus when Herod    your righteousness, you have a sure         which is the word of God.
sent his troops into Bethlehem to kill     defense against all the thrusts of Sa-                So far, all your armor parts lhave
all the young children two years old       tan. He won't even be able to stab          been provided by God to defend
and younger. Do you remember how           you in the back.                            yourself and resist the attacks of Sa-
he even tempted Jesus three times in                                                   tan. Now, your commander, Jesus
the wilderness? And Satan was at the       +       And your feet shod with the         Christ, gives the order to use a:n of-
cross, too, trying to prevent Jesus        preparation of the gospel of peace.         fensive weapon-something to fight
from dying for the sins of His people.             Young Christian soldiers, you       with. You are instructed to use a
He reared up his ugly head to try to       must have boots for this battle, good       sword to fight Satan and his hosts.
devour Jesus once and for all, but         sturdy combat boots. Have you ever
Jesus crushed his head. Neverthe-          seen a real soldier's boots? Oh, how        The Word of God is the
less, until Jesus returns once again,      he cares for his boots. He painstak-
Satan and his army are out to wound        ingly works soft oils and creams into       great dragon-slayer.
you - to make you sin, and even to         every crevice of the leather. He spit-
killyou- to drag you down into hell        polishes those boots. For they not          You must go on the attack and thrust
with them, if that were possible.          only protect his feet and legs from         through your enemy. Some of you
     Because you have such a clever        injuries, but those boots often mean        children have read stories about  Ex-
enemy to fight against, God knows          his swift getaway over rugged and           calibur, the wonderful sword of King
that you need superhuman strength          rocky ground. So, your feet, young          Arthur. When he was just a little boy

308 I Standard Bearer/April 1,199l


called "Wart," Arthur pulled the           ing and mortally wounded. He never                  This is the armor and weapon
sword out of the stone and ever after      could stand up to the Word of God              which every Christian soldier calrries
used it to slay his enemies. It was a      and he never will be able to. That             to war with him. Can you remember
magical sword. The sword which             powerful Word of God, the Bible, is            each of them? But you must also
Godgivesyouisnotamagicalsword,             sharper than any earthly two-edged             have courage and strength fo:r the
but a powerful sword. It is the very       sword. Boys and girls, do you al-              battle, so the Apostle Paul tells you,
Word of God which the Spirit gives.        ready make time to read the Bible? Do          and me, to fight by prayer. Call upon
No one can stand up to this sword          you listen carefully as it is explained        God as your most important battle
and defy it. Not even Satan. When          and preached to you? Are you trying            exercise. Prayer will make you strong.
you wield this sword, even though as       more and more to understand God's              Prayer will make you brave.
young children you wield it unstead-       Word? The Word of God is the great                  Pray always! 0
ily, the great enemy Satan lies bleed-     dragon-slayer.

                                           Book Reviews
                                                                                          Sources of Secession, by Gerrit J.
Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament              The entry, "Molech," can serve            tenzythoff. Grand Rapids:  Eerd-
Proper Names, by Alfred Jones. Grand       as an example:                                 mans, 1987. 189 pages, paper, $12.95.
Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1990.       MOLECH, . . . (pronounced) Molekh            [Reviewed by the Editor.]
pages viii-382, paper, $16.95. [Re-          . . . and  Moloch. "King" . . . .
viewed by the Editor.]                       The national idol-god of the  Am-
                                             monites, to which they offered their              Books in English on the history
                                                                                          of the Reformed church in The Neth-
     You are reading the Old Testa-          children in the fire . . . . It is diffi-
                                             cult to say at what time the Israelites      erlands between the Synod of Dordt
ment Scriptures for family devotions         were first addicted to this idolatrous       and the Secession of 1834 are few.
or in preparation for a Bible study          worship; but, from what St. Stephen          This  Eerdmans paperback is one.
class and come across the name,              says, Acts 7~43,  about the worship of       Where has it been hiding since its
Molech. You wonder what the name             Moloch and of Chiun, we may con-             publication in 1987?  It is a thorough,
means, how it is pronounced, what            jecture that it commenced before their       but succinct, account of the devdop-
the idol was, and in what other pas-         leaving Egypt; Chiun being the dog-          ments in the Netherlands Reformed
sages the word appears.                      star reverenced in Egypt, because his        Church that led to the Secession
     Jones'Dictiona y is intended to         heliacal rising marked the regular           (Afscheidiq) of 1834.
answer these questions for all stu-          commencement of the rising of the                 Emphasis rightly falls on the doc-
dents of the Bible, advanced and             Nile. There canbe  no doubt that they        trinal, ecclesiastical, and church po-
beginners. It is a dictionary of the         were prone to it in the wilderness;
                                             but Solomon made it a national sin,          litical struggles within the church.
proper names in the Old Testament,           by erecting to Moloch high places on         Several features stand out, especially
places as well as persons. There are         the mount of Olives. This idol was of        for those who care about the corrupt-
3,600 entries in all.                        immense size, was of brass gilt, with        ing of the Reformed faith in the Re-
     The names are arranged in Eng-          the human form but with the head of          formed churches today. Rejectilon of
lish alphabetical order. The English         an ox. This monster of a deity was           the doctrines confessed in the Can-
name is given first; next, the Hebrew        also hollow, and heated from below,          ons of Dordt was basic to the depar-
word, with the correct pronunciation         and the children tobe sacrificed were        ture of the Dutch church. A crucial
in English letters; then, the meaning        to be cast into its arms, which were         factor after 1816 was the permission
of the name according to the Hebrew;         outstretched with a very consider-           of officebearers' signing the Forlmula
and finally the occurrences of the name      able declination toward the earth; so        of Subscription (to the Reformed. con-
in the Old Testament.                        that the "children rolled and fell. . .
                                             into a gulf of fire . . . drums . . .        fessions) with the understanding that
     In view of the great importance         were beaten to prevent the groans            they agreed with the creeds "insofar
of names in the Old Testament, this          and cries of children sacrificed from        as" the creeds were in harmony with
dictionary is very helpful for the           being heard."                                the Bible, rather than "because" the
understanding of the Bible. Its use-            This is only a partial quotation.         creeds were biblical. In the early 19th
fulness is enhanced by the fact that       The preacher will appreciate the               century, theological modernism, ex-
often the explanation of the name          Hebrew that follows the English name           alting reason above Scripture, rav-
includes explanation of passages in        in every instance. fJ                          aged the church in The Netherlands.
which the name or a derivative ap-                                                        The "Groninger School" was the chief
pears.                                                                                    source. Long before this, false b:roth-

                                                                                                 April 1,1991/ Standard Bearer1  309


ers and weak sisters promoted the            ernment all rule in, or influence upon,     cism becomes obvious too in Bruce's
cause of the unbelief called modem-          her life and labor. The sole duty of        questions: What text of Scripture is
ism by their shrill advocacy of fl toler-    the state toward the church is the          canonical? Which sources used by
ance." Always, some react to the             physical protection of her public meet-     the authors are canonical? Thus, his
apostasy of the instituted church by         ings. When the church asks or ac-           determination of the canon of Scrip-
having recourse to the "conventical"         cepts more from the state than this,        ture becomes very subjective. By
- the little, pure church inside the         she brings the Trojan horse into the        "subjective" I mean that Bruce takes
large, unholy church. Not only is this       holy city. 0                                the position that the church u.ltim&ely
quite un-churchly behavior un-Re-                                                        decides the Canon. This is not true.
formed, but the history recorded in          The Canon of Scripture, by F.F. Bruce;      Scripture itself decides the Canon,
Sources of Secession proves it also to       Intervarsity Press, 1988.  349pp.,          and the church recognizes what Scrip-
be a failure.                                hardcover, $19.95. [Reviewed by Prof.       ture says. Our Belgic Confession
      There are incisive descriptions        Herman Hanko.]                              discusses this very issue in Article V,
of the main theologians, winds of                                                        which discusses what can be called
doctrine, ecclesiastical maneuverings,            F.F. Bruce, for many years Ry-         the grounds for determining the can-
and controversies. Among them are            lands Professor of Biblical Criticism       onicity of Scripture: "We receive all
Coccejus and Voetius; DeLabadie;             and Exegesis at the University of           these books, and these only, as holy
hymns versus psalms; and the Dutch           Manchester in England, was a pro-           and canonical, for the regulation,
l&veil, associated with Bilderdijk and       lific author and well-known Bible           foundation, and confirmation of our
DaCosta.  For the first time, I under-       scholar especially in the field of New      faith; believing without any doubt,
stand the ReveiZ. To know it, how-           Testament studies. He has produced          all things contained in them, not so
ever, is by no means to appreciate it.       an important book on the canon of           much because the church receives
      Deliverance to Gods remnant            Scripture which ought to be read not        and approves them as such, but more
came through Hendrik DeCock of               only by every minister, but also by         especially because the Holy Ghost wit-
Ulrum. Thank God for DeCock! The             everyone interested in this question.       nesseth in our hearts, that they arefrom
heart of his reformation (as it has          While it is scholarly and shows a           God, whereof they carry the evidence in
been, will be, and must be the heart of      wide range of learning, it is also writ-    themselves. For the very blind are able
every genuine reformation) was the           ten in a clear and easily understand-       to perceive that the things foretold in
conviction that the Three Forms of           able way.                                   them are fuhilhng" (emphasis is ours).
Unity are binding. DeCock restored                The greater part of the book is              In an interesting and conclud-
to the Reformed church the gospel of         devoted to a discussion of the history      ing chapter, Bruce discusses the pri-
the five heads of doctrine of the Canons     of development of the canon of Scrip-       mary and plenary meaning of Scrip-
ofDordt.  With this went the personal        ture, first concerning the Old Testa-       ture, the former referring to Scrip-
courage of the man. As tenzythoff            ment, then the New. That is, the book       ture's meaning in its historical set-
writes, "In view of the opposition he        is concerned chiefly with the long          ting, the latter referring to the miean-
faced, it is to Deco&s  credit that he       history of the church's decisions (and      ing of the interpreters over the centu-
went about his task with an utter lack       the opinions of the church fathers)         ries. For example, Bruce affirms, in
of fear" (p. 118). As is always the          with respect to the question of what        putting this whole question in the
case, "many orthodox believers re-           books properly belong to the Scrip-         context of literary-historical criticism,
fused to follow him" (p. 127). The           tures and what books do not. In this        thattheprimarymeaningoftheevan-
children of Ephraim, being armed,            connection, much attention is paid to       gelists may be different from Jesus'
and carrying bows, turned back in            the apocryphalbooks. Thus, thebook          primary meaning in His sermons,
the day of battle.                           is chiefly valuable for its historical      which sermons the evangelists report.
      tenzythoff  does justice to the        material.                                         The book has a great deal of
role of the state in the decline of the           What is disconcerting about the        value because of its abundancle  of
Dutch church. He demonstrates that           bookis  Bruce's obvious commitment          historical material, but must be read
the state's sanctioning of Dordt's con-      to higher criticism. He relies heavily      carefully and in full awareness of what
demnation of the Arminians, obtained         on source criticism in his explanation      I consider to be a fatal flaw. 0
by the Synod of Dordt's granting "con-       of the Scriptures (pp. l23,137,285ff.,
siderable weight in ecclesiastical mat-      etc.), even to the point where he takes     I want a sober mind,
ters" to the state, was a "Pyrrhic vic-      the position that the apostles differed           A self-renouncing will,
tory, for the magistrates took advan-        among each other in their views on          That tramples down and casts behind
tage of their influential position" (p.      some matters (p. 172), and adopts the            The baits of pleasing ill;
16). The history of the Reformed             position that the Holy Spirit speaks in     A spirit still prepared,
church in The Netherlands between            other ways than the Holy Scriptures               And armed with jealous care,
1618 and 1834 is proof that the true         (p. 281).                                   Forever standing on its guard,
                                                                                               And watching unto prayer.
church must refuse to the civil gov-              This commitment to higher criti-                  July  1,1933,   Standard Bearer
310 / Standard Bearer/April  1,1991


                                           News From
Mr. Benjamin Wigger                        .Our Churches
Ministerial Calls                          wrote his congregationin Grandville,         was offered the same dedication prayer
      Rev. Steve Key received the call     MI concerning some of the activities         which was offered backin  1964when
from the Hudsonville, MI PRC to            in Ballymena. The first Sunday Rev.          Lynden dedicated their first church
serve as missionary to the saints in       Kortering was there was also the first       building.
Lame, Northern Ireland.                    Sunday the Covenant Reformed Fel-                 And, finally, we close this issue
Evangelism Activities                      lowship met in Ballymena, having             on a sad note. Kyle Flikkema, 4-year-
      A few months ago we noted that       decided to relocate from Larne. It is        old son of Rev. and Mrs. R. Flikkema
a group of five families in Boise, ID      more centrally located, alarger- sized       of our Covenant PRC of Wyckoff, NJ,
requested and received a visit from        city, and it has a good number of            died on February 26. Funeral serv-
Rev. C. Terpstra and Elder Ed Stouwie,     people of Presbyterian and Reformed          ices were held Saturday, March 2, at
Sr. of our South Holland, IL PRC.          background who are expressing in-            the First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI.
Due to the continued interest of this      terest in our work. It seems that there      We offer our heart-felt sympathy to
group, the consistory of Loveland,         is enough spiritual life here that public    Rev. Richard and Marcia Flikkema
CO PRC has approved the request of         articles and lectures can generate           and their three daughters, Tammy,
the council of South Holland to re-        response.                                    Tricia, and Heidi. May they be com-
lease their pastor, Rev. R. Cammenga,      Congregational Highlights                    forted with the words of Romans 14%
tolabortherefortwoweeksinMarch.                 On Friday, February 22, the             "For whether we live, we live unto
Rev. Cammenga will preach in Boise         congregation of Lynden, WA PRC               the Lord; and whether we die, we die
on Sunday, March 10 and 17. This           met to dedicate their new church             unto the Lord: whether we live there-
will be in place of a scheduled classi-    sanctuary. (A short history, includ-         fore, or die, we are the Lord's"
cal appointment.                           ing pictures, provided by Mr. Jim
Mission Activities                         denHartog  of our Lynden congrega-
      A few issues back we also made       tion, follows the "News.") An open                 New Church Building:
mention of the plans for work in           house was held from 1 to 4 PM. Invi-                  Lynden (WA) PRC
Jamaica until a resident missionary is     tations were sent to their four closest
found for the field. Rev. Joostens, in     sister-churches, to the American Re-              On February 22,199l our new
a recent issue of  Across the Aisle,       formed Church, and to their former           church sanctuary was dedicated under
writes about his and Elder Ed Grit-        pastors. An hour of fellowship fol-          the theme "The Pillar and Ground of
ters' visit to the island in January on    lowed the program.                           the Truth." This was the culmination
behalf of our churches. He says in              Evidently Sunday, February 17,          of approximately a four-year build-
part, "Ed and I were in for a pleasant     was the first time that Lynden, under        ing and fund-raising program, which
and challenging experience. From 14        the blessing of God, met in their house      was brought about by the need for a
to 18 men put in their presence for the    of God. To mark that occasion, there         larger sanctuary in which to worship.
continuation of the four-week ses-
sions. Although there were varying
abilities, one and all availed them-
selves of the opportunity to learn and
grow in the truth. We can thank the
Lord that He continues to open so
great a door to preach the Gospel."
You may also like to know that Elder
Gritters preserved a record of the
conference on video. It is possible
that this video may be available to
interested societies and individuals
at a later date.
     While on classical appointment
to Northern Ireland, Rev. Kortering

                                                                                               April 1,1991 I Standard Bearer/ 311


   THE
STANDARD                                                                                                     SECOND CLASS
  BHfU%                                                                                                      Postage Paid  at
                                                                                                             Grand Rapids, Michigan

 l?O. Box 6OfA
 Grand Rapids, MI 49506



     Webeganourbuildingprogram
by looking at the various options
available to us. Our options were:  1.
To purchase an existing church build-
ing in Lynden  that was  for sale. 2.
Selling our current property and
purchasing new property to build on.
3. Using our current property on which
to build. As these various ideas were
studied, discussed, and voted on, we
felt our best choice was to remain on
our current site, remove our old church
building, and construct a new and           smoothly and rapidly during the late
larger sanctuary.                           summer and early fall. An extremely                      ATTENTION STUDENTS!
     Retaining the services of a local      wet November and cold windy De-                    The Protestant Reformed Scholarship
architect designer, we began work-          cember and January delayed the              Committee is taking applications for scholarships
ing on the concept of a building plan       completion somewhat, but on Febru-          to be awarded to future Protestant Reformed min-
that would be affordable and meet           ary 17,1991 we were able to worship         isters and teachers for the 1991-1992  school year.
our present and future needs as a           in our new sanctuary for the first          Each applicant must also submit an essay of at
congregation. Once this step was            time.                                       least three hundred words, answering this ques-
completed, actual building plans were                Our new church is a very tradi-    tion: "In the light of Jeremiah 613-17, with all the
drawn up, approved by the congre-           tional two-story building featuring a       false prophets around us saying, `peace, peace
                                                                                        when there is no peace,' how should the old paths
gation, and a cost assessment made.         partial daylight basement. The exte-        spoken of here be preached and taught?" For an
     Approximately a year was then          rior consists of wood siding with brick     application, contact:
spent on fund-raising and obtaining         wainscoting, with the brick accenting                           Jim Holstege
the needed financing in a manner            the entire north face. The entrance                          1459 Spaulding SE.
that could be afforded by the congre-       features a large pillar-supported                        Grand Rapids, Ml 49546
gation. In the early spring of 1990 the     portico with a concrete apron. The          The application, accompanied by the essay, must
project was put out for bids.               upper level of the interior consists of     be returned by June 1,199l.
     The contract was awarded to a          a 400-seat  sanctuary finished with
local construction company, and, after      sheet rock and oak trim with                                         NOTICE!
spending a few months obtaining the         large,arched,  tinted windows. Also                Southwest Protestant Reformed Church is
needed permits and approval, we             included is a foyer, bathrooms, stor-       sponsoring a lecture on April 18 at the Southwest
started construction in August of 1990.     age room, and a library. The base-          Protestant Reformed Church. Rev. Kamps will
     During the construction of our                                                     speak on the topic "The Purpose of Sacred Scrip-
                                            ment features alarge gathering room,        ture." The lecture begins at 8:00 PM.
new church, it was necessary to re-         a nursery, kitchen, bathrooms, and a
move our old church building and            consistory room. The basement has a                          TEACHER NEEDED!!
find another location for worship and       suspended ceiling, and the church is               Hope Christian School of Redlands  is in
for Bible studies and catechism classes.    carpeted throughout with tile or vi-        needofateacherforthecombinedfirstandsecond
For six months we met for worship at        nyl in some areas.                          grades for the 1991-1992 school year. Interested
the American Reformed Church (the                    As we begin our congregational     parties, please contact Mr. Ed Karsemeyer at the
home church of the contractors of our       life in our new sanctuary, our hearts       school, (714) 793-4584, or Mr. Bill Feenstra, (714)
new building). Our Sunday worship           are overwhelmed with thankfulness           793-3597.
services were held at 11:30 AM and          : to our faithful covenant God, and our
7:3O,PM to accommodate four serv-           prayer is that we may continue by                                NOTICE!!!
ices per Sunday. Our weekly meet-           His grace to glorify Him with our                  Classis East will meet in regular session on
ings were held at our own Covenant          worshipandproclaimHistruthfaith-            Wednesday, MayB, 1991 attheHollandProtestant
Christian School.                                                                       Reformed Church. Material to be treated at this
                                            fully in the years to come. Q               session must be in the hands of the Stated Clerk by
      The construction progressed                                                       April 9,199l.

312 I Standard Bearer/April  1,199l


