A Reformed
Semi-Monthly
Magazine




                   . ..we must be reminded that
                 our love of and .kyalty to' an
                institution of the church on earth
                 may.not transcend our love of
                 and loyalty. to  God's. Holy
                ,Word .`. . 1 We, with the reformer
                 Martin Luther, are captiv&to the
                 infallible Word  of:Gqd.  `I
                                    -_

                  See "The Purpose bf Sacred Scripture"
                                          - page 368 -

  Vol. 67,No.=
  May X,1991


CONTENTS                                                                                                                                         May 15, 1991

Meditation -- Rev. Jason L. Kortering
            PENTECOST FULLY COME . . . . . . ..*.***....*........................*.*.*............ 363
Editorial -- Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                    ISSN 0362-4692
            AN "ELECTION THEOLOGY" OF COVENANT (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365                                                                                                  Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Publlshed by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Second Class Postage Paid at Grand Rapids, Mlchlgan.
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..............*......................................................                                                     367          Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                        P.O. Box 6064, Grand Raplds,  MI 49516.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine -- Rev. Marvin Kamps                                                                                                                                                        EDITORIAL COMMfllEE
            THE PURPOSE OF SACRED SCRIPTURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368                                                                                 Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Managlng Edltor: Mr. Don Doezema
In His Fear -- Rev. Arie denHatfog                                                                                                                                                                      DEPARTMENT EDfTORS
            RETURNING TO THE LORD . . . . . . . . . . ..*.**...............................*.*........371                                                                                               Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, fqev. Arks
                                                                                                                                                                                                        denHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry Gritters,  Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Carl Haak,  Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Marvin
The Day of Shadows -- Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                                                                                                 Kamps, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jason Korterlng, Rev. Dale
            JOYFUL PRINCES IN GOD'S KINGDOM *.**.............................*..,.. 373                                                                                                                 Kulper, Mr. James Lantlng, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs.
                                                                                                                                                                                                        MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev. Charles
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Terpstra, Rev. GiseVanBaren,  Rev. RonaldVanOverloop,  Mr.
A Word Fitly Spoken -- Rev. Dale  H, Kuiper                                                                                                                                                             Benjamin Wlgger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
            SCANDAL'.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..............~...............................................~...... 375                                                                           EDlTORtAL  OFFICE           CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                        The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wlgger
                                                                                                                                                                                                        4949 lvanrest                6597 40th Ave.
Go Ye Into All the World -- Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop                                                                                                                                                  Grandville, MI 49416         Hudsonvllle, MI 49426
                                                                                                                                                                                                        BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
            Mission Principles  (V):                                                                                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer         The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Don Doezema                  c/o Protestant Reformed
            THE EXECUTOR ..*...................................*.......................****...........
                                                                                                                                                                                           376          P.O. Box 6064                   Church
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Grand Raolds. MI             B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                                                          4 9 6 1 6 '               66 Fraser St.
A Cloud of Witnesses -- Prof. Herman C, Hanko                                                                                                                                                           PH: (616) 2433712           Walnulomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                                                              (616) 531-1490
            ANSELM OF CANTERBURY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..***..............*...... 379                                                                         FAX:  (616) 631-3033

                                                                                                                                                                                                        EDITORIAL POUCY
Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381    Every editor Is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                                                                                                        articles.  Contributions of general Interestfrom our readers and
                                                                                                                                                                                                        questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
News from Our Churches -- Mr. Senjamin Wgger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383                                                                                Contributions will  be Ilmlted  to approximately 366 words and
                                                                                                                                                                                                        mustbeneatlywrittenortypewrltten,andmustbesigned.          Copy
                                                                                                                                                                                                        deadllnss  are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
In this Issue . . .                                                                                                                                                                                     communlcatlons  relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                                                                                                                        edltorlal off&r.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        REPRINT PDUCY
            In the October 1 issue (the first of the volume year) Prof. Engelsma                                                                                                                        Permission is herebygrantedforthe reprlntlngofartlcleslnour
informed our readers that Rev. Kamps and Rev. Terpstra would cooperate with                                                                                                                             magazlnebyotherpubllcatlons,provkledz  a)thatsuchreprlnted
                                                                                                                                                                                                        articles are reproduced In full: b) that proper acknowledgment
Rev. Woudenberg in writing for the rubric "Taking Heed to the Doctrine." The                                                                                                                            Is made; c) that a copy of the perlodical In which such reprint
idea was that Rev. Woudenberg would continue his study of the biblical                                                                                                                                  appears Is sent to our edltorlal office.
teaching on the call of the gospel, and that Revs. Kamps and Terpstra would                                                                                                                             SUBSCRlPTfON PDLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Subscrlptlon price: $12.96 per year In the U.S., $15.00
alternate in their dealing, first with the doctrine of Scripture, and then with the                                                                                                                     elsewhere. Unless a deflnlte request for dlscontlnuance Is
traditional six loci of Reformed theology. Accordingly, Rev. Kamps has since                                                                                                                            received, It Is assumed that ths subscrlber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                                                        subscrlptlontocontlnue,andhewlllbebllledforrenewal.        lfyou
then provided eight articles on Scripture, interspersed with two by Rev.                                                                                                                                haveachangeofaddress,pleasenotlfytheBuslnessOfffceas
Woudenberg, who, incidentally, has been in Tasmania for the past four months.                                                                                                                           early as posslble In order to avold the lnwnvenlencs of
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Interrupted dellvery. Include your Zip or Postal Cods.
And Rev. Terpstra, who has long ago written his first article, is patiently waiting
his turn.                                                                                                                                                                                               ADVERTfSlNG POLfCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                        The StandardSaarardoes  not accept commercial advertlslng
            With his eight articles, Rev. Kamps finished what he wanted to say about                                                                                                                    of any klnd. Announcements of church and school events,
the doctrine of Scripture. But it happens that on April 18 he delivered a lecture,                                                                                                                      annkersarles,  obltuarles, and sympathy resolutlons will  be
                                                                                                                                                                                                        placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to the f3uslness
in Southwest Protestant Reformed Church, on "The Purpose of Sacred Scrip-                                                                                                                               Office  and should be accompanied bythe$3.00fse. Deadllne
ture." It seemed to us that his 93 series could well be extended to include the                                                                                                                         for announcements Is the 10th and the 25th of the month,
                                                                                                                                                                                                        previous to publlcatlon on the 1st or the 15th respectively.
printing of that lecture, in two installments. And Rev. Kamps graciously                                                                                                                                q   DUND VOLUMES
obliged by providing us with his manuscript. So, if things go according to plan,                                                                                                                        The Buslness Office will  accept standlng orders for bound
we should see the first of Rev. Teqktra's  articles on the doctrine of God, the first                                                                                                                   copies ofthecurrentvolume. Suchorders arefllled  asscon  as
                                                                                                                                                                                                        posslble after completion of a volume year.
locus of dogmatics, in the July 1 issue.                                                                                                                                                                16mm  mlcrofllm, 35mm mlcrofllm  and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                        D.D.            article copies are avallsble through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                        Internatlonal.

362 /Standard Bearer I May 15,199l


                                               Pentecost Fully
Meditation                                     Come
Rev. Jason Kortering



        "And when the  day of Pentecost        Acts 25, we read that there were                 Looking at it from the chmno-
was fully come, they were all with one         dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout         logical perspective, it is wonderful
accord in one place.                           menoutof everynationunderheaven.            how Jehovah Godbuiltinto the sched-
        And suddenly there came a sound        According to the law of Moses, we           ule of the feasts the prominence oaf the
from heaven as of a rushingmighty wind,        read, "Three times in the year all thy      number seven. The number seven is
and itfilled all the house where they were     males shall appear before the Lord          the result of adding four (represent-
sitting.                                       God" (Exodus 23:17). These three            ing man on the earth, the four direc-
        And there appeared unto them clo-      times were connected with the Jewish        tions of the compass) to three (repre-
ven tongues like as offire, and it sat upon    calendar of Feasts: the Feast of Pass-      senting the triune God); or by adlding
each of them.                                  over (also calledFeast of Unleavened        six (the work-week, or the number of
        And they were all filled with the      Bread), the Feast of First-fruits (also     man) to one (the only true God) which
Holy Ghost, and began to speak with            called Feast of Weeks), and the Feast       results in seven - God and man are
other tongues as the Spirit gave them          of Tabernacles (also called Feast of        in friendship, enjoying rest with `each
utterance.                                     Ingathering). The Feast of Passover         other. It is the number of covenant
                                Acts 2:1-4     was in the spring of the year, the Feast    friendship with God. Hence the sev-
                                               of First-fruits was 50 days later, dur-     enth day was the Sabbath rest. In all
        There was a roaring sound of           ing the early harvest, and the Feast of     three of the great feasts, the celebra-
wind, but not a leaf stirred.                  Tabernacles was just before winter,         tion endedin  the Sabbath rest. A feast
        Fire was on the heads of the           when the harvest was completed. It          of weeks separated the Passover from
apostles, but not a hair was singed.           was in connection with the obser-           the First-fruits. The seventh month
        Theyspokeinforeignlanguages            vance of the Feast of Weeks or First-       was filled with special feasts: Trum-
which they had never learned.                  fruits, called Pentecost in the New         pets, Great Day of Atonement, and
        Strange things took place in           Testament times, that these devout          Tabernacles. The seventh year was
Jerusalem.                                     Jews had come to Jerusalem, andwhile        the Sabbatical year.
        The Holy Spirit had come! This         they were there the Holy Spirit tias             There was more than the num-
was the real Pentecost.                        given to the church.                        ber seven in the old covenant. Cir-
        That is not to say that the church          We read, when the day of Pente-        cumcision was on the eighth day, not
of the Old Testament did not have a            cost was fully come!                        the seventh. First-fruits was on the
Pentecost. They did. The Feast of                   We caninterpret this expression        fiftieth day after Passover, not just
Weeks, also called the Feast of the            in two ways. We can say that it refers      forty-nine.Besides, the Sabbatical year
First-fruits, was the Pentecost of the         to the temporal order-that the Old          was followed by the Year of Jubilee,
old covenant. It was celebrated 50             Testament Feast of Pentecost had            the fiftieth year. Even these numbers
days after the Passover, after a week          come and gone, and it was now the           indicated that somethingwas coming
of weeks had gone by, that is, 49 days.        day following when the Holy Spirit          that was greater, which would lift
On the next day, the fiftieth day, the         was given the church. This interpre-        them- to a higher plane of spiritual
Jews celebrated this feast.                    tation is entirely possible and fits the    reality and joy. Hence, the Passover
        It is interesting to notice that in    order of events: the day had fully          wasimmediatelyfollowedby the cru-
                                               come. We could also give it a spiritual     cifixion, the Sabbath was followed by
                                               interpretation. The Pentecost of the        the resurrection day of the Lord, the
                                               old covenant had now reached its            Feast of First-fruits was followed by
                                               fullness in the new covenant, the ful-      the real Pentecost, the presence of the
                                               fillment of its typical significance.       Holy Spirit.
Rev. K&fering is pastor of the Protestant      These two ideas do not conflict, but             On God's calendar, "fullycome"
Reformed Church of Giandville,  Michi-         complement each other, and can cer:         brought the old Pentecost into the
gan.                                           tainly apply to this passage.               new, the reality.

                                                                                                  May 15,1991 I Standard Bearer I363


     The same can be said for the            lee in the Coming of Jesus upon the         cension into heaven. When Jesus ap-
meaning itself. God had a fuller spiri-      clouds of heaven& take unto Himself        peared before the tribunal of God's
tual blessing for His church than that       His exalted and perfected church to        justicein  heaven, He functioned as
which was given them in the Old              dwell with Him forever.                     our advocate and entered the legal
Testament Feast of First-fruits. Just as          Look at those signs and believe.      plea that God would give to Hirn the
we read that Jesus was born in the                About 120 disciples are gath-         Holy Spirit through whom He would
fullness of time (Gal. 4:4), so the full-    eredin an upper room. A tremendous          complete the gathering of His church.
ness of the Old Testament Feast was          noise is sounded throughout all            Thefirst-fruitswerealreadywithHim.
given now, with the presence of the          Jerusalem, the sound of a mighty,          He desired the Feast of Tabernacles to
Holy Spirit. The Feast of First-fruits       rushing wind which concentrates            be complete as well. The Father gave
was in the middle of the three great         upon that upper room. As this noise         to the exalted Jesus the Holy Spirit.
feasts. It was preceded by Passover          arouses the curiosity of the people        Yes, He was in the Old Testament
and followed by Tabernacles. Pass-           and they begin to follow the sound to       church through type and sign just as
over spoke to the people of their de-        the source, they behold before them        Jesus was. When Pentecost was fully
liverance through the covering of            120 excited people. Some are in the         come, Jesus furnished His beloved
blood. The covenant with God was             room, some in all likelihood are out in     church with the fullness, through
grounded in the coming work of the           the streets. Some men, others women,       whom the entire church would surely
Messiah, Jesus. His work on the cross        they all have this little fire glow on     be brought into the joy of the cov-
would be effective. The Feast of First-      their heads. As if that is not enough,      enant.
fruits (Pentecost) testified that God        they are speaking in languages which             The Holy Spirit of Jesus is able to
was gathering unto Himself His               many cannot understand, for they are        do this.
people. Just as the early barley har-        not of that country, while anyone                Three thousand souls were
vest, symbolized by the sheaves of           from any country under heaven can           added in one day.
grain waved before the presence of           come- to this place and hear them                The sound of the wind tells us of
the Lord, assured Israel that the har-       speakof the wonderfulworks of God.         His power to change. Nothing can
vest which began was the Lord's and               What a testimony of  FIRST-            stand before Him when He works
belonged to Him, so Israel as the            FRUITS! Real first-fruits.                  mysteriously in the hearts of His
people of God was His wonder-work                 Three thousand are added to the       people. The tongues of fireindicate to
and belonged to Him. This was fol-           church that very day.                       us that His workof  change is to purify
lowed by the Feast of Tabernacles or              The Lord added daily to the            the soul and burn away the dross of
Ingathering, which was at the conclu-        church such as should be saved!             sin and death. The foreign languages
sion of the harvest and consisted of              Hallelujah!                           tell us that He does this in an intelli-
loaves of bread brought before the                The explanation of this wonder-        gent way, by the communication of
Lord. This symbolized the hope of            ful event must be found in the Person      words, through the written Word,
Israel; the entire world would be            of the Holy Spirit.                        faithfully expounded by servants
brought unto Jehovah as a people                  This is HIS day.                      whom He calls to speak. The dis-
saved by the blood of the Messiah,                He is the third Person of the          ciples could understand what had
under which the people were pro-             Holy Trinity, not by inferiority or        happened (the cross and the crown)
tected from the angel of death and           rank; but in His Personal distinctive      for the first time, and they were able
reserved for Jehovah's pleasure. The         He proceeds from the Father and the        intelligently to communicate it to oth-
crucial connection between these two         Son. Within the Godhead itself, the         ers as the same Holy Spirit applied it
feasts was Pentecost. How could the          Father reaches to the Son in the Holy      to the hearts of "such as should be
Lamb effectively redeem His people,          Spirit, and the Son reaches to the         saved."
as promised to Abraham, to be the            Father in the Holy Spirit so that His            With His presence, we have the
Father of many nations? How could            Holy Breath fuses the Trinity into a       guarantee that the work of salvation
Israel be the firstborn among the na-        covenant of friendship which defies        is in good Hands.
tions, which ultimately would lead to        our fondest imagination.                         All the attendants at the Feast of
the gathering of the people of God                He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ.     Tabernacles will be there.
from all the world?                          When Jesus completed His work of                 Heaven will be complete. Glory
     The day of Pentecost was fully          atonement as the Messiah, when the         to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!
come.                                        Passover Lamb shed His blood on the                                               cl
     The reality had come, the Holy          beams of the cross, God received that
Spirit of the exalted Christ was now         work and rewarded His Faithful Son.
given to His church on earth.                He assured Him already at the cross
     His presence guarantees the ful-        that His suffering and death were
fillment of the Feast of Tabernacles         acceptable in His sight. He confirmed
(Ingathering) as well, the great  Jubi-      all this with His resurrection and as-

364 /Standard Bearer I May 15,199l


                                            An "Election
                                            Theology" of
Editorial                                   Covenant (4)

     Canadian Reformed ("Liber-                  At the crucial point in the de-              The entire weight of  th'e Re-
ated") theologian J. DeJong criticized      bate, the "Liberated;' always loudly         formed tradition is dead against this
the covenant doctrine of the Protes-        shout, "presupposed regeneration."           notionof the "Liberated." John Calvin
tant Reformed Churches in his letter        This then is the end of the discussion.      teaches the regeneration in infancy of ,
in the March 15, 1991 issue of the          With this, the PRC are vanquished.           the elect children of believing parents
Stan&.& Bearer. .Dr. DeJong found           By a loud shout, the "Liberated" cov-        in the Institutes, 4.16.17-32 (the quo-
fault with the Protestant Reformed          enant view has triumphed. This may           tations that follow are taken from the
teaching on several counts:                 satisfy the "Liberated," but it does         translation of Ford Lewis Battles). He
     1) It maintains presupposed re-        not satisfy those who insist that truth      is contending with the anabaptists
generation.                                 be established, not by loud shouts,          who argue against infant baptism on
     2) It makes election the control-      but by Scripture and the Reformed            the ground that "regeneration . . .
ling ground of the covenant.                confessions.                                 cannot take place in earliest infancy."
     3)Itdistinguishesbetweenmem-                The "Liberated" charge that the         The anabaptists "conclude that chil-
bership in the covenant and a belong-       covenant conception of the PRC               dren are to be considered solely as
ing only to the sphere of the covenant.     amounts to presupposed regenera-             children of Adam until they reach an
     I need say little here about the       tion masks the fact that the "Liber-         appropriate age for the secondbirth."
"Liberated" charge that the view of         ated" hold all their infants and little            "But," responds Calvin, "God's
the PRC constitutes presupposed re-         children for unregenerated. The "Lib-        truth everywhere opposes  ail these
generation. The "Liberated" choose          erated" are as firmly committed to           arguments." Jesus' command, "Suf-
to ignore the emphatic denial by the        "presupposed unregeneration" as are          fer little children . . . to come unt'o me"
PRC that they hold this error. Nor do       the Netherlands Reformed and the             (Matt.  19:14),  shows that Jesus rnakes
they pay any attention to the careful       Baptists. For the fulfillment of the         the  little children partakers of Him-
demonstration by PR writers that the        covenant promise;namely, regenera-           self, "to quicken them." To the lobjec-
doctrine of the PRC differs from that       tion and sanctification by the Spirit, is    tion that little children cannot be re-
of presupposed regeneration. The            conditioned by the child's faith. Re-        generated since they do not yet have
reader is referred to chapters 3 and 4      generation, according to the "Liber-         any knowledge, Calvin replies:
of Herman Hoeksema's Believersand           ated," is mediate, i.e., by means of the       God's work, though beyond our un-
Their Seed (Grand Rapids: RFPA,             preaching of the gospel. Regenera-             derstanding, is still not annulled.
1971) and to my own editorial in the        tion is the covenant child's own activ-        Now it is perfectly clear that  those
January 151991  issue of the SB.            ity. It is something that he must do.          infants who are to be saved (as slome
     The statement in my series on          And, of course, the infant child can-          are surely saved from that early age)
the covenant that elicits from Dr.          not hear the preaching; cannot fulfill         are previously regenerated by the
                                                                                           Lord. For if they bear with them an
DeJong the question, "What is this          the condition; and cannot be active in         inborn corruption from tlheir
but presumptive regeneration?," does        giving himself the birth from above.           mother's womb, they must be
not refer to regeneration, much less to     All children of godly parents, there-          cleansed of it before they can be ad-
regeneration as the basis of baptism.       fore, are unregenerated, and must be           mittedintoGod'sKingdom,fornoth-
Rather, it asserts that the approach of     viewed as unregenerated, until they            ing polluted or defiled may enter
godly parents in the rearing of their       prove otherwise (and become other-             there (Rev. 21:27).
children must be determined by elec-        wise!) by fulfilling the condition of             In support of the regeneration of
tion: "Election determines the ap-          faith. (Cf. G. Van Dooren,. . . and we       infants, Calvin appeals to the pr~omise
proach." If DeJong wants to analyze         escaped, Burlington, Ontario, 1986,          of the angel to Zacharias that John the
this teaching, he must not call it "pre-    pp. 130-134; also,  J. Kamphuis,  An         Baptist "shall be filled with the Holy
supposed regeneration," but rather          Everlasting Covenant, Launceston,            Ghost,evenfromhismother'swomb"
"believed election."                        Australia, 1985, pp. 74-89.)                 (Luke 1:15). "God provided a proof

                                                                                                May 15,199l  / Standard Bearer / 365


(of infant regeneration-DJE) in John              Calvinunderstands the promise           the case!) between Abraham Kuyper's
the Baptist, whom he sanctified in his       of the covenant to the infants of be-        doctrine of presupposed regenera-
mother's womb (Luke 1:15)-some-              lievers, and the baptism of those in-        tion and the covenant doctrine of the
thing he could do in others."                fants founded on this promise, to            "Liberated," the doctrine of presup-
     When the opponents of infant            mean a work of grace in the hearts of        posedregenerationis much to be pre-
regenerationraise the argument from          the infants in their infancy. This work      ferred. For presupposed regenera-
I Peter 1:23 that "Scripture recognizes      of grace, for Calvin, is regeneration. It    tion clearly and unequivocally as-
no regeneration except from incor-           is not true, therefore, that the doctrine    cribes the regeneration of the child to
ruptible seed, that is, from God's           of an immediate regeneration of in-          the sovereign grace of God alone, the
Word," Calvin responds:                      fants in the covenant is the invention       infant being as passive in his rebirth
  lnthistheywronglyinterpretl'eter's         of later Reformed "scholastics" such         as he is in his physical birth, rather
  statement, which has reference only        as Maccovius, as is the contention of        than to condition regeneration on the
  to believers who had been taught by        the "Liberated" theologian C. Vonk           faith of the child and thus to make
  the preaching of the gospel. We            (cf. his Is de tegenwoordigestrijd over      regeneration the act of the child him-
  indeed admit that to such persons
  the Word of the Lordis  the only seed      de wedergeboorte der kinderkens we1          self. Presupposed regeneration at
  of spiritualregeneration; but we deny      noodig?, i.e., Is the Present Struggle       least makes the covenant promise and
  the inference from this that infants       about the Regeneration  of  the Little       baptismreferto a savingworkof God
  cannot be regenerated by God's             Children indeed Necessary?). The             in thebaptizedinfants, asinfants, that
  power, which is as easy and ready to       doctrine was taught by Calvin.               unites them to Christ, washes away
  him as it is incomprehensible and               Both the Canons of Dordt (in I/         their sins, and gives them the
  wonderful to us.                           17) and the Westminster Confession           indwelling Spirit of their covenant
Calvin suggests that infants "receive        (in 10.3) teach the regeneration of the      Head. The "Liberated" conception,
now some part of that grace which in         elect children of believing parents who      in contrast, leaves all the children
a little while they shall enjoy to the       die in their infancy. Granted, the           spiritually dead, excluded from liv-
full," apart from the medium of              subject in both instances is the special     ingandsavingunion with Christ, and
preaching. "Infants are baptized into        case of children who die in infancy.         merely "legally" adopted as children
future repentance and faith, and even        But these  creedal statements make           of God (which adoption can be lost),
thoughthesehavenotyetbeenformed              plain, at the very least, that there is      until such time as they grow up and
in them, the seed of both lies hidden        nothing intrinsically un-Reformed            fulfill the condition of believing.
within them by the secret working of         and heretical about the teaching of an            And presupposed regeneration
the Spirit."                                 immediate regeneration of elect chil-        is not at a loss to explain the experi-
     "The age of infancy," says              dren of the covenant in their infancy.       ence of countless thousands of cov-
Calvin, "is not utterly averse to sanc-      Nor is it by any means unreasonable          enant children, namely, that they be-
tification," as the anabaptists (and         to appeal to these creedal declara-          lieve on Christ, repent of their sins,
"Liberated") suppose. For Christ             tions concerning infant regeneration         and love God in Jesus Christ from
"was sanctified from earliest infancy        in partial support of the teaching that,     their youngest childhood. This is a
in order that he might sanctify in           as a rule, God regenerates the elect         reality in their lives, as soon as they
himself his elect from every age with-       childrenof godlyparentsin the womb,          hear the Word, because they were
out distinction." He does' this by           in infancy, or in earliest childhood.        already born again. But how can a
"impart(ing)  that holiness to us," in-                                                   child believe on Christ as He is pre-
cluding the elect infants. In support                                                     sented in the Word, if that child has
of his contention that God provides to             . . . the covenant theo y              not been born again-if, indeed, that
infants the "immediate remedy" of                       that maintains                    child's regeneration depends upon
the beginning of "newness of spiri-           "presupposed unreg&eration"                 the child's believing?
tual life," Calvin appeals to I                                                                There is, however, an alterna-
Corinthians 794: "... else were your            conflicts with the Reformed               tive. The alternative is the covenant
children unclean; but now are they                         tradition.                     doctrine developed by the Holy Spirit
holy." This holiness of the children of                                                   within the Reformed tradition in the
believers, for Calvin, is not a mere                                                      PRC. This is the doctrine of the cov-
formal, outward setting apart of the              This is not to be taken as admis-       enant maligned as an "election theol-
children as members of the instituted        sion that our covenant view is, in fact,     ogy of covenant." This criticism of
church, but a real, living, inner, spiri-    that of presupposed regeneration. But        the covenant view of the PRC by the
tual holiness, by the indwelling of the      it is solid proof that the covenant          "Liberated" I will consider in the next,
Spirit in their hearts. "As Paul testi-      theory that maintains "presupposed           and final, installment of the present
fies, although those who are born of         unregeneration" conflicts with the           series on the covenant of grace. 0
believers may by nature be lost, they        Reformed tradition.                                                          7 DJE
are holy by supernatural grace."                  If it were a choice (which is not

366 /Standard Bearer I May 15,iWl


Letters

H       The Extent of the Atonement             titular redemption, he is comment-           the wrath of God against covenant
        I enjoy Prof. Hanko's articles on       ing on the very text to which you            breakers, I consider the main thrust of
the outstanding figures in the history          refer. He says: "Here a questionmay          this accusation as high praise flor our
of the Christian church.                        be raised, how have the sins of the          churches. Indeed we stand steadfast
        I have a question concerning the        whole worldbeenexpiated? Ipassby             in the tradition of our fathers at the
February 15 issue:                              the dotages of the fanatics, who un-         Synod of Dordt who likewise refused
     It is striking that Gotteschalk, in his    der this pretence  extend salvation to       to acknowledge faith as a condition of
     defense of his views, not only boldly      all the reprobate, and therefore to          salvation.
     and courageously defended double           Satanhimself. Such amonstrous thing                 There were five errors concern-
     predestination (election and repro-        deserves no refutation. They who
     bation), but also insisted that Christ                                                  ing a conditional view of election,
     died on the cross of Calvary only for      seek to avoid this absurdity, have           salvation, and covenant that were
     the elect (p. 235).                        said that Christ suffered sufficiently       rejected at the Synod of Dordt: I,
        Wouldn't this statement be chal-        for the whole world, but efficiently         Rejection of Errors/S, 4, 5; II, Rejec-
lengedbythelasthalfofJohn2:2inhis               only for the elect. This solution has        tion of Errors/3;  and V, Rejection of
first general epistle? `                        commonly prevailed in the schools.           Errors/l. Under the first head of
                             Barney Sikma       Though then I allow that what has            doctrine in the rejection of the third
                            New York, NY        been said is true, yet I deny that it is     error, we read
                                                suitable to this passage; for the design            The Synod rejects the errors of
Response:                                       of John was no other than to make this         those who teach: That the good plea-
                                                                                               sure and purpose of God, of which
        Thank you for your kind com-            benefit common to the whole Church.            Scripture makes mention in the doc-
ments on the articles on outstanding            Then under the word al2 or whole,,he           trine of election, does not consist in
figures in the history of the church.           does not include the reprobate, but            this, that God chose certain persons
        It is important to understand           designates those who should believe            rather than others, but in this that he
that Gotteschalk did indeed teach               as well as those who were then scat-           chose . . . the act off&h which from its
what has become known as particular             tered through various parts of the             very nature is undeserving, as well
redemptionorlimitedatonement,and                world. For then is really made evi-            as its incomplete obedience, as a con-
that he taught thisbothbecauseit was            dent, as it is meet, the grace of Christ,      dition of salvation.
taught in Augustine's writings and              when it is declared to be the only true      The "Liberated" Churches may ob-
because it is the doctrine of Scripture.        salvation of the world." With this           ject that they are not claiming faith as
        This truth is also part of the          interpretation of Calvin I agree.            a condition of salvation to be the same
heritage of  all Reformed churches. It                  And this is indeed the teaching      thingas a condition of election, but is
is specifically taught, e.g., in the Can-       of Scripture: "I lay down my life for        not the force of this rejection in the
-onsof Dordt (II, 8): "For this was the         my sheep" (John 10:15b).                     Canons, that it contradicts Scripture
sovereign counsel, and most gracious                                        -- H. Hanko      to call faith a condition to salvation?
will and purpose of God the Father,                                                          Does not the "Liberated" view deci-
that the quickening and saving effi-            n  ThePRChurchesinGoodCom-                   sively conflict with II Timothy 1:9?
cacy of the most precious death of his          PanY                                                The fourth error under the first
Son should extend to all the elect, for                                                      head of doctrine repudiates that in
bestowingupon them alone the gift of                 Dr. J. DeJong  in his letter to the     election there are conditions that are
justifying faith . . . . that is, it was the    editor published in the  Standard            demanded, and calls this doctrine
will of God, that Christ by the blood           Bearer (March 15,199l)  accuses the          Pelagian. And the fifth error under
of the cross . . . should effectually re-       Protestant Reformed Churches and             this head of doctrine rejects the teach-
deem out of every people, tribe, na-            Professor David Engelsma of "per-            ing
tion, and language, all those, and fhose        petuating an'election theology' which          that faith, the obedience of faith, ho-
only (italics is mine),' who were from          refuses to entertain the Scriptural            liness, godliness, and perseverance
                                                                                               are not fruits of the unchangeable
eternity chosen to salvation, and given         teaching of faith as the way or condi-         election unto glory, but ure condi-
to him by the Father .-.."                      tion of salvation and the notion of
                                                                                               tions.
         This was also the teaching of          God's wrath against covenant break-          Faith is not a condition of salvation; it
Calvin. In one of the rare passages in          ers." While I do not acknowledge that        is a fruit of election. This is the plain
which he specifically refers to  par-           the churches of which I am a member
                                                refuse to acknowledge Scripture or           language of Scripture and the Confes-

                                                                                                         May 15,1991/ Standard Bearer I 367


sions. We in the Protestant Reformed            the death of Christ, but a condition of     the confessions." It seems to me, and
Churches should be thankful that our            the new covenant.... For the Holy           I will let the reader of the confession
churches have been faithful to the              Scripture testifies that this follows       as guided by the Spirit be the judge,
fathers of Dordt in maintaining sov-            out of election, and is given the elect     that the only use of conditional lan-
ereign election over against condi-             in virtue of the death, the resurrec-       guage (almost exactly the same lan-
tional salvation.                               tion, and the intercession of Christ.       guage used by the Liberated
      Against the "Liberated" claim           Notice here two things.  First, the           Churches) in the Canons `is descrip-
that there are conditions tied to the         reason that the Synod gives for reject-       tions of errors that are rejected. How
atonement, the great synod rejected:          ing perseverance of the saints as a           in the light of these passages one can
  those who teach: That Christ by his         condition of the covenant is that Scrip-      maintain that Canons II/5 and Can-
  satisfactionmeritedneithersalvation         ture testifies that perseverance is a         ons I/3, 4 suggest that salvation is
  itself for anyone, nor faith, whereby       fruit of election and obtained through        conditional, I do not know. Certainly,
  this satisfaction is effectually appro-     Christ's sacrificial death. Secondly,
  priated; but that he merited for the        notice that faith is also a fruit of elec-    if the Reformed fathers are consistent
  Father only the authority or the per-       tion and obtained only through                these passages simply mean that
  fect will to deal again with man, and       Christ's sacrificial death. The proof         "those who embrace Jesus as Savior"
  toprescribenezuconclitions,ashemight        of this is the Scripture appealed to in       (Canons, I/4) and those who "believe
  desire . . . . For these adjudge con-       this article, Romans 8:32-35,  and Can-       in Christ crucified" (Canons, II/511 are
  temptuously of the death of Christ,                                                       the elect, and therefore as true believ-
  do in no wise acknowledge the most          ons,  I/9. This reasoning of our Re-          ers they "may and do obtain assur-
  important fruit or benefit thereby          formed fathers equally disqualifies           ance according to the measure of tlheir
  gained, and bring again out of hell         faith as a condition of the covenant.         faith" (Canons, V/9).
  the Pelagian error (Canons, II, Rejec-           Thus we see that the Synod of                  Let those of us who aremembers
  tion of Errors/B).                          Dordt specifically rejects conditions
Again we see that our Reformed fa-            of election, of salvation, and of the         of Protestant Reformed Churches
thers maintain that faith is not a con-       covenant and maintains that "elec-            thank our heavenly Father that He
ditionofsalvation,butratherthrough            tion is the fountain of every saving          has provided us with a church and a
the atonement it is a fruit, a result,        good; from which proceed faith, holi-         heritage that maintains the truth of
which Christ effectually obtained for         ness, and the other gifts of salvation,       sovereign election as the sole fount of
His elect.                                    and finally eternal life itself, as its       our faith and salvation and denies
      Lastly, let us examine the first        fruits and effects..." (I/9).                 any notion of conditional election.
error rejected under the fifth head of             Finally, I find it ironic in light of    Let those in the Canadian Reformed
doctrine.                                     the above treatment of conditions by          Churches examine their beliefs of the
  The Synod rejects the errors of those:      the Synod of Dordt that Dr. DeJong            covenant anew listening intently to
  Who teach: That the perseverance of         accuses Prof. Engelsma of ignoring            the Word of God and the expression
  the true believers is not a fruit of        passages that contain "conditional            of the Word of God in the confessions.
  election, or a gift of God, gained by       language" and "reading his view into                                    Steve Spencer
                                                                                                                     Ann Arbor, MI


 Taking Heed to                                                                            ose  o f
the Doctrine
Rev. Marvin Kamps


                     This is the substance of a lecture given by Rev. Kamps in Southwest Church on April
                     18,199l. It will appear in ,two installments, in this and the following issue of the SB.

                                              Introduction                                  of our faith in God and in His Word.
                                                   Jesus our Lord confronts you             Faith, as James teaches us, is a matter
                                              andmewithamostpenetratingques-                of doing the will of God. "Faithiyith-
                                              tionirtLuke18:8:  "Neverthelesswhen           out works is dead." Jesus, therefore,
Rev. Kamps is pastor of Southwest Prot-       the Son of man cometh, shall he find          in this passage is calling us to exercise
estant Reformed Church in Grandville,         faith on the earth?" This question            our faith and to walk as His peoplle  in
Michigan.                                     concerns our activity and the strength        the world. Especially is this question

368 IStandard  Bearer / May 15,199l


                                              of a sovereign election and reproba-              Finally, we must criticize spe-
                                              tion. The Christian marriage and             cifically and by name our mother
                                              home are underminedby decisions of           church this evening. Some of yaluare
                                              the church allowing its members to           undoubtedly members of her fellow-
                                              re-marry, though they are divorced           ship. You, of course, love and are in
                                              from their God-given spouses to              a measure loyal to her. This is to be
                                              whomtheypromisedtobefaithfultill             expected  and  appreciated by us. We
                                              death. Feminism has made its de-             would not have it any other way.
                                              mands upon the church; and the Re-           Those who have come to the knowl-
                                              formed church community in many              edge of their salvation in Christ
                                              places has granted these demands,            through her preaching and who have
                                              even though God's Word explicitly            enjoyed the communion of the saints
                                              forbids it. The church has approved          in her fellowship should give thanks
         Rev. Marvin Kamps                    the world's theaters as a place of           to God for His blessings to them
                                              entertainment for young and old              through her. Yet we must directly
of the Lord directed to those who live        members of the church. The daily             criticize the CRC's publiclystatedpo-
in the day of apostasy and departure          walk of many members of the church           sitions onvarious issues. To hear that
from God's Holy Word. For Jesus               differs little from that of the unbeliev-    criticismmayindeedhurtandbepsy-
said, When the Son of man cometh              ing world. ,And now in our mother            chologicallypainfulfor you.  Thesame
. . . .N He comes in the end time. In that    church the theory of evolution is held       would be true if I had to hear valid
day, when men shall be despisers of           up as not contrary to Scripture and          criticism of the PRC. But we must be
God's Word and of the truth in Christ         supposedly a better presentation of          reminded that our love of and loyalty
Jesus, in the day when the church             origins than the historical Christian        to an institution of the church on earth
institute will compromise its faith in        confession that God created the heav-        may not transcend our love and loy-
order to gain recognition and stand-          ens and the earth in the manner that         altytoGod'sHolyWord.  Thatwould
ing in the midst of the world of unbe-        He Himself has declared in Genesis 1         be sin. We are called to honor God's
lievers, then, and especially then, must      and 2. These are not minor, but gross        Word above all. No church may claim
we stand for the cause of Christ. The         departures from God's Word and               our love and loyalty at the expe:nse of
apostle P&l in -Ephesians 693 ad-             from the witness and testimony of the        God's Word. We, with the reformer
monishes the believer to "take unto           Reformed church of past times. The           Martin Luther, are captive to the in-
you the whole armour  of God, that ye         day is evil. The question of the Lord        fallible Word of God. This `Word
may be able to stand in the evil day,         challenges us. Will you stand for            alone we are to love, honor, and obey.
and having done all, to stand."               truth and righteousness? Will Christ         Thus we criticize our mother church
     My speech this evening is to en-         find you faithful?                           in a deep love of God's people :in her
courage, to give direction, and to call            Our approach to those who have          midst. This is not the day to keep
all of you to walk in faith, and there-       been led of God to hear this speech is       silent and be tolerant. Our mother
fore to stand for the cause of God in         one of love. We love you as brothers         church leads God's people to ruin.
the world.                                    and sisters in the Lord. We take you
     We live in evil days. Not merely         at your confession. We desire to help        What Is the Bible?
evil days, is that, from the viewpoint and strengthen you in the `faith by                      Briefly stated, the Bible is the
of the development of sinin the world         bringing you God's Word. Our prayer          written, divinely, and infallibly in-
of wicked men. That sin and the               is that you will judge us upon the           spired record of Jehovah God's rev-
manifestation of evil develops in the         basis of our confession and commit-          elation in Christ Jesus. The Bible
world ever more and more we all               ment to God's Word. We desire to             brings us God's revelation in Christ
recognize; Ungodly men boldly defy            reach out to those who love the Lord         concerning His eternal and gracious
God. They have no regard for God's            according to the Scriptures and call         love of the elect church in Jesus, our
Word, nor do they even make a pre-            them to stand with us in the cause of        Savior and Lord. As such the Bible is
tense of honoring it. But the days are        truth. There is no greater privilege         to be distinguished from God's rev-
evil from the viewpoint also of the           than to stand in the truth of the Lord       elation in nature  or  so-called general
apostasy of the Reformed church com-          and to suffer for righteousness' sake        revelation. This distinction is ex-
munity. Sabbath observance is more            (Acts 5:41).                                 pressed in our Belgic Confession,
and more a thing of the past. The                                                          Articles 2 and 3. The Bible makes
Reformed Creeds are forsaken and                   No church may claim                     known to us who God is. It declares
Arminianism exalted. Free-willism                                                          to us God's attributes of holiness and
anda generalatonement are preached                  our lozie and loyalty                  righteousness and love and grace.
commonly, though contrary to the                        at the expense                     The Bible not only declares whlo God
Reformed Creeds. Few want to hear                       of God's Word.                     is but also what He has done in time

                                                                                                  May 15,199ll  Standard Beartv I 369


and history to accomplish our salva-          tributes of Scripture. We confess that             Again, Scripture declares that
tion. The Old Testament declares the          one of these attributes is that the Bible    God's institution of marriage is for
promise of the coming of Christ Jesus         is clear, or perspicuous. It does not        life. It declares that one may not
as our Messiah. The New Testament             hold forth its message with ambigu-          forsake his God-given spouse for an-
records the birth of the Son of God in        ity. The Bible is not a book of confu-       other. Yet the church, in many places,
ourfleshbymeans of thevirginMary.             sion. Though there are, admittedly,          permits what Jesus forbids. Jesus
It records the Lord's perfect obedi-          difficult passages in God's Word,            forbadeadultery.  TheLordinstructed
enceevenuntodeathforthesalvation              these are readily unfolded and ex-           us that "whoso marrieth her which is
of those given Him of the Father from         plained by simpler passages of the           put away doth commit adultery"
all eternity.                                 Sacred text. Secondly, we confess            (Matt. 5:32; 19:9). Few today listen to
         But it does more than that. It       that the Bible is absolutely necessary       that instruction. What is the conclu-
testifies of our creation in God's im-        for the knowledge of faith in Christ         sion to be drawn: the Bible is fallible
age and likeness, and of our willful          and for the right and full knowledge         because it is foo idealistic about Imar-
disobedience and rebellion in Adam,           of God. Without God's revelation we          riage. The Bible is not realisfic  about
and of our depravity and proneness            cannot know God. God must first              life and therefore may be ignored at
to sin and disobedience. The Bible            speak in order that we may respond           this point.
records God's commandments toHis              to Him in faith. The Bible is abso-                Besides,theBibleiswrongabout
people and church. It holds before us         lutely necessary to our salvation and        creation and God's works during the
the way ofrife (John 14:6). It calls us to    joy in faith before the God of heaven        six days of creation. The Bible is not
count the cost of discipleship (Luke          and earth. Thirdly, we must confess          trustworthy about these things. The
14:25-33).  The mighty Lord Jesus,            the sufficiency of Sacred Scripture.         Bible is wrong about a world-wide
through the means of Scripture, com-          This book, with its commandments             flood in Noah's day. The Bible gives
mands us to enter in at the straight          and institutions, is all we need: We         only a fallible account. Wherever
gate and walk along the narrow path-          neednoextra-biblicalrevelations. The         men of this world can show us a b(etter
way unto perfect salvation (Matt.             Bible is sufficient for our salvation        way, this way is to be received, for
213).                                         and life of faith.                           God is still revealing Himself, it is
                                                    There remain two attributes of         erroneously claimed. Where men
           Does the Bible . . .               Scripture that need to be dealt with         enlighten us about marriage and the
              merely ojfer                    even more emphatically tonight in            home, or about the place of women in
         for our consideration                order that you may be encouraged             society and the church, or about the
                                              and led to do what we all by nature do
              certain ideas                                                                origins of our universe, here we must
                                              not want to do. We must~stand  in an         walk the way of twentieth-century
           and propositions                   evil day. We must walk byfaith and in        learning, and feel justified when we
     which we are at liberty                  thefaith. In order to do that we must        claim the Bible to be in error.
                 to reject?                   be ever conscious of, and committed                Secondly, of necessity we must
                                              to, these remaining attributes of Scrip-     ever reckon with the authority of
      Yet the question remains, how           ture. These are the infallibility of and     Gods Word. When we know that the
are we to view this message of Scrip-         the authority of the Bible. These at-        message of Scripture is God's Word,
ture? Is it so, that this message is the      tributes are all-important, in order         then, above all, we are to receive it as
same as a message of men: that one            that we may have the spiritual strength      absolutely authoritative. Authorita-
can take it or leave it? Does it come to      and inward peace to do what is right         tive for all our life. Every aspect of
us with authority and power or not?           according to God's Word.                     Scripture comes to us bearing this
Is it beyond a shadow of doubt true                If one denies the infallibility of      awesome character of authority. From
and faithful in all that it declares?         God's Word, then he feels free to set        Genesis to Revelation we are met with
Does the Word damn those who will             aside the commandments of the                the one all-authoritative Word. If one
not heed it? Can one ignore, with             apostles by appealing to the fact of         would compromise or deny that au-
impunity, the Bible? Does the Bible           their limitations as authors of Scrip-       thority, let him cease to call the Edible
tell us what we must believe and              ture. This is done repeatedly. For           Gods Word. Today we find people
confess and hold for truth, or does it        example, the apostle Paul forbade            everywhere paying lip service to the
merely offer for our consideration            women to serve as officebearers in           Bible as God's Word . . . but not sub-
certain ideas and propositions which          the church institute (I Cor. 14:34, 35       mitting to its authority. They will not
we are at liberty to reject?                  and I Tim. 2:11-15).  But this is set        obey the Word. This is self-deceit. If
     Beloved in the Lord, what kind           aside as not binding upon the church         one rejects the authority of G~od's
of a book is this by which we are             today. Here, it is alleged, the author       Word in whole or in part he is reject-
judged daily and will all be judged           of Scripture was merely reflecting the       ing the proposition that the Bible is
finally in the day of Christ's return?        cultural.perspective  of his day. The        God's Word. That is why the apostle
     Let us be reminded of the at-            Bible then is not infallible.                John warned that those who add or
370 /Standard Bearer 1 May 15,199l


subtract from the Word, their names             as "the Bible contains the word of             Word. Men in our day take the Word
shall be blotted out of the book of life        God," leaving man to decide by his             very lightly. Departure from the
(Rev. 22:18,19).                                human inspiration, what is and what            Word is minimized. But remember
        How is it possible that this Word       is not God's Divine instruction. Our           this please: the Word is powerful.
is infallible and authoritative? The            watch word, as it has been through
                                                the ages past in the church of God, is         Powerful to bless the repentant be-
answer is: because it was written by            this: The Bible is the Word of God, so         liever and powerful to harden the
holy men of God's choosing and of               simply, so sheerly God's Word, that            impenitent. Think of Jeremiah  2;3:29,
God'spreparation,whowereinspired                even when it records the errors and            "Is not my Word like a fire? saith the
and empowered to pen His Word by                sophisms of men, to the lies of the            Lord; andlike ahammer  that breaketh
the Holy Spirit. It is not man's word.          devil, the record, in all its parts, is the    the rock in pieces?" The preaching of
The Bible is God's Word. Recently I             Lord's record, to serve distinctly the         the Word is a "savor of life unto life"
read the followingstirringwords from            Lord's purpose (EpiscopaZRecorder,             and a "savor of death unto death" (II
the pen of a Reformed Episcopalian              December, 1990, p. 9 by the Rev. J.            Cor. 2:16,17).  Woe to him that trifles
theologian:                                     Howard Smith, D.D.).                           with the Word! Q
     Strong in that mighty word, we                 @this connection I would like to                                   . . . to be continued
     trample under foot all such sayings      say something of the power of the


In His Fear                                   Returning
Rev. Arie denHartog                           to the Lord

        In our two previous articles we       Bathsheba and Peter in his denying               It cannot die. It is an- incorruptible
have considered something of the              the Lord. David was for almost a full            life. Therefore though the child of
reality and nature of spiritual decline       year separated from the Lord and in              God suffers periods of spiritual de-
in the life of the child of God, and          astate  of serious spiritual depression.         cline it is impossible that he shall ever
some of the common causes of such             The Christian must treat all decline in          perish.
declension. Every sincere child of            his life seriously. If this decline is not            The Lord is the restorer d His
God will confess to periods of spiri-         arrestedit will grow worse andworse.             people. He always takes the initiative
tual decline in his life. Though peri-        The Christian cannot stand still in his          to bring His people back to Himself.
ods of spiritual decline are normal for       life. He either progresses in sanctifi-          If this were not the case there would
the Christian they are something that         cation, in the knowledge and love of             be no hope for us. If the Lord would
he needs to be very concerned about.          God, or he declines, his heart grows             leave us in our sins and in our back-
Spiritual decline takes place in vary-        cold, and he departs further and fur-            sliding then we would surely perish
ing degrees. Some backsliding is far          ther from the Lord.                              everlastingly. But the Lord seeks His
more serious than others. But every                 There is hope for the child of             wandering sheep. He restores those
child of God has within his sinful            God who realizes that he is in a state           who have fallen. He strengthens the
nature the danger of decline and of           of spiritual declension. That hope is            weak and the feeble. He restores the
falling. The Scriptures warn us, "Let         theveryheart of the gospel. Our hope             souls of His people. "The Lord
him that thinketh he standeth take            is in the Lord and His perfect work of           redeemeth the soul of his servants:
heedlest  he fall" (I C.or. 10:12).  There    salvation. Our hope is in His faithful-          and none of them that trust in him
are examples in the Bible of some of          ness to His everlasting covenant of              shall be desolate" (Ps. 34:22).  Several
the greatest saints of God who have           grace with His people. Our hope is in            of the parables which our Lord taught
grievously fallen and who even for a          the unfailing mercies of God. "It is of          when He was on earth beautifully
long time departed from the Lord.             the Lord's mercies that we are not               illustrate the mercy and love of God
The classic examples are, of course,          consumed, because his compassions                to seekand to recover those who have
those of David in his sin with                fail not. They are new every morning:            departed from Him. Think of the
                                              great is thy faithfulness" (Lam. 3:22).          parable of the lost sheep where the
                                              Our hope is in God's perfect work in             Lord leaves the ninety and nine to
                                                                                               seek and find the one that has gone
Rev. denHartogis pastor ofHope  Protes-       us. Through the wonderful work of
                                                                                               astray. And when He has found His
tant Reformed Church in Redlands,  Cali-      regeneration by His Spirit, God has
f                                             created in us a life that will never die.        straying sheep, with great joy He car-
ornia.

                                                                                                          May 15,1991/ Standard Bearer I 371


~    ries it upon His shoulder, in great                                                       chastenedoftheLordwemusthu:mble
     compassion seeing its weakness and                      We can so easily                  ourselves under His gracious h.and.
     its own helplessness. And so the Lord               become dull to our sin                The Lord does not chasten us in order
     brings back His own. Think of the                  and so accustomed to it                to destroy us or in order finally to
     parable commonly called the parable                that we fail to recognize              condemn us. He chastens His people
     of the prodigal son. In that parable we                                                   in love to correct them and bring
     read that God is so full of love and                 its great seriousness.               them to repentance. He chastens His
     compassion to receive back His err-                                                       people to cause them to return unto
     ingsonthatwereadofGodtheFather                                                            Him and to teach them to fear before
     seeing His son yet a great way off and         God tells the Christian in the state of    Him. Though not all trouble and
     running to meet him and falling on his         decline, "Remember from whence             trials in our lives are chastisement
     neck and kissing him. What a beauti-           thou hast fallen and repent." In call-     from the Lord, we ought always to
     ful picture of the Lord's restoration of       ing His people to return from their        consider whether the Lord is chasten-
     His wayward sons.                              back&dings, through Jeremiah the           ing us when He sends us trouble and
           Many are the loving, urgent, and         prophet in the passages we quoted          affliction. The Lord chastens us in
     invitingpassagesofSaiptureinwhich              above, the Lord commands, "only            love and mercy with compassio:n  for
     the Lord Himself earnestly calls His           acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou      our weaknesses. We ought not to
     people who have departed from Him              hast transgressed against the Lord         become discouragedwhenchastened
     to return again to Him. "Seek ye the           thy God" (Jer. 3:13). "Let the wicked      of the Lord but rather turn again to
     Lord while he may be found, call ye            man forsake his way and the                the Lord and learn the riches of His
     upon him while he is near: Let the             unrighteous man his thoughts." This        grace and mercy. We ought to rejoice
     wicked forsake his way, and the                is a truth that we know so clearly,        and be thankful unto the Lord that
     unrighteous man his thoughts: and              because it is told us so very often in     throughlovingchastisementtheLord
     let him return unto the Lord, and he           Scripture, yet it is so easy to ignore.    brings His children back to Himself.
     will have mercy upon him: and to our           One of the chief reasons for spiritual          The way back to God involves
     God, for he will abundantly pardon"            decline in our life is impenitent sin,     the recognition of the idolatry of our
     (Is. 55:6, 7). "Return, thou backslid-         seeking to cover up, or hide or deny       modern age and the urgent need of
     ing Israel, saith the Lord; and I wilI         our sin. We can so easily become dull      forsaking that idolatry. The Bible
     not cause mine anger to fall upon you:         to our sin and so accustomed to it that    calls the materialism and covetous-
     for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and         we fail to recognize its great serious-    ness of our age idolatry. It is an
     I will not keep mine anger for ever . . . .    ness. The only way back to the Lord        idolatry every bit as serious and God-
     Turn, 0 backsliding children, saith            is the way of repentance. Repentance       denying as the idolatry of heathen
     the Lord; for I am married unto you:           must begin with a sincere sorrow           lands. Many who call themselves
     and I will take you one of a city, and         over our sin in which we understand        Christians today are farmore  enslaved
     two of a family, and I will bring you to       profoundly how grievously our sin          to this idolatry than they realize. The
     Zion: And I will give you pastors              offends the holy and righteous God         Lord solemnly warns: "Ye cannot
     according to mine heart, which shall           who has saved us. Spiritual revival        serve God and mammon." It is im-
     feed you with knowledge and under-             cannot come unless we daily humble         possible for spiritual life to thrive in
     standing" (Jer. 3:12,14,15).  "Ifwe say        ourselves in repentance before God,        the heart that is full of covetousness
     that we have no sin, we deceive our-           in dust and ashes, because of the          and materialism. There is no other
     selves, and the truth is not in us. If we      greatness of our sin. How little there     way back than forsaking all our idols
     confess our sins, he is faithful and just      is in modern Christendom of real           and seeking the Lord as God alone.
     to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse         sorrow over the sin and wickedness              The way of returning to (God
     us from all unrighteousness" (I John           of man, and of recognition of its great    involves separation from this ungodly
     1:8,9).  These wonderful words of the          seriousness, how dreadfully offen-         world. The love of the world destroys
     gospel (and hundreds more could                sive it is to God. In most of the          love for God. He that loves the w'orld
     easily be quoted) stand as a great             modern-day church there is more and        is an enemy of God. That is why the
     encouragement for the child of God             more theimagination that sinis some-       Scriptures say so loudly, "Be ye not
     toreturnunto the Lord. The gospel of           thing of the past. There is a glorying     unequally yoked together with unbe-
     God is even more than mere outward             and boasting in the goodness of man        lievers; for what fellowship hathrigh-
     encouragement to His saints to return          and the greatness of his deeds. No         teousness and unrighteousness? and
     to Him. It is the Word of God's                one who has such vain imaginations         what communion hath light with
     effectual power and love whereby He            in his heart can ever dwell with the       darkness? And what concord bath
     draws His people back to Himself.              holy God.                                  Christ with Belial and what part hath
          The way of return from back-                   Continued sinfulness often            he that believeth with an infidel? and
     sliding begins with a recognition and          makes necessary the chastening hand        what agreement hath the temple of
     acknowledgment of sin. The Word of             of the Lord in our lives. When we are      God with idols" (II Cor. 6:14, 15).

     372 /Standard Bearer / May 15,199l


True revival will come in the church       the temptations of the world. Sin            deemed him at such a great cost.
of Godandin the lives of God's people      ensnares and enslaves and brings a                Revival comes in the life of the
only when they recognize again the         manintobondage. The devilbymeans             child of God when he remembers
sharp antithesis that there is between     of temptation seeks to lead the child        again the wonderful truth of the Word
the truth of God and the lie of the        of Godaway from God, to destroy his          of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
world, and between the kingdom of          spiritual life and bring him to final        The gospel reveals the glory and-maj-
the Lord and the kingdoms of this          ruin. The Lord calls His saints con-         esty, the sovereignty and faithfulness
world. The modern-day church un-           stantly to fight, to strive, and to labor    and holiness of our God.  R.evival
der the influence of the evil one is       earnestly. These admonitions do not          doesnotcomeinamysticalwayinthe
working to blur more and more the          deny the truth of sovereign grace.           life of the child of God. It comes when
distinction between the church and         God does not save and preserve us as         the child of God renews his consider-
the world, and is preaching that one       machines or automatons. He calls us          ation of the gospel of God, the doc-
can virtually adopt any and all of the     to work out our own salvation with           trine of salvationand the glory of God
wicked philosophies of the world and       fear and trembling for it is God who         that is revealed in it. This means
still be a Christian. Every member of      works in us to will and to do of His         faithful attendance at the worship
the church is in danger of being at        good pleasure.                               services where the Word of God is
least subtly influenced by the teach-           The Christian is restored only          preached; and it means diligent, per-
ings of modern-day apostate Christi-       through the cross of the Lord Jesus          sonal, private study of Gods Wordin
anity. Spiritual revival will come         Christ. He must come again and               our homes. Returning to the Lord is
only in the way of absolutely forsak-      again to that cross to seekthe forgive-      returningto truthand to doctrine, the
ing the world. The Lord calls us to        ness of his many sins. There is no           doctrine of God and of His Son Jesus
come out from among them and be            other power than the power of the            Christ found in the Bible. This is the
separate. Only when we do that will        cross that can revive and strengthen         means that the Spirit of God uses to
the promise of God be ours that He         and restore the child of God, the same       restore His saints and bring them
will be our God and make us His            crossthatsavedhiminthebeginning.             back to lively rich fellowship with
temple and dwell in our midst and be       God calls us to consider the great           Himself and His Son Jesus Christ.
a Father unto us and we shall be His       wonder of the cross. He calls us ever        The child of God is restored when
children.                                  and again to remember the amazing            once again he stands transfixed and
     Spiritualrestorationinthelifeof       sacrifice of perfect love and obedi-         amazed in wonderment at the glory
the child of God comes only in the         ence that Christ offered for us on the       of God and His Son Jesus Christ.
way of earnest, prayerful, and dili-       cross. The true, spiritual, constant              May the Lord by His almighty
gent striving against sin and wicked-      remembrance of the cross draws the           and wonderful grace and Holy Spirit
ness, against the temptations of the       child of God back to the Lord, fills his     turn us again unto Himself that we
devil, and the weakness of our own         heart again with love for God and            might forever experience and enjoy
sinful nature. Because of our sinful       constrains him to live not unto him-         the blessedness of His knowledge and
nature we can easily be led away by        self but unto the Lord that has re-          fellowship.  0

 The Day of                                Joyful Princes in
Shadows                                    God's Kingdom
Rev. John Heys


     Last time our attention in this            The reason for this is that the         will be given us fully and everlast-
department was called to The Proper        child which our gracious God gave to         ingly, when Christ Jesus our Savior
Weeping and Laughing. Now we do            Abraham and Sarah was called Isaac.          returns to bring us with body and
well to delve a bit more deeply into       And that name "Isaac" means "laugh-          soul into the new Jerusalem. There
that proper laughing.                      ter." We must then also remember             weshalllaughfullyandeverlastingly.
                                           and emphasize the fact that our God          For laughing is expressing joy and
                                           gave him that name. Abraham and              gladness.
                                           Sarah did not choose that name. Our             J Turn then to Psalm  136:1-3.
                                           God told them that his name must be          There the psalmist declares, after Is-
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the    Isaac (Gen. 1729).                           rael was brought back from the
Protestant Reformed Churches.                   Here we have a shadow of what           Babyloniancaptivity: "WhentheLord

                                                                                              May 15,1991/ Standard Beam / 373


turned again the captivity of Zion, we       Our God, we read, gave before Israel         rainbow as an arc comes down on the
were like them that dream. Then was          by day "a pillar of cloud to lead them       two groups of people in His church:
our mouth filled with laughter, and          in the way; and by night a pillar of fire    the believing Jews and the believing
our tongue with singing: then said           to give them light: to go by day and         Gentiles. Behind that rainbow is that
they among the heathen, The Lord             night. He took not away the pillar of        dark cloud of His holy wrath against
hath done great things for them. The         the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire     unbelieving Jews and Gentiles.
Lord hath done great things for us;          by night, from before the people."                Sing therefore:
whereof we are glad."                        Here is a shadow of God leading His            When in His might the Lord
     A similar beautiful truth, which        people, His church, into the Kingdom           Arose to set us free;
in the deepest sense looks for the           of Heaven with all its glory.                  And Zion was restored
return of Christ, we find in Psalm                Get also the comforting truth as          From her captivity,
53:6. There we read, "Oh that the            we read it in Exodus 14:19.  There we          Intransportsthenofjoyandmirth
salvation of Israel were come out of         read concerning that cloud: fl And the         We praise theLord of all the earth
Zion! When God bringeth back the             angel of God, which went before the           (PsaZter  #358,  based on Psalm 126)
captivity of his people, Jacob shall         camp of Israel, removed and went                  That which is humanly impos-
rejoice and Israel shall be glad."           before their face, and stood behind          sible God realizes in His grace.
     Let us then take a firm grip upon       them." Thus not only do we have a            Abraham and Sarah could not bring
the blessed truth which Scripture pre-       cloud before us to lead us to heavenly       forth a son. Yet our God gave th.em
sents in Galatians 6:16, where we read,      glory, but we also have that work of         the strength to do so when Abraham
"And as many as walk according to            God's grace whereby He. keeps away           was 100 years old and Sarah was 90
thisrule,peacebeonthem,andmercy,             the devil and world of unbelievers           years old.
and upon the Israel of God." That            who try to keep us from seeking the               Let us then, as pointed out last
word Israel does not refer merely to         kingdom of heaven and its righteous-         time in this department, listen to `our
the elect seed of Abraham and Isaac.         ness. By that cloud Pharaoh and his          God and not to the devil. The un-
The whole church of God, all the             army were kept from recapturing Is-          godly, unbelievingworldpresents the
believers, are Israelites. And that          rael, to bring them back to slavery in       devilish idea of evolution, which de-
namemeans"PrincesofGod." Isaac's             Egypt. What a wonderful God! And             nies creation by our God. Shall we
son Jacob had his name changed by            what an encouraging truth with the           then say that we are listening to God,
God to "Israel." Plainly the word            comfort of a sure salvation!                 while we are sinfully letting the devil
"Israel" in the above verse refers to all         Yes, there are darkclouds which         teach us through unbelievers? Can
the elect. A prince is the son of a king.    speak of God's wrath, and of a com-          we sinlessly combine God's Word
All of us believers then are princes         ingstorm. WhenHe sent that floodin           with Satan's, and then insist on theis-
whose Father is the Ring of kings and        the days of Noah, He sent avery dark         tic evolution? Dare we add to what
Lord of lords (I Tim. 6:15).                 cloud that brought the rain and flood        God says in His Word what Satan
     Now. then, already we should:           that killed the whole world, while His       says through the lie of evolution?
  Sing a new song to Jehovah                 church was saved in the ark. Lookup               Are we revealing faith in God,
  For the wonders He hath wrought;           I Peter 3:20,21.                             when we maintain what Satan says
  His right hand and arm most holy                Now, turn to Genesis 9:8-17.            through unbelievers, whom he has
  Triumph to His cause have                  After Noah and his family landed             under his devilish control? May we
    brought.                                 safelybackon this earth, our God still       with Satan say that the first eleven
  In His love and tender mercy               had that dark cloud in the sky. He           chapters of Genesis do not present
  He hath made salvation known,              had cleared the sky where Noah and           historical fact, when our God refers to
  In the sight of every nation               hisfamilysettleduponthemountains             incidents and people in those chap-
  He His righteousness hath shown.           of Ararat. And He brought forth a            ters, in Hebrews 11; and through the
  (Psalter # 261, based on Psalm 98)         beautiful rainbow for Noah and his           author of that epistle He speaks of
     In this life we do have a begin-        family to see before that darkcloud of       Abel, Enoch, and Noah as men offaith ?
ning of that joy and laughter. But it is     His wrath. He told Noah, and also us,        They are not there presented as fic-
ashadow  of the bliss, the blessedness,      that this rainbow is a sign and picture      tional characters. (Read Heb.  ll:l-7.)
the joy and glory which shall be ours        of His covenant, which is with us                 Andwhatabouttheflood? Does
whenchristreturns.  Letusnotforget           through His Son, our Savior.                 not the flood explain why our earth is
that a shadow is always caused by a               Get this! And remember it!              as it is? And I Corinthians  1545
reality. For us a beautiful, fleecy,         Whenever you see a rainbow you               speaks of Adam as the first man, not
white cloud casts its shadow upon us         should laugh in your soul, and sing of       as a fictitious character in what is a
in our present life (Rev. 1414).             the mercy and grace of our God in            story but not a fact.
     Think once of that white cloud          Christ. That rainbow is an arc reach-             Did our God in six days create
which our gracious God used, of              ing down from heaven (that is, from          the heavens and the earth with all
which we read in Exodus 13:21, 22.           God)withsevenbeautifulcolors.  That          they contain? Or did things evolve

374 /Standard Bearer / May 15,199i


over billions of years? Did it take our     errbytheirlies,andbytheirlightness;         Cor. 15:lO) no one will dare to com-
God that long to begin to bring forth      yet I sent them not, nor commanded           bine God's Word with Satan's phi-
the church of His Son? And are we          them; therefore they shall not profit        losophies which he wrought in man.
spiritually, and in love to God, will-      this people at all, saith the Lord." The         Oh, that blessed cloud of Gods
ing to add to His Word what the devil       dreams of evolution are false dreams,       grace! How wonderful it is to be
says through the ungodly? Never, no         and our God is against all evolution-       joyful princes of our God, and sing of
never should we be glad and laugh          ists, who dream about this earth rather      what He taught us in His Word.. Let
spiritually because of what the ser-        than search the Scriptures. Let us          us thank Him for having given us His
vants of the devil say and teach about      take a firm hold on all that God wrote      Word of truth, and delivered us from
God's creation!                            in Genesis l-11 and receive His Word         Satan's lies; so that we do begin to live
     Let us read that awesome truth         as the truth.                               as His princes; and will becom.e per-
in Jeremiah 23:32. There we read,                    We must laugh and sing under       fectlyholyprincesinHiscomingking-
"Behold,Iamagainstthemthatproph-           the beautiful white cloud of God's           d o m .   0
esy false dreams, saith the Lord, and       grace in Christ. And when we appear
do tell them and cause my people to 1 before the judgment seat of Christ (II 1

        A Word Fitly Spoken
        Rev. Dale Kuiper                     Sc.andal!
             Although the word "scandal" or "scandalize" does not appear in our Authorized Versions, the
        Greek word skandalon  could wellbe  transliterated. It is sometimes translated "offence" and sometimes
        "stumblingblock." The Septuagint  (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) uses skanclalon for the
       Hebrew word which means to trap, to hinder, to be the cause of ruin.
             In the New Testament, Jesus is the great offence and stumblingblock; He is always a scandal to
       natural men. The Jews were offended by this carpenter, this son of Mary, who had wisdom and did
       mighty works (Mark 6:2,3). Peter was-an offence to Jesus because he denied the necessity of the cross
        and evidenced a satanic spirit (Matt. 16:23).  A sign of the end of the world and the second coming of
        Christ is that more than ever before, men are offended by Him (Matt. 2410). Those that seek
       righteousness by the works of the law stumble at the stone that God has laid in Zion (Rom. 9:32,33).
             Now Jesus as a mere man is not an offence to any one. Jesus, the good man of Nazareth, as a
       reformer, teacher, and example, does not cause anyone anywhere to stumble. But Jesus according to the
        Scriptures, Christ crucified, and the preaching of Christ crucified, that is the scandal! The preaching of
       the cross is to them that perish foolishness, and the preaching of Christ crucified is a stumblingblock to
       the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (I Cart 1:18,23).  When Christ is set forth crucified, as the only
       hope of salvation, then people are scandalized and the preachers are persecuted. But if He be preached
       in some other way, as a partial Savior perhaps, as one who saves those who are willing to be saved
       perhaps, as one who saves those who are circumcised or `do other works of the law perhaps; then is the
        offence  of the cross ceased (Gal. 5111).
             Why is the preaching of Christ crucified such a scandal? There are three reasons: 1) The preaching
       of the cross speaks of sin, of the transgression of-God's holy law, of accountability for these sins, of guilt
       and liability to everlasting punishment. 2) The preaching of the cross speaks of man's inability to do the
       smallest thing to save himself. God sent Christ to do what no man could do or even will to do. 3) The
       preaching of the cross speaks of the grace of God -- amazing, unmerited, and powerful! When Christ
       crucified is preached, there may be no thought of merit, wages, or works. The only possible conclusion
       anyone may draw, having heard.the  blessed gospel, is that God saves in sovereign grace. He saves
       through His gift of faith; it is by faith that it might be of grace!
             SomeareappointedtostumbleoverthisRock(IPet.2:8)andtobecIushedbyHim.                    Othersfalldown
       before Zion's Stone, and find in Him their soul's satisfaction now and forever. To chosen, covenant
       generations He is precious!  .He that believeth in Him shallnever be confounded. 0

       Rev. Kuiper is pastor ojlmmanuel  Proie&ant  Reformed Church in Lacokbe, Alberta, Canada.


                                                                                               May 15,199l  I Standard Beam I 375


                                                       Mission Principles  (v)
Go Ye Info. All
the World                                                    The Executor
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop


         Previous articles have presented      Christ, who are ready and willing to       church. "And (God) hath put all
some of the principles of missions.            observe all the things Jesus commands      things under his feet and gavehim to
         First, the work of missions and       them. This task is gigantic.               be the Head over all things to the
evangelism is a.part  of the very es-               When we see that the task is so       church, which is his body." It is as, the
sence of the church. It is not  .an            great, thenit is no wonder that we ask     Head of the church that the Lord
option, which you can add on to the            ourselves, Are we sufficient for the       Jesus exercises His great autholrity
church if it can be afforded and if it is      task? Is there anyone who is able?         and power.
desirable. Therefore, the true church          Who is sufficient for these things?             In a passage which is very simi-
of Jesus Christ performs missions as                        *+*****                       lar in content, Peter and the other
an on-going act of obedience to her                 The work of missions and evan-        apostles told the Sanhedrin that it
Lord. Doing her best with the means            gelism is principally the work of the      was Jesus whom God "hath exalted
God has given the church brings the            sovereignLord,Jesus  Christ. Heis the      with his right hand to be a Prince and
goodnews  of Jesus Christ to all whom          One who.executes this great work.          Savior, for to give repentance to Is-
God in His providence puts in her              He is the only One who can perform,        rael, and forgiveness of sins" (Acts
path.                                          effect, and realize the Plan of God.       5:31). Jesus was exalted with the
         Secondly, the supreme motive               First, let us gather some proof       purpose of being able to give repen-
for going "into all the world" is to           for this assertion.                        tance and forgiveness of sins to His
glorify God by proclaiming Him as                   The Bible plainly teaches both        people.
the One who is so abundantly worthy            that Jesus is the sovereign King over           No wonder it is the "Lord" who
to be known and praised for who and            all and that He is the Head of the         opened Lydia's heart (Acts 16:14).
what He is. Other motivations are              church. Remember the intimate rela-        And no wonder He says that no one
great gratitude for the free gift of           tionship between the work of mis-          can "pluck them out of my hand"
salvation, love for and conviction of          sions and the church: it is only the       (John 10:28).
the truth, love for our neighbor, and          church.which  does mission work, and
confidence in the irresistible work of         the objects of that mission work are              The principal agent
theHolySpiritandinthepowerofthe                taught to be disciples, which implies                 in the performance
preaching.                                     church  membership.
         Thirdly, the task of the church in                                                   of the work of missions
                                                    At His ascension into heaven the
her mission work is to teach, not to           Lord said, "All power is given unto                    and evangelism
save souls, nor to improve self-es-            me in heaven and in earth" (Matt.                      is the sovereign
teem, nor principally to create church         28:18). Paul also speaks of this sover-               Lord, Jesus Christ.
growth, nor to make a conservative             eign dominion of Jesus when he writes
citizenship of anearthly nation. She is        that God "set him at his own right              God eternally determined to
to teach the truths of God's Word              hand in the heavenly places, far above     gather unto Himself a people in Christ,
which bear the fruit of disciples of           all principality, andpower, andmight,      which is the biblical doctrine of elec-
                                               and dominion, andevery name that is        tion (Eph. 1:4-6; II Thess. 213).
                                               named, not only in this world, but              The Heidelberg Catechism not
                                               also in that whichis to come: and hath     only instructs us to believe that it is
                                               put all things under his feet" (Eph.       the Lord Jesus Christ who is the prin-
                                               1:20-22).                                  cipal agent in the work of missions
                                                    Thislastmentionedpassagecon-          and evangelism, but also teaches that
Rev.  VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel         tinues, informing us that there is a       those objects of evangelism which are
ProtestantRejormed  ChurchinElkGrove           relationship between Jesus' sovereign      saved and brought into the church
Village, Illinois.                             dominion and His headship over the         had been elected unto such member-

376 /Standard Bearer I May 15,1991


ship. It does so in Question and             to the church because only He has the       berg; Catechism. The Son of God
Answer 54.                                   power to add to the church. Those           gathers, defends, and preserves a
   Q. 54. What believest thou concem-        added to the church are those being         church, and He does this "by his Spirit
   ing the "holy Catholic church" of         saved, and only Christ has the power        and word."
   Christ?                                   to save. All men are naturally dark-
   A. That the Son of God from the                                                                 First, Jesus uses His Spirit.
  beginning to the end of the world,         ened in their minds, perverse in their      (While I will treat them separately,
   gathers, defends, and preserves to        wills, and hard in their hearts. As the     remember that the Word and Spirit
  himselfbyhisSpiritandword,outof            slaves of sin they cannot save them-        may never be separated the one from
  the whole human race a church cho-         selves. The Lord's power is the irre-       the other.)
   sen to everlasting life, agreeing in      sistible Holy Spirit. His Word is the                 It wasbecause of the outpouring
  true faith.                                sovereign Word of the Gospel which          of the Holy Spirit that some three
      Still another passage of Scrip-        enlightens the mind, sweetly inclines       thousand were added, and others
ture shows that ultimately the work          the will, and softens the hard heart        were added daily to the church. The
and thesuccess of gatheringthe church        (Eze. 36:26ff.).                            Holy Spirit of Christ made Peter's
is the Lords. "I will build my church:                *-*  *  *  *  $  *                 sermoneffective: many"werepricked
and the gates of hell shall not prevail           What are some implications to          intheirheart." Mancanprickanother
against it" (Matt. 16:lB).                   be drawn from the fact that the prin-       man's skin. Man may even be able to
      As a last (but certainly not the       cipal agent in the work of evangelism       irritate another's conscience. But only
least) proof for the truth that the Lord     andmissionsis  theLord Jesus Christ?        the Holy Spirit can prick a heart, and
Jesus Christ is the principal agent in          The obvious has to be said:              can bring about re-birth. Regenera-
the work of missions and evangelism,         people do not add themselves or oth-        tion is being "born of the Spirit" (John
I point to Acts 2:47, "And the Lord          ers to the church. `Believers did not       3:8), and it is called the "renewing of
added to the church daily such as            add themselves. Notice the use of the       the Holy Ghost" (Tit. 3:5).
should be saved."                            passive voice in Acts 2:41, 47; 4:14:
         *  *  * *  *  *  *                  the "were added." Nor do other                    That Christ is the One
      It is most fitting and even neces-     humans add to the church those be-               who adds to the church
sary that our Lord Jesus be the Execu-       ing saved: The apostles did not add
tor of missions and of building and          them. And certainly some modern                  does not make the church
adding to the church. It is that for         high-powered evangelist does not.                     inactive and passive.
three reasons.                               To attribute the growth of the church
      First, only He knows  who should       either to a minister or to the congrega-          It is God the Holy Spirit who is
belong to the church. Not everyone           tion may be very flattering, but it is a    always responsible for the efficacious
belongs to the church. Only the elect        temptation of the devil. The church         application of the Word of God to the
(the ones given Him of the Father            and every individual believer must          hearts of electbelievers. He opens the
from before the foundation of the            be aware of the constant danger of          closed and softens the hardened heart,
world) belong. Only the redeemed             thinking that man's efforts, programs,      He infuses new qualities into the will,
(the ones He so painfully purchased          and funds accomplish this awesome           and He illuminates the mind. Then
with His suffering and death) belong         task. It is only "the Lord" who does        He actuates and strengthens these
to the church. It is obvious that only       the adding.           i       ;             faculties so they bring forth the fruits
Jesus knows who they are. So it is He             All the glory for anypositive          ofobediencetoGod'scommandnnents.
who adds "such as should be saved."          fruit of any mission or evangelistic        (John 3:5; Acts 16:14).
God has "given him power over all            effortbelongstotheLord  JesusChrist.              The second means Jesus uses in
flesh, that he should give eternal life           This is the Reformed faith.            adding to and building His church is
to as many as thou (God) hast given                  *  $  *  *  $  *  *                 the preaching of the Word of God by
him" (John 17:2).                                 How does the Lord add to the           the church. That Christ is the One
     Secondly, only the Lord Jesus           church? How does Jesus execute the          who adds to the church does not
Christ has the right to add to the           task of missions?.                          make the church inactive and pas-
church, making her evangelism fruit-              Heusesmeans.  OneisHisSpirit.          sive. The sovereign Lord uses His
ful. No one else has that right. This is     Another is the,Word and the preach:,        body, the instituted church. He gives
His right because He only is the Lord        ing of that Word. For proof I would         the church the responsibility of preach-
and Head of the church (Eph. 1:22,           point to the context of Acts 2:47 ("The' ing the gospel and of praying that the
23). This is His right because the           Lord added to the church daily"),.          Spiritwillbind the Word on the hearts
church is  .His purchased property,          which speaks of two major events:           of men. Via its officebearers, the
His wife, and His body (Acts 20:28;          the. Spirit of Christ was poured out        church is busy in the sending forth
Eph. 5:15; I Cor. 3:23).        A,           upon the church, and Peter preached.' and supervision of the preaching of
     And thirdly, it is `fitting and nec-    Also I would refer you to the quote         the Gospel (Acts 13:1-3;  Rom. 10:13-
essarji:that  the Lord does the adding       which I gave earlier from the Heidel-       1    7      )    .

                                                                                                   May X,1991 / Standard Bearer / 377


I          It is not with ginunicks, nor with     and continues to do for him through          but love of God and of His Word.
     charisma or friendliness or four spiri-      the preaching of the good news, he           Each believer reverences the holy
     tuallaws that the Lord adds. He uses         prays for the preacher, for the preach-      things of God's kingdom and cause.
     theinstrumentalityofthepurepreach-           ing, and for the efficacy of the preach-          After taking care of things at
     ing of the Word of God. The Lord has         ing.                                         home (eachbeliever fulfilling the call-
     determined in His good pleasure to                    Secondly, each believer is used     ing to maintain the spiritual health of
     tie Himself to the use of the preaching      of the Lord, the principal agent in all      his congregation), then we look out-
     of His Word.                                 evangelism, when he gives himself            side of the home (evangelism and
           This may seem "foolishness" to         actively to work for the healthy life in     witnessing). Remember, thatifthings
     many. It did in Paul's day, and it           his congregation. Notice that the state-     are not well at home, we cannot ex-
     certainly does in ours. But we must          ment that Jesus adds to the church           pect God's blessing upon our mission
     bevery careful that we donot attempt         (acts 2:47) comes as a conclusion to         efforts. God can give His blessing
     (pretend) to be wiser than God. "It          the description of thelife of the church     anyway, but usually He causes us to
     pleased God by the foolishness of            in verses 42-46. This passage men-           reap what we sow.
     preaching to save them that believe."        tions three things, all of which make             Thirdly, each believer is used of
     Remember that "the foolishness of            for a healthy spiritual life in any con-     the Lord when by his conduct and
     God is wiser than men." Therefore            gregation. Every believer plays a            speech he witnesses of the truth to his
     "we preach Christ crucified, unto the        very important role,in the develop-          neighbor. It is the preaching which
     Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the          ment and maintenance of these three          continually motivates him in his wit-
     Greeks foolishness; but unto them            characteristics.                             nessing. It is the preaching which
     which are called, both Jews and                       One, the church at Jerusalem was    gives him the contents of his witness-
     Greeks, Christ the power of God and          characterized by steadfast continu-          ing. And it is to the preaching that he
     the wisdom of God." These quotes             ance in the apostles' doctrine. The          seeks to bring others.
     are from I Corinthians 1:21-25.              whole congregation took a lively in-              This great calling of each be-
                $  $  $  *  *  *  *               terest in the Word, coming together          lieveris a subject which I want to treat
           And the Lord is pleased also to        for the hearing and discussion of that       in a later installment in this rubric.
     use the instrumentality of the office of     Word eagerly and expectantly. Each           Meanwhile I would recommend an
     believer. This office functions as an        member lived in the Word. And each           excellent treatment of this subject in a
     extension of the preaching of the            member lived out of it.                      sermon by the Rev. Charles Terpstra.
     Word.                                                 Two, the church was (andis to       A tape of this sermon may be ob-
           The Bible teaches that all believ-     be) characterized by the rich fellow-        tained for $3 from:
     ers have the responsibility, in their        ship of the members. This is ex-                 Protestant Reformed Church
     own station and calling and accord-          pressed chiefly in their gathering of-             16511 South Park Avenue
     ing to their gifts, to let their light so    ten for the worship of God under the               South Holland, IL 60473
     shine before men that their heavenly         preaching and sacraments. It is also         Ask for Tape #739B.
     Father may be glorified (Matt. 5:lP          expressed by the love shown to the                      *  *  *  *  *  *  *
     16; Ps. 51:13; Prov. 11:30; IPet. 3:1,2).    poor members, with each member                    To conclude, the One who ex-
           The beginning of the fulfillment       living in the consciousness that he is a     ecutes the Plan of God in the building
     of this calling occurs when each be-         part of the one body of Christ.              of His churchis the Lord Jesus Christ.
     liever, out of the grateful experience               Three, the church was (and is to     It is He who gathers, defends, and
     of his own salvation, supports and           be) characterized by pious fear of           preserves a church. He does so by His
     delights in the preaching of Christ          God. Thismakesforaspiritualchurch.           Word and Spirit.
     crucified every Sabbath. Out of the          Then continuance in doctrine is not               Worthy is the Lamb!! Q
     consciousness of what God has done           dead orthodoxy or mere formalism,


                                                             I Shall Be Satisfied

     After the storms and the trials are          In that bright world where there             When I awake in that City of Gold,
       past,                                        cometh no night,                           When those I loved I again shal.1  be-
     After the shadows which sorrow has           Where ev'ry hope is perfected in light,        hold,
       cast,                                      When faith shall be changed into             Amid all that rapture and beauty un-
     And I am at home with my Savior at             wonderful sight,                             told,
       last,                                              I shall be satisfied.                     I shall be satisfied.        -
          I shall be satisfied.                                                                                                  .j
                                                                                                                      Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                         March 1,1933

     378 /Standard Bearer / May i&l991


A Cloud of                                    Anselm of
Wifnesses
Prof. Herman Hanko                            Canterbury

     The Middle Ages, from the time           were representative of various cur-           the great Lanfranc, one of the most
of Augustine, bishop of Hippo, to the         rents of thought in the days in which         notable men of his age. Lanfranc was
time of the great Reformation, was a          they lived. We shall have to tolerate         the prior' of the monastery and took
period of spiritual darkness. The             their mistakes.                               Anselm under his wing to give him
Roman Catholic Church ruled su-                     Anselm, archbishop of Canter-           the education which was to prepare
preme in Europe. It is difficult, if not      bury, was one such man.                       him for his life's calling.
impossible, to find the church during               Anselm was born in 1033 in                   When Lanfranc left France to
much of this troubled period. It is           Aosta of Northern Italy in the shadow         become Archbishop of Canterbury,
perhaps to this period, along with            of the towering Alps. His mother,             Anselm was appointed  prmr in
others, that our Belgic Confession re-        Ermenberga, was a pious and godly             Lanfranc's place. Already Anselm's
fers in Article XXVII:                        woman who gave her son such spiri-            reputation as a scholar, a man of bril-
  And this holy Church is preserved or        tual education as was important for           liant intellect, a theologian of consid-
  supported by God, against the rage          the religious upbringing of a child           erable note, and yet a kind and gentle
  of the whole world; though she some-        born in the church. His father was            man, caught the attention of Europe's
  times (for a while) appearsvery small,      quite another matter. Gundulf by              leaders. He served as prior in Bet
  and in the eyes of men, to be reduced       name, he was a thoroughly worldly
  to nothing: as during the perilous                                                        from 1078-1092. During this period
  reign of Ahab, the Lord reserved            and rude nobleman who attempted               he did much of his writing.
  unto him seven thousand men, who            to dominate the lives of others and                In 1092 he too was called to Eng-
  had not bowed their knees to Baal.          who was without compassion or sym-            land, where his reputation had pre-
     In our discussion of outstanding         pathy in his dealings with others.            ceded him. He went at the request of
men in the church, it is difficult to find    Ermenberga lived with the "Nabal"             the Earl of Chester, who wanted
men about whom to write who were              of her day. Gundulf's spiritualinsen-         Anselm's help in his sickness. Anselm
genuinely men of God in all respects          sitivity changed when he lay on his           did not remain idle in England but
__ i.e., men who held firmly to the           death bed and, just prior to dying, he        spent his time organizing the monas-
truth and who represented the cause           became a monk to escape, if possible,         tery of St. Werburg's in Chester. But
of God without the additions of erro-         the torments of hell.                         after a year had expired, Lanfranc
neous and Roman Catholic heresy                    It seems that Anselm, from youth         died, and Anselm was appointed to
and practice. In short, there were            on, was a sensitive and somewhat              Lanfranc's place once again, this time
few, if any, who were in all respects         mystically inclined youth who de-             as Archbishop of Canterbury. He
faithful to the Word of God.                  lighted in contemplating the soaring          took this position with the greatest
     In treating men of this period,          pinnacles of the mountains in his back-       reluctance because the archbishopric
therefore, we have to deal with men           yard as means to bring him nearer to          of Canterbury was the highest eccle-
who carried the freight of Romish             God. In his own words, when he was            siastical post in England; and all the
error with them. But, in spite of this,       not yet 15, he sought fl to shape his life    responsibility of the welfare of the
they were men who were, for one               according to God."                            church fell upon his shoulders. He
reason or another, outstanding men                 This soonbrought himinto such            was ordained to this office inDecem-
in the history of the church, or who          fierce conflict with his father that he       ber 4, 1093 and served here for 16
                                              left home, never to return, and fled to       yearsuntilhisdeathonApril21,11109.
                                              Normandy in France, far to the north
                                              and west. There he found his heart's
                                              desire and became a monk in the
                                              Dominican monastery at  Bet. It was
                                              the gracious providence of God which
Prof. Hanko is p'ofessor of Church His-       led him to the monastery of Bet, for
tory and Nezo Testament in the Protes-        here he came under the influence of           1    A prior of a monastery was its gov-
tant Xejormed  Seminary.                                                                    erning head.

                                                                                                   May 15,1991 I Standard Bearer I379


He served,with  distinction and has           gered him was the greediness and           faith, Anselm himself followed the
gone down in history as one of the           immoderation of his fellow monks.           dictum: faith precedes knowledge.
great churchmen of the Middle Ages.               He was an extremely mild man           "I do not seek to understand," he
      Wemusttrytoputsomefleshon               who suffered easily the follies of his     wrote, "in order that I may believe,
these bones of Anselm.                        fellow men. The story is told that at      but I believe in order that I may un-
      There are many different facets         the Synod of Rockingham in 1095,           derstand, for of this I feel sure, that, if
to his character.                             during a period of bitter controversy      I did not believe, I would not under-
      Anselm was a gentle man, ap-            among the delegates, Anselm was            stand." Certainly in this respect he
parently more like his mother than            noticed sound asleep with a smile on       was on the right track. But he was not
his father. This gentleness was shown         his face.                                  always faithful to his own comrnit-
in his love for animals. The story is              Three aspects of Anselm's char-       ment.
told that as Archbishop of Canter-            acter and work are important.                    Anselm is the father of the so-
bury he was riding his horse from                  Anselm found himself deeply           called ontological proof.of God:. In
Windsor when a rabbit found refuge           involved in the investiture contro-         attempting to prove by reason God's
from its hunters beneath his horse.           versy in England. While this contro-       existence, he argued that all menhave
He dismounted with tears, picked up           versywas a complicated one andwas          an idea in their minds of "most per-
thequiveringrabbit,andsharplyrep-             carried out over several centuries, its    fect being." But, so he argued,' that
rimanded the hunters by comparing            basic issues are. easily -understood.       which is most perfect being must ex-
the plight of the rabbit to the plight of    Many of the higher clergy in the            ist in fact as well as in thought. Hence,
a dying man who fears the torment of          Romish church were also feudal lords       God exists. Philosophers for centu-
punishment to come.                           who ruled over vast estates. The           ries struggled with this "proof" of
      Anselm was not a great preacher.       pope wanted to control the clergy,          God's existence, and efforts were con-
His strength lay in study and teach-          something which he could do only if        stantly being made to show him
ing. Fe was able.to counsel troubled         he possessed the right to ordain the        wrong. However, apart from the
souls who sought his help. He easily          clergy into office. On the other hand,     whole question of whether Anselm's
understood the problems of spiritual         the kings of Europe-also wanted to          proof is sound or not, the fact is, as
struggles with sin and doubt. He             ordain the clergy because these same        everychildofGodknows,thatGodis
could enter into the minds of his stu-       clergy were secular rulers who ruled        so great that He lies beyond the reach
dents and anticipate and answer ques-        under the king. The kings claimed,          of human proof. He is God. He can
tions which they dared not ask. He            therefore, that they should have the       be known and believed only by faith.
carried on an extended correspon-             right to appoint to office since these           In all the Middle Ages, almost           '
dence in which he was always under-          bishopsand archbishops were under           no advancement in the truth of Scrip-
standing and sympathetic, but firm           the secular jurisdiction of the king.       ture was made. Anselm stands out as
when this was needed. He offered                   But the bottom line, as is usually    an exception. If he is worthy of our
advice, compliments, consolation,            the case, was money. Both the popes         `respect for no other reason, we ought
reproof, and affection to those who          and the kings wanted the taxes and          to know about him for his doctrine of
sought his counsel. To one troubled          -revenues.from these estates as their       the atoning sacrifice of Christ. He
monk he wrote: "Of evil works we             own.. The pope wanted the money to          carried this truth beyond anything
ought to repent, and forsake them            flow intothe  coffers of Rome, and the      the church had confessed prior t'o his
before we die: lest the. day find us in      kings wanted the money to come into         time. He developed his views in an
them. But of good works we ought to          the royal treasury. Then too the love       important book called  Cur  Dew
persevere till the end, thatinthemour        of money was the root of all evil.          Horrzo?,  or,  FVhy Did God Become
soulmaybe taken out of life." Hewas                Anselm was deeply involved in         Mm?  He answered his own question
surely beyond his times in education         this controversy in England, but was        by arguing that the incarnation and
and was one of the most popular              a loyal member of the church who did        atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ
teachers of his day. He maintained a         what he could to stymie the actions of
discipline which was wise and fair.          William Rufus, wanton son of Wil-
When a fellow abbot complained that          liam the Conqueror, and Henry1 to           2     The scholastics were the &eat  uni-
he could not improve his b.oys, how- 3       ordain clergy. In his loyalty to the        versity teachers, professors, and theolo-
ever much he beat them, Anselm re-           pope he was forced to flee England          gians who wrote voluminously on Itheo-
sponded: "Have you tried not-beat-           two. different times to save his life.      logical questions. One of their chief goals
ing them?"                                   Part of his archbishop tenure was           was to harmonize faith and reason, to
     Anselm also was given to works          spent inexile in France.                    synthesize biblical truth with ancient
of mercy. ,His greatest delight was in             Anselm was also a thinker of          Greek philosophy, especially. that of
nursing the sickin the hospitals of his      great note. He is, in fact, often called    Aristotle. Some of the well-know.9  scho-
day and taking the poor under his.           the "father of the scholastics."2  While    ,lastics were Thomas Aquinas,
                                                                                         Bonave&ra, Peter Abelard,  &?l Wil-
care.. About the only thing that an-         many in his day set reason before           liam O&am.                         ?:
380 /Standard Bearer / May 15,199l


was necessary because of the justice         from these writings. In a prayer to St.                    will look up to me?
of God. We need not  .go into his            John the Evangelist Anselm prays:                        If God turns his f&e  horn  me, who
argument here, for it was substan-              Jesus, against whom I have griev-                       will look towards me?
tially taken over by our own Heidel-               ously sinned,                                      If God hates me, who will dare speak
berg Catechism in Lord's Days V and                 Lord, whom I have wickedly de-                      on my behalf?
VI. To read these Lord's Days is to                spised,                                                 0 God, `merciful and pitiful,,
                                                                                                      do you indeed ward off one who
read a brief summary of Anselm's                OmnipotentGod,whoseangerIhave                           would return to you,
argument. His great insights into                  stirred up by pride;
                                                    you are the lover of John, your                   so thatyoucannotbeartohavemercy
these truths have become part of the               blessed apostle,                                        upon one who cleaves to you?
confessional heritage of the Reformed               and to him your terrified accused                 Will you curse one who has grieved
churches.                                          flees.                                               you so much that you willno t hear
      Anselmwrotemanymeditations                Your sinner, your offender, however                     any of your friends on his behalf?
and  prayers.3  It is enlightening to              great his wickedness,                                . . .
read them. Being a child of his times,              however great his disgrace,                            This is instructive -- and yet in-
he directed his prayers to Mary and                 holds the name of your beloved                  evitable. Within the context of Romish
many of `the saints. They are filled               between him and the threatening                  thought, true comfort is beyond,the
with a profound understanding of                   sentence                                         reach of the sinner, for he must merit
                                                    of your just judgment.
sin, of the struggle which the Chris-                                                               peace with God through his own good
                                                By that blessed love spare him who
tian experiences in his battle against             seeks John's protection.                         works. It is all reminiscent ofluther's
sin, and of his longing for forgiveness         Lord, by what name will you have                    great struggles. Within Roman Ca-
and holiness. They breathe a spirit of             mercy upon sinners                               tholicism, comfort is impossible.
genuine piety and godliness.                        if you condemn someone who                             These prayers underscore the
      And yet there is one characteris-            prays                                            great gospelof the Reformationwhich
tic of them which' cannot escape the                by the name of your beloved?                    broke like a thunderclap over Eu-
attention of the reader: Anselmnever                Lord, under  what cover is there                rope. We have, the Reformers in-
came to assurance. He never attained               protection,                                      sisted, a gospel which brings peace to
                                                if under the name of your beloved
comfort and peace. Always reaching,                                                                 God's people.  We come with com-
                                                   there is punishment?
never attaining, he continues lost in           Where is there refuge if with your                  fort. Can you imagine the mighty
what is almost hopeless and black                  beloved there is peril?                          power, on Europe's despairing
despair. We give here a few quotes              Lord, do not feel hatred for him who                throngs, of that- simple question and
                                                   flees to your beloved.                           answer with which our Heidelberg
                                                Lord, Lord, do not let my iniquity                  Catechism begins? 0 What is thy only
3     A number of these have been pub-
lished and are available in paperback put          avail for damnation . . . .                      comfort in life and in death? That I
out by Penguin Classics. They are well              Or, again; in a prayer to St. Ni-               belong . . . to my faithful Savior Jesus
worth reading to gain some sense of the      cholas:                                                Christ." That is all. That is enlough.
deeply spiritual character of Anselm.           But if God looks down on me, who                    Anselm never knew it. 0

                                             `Book.Reviews

A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan           "Why We Need the Puritans." Al-                          grace. . . . The covenant of grace has
Vision of the Christian Life, by J. I        most  the closing words of the book                      been called the characteristic Puritan
Packer.  Wheaton,  IL: Crossway                                                                       doctrine.. . . And to the minds of the
                                             a r e   a   c o m p a r i s o n   o f   m o d e r n
Books, 1990. 367 pages. Hardcover.                                                                    Puritans the direct end and purpose
                                             evangelicals  and thePuritans,  as "zany                 of the covenant of grace was tobring
$15.95. (Reviewed by the Editor.)            pygmies" and "wise giants."                              menintounionandcommunionwith
                                                    Of greatinterest to theReformed                   God (p. 202).
     Those who like J. I. Packer and         covenantal thinker is Packer's insis-                  Communion with  God, for the  Puri-
those who like the Puritans will like        tence  that the doctrine of the cov-                   tans, was the "comprehensive reality
this book.. It should sell well. It          enant was central in Puritan theology                  that is central to Christian existence. .
deserves to. It is a splendid introduc-      and practice and that the covenant-                    . . The thought of communion with
tion to Puritanism and the leading           was seen as communi&  wit-h God. In                    God takes us to the very heart of
Puritans. In  his characteristically lu-     the chapter on "The Spirituality of                    Puritan theologyandreligion"  (p. 201).
cid styli+ Packer tells us what Puritan-     John Owen," Packer writes:                             It is especially in the area of the expe-
ism essentially was and what the Pu-           We all know that the Puritans were                   rience and practice of this commun-
ritans taught and practiced. Packer is         deeply and constantly concerned                      ion that Reformed people,  .even
an advocate. The opening chapter is,           with the doctrine of the covenant of                 thoughnot "zanypygmies," canlearn
                                                                                                                 May 15,1991  I Standard Seaw  I 381


from the Puritans, many of whom             edifying of the church and for the          Desire to be with Christ," and his
were, in fact, thorough-going Presby-       gathering and perfecting of the saints      sermon on Song of Solomon 5:16,
terians and ardent disciples of John        (cf. the Westminster Confession, 7.6,       "Christ's Loveliness."' The latter is
Calvin.                                     14.1,25.3; the Heidelberg Catechism,        typical both of the Puritan fascination
      The Reformed preacher should          Q. 65; the Belgic Confession, Articles      with the "song of songs" (which we
read the chapter on "Puritan Preach-        27-35). So far as I know, there is          tend to neglect, sometimes studiously)
ing." So should the Reformed elder          nothing in the Reformed creeds con-         and of the Puritan manner of explain-
so that he knows what is expected of        cerning revivals at all, much less any      ing the Song. Preston, one of the
every preacher as regards his attitude      teaching that leads Christians to pin       more celebrated Puritans, has six ser-
toward preaching; his preparation for       their hopes on them for the quicken-        mons on II Chronicles 214, Jehovah's
it ("most of the Puritans were writing      ing of dead churches and for a coming       answer to Solomon's prayer at the
their sermons out in full to the end of     great victory of the church in all the      dedication of the temple. What all the
their lives"); and the kind of sermon       world.                                      sermons have in common is the Puri-
he should produce. The Puritan ser-              The worth and interest of  A           tan emphasis on the experience of the
mon was expository in method; doc-          Questfor  Godliness are enhanced by         workings of grace in the heart.
trinal in content; orderly in arrange-      apt quotations throughout from the               The Almost Christian Discov-
ment; popular in style; Christ-cen-         Puritans themselves.  n                     ered (the title is taken from Agrippa's
tered in orientation; experimental in                                                   strangeresponsetoPaulinActs26:28)
interest; and piercing in application.      The Sermons of ThomasWatson,  by            is an almost frightening treatment of
Commenting on the doctrinal nature          Thomas Watson (736 `pages, hard-            another characteristic Puritan theme:
of Puritan sermons, Packer remarks,         cover, $29.95); The Puritans on Con-        how closely one can approximate
"Doctrinal preaching certainly bores        version, by Samuel'Bolton, Nathaniel        Christianity without being a true
the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal    Vincent, and Thomas Watson (211             Christian.
preaching that will save Christ's           pages, hardcover, $16.95); The                   The bookon conversion contains
sheep" (p. 285).                            Golden Sceptre, by John Preston (248        three sermons on this topic by three
      The chapter on "Jonathan              pages, hardcover, $14.95); HeartTrea-       Puritan preachers. Included is the
Edwards and Revival" does nothing           sure, by Oliver Heywood  (400 pages,        sermon by Vincent on Ezekiel 33:11,
to allay the fear of a Reformed man         hardcover, $21.95); TheAlmostChris-         "turn ye, turn ye, from your  {evil
that the peculiar hope of the salvation     tian Discovered, by,Matthew  Mead           ways," etc. It strikes me that the 17th
of the church by means of revivals          (211 pages, hardcover, $10.95). Pub-        century Puritan is far more res trained
slights the Spirit's operations through     lished by  Soli Deo- Gloria Publica-        in expressing a sincere desire of God
the ordinary means of grace regularly       tions, 213 W. Vincent St., Ligonier, PA     for the salvation of those who perish
exercised by the instituted church.         15658. [Reviewed by the Editor.]            than are many of the self-proclaimed
Edwards supposed that a revival is               J. I. Packer's new work on the         disciples of the Puritans in the 20th
"the most glorious of any work of           Puritans, A Questfor  Godliness (re-        century.
God whatsoever." The Spirit's "ordi-        viewed above), encourages turning                Most of the books are the only
nary" work in the congregation              to the Puritans themselves. There is        modern reprints of these works avail-
through weekly preaching, daily             no better place to start than these five    able. All have been modernized as to
teaching, periodical administration of      1989 and I990 reprints issued by Soli       spelling and the formation of letters.
the sacraments, and on-going disci-         Deo Gloria Publications. All are books           They make good  devoticmal
pline suffers in comparison with the        of sermons by Puritans of the 16th          reading. These Puritan writers have
rare and extraordinary revival:             and 17th centuries, with the excep-         a lively, expressive, epigrammatic
  From the fall of man, to our day, the     tion  of,  Hecrrt  Treasure.  Oliver        style. Watson is a master. Here is a
  work of redemption in its effect has      Heywood'sbookisanextendedmedi-              sample (he is setting forth love of the
  mainly been carried on by remark-         tation on Matthew 12:35, "A good            Word as a mark of the godly man):
  able communications of the Spirit of                                                    Do we love the sanctity of the word?
  God. Though there be a more con-          man, out of the good treasure of the          The word preached is' to beat down
  stant influence of God's Spirit al-       heart, bringeth forth good things."           sin, and advance holiness: do we
  ways in some degree attending his         Heywood's concern is the spiritual,           love it for its spirituality and purity?
  ordinances; yet the way in which the      condition of a good man's heart; and        : Many love the word preached on1.y
  greatest things have been ,done to-       how to preserve it.                           for its eloquence and notion; they
  wards carrying on this work, always            The other works are sermons..            come to a sermon as to a music-
  have been by remarkable effusions,        One benefit for the preacher, there-          lecture, or as to a garden to pick
  at special seasons of mercy (p. 323).     fore, is that he learns firsthand the         flowers, but not to have their lusts
      This is a radical departure from      nature of Puritan preaching. The sub-        subdued, or their hearts bettered:
the Reformed faith's teaching on the        jects are wide-ranging. Of particular         these are like a foolish woman, which
Spirit's use of the ordinary means of       interest in Watson are his funeral ser-     paintsherface,butneglects  herhealth
grace in the instituted church for the      mon on Philippians 1:23, "The Saint's         (p:439).  W

382 /Standard Betirer  I May 15,199l


     Mr. Benjamin Wigger                           News from our Churches

     Congregational Highlights                     its performance numerous selections           "The Coming Antichrist," and on Fri-
             Rev. B. Gritters, pastor of Byron     to be sung by the audience that               day evening Rev. Bruinsma spoke on
     Center, MI PRC, hoped to preach on a          complemented their Cantata. A spe-            "The Final Judgment."
     series of texts submitted to him by his       cial offering was received to help with             According to Rev. Bruinsma,
     congregation. Plans called for the            the purchase of a new organ.                  there were 35,to  40 young adults in
I    membership of Byron Center to write                 The Consistory of Lynden has            attendance. They came from Califor-
     down special texts that they may have         recently approved a new project un-           nia, Washington, Michigan, Wiscon-
     found difficult, either doctrinally or        dertaken by their Extension Commit-           sin, and, of course, Colorado. They
     practically. They could drop this text,       tee. Aroomintheirnewly-completed              ranged in age from 18 to about 30.
     alongwith possible explanation of the         building has been set aside for use as              Besides- the speeches and dis-
     difficulty, into a Sunday collection          a Church Library. It is this committee's      cussion groups dealing with the last
     plate, or, even easier, slip the note         goal to obtain books which will be            times, activities planned included
I    under the study door. Rev. Gritters           useful for the congregation in Bible          volleyball, downhill skiing, and tub-
     hoped to take a selection of these texts      study, as well as books considered            ing. However, because of warmer
     and preach on most (not necessarily           classics in Reformed theology. These          than expected temperatures, some of
     all) of them.                                 bookswouldbeavailabletothemem-                these activities were changed. From
             The congregation of our First         bers of the congregation for their own        Rev. Bruinsma's account, it was a
     PRC in Edmonton, Canada was in-               personal use. We can also report that         great weekend, in a very scenic loca-
     vited to stay after the afternoon ser-        already Lynden's library has received         tion, and very worthwhile.
     vice for supper on March 24. After            a donation' of 20-30 books from a                   We could also add that Rev.
     eating- together, the congregation            brother in Grand Rapids, MI, and              Bruinsma remained in Loveland for
     planned to have a sing-song with spe-         from a member of their own congre-            the weekend, preaching there twice
     cial numbers by the choir and the             gation.                                       on Sunday, and giving a slide presen-
     catechismclasses(Beginners#134and                   The Choral Society of Faith PRC         tation of his missionary work in Ja-
     #57 and Seniors #297  and #353). Cof-         in Jenison, MI, as well as the choir of       maica on Monday evening.
     fee was also served for those who             the Hope PRC in Walker, MI, pre-
     wished to stay after the program.             sentedtheirannualSpringconcertsin             Ministerial Calls
             A special Sing-Along Evening          their church auditoriums on March                   The PRC in Kalamazoo, MI has
     was held on Easter evening in our             24 and April 7, respectively.                 formed a new trio for missionary to
     newest church auditorium, Lynden,                   During the first week in April,         Venice, FL consisting of Revs. J.
     WA PRC. Lynden's choir included in            the young adults of the Loveland, CO          Kortering, R. Moore, and T. Miersma.
                                                   PRC sponsored a Young Adults' Re-                   On Sunday, April 21, the con-
                                                   treat at the Covenant Heights Confer-         gregation of theHudsonville,  MIPRC
     Mr. WiggerisamemberoftheProtestant            ence Center, just south of Estes Park,        extended a call to Rev. D. Kuiper to
     Reformed Church of Hudsonville,  Michi-       CO. On Thursday evening Rev.                  serve as missionary to Larne, r\Torth-
     gan.                                          Cammenga spoke on the theme of                ern Ireland. 0



             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
             The Consistoty and congregation of         The Consistoryand congregation of              The Priscilla-Society of the First
     the lmmanuel Protestant Reformed Church       the lmmanuel Protestant Reformed              PRC (Grand Rapids, Michigan) mourns
     of Lacombe, express their Christian sym-      Church of Lacombe express their Chris-        the loss of a beloved and faithful member
     pathyto Mr. and Mrs. John Wierenga and        tian sympathy to Mrs. Greta Wierenga,         and current president of our society,
     family in the death of her father, and        John Wierenga and family, and Jim                        JESSIE DYKSTRA.
     grandfather,                                  Wierenga and family in the death of their     The  Scciety also expresses. its Christian
                MR. ROY KLOPSTRA,                  sister and aunt,                              sympathy to our member, Jean Dykstra,
     on March 14, 1991.                                  MRS. AGNES WIERENGA,                    in the loss of her sister..
             May our heavenly Father comfort       on March 23,199l. "Precious in the sight            "The Lord knoweth the days of the
I    the bereaved with the assurance that He       of the Lord is the death of his saints,"      upright: and their inheritance shall be
     doeth all things well.                        Psalm 116:15.                                 forever" (Psalm 37:18).
                      Rev. D. Kuiper, President                     Rev. D. Kuiper, President                    Roselle Ezinga, President
                           Jim Wierenga, Clerk                          Jim Wierenga, Clerk                     Elaine Rietema, Secretary

                                                                                                         May 15,1991 I Standard Bearer I383


   THE
STANDD!!                                                                                                                SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                         Postage Paid at
  BkARER                                                                                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan
  t?O. Box 6064
 Grand Rapids, MI 49506


      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     VanBaren,  president of the 1990 Synod,
      On May 14, 1991 our parents and                        The Consistory and congregation of     will preach the sermon. Synodical  del-
grandparents                                        the Edgerton  Protestant Reformed Church        egates are requested to meet with the
MR. and MRS. GERALD BOUWKAMP                        express their heartfelt sympathy to Mr.         Consistory before the service.
celebrated their 45th wedding anniver-              Cora Bleyenburg, Esther Bleyenburg, Mr.                   Delegates in need of lodging should
sary. We are thankful to our heavenly               and Mrs. Dennis Bleyenburg and family,          contact Mr. Peter Koole, 554 KenIowa
Father for giving us God-fearing parents,           Mr. and Mrs. Art Bleyenberg, Mrs. Hattie        SW., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49!jO4.
and for the love and Christian instruction          VerHey,  Mrs. Dorothy Brands, and Mrs.          Phone: (616) 453-2524.
we have received from them. May the                 ChristinaVanderWolde,  whose husband,                                           Consistory of
Lord continue to  bless them and keep               father, grandfather, and brother,                         Hope Protestant Reformed Church
them in His care in the years ahead.                          MR. DICK BLEYENBURG,                                                P. Koole, Clerk
      "But the mercy of the Lord is from            was taken to his eternal rest on March 20,
everlasting to everlasting upon them that           1991.                                                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
fear him, and his righteousness unto                         May they be comforted by the Word                The Ladies' Aid Society of First
children's children" (Psalm  103:17).               of God in I Corinthians 15:55-57,  "0 death,    Church (Grand Rapids, Ml) wishes to
Henry and Shirley Bergman                           where is thy sting? 0 grave, where is thy       express their sincere sympathy to our
      Barb and Randy, Tom, Julie, Dan               victory? The sting of death is sin; and the     fellow member, Jean Dykstra, in the loss
Gary and Rachel Bouwkamp                            strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to    of her sister
Bill and Ruth Rutgers                               God, which giveth us the victory through                      JESSIE DYKSTRA.
      Pam, Sandee, Ruthie, Katie, Billy             our Lord Jesus Christ."                         We pray that God will comfort her from His
Gerry and Kathy Schut                                          Rev. Michael DeVries, President      Holy Word believing that our Father will
      Doug and Todd                                                     Andrew Brummel, Clerk       never forsake us and He is always at our
Dave and Dawn Bouwkamp                                                                              side.       Mrs. George DeVries, President
      Jeff                                              RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                 Mrs. Sidney DeYoung,  Secretary
Dave and Carol DeVries                                       The Consistoryand congregation of
      Kim                                           the Edger-ton Protestant Reformed Church                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Lori Bouwkamp                                       express their sincere sympathyto Mr. and                  On May 8, 1991,
                           Hudsonvllle. Michigan    Mrs. Bernard Hop and their family in the        MR. and MRS. HENRY VANDER KOLK
                                                    loss of his brother,                            celebrated their 45th wedding anniver-
      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY'                                       MR. GERRIT HOP,                    sary. We, their children and grandschil-
      The children of                               of Artesia, CA.                                 dren, give thanks to our heavenly Father
    WILLIAM and CAROL HUBER                                  May they be sustained by God's         for the love, guidance, and covenant in-
wish to announce their 25th wedding an-             grace and comforted in His Word: "The           struction they have given us through the
niversary, which was on April 21. They              Lord will give strength unto his people; the    years. It is our prayer that God will
are members of Faith Protestant Re-                 Lord will bless his people with peace"          continue to be with them and bless them.
formed Church. Their children are:                  (Psalm 29:li).                                            "For the Lord is good, his mercy is
Craig and Heidi Ondersma                                       Rev. Michael DeVries, President      everlasting, and his truth endureth tlo all
     Anthony and Chelsea                                                Andrew Brummel, Clerk       generations" (Psalm 100:3).
William and Diane Huber                                                                             Jerry and Shirley VanderKolk
Chad Huber                                                       CALL TO SYNOD!1                    Jim and Kathy VanderKolk
Katie Huber                                                  Synod 1990 appointed Hope Prot-        Mike and Linda Zuverink
      We give thanks to God for our Chris-          estant Reformed Church, Walker, Michi-                    15 grandchildren
tian parents, and we rejoice with them in           gan the calling churchforthe 1991 Synod.                                        Holland, Mlchlgan
their 25th anniversary. Faithfully they                   The Consistory hereby notifies our            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
have raised us according to God's Word,             churches that the 1991 Synod of the                       The Martha Society of the Doon PR
and have set an example of what a Chris-            Protestant Reformed Churches in America         Church would like to express their Chris-
tian marriage is. We would like to let them         will convene, the Lord willing, on Tuesday,     tian sympathy to their fellow member,
know that we appreciate all they have               June 11 th, 1991 at 9:00 AM in the South-       Mrs. Henrietta Klein, in the loss of her
done for us, and to tell them we love them          west Protestant Reformed Church, 4875           sister
dearly.                                             Ivanrest, Grandville, Michigan. (Hope                      MRS. JEANETTE LEMS.
      Psalm 1285,  6, "The Lord shall               Church will be undergoing extensive reno-       May our heavenly Father comfort the
bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see          vation in June.)                                bereaved with the assurance that He
the good of Jerusalem all the`days of thy                 The Pre-Synodical Service will be         doeth all things well.
life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children`s            held in Southwest Church on Monday                                Rev. R. Dykstra, President
children, and peace upon Israel."                   evening, June 10, at 7:30 PM. Rev. Gise                    Mrs. Gert VanDenTop,  Secretary

384 /Standard Bearer / May 15,199l


