                       THE

A Reformed         B!!ER
Semi-Man thly
Magazine





                              ACTS OF f?f~~D
                                      *ma
                                  yEARBOoK
                                    *mm1*`Q
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                                     1974





                      If anyone complain that he has been wronged by the decision
                   of a minor assembly, he shall have the right to appeal to a major
                   ecclesiastical assembly, and whatever may be agreed upon by a
                   majority vote shall be considered settled and binding, unless it be
                   proved to conflict with the Word of God or with the articles of the
                   church order, as long as they are not changed by a general synod.
                                                      Church Order of Dordrecht, Article 31

Vol. 67, No. 17
]une 1,199l


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                             June I, 1991                                        &DMD
Meditation - Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                                                                                                                                                              BEARER
   Casting Your Care Upon God . . . . . ..i..............~....................................                                                                                             387
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                     ISSN 0362-4692
   The Binding Decisions of a Reformed Synod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..a........ 389                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Publlshed by the Reformed Free Publishing Assoclatlon, Inc.
   PRC Synod 1991 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..........392                                 Second Class Postage PaM at Grand Rapkfs, Mkhlgan.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Man/in Kamps                                                                                                                                                          Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Eiearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                         P.O. Box 6064, Grand Rapkfs, MI 46516.
   The Purpose of Scripture (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*............................ 393                                                                          EDITORIAL COYMfllEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                                        secretary:  Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Managing Editori Mr. Don Doezsma
   The Importance of a Doctrinal Christianity ,.........,.........,,.,.............. 395                                                                                                                 DEPARTMENT EDITORS
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..s...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                      Rev.  Ronaid  Cammenga,  Prof.  Robert  Decker,  Rat.  Arle
                                                                                                                                                                                                         denl-lattog,  Rev.  Russell   Cykstra,  Rev.  Sany  GrItten!,  Rev.
   Hypocrite! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398    Cad Haak, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Mafvln
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Kamps,  Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jason Korterlng, Rev. Dale
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker ..,.............,.,.,~.......,,........,.........                                                                                                   399           Kulper,  Mr.  James   Lantlng,  Rev.  George  Lubbers,  Mrs.
                                                                                                                                                                                                         MarySeth  Lubbers,  Rev.  James  Slopsema,  Rev.  Charles
Guest Article - Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                                                                                                                       Terpstra, Rev. GlseVanSaren,  Rev. Ronald VanDverfoop, Mr.
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Senjamln W!gger,  Rev. Semard Wcudenbarg.
   Church Memberstiip in an Evil' Age .*............,.................,................. 400                                                                                                             EDITORIAL  OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS  EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  -.
                                                                                                                                                                                                         The standard sesmr           Mr. Ben Wlgger
Strength of Youth - Rev. Russell J. Dyksfra                                                                                                                                                              4949 ivanrest                8597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Granddlle,   Ml  46416        Hudsonvllle,  MI  49428
   Pilgrims and Strangers on our Way to . . . Earth? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403                                                                                       BUSINESS OFFICE               NEWZEALAND  OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                                         The standard  Bearer         The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Don Doezsma                   do Protestant Reformed
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                             P.O. Box 6064                  Church
                                                                                                                                                                                                         Grand Raplds, MI              S. VanHerk
   Bernard of Clairvaux .~...................~....~.~~~.~.~~.........~...~....................... 405                                                                                                      46516                      88 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                                         PH:  (616)  243-3712         Walnulomata, New Zealand
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger ,,,,..,,......,,.,,..,,,.,,.,... 407                                                                                                                                 (616) 531-1480
                                                                                                                                                                                                         FAX:   (616)  531-3033

                                                                                                                                                                                                         EDITORa POLICY
In This Issue . . .                                                                                                                                                                                      Every editor Is solely responsible for the contents of bls own
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386 /Standard Bearer I June 1,199l


                                                Casting Your Cares
 Meditation
 Rev. Jason Kortering                           Upon God

         Humble yourselves therefore under      means much to them, since they are          we are affected inside. The word
 themightyhandofGod,  thathemayexalt            nowforaseasoninheaviness,through            ycarem means, literally, to cut to pieces.
you in due time:                                manifold temptations which try their        When the things which take place in
Casting all your care upon him; for he          faith (I Peter M-7). These Christians       our lives cut us to pieces inside, they
careth for you.                                 were suffering for their refusal to         become cares. We begin to worry, we
                               I Peter 5:6,7    worship Caesar. They could not wor-         feel unsettled, and even anxious.
                                                ship Jehovah and Caesar, but only                 If we allow these cares to stay
         Care!                                  Jehovah; and this brought opposition        inside, we will suffer needlessly.
         How destructive cares can be.          from the authorities, social conflicts.     Hence Peter says, "Casting all your
         How marvelous caring can be.           They were driven from their homes           cares upon him, for he careth for
         There is good care; there is bad       and places of work. Their families          you." To cast is to throw off. The idea
care.                                           were separated and many of them             is that one consciously analyzes his
         Our. passage under consider-           were imprisoned and even slain. They        inner self and comes to terms, with
ation deals with both. Our cares are            knew poverty and famine as well. No         worry, identifies it, and throws it
bad. Hence, get rid of them; cast all           wonder they were anxious and filled         heavenward to get `rid of it by com-
your cares upon Him. Why should                 with cares.                                 mitting his way to God.
we do this? Because He, that is, God,                There are many saints of God in              That means that we will give up
cares for you. These words read liter-          our day who can identify with these         the control of our lives.
ally, "Casting all your anxiety (care)          early Christians. Persecution rages              That is the issue!
upon Him, for it matters to Him (He             throughout the world. Some of this is             We worry because we do not
cares) concerning you."                         among us as well. When husbands or          want God to have His way with us.
         What a word of encouragement!          wives abandon their spouses and                   At bottom, that is nothing but
Cast your anxiety upon God, for it              families, they leave them hurt and          perverse PRIDE.
matters to Him.                                 wanting. When trouble disrupts the                God sees it this way. The Holy
         It is obvious that the things which    church, fellow saints can be terribly       Spirit led Peter to write these words,
give rise to our anxieties (cares) are          cruel in the way they treat each other.     "Humble yourselves therefore under
very important to us. In the context,           Besides this, we have the usual con-        the mighty hand of God." Did you
the inspired Peter is writing to saints         cern for our needs. We think of many        read that correctly? Humble your-
who had big concerns. In the preced-            things which can interfere with our         selves. That is our problem with
ing chapter, I Peter 432, he cautions           usual pattern of living. The economy,       worry: we worry because we are not
them about fiery trials that are com-           for example, can change, and many of        humble enough. If we are honest with
ing upon them. The entire epistle is            us feel the effects of the recession        ourselves, we will understand this
directed,to  the "strangers, scattered          now. Job security is important to us,       clearly. We want things our way, we
throughout Pontus, Galatia,                     for we need money to meet our needs         want a certain job, we want a certain
Cappadocia, Asia, andBithynia."  He             and the needs of our families. We can       amount of money, we want a certain
assures them that they are begotten             so quickly be thrown into an emer-          house, we want certain friends, we
unto an inheritance which will not              gency situation: our health can change;     want life our way, we want CON-
fade away, and that they are kept by            we may face mounting hospital bills;        TROL! And if we don't get it we cry
the power of God unto that day. This            we can lose loved ones in death. We         out, WHY? Why do I have this dis-
                                                face the threats of war, the rise of the    ease? Why do I have this trouble in
                                                Antichrist, and all the suffering that      my life? Why should I lose my job?
                                                that involves as described for us in        When we are really in bad spiritual
Rev. KorteringispastoroftheProtestant           the Bible. The church today has many        shape, we even challenge God to ex-
Reformed Church of Grandville, Michi-           things of concern.                          plain it clearly or we threaten to aban-
gan.                                                 These things become cares when         don Him.
                                                                                                   June 1,199l I Standard Bbarer I387


     No wonder we have so many              sive strength. His hand touches every       with the issues of life. If we are wor-
cares, so much worry.                       moving vehicle and controls the driver      rying about paying bills, we must try
     Humble yourselves. We must             to do exactly what He wants him to          to get thebest job we possibly can. We
see ourselves in relation to our God.       do. His hand reaches within our bod-        must either increase our income or
To humble ourselves is to admit how         ies when viruses invade. The king's         control our spending. That takes wis-
finite we are, how sinful, how help-        heartisinthehandoftheLordandHe              domandcarefulplanninginourlives.
less, how undeserving. To humble            turns it whithersoever He will. His         If we have a disease, we seek good
ourselvesis to empty ourselves of any       hand carries out His sovereign will as      medical advice and help. If we nleed
self-worth. It is to crucify the old        He sends forth the gospel to the ends       psychotherapy we will avail ourselves
man. It is to die to ourselves as the       of the earth.                               of the best help we can. If we are
only way that we canlive unto the-               Don't you see, beloved, how            having marriage problems we will
Lord.                                       wrong worry is? We want control.            seek our pastor's help.
     In verse 5, the immediately pre-       No, God says, cast your cares upon               Secondly,wewilldoallthisseek-
ceding verse, we read, be clothed           Me! I have control.                         ing Jehovah. Prayer is the way in
with humility, wear it like a garment            There is more, "I care for you."       which we consciously throw away
which covers our entire being and           It isn't enough for us to commit our        our worries. By prayer our souls are
life. Our life is not what we want it to    way to God because He is so power-          brought into the exalted presence of
be. Our life is one of service to God.      ful. We have to believe that He exer-       the mighty God who loves us. It helps
The issues of life are not luxury, ease,    cises this power in love for us. What       us view our present circumstances in
earthly comforts, but rather obedi-         good are mighty hands if the person         the light of His presence. We *will
ence, doing the will of our Heavenly        is a murderer or an evil one. He uses       confess our sins to Him, ask for His
Father, delighting in fellowship with       all that strength to destroy. But our       sustaining presence, make it our spe-
Him and with His saints.                    God has both mighty hands and a             cific request that for Jesus' sake He
     Such humility will enable us to        good heart. It matters to Him what is       will take away our anxious care, our
face our cares and to get rid of them-      going on in our lives. This is true         worry, our doubts and fears. It is so
not by pushing them deeper inside           because He loves us. Don't forget           important that we do this with our
our own souls and by trying to re-          how the inspired Peter described this       Bibles open. We approach God in
press all fear, doubt, and worry. Nor       love in the opening verses of this          prayer withHis promises clearly upon
willwetrytoridourselvesofthemby             letter (l:l-7). He elected us according     our souls.
going to some therapist and talking         to His foreknowledge. That means                 Casting our cares is not a once-
hours on end about our problems,            that inlove He chose us tobe His own.       in-a-lifetime act. It must be our daily
though this maybe helpful in order to       He sprinkled the blood of Jesus upon        activity. The more we worry, the more
identify why we are afraid and worry        the cross for us. Remember, Jesus is        we need to pray.
so much. The divine answer is that we       God's own Son. If you ever question              The promise is, "He will exalt
throw them heavenward! We cast all          God's love, think of the care God           you in due time."
our worries upon God.                       showed to us at Calvary. In love He              It may take awhile. The immedi-
     How can we let go of our cares?        raised Jesus from the dead and set          ate answer is seenin a deeper sense of
     Listen: He tells us of His "mighty     Him at His own right hand so that He        contentment. We understand that
hand," and, "He careth for you." We         now exercises all His divine control        even the difficulties of this present
will never let go and give our worries      through Him. He cares for us by             time contribute to our drawing clloser
to God unless we trust Him. The             giving to us faith. We are begotten         to our God. We receive the grace to
deepest issue here is the strength of       unto a living hope. He cares for us by      bear our responsibilities, to continue
our faith.                                  keeping us in that hope by His own          in our place of service. We know deep
     Mybelovedreader,youcantrust            Spirit, "the power of God."                 within our heart that God is good to
your God.                                        The mighty God cares for us.           us, no matter what our present cir-
     His hand is mighty. The hand is        "Forwehavenotanhighpriestwhich              cumstances  may  be.
the part of the human body which            cannot be touched with the feeling of            In due time, He exalts us with
functions as the instrument to get          our infirmities; but was in all points      His presence in glory. Then we willbe
things done. The dexterity of the hu-       tempted like as we are, yet without         vindicated of our enemies, we will
man hand is amazing, from that of the       sin" (Heb. 4:15).                           receive the promisedinheritance, and
carpenter who wields the hammer, to              Let'scastourworriesuponHim.            we shall be better able to serve our
that of the surgeon who performs            The result will be a worry free life and    blessed God.
delicate nerve surgery. God uses this       great peace with God.                            Do you have cares, worries?
humanlanguage to describe His rela-              How do we actually throw those              Cast them heavenward . . . and
tionship to us. His hands formed the        cares heavenward?                           be at peace. 9
dry land as the Creator God. His                 First, it does not mean that we
hands uphold the universe in mas-           abandon our responsibilities to deal

388 /Standard Bearer I June I,1991


                                              The Binding
                                              Decisions of a
Editorials                                    Reformed. Synod

     It cannot be said that Protestant        which regulates church life in the PRC,          dulyauthorizedpastorsandelders to
Reformed people are wrapped up in             establishes this: "Whatever may be               conduct the business of the churches
the annual meeting of synod. Unless           agreed upon by a majority vote shall             in common. It is greater than the
there is a case of special interest to the    be considered settled and bind-                  authorityoftheindividualconsistory,
churches, visitors at synod are few.          ing. . . .II Synodical  decisions put            not because it is of a higher order than
Seldomisthechurchbuildingpacked               an end to debate on controversial                that of the consistory (there is no
at the worship service with which             issues in the churches. There may not            authority in the churches higher than
synod begins. It is doubtful that the         be continued agitation against the de-           that of the consistory), but because it
members wait with bated breath for            cisions. Consistories and members                represents the authority of all the
the decisions of synod in the Acts.           must submit to the decisions and carry           consistories cumulatively for the over-
    Nevertheless, it lives in the con-        them out. This is what they have                 sight, help, and work of all the
gregations that synodis an important          willingly agreed to do by virtue of              churches. It is peculiarly, subtly, and
part of our church life. There is un-         their membership in the denomina-                significantly Reformed to call `classis
derstanding that synod settles mat-           tion. Minorities willingly agree to              and synod "broader assemblies," not
ters of dispute in the churches. The          yield to the vote of the majority of             "higher assemblies," or "higher
churches carry out the decisions of           delegates.                                       courts," in order to do justice to their
synod that bear on the denomina-                    Thebindingcharacterofsynod's               greater authority without jeopardiz-
tionallife. Consistoriesandindividu-          decisions implies real authority. The            ing Christ's government of the local
als submit to decisions of synod with         synod has authority. Synod has au-               congregation through the body of el-
which they themselves are in dis-             thority over consistories. Article 36            ders.
agreement. Itis accepted that synod's         of the Church Order of Dordt ex-                          In order to safeguard the rule of
decisions will be considered settled          pressly states the authority of the              the local congregation by the bjody  of
and binding by all the consistories           broader assemblies over the                      elders, the Reformed Church Order
and by all the members.                       consistory: "The classis has the same            sharply restricts the authority of synod
     This is as it should be. This is         jurisdiction over the consistory as the          to matters that could not be finished
healthy. This is Reformed. The                particular synod has over the classis            in minor assemblies and to matters
broader assembly of the churches,             and the general synod over the par-              that pertain to the churches in com-
synod now in particular, is the neces-        ticular." N Jurisdiction" in the original        mon (Article 30). Besides, synod does
sary expression of the unity of the           Latin of this article is "auctoritas, II that    not have the authority to preach, ad-
church of Christ. In keeping with the         is, "authority." The Dutch has                   minister the sacraments, or exercise
purpose of the unity of the church,           "zeggen," that is, "say-so": The synod           discipline. Christ hasgiven  this power
synod serves for the mutual help of           has "say-so" over the consistory.                to the church; and the church is not
the congregations and represents the                                                           synod but the local, instituted con-
cooperative labor of all the churches              It is peculiarly, subtly,                   gregation.
of the denomination on behalf of                and significantly Reformed                              Nevertheless, synod has ecclesi-
Christ their common Head.                         to call classis and synod                    astical authority-the authority of
                                                                                               Christ's church-for the authority of
The Reformed Church Order                           "broader assemblies,"                      synod is the authority of the churches
     Basic to this unity and essential          not "higher assemblies...."                    that assemble in synod. The author-
for this service and cooperative labor                                                         ity of a Reformed synod is the author-
is the binding character of synod's                 This authority of synod is de-             ity of the risen Christ Himself, for He
(and classis') decisions. Article 31 of       rived from the local churches them-              is the author and source of the author-
the Reformed Church Order of Dordt,           selvesbywayofthechurchessending                  ity of His church, as He is the author

                                                                                                         June I, 1991 I Standard Beam I399


        Synod's decisions                    their determinations on the Churches        is true that this "denominational"
       are not considered                    or Officers."                               authority was then the office of the
                                                                                         apostle,whichofficeisnolongerfound
       settled and binding                        TheReformedchurches  held the
                                             decisions of the Synod of Dordt to be       in the church. But this authority re-
      merely because of a                    binding upon all the churches. It was       mains inasmuch as the unity of .the
   **gentlemen's agreement"                  the  Arminians who repudiated the           churches, served by this authority, is
  on the part of the churches                idea of denominational authority and        still important to the Head of ,the
             and members                     of binding synodical decisions.             church. The local churches possess
                                                                                         this authority. They express and ex-
     of  the denomination.                   What Says the Scripture?                    ercise this authority by banding to-
                                                  This principle of Reformed             gether in a synod whose decisions are
and source of all authority. The bind-       churchorderisbiblicallybased. First,        considered settled and binding.
ing character of synod's decisions for       it is taught in Scripture's account of
individual member and local                  the Jerusalem synod in Acts 15. The         The Controversial Exception
consistory alike expresses this real,        local church at Antioch appealed to              The exception allowed for by
ecclesiastical authority. Synod's de-        the broader assembly of apostles and        Article 31 of the Church Order of
cisions are not considered settled and       elders at Jerusalemamatter that could       Dordt, "unless it be proved to conflict
binding merely because of a                  not be finished in the local church.        with the Word of God or with the
fl gentlemen's agreement" on the part        This doctrinal question was at the          articles of the church order," does :not
of the churches and members of the           same time a matter that pertained to        permit a member or a church to ig-
denomination.                                the churches in common. The deci-           nore or to agitate against a decision of
                                             sion taken by the broader assembly          synod. It recognizes the fallibility of
The Reformed Tradition                       was considered settled and binding.         the assemblies. It expresses the infal-
     This is the Reformed tradition.         The report that went out to the             libility and, therefore, the sole ,au-
The `great Dutch authority on Re-            churches did not speak of advice that       thority of Holy Scripture as the Word
formed church government, Dr. H.             the churches were free to accept or to      of God. The article grants to the
Bouwman, expresses this tradition            reject at their pleasure. In full con-      aggrieved member or consistory, not
when he writes, "The theory of the           sciousness of its authority, the synod      the right of disregarding or agitating
absolute sovereignty of the individual       declared, "It seemed good to theHoly        against a decision of consistory,
churches has always been opposed             Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no        classis, or synod, but the right of ap-
by the Reformed" (Gerefomeerd                greater burden than these necessary         peal against the decision to a broalder
Kerkrecht,  Vol. 2, 1934, p. 15; my          things" (Acts  15:28). When the             assembly of the churches. The appeal
translation of the Dutch). Bouwman           apostles brought the decision to the        must prove that the decision conflicts
goes on to assert that the Reformed          local churches, "they delivered them        with Scripture or with the Church
viewofthelifetogetherofthechurches           the decrees (Greek:  dogmata)  for to       Order. While one is appealing, he
of Christ is that the local church sub-      keep, that were ordained of the             may not agitate against the decision,
jects herself to the decisions of the        apostles and elders which were at           but must submit. His conscience is
broader assembly. Bouwman then               Jerusalem" (Acts 16:4).                     not bound; but his speech and behav-
observes:                                          Second, the New Testament             ior in the churches are bound.
  Such a subordinationis  not the intro-     makes plain that the autonomy of the             It must be acknowledged that
  duction of a hierarchy in the church,
  but a subjecting of itself (on the part    local churches did not mean that each       authorities on Reformed church pol-
  of the local church-DJE) to the yoke       church could go her own way and do          ity have explained the exception of
  of Christ, a practising of the unity of    her own thing in disregard for the          Article 31 of the Church Order ("un-
  the body of Christ, and a seeking of       other churches. There was an author-        less it be proved to conflict with the
  the maintenance of Christ'skingship        ity that bound upon all the churches        Word of God. . . . ") as referring to the
  (Geref.  Kerk., Vol. 2, p. 66).            the common faith, a common order,           person or church that has been
     It is the independent churches,         and a common life. This authority           wronged by synodical decision. To
mostly Baptist, that deny the binding        over all the churches was necessary         the question, "To whom must it be
character of the decisions of synods         for the unity of the churches. When         proved that the decision is in conflict
or councils, as Article 26 of their Sa-      Paul gives instructions to Corinth          with the Word of God?," Joh. Jansen
voy Declaration states: "These Syn-          concerning marriage matters, he says,       answers that Article 31 intends to say
ods so assembled are not intrusted           "And so ordain I in all churches" (I        "that we are bound by the decisilons
with any Church Power properly so            Cor. 7~17). The apostle is at pains to      of the majority unless someone es-
called, or with any Jurisdiction over        point out that the order in home and        teems it proved to himself that one or
the Churches themselves, to exercise         in worship services that he requires of     another decision is in conflict with
any Censures, either over any                 a particular local church holds for all    God's Word" (Korte Verklaring ivan
Churches or Persons, or to impose             thechurches (cf.ICor. 11:16;14:33).  It    de Kerkenordening, p. 147; my trans-

390 /Standard Bearer / June 1,199l


lation of the Dutch). Decisions of           ing and behavior are contrary to the        formed circles to revile synodical au-
synod are to be considered settled           Reformed tradition; violation of Ar-        thority with the barbarous epithet,
andbindingunlessthelocalconsistory           ticles 31 and 36 of the Reformed            " synodocracy." But let  Refformed
itself or brother so-and-so himself is       Church Order of Dordt; revolt against       people keep in mind that there is also
convinced that the decision is con-          the authority of Christ; and sin against    a "dominie-ocracy" and a  "con-
trary to Scripture. But even these           the unity of the church.                    sistocracy." Classes and synods have
authorities, rightly fearful of the dis-             We stand aghast at what we are      been salvation for the people of God
order, uproar, and chaos to which            hearing from Reformed men and               from the hierarchy and tyralmy of
this explanation may lead in the de-         churches today. "No decision of             consistories and pastors.
nomination, quickly add that a dis-          synod will be considered settled and             Often synods have themselves
senting consistory or member, rather         binding unless this consistory ratifies     to blame for the violent reaction
than raise discord in the denomina-          the decision!" "We consider our-            against synodical authority and for
tion, should leave the federation of         selves perfectly free publicly to damn      the disregard of synodical decisions.
churches(cf.,VanDellenandMonsma,             synodical decisions as heretical even       They infringe upon the authority that
The Church Order Commentary, p.              though we do not appeal these deci-         Christ has given to the consistory.
146; also, H. Bouwman, Geuef. Kerk.,         sions!" "If we are appealing decisions      They ride roughshod over the church
Vol. 2, pp. 56ff.).                          that we consider evil, we are not ob-       order. Worst of all, they make deci-
          But the exception-clause in Ar-    ligated to submit while we appeal,          sions that conflict with Scripture and
ticle 31 undoubtedly refers to the           but may stir up opposition to the           deviate from the confessions. These
broader assembly: "unless it be              decisions throughout the denomina-          decisions they then attempt to bind
proved to the broader assembly that          tion!" "Everychurchandeverymem-             upon the congregations.  Thu.s syn-
the decision being appealed is con-          ber may decide for itself and himself       ods, intended to express and safe-
trary to the Word of God," etc. This         to withhold the money that synod has        guard the unity of the churches, de-
is proved by the article's use of the        budgeted for denominational work!"          stroy the unity of the churches. But
word, "proved." It must be proved            "Synods have no real authority over         the reaction against this abuse of au-
that the decision of synod is contrary       the local consistory in the Reformed        thority that consists of rejecting  syn-
to the Word of God. One does not             system, and never have had!"                odical authority altogether is no bet-
prove something to himself. It is the             I wonder whether consistories          ter. It also is destructive of the unity
right and duty of a believer or of a         now encouraging members to disre-           of the church of Christ.
consistory wronged by a decision of          gard synodical authority, if only the
one of the assemblies to prove that the      members judge the decisions of synod        The Better Way
decision is contrary to the Word or to       in error, will be just as supportive             The PRC may be thankful that
the Church Order. The appellant              when presently these members show           the Ring of the church has preserved
must prove this to the synod. Had the        the same contempt for the decisions         us from this reactionary repudiation
intention of Article 31 been that deci-      of the consistory.          Will these      of synodical authority. The churches
sions of church assemblies are settled       consistories allow their members to         came into existence through thle hier-
and binding unless members or                run through the congregation agitat-        archy of the broader assemblies. A
consistories suppose them to be erro-        ing against consistorial authority, if      synod adopted doctrines that conflict
neous, the exception clause would            only the members prove to their own         with the teaching of Scripture and of
read this way: "unless one is con-           satisfaction that a decision of the         the Reformed creeds that the grace of
vinced that the decision conflicts with      consistory is contrary to the Word of       God is sovereign and particular.
the Word of God."                            God?                                        Classes then tried to bind these doc-
          The main concern of Article 31,         The members now enthusiasti-           trines upon the consciences and min-
after all, is not the freedom of con-        cally joining in the work of tearing        istries of Reformed preachers. When
science of the individual, but living        down synodical authority as the Great       this failed, the classes took to them
together in a denomination of                Tyranny might well stop for a mo-
churches. Article 31, like Article 36,       ment to remember that one important           This is the Reformed way:
concerns the unity of the churches as        purpose of the broader assemblies is              the autonomy of the
expressed in the ecclesiastical assem-       to serve as a checkagainst the tyranny
blies.                                       of the local church and of the local               local congregation
                                             pastor. Hierarchy is'not a temptation                  as the church
Revolt                                       only of synods. Local consistories                and at the same time
          Rejection of synodical author-     have tyrannized their members. Some              the binding character
ity, refusal to consider synodical de-       of the worst despots in the church are         of the decisions of synod
cisions settled and binding, and agi-        lordly pastors whose will is law in the
tation against synodical decisions are       church and who brookno opposition.          as the authoritative assembly
radically un-Reformed. This think-           It now becomes fashionable in Re-                       of churches.

                                                                                                June I,1991 1 Standard Beam .I 391


selves power that belongs to the              hierarchy of the broader assemblies         ture and the Church Order of Dordt.
consistory and deposed both the               on the one hand or the independency         May it consciously do so as servant of
preachers and their consistories. The         of the local churches on the other          Christ and the congregations.
synod approved the exercise of disci-         hand.                                            May the consistories and mem-
pline by a classis and promptly dis-               This is the Reformed way: the          bers consider synod's decisions
possessed consistories and the over-          autonomy of the local congregation          settled and binding in recognition of
whelming majority of the congrega-            as the church and at the same time the      synod's authority and in regard for
tions of their physical properties.           binding character of the decisions of       the peace of the churches.
     If any group of churches had             synod as the authoritative assembly              That is to say, may the PRC con-
reason to renounce all synodical and          of churches.                                tinue to express and enjoy the pre-
classical authority as hierarchy, it was-              May the synod of the PRC 1991      cious unity of the church of Jesus
the PRC.                                      decide on all matters rightfully com-       Christ.  n
     But there is abetter way than the        ingbeforeitinaccordancewithScrip-                                            - DJE


                                              PRC Synod 1991

     The annual synod of the Protes-          pecially  because of the needs of the       Singapore (ERCS) for about six weeks.
tant Reformed Churches, although              library; and informs synod about the        The CC proposes that synod approve
hostedby  the Hope Church of Walker,          conference on Holy Scripture that the       calling "a senior pastor" to be loaned
Michigan, will meet in the church             seminary will sponsor in October,           to the Singapore churches for a period
building of the Southwest PRC be-             1991.                                       of three years. The Singapore churches
cause of remodeling workbeing done                     The Mission Committee reports      have requested this help from ,the
on the Hope building. The pre-syn-            on the work that has been done dur-         PRC, especially in order to assist thlem
odical worship service willbe  held on        ing the past year in Jamaica; invenice,     with missions and with the
Monday, June 10, at 7~30 PM. Synod            Florida; and in Northern Ireland. No        establishment of a theological school.
will convene on Tuesday morning,              one accepted any of the calls to these      The CC is also recommending that
June 11, at 9:00 AM, the Lord willing.        mission fields. The PRC are without         synod approve immediate help for
     Oneimportant aspect of the work          a missionary at present.                    the ERCS by asking consistories to
of this synod will be the examination                  TheForeignMissionCommittee         release. their minister for work in
of seminary graduate Mitchell Dick            is asking the approval of synod on its      Singapore for several months.
     The Theological School Commit-           decision to send a minister and an               The synodical  commit,tee
tee (TSC) reports that the other three        elder to Ghana, Africa before the end       appointed in 1989 to study the
seminarians are expected to return in         of 1991 in order to investigate the         overture of Southeast PRC, Grand
the fall for their second year. Two           possibility of doing mission work           Rapids, that the denominational
new students will enter seminary in           there.                                      structure of the PRC be reorganized
the fall for a total of five. In addition,             The Contact Committee (CC)         into three classes (instead of  ,the
there is the likelihood that the Evan-        reports on its activities the past year.    present two), recommends that synod
gelical Presbyterian Church of Aus-           Prof. R. Decker attended the meeting        reject the overture of Southeast.
tralia will send two men for training         of the North American Presbyterian               Synod is again informed of the
in our theological school, subject to         and Reformed Council (NAPARC)  in           steady numerical growth of the Prot-
the approval of our synod.                    Atlanta, Georgia. Although Prof.            estant Reformed denomination. The
     The TSC is overturing synod to           Decker advises that the PRC continue        Lordadded52families  to thechurches
reconsider decisions of previous syn-         to send observers to NAPARC,  the           in the past year.
ods establishing a pre-seminary pro-          CC makes no recommendation to                    There is no matter of appeal on
gram in the seminary. The overture            synod. Rev. B. Woudenberg served            the agenda this year.
recommends that synod decide to               the Burnie, Tasmania congregation                MaytheKingofthechurchguide
discontinue teachingallpre-seminary           from December, 1990 through April,          the synodby His Spirit for the good of
courses in the seminary, with the ex-         1991 on behalf of the Evangelical           the churches and for the advance-
ception of Greek grammar and read-            Presbyterian Church of Australia.           ment of the Reformed faith. 0
ingand Dutch grammar and reading.             Rev. R. Dykstra and Prof. H. Hanko                                           - D J E
     The TSC also proposes the ex-            visited and worked with the
pansion of the seminary building es-          Evangelical Reformed Churches of

392 /Standard Bearer I June 1,199l


nk@Weedfo The pur ose of
the Doctrine
Rev. Marvin Kamps                            Sacred cripture (:2)

     This is the second of 
                          , two install-     And this perfection is defined as be-        the satisfaction of their "feelings" and
ments through which we share with our        ing N throughly furnished unto good          Uemotions.N Our age despises doc-
readers the lecture of Rev. Kamps on the     works."                                      trine. And yet that is exactly the great
above subject, in Southwest Church on             The purpose of Scripture, then,         need of the day, as it is in every age.
April 18, 1991.                              is to give the knowledge of God in           Doctrine is the chief means to make
                                             Christ Jesus that the church, the be-        "the man of God perfect."
     What is the purpose of Scrip-           lievers in an evil world, may be en-              In addition, the apostle writes
ture? The answer to this question is         abled to live a life that is God glorify-    that the Scriptures are profitable for
given by the apostle Paul in II Timo-        ing. Through the Word of the gospel          reproo$ That is, the authority of Scrip-
thy  3:16, 17, where we read: "All           we are enabled to live as the friends of     tureisbothprescriptiveandproscrip-
Scripture is given by inspiration of         God. We are to keep His command-             tive. On the one hand the Bible tells us
God, and is profitable for doctrine,         ments. We are to confess the truth of        what we are to believe as the truth in
for reproof, for correction, for instruc-    His Word. We are to be jealous for           Christ Jesus. On the other hand the
tioninrighteousness: That the man of         God's honor. We are to hate all sin          Bible tells us what is the lie (of the
God may be perfect, throughly fur-           and flee from temptation. Through            Devil and what we may not believe.
nisheduntoallgoodworks."  Inorder            the Word we are enabled to repent of         Scripture always exposes error.
to understand the significance of this       our sin and cleave in faith to Christ             Further, the Bible is given for the
passage for the church, we must note         Jesus.                                       purpose of correction and instruction
carefully the circumstances under                                                         inrighteousness. Whenabelieverhas
which it was written. Paul was in                 Without right doctrine                  been deceived andledinto error, then
prison a second time in Rome. He                                                          the Word of God alone is the means to
was about to lose his life at the hand                  one cannot live                   work correction and to lead him into
of wicked Nero, the Roman emperor.                     the Christian life.                the way of repentance. And, finally,
Chapter 46 makes this plain. But one                                                      the Bible is God-given that we may
thingwas all-important to the apostle.            Please note carefully that this is      have instruction in righteousness.
Timothy must preach the Word in              God's purpose. For this purpose God          How can one know the way if he does
season and out of season. Paul de-           gave the Word. God so formed the             not know God's Word? How can the
clares, "I charge thee therefore before      Word that it is profitable for doctrine.     youth of the church be expected to
God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who          Its purpose is to give doctrine. Doc-        walk in the old paths if they are not
shall judge the quick and the dead at        trine is the truth of Scripture set forth    instructed in what constitutes those
his appearing and his kingdom;               by the church as biblical dogma.             paths well pleasing to God? The
Preach the Word . . . . U Paul therefore     Doctrine is teachings and instruction        peopleofGodperishbecauseofalack
reminded Timothy of the great sig-           in spiritual truths. Doctrine is the         of knowledge in our day. Instruction
nificance and source of the Word he          truth concerning God's Being and             in righteousness is withheld. The
was enjoined to preach. All Scripture        world, truth as it is in Christ Jesus,       Bible was given in order that we and
is inspired of God. God is its author        and the truth about the fallen sinner.       our children may have that instruc-
and source. Its great purpose is that        Doctrine is placed first by the apostle      tion. We must have instruction in
the "man of God may be perfect."             because doctrine is basic to life and
                                             forms the foundation of Christian liv-       righteousness in regard to marriage,
                                             ing. Without right doctrine one can-         the home, entertainment, work, and
                                             not live the Christian life. It is that      our responsibilities in the commun-
                                             basic.                                       ionof the saints. Without thisinstruc-
                                                                                          tion we and our children go lost.
Rev. Kamps is pastor of Southwest Prot-           In our day the church more and               I would summarize the message
estant Reformed Church in Grandville,        more refuses to give instruction in          of this text as being that the Scriptures
Michigan.                                    biblical doctrine. People clamor for         are given us in order that we mlay be
                                                                                                 June 1,199l I Standard Beam I393


enabled to walk as God's friends in          world is drowning in a maelstrom of           now defending the theory of evolu-
the world. And remember, he that is          immorality and impurity that is               tion adopted by the CRC in 1989.
God's friend is an enemy of all              greatly stimulated and excited by             What, do you imagine, is the main
unrighteousness. He is an enemy of           these two means. And yet our mother           ground presented by this committee
false doctrine. He is offended by            church has not the spiritual strength         in their report, for their defense and
those who wouldlead the church into          to condemn these forms of entertain-          propagation of evolution? The an-
the path of false doctrine. He refuses       ment. Scripture itself proclaims:             swer: the erroneous doctrine of Com-
to walk with those who will not heed         "Love not the world, neither the things       mon Grace. It is common grace, ac-
correction and reproof. The psalmist         that are in the world. If any man love        cording to the report, that makes it
confessed in Psalm 119:63,  "I am a          the world, the love of the Father is not      possible for ungodly scientists rightly
companion of all them that fear thee,        in him. For all that is in the world, the     to interpret God's general revelation.
and of them that keep thy precepts."         lust of the flesh, and the lust of the        This is not surprising to me. Nor
This confession must be our confes-          eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the    should it be to you. The theory of
sion.                                        Father, but is of the world" (I John          Common Grace is a pernicious error
                                             215, 16). The Protestant Reformed             that offers an iron-clad justification
           We not only reject                Churches reject membership in the             for the church's adoption of the theory
    the theo y of evolution,                 labor unions that have committed              of evolution. That the theory of Com-
            but even abhor it                themselves to the "labor strike," on          mon  Grace should serve as the ground
                                             the grounds that this is rebellion            for the decision to declare that the
         as God-dishonoring,                 against authority and, therefore, a           theory of evolution is not contrary to
             man-exalting;                   violation of the fifth commandment.           God's Holy Word should surprise no
               unbiblical,                   And, finally, we reject as principally        one. Why not? Because false prin-
              and as the lie                 Arminian and Pelagian the so-called           ciples allowed to grow and develop
         of the Devil himself.               well-meant offer of the gospel to all         in the mind and will of the church
                                             who hear the preaching of the Word.           impel that same church to further
                                             Our mother church has developed in            error and departure from the faith.
         If we may apply the above to our    this error of Arminianism to the point        We must ever remember that  fallse
present situation in the Reformed            where many claim that the doctrines           doctrine works through, given time,
church community, then let it be             of election and reprobation have lost         to pollute the whole of the Christian
known that we as Protestant Reformed         in her midst any significant place in         faith.
Churches reject the very idea of             the preaching of the Word on the                        Further, I want to say something
women officebearers in the church.           Lord's day. As Reformed congrega-             to you about the conservative move-
We do so because God's Word for-             tions we hold to the absolute sover-          ment today within our mother church.
bids it. Our women do not clamor to          eignty of God and to the particularity        They with us reject their church's lpo-
be officebearers, because they have          of His grace in Christ Jesus. We reject       sition on women in office and the
been instructed in what is their God-        free-willism and proclaim the neces-          theory of evolution. Let no one mis-
given place in the church and in the         sity of regeneration of the elect dead-       understand! They do emphatically
home. We honor our sisters in Christ.        in-sin sinner, whom God calls irre-           reject these unbiblical positions. Por
We recognize their talents and gifts         sistibly by His Word unto faith in            that we may be and are thankful to
even as God has richly blessed them;         Christ Jesus. Our preaching is ruled          Godin heaven. But one thingis pain-
but their place in the church is defined     by the biblical doctrines of uncondi-         fully disappointing. If I may judge by
for them not by haughty men, as the          tional election and reprobation. That         printed critiques of the Synodical
church has been wrongly accused,             is as it should be in Reformed                study committee's report to the CRC
but by God Himself. In the second            churches.                                     Synod of 1991, they all fail even to
place, we not only reject the theory of                                                    address the committee's central
evolution, but even abhor it as God-                                                       ground for its position. The issue of
dishonoring, man-exalting, unbiblical,       The theo y of Common Grace                    Common Grace is not even men-
and as the lie of the Devil himself.                  is a pernicious error                tioned. How is it possible to offer a
That a Synodical Study Committee of                        that offers                     critique of another's work and  not
our mother church should recom-                 an iron-clad justification                 eventreattheissueofhismainground,
mend that the highest ecclesiastical            for  the church's adoption                 especially when one takes great ex-
body of this church in 1991 adopt and          of                                          ception to the proposition of the re-
defendthisunbelievingtheoryistruly                    the theory of evolution.             port.
a grief to us. Thirdly, we reject as                                                                 In this connection I wish to make
contrary to God's Holy Word the                   I want in this article to inform         an observation that may also serve as
entertainment provided by the dance          you of the essential ground of the            a warning. If the conservative ele-
halls and theaters of this world. Our        Synodical Study Committee that is             ment will not lead God's people in

394 /Standard Bearer I June 1,199l


their midst to reject the root of this,      and are, therefore, free of its evil mani-    Scripture in our lives, let me say that
and other errors, in the church, the         festations in the life of the church          we must recognize the  urgency  of obe-
reformation they wish to bring about         institute.                                    dience to the Bible. Can we set the
is doomed to failure. Let me demon-               However,letmebequicktoadd,               Bible aside and not experienice  the
strate by way of example. At the end         lest there be misunderstanding, that          wrath of God upon us? Further, we
of my driveway, in the ditches on            our faithfulness to God's Word is of          must askourselves the question, may
either side of the drive, grow shrub         GodHimself.  Letusnotboastinmen.              we go to the Lord's table with those
willow trees. These obscure my view          Heeding the Word, without regard to           whom we know live in sin, who promote
of traffic on Ivanrest. Thus these           the cost, is the way of discipleship          the lie in the church of Christ? The
willows occasion a terrible traffic haz-     and the Lord's blessing.                      answer of the Bible is an em:phatic
ard. I have cut them down two or                   In conclusion, how is the pur-          NO!
three times, but they keep growing           poseof Scriptureachievedinourlives                   Positively, one must be encour-
back. For a short time I feel safe and       and the lives of our children? We             aged and instructed to watclh and
secure because my view of the traffic        must always be reminded of our re-            pray lest he fall into temptatian, the
is not obscured. But then in a few           sponsibilities to our children. If we as      temptation being once more to com-
months they grow back, `filled with          parents minimize error and depar-             promise the truth of Scripture and
foliage, &-threaten my and my                ture from Scripture, then our children        make peace with those who walk
family's safety once more. The root          will run in that error. That is God's         impenitently. That is the temptation.
has to be killed or removed. The             judgment upon theminimizingof  His            Watch and pray, Jesus commanded
source of the plants' life must be cut       most holy Word. We are ever called            us in Luke 21:36: "Watch ye there-
off. ThenmyviewoftrafficonIvanrest           to lead our children in the way of            fore, and pray always, that ye may be
will not be obscured by those wil-           truth. This will be to their blessing.        accounted worthy to escape all these
lows.                                                                                      things that shall come to pass, and to
      The same is true spiritually. False                    Can we                        stand before the Son of man." Finally,
doctrine must be rooted out and cast                 set the Bible aside                   prayer and the study of God's Word
away. Then its evil manifestations                                                         give one the spiritual strength neces-
will be removed with the root. The                   and not experience                    sary to overcome and flee from all
error of Common Grace must be re-              the wrath of God upon us?                   evil. We want to stand with those
pudiated. Then the source of evil is                                                       who will keep God's Word and. com-
rooted out. The Protestant Reformed                In answer to the question of how        mandments. Do you desire before
Churches rejected this error in 1924         we can achieve the purpose of Sacred          God to do the same? 0





      One of the main characteristic         further than this. It wants to do away        the church expresses her faith in a
features of modern-day liberal Chris-        with doctrine altogether. According           different way. When the church in-
tianity is its aversion to doctrine. It      to its teachers, doctrine is not impor-       sists on maintaining certain doctrines,
not only rejects almost all the great        tant for Christianity. The historic           she only causes offense and division.
fundamental doctrines of the Chris-          creeds of the church are set aside as         The church must rather be united on
tian faith but it wants to go even           not being relevant for our age. These         certain vague general principles of
                                             creeds are at best interesting histori-       religion such as the love of God for all
                                             cal documents. They may be consid-            men, theuniversalfatherhoodof God
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Protes-    ered interesting expressions of the           and the brotherhood of all men, and a
tant Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-      faith of the church of the sixteenth          few broad moral principles. On the
fornia.                                      and seventeenth centuries. But today          basis of these general principles the
                                                                                                   June 1,199l I Standard Bearer I395


church must be united in the cause of       is much more prevalent in the church          among her members.
evangelism and social action and in         today than we might imagine. In                    Those who advocate a non-doc-
seeking to change the world.                many churches today there is less and         trinal Christianity often sound pious
     Even these general principles are      less emphasis on doctrine in the              and convincing. They speak much
not to be too carefully defined, be-        preaching. Preaching is little more           about a living, personal relationship
cause then some in the church will be       than teaching on human psychology.            with the Lord as being the most im-
offended. Really almost everyone is         It deals with all kinds of human prob-        portant thing. Doctrine is not impor-
to be recognized as a Christian, no         lems, problems man faces in mar-              tant. Too much emphasis on doctrine
matter what he believes or how he           riage, in raising children, in human          will kill the spirit and lead to arid
lives. We need a simple Christian           relationships, andhis life in society. It     scholastic debate. We must allow the
faith without theological pronounce-        might even address supposedly Chris-          spirit to be free. And by the freedom
ments. This, it is claimed, is the reli-    tian principles on money manage-              of the spirit is often meant the "free-
gion that Jesus taught. This is the         ment, maintaining good health in ex-          dom" for everyone to think and act
religion of the Sermon on the Mount         ercising regularly, and all sorts of          independently and to express reli-
and of the golden rule. This religion       other things. Just listen to the subjects     gious feelings and emotions andideas
is supposedly inspired only by the          dealt with by modern-day radio                as he or she pleases. Those who insist
person of Jesus. He is the inspiring        preachers and you will realize how            on sound doctrine are considered
example for all men to follow. Jesus,       far this whole line of thinking has           unloving and uncaring, cold and for-
as a person, lives on today through         taken hold in the church today. Try to        mal. Love, vaguely defined, is more
the words that He spoke when on             find a preacher that today still talks        important than doctrinal soundness.
earth(thoughmuchofwhatthechurch             about the doctrines of God and salva-         When doctrinal differences are for-
has commonly believed to be the             tion and you will find them to be very        gotten, people will be more warm,
words of Jesus were not actually spo-       scarce, almost unheard of. The vast           personal, and friendly, which is more
ken by Him) and through the ex-             majority of professing Christians to-         important than everything else. On
ample He left us. The essence of            day are doctrinally ignorant and have         the basis of such "love" we can con-
Christianity is to follow the moral         little interest in discussion and debate      sider all men to be brethren.
ethical principles that Jesus taught.       on the great doctrines of the Word of
     That is how you become and are         God. There is little instruction of the          The church that forsakes
a Christian, nothing more than that.        youth in the church. Even many Re-                         or neglects
That is how you re-live the life of         formed churches have dropped cat-
Jesus. We do not need all that theol-       echism programs, or at least greatly                      the doctrine
ogy about the Trinity, the natures and      reduced or simplified them. If there                   of the Scriptures
offices of Christ, the atonement of         is still instruction of the children it is            will come to ruin,
Christ, predestination, justification       by means of Sunday School rather
and sanctification, etc. All of that is     than catechism; and there is a distinct            When we are in a church that
nothingbut scholasticism. Insistence        difference between these two if prop-         seeks by the grace of God to maintain
on sound doctrine produces useless          erly understood. Some churches still          sound doctrine we can at times be-
debate and causes unnecessary divi-         have several "Bible studies" that a           come discouraged. Maintaining
sions. The more radical proponents          number of people attend; but, in these,       sound doctrine will involve a great
of this philosophy suggest that we          doctrinal discussion of any sort is           spiritual battle. There will be strife in
must limit ourselves strictly to the        avoided like a plague. Churches have          that battle. There will be those who
words and example of Jesus. The             no interest inbeing distinctive. They         are offended, There  might  even be
apostle Paul and some of the other          have long forgotten their creeds.             loved ones, relatives and friends, that
apostles really introduced a new form       There is little or nothing that makes         leave the church. All of this is not
of religion when they wrote all their       them different from other churches            pleasant to experience. We would
doctrinal treatises (Romans,                except that one has a "more active            much rather see peace and harmony
Galatians, Ephesians, etc.). These          ministry" than another and the mem-           in the church. There is always a real
might have had value for the church         bers of one church are "more friendly"        temptation to give up the fight. But
at that time; but now we are advanced       than others. What denomination you            sound doctrine is important. The
beyond the need of all this. We can         belong to is of very little consequence.      above way of thinking is grievously
follow the example of Jesus directly.       People change denominations with              in error. The church that forsakes or
     To the serious Christian reader,       very little consideration. Un-denomi-         neglects the doctrine of the Scriptures
all of this might sound so far out that     national churches flourish and boast          will come to ruin. The evil one will
it is hardly considered tobe a threat to    membership in the thousands. Many             destroy that church. The fact of the
the church. However, we had better          laud the N tolerance" their church has        matter is that even those who say that
realize that this whole way of think-       for all sorts of different viewpoints         doctrine is not important will never-
ing, whether explicitly or implicitly,      and the "brotherly love" that exists          theless teach a doctrine of their alwn.

396 /Standard Bearer / June 1,199l


When the doctrine of the Scripture is        prophets. She does not do that by           the false and carnal doctrines of men,
rejected, it is replaced by an evil and      abandoning the historic position of         and to distinguish the truth from
false doctrine devised by man. That          the true Christian church. She does         them. He taught the doctrine of why
is inevitable. The most radical liberal      not do that by reducing her faith to        He came to this earth, and the doc-
has a doctrine that he teaches and           the lowest common denominator and           trine of the nature and purpose of His
seeks to propagate. He will deceive          to a few vaguely defined supposedly         work on the cross. He taught the
the church by putting on a front of          Christian principles so that she can        doctrine of man's sin and depravity
being a friendly and pleasant person,        enjoy a "beautiful" unityandbrother-        and of his absolute need of salvation.
and he will pretend that he seeks the        hoodwithallsortsofmen. Thechurch            He taught the doctrine of elecbion and
peace and unity of the church. But for       is "the pillar and ground of the truth."    predestination, and of the sovereign
allof  that he willlead the church away      Shegrowsincreasinglyrichandstrong           grace of God whereby He infallibly
from God and from the hope of her            as she acknowledges and confesses           saves all those whom the Fatlher has
salvation.                                   more and more of the wonderful doc-         given to Him. To believe in Jesus
        The word doctrine is the transla-    trine of the Scriptures. That doctrine      necessarily means that webelieve and
tion of a biblical word which means          is worth fighting and dying for on her      embrace the distinctive doctrines
simply "sound teaching." That is             part because it is the doctrine of God      whichHe taught. Before our Lord left
what doctrine is; it is sound teaching       and His Son Jesus Christ. It is the         this earth He promised to send the
about God, about who and what He             truth about salvation, the hope and         "Spirit of truth" to His church, to lead
is, about the Lord Jesus Christ, and         life and joy of the church.                 and guide His church into all truth.
about God's great works of creation,                                                          The apostles of the Lord were
providence, and salvation. True doc-              It is absolutely absurd                inspired by the Holy Spirit to know
trine is nothing more than the Bible's                    to suggest                     and understand the doctrine of the
teaching about God and salvation. It                                                     Lord Jesus Christ. They did not write
is the truth of God clearly  distin-                 thatJesus taught                    abstract doctrinal treatises by which
guishedfromthelieofthedevil. Sound               only a `lsimple" religion               they began a new form of religion of
doctrineis a clear andsystematicpre-           of a few moral principles...              human origin. They wrote of the
sentation of the truth that is found in                                                  doctrine of Christ, of His person and
the Bible. That truth is the same for             It is absolutely absurd to sug-        weork,  of His great salvation. They
every age, because it is the unchange-       gest that Jesus taught only a "simple"      were led by the Spirit of God to un-
able truth of God Himself. Doctrine,         religion of a few moral principles by       derstand the truth concerning God
correctly understood, is not first of all    which man can and will save himself         Himselfand concerning the only true
the church's subjective expression of        if only he will follow them. Jesus does     doctrine of salvation. This doctrine is
her faith in God at a given time and in      not merely inspire men by the ex-           unchangeable and glorious. It is inex-
a given culture. Doctrine is the abso-       ample of His person. Jesus came to          haustiblein its riches. It is the founda-
lute and unchanging truth of God as          reveal the truth, the truth of God. He      tion of the church upon which she
He has revealed Himself in His infal-        declared; "If ye continue in my word,       must stand. It is the hope of her
lible Word, the Bible. Doctrine rightly      then are ye my disciples indeed; and        salvation. It is the truth she must
considered is not what men them-             ye shall know the truth, and the truth      confess to the glory of God.
selves have devised through abstract         shall make you free" (John 8:32). He             We shall `continue our discus-
scholastic debate among themselves.          declared the truth concerning Him-          sion of this subject in our next article.
Doctrine is the living, blessed, and         self. He is the embodiment of the true
glorious truth of God that He by His         doctrine of God. He insisted on the
Spirit has caused His church to know.        great truth that He is the eternal and
That truth may offend carnal man.            only begotten Son of God. He died                      "Preach the word;
He may not like it because it con-           because of the confession of the truth.            be instant in season,
demns man in his sin and destroys all        He came to this earth to reveal the                    out of season;
his boasting pride in himself. The           true doctrine of God. He performed                    reprove, rebuke,
true doctrine of the Bible glorifies         the perfect work of salvation in His          exhort with all longsuffering
God.                                         cross and resurrection and exalta-             and doctrine. For the time
        The church must know and em-         tion. True doctrine is simply the set-       will come when they will not
brace, love and confess the truth of         ting forth of the meaning and great             endure sound doctrine . . .
God. She must diligently study the           significance of the work of Christ and                 and they shall
Scriptures under the guidance of the         all the blessed implications of that
Holy Spirit to discover and under-                                                              turn away their ears
                                             work. He taught the only way of
stand its doctrine. She-must defend          salvation, which necessarily involves               from the truth . . ..`I
that doctrine over against all of the        the true doctrine of salvation. He was                         II Timothy 42-4
attacks of the evil one and of false         always ready to condemn severely

                                                                                                June 1,199l I Standard Beam I397


        A Word Fitly Spoken
        Rev. Dale Kuiper
                                           Hypocrite

              The Old Testament contains the word hypocrite thirteen times. It derives from a word which has
        the root meaning of moral filth; soiled with sin; impious; hypocrite. The New Testament has twenty-
        five occurrences of this word, over half of them in the discourses of Jesus. The root meaning is to speak
        or act under a false part; to act under an assumed character; a stage player; dissembler; pretender. A
        hypocrite is a man who lives the lie, for he is not what he seems to others to be; there is a significant
        `difference between what he is at heart and what he appears to be overtly and publicly. Israel of Isaiah's
        day lived a hypocritical national life with her external, religious exactitude, bringing just the right
        sacrifices at the right times, offering oblations and incense, keeping new moons, sabbaths, and
        assemblies. But though they drew near to God with their mouths and honored Him with their lips, they
        removed their heart far from Him and their fear of God was taught by the precepts of men (Isa. 1,29).
        The outstanding example of hypocrisy in the New Testament is the Pharisees, whom Jesus called whited
        sepulchers, appearing beautiful on the outside, but full of dead men's bones and uncleanness within
        (Matt.  23:27). Examples of hypocrites today are ministers who holler at their congregations for their sins
        and shortcomings as if they themselves do not take part of the same things; or church members who,
        when setting out to restore abrother overtakenby a certain fault, act as if they wouldnever commit such
        sins (Gal. 6:l).
              Hypocrites live undiscovered in the church. They cannot be kept from the Lord's Supper by the
        elders, for they do not declare themselves to be unbelieving and ungodly. They eat and drink judgment
        to themselves. The hypocrite God will judge (Lord's Day 30). The moment a man shows himself to be
        what he really is, he ceases being a hypocrite. But God knows and Jesus knows.
              God desires truth in the inward parts (Ps. 51:6). God commands those who live in the Spirit to walk
        in the Spirit (Gal. 515). He requires those who confess faith in Jesus Christ to manifest that faith with
        works of charity, otherwise their faith is not faith (James 2~1420). As the God who has called us is holy,
        so must we be holy in all manner of conversation (I Pet. 1:15). Thus the saint is called to a life of spiritual
        consistency, to be what he is in Jesus Christ. Otherwise he is a half-baked cake (Hos.  7~8).
              The biblical use of the word hypocrite reinforces our church's stand against drama: the opera, the
        play, and the movie. Our stand is not against imitatingthat whichis worthy; we are called to be imitators
        of Godasdearchildren(Eph. 5:1),andtobefollowers  together of Paul(Phil.  3:17). But ourstandisagainst
        impersonation, the act of pretending that we are someone we are not, of speaking and acting under
        another person's part. The common Greekwordfor actor, before and at the time of Jesus, was hypocrite.
        Classical Greek compared human life with the stage, and human conduct with the task of the actor.
        Almost always this was done in a negative, pejorative sense: the stage is a sham world and the actor is
        a deceiver. Jesus takes that Word and applies it to the duplicity of the Pharisees, pronouncing a sevenfold
        woe upon them. Let us take heed!
               The question may be asked whether the regenerated child of God who sins daily, carrying within
        him the risen life of Christ, is a hypocrite? Is there not a difference between the inner life and the outer,
        the new man and the old? The answer is no! The child of God does not pretend not to be a sinner, but
        admits to it readily. He confesses his sin with godly sorrow every day. He strives to overcome the
        motions of sin that are in him and to be conformed to the image of Christ. No hypocrite he! 0



        Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Emmanuel  Protestant Reformed Church in Lacombe,  Alberta, Canada.       ,


398 IStandard  Bearer I June 1,199l
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Prof. Robert D. Decker                       All Around Us

H    Women in Church Office                  committees and two were tabled for           churches in this classis sees this deci-
                                             discussion at a later meeting of the         sion as divisive and harmful to the
     It is no secret that the decision of    classis.                                     well-being of the denomination.
the Synod of the Christian Reformed                Among the stronger statements               The councils of fifteen of the
Church (CRC) in 1990 to open the             of opposition to the Synod of 1990 is        twenty-two churches in the classis
offices of minister and elder to women       thatcomingfromClassisIlliana  (South         have adopted statements declaring
has caused no small stir in that de-         suburbs of Chicago and Northwest             their opposition to the decision of the
nomination. We have deliberately,            Indiana). This  classis at its January       `90  Synod.
for a number of reasons, said very           meeting:                                          Classis Niagara rejected two
little about this in the Stand~rdBearer.           -adopted a statement opposing          overtures to repudiate the 19901 deci-
Certainly we take no delight in the            and repudiating Synod `90's deci-          sion and to dismiss all the denomina-
troubles currently plaguing the CRC.           sion which opened all ecclesiastical       tionalofficers  who approve of women
We believe the decision of the 1990            offices to women;                          in office. Several congregations in
Synod, on women in office, to be in                -adopted a communication to be         this classis declared that their pulpits
direct opposition to the clear teaching        sent to Synod `91 expressing disap-        would be closed to women and that
of the sacred Scriptures and our Re-           proval of the decision of Synod `90;       withdrawal from the denomination
formed Confessions and Church Or-                  -adopted an overture asking            would be a serious option.
der. We are grieved to see the CRC             Synod `91 to revise the decision of             In addition, there have been sev-
going in this direction.                       S y n o d   `9 0 ;                         eral independent congregations
     But this is also part of what is              -adopted changes to the Rules of       formed partly as a result of their op-
happening "all around us," and our             Procedure of Classis Illiana prohib-       position to the `90 Synod's deci-
readers are interested in this issue as        iting women from being seated as           sion. A number of families and indi-
well. Reports of the Winter and Spring         delegates to classis, and adopted a        viduals have also left various CRC
meetings from 41 of the 46 classes of          rule that classis shall receive as syn-    congregations over this issue and
the CRC indicate that these classes            odical deputies only male office           joined other Reformed denomina-
considered some 31 overtures from              bearers in the CRC;                        tions.
churches and individuals on this is-               -adopted an overture asking                                           The Banner
sue. All thirty-one overtures call for         Synod'91 to appoint a committee to                               Christian Renewal
the Synod of 1991 to "revise, rescind,         offer pastoral guidance to individu-                             Christian Observer
reconsider, or provide biblical proof"         als and churches who become dis:
for the 1990 Synod's decision to open          gruntled  parties in the aftermath of      1    Gays and the Church
all offices in the church to women.            Synod `92, whatever the outcome
Thirteen of these overtures are being          of the vote on ratification of the              This issue too continues to plague
sent to the 1991 Synod with the ap-            Church Order.                              several denominations. In spite of the
proval of the various classes. Thir-               The thrust of the overtures and        clear teaching of Holy Scripture, es-
teen are being sent to the upcoming          statements from this classis is that the     pecially in Romans 1 but also else-
synod with the disapproval of the            decision to open all church offices to       where, churches continue to discuss
various classes. Three of the over-          women conflicts with Scripture and           and compromise on this issue.
tures were placed in classical study         with the Belgic Confession Article 30             A United Methodist Church's
                                             which says that only "faithful men"          study committee recently voted 17 to
                                             should be elected to be office bearers       4 to recommend that the church's 18-
                                             in the church. The classis also argues       year-old statement, which says the
                                             that the Synod offered no convincing         practice of homosexuality is "incom-
Proj Decker is professor of Practical        or compellingreasons, biblicalor oth-        patible with Christian teaching,," be
Theology in the Protestant Reformed          erwise, for making this change in the        changed. It wants the statement to
Seminary.                                    Church Order. The majority of the            say that the church is "unable to ar-
                                                                                                    June 1,199l I Standard Bearer I399


rive at a common mind" on the sub-          tives and liberals who have never          tion dealt with at the conference was
ject. The report acknowledged some          worked together on church issues           "Can the homosexual be our neigh-
support within the church for the           gathered at Hilton Head, SC over the       bor?" The professor is quoted as
current policy, but said othersbelieve      March2 weekend to share their objec-       saying: "Tonight I argue that a careful
homosexuality is acceptable "when           tions to the report and to find ways to    reading of Scripture may teach us
practiced in a context of human car-        blunt its impact. One pastor said that     that the Bible cautions us against dis-
ing and covenantal faithfulness." A         "his members were no longer apa-           crimination.... Churchesclaimingthat
minority of the studycommitteemain-         thetic, they were angry. And that          sexually active lesbians and gays can-
tains that the present statement against    anger is turning into concern for the      not be fully neighbors may not be
homosexuality is correct. The report        welfare of the church."                    churches true to the Bible." Note the
willbe consideredby the 1992 general             Closer to home, we have learned       language of these statements. It is
conference, the denomination's high-        that Ring's College in Edmonton,           typical of what comes from those who
est policy making body.                     Alberta recently fired a faculty mem-      want to make the Scriptures say some-
     The study committee report of          ber when his homosexuality became          thing other than what they in fact s,ay:
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),           public knowledge. This is one thing!       "a careful reading of Scripture may
which report advocates the ordina-          The other is that the ousted professor     teach us"; "the Bible cautions us
tion of homosexuals and blesses             has the support of several of the fac-     against discrimination"; and "may
sexual relations outside of marriage        ulty as well as of his church, Fellow-     not be churches true to the Bible.`"
(a report we commented on in an             ship CRC in Edmonton.                                         Christianity Today
earlier issue of the  Standard Bearer),          A faculty member of the Insti-                           Christian Observer
is meeting a good bit of opposition         tute For Christian Studies in Toronto                         Christian Renewal
from both clergy and lay members of         recently participated in a conference                          Calvinist Contact
that denomination. Both conserva-           at  M&laster University. The ques-                                             cl



                                            Church.
                                            Membership in an
Guest Article
Rev. Steven Key                             Evil Age

     The truth of the Scriptures and             However, I want to state clearly      ways be positive, with the seeking of
the love of Christ's church is the pas-     from the start that it is not my inten-    God's glory as its basis. And it must
sion of my heart and the burden God         tion by this and three following ar-       always be based upon your own con-
has placed upon my soul. From that          ticles to proselytize members and to       victions of the truth of God's holy
point of view, I wouldlong for every-       add to the growing numbers in the          inspired Scriptures, as they line up
one to come and see the truth of            Protestant Reformed Churches. To           with the confessions of the particular
Scripture as we Protestant Reformed         write these articles with the purpose      church  to which you would join your-
Churches have been given to under-          of persuading you to join the PRC          self. So I am content in a brief series
stand and rejoice in it. And then I         wouldnotbe to the benefit of anyone.       of articles to open the Scriptures and
would also long to fellowship with all      The simple fact is, many of you would      call your attention to a few scriptural
our readers in the unity of church          need to askmany questions about our        principles, leaving the outcome to the
membership.                                 churches before even considering           Spirit of Christ and praying only that
                                            such membership. And the motiva-           you will be built up in the most holy
                                            tion for joining another church or         faithandexerciseyourcallingasfaith-
                                            denomination of churches ought             ful members of Christ's church.
                                            never be merely to escape the prob-             In connection with the theme,
                                            lems in one's own congregation or          "Church Membership in a Evil Age," '
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    churches.                                  it is my intention to call your attention
formed Church of Randolph, Wisconsin.            Church membership must al-            first to the scriptural idea and calling

400 /Standard Bearer 1 June 1,199l


of church membership. In a second            end of the world, gathers, defends,          were brought to faith through the
article I will call your attention to the    and preserves to himself by his Spirit       preaching of the apostles. However,
corporate responsibilityinwhich that         and word, out of the whole human             they were not left hanging on their
church membership invokes us. It is          race, a church chosen to everlasting         own. Instead, they are spoken of as
my purpose in a third article to con-        life, agreeing in true faith; and that I     beingaddedtothatnumberwhowere
sider the difficulty God's people in         am and for ever shall remain, a living       already a part of the church at Jerusa-
years past have faced with respect to        member thereof." Essentially, there-         lem.
their membership in apostatizing             fore, the church is the body of Christ,               In Acts 20:28, Paul instructs the
churches. And in a fourth and final          invisible, an object of faith, not sight.    elders in the church at Ephes,us to
article, the Lord willing, I will call            But besides that truth of the           take heed to themselves and to all the
your attention to the marks of the           church, Scripture also makes clear           flock over which God has made them
church by which we must determine            that that one holy, universal church         overseers. Those elders were not in
where we are called to serve God as          comes to manifestation in individual         doubt as to who were members in
members of His church.                       congregations under the leadership           their congregation. Taking heed to
     Church membership is some-              of God-appointed officebearers who           the flock would be impossible, if there
thing that the Christian church has          serve that local body of believers.          were no recognizable membership.
always taken seriously, because the          That is the aspect of church member-         To that same church at Ephesus Paul
concept is so thoroughly scriptural.         ship and our calling to church mem-          wrote a letter in which he gave in-
But alongwith the departure from the         bership that we consider in this and         struction as to the importance of con-
teaching of the Scriptures in recent         subsequent articles. There is a clear        gregational life. Christ blesses His
years, there has also been a steady          relationship between the one who is          elect through the congregation, to
decline in the understanding of the          taken into the church organism, that         which He gives His Word and Spirit.
importance of church membership.             invisible body of Christ, by regenera-       Out of Christ, that whole body, hav-
     Many believe that to be a mem-          tion and the bond of faith, and              ingbeenfitlyjoinedtogetherandcom-
ber of a local congregation is not so        membership in a local church.                pacted by that which every joint
important, and that individual be-                The invisible body of Christ and        supplieth  - see how intimate is that
lievers are at liberty to do as they         the visible congregation are not two         fellowship  - according to the effec-
please. If they want to join, that is        separate entities, but two important         tual working in the measure of every
fine; and if not, that is fine too. After    aspects of the one church. Although          part, maketh increase of the body
all, they say, church membership does        one can distinguish them, they are           unto the edifying of itselfinlove [(Eph.
not make you a Christian. But while          inseparably related. So inseparably          416).
we indeed grant that having your             related are they, that one expresses
name on a church roll will not make          personal unity with the body of Christ                 Eve y child of God,
you a Christian, there is a confusionin      when he joins a faithful congregation,                   by his confession
thatargumentthatmustbeaddressed              and one forsakes the body of Christ
by Scripture.                                when he leaves or stands outside of a                 of  being a Christian,
     The Bible speaks of the church          faithful congregation. The believer                         is obligated
from two perspectives, as does also          must find fellowship with the other                            to join
the Belgic Confession, one of the            members of Christ's body. He is                      the true church of God
creeds or confessions of the Reformed        compelled to do such by the Spirit of                       as it comes
churches.                                    Christ.
     In the first place, there is the one         That truth is well attested scrip-                    to expression
holy catholic church. And by that            turally. To the New Testament be-                in a local congregation.
word "catholic" we have no reference         liever, faith in Christ and participa-
whatsoever to the Roman Catholic             tion in His church are inseparable.                  From those references, which are
Church. "Catholic" refers to the um-              In Matthew  18:15ff., Jesus             only a few, it ought to be clear that we
versa1 aspect of the church, the one         teaches us the order to follow in call-      may not think of the church institute,
holy universal church of true believ-        ing an erring brother or sister to re-       that which is visible, as something
ers in many denominations and coun-          pentance and restoring fellowship            disassociated from the one invisible
tries, gathered throughout the ages.         when a breach has developed between          body of Christ. You may no!: put
The truth of Scripture concerning that       individual members of the church. If         asunderwhat Godhasjoined together!
holy catholic or universal church is         the guilty person refuses to listen,                 Dr. Abraham Kuyper used a fit-
concisely summarized in our Heidel-          Jesus instructs us to bring the matter       ting illustration (The Implications of
berg Catechism, Q & A 54: What               to the church. That clearly points to        Public Confession,' p. 84), when he
believest thou concerning the holy           believers being recognized as mem-           spoke of the peas in a pod. If you raise
catholic church of Christ? That the          bers of a local congregation.                peas in a garden, it is impossible that
Son of God from the beginning to the              In Acts, chapters 2-5, e.g., many       you tend the peas, but ignore the pod.

                                                                                                    June 1,199l I Standard Bearer I401


"True, when the peas are ripe, and          the Lord your God by loving Him              call your attention to the inspired
picking time has come, you shell the        with all your heart and mind and             words Paul wrote to Timothy in II
peas and throw the pod away. Simi-          soul, and loving your neighbor as            Timothy 3, and ask you: Don't you
larly, you remove a staff olding when       yourself. That sums it all.                  see this today?
once the building has been completed             That implies many things, of                 "This know also, that in the last
within it. Just so, the Lord God will       course.                                      days perilous times shall come. For
sometime come to throw away the                  In the first place, the necessity of    men shallbe  lovers of their own selves,
visible Church. But the present is not      church membership and the calling to         covetous, boasters, proud, blasphem-
yet the season of harvest. The scaf-        glorify God in your church member-           ers, disobedient to parents,
folding is necessary stilI, and the pod     ship immediately places you under            unthankful, unholy, . . . lovers of plea-
must needs be. Hence, you may not           the calling to evaluate today's              sure more than lovers of God, . . . ever
be indifferent about the visible            churches, including the one in which         learning, and never able to come to
Church, wrongly supposing that the          you currently have your member-              the knowledge of the truth." Those
invisible, spiritual Church can ma-         ship. Only a true church is a proper         sins do not merely characterize the
ture without her."                          body to join and in which to remain.         workl! Paul speaks about the church!
     For that reason, whoever is in-        As a member of that church, i.e., of a       For they are also characterized by
different to the church membership          local congregation of believers and          this: "Having aform of godliness, but
or who remains outside the member-          their children, you have the calling         denying the power thereof." The
ship of the local church, gives expres-     before the face of God to submit to the      ungodly are not concerned with hav-
sion to the sin of supposing to be          teaching ministry and to the disci-          ing a form of godliness. Paul speaks
wiser than God. Such a person acts in       pline of that church.                        of those who call themselves Chris-
rebellion against the ordinances of              You are obligated, according to         tian, who are church members, who
God. For the love of his soul we call       Scripture (I Cor. 9, and many other          may evenbe ministers and elders <and
him to repentance. Every child of           passages), to care for the poor and to       deacons, who may teachin  the schools,
God, by his confession of being a           support the ministry of the Word, in         and so on. But for all their form of
Christian, is obligated to join the true    its broadest sense, with your money,         godliness, they deny the power  thereof.
church of God as it comes to expres-        reflective of what God has given you.        And as Paul goes on to point out in
sion in a local congregation.               You are obligated to support the work        that chapter, that power of godliness
     But church membership involves         of Christ with the various gifts and         is the power of the Scriptures.
more than being on the membership           talents God has given you (Rom. 12,               Where there is a departure from
list of some church and attending the       Eph. 4, and many, many other pas-            the truth of the Scriptures in the pul-
worship services on Sunday.                 sages) -with your time and prayers,          pit ministry or in the teaching of the
                                            your fellowship and upbuilding               church, in the evangelistic outreach
          The necessity of                  words, even your admonitions for             of the church or in the lives of its
      church membership . . .               the love of the brother or sister who is     members, there is the increase of apos-
              places you                    departing from the way of the Lord.          tasy and all the evil characteristics
                                                 And for the glory of God, we are        against which Paul warns us.
         under the calling                  also obligated to live lives of separa-           And then he writes these pro-
             to evaluate                    tion and holiness. That means that we        found words: "Having a foml of
         today's churches,                  find no fellowship with the ungodly          godliness, but denying the power
         including the one                  and unbelievers and, as in times of          thereok  from such turn away!" Now,
     in which you currently                 apostasy and reformation, that we            he does not mean by that that we
                                            come out from among those who                immediately run away from those
     have your membership.                  manifest themselves as belonging to          problems as they arise in the church.
                                            the false church.                            The church on this earth is filled with
      There are responsibilities con-            Exercising that responsibility of       sin and imperfections. To our shame
nected with that churchmembership.          churchmembershipbecomesincreas-              some of these sins and imperfections
Those responsibilities are spelled out      ingly difficult in the advancing apos-       are evident also in our own churches.
throughout the Bible, and the Word          tasy in the church today. What a             We may not run away from our prob-
of God that I preach comes to me and        disastrous departure from the truth          lems. Under the inspiration of the
to His people every Lord's day with a       of God's Word is seen in most de-            same Holy Spirit, Paul writes clearly
"thus saith the Lord," that places be-      nominations today! We live in an evil        and explicitly about the church's call-
fore us responsibilities that are ines-     age. I am assuming, and I hope my            ing and the calling of you as an indi-
capable. Those responsibilities that        assumption is not incorrect, that you        vidual member to follow the God-
are yours as a member of Christ's           have enough spiritual sensitivity to         honoring way of exercising Christian
church in whatever place may all be         sin to see the evil that has engulfed        discipline-bothforloveof thechurch
summed up by the calling to glorify         also the church world today. I only          and for the love of those who have

402 IStandard  Bearer I June 1,199l


departed from the faith. We must            tural, God-ordained way in attempt-           those heretics and evil men and
seek their salvation. The church must       ing to defend the faith once delivered        women! Christ says, "From such turn
exercise the key power of Christian         to the saints, and when it becomes            away! " There is a reason folr that
discipline.                                 evident that that scriptural, God-or-         exhortation and calling. That mason
     But, having followed the scrip-        dained way works not salvation in             is for your own spiritual welfare and
turalwayandthechurchorderlyway              those who have departed, it is not our        salvation as well as the salvation of
of the exercise of Christian discipline,    calling to play politics in the church in     your children and grandchildren. 0
when we have followed the scrip-            the attempt to wrest control from




                                            Pilgrims and
Strength of                                 Strangers on our
 Youth
Rev. Russ Dyksfra                           Way to  m= Earth?
                                                                           n 




     What is your hope, your expec-         are we, withno abidingplace. Welive           Our interests should be in caring for
tation after death? What does the           here, serve God as best we can, and           our homefirst. Christians, it is said,
Bible lead us to expect on the other        look for the day when we can go               should not be longing to leave this
side of the grave? Where will we live       home, to heaven.                              earth to go home! And if one objects,
afterwedie,andwherewillthechurch                      Increasingly, however, both col-    "But what of the promise of God. that
live after the return of Christ on the      lege and high school students are             we will dwell with Him forever?" the
clouds of heaven? Where will this           taught that that attitudeis  wrong. They      answer of some, incredibly, is that
"new heavens and earth" be and what         are told to direct their attention and        that happened already in the Incarna-
will life be like there? Or, to bring it    their efforts toward"this earth. The          tion. Christ is God in the flesh, God
closer to home, are you a pilgrim and       argument runs something like this.            with us, who came DOWN from
a stranger seeking a heavenly, spiri-       Because we Christians were created            heaven to live on EARTH. He lives
tual city, or are you devoting your         to live on the earth, we have a respon-       withus now by His Spirit. Some even
attention to the earth, helping to re-      sibility to be stewards of it. But sin        teach that after Christ returns we will
form this present world and to re-          has twisted and corrupted this world.         come back to live on this earth.
ceive your inheritance here below?          As Christians, we must set the earth                Incredible? Yes. And yet this
     Many readers will be puzzled           back in the order it had when God             contains just enough of Scripture to
that these questions should even arise.     created it. We must not therefore, be         make one pause, and enough to carry
So was I when I received these ques-        so concerned about  heaven.  Rather we        along the student who is not knowl-
tions. From infancy, children of Re-        must get things right here on this            edgeable or grounded in the Scrip-
formed parents are taught that we are       earth.                                        tures. What are we to say about this?
on our way to heaven. This earth is                   This is not, of course, all new.          First, we must insist that heaven
not our home. Pilgrims and strangers        For some time now movements have              1) is real and 2) is the proper hope and
                                            been afoot within the Reformed camp           desire of the Christian. Heaven is a
                                            to improve this world  - rebuild              real place. It is a spiritual (not earthly)
                                            homes and fix up buildings in the             place for spiritual beings - the an-
                                            inner city or in poverty-stricken areas       gels, saints who have died, and God.
                                            in the south. But with these endeav-          Heaven is God's "holy habitation"
                                            ors, the alleged purpose at least was         (Deut. 26:15);  the Lord "sitteth in the
                                            to witness of Christ. Today, however,         heavens" (Ps. 2:4). Jesus taught us to
                                            instructors are getting bolder. Wit-          prayto"ourFatherwhoartinheaven."
Rev. Dykstra is pastor of the Protestant    nessing is not the main point. The            He will either confess or deny men
Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa.              point is that the earth is our home.          beforeHis"Fatherwhichisinheaven"

                                                                                                 June 1,1991/ Standard Bearer I403


(Matt. 10:32,33).  And Jesus Himself           He informed Pilate that His  "king.           focus of our attention and labors. To
"wasreceivedupintoheaven,andsat                domisnotofthisworld"  (John18:36)             do this is not only utter folly, since all
on the right hand of God" (Mark                Inharmonywiththat,Paullonged"tc               will be destroyed, but is ignoring
16:19).  Itwasinheaventhattherewas             depart, and to be with Christ; whicl          God's command to seekthe heavenly
fought the `war of Michael and the             is far better" (Phil.  1:23). And  he         kingdom.
angels against Satan (Rev. 127-g).             exhorts us to N seekthose things whick             We are, therefore, young saints,
And the saints who have died are               are above, where Christ sitteth on tht        pilgrims and strangers here below
there already. Adam and Eve, Abel,             right hand of God" (Col. 3:l).                with no abiding place. We are on our
Seth, Abraham, Moses, David, the                      Does the believer long  fol            way to heaven. Christ did come down
apostles, and our grandparents or              heaven? Should you look forward tc            to earth to save us, but His goal was
parents who died in the Lord are part          leaving this earth? Of course! How            not an earthly kingdom. It was em-
of the innumerable multitude gath-             could it be any different? Here ic            phatically a heavenly, spiritual king-
eredaboutthethroneofGodinheaven                tribulation, sickness, disease, pain          dom.
right now (Ps. 73:24; Matt. 8:ll; John         sorrow, SIN, and death. In heaven, al                 We must recognize and identify
14:2,3; Rev. 7:9ff.). Heaven is a real,        that is gone forever. In its place is joy     these ideas for what they are-fiery
spiritual place.                               love, peace flowing out of covenan            darts of the Evil One. Satan would
      Equally important is the fact that       life with God-face to face-in Jesu!           like nothingbetter than for Reformed
heaven is the object of the believer's         Christ.                                       young people to turn their thoughts
longing while on the earth. The Old                     But perhaps you wonder, what         and hopes away from heaven, and set
Testament believers understood this            about our calling towards the cre             them on this creation instead. He
well. The psalmist sang, "In thy pres-         ation? This question really deserve!5         would convince covenant youtlh to
enceisfulnessofjoy;atthyrighthand              a separate article or two because it ir5      consume their strength on earthly
there--are  pleasures for ever more"           very important.. But, very briefly, the2      concerns and problems, that there be
(16:ll). The patriarchs, Abraham,              calling of us Christians is to be goociI      no time or energy for personal slpiri-
Isaac, and Jacob, understood that the          stewards in all our lives, using wise11r      tual growth or work for the spiritual
earthly Canaan was not their final             the possessions and world God gavr?           kingdom. You recognize that he has
inheritance. They "looked for a city           us for God's glory. Having said that4         been attempting this throughout the
which hath foundations, whose                  however, we must remember that                history of the church. This is just a
builder and maker is God." They                this earth is not an end in itself, but it    new variation of an old lie, a different
were "strangers and pilgrims on the            serves its God-appointed functionI.           phase of his attack. What is so deadly
earth" who showed plainly that N they          On this earth is played out the di            about this is that he has instructors in
desire a better country, that is, an           vinely ordained drama of life - thhce         Christian institutions  essenti.ally
heavenly" (Heb.  ll:lO, 13-16).                fall of man, the redemption of thee           teaching covenant youth to forget
      Likewise Jesus exhorted us not           elect, and the gathering of the churcl1       about heaven and to get this world
to lay up treasures upon earth, but in         out of all nations. After the counsel of      straightened out first.
heaven, for, said He, "where your              God is accomplished, and especiall!Y                  We must be on our guard. We
treasure is, there will your heart be          after all the elect are gathered, thee        must consider ourselves to be pil-
also" (Matt. 6:19-21).  He wants -             creation will have served its purpose e       grims and strangers no less than
demands - that our hearts be set               andwillbebumedup @Pet. 3). ThuS               Abraham was. "For here we have no
upon heaven! In no uncertain terms             the earthly creation is not to be thli?       continuing city, but we seek one to
                                                                                             come" (Heb. 13:14). We are to pass
                                                                                             the time of our sojourning here in
                                                                                             fear, knowing that we were not pur-
                                                                                             chasedwithcorruptible things, as gold
                                                                                             andsilver,butwiththepreciousblood
                                                                                             of Christ (I Pet. 1:17, 18). For this
                                                                                             reason we live in the hope of Christ's
                                                                                             return, not to dwell with Christ on
                               ..* the earthly-creation
                                        is not to be                                         this sin-cursed world, but to be t,aken
                                                                                             outofthisworldthatitmaybeburned.
                                         the focus                                           And then? Then the promise will be
                           of our attention and labors.                                      fulfilled of the creation of the new
                                                                                             heavens and the new earth and eter-
                                                                                             nal life with our God there. We are
                                                                                             pilgrims and strangers on our way . . .
                                                                                             to heaven. Q


404 IStandard  Bearer I June 1 ,199l


A Cloud of                                    B e r n a r d   o f
Witnesses
Prof. Herman Hanko                            Clairvaux

     It is impossible to understand           who themselves did not join monas-          labors of members of the clergy. They
theh.istoryofthechurchintheMiddle             teries were often so influenced by          were vagabonds who wandered Eu-
Ages without having some idea of              them that enormous donations of             rope, preaching and administering
monasticism. Monasticism was so               land, money, gold, silver, and books        the sacraments as they sati fit,, mes-
common, so much a part of medieval            were donated. It is estimated that at       merizing the people with suplposed
life, so influential in the history of the    one time monasteries owned one-fifth        miracles and filling the people with
church in this period, that every as-         of the landed property in Europe.           every sort of superstition. They were
pect of the church's life was shaped               Because monasteries were so            wealthy and indolent, influencing af-
and formed in the monasteries.                popular, they soonbecame extremely          fairs in the church by the power of
     Although monasticism began               wealthy. It was inevitable that this        their wealth. Monks were also a sort
very earlyin  the history of the church       vast accumulation of wealth also led        of standing army of the papacy, for
(it was already present in the third          to spiritual and moral depravity. The       they were invariably loyal  bo the
century), it really reached the height        result was that the monastic move-          bishop of Rome and served him with
of its influence in the Middle Ages. It       ment went through periods of decay          fervor and extreme zeal. Evil popes
was through the establishment of              and reformation, which reformation          could use these monks to impose their
monasteries that the gospel was               was often brought aboutby the estab-        will upon recalcitrant clerics, kings,
spread throughout barbarian Europe:           lishment of new monastic orders.            nations, and bishoprics. And, of
small groups of monks would enter             Each new order grew rapidly until it        course, monasticism was built upon a
the thickforests of Europe, establish a       often numbered hundreds of indi-            totally unbiblical basis, i.e., that true
small monas tic community,and make            vidual monasteries, some composed           holiness could*.be  attained only in
that community the center of mis-             of men, others of women.                    world flight.
sionary enterprise.                                Each monastery had its own or-                   Yet, at the same time, monasti-
     Monasteries were found by the            der or rule, although all were agreed       cism represented what was also the
hundreds throughout the continent.            that the vows of poverty, chastity,         best in the church. Monasteries were
As the dreary ages of medieval his-           and celibacy were the principal vows        places of quietness and spiritual re-
tory ran their course, these monaster-        which initiates had to take to become       treat in the confusion and turmoil of
ies became centers of the life of the         a part of the monastery.                    Europe as wild barbarians dominated
church. Thousands were attracted to                In these monasteries was to be         throughout the continent. They were
them and entered them to find a true          found the best and the worst of all         places where men and women gave
spiritual life. People from all classes       that characterized the medieval             themselves over to the cultivation of
of society tookmonasticvows-from              church.
the very poor to the rich and power-               Monasteries represented the
ful; from the weak and insignificant          worst of all ecclesiastical life when
to Europe's princes and rulers. Those         they declined spiritually and the in-
                                              mates became guilty of every gross
                                              sin under heaven. They were some-
                                              times cesspools of iniquity, filled with
                                              gluttonyanddrunkenness,withgross                      1 It was discovered, e.g., at the time
                                              immorality' of every kind, and with         of the beginning of the Reformation in
                                              almost total ignorance and supersti-        Geneva prior to Calvin's arrival that the
                                              tion. The monasteries produced a            male and female monasteries were con-
                                                                                          nected by a secret tunnel through which
Prof. Hat&o is professor of Church His-       kind of quasi-clergy, men who were          inhabitants passed for purposes of fomi-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-          neither priests nor laity, but who of-      cation. Cf. Blackmun's book, William
tant Reformed Semina y.                       ten interfered with the ecclesiastical      Farel.
                                                                                                      June 1,199l I Standard Bearer I 405


true godliness through prayer, medi-          monasteries and governed 90 more.           than all other monks and priests
tation on Scripture, and the discipline       His monasteries were not places of          throughout the globe." And of
of a life of self-denial. Monasteries         idleness, for all the monks under him       Bernard's preaching Luther said:
were islands of safety and peace in the       were required to work hard from             "Bernardis superior to all the doctors
stormy seas of Europe's life. They            dawn till dark, all the while maintain-     in his sermons, even to Augustine
provided shelter for the homeless,            ing their monastic vows. His new            himself, because he preaches Christ
hospitals for the sick, schools for the       movement became an instrument to            most excellently." This is high praise
uneducated, inns for travelers, places        reform monastic life in general and         indeed, coming as it did from one of
.of safety from marauding bands of            revitalize an institution which had         the church's greatest preachers and
brigands and warriors. They pro-              fallen into disrepute.                      from one who despised monkery.
duced Europe's great universities and              From his monastery he had tre-         "Bernard," says Luther in another
cathedrals. They developed the sci-           mendous influence upon the entire           place, "loved Jesus as much as any
ences of husbandry and agriculture.           life of the church. Europe's nobility       one can.N
They produced many of the arts and            sought his advice, and the church's              That the Song of Solomon ap-
crafts which were later to become             prelates, from the highest to the low-      pealed to him is not surprising, for
industries. In them books were pre-           est, came to him for counsel. Nor did       BemardlovedGod'screation.  "Thou
served and copied, especially the             he fear the popes, one of whom was          wilt find," he wrote, "something
Scriptures. It is due to the painstak-        severely reprimanded by Bernard for         greater in the woods than in books.
ing work of scribal monks that we             his dissolute life.                         The trees and rocks will teach thee
have today correct manuscripts of the              Although he never sought high          what thou canst not hear from hurnan
original, inspired Scriptures. Their            office, from his monastery he ad-         teachers. And dost thou not thtink
reformatory movements often served              vised kings and popes and was vir-        thou canst suck honey from the rocks
as dams against the tidal waves of              tually the uncrowned king of Eu-          and oil from the hardest stones!" A
corruptionwhichallbutengulfed  the              rope. The fact that a monk who
                                                seldom left his monastery could ex-       man who enjoys God's world cannot
church.                                         ercise such an influence testifies to     be all bad. Yet, at the same time, he
     Into this situation Bernard was            the tremendous respect in which           couldbesolostinhismeditationsthat
born. He was born in a castle of                spiritualleaders were held. The abil-     he could travel a whole day along the
Fontaines-les-Dijon in Burgundy,                ity of one man without political of-      shores of the beautiful lake of Gen.eva
France, in 1090, into a family which            fice or power to change history solely    andbe so oblivious to the scenery that
belonged to the lesser nobility in              by his teacXng  and example is with-      at the end of the day he had to ask
France, a family characterized by an            out parallel until the sixteenth cen-     what his companions had seen. on
unpretentious life-style and what we            tury,whenMartinLutherwouldonce            their journey.
would probably call an old-fashioned            again transform Europe from his
                                                pulpitandprofessoischairinasmall               Perhaps one of the most inter-
piety. His father, Tescelin, went on            town in Saxony.3                          esting aspects of his life was his c'om-
the first crusade and was one of the               Bernard was a theologian of no         mission by the pope to preach the
small minority which returned. His            little power. He not only opposed           second crusade-thosestrange "holy
mother was to Bernard what Monica             heresy wherever he saw it, but he was       wars," launched by the papacy in an
was to Augustine, for Alethea was a           also an enemy of several Romish doc-        effort to wrest the Holy Lands from
woman of rare piety.                          trines which have since beenincorpo-        the hands of the Seljuk Turks. While
     Trained as a nobleman, he soon           rated into Roman Catholic thought.          the first crusade had ended in victory
left this life and entered the newly          He opposed the doctrine of the im-          for the church, some yearslater Edlessa
organizedCistercianmonasteryatthe             maculate conception of Mary; he             in Syria had fallen again to the fidos-
age of 22. He entered the monastery           fought against justification by faith       lems. In attempting, through his
with zest, taking with him his five           and works, against purgatory, against       preaching, to persuade people to go
brothers and 30 other men whom he             all works of supererogation, and            on the new crusade, he influenced so
persuaded to enter with him. He was           against the developing doctrine of
a fanatic monk who gave himself so            transubstantiation.
completely over to self-denial that he             But Bernard was above all a
permanently ruined his health, some-          preacher. His 86 sermons on the Song
thing which, in later life, he came to        of Solomon are extant. It was particu-
regret. At the age of 25 he was sent by       larly his preaching which had such
his superior to organize a new mon-           impact on the church. So godly a man
astery in Clairvaux,2  which became           was he that Luther said of him: "If              2 He has since been known as Ber-
the center of his activities tillhis death    there has ever been a pious monkwho         nard of Clairvaux.
in 1153 at the age of 63.                     feared.God, it was St. Bernard; whom
     Devoting his life to the monastic        alone I hold in much higher esteem               3 JohnD. Woodbridge, GreutIeud-
ideal, he organized 70 additional                                                         ers of the Christian Church, p. 134.

406 /Standard Bearer I June 1,199l


many people in Vitry to join the cru-         and of the Christian world. "The            for the monastic life led him to ap-
sade that he had to cut his own robe          judgments of the Lord are just," he         prove of the persecution of those who
into pieces to make crosses for the           wrote, "but this one is an abyss so         opposed the church, he represented,
people.4 His efforts in this direction        deep that I dare to pronounce him           on the whole, the best in monasticism
were directed also towards Conrad             blessed who is not scandalized by it."      and is evidence of the fact that God
III, Germany's powerful king. Conrad                    Bernard was also a gifted hymn    sometimes preservedHis  church dur-
was reluctant to go, but was finally          writer. The well-known hymn, "Oh,           ing these troubled times be.lind the
moved to tears by Bernard's vivid             Sacred Head Now Wounded," is an             walls of Europe's monasteries. He
descriptions of eternal torments and          adaptation of Bernard's original            did not think it was possible to live a
by his eloquent reminders to Conrad           hymn. And one of his better known           life pleasing to God in any other place
of all God's goodness to the king. In         hymns has this beautiful stanza:            than in the cold grayness of a monas-
a passionate outburst, Conrad cried                                                       tic cell; but perhaps, in his times, this
out: "I acknowledge the gifts of the            Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts,         may have been close to the truth. Al
divine mercy, and I will no longer                      Thou Fount of life,
remain ungrateful for them. I am                         Thou Light of men,
ready for the service which He Him-             From the best bliss which
self hath exhorted me."                                  earth imparts                             4 To agree to go on a crusade was
        Bernard felt keenly the humilia-           We turn unfilled to Thee again.        "to take the cross." This was literally
tion of the failure of this crusade, but                                                  done by sewing a piece of cloth in the
ascribed it to the sins of the Crusaders                Although Bernard's fanaticism     shape of a cross on one's clothing.


                                              News From Our
ML Benjamin Wigger                            Churches

        We begin this issue of the            special invitations to the members of       time of preaching services in Ft.
"News" with a followup  to our last           their communities to come and wor-          Wayne, IN to 10:00 AM to encourage
issue. Concerning the Young Adults'           ship with them. On Sunday after-            more visitors from the area.
Retreat held in Colorado, Rev. R.             noon, April 7,  Doon invited their
Cammenga writes that our Loveland,            neighbors to gather and hear God's          CONGREGATIONAL  HLGH-
CO PRC has intentions of holding a            Word proclaimed based on Lord's             LIGHTS
similar retreat next spring. If some          Day 9: "I believe in God the Father,                 The building committee of the
could not attend this year, they may          Almighty, Maker of heaven and               Hull, IA PRC presented to their
want to make tentative plans to at-           earth." Advertisements were placed          consistory a preliminary plan for a
tend next year.                               inlocalpapersurgingattendance. On           new church building. Presently the
                                              April 14, an invitation from Lynden's       consistory is working to finalize this
EVANGELISM ACTIVITIES                         congregation was extended to their          preliminary plan so that it may be
        Two of our churches, the con-         community to gather for an evening          presented to the congregation for their
gregation in Doon, IA, and the con-           worship service to hear the biblical        approval, hopefully by June.
gregation in Lynden, WA, extended             truth of proper Sunday observance                    The members of the Immanuel
                                              explained.                                  PRC of Lacombe and the First PRC of
                                                   The Evangelism Committee of            Edmonton, AB, Canada joined to-
                                              our Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI         gether for a sing-song (or
                                              sponsored a lecture, with their pas-        singspiration) on April5. First's choir
                                              tor, Rev. M. Kamps, as speaker. He          provided some Easter numbers,, and
                                              spoke on April 18 at Southwest on the       Immanuelalso had some specialnum-
                                              subject, "The Purpose of SacredScrip-       bers.
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes tan t    ture."                                               On the evening of April 24, an
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,  Michi-            The Consistory of the South            organ concert by Mrs. Fran Lubbers
gan.                                          Holland, IL PRC has changed the             was given in the auditorium of the

                                                                                                    June 1 ,19!N I Standard Bearer I407


&DMD
   BEWER                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                    Postage Paid at
                                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Michigan
   P.O. Box 6064
  Grand Rapids, MI 49516


Grandville, MI PRC. This provided a         Doctrine For Women's Lives," from            MINISTERIAL CALLS
wonderful opportunity to enjoy an           Titus 23-5.                                           The congregation of Southeast
evening of good music. The commit-                   TheMr.  andMrs.  Society League     PRC in Grand Rapids, MI has ex-
tee even arranged to pre-record the         Mass Meeting was held in the Hope            tended a caII to Rev. R. Dykstra to
numbers, toeliminate audiencenoise.         PRC in Grand Rapids, MI on April 16.         serve as their next pastor. With Rev.
And the tapes were available the same       Rev. Key addressed the couples on            Dykstra on the trio were Revs. Gritters
n i g h t .                                 "Women Serving God."                         a n d   K o r t e r i n g .
     Rev. W. Bruinsma, pastor of the                 And, just a reminder, especially             Our Kalamazoo congregation
Holland, MI PRC underwent surgery           to you young people, that this year's        has extended a call to Rev. T. Miersma
on two herniated disks in his back in       Young People's Convention, spon-             to serve as missionary to the area of
late April.                                 sored by our Byron Center, MI PRC,           Venice, FL.
                                            is scheduled for August 5-9 at Grand                  And our last news item for this
DENOMINATIONAL ACTIVITIES                   Valley State University, just west of        issue, Rev. B. Gritters has declined
     OnApril23rd,Rev.DeVrieswas             Grand Rapids, ML Byron Center has            the call he was considering to serve as
the featured speaker at a Spring La-        chosen for its theme this year, "Re-         pastor of the Hope PRC of Isabel, SlD.
dies' League Meeting in Edgerton,           formed Young People Living in the                                                   cl
MN. He spoke on the topic "Sound            Last Times," based on IThessalonians
                                            5:8.


         CALL TO SYNOD!!                             The Pre-Synodical Service will        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     Synod 1990 appointed Hope              be held in Southwest Church on Mon-                   The Men's Society of the PRC of
Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,         day evening, June 10, at 7:30 PM.            Hudsonville, Ml expresses its Chris-
Michigan the calling church for the         Rev. Gise VanBaren, president of the         tian sympathy to two of its members,
1991 Synod.                                 1990 Synod, will preach the sermon.          Mr. Henry Boer and Mr. Hilbert Kuiper
     The Consistory hereby notifies         Synodical delegates are requested to         and their families in the passing of
our churches that the 1991 Synod of         meet with the Consistory before the          their loved one,
the Protestant Reformed Churches in         service.                                              MRS. JEANEll-E LEMS.
Americawill convene, the Lord willing,               Delegates in need of lodging                 "Blessed are they that mourn for
on Tuesday, June 11 th, 1991 at 9:00        should contact Mr. Peter Koole, 554          they shall be comforted" (Matthew
AM in the Southwest Protestant Re-          Kenowa S.W., Grand Rapids, Michi-            5:4).
formed Church, 4875 Ivanrest,               gan 49504. Phone: (616) 453-2524.                     Mr. George Hoekstra, President
Grandville, Michigan, (Hope Church                     Consistory of Hope Protestant                Mr. Garett Jansma, Secretary
will be undergoing extensive renova-                               Reformed Church
tion in June.)                                                       P. Koole, Clerk


                  Ye shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless thy bread and thy water. - Exodus 2325
                                              What I possess, or what I crave,
                                            Brings no content, great God to me,
                                              If what I would, or what I have,
                                            Be not possessed, and blest, in Thee;
                                                    What I enjoy, 0 make it mine,
                                              In making me that have it, Thine.
    > Offer up to God all pure affections, desires, regrets, and all the bonds which linkus to home, kindred, and frien.ds,
together with all our works, purposes, and labors. These things, which are not only lawful, but sacred, become then the
matter of thanksgiving and oblation. Memories, plans for the future, wishes, intentions; works just begun, half  dose,
allbut completed; emotions, sympathies, affections-all these things throng tumultuously and dangerously in the heart
and will. The only way to master them is to offer them up to Him, as once ours, under Him, always His by right.
                                                                                              Standard Bearer, March 15,1'933

408 /Standard Bearer I June 1,199l


