                   THE
                  STANDARD,
A Reformed         B I E R
Semi-Monthly
Magazine



                   1,  `.The attitude that the .church
                   has towards doctrine, the zeal
                    and devotion with which she
                    maintains.that  doctrine, reveals
                    her  love.  tind devotion  tO  the
                                   .





Vol. 68, No. 3
November 1,199l


CONTENTS:                                                                         November I, I.991                        STANDARD
                                                                                                                                   BEARER
Meditation - Rev. Jason L. Kortering
  Take the Sword of the Spirit ............................................................... 51
Editorial - Pro f David J. Engelsma                                                                                       ISSN 0362-4692
   The Standard Bearer: Holding the Tradition .................................... 53                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
Letters ......................................................................................................     55     Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                          4949 ivanrest Ave., Qrandville, MI 46416. Second Class
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHattog                                                                                         Postage Paid at Grandvllle, Michigan.
   Maintaining Sound Doctrine ............................................................... 57                          Poetmaeter:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
A Cloud of Witnesses + Pro f Herman C. Hank0                                                                              P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 46466-0603.
   Thomas Becket .................................................................................... 59                  EDITORIAL COMMflTEE
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev, Bernard Woudenberg                                                                     Editor-z Prof. David J. Engdsma
                                                                                                                          seaetery: Prof. Robert D. Decker
   Some Reflections on "Presupposed Regeneration". ........................ 61                                            Menaglng Editor: Mr. Don Doezems
All Around Us - Prof. Robert  D. Decker                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
   Calls for Unity Among Reformed Denominations ............................. 63                                          Rev. Rcdd Cemmenga, Prof. Robert De&w; Rev. Me
                                                                                                                          denHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra. Rev. Carl Haak,  Mr. Fred
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Da/e H. Kuiper                                                                                 Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heye, Rev. Marvin
   Seas ..................................................................................................... 65          Kamps, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Koole, Rev. Jason
                                                                                                                          Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting, Rev. Qeorge
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                               Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. JemesSlopsema,  Rev.
   Claiming State Protection ................................................................... 67                       Charles Terpstra, Rev. Ronald VanOvsrloop,  Mr. Benjamin
                                                                                                                          Wiggw, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
Letter from the Seminary - Pro f Robert D. Decker ................................. 66
RFPA Annual'Repdrt  -`Mr. Peter Koole ..................................................                           68     EDITORIAL OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                          me Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wiaoer
Book Reviews ..........................................................................................            70     4649 Ivanrest               6597 4othze.
                                                                                                                          Grandville, Ml 49410        Hudsonville, MI 49426
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger .................................. 71                                        BUSINESS OFFICE             NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
Report of Classis West - Rev. Rijnald Hanko .........................................                              72     The Standard Bearer        The Standard Bsarsr
                                                                                                                          Don Doezma                  c/o Protestant Reformed
                                                                                                                          P.O. Box 663                   Church
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50 /Standard Bearer / November I,1991


                                                                                                                                 -



                                             Take the Sword of
Meditation
ReK Jason Kottering                          the Spirit

        And take the sword of the Spitit,    text refers to the short sword used in        written over a period of some 1,,600
  which is the word of God.                  close combat. There were also long            years with as many as forty authors,
                         Ephesians 6:17b.    swords, three or four feet in length,         contribute to the one message which
        We have a sword!                     with which they could jab and kill            God communicates to mankind. He is
        Thank God, while the arrows of       fromagreaterdistance. (Suchasword             God, and salvation is necessary and
the wicked assail us and while Satan         is referred to in Revelation 1:16: "Out       provided in none other name than
hurls his fiery darts at us, we do not       of his mouth went a sharp two-edged           that of Jesus. It comes to us in the form
have to sit by helplessly and question       sword (great sword.)" Here however            of history, poetry, prophecy, etc. No
the outcome.                                 the word used refers to the shorter           passage contradicts any other; each
        We have a sword!                     one of about 12-15 inches in length.          complements the other.
        That makes our armor complete.       There was no other way to victory                   How can that be explained?
        We are covered from head to          than for the soldier to unsheath his                There is only one author, the
toe. Our spiritual loins are protected       sword and face the enemy. He had to           Eternal Spirit of God.
by the girdle of truth, our breast is        kill, to wound, to strike fear in the               This is what Scripture claims for
secure with the breastplate of therigh-      heart of the enemy. Only then would           itself.
teousness of Jesus, our feet are shod        the enemy ever flee for his life or be              "All Scripture is given by inspi-
with the readiness of the gospel of          defeated by death.                            ration of God and is profitable for
peace. With the helmet of salvation                    Our faithful God has given to us    doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
our minds are secure, and with the           a sword, a weapon for the battle of           for instruction in righteousness,  ,that
shield of faith we have additional           faith.                                        the man of God may be perfect, thor-
security against the fiery darts of the                It is appropriately called, "The    oughly furnished unto every good
enemy.                                       sword of the Spirit, which is the word        work" (II Tim. ,3:16). "For prophecy
        We also have a sword.                of God."                                      came not in old time by the will of
        With that sword we are able to                 The "word of God" is the Holy       man, but holy men of God spabe as
be aggressive. We can attack the en-         Bible, Gods written Word, which is            they were moved by the Holy Spirit"
emy ourselves, we canbegin our own           further described as a sword which            (II Pet. 1:21).
assault, we can "resist the devil and        the Holy Spirit provides. We do well                The Word of God is here called
he will flee from you" (James 4:7,8)         to emphasize that this belongs to-            the sword of the Spirit. The Spirit is
and, "put to flight the armies of the        gether. The Bible without the Spirit is       the One who produced it. He pre-
aliens" (Heb. 11:34).                        just another book. To imagine that            pared the authors so that they could
        A soldier without a sword would      the Spirit speaks apart from the Bible        write. David, for example, was a
be in a most precarious position.            leads to mysticism and all sorts of           shepherd as preparation for the writ-
Imagine that the enemy had begun             abomination. Here, the two are iden-          ing of Psalm 23. The Spirit gave them
the battle by shootinghis fiery arrows       tified as one, our swordis the Word of        the desire to write. According to
and hurling his incendiary darts. In         GodwhichwasproducedbytheHoly                  Luke l:l-4, for example, it seerned
the midst of such a holocaust, the           Spirit. What God wants us to know as          good to Luke to add to the collected
Roman soldier could make out the             soldiers is graciously provided for us        writings his own account of the min-
approaching army. Quickly, he would          by the Spirit on the pages of Holy            istry of Jesus. The same Spirit re-
take his shield, pull on his helmet,         Writ.                                         vealed to the writers what to write,
grab his sword, and face the foe. The                 The word translated "word" of        He guided their hands to write accu-
                                             God is the Greek word which empha-            rately, and He finally led the church
                                             sizes speech, the act of communicat-          to include in the canon of Scripture all
Rev. Korteringis  pastorof theprotestant     ing. God spoke His Word, and it was           the books whichHe willed to include.
Reformed Church  of  Grandville, Michi-      in turn written, so that we can know                The written Word of God forms
gan.                                         His speech. All the books of the Bible,       the basis for the spoken word. When
                                                                                               November 1,199i / Standard Bearer / 51


the Bible is used as the sword of the        sword when He contended with Sa-            for with a little effort the message can
Spirit, it includes its written form.        tan (Matthew 4:1-11). Each time He          easily  be discerned. The Bible is suffi-
God is able to work through the Bible        said, "It is written." To the lawyer        cient. Other books may be helpful,
as He wills. Just the reading of the         who tempted Him with subtle words,          but they are not necessary. You don't
Bible can be a powerful influence on         Jesus said, What is written in the          need to believe a certain system of
the lives of people. There is more. The      law?" (Luke 10:25,26).  Jesus opened        theology or to embrace a certain phi-
Bible forms the basis for the preach-        up the prophets to the two travelers        losophy in order to know what God
ing of the gospel and the witness of         to Emmaus (Luke2493ff.).  Wherever          says in the Bible. If the only book a
the believers. The Holy Spirit works         the apostles preached the gospel, they      person every studied all His life were
effectively through such speaking to         demonstrated that Jesus was the ful-        the Bible, it would be adequate. Fi-
accomplish His purpose. When the             fillment of the law and prophets (Acts      nally, the Bible is necessary, for there
Word is preached, the Holy Spirit            8:26ff.), as Philip did to the Ethiopian    is salvation in no other name given
exposes error and convicts souls. He         eunuch. This is the great lesson of the     among men than that of Jesus, andHe
frees from the dominion of sin and           Reformation. The influence of the           is set forth in the Bible and nowhere
turns men over to the power of the lie.      church in her ministry is not to be         else.
The same is true for the admonition of       found in tradition, or in the words of               Little wonder, then, that in the
the elders, and the comfort of the           men, but in the Holy Scriptures.            midst of the battle of faith, Satan de-
deacons. We bring this Word to our           Luther and Calvinboth answered the          signs to grab that sword out of the
children and to one another. It is like      charges of the apostate church by           hands of the Christian soldier. This is
a sword. It destroys the enemy and           requiring of them that they demon-          why the battle for the Bible is so cru-
brings to the feet of Jesus all those for    strate their beliefs from the Word of       cial for the victory today. Satan tries
whom He died.                                God. The only thing binding their           todistorttruthbyintroducingso~many
         We do well to remind ourselves      conscience was the sword of the Spirit      new translations that he can subtly
what a precious gift this sword of the       which is the Word of God. In all that       insert distortions (e.g., denials of the
Spirit really is.                            controversy, they used that sword in        divinity of Christ or the atonement).
         If we use anything else, we must    battle.Theyexposederror,defiedfalse         He would like us to use many differ-
be warned by this word of God and            accusation, and taught the people the       ent translationsin our homes, schools,
take heed as Christian soldiers. Are         great comfort of the gospel, justifica-     churches, so that we can't even quote
you confronted by someone who                tion by faith in Jesus Christ.              the Bible anymore. The new m.ethod
wants to argue with you about your                                                       of interpreting the Bible is an attempt
faith? Does anyone call into question                                                    to take our Bibles away and to dlestroy
your walkof obedience? Are you hav-            One does not need to know                 their effectiveness. More than any-
ing difficulty with the behavior or                 Hebrew and Greek                     thing, however, if we are sobusy that
belief of your husband or wife? What                                                     we can't even read our Bibles and are
about your children - are they un-                    in order to know                   ignorant of their contents, we won't
ruly, are they walking in sin, do they            the mind of the Spirit.                use them anyway.
raise questions and ask why certain                  He needs but read                            Use your sword, dear reader.
things are the way you say they are?             his Authorized Version.                          That's the only way to victory.
How do you deal with these situa-                                                                 It is guaranteed; for the same
tions? Do you just shrug it off and                                                      Spirit who gave us the Bible is the
say, "Well, that's the way it is"? Do             Why is this so? Why is the only        Spirit who gives us understanding,
you say, "Believe me because I said          effective offensive weapon against all      helps us to explain it, motivates us to
so"? Do you try to reason with your          of Satan's assaults the Word of God?        quote it, and ultimately applies it in
children only from the point of view         ItisbecauseofwhattheBiblereallyis.          the hearts of His dear people.
of their own good? Do we resort to           It is the last word regarding doctrine               The Word of God is still power-
human science and philosophy? If so,         andlife. It carries the authority of the    ful and sharper than any two-edged
we fail to use the sword of the Spirit.      sovereign God. Again and again the          sword (Heb. 4:12).
We need to open our Bibles. We must          saints of old cried out, "Thus saith the             As soldiers we maybe wounded
show to them what God has to say.            Lord." That settles all disputes, it        and scarred in battle, but when we
This is critical to our effective war-       exposes all error, it asserts truth. In     fight with the sword of the Spirit in
fare.                                        addition, the Word of Godis clear. Its      hand, we die victorious.
         Thus it has been throughout the     message is so simple a child can grasp               The mouths of liars  sh,all be
entire history of Christ's church.           it. One does not need to know He-           stopped.Thosewhoconfesstruthshall
Micaiah could do nothing but speak           brew and Greek in order to know the         rejoice. Gods Word never returns to
the word of the Lord to Ahab, even           mind of the Spirit. He needs but read       Him void.
though it brought him the bread of           his Authorized Version. Even archaic                 This is victory! Q
affliction (I Rings 22). Jesus used this     language need not stand in the way,
52 /Standard Bearer I November 1,199l


Editorial                                        The Standard                                                                      -
                                                Bearer: Holding the
                                                Traditions*

          It is an honor to address the              We men (and women, I am                 past, with what is old. It refers to a
annual meeting of the honorable Re-             bound to add, although I see none of         valuing, even a prizing, of those old
formed Free Publishing Association              the female sex in attendance at this         things. Therefore, it concerns work-
(RFPA).                                         meeting, and cannot understand why           ing to make those old things your
          I am deeply conscious of the          not) - we men and women who                  own, preserving them, and allowing
tradition of the RFPA and of its pub-           support and read The SB stand in a           them to direct your life. This last is
lication, the Stundurd  Bearer. As I            certain tradition. I am convinced that       very definitely an aspect of holding
was making this speech, I looked up             this is a glorious tradition. It is the      the traditions as I intend it.
more than once at the 64 imposing               tradition of the Reformed faith as it
volumes of the SB, bristling with Re-           has come out of the 16th century Ref-
formed doctrine, uncompromising in              ormation of the church; as it is sys-                        Our age . . .
their defense of  creedal  orthodoxy,           tematicallyexpressedintheReformed                is virulently anti-tradition.
eloquent in their testimony to the              creeds; as it is worked with and wit-                    It is madly in love
cause of God and truth in the Protes-           nessed to by the writings of a multi-                      with novelty.
tant Reformed Churches. I confess               tude of Reformed theologians; as it
that this tradition can be frightening.         has been lived by Reformed churches
I had to say to myself, "David, God             worldwide for nearly 500 years; and               There is also a certain prizing
does not require the men of this gen-           as it has been held and shaped in the        and preserving of old things for the
eration to attain the lofty heights of          PRC for the past 65 years.                   sake of their financial worth, or their
the heroes who have gone before, but                 The RFPA has played an impor-           aesthetic value, or just because one
only that they be faithful."                    tant part in the maintenance of this         has a highly developed historical
                                                traditionoverthepast 65years,largely         sense. People collect antiques. They
                                                through the publication of its periodi-      have old dishes on the shelf. They
                                                cal, the SB. It is this function and         visit museums to gaze on old docu-
* In thefall of 1989, lgave the address to      responsibility of the RFPA that I in-        ments. The churches that abandon
the annual meeting of the Reformed Free         tend to explore with you, as I speakon       tradition today have this kind of cul-
Publishing Association, publisher  of  the      "The  SB:  Holding the Traditions."          tured regard for the past and its relics.
Standard Bearer. This was my first                   I have chosen this topic with           They have an old copy of the
address to the parent body as editor of the     some deliberation. It is, of course, a       Westminster Confession of Faith in
magazine - my "inaugural address. "             biblical topic. In II Thessalonians          their archives or an original edition of
The group instructed me to publish the          215, the apostle charges the saints,         Calvin's kstitutes in their librav.
speech in the SB. Belatedly, I now obey         "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and        On occasion, they bring the artifacts
the order. I have, however, taken the           hold the traditions which ye have            to the attention of the public with
liberty to revise the speech, significantly     been taught, whether by word, or our         fanfare. But of theinfluencingof thleir
so in places, as those who heard the speech     epistle." But my choice of the topic,        lives by the old things, they must
will discover when they read especially         particularly the use of the word tradi-      have nothing. Much less will they
the last two installments. There will be        tion,  takesinto account that the present    allow the things from the past to rule
four installments in this series of editori-    time is characterized by the abandon-        their "modern" lives.
als. We will do our utmost to run them          ment of tradition, bothin the churches             Our age, I repeat, is virulently
successively.  I have purposely refrained       and in the world. I do not think it an       anti-tradition. It is madly inlove with
from obliterating all evidences that the        exaggeration to say that "tradition" is      novelty.
original mode of this message was that of       a dirty word - an obscene word -                  There are reasons for this, to
speaking. The speaking-style has its own        both in the ecclesiastical sphere and        which I can only allude. There is the
force.                                          in all of Western society.                   influence of evolution, which judges
                                    -DIE             "Tradition" has to do with the          history to be meaningless chance and

                                                                                                 November 1,199l / Standard Bearer / 53


accident. There is the pervasive influ-      The Roman Catholic council, Vatican           these laws with the most intense, re-
ence of existential philosophy, which        II (1962-1965),  maintained this criti-       ligious zeal. The Jews were fanatical
contends that only the present mo-           cally important position on tradition:        about tradition, This enthusiasm for
ment is real. There is the breakdown           Consequently, it is not from sacred         tradition was rooted in a passion for
of the family, which is always the             Scripture alone that the Church draws       ritual and for external obedilence  to
means by which tradition is passed             hercertaintyabouteverythingwhich            trivial rules. It was fostered by an
on to the following generation. There          has been revealed. Therefore both           extremism that desired to out-do the
is the stupid arrogance of "modern             sacred tradition and sacred Scripture
                                               are to be accepted and venerated            holiness of God, which, of course, is
man," who sincerely supposes that              with the same                               fully revealed in the Ten Command-
                                                                 sense  of devotion and
wisdom was born with him. At bot-              reverence ("Dogmatic Constitution           ments.
tom, there is the rejection of the triune      on Divine Revelation" in The Docu-               Jesus pitilessly condemned this
God revealed in the Scriptures,,with-          ments of Vatican 11, Walter M. Abbott,      holding of traditions as hypocrisy. It
out whom thereis nothing of ultimate           S.J., General Editor).                      is externalism in the stead of heartfelt
value, nothingworthy of being prized,             To tradition in this sense, the          love for God and the neighbor. It is a
preserved, and passed on.                    Reformed believer says "no." The              putting of the premium on human
     My particular concern is Protes-        Scriptures alone are the rule of faith        commandments to the neglect of, and
tantism, and then chiefly Reformed           and life, as the sufficient Word of           even opposition to, God's command-
Protestantism. Here is seen the same         God. The Reformed believer is the             ments. At the heart of this tradlition is
disregard and even contempt for tra-         sworn foe of extra-biblical tradition         the intent to merit salvation by one's
dition. There is deliberate, system-         as held by Rome. Nor is the threat            own superior righteousness and scru-
atic rejection of the tradition of Re-       only from Rome. Always it is a dan-           pulous behavior.
formed doctrine; ,of the tradition of.       gertobe guarded against that church-               Two things must be noted about
Reformed worship; of the tradition of        men impose their private theological          this controversy of Jesus with tradi-
Reformed church government; and              speculations and their list of "do's          tion. First, it was the basic contro-
of the tradition of Reformed life. They      and don'ts" upon the consciences of           versy of His ministry. At stake was
call this rejection "liberation."            the saints. Althoughin the time of the        the gospel. Second, the error is a
     In this hostile environment, I          Thessalonians the traditions were             constant threat to the church. As Paul
make bold to remind us of the duty           taughtthecongregationbothbyword               teaches in Colossians 2, it has the
and privilege that have come down to         and by writing, today, after the              appearance of wisdom in will wor-
us: "Hold the traditions!" And if            completion of the New Testament               ship, and humility, and neglecting of
anything of the attitude of our root-        canon, the traditions are the content         the body (v. 23). The threat is raised
less generation has rubbed off on us,        of the Scriptures, and nothing be-            in the church, not by the weak and
I want to do my part to rehabilitate         sides.                                        liberal, but by the strong and ultra-
tradition among us.                               The Reformed suspicion of tra-           conservative - the majestic, exem-
          ****$*+'                           dition is due, in the second place, to        plary Pharisee. 0
     My thesis is this: We must hold         the condemnation of a certain "tradi-                                          - DJE
the traditions, because they are pre-        tion," and a certain "holding" of tra-
cious.                                       dition, by the Scriptures themselves.
     The thesis suffers from the out-        There is this sharp criticism of tradi-
set by being burdened with an inher-         tion in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus'                      Reminder:
ent Reformed suspicion of any advo-          controversy with tradition is high-                 The  Standard Bearer
cacy of tradition. This is due, first, to    lighted in Mark 7 and the parallel                      is also available
the Reformed rejection of the Roman          Matthew 15. Theoccasionis the Phari-
Catholic position on tradition and on        sees' criticism of Jesus' disciples for                      on tape.
the place of tradition in the church.        not walking according to "the tradi-
According to Rome, there is in the           tion of the elders" inasmuch as the                        Contact the
Roman Catholic Church, altogether            disciples were eating bread without                Southeast Evangelism
apart from the Scriptures and even in        ceremonially washing, or baptizing,                        Committee
contradiction of the Scriptures, abody       their hands. The sect of the Nazarene
of truth which the pope can teach and        broke with the tradition of the cov-                1535 Cambridge Ave.
which the people must believe and            enant community!                                                S.E.
obey for the salvation of their souls.            There was a strong tradition                       Grand Rapids, MI
This body of truth, which is of equal        within the covenant community of                              49506
value and authority with the Bible,          that day that consisted of man-made                      for your copy
Rome calls tradition. An example of          commandments by which the people
tradition in the Roman Church is the         were to serve God. There was a                          to be sent to you.
belief and practice concerning Mary.         holding of the traditions that esteemed

54 /Standard Bearer I November 1,199l


Letters

w Recommended Works on                        creeds that we are sending you will         H The Covenant, Election, and
Eschatology                                   show that amillennialism is the offi-       Ar&le 31 of the Church Ordler
     I thank you for your good work           cial teaching of the Reformed                    We want to respond briefly to
in producing The                              churches, and why.
                     Standard Bearer.  I                                                  two articles recently published in The
look forward to each issue andread it                                          - Ed.      Standard Bearer. We do not want to
cover to cover. Could you send me a                                                       interfere in the discussion  betwelen
copy of the Belgic Confession? In             n An "Election Theolqgy" of                 Prof. Engelsma and Dr. DeJongwhich
addition, could you advise me as to           Covenant: BeautifulandCom-                  is carried on  in The Standard Bearer
the best books, publications, etc. that       forting                                     and Clarion, but it seems good to set
you would recommend on defining                    Let me express how much I en-          the record straight on two matters.
and defending the amillennial posi-           joy your editorials, "An'ElectionThe-            l.In Volume 67, no. 20 (Sept. 1,
tion in eschatology?                          ology' of Covenant," in its six install-    1991),  Prof. Engelsma spoke of "the
                        (Mr.)  Jim Pierson    ments (thus far). Who could ask for         `Liberated' problem with election,"
                          Maryville, TN       anything more beautiful and com-            and "the `Liberated' hostility to elec-
                                              forting than a covenant with us and         tion" (p. 462). These statements are
Response:                                     our children that is controlled by          wrong. Rejection of what is seen as a
     Receive with our compliments a           God's sovereign election? You have          wrong view on the relation between
copy of the Belgic Confession, as well        proved this biblically beyond all           election and the covenant is not the
as a copy of the Heidelberg Catechism         doubt. Canons I:9 speaks of "men            same as hostility to the doctrine of
and of the Canons of Dordt - the              being chosen to faith, and to the obe-      election itself. From his viewpoint
confessionsoftheReformedchurches.             dience of faith, holiness, etc., there-     Prof. Engelsma could think that an
     The following are recommended            fore election is the fountain of every      inconsistency exists between the doc-
works on the amillennial doctrine of          saving good. I) A view of the covenant      trine of election and that of the cov-
the last things.                              that does not proceed upon uncondi-         enant in "Liberated" (if you insist on
     l 3 Herman Hoeksema's com-               tional election as to its surety and        this word) theology. But he cannot
mentary on Revelation,  BehoZd,  He           scope is not a biblical or Reformed         say that the "Liberated" are hostile to
Cotneth!; Herman Hoeksema's chap-             view of the covenant.                       the doctrine of election. These
ter on "The.Millennium"  in his Xe-                Let us continue to be insistent,       churches maintain this doctrine as it
formed Dogmatics  and Herman                  yet patient, with those who cannot          is confessed in Article 16 of the Belgic
Hoeksema's short pamphlet, "The               distinguishbetweenfaithas"acondi-           Confession, Lord's Day21 of the Haei-
Millennium Period." These are avail-          tion" and as "the way," between             delberg Catechism, and the Canons
ablefromTheReformedBookOutlet,                "seed" and "in their generations"           of Dort.
3505KellySt.,  Hudsonville, MI 49426.         (Gen. 17:7), between the children of             2.In the next issue (Sept.  115,
     9 George C. Lubbers, The Bible           believers in general and "as many as        1991), Engelsma mentions that
versus Millennial Teaching: An Ex-            the Lord our God shall call" (Acts          Schilder wrote to all the consistories
egetical  Critique  (privately published,     2:39), and with those who are content       thathewouldnotbeboundbycertcain
1989). This book is also available            with an unkept, general promise of          dogmatic decisions of Synod  1942-
from The Reformed Book Outlet.                God rather than a particular promise        1944, and would write against them.
     ~3 William Hendriksen, More              sworn to with God's own oath (Heb.          The article continues: "This violated
than Conquerors: An Interpretation            6:13-18). And how can one make              Article 31 of the Church Order of
of the Book of Revelation (1939).             these biblical distinctions without         Dordt. The/Liberated' Churcheshave
     l 3 0-T. Allis, Prophecy and the         using such a term as "sphere of the         incessantly referred to synodical  au-
Church  (Presbyterian and Reformed,           covenant"?                                  thority as `synodocracy,' as though
1964).                                             Have no fear that these articles       there is no legitimate authority of
     + Anthony A. Hoekema,                    have wearied the reader. They are           synod over the consistory" (p. 487).
"Amillennialism," in  The Meaning  of         instructive and refreshing, and give        But a) Article 31 of the Church Ordler
theMillennium:  Four Views, ed. Rob-          great comfort to covenant parents.          gives the right to reject decisions of a
ert G. Clouse (Intervarsity Press, 1977).                         (Rev.) D.H. Kuiper      Synod, if they are proven to be in
     A careful study of the Reformed                         Lacombe, AB, Canada          conflict with the Word of God or with

                                                                                             November 1,199l / Standard Bearer / 55


the Church Order. Thus Schilder did                 ernment for independency (see  my           sions, the synod has no real authority
notviolatetheChurchOrderwhenhe                      editorial in the  Sept. 15,199l issue of    over the consistories whatever. Such
wrote the consistories. b) Schilder                 the SB, "A Belated Contribution to          a view of the authority of the synod
did                                                 the Schilder Commemoration").
         not refer to synodical authority as                                                    does not differ from the view of the
"synodocracy." He called it "syn-                       I now quote in full the para-           independent churches. They too will
odocracy" whenSynodswentbeyond                    graph in which vanReest  gives the            observe the decisions of their broader
their mandate. c) Schilder's articlesin           "Liberated" view of the authority of          associations,  if the  local congregation
which he stated that Christ had shed              thesynodandbyimplicationthe"Lib-              decides that itapprovesof  thesedecisions.
his blood also for the church federa-             erated"  explanation of Article 31 of         Otherwise not. This is not Reformed
tion again disprove Engelsma's alle-              the church order of Dordt ("... what-         (Presbyterian) church polity. Article
gation. Schilder wrote these articles             ever may be agreed upon by a major-           36 of the church order of Dordt as-
to oppose an independentistic  ten-               ity vote shall be considered settled          cribes (real) jurisdiction over the
dencywithinthe"Liberated" churches.               and binding," etc.):                          consistory to the major assemblies.
                       (Prof.) N.H. Gootjes         I have already indicated that when               Third, the implicit explanation
                      Theological College           Schilder took this step (namely, "not
                                                    submittingto thesynodicaldecisions          of Article 31 is that decisions of major
                                        of the      and . . . advising the churches not to      assemblies "shall be considered
           Canadian  Reformed Churches              do so either" - DJE), he was only           settled and binding" by each local
                  Hamilton, ON Canada               doing his duty. According to Re-            consistory (if not by each individual
                                                    formed (Gereformeerd)  church order,        member) only on the conditioa that
Response:                                           the synod is not some sort of "su-          each consistory (if not each member)
         I charged that "imbedded deeply            preme college" of church leaders but        ratifies the decisions. This is not what
in the very heart of `Liberated' cov-               a gathering of dekgafed  representa-        Article 31 says. This is not what
enant doctrine is a fatal weakness                  tives of the consistories. In the na-       Article 31 means. Indeed, this expla-
regardingGod'seternalelection"  (see                ture of the case, the delegating bod-
                                                    ies must stand above those whom             nation of Article 31 has the dubious
my editorial in the September 1,1991                they have delegated. The delegates          distinction of standing the article ex-
issue of the Stun&&Bearer).  Whether                are responsible to the consistories         actly on its head. It contradicts the
I proved this charge must be deter-                 that have  issued them their creden-        spirit and letter of the article. Now no
mined from the series of editorials                 tials. And so the consistories would        decision of a major assembly is con-
("An `Election Theology' of Cov-                    have to  ratify   what was done             sidered settled and binding in the
enant") that I wrote in response to the             (Sckilder's Struggle for  the Unity  of     denomination. Only if the consistories
letter from Piof. Dr. J. DeJong that                the Church,  p. 330).                       ratify the decisions are they consid-
appeared in the March 15,199l issue                                                             ered settled and binding, and then
of the  SB. In  weighing Prof. Gootjes'                                                         because of the consistorial action. The
denial of this charge, the reader is                               Article 36                   only decisions that are, in fact, con-
directed to the six editorials in the              of the church order of Dordt                 sidered settled andbinding are those
March 15, April 1, April 15, May 15,                ascribes (real) jurisdiction                of the consistory (qr, very possibly,
August 1, and September  1,199l is-                       over the consisto  y                  those of the individual member of the
sues of the SB.                                                                                 congregation). NoReformeddenomi-
 Thesecondpointinl'rof.  Gootjes'                     to the major assemblies.                  nation can live and work, as a de-
letter is his defense of the "Liberated"                                                        nomination, if this interpretation of
interpretation of Article 31 of the                                                             Article 31 is actually implemented. I
church order of Dordt. I questioned                     Against this, it seems to me,           dare say that the "Liberated"
the "Liberated" position on the au-               Reformed church government raises             Churches themselves do not live and
thority of the synod as their position            three, grave concerns. First, even if it      work this way either. ~3
is described by Rudolf vanReest  in               be true that aconsistoryispermitted  to                                          - Ed.
the recent book, SchiIder's Stig@e                resist and oppose synodical decisions
for  the Unity  of  the Church                    throughout the denomination (which
(Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada: Inher-              I deny), surely this is not permitted to
itance Publications, 1990). I wrote               the individual member, including the
this:                                             individual theologian. Defending the              Sample copies of the SB
  But if vanReest  is correct, that it is the     action of Dr. SchiZder,  vanReest  ap-
  church polity of the "Liberated"                peals to the alleged rights of                          will be sent free
  Churches that for a decision of synod           consistories.                                               to anyone
  to be considered settled and binding                  Second, if decisions of the synod              recommended to us
  the decision must first be ratified by          have  authority in the denomination
  the consistory, the "Liberated" have            only when and inasmuch as the indi-                   by our readership.
  abandoned Reformed church  gov-                 vidual consistory ratifies these deci-

56 /Standard Bearer I November 1,199l


                                              Maintaining Sound
In His Fear
Rev. Arie denHarfog                           Doctrine

      In our two previous articles we         work to learn the doctrine of the Scrip-     in the past who had very little forlmal
have considered the importance of             tures. It takes much effort and appli-       educationandyetfarsurpassedmany
doctrine for our Christian faith. True        cation. It requires a lot of study of the    in our day in their knowledge and
Christianity is based on sound doc-           whole of Scripture and not merely            understanding of the doctrines of
trine. Christianity is more than merely       isolated verses. We believe that the         Scripture. The reason for this is often
livingbyseveralvaguelydefinedprin-            Scriptures are clear and plain. They         spiritual laziness and carelessness on
ciples of ethics taught by Jesus which        can be understood by every Spirit-           the part of many Christians. Every
have little more than human and               filled child of God. This is not how-        Christian must grow up unto a ma-
earthly good as their object. Christi-        ever the same as saying that the Scrip-      ture understanding of the doctrine of
anity without doctrine leads to hu-           tures can be understood with little or       God according to the grace and abili-
manism andmodernism. True  Chris-             no effort. The Christian learns the          ties that God gives to each. If he is not
tianity is knowing and believing, con-        doctrine of the Scriptures by a com-         concerned about this he will, accord-
fessing andlivingby the true doctrine         parison of Scripture with Scripture,         ing to the words of the apostle of the
of God. Doctrine, according to Scrip-         through the careful consideration of         Lord, be like a child, "tossed to and
ture,isnothingmorethansoundteach-             the meaning of words and phrases in          fro,andcarriedaboutwitheverywind
ing. It is the careful understanding of       Scripture, and by the serious study of       of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and
the truth of God and of His Son Jesus         thegreatandcentralconceptsof Scrip-          cunning craftiness, whereby they lie
Christ. It is a correct knowledge of the      ture. We need to know the precise            in wait to deceive" (Eph. 414). To be
only way of salvation through Jesus           meaning of such great biblical truths        doctrinally ignorant is spiritually dan-
Christ the Lord and by the grace of           as the sovereignty of God, predesti-         gerous. It leaves one open to the
God. Sound doctrine is the truth of           nation,regeneration,justification,rec-       attacks of the devil and of evil men
 God clearly distinguished from the           onciliation, sanctification, etc.            whose purpose is to lead professing
lie of the devil taught by false teach-            How many of those who are               Christians astray, away from God
ers. Sound doctrine glorifies God,            reading this article could give a care-      andHis  Son Jesus Christ and to spiri-
His truth and His salvation. The              ful, biblical definition of these con-       tual ruin.
 attitude that the church has towards         cepts? Theworkofmaintainingsound                  The church maintains sound
 doctrine, the zeal and devotion with         doctrine is the responsibility of every      doctrine by maintaining a spiritual
 which she maintains that doctrine,           child of God. It is true that God has        attitude toward that doctrine. The
 reveals her love and devotion to the         called ministers "to give themselves         church must guard against the dan-
 glory of God. The church of Jesus            to the word and doctrine." They              ger of dead orthodoxy. There is a
 Christ has the calling to maintain           must devote their whole lives to the         danger that the business of maintain-
 sound doctrine. She is ordained by           study of doctrine. Theymustbe teach-         ing sound doctrine is reduced to heart-
 God to be the "pillar and ground of          ers of sound doctrine in the church.         less, formal,intellectual debate that is
 the truth."                                  Butthismustalsotoalesserdegreebe             of no profit and causes spiritual death
      The church and her members              the concern of every Christian. He           in the church. Such spiritual death is
 maintain sound doctrine by knowing           needs to be equipped with sound              loathsome in God's sight. This death
 that doctrine. That doctrine can be          doctrine for his own personal spiri-         does not, however, come because of
 known only through careful and dili-         tual welfare as a Christian and for his      some inherent evil in the study of
 gent study of the Scriptures. It is hard     calling as member of the church. It is       doctrine, from which we are best de-
                                              an irony of our age that in spite of the     livered by abandoning altogether the
                                              fact that on the average the members         study of doctrine. But rather such
                                              of the church today have much more           coldness and deadness comes because
                                              formal education thanin former ages,         of the lack of a spiritual attitude to-
 Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Protes-    many are sadly ignorant of the doc-          wards the doctrine of God. The Lord
 tant Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-      trines of the Word of God.                   will severely judge those who study
fornia.                                             There were great saints of God         the doctrine of His Word in such a
                                                                                               November 1,1991/ Standard Bearer / 57


     manner. Doctrine can be rightly              class. We can be thankful to the Lord      must have new creeds to remain rel-
     known only through the Spirit of God         for the strong catechism programs          evant in the world. How wrong this
     and in living communion with God.            which we maintain in our churches.         way of thinking is and how destruc-
     As the church maintains sound doc-           These classes have done much to keep       tive to the doctrinal foundation of the
     trine she must walk in the Spirit and        our churches strong from generation        church. The church must stand upon
     be filled with the Spirit. We have not       to generation. Children and young          the unchangeable foundation of the
     yet rightly understood the doctrine of       people ought to appreciate what a          doctrine of Scripture. Indeed, she
     God until we understand this doc-            blessingofGoditistobesoi.nstructed         must also grow in a richer under-
     trine to be the personal and living,         in the faith over a period of many         standingofthat doctrine. Sheisnotto
     blessed truth of the God of our salva-       years. This will equip them for life in    become stagnant or proud or self-
     tion. The doctrine of God revealed in        this ungodly world in an age of great      confident in her knowledge of the
     the Scriptures must fill the heart of the    apostasy. Children should be en-           truth of God.
     child of God and not only his mind. It       couraged to learn their lessons well            The church does not however
     must cause him to rejoice in, hope in,       and to take a very serious attitude        grow richer by abandoning the his-
     andgloryinthewonderfulandblessed             towards catechism.                         toric faith of the true church of all
     God of his salvation.                                                                   ages. Rather she does this by receiv-
          Sound doctrine is maintained in                                                    ing the great historic creeds of the
     the church of Jesus Christ through the                    To avoid                      true church of the ages and compar-
     preaching of the Word. That preach-               doctrinal controversy,                ing these creeds again and again with
     ing must teach God's people sound                                                       the Scriptures. She studies the Scrip-
     doctrine. God's people must not be-               churches like to make                 tures with the help of these creeds,
     come weary of that or complain about                   their positions                  and by the grace and Spirit of God
     doctrinal preaching. But they must             as ambiguous as possible,                gainsaricherandmoreblessedknowl-
     know that they need this for their own             so that there is room                edge of the Word of God. She then
     spiritual welfare. The church must                     for all sorts of                 takes a firmer and clearer stand. From
     insist on doctrinal preaching by its         interpretation and differences.            that stand she refuses to be moved.
     ministers. Elders must not only guard                                                        Sound doctrine is maintained in
     the preaching of the ministers to keep                                                  the church by distinguishing that
     false doctrine out of the church, but                                                   doctrine from false teaching. That is
     they must also positively require of              Sound doctrine is maintained in       absolutely necessary. False teaching
     ministers of the Word that they preach       the church when she takes a clear and      must be exposed and condemned.
     doctrine that builds up the members          unequivocal stand on the truth of          Our modern age has little stomach for
     of the congregation to maturity in the       Scripture. The church must stand on        this. Ours is a day of "tolerance," and
     faith. They may not allow thepreach-         the foundation of the historic faith of    let everyone believe what he will. It is
     ing to be reduced to moralisms and           the church that God through the ages       imagined that the greatest evil is to
     little stories which might excite the        has given to her and maintained in         judge what someone else believes.
     interest of the congregation but do          her. It is rather common in our day        When false doctrine is tolerated, then
     not build them up in the faith.              for churches to refuse to take a stand.    truth is trampledin the streets. There
          We must have systematic doc-            To avoid doctrinal controversy,            are abundant examples, in Scripture,
     trinal preaching in the church. All the      churches like to make their positions      of the need for exposing and con-
     doctrines of Gods Word must be               as ambiguous as possible, so that there    demning false doctrine. The proph-
     preached, with none of them left out.        is room for all sorts of interpretation    ets of the Old Testament were con-
     Gods people must have a sense of the         and differences. The historic creeds       stantly engaged in condemning false
     glorious unity and harmony of all of         of the church are by the grace of God      doctrine. Our Lord condemned the
     the truthof Gods Word. Weknowno              careful and precise statements of the      false doctrine of the Scribesandl'hari-
     better way to do that than regular           doctrine of Gods Word. Today it is         sees in the strongest language. The
     preaching with the Heidelberg Cat-           said that these creeds must be changed     apostle Paul said concerning those
     echism as our guide.                         and replaced. Truth must not be            who brought any other gospel than
           We learn doctrine through the          stated so absolutely. It is the mark of    the gospel that he as the apostle of the
     preaching of the Word when we lis-           piety, according to many in our day,       Lord preached, "let himbe accursed."
     ten carefully and earnestly to the           to suggest that we cannot know truth       Paul was on the one hand very mag-
     preaching of the Word. Listeningto a         absolutely. We are not to imagine          nanimous in tolerating those in
     sermonisnot aformofentertainment             that we can know the truth absolutely      Philippi who were preaching the gos-
     and relaxation. It requires great spiri-     but must understand that the truth of      pel out of evil motives. As long as
     tual.application.                            God is an indefinite thing that we can     Christ was preached he rejoiced. On
           We learn doctrine as children          never be sure about. Everything is in      the other hand, he severely  con-
     and young people in the catechism            a state of flux and change. Each age       demnedfalseteachersinnouncertain

     58 /Standard  Bearer / November 1,199l


I                                                                                                                                        I


terms. Much of the epistles of that         ity. The most profound and sincere          God returned to the true doctrine of
apostle of our Lord are polemics            Christian living comes from the liv-        the Word of God. The same will
against false teachers who were trou-       ing spiritual knowledge of the great-       happen today by the grace of God
bling the church. We stand for the          est doctrines of God's Word. It has         when God's people return to an ear-
glory of God when we condemn doc-           repeatedly happened in the history of       nest study of the doctrines of Scrip-
trines that deny God and His salva-         the church that when spiritual death        ture.
tion. We love God when we hate false        has come to the church there have                    Maintaining sound doctrine in
doctrine. The apostles of the Lord          been movements to revive the church,        the church involves a great spiritual
exhort the church to separate herself       by mere emphasis on "the Spirit,"           battle. The devil and the wicked
from those who do not receive sound         without doctrine. There have been           world always go about to destroy the
doctrine, to discipline and reject her-     those who have equated revival with         church by seeking to lead her to com-
etics, and not to receive into her fel-     mere emotional arousal and the feel-        promise her doctrinal foundation.
lowship anyone who does not receive         ing of enthusiasm. True revival comes       Through all the history of the Chris-
the truth.                                  only when the church through the            tian churches thousands of valiant
     Doctrine and true Christian liv-       Spirit of God returns to the study of       men of God have fought great spiri-
ing are inseparably related. It is a big    the doctrine of the Word of God. The        tual battles to maintain sound doc-
lie to suggest that in order to have        greatest demonstration of that was          trine. Thousands have suffered and
genuine spirituality you must at least      the great Protestant Reformation. In        died for the cause of sound doctrine.
minimize the emphasis on doctrine.          the Protestant Reformation the church       We must continue in that great spiri-
Christian living is based on sound          was formed again on the basis of the        tualbattle as churches unto the end. of
doctrine. It flows forth from it. With-     great doctrines of the Word of God.         time. We fight for the glory of God.
out such sound doctrine we will end         Sincere Christian living followed           GodHimself  is our help and strength.
up with a life of mysticism and hu-         when God's people by the Spirit of                                                      cl
manism and not genuine Christian-


A Cloud Of
 Witnesses
Prof. Herman Hanko                          Thomas Be&et.
     The problem of the relation be-        them all authority on earth in every        to a head in Great Britain; and Tho-
tween the church of Jesus Christ in the     sphere of life. In the church, the lower    mas Becket,  strange man that he was,
world and the secular state has al-         clergy, such as cardinals, archbish-        stood in the very center of these
ways been a vexing one, but never           ops, bishops, and priests, were the         struggles and was an example of how
more so than in the Middle Ages.            men through whom popes exercised            fierce and bitter these struggles were.
Beginning with the fall of Rome and         their authority; but in the state, kings             Although both popes and kings
the destruction of the Roman Empire         and princes were the men through            wanted power, there. were several
in the West, the Roman Catholic             whom the pope ruled. All owed their         key issues which again and again be-
Churchbegan to gather toitself power        allegiance to him; all were respon-         came occasions for controversy. One
and authority not only in ecclesiasti-      sible to him; all were subject to his       of these issues was whether or not
cal affairs, but also in affairs of the     control. The pope could crown kings         clergy who were guilty of civil crimes
state. And as the pope of Rome iri-         and depose kings as he saw fit.             could be tried in civil courts. The
creasingly set himself up as the head            For a while this sort of view was      pope said; No; the kings said, Yes.
of the church, so he began to promote       made to stick in Europe and many            The kings argued that even clergy
himself also as the head of the secular     powerful monarchs bowed in obedi-           were subject to the law of theland;  the
state. It was increasingly the teach-       ence to papal claims. But as the na-        popes said that as members of the
ings of popes that Christ had given         tions developed in power and na-            clergy they ere exempt from such
                                            tional independence, Europe's kings         l a w s .
                                            were not all that willing always to do               Another issue was the "investi-
                                            what the popes said. And so conflict        ture'< of bishops and archbishops:
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-     arose over these questions.                 Who had the right to ordain into of-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-             While these conflicts were reali-      fice? One would think that here at
tant Reformed Semina y.                     tiesinmanydifferentlands,theycame           least the church was right when it

                                                                                            November  1,-i  9911  Standard Bearer  / 59


insisted that onlv the church could         What was to thrust Thomas into                   Because the king was having
ordain men into*church  office. But         prominence was his many gifts. He           such great problems with maintain-
the question was not all that simple,       was an extremely handsome man, tall         ing an independent rule over his do-
for many of the bishoprics and              and vigorous, athletically inclined,        mains against papal encroachments,
archbishoprics were also secular            and skilled in the arts of war. His         and because so much of the money of
realms where these higher clergymen         education, coupled with natural in-         the realm was flowing out of the coun-
of the church owned vast tracts of          telligence, gave him proficiency in         try to Rome, bleeding the country
land, ruled over vast areas as secular      law and made him an accomplished            white, Henry decided to appoint Tho-
rulers, raised armies, fought battles,      courtier who could associate freely         mas Becket to the highest post in the
and collected taxes. At the time when       and easily with people from the high-       church, the archbishopric of Canter-
these things were happening, one half       est levels of society. He was brilliant     bury. Henry was confident that with
of England was owned by the church.         and affable, cheerful and eloquent,         a friend in this highest of all ecclesias-
So the kings argued with consider-          accomplished and polished. He was           tical posts, he could successfully
able justification that if these clergy-    an expert swordsman and brilliant           thumb his nose at the pope.
men wanted to be secular rulers, they       strategist. He had few, if any, faults           It must have come as a shock
ought tobe subject to theking, and the      - other than a towering pride.              beyond bearing that Thomas, imme-
king ought to have the right to ap-              Such a man quite naturally came        diately upon being appointed to this
point them to office.      But the mat-     to the king's attention, and Henry II       prestigious and powerful position,
ter of taxes was after all the bottom       soon made Thomas one of the most            underwent a complete transforma-
line- as it always is. While the kings      powerful men in the kingdom. He             tion and shifted his loyalty totally
wanted the revenues from these feu-         was given the royal chancellorship, in      from Henry to the pope. It appeared
dal estates over which clerics ruled to     which office he led military cam-           almost as if Thomas' conduct was an
go into the royal treasury to finance       paigns, travelled about dispensing          act of treachery, and so Henry inter-
the king's wars and extravagant liv-        justice in the king's name, supervised      preted it.
ing, the popes wanted the revenues to       the collection of taxes, engaged in              Thomas gave up all his posses-
flow out of the countries into the          diplomatic ventures, and handed out         sions, exchanged his beautiful robes
coffersinRomewherethepopescould             royal patronage. He was totally loyal       for a haircloth shirt filled with ver-
spend these vast fortunes for their         to the king, a close friend and confi-      min, atenothingbutroots, dranknau-
own ends.                                   dant, one who spent more time with          seous water, washed the filthy feet of
     Against this background Tho-           Henry than did anyone else, not only        13 beggars every day and gave them
mas Becket rose to prominence in            in matters of state, but also in drink-     each four pieces of silver, whipped
England.                                    ing, hunting, and carousing. When           himself repeatedly and on schedule,
     England was at this time under         Henry was absent to France on royal         and went about bemoaning his many
the rule of the powerful Plantagenet        business, Thomas reigned in his place.      sins. From henceforth he became the
kingswhorulednotonlyovermostof              The king had no more loyal subject.         bitterest enemy that Henry hadin the
Great Britain, but also over huge sec-      Thomas became extremely wealthy             entire kingdom. Thomas was not
tions of France. Theking on the throne      in this high position so that he took       concerned about the sins and excesses
at the time of Thomas was Henry II, a       with him on a mission to France N two       in the church; all that he fought for
typical member of the Plantagenet           hundred knights, priests, standard-         was the total supremacy of the pope
dynasty, a huge man of great strength,      bearers, all festively arrayed in new       in all the affairs of the church and
who hardly ever was off his horse; a        attire, twenty-four changes of raiment,     kingdom in England and her realms.
man of shrewdness and ability, an           all kinds of dogs and birds for field            It is not difficult to understand
able administrator, a fierce warrior, a     sports, with wagons, each drawn by          that Henry was infuriated and that
gifted ruler; but also a man of violent     five horses, each horse in charge of a      the two were soon to come into con-
temper and burning lusts for money,         stout young man dressed in a new            flict. The matter came to an issue with
power, and the pleasures of the flesh.      tunic. Coffers and chests contained         the adoption of the Clarendon Con-
     Thomas' early life was rather          the chancellor's money and present.         stitutions, a document which really
normal and of little interest. He was       One horse, which preceded all the           did nothing else but reiterate old En-
born in London, but of Norman par-          rest, carried the holy vessels of his       glish laws, put England soundly un-
ents (i.e., parents from Normandy in        chapel, the holy books, and the orna-       der the rule of the king, and separated
France) on the 21st of December in          ments of the altar."'                       England from the rule of the pope in
1118. They were of the upper middle                                                     secular affairs. In a moment of weak-
class and were able to provide him                                                      ness, Thomas agreed to this docu-
with an excellent legal education in                                                    ment, but almost immediately re-
schools in London and on the conti-                                                     pented of it, engaged in penance,
nent. He studied in the great univer-       `Quoted from Schaff, The Histo  y of the    sought absolution from the pope, and
sities of Paris, Bologna, and Auxerre.      Christian Church, Vol. V, pp. 126,127.      fled to France to escape royal .wrath.

60 /Standard Bearer / November 1,199l


     He spent about six years in             and turbulent priest?" And with that        enshrined him as a saint worthy of
France in exile and proceeded from           he rushed from the room.                    worship. Henry did everything he
that distant pulpit to excommunicate              Fourofhishigh-rankingknights           could to blunt the impact of Thomas'
every one in England whom he                 took him more literally than he evi-        death, but nothing helped. His con-
thought tobeinviolationof any papal          dently intended to be taken, for they       fessions, his acts of penance, hisplead-
wish. At the end of six years things         immediately left his presence, took         ingsforforgivenessonlyunderscored
were somewhat straightened out be-           ship to England, made careful plans,        in the minds of the people his guilt
tween him and the king, and he re-           and attacked Thomas while he was            and the cruelty of his crime. In the
turned to his position in Canterbury.        saying vespers in the cathedral at          end he was forced to capitulate al-
But rather than letting well enough          Canterbury. The date was 1173. The          most entirely, abrogate the Clarendon
alone, he  seiied every opportunity          spot is still marked today.                 Constitutions, submit to papal rule,
from his pulpit to denounce the king,             It would seem as if Henry had          and acknowledge that the pope was
excommunicate various clergy who             his wish and his most bitter enemy          sovereign over all.
seemed to side with the king, and            was now gone forever, unable to                  Canterbury and Thomas' grave
used his position as a bully pulpit to       plague him again. But it was a hollow       became one of the most popular
promote papal interests.                     victory and finally turned out pre-         shrines in all Europe, where thou-
     The king was in France during           cisely the opposite of what Henry           sands of pilgrimages were made ev-
one of Thomas' exceptionally stri-           thought. The Romish Church knew             ery year by pilgrims from every land.
dent blasts. Upon hearing the report,        how to make capital of it all.              Chaucer's famous poem, Canterbury
the king, in towering rage, said, "A              For one thing, the people were         Tales, which almost every college stu-
fellow that has eaten my bread, has          stunned by the murder. It was not           dent is required to read at some time
lifted up his heel against me; a fellow      only a cold-blooded murder of               or other, describes such a pilgrimage
that I loaded with benefits, dares in-       England's highest ecclesiastic, but it      to the shrine of Thomas Becket.
sult the king; a fellow that came to         had taken place in the sanctuary it-             In the meanwhile, although
court on a lame horse, with a cloak for      self, a sacred place in which no blood      times have changed, Rome has never
a saddle, sits without hindrance on          should have been spilled. The people        formally backed away from her posi-
the throne itself. By the eyes of God,       turned bitterly against Henry who           tion that she has the right to rule the
is there none of my thankless and            they were convinced was implicated          earth also in the secular realm. One
cowardly courtiers who will deliver          in the plot. For another thing, the         wonders whether this ancient dream
me from the insults of this low-born         pope, within four years of Thomas'          of the popes will be finally realized in
                                             death, canonized Thomas and thus            the kingdom of Antichrist. Q




                                             Some Reflections
 Taking Heed to
the Doctrine                                 on "Presupposed
Rev. Bernard                                 Regeneration"
Woudenberg

  For the promise is unto you, and to             The recent studies which Prof.         which I would like to share. It had to
  your children, and to all that are afar    Engelsma has been providing us in           do with that view of the covenant
  ofj even as many as the Lord our God       the StandardBearer  on the subject of       which has come to be known as "pre-
  shall call.                                the Covenant of Grace are to be ap-         supposed regeneration," particularly
                                Acts 2:39    preciated. It has been a needed study,      asitwassetforthby  AbrahamKuyper
                                             and helpful to many. To it I have little    and his followers.
                                             to add. Nevertheless, in working                 With this position we, as Protes-
                                             with some problems regarding the            tant Reformed people, are often idlen-
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protes-     covenant, especially earlier this year      tified, in spite of the fact that we have
tant Reformed Church  of  Kalamazoo,         in Australia, I gained an insight into      repeatedlyrejectedtheidentification.
Michigan.                                    one of the side issues of this subject      And yet the claim persists.

                                                                                            November 1,1991/ Standard Bearer I61


     The problem seems to arise from        God. Some will continue in it and             Second World War, which she had
two basic principles which we teach         some will not. For that we must wait.         never understood before.
and defend.                                 And,secondly,thisisthewayinwhich                   In these families, it seems, it had
     The first of these is the principle    the Scriptures lead. While God warns          been customary for the father to rule
that, according to the Bible, God can       often that not all of Israel are saved        with a kind of autocratic authority.
and often does regenerate children          [Rom. 9:6], nevertheless, He always           When he came home from work, the
from infancy. This we find clearly set      treated the nation as a whole as be-          wife was expected tobe  waiting, ready
forthin the Scriptures, as whenDavid        longing to him. And so in the New             to do his bidding whatever it might
wrote in Psalm 22:9,10,  "But thou art      Testament, while many warnings                be. At a moment's notice the children
he that tookme out of the womb: thou        were given against insincerity and            were to disappear and cause hi.m no
didst make me hope when I was upon          hypocrisy, Paul always addressed              inconvenience. In turn, as the chil-
my mother's breasts. I was cast upon        the church as saints in Christ [Rom.          dren grew, it was understood that,
thee from the womb: thou art my God         1:7; I Cor. 1:2, etc.]. And so we, until      regardless what they did otherwise,
from my mother's belly." And other          individuals show themselves in their          they- and this was true especially of
passages reflect much the same              lives to be unbelievers, are to deal          the sons, who would remain within
thought [Is.  49:1,5; Jer.  1:5, Lk.        with them as part of the church of            the family clan -were to follow any
1:15,41,44;  2 Tim. 3:15, etc.]. These      God, even while warning that none             instructions theirfathermight  give. If
Scriptures are fundamental to the           can presume his salvation, but each           he told them to learn their catechism,
doctrine of infant baptism and are          must live in daily conversion of life to      they learned their catechism. If he
held. to tenaciously by those who           God.                                          told them to go to young men's, soci-
maintain the baptism of infants to be                                                     ety, they went. He chose their occu-
a true means of grace. They clearly                                                       pation and determined whom they
imply, and the experience of many                       . ..we consider it                might marry, and what church they
substantiates it to be so, that God                   our covenant duty                   were to go to, and when. If a young
often gives the regenerating work of                                                      man submitted to this, he remained a
the Holy Spirit to elect  children born      to deal with all our children                member of the family with all of the
in the covenant from their earliest                   as though they are                  advantages that that might involve.
youth. The result is that there are            true covenant children....                 Butshouldhethinktorebelandgohis
goodly numbers of godly people who                                                        own way, he could expect tobe cut off
have been raised in faithful covenant                                                     and be counted a member of the fam-
homes and cannot remember a day                                                           ily no more.
when they did not know themselves                   It is, however, in regards to this         Moreover, within the structure
to be sinners saved by grace.. It is not    latter point that the problem arises.         of Kuyperian society, this well disci-
as though a covenant rearing earns          For many it seems that when we deal           plined family was important. It was
for them the grace of God; but rather       with all of our children as covenant          part of what Dr. Van Belle of Re-
that, when God gives the grace of           children, we are presuming their re-          deemer College has called "religious
covenant faithfulness to parents, He        generation, and holding to a latent           pluralism," that peculiarity of  pre-
also often continues that grace in the      Kuyperianism whether we wish to               war Dutch society according to which
generations which follow [Ex. 20:6].        admit it or not. But that is not where        each religious community in The
In fact, it is this that infant baptism     the difficulty lies. It is not with our       Netherlands providedits own people
sacramentally designates.                   view, but with the failure of many to         with a complete social structure in
     In the second place, we consider       understand what the true implica-             church and school, labor and po'litics,
it our covenant duty to deal with all       tions of Kuyper's "presupposed re-            that was distinct and separate from
our children as though they are true        generation" are. It is actually quite a       all others. For the small, but ex-
covenant children even while we             different thing.                              tremely ambitious and active Re-
know from Scripture that some may                   This was the point that was           formedparty, their strongfamilydis-
well be unregenerate, and some in-          brought home to me earlier this year          cipline carried through to the politi-
deed reprobate in the end. The rea-         while visiting in the home of a young         cal polls, giving them, in spite of their
sonsare  two. Inthefirstplace,itisnot       couple in Australia. The mother in            size, a remarkable advantage for many
for us-to try to judge which are true       this home, who had immigrated to              years. Theautocratic familylayatthe
children of God and which are simply        Australia while still a young child,          heart of their strength, while provid-
children following their natural incli-     was. explaining to me how that she            ing for each individual an identity
nation to conform to the desires of         hadrecentlybeenbacktoTheNether-               and a place within the whole.
their parents. It is a judgment which       lands to visit her relatives. While                But that was also where theprob-
only Godcan make [I Sam. 16:7]. And         there she had discovered something            lem lay. It was not uncommon within
this must be brought out individually       about family life in The Netherlands,         this structure to find young mem-
as each develops under the Word of          particularly in the days before the           bers, and even adults, who, while

62 /Standard Bearer I November 1,199l


dutifully attending church and func-       with in the presumption that they           worldliness which Dr. Schilder com-
tioning as part of this Reformed social    were regenerate and that eventually         plained of in The Netherlands was
structure, showed little sign of true      that would become evident.                  what Rev. Hoeksema had always
spiritual concern. Their confession             It was this particularly against       objected to in the Reformed commu-
was far from personal, and their lives     which Dr. Klaas Schilder, together          nity here. Although they may have
for the most part little different from    with a number of his companions,            differed somewhat in what they con-
that of the world. But their place in      objected. To them it seemed quite           sidered to be the cause, Dr. Schilder
the Reformed community was im-             improper to presume regeneration in         focusing on presumed regeneration,
portant; and accordingly the prin-         people who showed no signs of cov-          and Rev. Hoeksema on common
ciple of "presupposed regeneration"        enant responsibility in their lives. And    grace, the two viewpoints did not
was introduced. It was explained,          so they began to warn against the           seem at allincompatible, and far from
according to Kuyper, that often re-        teachings of Dr. Kuyper, and to main-       mutually exclusive. Thus they parted
generation, while taking place atbirth,    tain that it was destroying the life of     as friends, determined to remain in
might lie dormant for years. To be         the Reformed church by rendering it         contact, and to strengthen each other
sure, lack of spirituality was to be       sterile and spiritually dead.               in their common battle. But then the
deplored; but it was to be understood           In was this also, no doubt, which      war intervened; and the paths they
that such people were not necessarily      goes far to explain the close affinity      followed in seeking to meet this com-
unregenerate. As long as they re-          which developed between Rev.                mon problem proved to be quite dif-
mained members of the church and a         Herman Hoeksema and Dr. Schilder            ferent.
ftmctioningpartoftheReformedcom-           when he visited our country in the               But of that we must write mo:re
munity, suchmemberscouldbebome             late 30s. The same deadness and             next time. 0



                                           Calls for Unity
                                           Among Reformed
Al/Around Us
Prof. Robert Decker                        Denominations

     "The Reformed Church in the           In 1934 one classis (Eureka in the          ing the 1950s and '60s. The RCUS in
United States should begin now to          Dakotas) refused to join the Evangeli-      recent years has less formal contacts
forge links of fellowship and coop-        cal and Reformed merger. The Evan-          withconservativeChristianReformed
erationthatwillleadtoeventualunion         gelical and Reformed became part of         churches and men. In fact one of the
with other Reformed churches. Our          the United Church of Christ in 1957,        RCUS ministers, Rev. Robert
period of geographic and cultural iso-     one of the most liberal of the mainline     Grossman, is Professor of Practical
lation is at an end. It is time for the    churches in this country. There was         Theology at Mid-America  Reforme(d
RCUS to become more definitely a           some contact between the RCUS and           Seminary in Orange City, Iowa.
part of the continuing Reformation."       our churches in the 194Os, as some of            Grossman continues, "The
With these words The Reverend Pe-          our older members perhaps recall.           churchlandscapeislitteredwithsplin-
ter B. Grossman, editor of his                  The confessional standard of the       ters of Bible-believing reformed and
denomination's magazine,  Reformed         RCUS is the Heidelberg Catechism.           presbyterian churches. We are not
Herald,  began a recent editorial. The     This denomination has close contact         alone in the battle for the faith of the
RCUS is the conservative remnant of        especially with the Orthodox Presby-        Reformation. That fact should be
the old "German" Reformed Church.          terian Church (OPC) and the Re-             obvious to any wholookbeyond their
                                           formedPresbyterianChurchinNorth             own front door. Two reformed groups
                                           America (RPCNA). The close rela-            areespeciallyimportantfortheRCUS.
                                           tionship with the OPC is due to the         (Grossman is referring here to  Thle
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical     fact that most of the RCUS ministers        OrthodoxPresbyterian  Church [ OPC]
Theology in the Protestant Reformed        were educated at Westminster Theo-          and The Reformed Presbyterian
Seminary                                   logical Seminary (Philadelphia) dur-        Church in North America [RPCNA],

                                                                                          November 1,199l I Standard Bearer I63


     RDD). Our histories and theological            we are going to be faced with two                     so they may serve, once again, The
     positions are amazingly similar.  ,A           axiomatic (that is:fundamental) mat-                  Way, The Truth, and The Life."
     newreformedunitymovementought                  ters: namely, how and with whom that                       This article was reprinted in
     to capitalize on that."                        identity is re-established. Plans are                 Christian Observer.
          Grossman proceeds to list and             underway among Reformed leaders                            The Rev. G. I. Williamson, an
     briefly identify the denominations             from various church fellowships in                    OPC pastor, reports that, "On the
     which he thinks ought to be working            North America to answer these two                     16th. and 17th. of August a small
     together to achieve unity. In addition         questions. One very promising piece                   group of concerned men, about 15 in
     to the OPC and theRl?CNA, Grossman             of news is this summer's decision by                  number, met at Trinity Christian Re-
     includes the Presbyterian Church in            the general assembly of the Orthodox                  formedChurchinSt.Catherines,ON.
     America, a rather large andconserva-           Presbyterian Church to investigate                    Theoriginalcallforthismeetingcame
     tive church which came out of old              the possibility of adopting, alongside                from men in the Christian Reformed
     "southern" Presbyterian Church in              the Westminster Standards, theThree                   Church, and they also made up the
     the US in the early seventies.                 Forms of Unity. Beyond that, there is                 largest portion of this gathering.
     Grossman lists the conservatives in            considerable interest in examining                    However, the Orthodox Presbyterian
     boththeneformedchurchin  America               ways to bring the two forms of church                 Church, the Presbyterian Church in
     and the Christian Reformed Church,             government together as well. From                     America, and the growing unaffiliated
     the Canadian Reformed Churches,                this earthling's point of view, the tim-              Reformed community were well rep-
     the Orthodox Christian Reformed                ing couldn't be better."                              resented."
     Churches, and the Protestant Re-                                                                          This group of men resolved:
     formed Churches. Concerning the                                                                      "That a Confessional Conference be
     ,j?RC he writes, "The Protestant Re-                            "The key to any future               held at a time and place to be deter-
     formed Church is a group about the                 ecumenical developments . . .                     mined by a committee chosen by the
     size of the RCUS that came out of the                             is re-establishing                 steering committee; persons attend-
I    CRC in the 1920s. The RCUS had                                                                       ing shall be delegated by a church.
     conversations with the PRC in the                               a confessional identity                   "That the purpose of the Confes-
     1940s and `5Os,  but no union."                                 that takes subscription              sional Conference shall be:
          It is Grossman's position that,                                  seriously by                        A. To address the issues ofegali-
     "True church unity must be based on                  enforcing it meaningfully. `I                   tarianism and origins. To that end the
     unity of confession and devotion to                                                                  conference shall:
     the Bible as God's true Word. The                                                                          1. Articulate a clear statement
     .churches  we've notedabove, and oth-                           Kloosterman wants to II . . . ar-    of the hermeneutical and revelational
     ers, hold vigorously to either the             ticulate acommonfaithresponse (con-                   principles involved;
     Westminster Confession of Faith, or,           fession) . .." to what he deems are the                     2. Develop confessional state-
     the Three Forms of Unity . . . . Is there      three contemporary enemies of the                     ments to serve as a Biblical response
     any reason why we should not work              Reformed faith. These enemies are,                    to the two contemporary issues of
     toward actual and visible unity? . . . . It    "egalitarianism, expressed, for ex-                   egalitarianism and origins;
     is time, now, to herald a new Re-              ample, in feminism and her blood                           B. To explore ways in which
     formed ecumenical movement. Our                brother, homosexualism . . . evolution-               God might bring us into one united
     fathers preserved the church from the          ism, . . . and religious individualism                ReformedChurch,basedontheThree
     liberalism of an earlier generation. If                   I,
                                                    . . . .                                               Forms of Unity and the Westminster
     we do not leave a unified, biblically                           Kloosterman concludes, "The          Standards."
     Reformed church for the next genera-           key to any future ecumenical devel-                        What must we make of all this?
     tion, the Reformation may well die in          opments among North American                          Certainly anyunityamong Reformed
     our land."                                     Christians of Reformed and Presby-                    believers must be based on the truth
          Dr. Nelson D. Kloosteiman,  a             terian conviction and tradition is  re-               of the inspired, infallible, Holy Scrip-
     professor at Mid-America Reformed              establishingaconfessionalidentitythat                 tures as that truth is articulated in the
     Seminary, addresses this issue as well         takes subscription seriously by en-                   Reformed Confessions. In addition,
     in his seminary's newsletter under             forcing it meaningfully. Read that                    however, there are a host of differ-
     the title, "Preparing for Genuine              last sentence again, and reflect on                   ences and denominational distinctives
     Ecumenicity." Writing from the per-            this: in view of a rapidly expanding                  with which such a conference would
     spective of the conservative CRC po-           loss of `evangelical' doctrinal, liturgi-             have to deal -among them: various
     sition, Moosterman thinks there are            cal and ecclesiastical identity - and                 views on the covenant, church Ipolity,
     "opportunities for re-alignment."              given the lateness of the hour - the                  common grace, the re-marriage of
     Writes he, "Here is opportunity com-           LORD may be about to breathe new                      divorced persons, labor union mem-
     ing to meet us: if survival requires re-       strength into weary church members                    bership, and more. Among the de-
     establishing a confessional identity,                                                                nominations mentioned in the above

     ti /Standard Bearer / November 1,199l


articles are those who sing only the        would be better to work to establish a        What will come of all this only
Psalms, and others who use hymns in         Council of conservative Reformed          the Lord knows. 0
the worship. At least one of the de-        Churches from around the world                                   Reformed  Herald
nominations mentioned is  commit-           similar to the Reformed Ecumenical               The Mid-America Messenger
ted to Purity of Worship.                   Council. This would provide a forum                        Christian Observer
     Perhaps in the light of all this it    to address enemies common to us all.

   A Word Fitly Spoken
   Rev. Dale Kuiper                                   Seas
         What can we learn from the restless seas? What do the Scriptures intend to teach us with these large bodies
   of water with their immeasurably powerful waves, tides,`and storms? The uniform teaching of the Word of God
   is that the seas have a negative, symbolic meaning: they stand for troubles, and especially for unbelief and the
   wicked nations ofthe world.
         How often does the psalmist express his troublesin terms of these great depths! When his soul is cast down
   and he is filled with disquiet, he cries out, "Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts; all thy waves
   and thy billows are gone over me" (Ps. 42~7).  When he speaks of the multitudes that hate him wrongfully, he
   calls to the heavens, "Save me, 0 God; for the waters are come in unto my soul. I sinkin deep mire where there
   is no standing. I am come in deep waters where the floods overflow me" (Ps. 69:1,2). As no man can successfully
   resist or harness the power of the sea, so no man can overcome, in his own strength, his spiritual enemies and
   his sin.
         The restlessness and confusion of having doubts and being of a double mind is compared by James to the
   sea. We are to ask God for wisdom, especially wisdom that we may count it joy when we fall into divers trials,
   nothing wavering. "For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven of the wind and tossed" (1:6). A man
   who prays without the conviction of being heard and answered is unstable, and can only be compared to the
   confusion and purposelessness of the stormYtossed  sea.
         But the Scriptures especially use the figure of seas to represent the ungodly nations. "The wicked are like
   the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters castup  mire and dirt" (Isa. 5720). When Jeremiah speaks
   of God's judgment upon the nations he says, "There is sorrow on the sea; it cannot be quiet" (49:23). When John
   describes the Antichrist from the point of view of his political power and authority, having one of his heads
   scarred with a healed-over, deadly wound (the wound was the birth of nations at Babel - the healing the
   unification of nations just before the end) he says, "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise
   up out of the sea" (Rev. 13:l). The Antichrist arises out of the wicked nations, and although he is ugly in the
   extreme, the world wonders after him.
         Jesus teaches His victory, and the victory of the church in Him, by His great miracle of stilling the tempest
   (Mark  4:35-41).  The church, represented by the twelve, is in a little ship and must cross the sea agitated by a
   great storm of wind so that the waves beat into the ship. They were in jeopardy, at the point of perishing. Jesus
   rebuked the wind and the waves. He rebuked them. He spoke against someone for doing evil, and that someone
   is the devil who rules the kingdoms of this world and would destroy the church that she not reach her desired
   haven. "And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm." So, too, in Luke 5, we read of the miraculous draught
   of fishes, where Jesus shows that He saves His people out of the wicked, perishing world. The disciples couldn't
   catch a single fish, but Christ working through His disciples saves a great multitude, even as many as should
   be saved.
         The time comes when the raging of the nations against, Christ shall cease, when the nations shall be
   dispossessed and destroyed so completely that no place is found for them. John saw "a new heaven and a new
   earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea" (Rev. 21:l). No
   more sea because there shall be no more wicked nations, no more dirt and mire, no more opposition for the
   church of Christ, and hence no more pain, sorrow, or crying. "Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves
   thereof arise, thou stillest them" (Ps.  89:9).
         Peace, be still! 0

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

                                                                                                  1,1991/           Bearer I65


                                                               Protestant Reformed Seminary
                                                                                   4949 Ivanrest Avenue
                                                                              Grandville, Michigan 49418
                                                                                   Phone: (616) 531-1490



                             Robert D. Decker,  Rtclor
                             Professor of Fracricnl  Theology and New Tesfnmcnf


                                                                                                               Septemiiet  18,1991
                                    Dear   firothers  andsisters in the  .Gord:
                                          What a difference having afew more students ma&s! We have seven in alL five from
                                    our TRchurcfies  and tuofrom  tile !Evan..eficalTres6yteriaian  Churches in Australia. 7%~
                                    par&q  Cot is near4 fuCl,a.s  are a&o the classrooms. CBecarue  the professors  al30  u5e tfieir
                                    cSk.ssroomsasoj%es,  t&re  isii%t&room tospare  insomeclasses.  Withclasses offive  toseven
                                    students there is often rivelj discussion of pertinent t&eotogicaCissues. Trofssors are
                                    stimulate&andsometimes   cfiati$ged.  Studkit  encourage one another  andare  motivated
                                    to  further study 6y ttbirpeers. We thancGodfor  this! `Die Lordis answering our fervent
                                    prayers for students.
                                          Mr. Tatric~`Ba&we~~  is in his secondyear and wtildraduate, D.d, in 1994. Scott
                                    Haa&na  andHen  y DeJong  are in the secondyear of a five-year  program. Gy  atong  with
                                    two first-year students, ACten  %mm.e~and~ougLb.s  xuiper,  expect  to Braduate  in 1995.
                                    2%~ menfrom  flustratia are ChristophzrConnersandDavidH@s. Gieyare in thefirstyear
                                    of a three-year course of study In addition severaljlre-seminarians  are tai&g tfieir /Dutch
                                    and Greekat  our school:
                                          Sesidti  tt!e  necessary worcfor  their &.ws,  the professors are busy  preaching and
                                     teaching in the West Mch@anchurches. Tro$ EngeljmaelCpects  to have his Master's thesis
                                     (Calvin  ,Seminaty)  complhted  6y tfie end of the calkdar  year. Trof: 3ian/&o lectured and
                                    preached  in  Loveland, Colorado  TKC in  Septem6er.  `During early OctoGer,   Trof  Decker
                                     addressed the  TXleachers' Convention in Northwest Iowa. All three faculty  mem6ers
                                    spoke at t/i4  Conference on the doctrine of Holy  Scripture in late OctoGer.
                                          We askthat  you remem6er  our schooCin  your prayers. In the latter days it is crucial
                                     that our seminary remain faithful to the truth of God's Wordas maintained in our TLQC.
                                     lo meet the needs  of our evanding  &ray,  Synodk  authorized the GieoCogicaCSchooC
                                     Committee to  workwith  an architect on plans  andcost  estimates for an addition to our
                                     Guiliting.  We a&that  you$ve  this yourprayerfulconsideration as well:
                                           May God6fks  you richly in Christ Jesus.
                                                                                                                 Cordiafty  in Christ,
                                                                                                            Tro$ S.ol;ert  1). Deck&
                                                                                                                     for  tcie faculty





66 ls'a"dardBearer  /November 1, iggj





                                                                                                                                          J


Decency and                                   Claiming State
Order
Rev. Ronald Cammenga                          Protection
         "The consistory shall take care      1914. Apparently it was felt that the             which are due to the civil authorities;
that the churches, for the possession         articleadoptedbytheSynodofDordt                   they shall set a good example to the
of their property and the peace and           applied more to the situation of the              whole congregation in this matter,
order of their meetings, can claim the        Reformed Churches in The Nether-                  and endeavor by due respect and
protection of the authorities; it should      lands, where a much closer relation-              communication to secure and retain
bewellunderstood, however, that for           ship existedbetween church and state              the favor of the authorities towards
the sake of peace andmaterialposses-          than in our country. Undoubtedly it               the Church, so that the Church of
sion they may never suffer the royal          was also felt that the original article           Christ may lead a quiet and peace-
                                                                                                able life, godly and respectful in ev-
government of Christ over His church          went too far in its call for cooperation          ery way.
to be in the least infringed upon."           between church and state. It called
                                              upon the magistrate "...to promote               The Distinctively Reformed View
A Radical Revision                            church services in every way...." It             of the Relationship Between Church
         Our present Article 28 repre-        called upon the churches to establish            and State
sents a radical revision of the original      "...correspondence  with the civil au-                Article 28 is intended to set forth
article. The original Article 28 as           thorities...." And it called for the civil       the distinctively Reformed view of
drafted by the Synod of Dordt, 1618-          authorities  fl . ..to assist the ministers,     the relationship between church and
`19, reads:                                   elders, and deacons...."                         state. The Synod of Dordt was con-
         Since the office of Christian au-          Although the original Article 28           cerned to do this, first of all, over
  thorities is to promote church ser-         went toofarincallingforcooperation
  vices in every way, to recommend                                                             against the Arminians who had res-
                                              between church and state, the Synod
  the same to their subjects, and to                                                           urrected the Erastian view, namely,
                                              of the Christian Reformed Church of
  assist the ministers, elders, and dea-                                                       that the government should be in
  cons in all cases of existing need or       1914 went too far in their revision of           authority over the churches. For some
  emergency, and to protect them in           Article 28. Whatever may be said of              time they had been promoting this
  the execution of their tasks as gover-      the original article, it did set down, in        view in order to avoid being judged
  nors of the churches, so also the min-      the main, the Reformed view of the               for their false teachings by the church.
  isters,elders,anddeaconsareinduty           proper relationship between church               The Synod also intended to distin-
  bound diligently and sincerely to           and state. It also did a good job of             guish the Reformed view from the
  impress upon the whole congrega-            delineatingtheirrespectiverightsand
  tion the obedience, love, and respect                                                        Roman Catholic position-in a way
                                              responsibilities. To a great extent this
  they owe the magistrates; they shall,                                                        the opposite of the Erastian view -
                                              is lost in our present article. For
  moreover, make themselves good                                                               that the state is subject to the church.
  examples to the congregation in this        example, there is nothing in our                 In addition, the Synod was also dis-
  matter, and by proper respect and           present article pointing the                     tinguishing the Reformed view from
  the establishment of correspondence         officebearers to their calling "...to            that of the Anabaptists, who refused
  with the civil authorities, they shall      impress upon the whole congrega-                 even to recognize the legitimacy of
  endeavor to secure and maintain the         tion the obedience, love, and respect            the state.
  good-will of the government toward          they owe to the magistrates . . . . n Nei-            Article 28 gives expression to
  the churches; to the end that, each         ther are the officebearers called to
  doing his duty in the fear of the Lord,                                                      the unique Reformed view that the
                                              "...make themselves good examples
  all suspicion and distrust may be                                                            church and state occupy two distinct,
                                              to the congregation in this matter . . . . fl
  prevented and                                                                                God-ordained spheres of authority.
                      that thus due coop-
  eration may be maintained for the                 Much more faithful to the origi-           These two spheres are to remain sepa-
  welfare of the churches.                    nal article is the revision adopted by           rate; there is to be no intrusion of the
         Our present article is the result    the Canadian Reformed Churches.                  one into the domain of the other. At
of the revision of the Church Orderby               Article  28. Civil Authorities. As         the same time, although church and
the Christian Reformed Church in                it is the office of the civil authorities
                                                 to promote in every way the holy              state occupy separate spheres of au-
                                                ministry, so all officebearers are in          thority, therearemutualresponsibili-
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Profes-           dutybound toimpressdiligentlyand              ties. The church is to obey the magis-
tariff Reformed Church of Loveland, Colo-        sincerely upon the whole congrega-            trate in all things lawful, and instruct
rado.                                            tion the obedience, love, and respect         her members to be in submission to

                                                                                                  November 1,199l I Standard Bearer I 67


every law of man that does not re-            does not specifically mention incor-         A Timely Warning
quire violation of the law of God. On         poration, this is evidently intended.             Article 28, however, conlcludes
its part the state is obligated to pro-       The phrase "for the possession of their      with a stern warning to the churches:
vide for peaceful Sabbath worship -           property" clearly implies incorpora-         "...it shouldbe wellunderstood, how-
the right of public assembly- and to          tion. The "QuestionsFor  ChurchVisi-         ever, that for the sake of peace and
protect the possessions and property          tation"  make specific reference to this:    material possession they may never
of the church.                                "...is the congregation properly in-         suffer the royal government of Christ
      Consistories are to secure proper       corporated with the State?" The most         over His church to be in the least
recognition by the government: "The           recent revision of the  Church Order  of     infringed upon."
consistory shall take care that the           the Christian Reformed Church re-                 State domination over the church
churches, for the possession of their         quires such incorporation: "Each as-         may never be tolerated. The state
property and the peace and order of           sembly shall provide for the safe-           does not have, and may not be per-
their meetings, can claim the protec-         guarding of its property through             mitted to exercise, ecclesiastical au-
tion of the authorities . . . . M             proper incorporation" (Art. 32b).            thority. The church may never toler-
      The church has a duty that it                    The main purpose of incorpora-      ate state interference in the spiritual
owes to the state. That duty is sub-          tion is to secure the rightful protec-       and internal aff airs of the church. The
mission to the state inasmuch as the          tion of the church by the state. Just as     state has no right of supervision of the
church is an earthly organization. The        with the individual Christian, the           official workof  the officebearers. The
church must obey the laws of the land         church is to be a wise steward of the        state is not to regulate the faith and
regarding such things as sanitation,          material possessions entrusted to her        life of the church. The state is not to
fire code, building code, property use,       by God. Proper incorporation se-             involve itself in the exercise of Chris-
and so forth.                                 cures the protection of the church           tian discipline. The state is not to
      At the same time, the church has        especially against wrongful infringe-        become entangled in the official la-
certain rights. According to Article          ment of her property rightsin the case       bors of the consistory, the classis, or
28; the church's rights include pos-          of a schism. The history of our own          the synod.
session of property, public'assembly          churches in the split of 1953-`54  em-            On more than one occasion the
for the worship of God, and protec-           phasizes the practical importance of         state has usurped this authority in the
tion by the authorities.                      this.                                        past. We expect that this will happen
      The duty of the consistory, now,                 Every state provides for the in-    once again in the future. But the
is to "claim" these rights. The               corporation of non-profit, religious         church's calling is to resist every ef-
consistory is to secure official govem-       organizations. Incorporation papers          fort by the state that would result in
ment recognition (legal standing) for         are usually required to be filed with        "...theroyalgovernmentofChristover
the congregation with the state. The          the Secretary. of State through the          His church to be in the least infringed
consistory is to do what is necessary         County Clerk's office. After the ap-         +on." What this means practically is
to see to it that the lawful rights of the    proval of the request for incorpora-         that whenever incorporation entails
congregation are honored.                     tion, the congregation is duly regis-        for the church that she acquiesce to
                                              tered and has official, legal standing.      state domination, when the cost of
Incorporation                                 As a corporate entity, it may transact       state protection is state control, she
      The main way in which the               its material affairs and claim the pro-      mustrefrainfrombeingincorporated.
churchobtainsrecognitionbythestate            tection of the state, if need be in the                                              cl
is incorporation. Although Article 28         courts of the land.

Reformed Free Publishing Association
(Standard Bearer)
;c\nnual Report, 1990- I99 I

      To everything there is a season,                 The various aspects-one may or           How many annual reports of
and a time to every purpose under the         can experience in a lifetime are thus        onesortoranotherhavenotbegunby
heavens; So states the Word of God as         rehearsed in our ears. Also the vanity       saying, "Another year (time) has
may be found in Ecclesiastes 3:l. In          of all earthly things and the excel-         passed," or "Another year (time).has
verse 2, and continuing to the end of         lency of heavenly wisdom is herewith         started." In fact, I thinkI'll  begin this
the book, there are ample illustra-           set forth.                                   report in just that way. Another year
tions how we mortals are restricted                    But read for yourselves the con-    has passed.
to, are subject to, the regimentation of      clusion of the whole matter as found              Volume  67  of the  Standqrd
the time factor in our lives.                 in chapter 12:13,14.                         Bearerendedseptember  15,199l.  The
68 /Standard Bearer I November 1,199l


October 1 issue begins Volume 68.                  The RFPA has long been a non-          we receive through church collections
This issue could be in your homes as          profit corporation registered with the      and individual gifts is encouraging
of this very evening.                         State of Michigan. This past year we        andgratifying. Wearegratefultoour
     Efforts have been put forth, dur-        gained, inaddition, official IRS recog-     God for your prayers and gifts.
ing the year which has passed, for an         nition of tax exempt status.                     The Board is considering the
improved mailing schedule; but take                Ever interested as a Board to          updating of the SB Index, which cur-
this into consideration: 2ndclass mail        increase our circulation, we gave spe-      rently includes the first 57 volumes.
does not usually get preferred treat-         cial attention to gaining new sub-               By the way, first-time subscrib-
ment.                                         scribers, not only from a business          ers can still, for only $6.00, receive 21
     Before we give a brief review of         viewpoint, but more especially in or-       issues of the SB-that is, thefirstyear
the Board's other activities and ac-          der to share with others the truth of       for one-half the regular cost. We
complishments, let me express on              the Scriptures, to promote sound doc-       firmly believe that the message of the
behalf of the Board a genuine appre-          trine and upright walk.  Our sub-           SB is worthy of the widest possible
ciation to the Editor, Editorial Com-         scription list continues to grow at a       readership; and this one-half price
mittee, Department Editors, guest             modest rate. October  1,198s we had         offer is our wayof  encouraging people
writers, and all others who contrib-          1,860 subscribers. By September 1,          to become subscribers to it. We are
uted and helped during this past vol-         1991, we have seen an increase to           glad to report also that we have the
ume-year. Very much included is our           2,168. Copies go to Singapore, Ja-          cooperation of some church exten-
ever-busy, ever-capable Business              maica, British Isles, mainland Aus-         sion committees in promoting the SB
Manager, -Mr. Don Doezema, and his            tralia, Canada, Tasmania, New               through their mailing-list contacts.
wife Judi, who contribute so much,            Zealand, Northern Ireland, and, if I             Allow me to end my report with
from start to finish, issue after issue of    forgot a country, they go there too,        a personal observation. From time to
the SB.                                       plus all over the U.S.A.                    time having duties that brought me to
     The writers continue to set forth             Taking a more aggressive ap-           theseminarybuilding,Iobservedand
and defend the truth of the Scriptures        proach in gaining new subscribers,          spoke to a pleasant and charming
and the rich heritage of the Reformed         we are beginning to advertise in reli-      young lady who was busy for sorne
faith. The Editorial Committee, and           gious magazines. Last year, we ad-          weeks cutting, trimming, and pasting
especially our Editor, Prof. Engelsma,        vertised the SB in the Journey  Maga-       on sheets of paper English w&en
have seriously attempted to generate          zine and Christian Observer with            articles from the SB volumes l-20.
a renewed and continuing interest in          positive results.                           Because many of the articles of these
their subject material. Especially was             This year, at our request, Editor      volume-years (1924-1944) `are in the
this evident in the editorials on the         Engelsma furnished the Board with a         Dutch language, which the vast m.a-
Covenant. Letters to the Editor were          concise and brief statement of who          jority of our readers are unable to
also found to be stimulatingandprof-          we are and what we stand for. This          read, the Board decided to extract the
itable reading, not only from this se-        text was then used as the basis for an      English articles and make them avail-
ries, but from other articles as well.        ad placed  in Christian Renewal,            able some day in volume books. The
     During the course of this vol-           Evangelical Times,  and  Christianity       young lady who did so much work
ume-year, consideration was given to          Today. Since the latest of the ads has      forthisprojectwasStephanieRawson,
ways of further reducing the cost in-         appeared only very recently, and re-        daughter of Rev. Philip Rawson, Pas-
volved in publishing our magazine.            sponse is still coming in, it is prema-     tor of Measbro Dyke Evangelical
Already a year ago we had begun               ture at this point to declare results of    Church of Barnsley, England. She
giving the typesetters allof the mate-        this effort; but we have already been       livedwith Prof. Hanko and family for
rial for the SB on a computer disk.           given opportunity to testify as to the      close to a year, and during that time
This year we went a step further and          distinctives of the Reformed faith.         spent countless hours at the semi-
began preparing our own camera-                    Twice during this past year, we        nary. We thank her here, publicly, for
ready copy. Before we started using           put out a color cover issue. Through        her efforts.
our own equipment, we were paying             the generosity of a concerned sub-               Nine years ago, I concluded an
around $1,500.00  for typesetting and         scriber, we were able to publish these      Annual SB report with an observa-
printing of each issue. Now, each             attractive issues at a minimum cost         tion made by Rev. C. Hanko, who was
issue is prepared at our seminary             for us. The color cover issue of May        at that time resigning as a regular
building, a service for which the RFPA        1, 1991 also was special in that it         writer and staff member. In the Die-
pays the seminary. And, with the              featured 9 articles concerning the          cember  1,198l issue he wrote as fol-
selection of a different company to do        Doctrine of Creation. Expressly the         lows: "The pulpit and the printed
our printing, we now pay about                various writers were of one mind -          page must never grow weary of
$1,150.00  per issue, realizing for the       Gods Word and work, no if's, and's,         sounding the trumpet, arousing the
SB a savings of approximately$350.00          or but's.                                   church to battle, and warning her of
each time over the previous process.               The excellent financial support        the foes within and without the gate.."

                                                                                             November 1,1991/ Standard Bearer / 69


           Uppermost is the prayer of the      name. Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and                      Respectfully submitted,
 psalmist: "Bless the Lord, 0 my soul,         forget not all his benefits" (Ps. 103:1,                      Peter Koole, Secretary
 ,and all that is within me bless his holy     2).  0

 Book Reviews

 Church  History,  by P.K. Keizer              and Carthage which fixed the canon               It is the author's thesis that clas-
 (Translated by T.M.P. VanderVen);             of Scripture repudiated the apocry-         sical natural theology has failed be-
 Inheritance Publications,  220~~. (pa-        phal books - when in fact they ac-          cause of its stubborn adherence to the
 per). [Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.]           cepted them. On page 135, the error         erroneous Enlightenment notion of
                                               of Arminianism is described almost          "evidentialism." Evidentialismholds
           This book, written by a minister    exclusively in terms of the Arminian        that a belief is rational only if there is
 of the Reformed Churches of the Neth-         doctrine of free will, when, in fact,       sufficient evidence or arguments or
 erlands (Liberated), who also taught          Arminianism corrupted other doc-            reasons for that belief. This classical
 church history in a Reformed high             trines of Scripture as well.                notion of proof (which requires
 schoolin Groeningen, isintended as a                This leads me to my final re-         evidentiary proof and deductive ar-
 textbook for high school students. In         mark. There is a certain imbalance in       gumentation) is a far too stringent
 the preface we are told, however, that        the work which becomes evident in a         concept of rationality, contends Clark.
 the book assumes a certain amount of          less than satisfactory treatment of         Although defending belief in God,
 knowledgeofchurchhistorywhichis               important issues in the history of the      the author suggests that our belief
 taught in elementary and junior high          church, issues such as the predestina-      need not be based on "arguments" or
 classes. And this is true.                    tion conflict during the time of            "evidence" to be rational.
           For this reason, while the book     Gottschalk, the Arrninian conflict of            How then is belief in God to be
 can be used in our own high school, it        the 16th century, and others; while at      rational if it does not depend on evi-
 serves better as a reference work than        the same time, a disproportionate           dence or arguments? Because for
 as a classroom text.                          amount of time is given to relatively       Clark, Plantinga, et. al., belief in God
           There are some good features        insignificant issues, such as the sla-      is a "properlybasicbelief," one that is
 about the book: it makes an effort,           very issue in England.                      accepted prior to evidence or argu-
 usually successful, to put church his-              The book can serve as a good          ment. In other words, belief in God is
 tory in the context of the teachings of       resource book, however, to under-           part of the given foundatiolz of our
 Scripture and our own modern era;             stand the history of the Reformed           world of knowledge - in the same
 and it gives a lot of worthwhile infor-       Churches in the Netherlands from            category as self-evident  ,truths,
 mation about various important fig-           the Afscheiding  of 1834 to the forma-      memory beliefs, belief in other minds,
 ures in the history of the church, men        tion of the Liberated Churches. H           etc. All of these beliefs we accept
 whom God used in the work of the                                                          quite properly without evidence or
 preservation of the church through-           Return to Reason: A Critique of             argument; belief in God is one such
 out the ages.                                 Enlightenment Evidentialism and a           "basic" belief. Says Clark "Thie theist
           Another reason, however, why        Defense of Reason and Belief in             will develop a conception of the struc-
 the book would not serve well for a           God, by Kelly James Clark (Grand            ture of believings which will legiti-
 text in our high school, is that it is        Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co.,            mately capture his intuition that be-
 written from the viewpoint of the             1990). $10.95 (paper). [Reviewed by         lief in God is properly basic."
 Liberated churches. This becomes              James Lanting.]                                  Clark also attempts to answer
 especially apparent at the end of the                                                     the charge that this rejection of the
book when the struggle of the Re-                   Mr. Clark, an assistant profes-        classical perception of  ratilonality
formed in the Netherlands to purify            sor of philosophy at Calvin College,        (with its emphasis on evidence and
the church led to the establishment of         introduces the reader to current de-        reason) results in mere intuitionism
the Liberated Churches in 1944. Be-            bates in the field of natural theology      or fideism. His defense against this
cause of this emphasis, no attention is        and Reformed apologetics. He sum-           accusation is not always convincing.
paid to the development and history            marizes the recent writings of Alvin             Clark saves his sharpest criti-
oftheReformedchurchesinourcoun-                Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and       cism in this book, not for the 18th
t r y .                                        George Mavrodes who are attempt-            century Enlightenmentphilosophers,
     The book is marred by some                ing to develop a novel Reformed epis-       but for R.C. Sproul, John Gerstner,
inaccuracies. On page 46, e.g., it is          temology with its own criteria for          and Arthur Lindsley and their book
asserted that the Councils of Hippo            rationality.                                Classical Apologetics. "Tktey con-

70 /Standard Bearer I November I,1991


tend," writes Clark, "that theism re-        ogy" recently being developed by                intuition."
quires a classical proof in order to be      Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas                          This book is written as an intro-
rational, and they havenot supplied a        Wolterstorff inFaith andRationality             ductory text to the philosophy of reli-
decent proof. They fall short of their       (Notre Dame: Univ. of Notre Dame                gion and is very readable, even for
own standards."                              Press,1983).  AlthoughClarkdesaibes             those with only a little background in
        This book is essentially a de-       this view as a "return to reason," its          philosophy and logic. n
fense of the new "theistic epistemol-        critics may dub it as a "return to

 News From Our Churches                                                                ,_                                         ./ .
Mr Benjamin Wigger

News from Singapore                          mittee or working directly through              son started on a positive note.
        Rev. Kortering wrote his con-        the Consistory. They chose the latter.                The Kalamazoo, MIPRC accom-
gregation in Grandville, MI recently,        They are going to begin considering             plishes this same positive beginning
and we include a few of his first im-        various projects, and they have asked           for their fall society season by spon-
pressions here for our readers.              for input from the congregation in              soring an annual fall concert of the
        `,, We thought we could imagine      this regard.                                    Hope Heralds at their church in mid-
whatlifewouldbelikehere,butnoth-                  The Church Extension Commit-               September.
ing can match the experience. We             tee of our Loveland, CO PRC spon-
have windows on both sides of the            sored a "Conference on Christian                Dendminational Highlights
flat, no screens, so we leave them           Child-Rearing" held on September                     Not only did the Hope Heralds
open day and night. We can smell             26-28. On Thursday evening, Sep-                Male Choral Group help Kalamazoo
what our neighbors are cooking, and          tember 26, Prof. H. Hank0  spoke on             begin their fall society season, they
we can hear them scold their chil-           "The Place of Children in the Chris-            also were featured at this year's Semi-
dren. Their clothes hang on bamboo           tian Family." On Friday, Rev.                   nary Convocation. They sang at the
poles two feet above, below, and on          Cammenga followed by speaking on                Holland Home and they presented a
either side of us. We heard someone          "The Parental Responsibility for                program on September 8 at South-
just below us play with enthusiasm,          Child-rearing." Saturday morning,               west PRC in Grandville, MI.
"When the Saints go Marching In."            Prof. Hanko spoke on "Disciplining                   The annual meeting of the East-
There seem to be children everywhere,        our Children." This was followed in             em League of Men's and Ladies' So-
and plenty of crabby mothers. We are         the afternoonby Mr. RonKoole  speak-            cieties was held September 17 at the
seeing life as it is . . . . There may be    ing on "Christian Education." All               Southwest Church. Rev. Gise
cultural differences, but a common           speeches were followedby a question             VanBaren  spoke on "The Develop-
faith in the sovereign God enables us        and answer session, and between the             ment of Mission Efforts in Ireland."
to experience once again the joy of the      speeches on Saturday a meal was                      A Fall Retreat for young adults
catholic, universal church."                 served.    Rev. Ron Cammenga,                   18 and older was held on September
        If you would like to send the        Loveland's pastor, writes that tapes            20 and 21 at Camp Michawama in
Korterings a note while they are in          of the four speeches given at this              Hastings, MI. This year's retreat had
Singapore, their address is: Blk. 416,       conference are available for a cost of          .for its theme, "Making Christian Tes-
Hougang Ave. 10, #07-1302,  Singapore        $6.00 by writing the church at 705 E.           timony." Activities included discus-
1953, Republic of Singapore. Their           57th St., Loveland, CO 80538.                   sion groups, volleyball, basketball,
FAX number is: 001-65-289-5342.                   At their last congregational               softball, tennis, and swimming. .
                                             meeting, the congregation of the                     Elizabeth Key, daughter of Rev.
Congregational Activities                    Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI               andMrs.Key,`sufferedabrokenlegin
        For the past few months the          not only called a pastor, but also              aplaygroundmishapinmid-Septem-
Consistory of our Pella, IA PRC has          passed two' proposals dealing with              ber. She was hospitalized in-traction
been discussing how best to carry out        their parsonage - one to redecorate             at the Beaver Dam Hospital in Beaver
their calling to spread God's truth in       and another to remodel the kitchen-             Dam, WI for approximately 10 days,
their community. They discussed              dining room area.                               and she will be confined at home in a
either forming an Evangelism Com-                 The members of First PRC in                body cast for about six weeks.
                                             Grand Rapids, MI begin their Fall               Ministerial Calls
                                                                                                  ThecongregationoftheFirstPRC
Mr. WiggerisamemberoftheProtestant           Bible Study season by planning a Fall
                                                                                             in Grand.Rapids,  MI has extended a
Reformed Church ofHudsonville,  Michi-       Fellowship Dinner. This evening of
                                                                                             call to Rev. R. Moore to serve as
gun.                                         Christian fellowship serves as a
                                             springboard to get their society sea-           missionary to the island of Jamaica. Q
                                                                                                November 1,199l I Standard Bearer / 71


&DMD                                                                                                                                                                          SECOND CUSS
                                                                                                                                                                              Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                                              Grandvile, Michigan
   P. 0. Box 603
  Grandville, MI 494684603


Report of Classis West

     Classis West met on Wednesday, September 18,199l                         - Rev. C. Terpstra. A request from Classis East for
in Edger-ton, MN. Classis met for a full day, finishing its                   classical appointments to Lame, Northern Ireland, and
work at about 600 Wednesday evening. Rev. S. Key                              Venice, Florida, received just before the meeting of Classis,
served as President of the meeting and was welcomed by                        was not granted since this was a departure form the usual
Classis, having recently moved to Randolph, WI, from                          procedure for supplying the mission fields and since the
Classis East. Rev. Robert Hargrove of Sovereign Grace                         consistories of Classis West did not have time to consider
Presbyterian Church in Spokane, WA, and Mr. Jim Roberts                       the matter.  Classis encouraged the Mission Committee
of Sovereign Redeemer Fellowship in Boise, ID, were                           and the calling Consistories for these fields to contact the
welcomed as visitors to Classis.                                              Consistories in  Classis West for supply.
     The main items of business were an appeal from a                                  The expenses of Classis were $8,592.12.
brother in Loveland, CO against the Loveland Consistory                                The next meeting of Classis West will be in Doon, IA,
and an overture from the Loveland Consistory asking that                      on March 4,1992.
the number of delegates to Synod from each Classis be                                                                                                                             Rev. R. Hanko
increased from 8 to 12 (6 ministers and 6 elders). The                                                                                                                                  Stated Clerk
appeal against the Consistory of Loveland was treated in
closed session and was rejected by Classis while the
overture will be sent on to Synod, 1992, with the approval
of Classis.
     The following schedule for classical appointments to
Hope, Isabel, SD was approved: October 13,20 -Rev. M.
DeVries;  November 24, December 1 - Rev. T. Miersma;
December 15,22 - Rev. W. Bekkering  January 12,19 -
Rev. S. Houck; February 9,16 - Rev. S. Key; March 8,15

                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
     On October 17, 1991, our beloved parents,
               MR. and MRS. JOHN BODBYL,
celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary. We, together
with them, thank our heavenly Father for preserving them                          I                                                              I                                                          I
and us in the way of truth in His church and in His covenant.                                                                                     I
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                                                                                                                       m.1 s.rvn, He28.I. o."h c. Heah I bun"
                                                                                                                                                                  La..  01 TN" lull8 d  8-e.. Mn,w.. "
                                                                                                                                                                                                     m.0
It is our prayer that they may continue to experience God's                                                     ,.A  mm.                          I                  Cmr(.,*  Y.mg  I*...
                                                                                                                                                  I
blessing on their earthly pilgrimage.                                                                                                                                                                       I
George and Marylynn Postmus                                                                                                                       1
                                                                                       ,.  rm C~~~.<ee  >I) "ardl oll.*..tP.  .utwa,.d P  Y.4 * s.rlY ".,I. myY*d. m LI +,
     John, Nathan, Catherine                                                             ,*  mDDI., ham. ".am~mI" ,,""I d Ik *,w,..t.m .rd h ..rnD, Il.%l  f*l.h*m 0.. P.m...  m.4 I,
George and Jayne Bodbyl
     George, Marcella, Monica, Emily
John and Jane Bodbyl
     Jennifer, John, Jason, Jeremy, Jimmy, Julia
Tom and Gretine Bodbyl
     Maria, Larissa, Joel, Nate, Eric
John and Joan Mulder
     Elizabeth, Lynnelle
Dan and Anna Mae Bodbyl
     Amanda, Tina, Rosanne, Seth
                                    Hudsonville Protestant Reformed Church

72 /Standard Bearer / November 1,199l


