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Vol. bi5,  NO. 4
N o v e m b e r   15,199l  "


CONTENTS:

Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema
        Rejoice in the Lord Always.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..... 75
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                   ISSN  0 3 6 2 - 4 6 9 2
        The Standard Bearer:  Holding the Traditions (2) . . . . . . . ..*.*......*..*..*. 77
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*............. ..,...,..*................. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I 78           Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                      Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Asscclatlon,  Inc.,
Go Ye Into All the World - Rev, Ronald J, VanOverloop                                                                                                                                 4949 lvanrest Ave., Qrandville, MI 49416. SeoDnd Class
         Mission Principles (VII), The Methods . ..*........*........,,,.........,.............. 79                                                                                   Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
Contribution - Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma                                                                                                                                                Postmastrc  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
        Anabaptism and the Means of Grace (2) ..,..,..,................................ 82                                                                                            P.O. Box 603* Grandville, MI 49466-0603.
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dala H. Kuiper                                                                                                                                             EDtTORtAL COtiMmEE
                                                                                                                                                                                      Editor: Prof. David J. Engalsma
         Laughter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.~.........~~~.......... 86    Secrefary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Car/J, Haak                                                                                                                                              Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
         Malachi, Lesson I, Overview of Malachi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84                                            DEPART~ENTEDITORS
Day of Shadows - Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                                                                                    Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arle
                                                                                                                                                                                      denHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Carl Haak, Mr. Fred
        That Awesome and Important Calling .,,**................,.........,...*~~.......                                                                                    87        Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Hays,  Rav. Marvin
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev, Char/es J. Terpstra                                                                                                                                Kamps. Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Koole. Flev. Jason
                                                                                                                                                                                      Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting. Rev. George
        The Sovereignty of God (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..`....... 89                              Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
Book Reviews ,,I..II......,..........,.....,,,,,I...I*.....,.,..*.......................................                                                                    91        Chartes Terpstra, Rev. Ronald VanOvertoop. Mr. Benjamin
                                                                                                                                                                                      Wigger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches i Mr. Benjamin Wigger ..,....,..,...............~....... 94                                                                                                    EDlTORtAL OFFlCE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
Report of Classis East - Mr. Jon J. Huisken ..,.............,...,........ . . . . . . . ,*. . . . . . 95                                                                              The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
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In  This  Issue  `n . .                                                                                                                                                               Don Doezema
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           We would expect to see, in this issue, some reference to the calJing  of the child sf                                                                                               (616) 531-1490
God to thankfulness -with the national day of Thanksgiving just ahead in the United                                                                                                   FAX! (616) 531.3033
States, and just recently observed in Canada. Rev. Slopsema did not disappoint us in                                                                                                  EDtTdRlAL POLICY
that regard, drawing our attention in his Meditation to the admonition of the apostle                                                                                                 Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                                                                                      articles. Contributlonsofgeneralinfarastfromourroadersand
Paul that the child of God not only rejoice in the Lord, but rejoice in the Lord ahays -                                                                                              questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
that is, in every circumstance of life. In other words, we ne+er in this life find ourselves                                                                                          Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
in such straits that thanksgiving must arise in our hearts in spite of circumstances, but                                                                                             mustbeneatlywrittenortypewritten,andmljstbesigned.          Copy
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always  because  @circumstances -whatever they  are,  for  all things  work together for                                                                                              commimlcationa relative to the contents should be sent to the
an eternal welfare.                                                                                                                                                                   editorial office.
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           An unexpected treat is the poem entitled "Thanksgiving," written by Thelma                                                                                                 Permission is herebygrantedfor  the reprinting of articles in our
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poem, the contentment of the child of God, "circumstances notwithstanding," and                                                                                                       is made: c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
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           Elsewhere in this issue Rev. Bruinsma concludes his two-part series on Anabap-                                                                                             for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
tism and the Metins of Grace, which, as you will recall, he started but could not finish                                                                                              date.
in our special issue on the Reformed Conflict with Anabaptism. And Rev. Haak, in                                                                                                      BOUND VOiUMES
"Search the Scriptures," begins a series on the book of Malachi. As was ti-ue also of his                                                                                             The Business Dffice will accept standing orders for bound
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in a society in his congregation in Lynden, WA. They served well there. So, you might
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74 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


                                              Rejoice in th.e Lbrd
M e d i t a t i o n
Rev. James Slopsema                           . Always

        Rejoice in the Lord always: and            Now in this concluding chapter          This in turnbrings upon us the misery
  again I say, Rejoice.                       Paul speaks again of the same lord-          of God's judgment. God judges our
                           Philippians 4:4    ship of Jesus.                               sin in this life with the misery of failed
                                                   Rejoice in the Lord always: and         marriages, broken homes, strife, con-
        Last month the saints in Canada       again I say, Rejoice.                        flict; alcoholism, depression . . . . And
observed a national day of Thanks-                 In this connection we must dis-         after this life there is the agony of
giving. This month we do the same in          tinguishbetween Jesus' lordship over         God's wrath in hell.
the States.                                   the creation in general, including the            However, Jesus has redeemed
        This national day of Thanksgiv-       ungodly, and His lordship over the           us from all horrible slavery. He has
ingis a day in which the leaders of our       church. Jesus rules absolutely and           bought us with a price, the supreme
nations call us to give thanks to God         sovereignly as Lord over both the            price of His own life on the cross. As
for all the bounties He has given to us.      creation and the church. However,            a result the devil's ownership over us
        We understand that our thanks-        overtheworldGodrulesinHispower,              has been broken. Jesus is now our
giving is not to be limited to mere           whereas over the church He rules in          Lord and Master.
material things. As saints of God we          grace.                                            As our Lord, Jesus rules us abso-
are also to give thanks for spiritual              What concerns us here is the            lutely and sovereignly. He sets `be-
blessings. Nor is our thanksgiving to         lordship of Jesus over the church and        fore us the law of His heavenly Father
be limited to one day of the year. We         His gracious rule of her.                    and calls us to serve Him accord-
are to thank God every day for His                 In the Bible times a lord was a         ingly.
blessings to us.                              slave owner.                                      This rule over us is not grievous
        But to give thanks to God and be           Several things are noteworthy           and harsh but glorious andbeautiful.
a thankful people we must be those            of the relation between a lord and his       For by the power of the Word and the
who rejoice in the Lord always.               slaves. First, thelordownedhisslaves.        Holy Spirit Jesus so changes our hearts
        Rejoice in the Lord always: and       They were his personal property. For         that we not only delight to do His will
again I say, Rejoice.                         that reason the lord also had absolute       but also are able to do it. Through the
           *  rt  *  *  *  *  *               control over the lives of his slaves.        power of grace we are so transformed
        In his letter to the Philippian       They lived and died by his word. But         that we find great joy in serving Jesus
church Paul emphasizes that Jesus             forthatreasonalordalsowasrespon-             as Lord.
Christ is Lord.                               sible for the care of his slaves. It was          Besides this, Jesus as our Lord
        Earlier in this letter Paul has       his responsibility to feed and clothe        also provides us with all our needs.
pointed out that on the basis of Jesus'       his slaves, to care for their every need.    He provides us daily with food and
perfect obedience to the Father, God               In.much the same way Jesus is           drink, clothing and shelter. He also
has highly exalted Jesus, given Him a         Lord in His church.                          cares for our spiritual needs. From
name above every name, and made                    By nature we do not belong to           Him we receive grace to bear every
Him Lord over all. God accomplished           Jesus but to another. Spiritually we         burden, strength when we are weak,
this through the ascension of Jesus           are the slaves of the devil himself.         courage when we are afraid, peace in
into heaven (Phil. 2:6-11).                   This slavery is the result of our origi-     the most troubled times. Our every
                                              nal sin in Adam. As punishment for           need He provides.
                                              this original sin in the garden God               Infact,Hemakesallthingswork
                                              gave us all over to the spiritual con-       together for our eternal salvation and
                                              trol of the devil to be ruled by him as      welfare.
                                              a lord rules his servants.                        This He is able to do because He
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protes-            What a cruel bondage this is.           is Lord over all.
tant Reformed Church in Walker, Michi-        For the devil leads us into the way of                   *  +  *  *  -*  +  *
gan.                                          sinandeveryabom.inationbeforeGod.                 In this Lord we are to rejoice.
                                                                                             November 15,1991/ Standard Bearer / 75


     To rejoice in the Lord means that        of prosperity. In that case we rejoice      to give thanks to God in everything (I
we find our joy in the fact that Jesus is     in the plenty we have. But our rejoic-      Thess. 5%).
our Lord.                                     ing is not a rejoicing in the Lord.              This means that we are to give
     What a great blessing to have            When this happens we inevitably use         thanks to God whether we find our-
Jesus as our Lord! What a privilege to        our plenty in a way that is different       selves in riches or poverty, health or
be called into the service of His name!       from what is the purpose of our Lord        sickness, war or peace, life or death.
What a comfort to know that, as our           who gave it to us. Instead of using it      No matter what the circumstance, we
Lord, Jesus provides for our every            in the service of His name, we use it       are to give thanks to God.
need!                                         sinfully, for the sake of our own plea-          Quite obviously this is possible
     We rejoice in the Lord when              sure and selfish ends.                      only when we rejoice in the Lord
Jesus' lordship over us is the source of           And so it is that Paul repeats         always. For only those who have joy
greatjoyinourlives. Werejoiceinthe            himself.                                    can  be thankful. The despondent,
Lord when Jesus' lordship over us is               Rejoice in the Lord always: and        who have no joy, have nothing for
the joy of our life.                          again I say, Rejoice.                       which they can be thankful.
     We are called not only to rejoice             If we will rejoice in the Lord              But more importantly, only those
in the Lordbut to do so always, i.e., in      always we must busy ourselves with          who rejoice in the Lord can truly be
every circumstance of life.                   the Word and by much prayer. For            thankful to God. They are thankful to
     We are to rejoice in the Lord, for       the Word of God speaks to us of our         God in the midst of prosperity, for
example, when we prosper and the              Lord, the great benefits we enjoy in        they understand that all their abun-
horn of plenty is full. Is there food         His service and His wonderful care          dance comes ultimately from the hand
and drink on our table? Do we have            for us. Through prayer we learn to          of God, their heavenly Father, and is
clothing and shelter? Are we healthy          rely upon Jesus as our Lord and re-         designed as a blessing of His grace.
and well? Is there peace and prosper-         ceive from Him all the riches of grace.          But they also have something to
ity in our homes? Rejoice in the Lord.        Without this it is impossible to rejoice    be thankful for in the midst of suffer-
For all these things are the blessing of      in the Lord.                                ing and poverty. Jesus is their Lord.
the Lord Jesus to us, who daily pro-                                                      And as their Lord He will care for
vides for all our needs.                                  .******                         them, provide for their every need,
     But we must also rejoice in the               IfwewillgivethankstoGod,we             and make all things work together for
Lord when there is want. Sometimes            must know how to rejoice in the Lord        their good. For this they are very
the lot of the saints is that of sickness,    always.                                     thankful to their God.
death, poverty, hunger, discord. Even              Even as we are called to rejoice            In everything give thanks.
then we must rejoice in the Lord. For         in the Lord always, we are also called           To this end, rejoice in the Lord.
in the midst of all these sufferings                                                           And again I say, Rejoice. 0
Jesus is still Lord and He will cer-
tainly care for us. As Lord He will
provide for our every need. In fact, as                           T H A N K S G I V I N G
Lord He will make all these things
work together for our good and sal-                                          Thelma Wes fra
vation.
         Rejoice in the Lord always!          I thank the Lord for countless blessings daily sent;
         And again I say, Rejoice.            For, circumstances notwithstanding, making me content.
         The apostle Paul repeats the ad-     For gifts of health, but also gifts of death and pain,
monition to rejoice in the Lord be-           For pleasant sunny days, but also icy wind and rain.
cause of our tendency not to rejoice in       For warmth and shelter, clothing, and for food in vast supply;
Him always.                                   For mountain, lake, the flow'ring tree, the butterfly.
         We often lose sight of the fact      For loving family, with joyful celebrations
that Jesus is our Lord.                       Who also share my griefs with me and tribulations.
         We do this, for example, in the      For scores of friends, who in my need were glad to give;
face of adversity and suffering. Very         For opportunities to serve when others too need help to live.
quickly we forget that Jesus is our           Yet most of all, I thank my Heav'nly Father for His love
Lord, who cares for us and will make          In sending One, His own begotten Son, from heav'n above
our present sufferings work for our           To suffer and to die to make me free from every sin
eternal welfare. When that happens,           And give me peace and joy, and knowledge that within
we quickly fall into despair and have         The trials sent, His love for me is ever shining through.
no joy at all.                                His everlasting arms around me strengthen and renew,
         But perhaps more often we for-       And when I give Him thanks, He shows to me by grace divine
get that Jesus is our Lord in the midst       That He has placed Thanksgiving in my heart -- `tis His, not mine!

76 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199i


                                                  The Standard
                                                  Bearer: Holding the
Editorial                                         Traditions (23
                                                       These truths about doctrines to       Reformed tradition. It is not our
      (The preceding editorial in this se-        be believed, about right worship,          calling to create a new theology, to
ries noted that there is an illicit holding of    about church government, and about         invent a new form of worship, to
tradition. Oneform is that of the Roman           the Christian walk, we must hold.          hammer out a new church polity, and
Catholic Church. Another form is that             The exhortation is urgent. This is         to shape a new Christian life. We
condemned by Jesus in the Pharisees.              implied in the very nature of the tra-     have no business doing. this. This
This article picks up the subject at this         ditions: they are the truth and will of    would be the grossest disobedience
point. - Ed.)                                     God. This is their value. The urgency      to the command of the apostle, "hold
                                                  is expressed in the command in II          the traditions." Precisely this is un-
      Now the ministry of Paul, great             Thessalonians 2:15. "Hold" is force-       derway in Reformed churches today,
apostle of freedom, was unrelenting               ful: "hold on for dear life," or "hold     as in many other churches. This is the
warfare against this legalistic holding           with might and main." You think of         falling away foretold in II
of the traditions, against what he calls,         the shipwrecked sailor holding on to       Thessalonians 2:3.
in Galatians  1:14, "the traditions of            the plank that saves him. Or, you                    There is a body of doctrine. There
my fathers." This makes it all the                think of a mother clasping her child       is a definite worship. There is a pre-
more striking that he commands be-                against someone who threatens that         scribed and time-tested government.
lievers to "hold the traditions." This            child. Besides, the commandis,  "Stand     There is a defined Christianlife. Hold
is what this most determined enemy                fast, and hold." A church that stands      it!
of illegitimate tradition does in II              in the love of God by the Spirit will
Thessalonians 295: "hold the tradi-               hold the traditions. Abandonment,
tions which ye havebeen taught." He               one by one, of the traditions shows                 Church histo y proves
uses the same word as that used in                that the church has already fallen.                    how diflicult  it is
Mark 7 for the vain doctrines of the                   The context lends urgency to the
Pharisees. He uses the same verb for              imperative. The summons to hold the                  for  churches to hold
honoring the traditions as that used              traditions immediately follows the                        the traditions.
in Mark 7 to describe the wicked                  prophecy of the great falling away                                                  -
observance of the Pharisees: "hold."              that precedes the coming of Christ
Jesus condemned the Pharisees for                 and the prophecy of the coming of the                This is not easy. Church history
holding their traditions. Paul com-               man of sin who will delude still more      proves how difficult it is for churches
mands Christians to hold the tradi-               churches and professing Christians.        to hold the traditions. It requires
tions.                                            "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and       resolve. It demands effort. It calls for
      There is a difference.                      hold the traditions."                      courage. Joshua's parting words to
      Paul refers to the gospel-truths                 This is what we are doing when        Israel apply: "Be ye therefore very
taught by the apostles of Christ -                we maintain the  creedal Reformed          courageous to keep and to do all that
doctrines that are to be believed and             faith, worship, church government,         is written in the book of the law of
commandments that govern the                      and life - the Reformed tradition.         Moses, that ye turn not aside there-
Christian life. These are handed over             For the Reformed tradition is, in its      from to the right hand or to the left"
to the saints by the Word of God. The             various aspects, the traditions handed     (Josh. 23:6). Today, all the emphasis
church of Paul's day received them                down by the apostles in the Scrip-         is on church growth and mission.
partly through the teaching of the                tures, as can readily be demonstrated      Few acknowledge the tremendous
apostlesandpartlythroughtheScrip-                 by comparing this tradition with the       struggle that is necessary just to main-
tures. We receive them through the                Scriptures.                                tain the fundamentals of the Chris-
Scriptures.                                            Our calling is to maintain the        tian faith. But this is the emphasis of

                                                                                                    November 15,199ll Standard Bearer / 77


Christ in His charge to the seven          from the preaching at every service.         tions as the very Word of God in the
churches of Asia Minor. He praises         If the Bible teaches church rule by a        Scriptures.
Pergamos and Philadelphia for hold-        body of male elders, we disallow
ing fast His Name and keeping His          women elders. If the Bible teaches
Word (Rev.  2:13;  3:s).  He calls         avoidance of whatever arouses                           . . . if we are going
Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia to      unchaste thoughts, I shun movies, the             to hold the traditione,
hold fast that which they have (Rev.       dance, television programs, and what-                  we must constantly
2:25; 3:3; 3:ll).                          ever reading materials tend to es-
     Although we may not boast,            trange me in thought and desire, as              be tracing the traditions
since our holding the traditions is due    well as in deed, from my holy Friend,                   back to the Bible.
to the grace of God that chose us to       Jesus.
salvation "through . . . belief of the          But my main concern regarding
truth" andthatcalledusbythegospel          the way in which we hold the tradi-               Brothers of the Reformed Free
(II Thess. 2:13, 14), it is remarkable     tions is especially that we do so in a       Publishing Association, if we are go-
that the Protestant Reformed               biblical, spiritual, living, dynamic         ing to hold the traditions, we must
Churches are still doing this after 65     manner. There is also a way of hold-         constantly be tracing the traditions
years. It is remarkable that the Stan-     ing the traditions-a way of holding          back to the Bible. We must be deriv-
dard Bearer is holding the traditions      the Reformed traditions -that is all         ing the traditions from the Scriptures
in its 65th year. No one on earth          too human, natural, dead, and impo-          afresh. We must always be seeing
praises us for this, but the apostle of    tent. In the church as in society there      that the source and basis of the tradi-
Christ does. In I Corinthians 11:2, he     can be a petrified conservatism that         tionsis the inspired Word of God. We
writes, "Now I praise you, brothers,       simply dislikes change. This is N tradi-     must ourselves be receiving the tradi-
that you keep the traditions, just as I    tionalism.N Tradition differs from           tions as that which is taught by the
handed them over to you."                  traditionalism. The Lutheran theolo-         apostles of Christ. This must be the
      This points out something about      gian, Jaroslav Pelikan, described the        case as regards "The Five Points of
the way in which we are to hold the        difference this way, "Tradition is the       Calvinism"; the simplicity of wor-
traditions. The manner of holding          living faith of the dead; traditional-       ship; the principles of Presbyterian
them is important. When the apostle        ism is the dead faith of the living."        church government; Sabbath obser-
says, "just as I delivered them," he            The apostle indicates the right         vance; or the bodily resurrection of
makes plain that we must hold the          way of holding the traditions in II          Christ. We may not simply defend
traditions carefully. There must be        Thessalonians 215 when he says,              and repeat what our fathers have
doctrinal precision; pure worship;         "which ye have been taught." Teach-          handed over, or what our churches
orderly church government; and a           ing is the way to hand the traditions        have always stood for, or what the
holiness in walk that pays attention to    down from one generation to the next.        Canons of Dordt have taught for 370
the details.                               Teaching is also the way to hold the         years.
      If the Bible teaches election and    traditions. The Holy Spirit is the                There must be constant inter-
reprobation, we confess double pre-        power of a living holding of the tradi-      pretation of the Scriptures.
destination. If the Bible teaches that     tions, but He empowers such a hold-               This interpretation of the Scrip-
preaching is the heart of Christian        ing by means of teaching. And this           tures must be free. 0
worship, we allow nothing to detract       teaching is the teaching of the tradi-                                           -.- DJE

Letters

Experimental Religion                           I understand the danger of "sec-        them that such experience has had
      In a bookreview in the Standard      ond blessing" as championed by cer-          this twofold effect: 1) It increased
Bearer (August 1, 1991),  you wrote        tain Arminian denominations, but             theirperceptionofindwellingsinand
about the "second blessing" heresy,        "experimentalreligion" is a term that        their unworthiness before a holy God,
which "holds before the saint the real     has beenusedby (or about) some who           and 2) It convinced them of the all-
possibility of virtualperfectionin this    are solidly in the Calvinistic tradition,    consuming love and preciousness of
life." You placed this under the gen-      such as  M'Cheyne,  Brainerd,                the Savior such that all their doubts
eral heading of "exEerimental  reli-       Edwards, and Guthrie. They have              vanished and they knew themselves
gion," which you said runs the dan-        spokenofindividualexperienceswith            tobeforgivenandsecureinHishands.
ger of separating from "solidly doc-       the Lord which are at moments so                   Do the Protestant Reformed
trinal Christianity."                      overwhelminglyrealandpowerfulto              Churches take a stand regarding"ex-

76 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199i


perimental  religion"? Is a subjective,       so applies the doctrines of the Word              as well as in other gross errors.
internal witness to be actively sought        to the elect sinner in saving him that                    Although the PRC want to do
after as "experimental" literature            these doctrines affect the sinner's ex-           full justice to the experience of salva-
would imply is the right, and even            perience, even strongly, the Protes-              tion by the believer, we also are con-
duty, of the genuine Christian? Some          tant Reformed Churches confess,                   cerned to exert ourselves to keep ex-
writers give me the impression that           practice, and enjoy "experimental re-             perience, or feeling, in its place. .As
such a practice is even necessary to          ligion."                                          Martin Luther observed in the
"closewith Christ" in conversion, and                Biblical Christianity is a religion        struggle of the Reformation with the
they make me feel guilty if I haven't         thatisexperienced: "Thereforebeing                "spirituals," the way of salvation is
had an experience similar to theirs.          justified by faith, we have peace with            not feelingbut faith. The just does not
      In his essay "Returning," pub-          God through our Lord Jesus Christ"                live by experience but by faith- f,aith
lished in The Myste y of Bethlehem,           (Rom. 59). The Reformed faith in-                 ody. This is fundamental to the com-
Herman Hoeksema writes that mo-               sists upon the experience of salvation            fort of the believer. There are times
ments of exultation may come upon             inits creeds: U . . . SinceInowfeelinmy           when the believer is deeply stirred
us, but that we must also expect the          heart the beginning of eternal joy . . .          emotionally by the gospel of the love
return"toearthlythings"inthisworld            (Heid. Cat., Q. 58); "... certainty of            of God for him a sinner. There are
of sin. He says that we must then             perseverance . . . is the real source . . . of    other times when he is dry as dust.
pursue our callings and struggles and         solidrejoicinginGod  . .." (Canons, 5/            But he is as surely saved at the one
await, "by faith," a heaven that is still     2).                                               time as at the other. And he is certain
future.                                              If, however, men mean by "ex-              of it. For he believes, emotions 01: no
      In approximately four years of          perimental religion" strange, won-                emotions.
reading the SB I have not seen this           derful, spiritual experiences quite di-                   There is a distinct stream in the
issue.discussed and would appreci-            vorced from the sound doctrines of                Reformed and Presbyterian tradition
ate knowing your views on it.                 Scripture, and from the preaching of              that makes experience the main thing.
                            N.P. Jeflerson    these doctrines, the  PRC reject these            The primary spiritual activity is in-
                       Mount Vernon, NY       experiences as accursed mysticism.                trospection, a spiritual Nnavel-gaz-
                                              All the more do we abhor such an                  ing." This is a sickness unto death. In
RESPONSE:                                     "experimental religion" when its                  the judgment of God, there is in this
      What precisely is meant by "ex-         mystical experiences are made the                 stream either no assurance of salva-
perimental religion"?                         condition for one's assurance of con-             tion or an assurance that rests upon
      There is no such entry in the           version and for one's coming to the               the dubious foundation of an extraor-
New Dictionary  of Theology  (ed.             Lord's Table.                                     dinary experience or a special revela-
SinclairB.  Ferguson,DavidF. Wright,                 My warning was not that "ex-               tion
J.I. Packer); The New InternationaZ           perimental religion" runs the danger                      The gospel calls us to look away
Dictionary of the Christian Church            of separating itself from doctrinal               from ourselves to Jesus Christ cruci-
(ed. J.D. Douglas); or The OxfordDic-         Christianity (to use a redundancy),               fied and risen as exhibitedin the truths
tionay of the Christian Church (ed.           although this is ,indeed a danger.                OftheReformedfaith.  Justinthisway
F.L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone).             Rather I warned that all "experimen-              does the believer have comfort.
      If, as I suppose, "experimental         talreligion" that separatesitself in the                  Experienced comfort.  0
religion" describes Christianity as the       slightest from solidly doctrinal Chris-                                              -- Ed.
faith that teaches that the Holy Spirit       tianity will run out in perfectionism,




Go Ye Into All                                       MISSION PRINCIPLES (VII)
the World
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                                   THE METHOD$ -
                                                     The consideration of the prin-             methods are to be determined from
Rev. VanOverloop  is pastor of Bethel         ciples of missions legitimately in-               the principles.
ProtestantReformedChurchinElkGrove            cludes a discussion of the methods of                     The biblical basis for this rela-
Village, Illlinois.                           missions. The reason is simple. The               tionshipbetweenprinciplesandmeth-

                                                                                                  November 15,199l I Standard Bearer J 79


ods, between faith and practice, is         seminars one can learn "how to select       sionaries andby the Evangelism Com-
easily shown. The Scriptures give us        the method of evan.gelism  that Baby        mittees of local Reformed churches.
the contents of our faith - what we         Boomers best respond to"; "how to                 Reformed theology holds that
are to believe in order to be saved.        incorporate the Boomer into the body        the goal of all God's works is the glory
They make one wise unto salvation (II       of Christ" (I did not know man could        of Himself (cf. Revelation 491; Ro-
Timothy 3:15), but they also thor-          do that); "how to recognize the             mans 11:36) and that His glory must
oughly equip one unto every good            Boomerlifestyle,thevaluestheyhold,          be the goal of all that man does.
work - how we are to live (II Timo-         and the impact they will have on the        "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory
thy 3:17).                                  church"; and "how to increase your          of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).  Evan-
     Every method of evangelism,            lay involvement by 46%" (how they           gelistic methods issue forth from this
therefore, is to be derived directly, or    get such exact percentages I do not         doctrinal position. Because God can-
by clear implication, from exegesis of      know).                                      not be glorified where He is not
Scripture. Likewise, every method                However, the question that             known, our evangelism literature and
and practice of mission work which is       should be asked is not what works,          mission preaching has as a priority
not derived from Scripture is sure to       but what does the Bible say or imply        the desire to make God known to
be summoned before God's bar and            about methods. We want our meth-            sinners. While preaching on the mis-
to receive harsh judgment.                  ods of missions and evangelism to be        sion field at Athens, the apostle Paul
                                            an extension of our theology, an ex-        did not speak first of Jesus, of the
                                            tension of what we believe. The view        resurrection,  andof the judgment day,
              Evangelists                   which one has of God, of sin, and of        but of God and His creation and His
       and mission boards                   grace, affects seriously how we do          all-comprehensive providence ((Acts
    may go to the Scriptures                our work of missions. If a congrega-        17). God and His glory are the refer-
                                            tion believes that Jesus Christ is their    ence point for a proper understand-
        for  their message,                 sovereign and gracious Lord, then           ing of Jesus and salvation in Him.
         but they often go                  they wiIl gratefully put forth every        Therefore the sovereignty of God, His
    to the world of business                effort to be obedient to His every          just wrath and His righteousness, are
               or to the                    command and to please Him with              to be vigorously preached on the mis-
   fastest growing churches                 their doctrine and practice.                sion field, so that the doctrine of God
                                                 Consider a few negative ex-            might be the starting point for a prop-
        for their methods.                  amples. The theological position ac-        er understanding of one's real need
                                            cording to which grace is in the sacra-     and of the infinite gratitude one owes
                                            mental water of bapt.ism  will produce      to God for salvation in Jesus Christ.
      This must be emphasized. This         a methodology for evangelism and            Therefore the effort of missions and
close relationship between principles       missions which baptizes as many             evangelism is to teach the sinner that
and methods is not always seen in           people as quickly as possible. If we        his misery and sorrows arise from his
practice. Man, throughout history,          believe that natural man's will is          failure to glorify God by walking in
has always been pragmatic to some           morally free, then regeneration will        obedience to all of God's command-
degree, but in today's world it seems       be defined as the individual's deter-       ments. Therefore the repenting and
that pragmatism determines every-           mination to believe; and our evange-        believing sinner will be taught to glo-
thing. By pragmatic we mean: to use         lism will consist of anything which         rify God in gratitude by observing all
whatever works or works the best,           will move the will of man, for ex-          things whatsoever God has com-
without asking questions. This kind         ample, moral persuasions, emotional         manded us.
of thinking greatly influences the          beseechings,  and slick sales pitches.           Because the Reformed faith
church world. Evangelists and mis-          If we believe that millions of men are      maintains the glory of God as the goal
sion boards may go to the Scriptures        just waiting for the right presentation     of all our mission efforts, we must
for their message, but they often go to     of Christ in order to be saved, then we     resist all means and methods which
the world of business or to the fastest     will be driven to selling Christ, beg-      make man's good the chief end in
growing churches for their methods.         ging for decisions, and constantly feel-    evangelism. Not that we are uninter-
The church-growthmovement, which            ing guilty for not doing enough. It is      ested in man's good. But when we
has swept the churches in the Ameri-        easy to see why it is that the methods      make man's good the chief end of our
cas, is built on the foundation of prag-    one uses in missions and evangelism         mission and evangelism efforts, then
matic methods: grow, and grow as            is simply the extension of one's theol-     there is a strong temptation to smooth
fast as possible. Yesterday's mail          ogy into life and practice.                 over the offensive elements of the
brought me a large flyer from the                      /                                truth, in order to make it more ap-
Church Growth Institute, which is                           ***X-*X-*                   pealing and more palatable to man.
presenting seminars on "How To                   The Reformed faith determines          Not only our message, but also our
Reach The Baby Boomer." At the              the methods used by Reformed mis-           methods will be affected.

80 /Standard Bearer / November l&l991


     Because in Reformed and bibli-          receive the truth, than they will spend         mately in the hands of God. We go
cal doctrine Jesus is the highest mani-      in planning clever ways to manipu-              through the process of one planting,
festation of the glory of God, we will       late a response to the truth. They will         and another watering, for which we
not in our presenting the gospel treat       spend more energy in proclamation               can patiently wait.
Jesus like one would treat a piece of        thanin promotion. In addition, while                 Reformed theology will also, re-
merchandize.  Rather we will seek to         they will be clear in the presentation          sult in a methodology which keeps
be an instrument of God to bring the         of the demand of the Gospel to repent           backnot  a single part of the counsel of
sinner out of the bondage of sin and         andbelieve, theywillat the same time            God. ThemissionarywilInothesitate
into willing and humble obedience to         make it equally clear that the human            to declare "all the counsel of God"
His Savior and Lord.                         will is not autonomous and cannot               (Acts 20:27). There willbe  no need to
     And it goes without saying that         repent and believe of itself. Their goal        water down God's demands so they
such a theology will result in giving        is that the sinners to whom the Gospel          might be more appealing to men. We
all the praise to God when there is          of Christ crucified is presented will           can be unashamed when we preach
success and fruit in one's labors.           plead for God to be merciful to them            that which is offensive to man (I
     One's methodology is then a re-         as sinners.                                     Corinthians 1:23). Though we know
flection of one's theology that the                The total depravity of the sin-           that men will be completely turned
glory of God is the goal of all God's        ner, and the good pleasure of the               off by our message, we persist in our
works, and therefore also of all of our      Almighty God to use the Holy Spirit             efforts because if they are the elect of
efforts and deeds.                           to apply the truth to the human un-             God, then God will spiritually shake
                                             derstanding as the means of conver-             them up just as He did the Philippian
             *******                         sion, results in a methodology which            jailer with the earthquake. If God is
     Consider another example of             emphasizes the contents of the mes-             calling them, then Christ will become
how the Reformed faith determines            sage. Paul expresses it well when he            the wisdom of God unto them.
practice, of how doctrine determines         relates to King Agrippa the commis-
methods.                                     sion Jesus gave to him on the road to                       *X-X-****
     That our Reformed faith holds           Damascus. One's methods of mis-
for truth the impossibility of natural       sion and evangelism will be N to open
man to do any saving good is re-             their eyes, and to turn them from dark-            Those who are convinced
flected in our methods. We believe           ness to light and from the power of                  that God has ordained
that the carnal mind is enmity against       Satan unto God, that they may re-
God (Romans 8:7) and cannot know             ceive forgiveness of sins, and inherit-                      the means
spiritual things (I Corinthians 2:14),       ance among them which are sancti-                      of  the proclamation
and we believe that the natural man          fied by faith..." (Acts  26:18). Because                    of His Word
cannot come to the Father unless he is       the truth applied to the understand-                    will not see music
drawn by Him (John 6:44). We be-             ing by the Spirit is God's means of               as a means of evangelism.,
lieve that regeneration is absolutely        bringingoneintosavingrelationship,
necessary both for one's perception          then all our methods will emphasize
of and for one's entrance into the           what is the content of the message.                  Another principle of Reformed
kingdom of God.                              Then our emphasis will not be on                theology is that the authoritative
     When these truths are kept              whether a method is successful. In-             preaching of the Word of God is Ithe
clearly in mind, the methods of evan-        stead of beingconcernedabout sway-              primary means ordained of God for
gelism will manifest a consciousness         ing emotions or moving wills, we will           the calling of His elect. God has
that God alone causes the gospel to be       be striving to enlighten their under-           ordainedby the foolishness of preach-
externally preached to the elect, natu-      standing.                                       ing to save them that believe (I
ral man, that He alone can soften his              Another aspect of our method-             Corinthians 1:21). Also, God has or-
hard heart, powerfully enlighten his         ology which results from the Re-                dained that by the means of the
darkenedmind,andinfusegoodquali-             formed position that the ultimate suc-          preaching of sent ones will men call
ties into his evil will. The chief method    cess of evangelism and missions rests           upon the name of the Lord and be
resulting from this necessity of God's       upon the will of a sovereign God is             saved (Romans 10: 13-15). If such is
omnipotence is that the missionary,          patience. "The servant of the Lord              our theology, then our methodology
all the members (and especially the          must not strive; but be . . . patient, . . .    will reflect this. Preaching, whether
officebearers) of the church which           instructing . . . . if God peradventure         publicly on the Lord's day or from
sends the missionary, and everyevan-         will give them repentance to the ac-            house to house (Acts 20:20), will be
gelism committee will pray. They             knowledging of the truth" (II Timo-             primary and central. Paul reason.ed
will spend much more time in prayer,         thy  2:24,25).  We can afford to be             out of the Scriptures, opening them
pleadingwith God for the miraculous          patient because our Reformed theol-             and alleging from them (Acts 17:2,3).
works necessary for any human to             ogy tells us that the success is ulti-

                                                                                               November 15,1991/ Standard Bearer i 81


Those who are convinced that God              will be a busy and active people, a         baptism into fellowship with the Fa-
has ordained the means of the procla-         responsible people. We willstrive to        ther, Son, and Holy Spirit was and is
mation of His Word will not see mu-           use every God-given oppoitunity  to         the`mark  of the visible community of
sic as a means of evangelism. There           present the message. of sovereign           the church. We will therefore not
may be a place for music, but music           grace to our neighbors and friends.         bypass the visible church in favor of
may not be considered as a means of           We must use every occasion to bring         para-church organizations or iden-
evangelizing. Also, we will find no           those in need of the Holy Spirit's          tity groups within a local church to
place for testimony-giving experi-            work to hear with us the preaching of       the detriment of the whole. Also, we
ence-sharing, dramatic presentations,         God's Word.                                 can no more think evangelism with-
and dancesin evangelism. Our theol-                                                       out the church than we can think
ogy of evangelism holds that God has                      *******                         evangelism without the Gospel.
ordained the means to be the authori-              There is another doctrine of the
tative andverbalproclamationof His            Reformed faith which has a direct                        +++****
message.                                      effect on the methods of missioiis and           Theology determines not only
        The Reformed faith emphasizes         evangelism. Reformed theology con-          that we do the work of missions and
God's sovereignty, but it also main-          fesses the centrality of the church in      evangelism, but also the methods with
tainsman'sresponsibility. Evenwhile           the purpose of God. This centrality is      which we do it. All fit and lawful
our theology confesses that God ac-           manifest in that the church is the          means are to be used to bring the glad
complishes His works by His ap-               pillar and ground of the truth (I           tidings that Jesus Christ has come
pointed means, it also confesses that         Timothy 3:14,15) and is the means by        into the world to save sinners. What
He uses the instrumentality of His            which the manifold wisdom of Godis          is fit and lawful is determined by the
church to preach, to send out preach-         known (Ephesians 3:lO). Also it `is         doctrines of the sovereignty and maj-
ers, to support the ministry  of the          into true churches that those saved         esty of God, the irresistibility and
Word in the local churches and in the         are added (Acts 2247). And Jesus            necessity of the Holy Spirit, the power
mission field, to witness in the whole        spoke of churchmembership whenin            of grace, and the dignity and author-
of our conduct, but especially to use         the "Great Commission" He com-              ity of the Word of God and of the
the opportunities to speak a word in          manded the disciples to baptize, for        preaching thereof.. 0
season. Then in our methodology we



                                                     Ariabaptism and
                                               th.e Means. of Grace
Contribution
Rev. Wilbur Bruinqma


        Invain one searches for the treat-    whether they simply denied the exist-       though good and necessary, is but a
ment of or even. a reference to the           ence of any means of grace. Both are        "humantreasure" (HansDenck), and
terminology "means of grace" in the           probably true. But we are interested        therefore a person ought not to "at-
writings of Anabaptist leaders. It is         in pursuing the latter, namely, that        tribute to it more than it deserves or
difficult to ascertain whether the ab-        the Anabaptists denied the existence        belongs to it" (Ulrich Stadler). On the
sence of such reference is due to their,      and the necessity of means of grace.        other hand, the living n Word of God"
loathing of systematized theology, or              This denial finds its source in the    was the true inner light of the soul.
                                              two fundamental errors of the               This the Holy Spirit worked directly
                                              Anabaptists which we examined in            in the heart only by means of much
                                              our  iast article. The first of these       struggle and tribulation in the abyss
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Protes-      errors lay in the separation made be-       of the soul. This inner light was truly
tant Reformed Church in Holland, Michi-       tween the Bible and the living, inner       the infallible guide in a person's life.
gan.                                          "Word of God." The Scripture, al-           That was the first error.

82 /Standard Bearer  /November  15,199l


     The second error of the                the Reformed believer is what we                  Think once of the horrible error in-
Anabaptists which we considered in          learn in the "Form for the Adminis-               volved in this claim! The preaching is
our last article is linked to the first.    tration of the Lord's  S.upper," that,            a means by which a person, apart
When the Holy Spirit takes up His           although sanctified in the blood of               from the objective testimony of the
abode in a person's heart, then at that     Christ; yet, "we feel many infirmities            Scriptures, can give voice to the true
very moment not only is the guilt of        `and miseries in ourselves, as namely,            Word of God which the Spirit speaks
sin removed, but the corruption of          that we have not perfect faith, and               subjectively in the heart and soul!
the fleshis also washedentirely away.       that we do not give ourselves to serve            This heresy became the springboard
Such an individual, though perhaps          God as we are bound, but have daily               from which the more fanatical
still capable of errors in judgment,        to strive with the weakness of our                branches of Anabaptism vaulted into
has nevertheless reached a state of         faith, andtheevillusts  of our flesh . . . . N    spiritualism andmysticism. Of these
perfection in his life. There is there-     `We know that we are far from perfect             Calvin wrote, "In their pride there-
fore no more room for continued             (Ram. 7 and I John M&10).* We need                fore they despise the ministry of men
growth in sanctification. The mo-           therefore to be fed and nourished in              and even Scripture itself in order to
ment one is saved `he has attained.         our faith through objective means -               attain the Spirit. They then try to
     These errors of the Anabaptists        means through which the Spirit wurks              peddle all the delusions that Satan
inevitably led them to deny the means       within our hungry and thirsty souls.              suggests to them as secret revelations
of grace.                                         The Anabaptist denies both these            of the Spirit" (Commentary on I
     The Reformedbeliever, upon the         fundamental, biblical assumptions.                Thessalonians 5:20). Even the more
testimony of Scripture itself, has al-          - This he denies, first of all, as far        moderate Anabaptists believed that
ways maintained that God has or-            as the preaching is concerned. Hans               this "extra-ordinary" work of the
dained certain objective means              Denck in his writing, "Recantation,"              Spin3 fully compensated for lack of
through which the Spirit works and          asserts: "Thus, a person who has                  education. This resulted in, at times,
confirms faith in the hearts of God's       been chosen by God, may be saved                  the wildest of biblical interpretation.
people. These means in the church           withoutpreachingandSaiptures,but                        This same line of thought, that
are the preaching of the Gospel and         that if salvation were tied to preach-            the Spirit does not work through lob-
the administration of the sacraments.       ing and Scripture all those who are               jective means, was also maintained
Likewise, the Reformed believer is          unlearned would not be able to attain             with regards to the sacraments. `We
adamant in his insistence that these        salvation . ..." He goes on to say that           do not wish, of course, to deal with
means are absolutely necessary for          the preaching improves that heart in              the Anabaptist errors which concern
spiritual life. Just as food and drink      which there is a spark of godly zeal no           the meaning of the sacraments and to
are necessary means tokeep ourbod-          differently than does anything else in            whom they must be administered.
ies alive and well, so also are the         this world. There is no work of the               We simply wish to consider whether
preaching and sacraments means by           Holy Spirit in the hearts of the hearers          or not the Anabaptists viewed -the
which our souls are nourished and           through the preaching. But, then,                 sacraments as a means through which
strengthened unto life eternal. For         neither did the Anabaptist feel there             the Spirit was present and working in.
that reason we cannot do without            had to be. The Spirit was already                 the church. Itbecomes strikingly clear
them lest spiritually we wither away.       working within them through the liv-              when one reads the writings of the
     Butwemustbearinmindthatin              ing "Word of God," and there was no               Anabaptists that they  simply were
this Reformed position concerning           need for an external work of the Spirit.          not interested in this subject. They
the means of grace is assumed two           There was no need to be replenished               saw no need to discuss the presence
`important truths.                          in the faith by the external words of a           of the Spirit at the time the sacraments
     In the first place, we believe that    man. The Spirit was doing that auto-              were administered because of their
the Holy Spirit never works apart           matically from within. The preach-                basic premise: theSpirit didnotwork
from objective means. Although we           ing, therefore, to the Anabaptist was             through objective means. John Cal-
certainly would not deny that the           not a savor of life unto life in them that        vin in his Instihctes, uses Christian
Spirit is capable of regenerating a         are saved;neither  was it a savor of              Kohler to point out this error, "We
person immediately (without means),         death unto death in them that perish.             either know . . . or do not know that
nevertheless He always uses objec-          It was not a means of grace!                      God's word preceding the sacrament
tive means to work conscious faith                But though not perhaps a means              is His true will. If we know it, we
(knowledge and assurance of salva-          ofgrace, it was yet, in the mind of the           learn nothing new from the sacra-
tion) within us, a5 well as to con.rm       Anabaptist, a means! It was a means               ment, which follows. If we do not
and  strengthen our faith. (See the         of making known (prophesying) to                  know it, the sacrament . . . also will not
Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day            others the true, inner Word of God.               teach it." In the thinking of the
25, Q.  & A. 65, and its Scriptural         As Ulrich Stadler writes in "The Liv-             Anabaptist, the sacraments do  noith-
references.)                                ing and Written Word," it is "the                 ing for the child of God. The Spirit
     Also assumed in the position of        witness or sign of the true Word."                does not work through them con-

                                                                                                November 15,199i / Standard Bearer 183


firming God's people who witness           church. In this way it paved the way         They deny the true work of the Spirit
them in the knowledge and assurance        for the pietistic movement in Europe,        in the church! They allow their own
of faith.                                  the Revivals of the late 1700s in            subjective opinions and feelings to
        The sacrament of Baptism was       America, and later the Holiness and          become the voice of the Spirit rather
nothing more to them than an act of        Pentecostal movements. The subjec-           than listening to what the Spirit truly
confession which enrolled one into         tivism and mysticism of Anabaptism           says to the churches. Contrary to the
the body of the church. It served no       lie at the very center of all the charis-    error of the Anabaptists and all who
spiritual purpose for those who wit-       matic movements. Their charge                follow in their error, the Spirit is alive
nessed it. The Lord's Supper was           against the churches of the Reforma-         and working every Sunday in that
viewed in the same way. Although           tion are the same: the church which          church which purely preaches the
this sacrament included actual par-        develops systematic theology and             Gospel and administers the sacra-
ticipation by the members of the           which maintains the preaching and            ments. And He is working  through
church, it, likewise, did not serve to     sacraments as necessary for salvation        these means! He is present in ~God's
confirm faith. To the Anabaptist the       are cold and dead! Their assertion is        house and He uses the means of grace
Lord's Supper served on the one hand       the same: only they emphasize the            as a savor of life unto life to them that
as a memorial feast which only re-         true work of the Spirit, they truly let      are saved. And that selfsame  Spirit
minded one of Christ's death. On the       Him speak through them, and there-           uses these same means as a savor of
other hand,, it was a love-gathering       fore they are characterized by the true      death unto death to them that perish
which promoted harmony and fel-            life of the Spirit! All those who em-        (II Cor. 292-17).  We believe that the
lowship among brethren. Neither of         phasize the workof the Spirit through        Spirit is alive and working powerfuZZy
these functions, however, required         objective means coupled with His             in the hearts of God's people through
the presence of the Spirit.                internal work in the heart deny the          the objective means of grace God has
        By maintaining only the subjec-    true work of the Spirit!                     ordained in the church! It is sad to
tive work of the Spirit in the heart,           But what the Anabaptists claim,         say, but the Anabaptist in this way
and by divorcing it from all objective     togetherwiththeirmodern-daycoun-             denied the very Spirit they claimed to
means, the Anabaptists, in effect, un-     terparts, is actually what they deny!        worship!  c3
dermined the very ministry of the


                                                                            Malachi
                                                                               Lessp I
                                                            Overwew of
                                                                       Malachi

        ThebookofMalachiis  thelast  of         The importance of this book of          been back in Canaan for about 100
the Old Testament prophecies writ-         the Bible cannot be overstated. The          years when God sent Malachi to them.
ten before the birth of Jesus Christ.      times in which Malachi prophesied            The exact date of Malachi's prophecy
Approximately 400 years of silence         correspond exactly to our own; the           cannotbe determined. Best estimates
would follow the words of this proph-      sins current among God's.people and          place it between Nehemiah's two vis-
ecy, until the time when Gabrielwould      the temptations to which they were           its to Jerusalem.
be sent to godly Zacharias and             exposed correspond to our day as                  Of the man Malachi we know
Elisabeth to announce the birth of the     well. Therefore the "burden of the           very little, and nothing is revealed
forerunner or our Lord (Mal. 39; 45,       word of theLord to Israelby Malachi"         about him in the book itself, other
6; Luke 19-20).                            comes to us with the same urgency as         than that his name fittingly means
                                           it did to them. Let us pay good heed         "my messenger.N He appears on the
                                           to the sobering words of this book.          scene much the way Elijah did (Kings
                                                Malachibelongs to thel'ost-cap-         17:1), and with a very similar mes-
Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant      tivity period, the time after the rem-       sage and ministry.
Reformed Church of Lynden, Washing-        nant of Judah had returned from the               We know more about the times
ton.                                       Babylonian Exile. The people had             in which he prophesied and the evils

84 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


 present. The people had completed             478 B.C.-Esther becomes Queen of                              c. Who are the Samaritans?
 the temple,butitsworshipandpriest-              Persia.                                           References to them in the Bible?
 hood had become corrupt (ch. 1:6-             457 B.C.-Ezra's journey to Jerusa-                       7.Whyshouldwestudythebolok
 2:8). A new generation had risen                lem (Ezra 77-9).                                  of Malachi? What shouldbe  our goals?
 which was characterized by cold for-          444 B.C.-Nehemiah sent to Jerusa-                        8.  Can you write from memory
 malism and spiritual indifference.              lem. The walls rebuilt (Neh. 1,2).                Malachi l:l, 2 and Revelation 2:4,5?
 They no longer held much hope for                  *The time of Malachi.
 the coming of the Messiah (ch. 3:lff.).       432 B.C.-Nehemiah returns the sec-                  Recommended Resources:
 There was an unwillingness to part               ond time to Judah (Neh. 13:7).                        Matthew Henry, Commenta y
 with money and possessions for the                                                                on Malachi.
 kingdom of God (ch. 3%). Marriages            Memory Work                                              T.V. Moore,  Haggai  arzd
 were based on lust and not the love of                         Malachi l:l, 2                     Malachi,  published by Banner of
 God. Ungodly -divorce was openly                     The burden of the word of the Lord           Truth.
 practiced (ch. 210-17).  All of it was        to Israel by Malachi.                                    John Calvin, Commentary (on
really nothing less than spiritual in-                Ihaveloved  you, saith the Lord. Yet         Malachi.
 sensitivity to the love of God (ch.           yesay, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was,                  Davies, Bible Dictiona  y.
 1:2ff.).                                      not EsauJacob's brother? saith the Lord:                 The International Bible Ency-
        How applicable to us today!            yet I loved Jacob.                                  clopedia.  0
 How much of the church of Jesus                               Revelation  2:4,5
 Christ, regardless now of the denomi-                Nevertheless I have somewhat
 nation,istemptedwiththesamesickly             against thee, because thou hast left thy
 indifference and spiritual laxity; with       first  love.
 the attitude that it does not make any               Remember therefore from whence
  differenceif we serve God or not! The        thou artfallen, and repent, and do thefirst             Audio-cassette  tapes
 burden of Malachi is the burden to us,        wo~ks;o~ebeIwillcomeuntotheequickly,
 namely that we turn to the Lord God           and will remove thy candles tick out of his                          of the
 in love and true worship and eagerly          place, except thou repent.                                    lectures given at the
  await the promise of His Son!                                                                              Interdenominational
        In addition to the relevance of        Questions for Study:                                              Conference
 Malachi to our day, we willbeblessed                 l.Be sure to begin by reading                                   on
 in the study of this book for these           through the book in one sitting. Jot
 reasons as well:                              down your first impressions.                          "The Reformed Doctrine
        1. Malachi emphasizes the cov-                2.Read through the prophecy                            of Holy Scripture."
  enant of God and its implications for        again, this time take notes on any
  our lives.                                   references to...                                         $12.00 for set of four:
        2. Malachi calls us to look for the             a.The time in which Malachi
 coming of the "Sun of Righteousness."         wrote (setting, historicalbackground).
        To place Malachi's prophecy                     b.ThepeopZetowhomhewrote.                       0 "The Inspiration of
  clearly.in our minds, we should re-                   c. The basic message he brings to                      Holy Scripture"
 member the following main events of           them.                                                           0 "A Reformed
 the post-captivity period:                           3. Make a list of the evils present                       Hermeneutic"
 606-586 B.C.-Judah is taken captive           inGod'speopleandwhatGod'sWord                           0 "Holy Scripture and
    and Jerusalem destroyed (II Rings          says to them about these evils.
    25).                                              4.Make a list of the prophecies                               Ethics"
  606-536  B.C.-The 70 years captivity         of the birth or coming of Jesus Christ                         0 "Genesis 1-l 1:
    (Jer. 29:lO).                              given in this book.                                            Myth or History?"
 536 B.C.-Zerubbabel leads 50,000                     5. Prepare an outline of Malachi,
    Jews back to Judah (II Chron. 36:22;       giving the major divisions and what                               Order from:
    Ezra 1:l; Isa. 45:1-4).                    you feel is the unifying theme.                '
  535 B.C.-Rebuilding of the temple                   6.Using a Bible Dictionary or                   The Protestant Reformed
    begun, but soon halted (Ezra 4:23,         Bible Encyclopedia, do some research                                Seminary
    24).                                       on the historical setting of this book.                  4949 lvanrest Avenue
 520 B.C.-Darius orders the temple                      a.How  many returns from                        Grandville, Ml 49418
    to be completed. Haggai and                Babylon were there? Who led them?
    Zechariah encourage the people             What was the purpose of each return?
    (Haggai l:l-15; 2:1-9; Ezra 6:15).                  b.Whatwaslifelikeforthe Jews
  516 B.C.-Temple completed.                   at this time?

                                                                                                     November 15,199i / Standard Bearer / a5


    A Word Fitly Spoken
    Rev. Dale Kuiper
                                              Laughter
          Not many times do the-words laugh and laughter occur in the Scriptures. We read of the laughter of the
    wicked, the laughter of the righteous, and, most striking of all, the laughter of God: As we consider this subject
    we ought to be reminded that we live in a world where comedy is king and where the insanity of unbelief is
    punctuated by forced humor, jokes, blasphemies, frivolousness, and inanities. How much the world is with us
    so that these things enter into the conversations of believers. And how we need to hear the Word of God that
    foolish talking and jesting ought not to be named among us as becometh saints (Eph. 5:4).
          Wicked laughter is the bursting forth of hatred that natural man harbors in his heart for all that is holy, lofty,
    and exalted. Then the lip is curled in scorn, mockery, and derision; the entire face reveals the desperate
    wickedness of the heart. The unbeliever laughs at the trial of the innocent (Job 9:23), the upright man (Job 12:4),
    the rebuilt temple and those that built it (Neh. 2:19), the miracles of Jesus (Matt. 9:24), the divinity of Christ (Luke
    23:25),andthepromiseofHisreturn(IIPet.3:3,4).  InallthisheveryreallylaughsatthelivingGodwhoisrevealed
    in Christ and in the salvation and life of His saints.
          There are times when the laughter of the child of God partakes of this same unbelief, times when we think
    some things to be too hard for God. This was Sarah in her tent (Gen. 1810).  God heard and God rebuked. He
    will not have His promise in Christ scoffed at by anyone, under any circumstances. Faithful to His covenant,
    God changes Sarah's laughter in its character and tone so that the aged mother sings, "God hath made me to laugh,
    allthathearwilllaughwithme" (Gen.216).   AbrahamandSarahsawthepromiseof   GodinChristbeingfulfilled,
    and they called the son Laughter (Isaac); what a joyful feast that must have been the day Isaac was weaned! There
    is a time to laugh, and the righteous dolaugh,  because they know themselves to be blessed (happy). This laughter
    is the spontaneous and melodious breaking forth of the new heart of the child of God because he delights in God,
    because he has found God to be the rock of his heart, and because he has found God's promise true. We ministers
    ought to smile more as we preach the gospel.
          God is the God of laughter, although we do not often thinkof Him that way. The laughter of God is an aspect
    of His eternal good pleasure. When the heathen rage, when people imagine a vain thing, when the mlers of the
    earth unite in counsel against God and His anointed Son, "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord
    shall have them in derision" (Ps. 2:1-4; see also Ps. 3213;  59:8). God regards it an amusing thing that puny man
    should dare to oppose Him, try to frustrate His will as it centers in Jesus Christ, or do His people any spiritual
    harm. He dashes the wicked in pieces as a potter's vessel, and He knows that their day is coming. Divine laughter
    is not animperfectionin the Godhead; it is not cruel, but an aspect of His justice, goodness, and sovereignty. God
    also laughs over His people. He smiles on them.with  delight! What else can the lifting up of His countenance
    mean, but that all the lines of His face are turned upward in benevolence and pleasure?
          Laughter is not the outstanding feature of our present life. Now we mourn; and "sorrow is laughter, for
    by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better" (Eccles. 73). But God has a way of turning things
    about so that the crooked is made straight and the last are made first; Hear Luke 6: "Blessed are ye that weep
    now; for ye shall laugh . . . . Woe to ye that laugh now! for ye shall mourn and weep." God has the last laugh,
    and His people shall rejoice in Him, world without end! 0





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




86 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


The Day of                                   That Awesome and
Shadows                                      Important Calling
Rev. John Heys

     Our covenant God, sovereignly           Heth, in order to buy a place where he      burying of Sarah, and for the burial of
but also graciously, brought Abra-           could bury Sarah.                           his own body when it pleases God to
ham into a land where the descen-                   By God's providence and grace        take earthly life away from him.
dants of Ham dwelt, and where they           Abraham was able to buy a small                  Although for many, many years
owned every inch of the land of              section of land where he could bury         Sarahbrought forthno seed for Abra-
Canaan.                                      Sarah, and where he could also be           ham, and although this was a disap-
     Thus, when Abraham's wife,              buried 28 years later. Abraham must         pointment to him, a disappointment
Sarah - who had in her 90th year             wait for God to give him the land           that even caused him to commit the
brought forth for Abraham his son            which He promised him, But it was           sin of taking Sarah's maid to be his
Isaac -died when she was 127 years           not sinful on his part to buy this small    wife, Abraham's love for Sarah did
old, Abraham had not one square              section for a burial place. Abraham         not wane, and didbyno means disap-
inch of land wherein to bury her.            was patiently waiting for God to give       pear. He loved her even though God
Therefore Abraham had to contact             him and his seed that land. It is true      did not enable her to bring forth a son
the descendants of Ham, in order to          that the world must serve God's             for Abraham. And when God gave
be able to buy a place where he could        church. The unbelieving sons of Ham         her Isaac, after she was 90 years old,
bury Sarah.                                  had been given this land by our God         that love of Abraham wasvery strong
     In order to appreciate this act of      in His providence; and Abraham must         and evident. It is true that he asked
Abraham, we do well to keep in mind          not ignore this fact. He must wait for      the children of Heth for a burying
the fact that our God saved Noah and         God to fulfill all His promises. So         place "that I may bury my dead wife
his family, namely, a wife and three         must the church always wait for God's       out of my sight." But that was not due
sons with their wives, in an ark, while      fulfillment of His promises. We, most       to hatred in his soul against Sarah.
He sent a terrible flood that killed all     assuredly, are going to get the prom-       We read that he came to mourn for
the unbelievers. These three sons of         ised land which Christ will realize         Sarah and to weep for her.
Noah were Shem, Ham, and Japheth.            when He returns; and we should look              In fact, that Abraham wanted
     Keep also in mind that, before          for that blessed inheritance as an ab-      Sarah buried there in that promised
God called Abraham and brought               solutely free gift from our God. We         land was an act of faith, rooted in his
him to the land of Canaan, the unbe-         earn nothing by our obedience; and,         firm conviction that God would give
lieving world began to build the             surely, because of our disobedience,        this land to him and his seed. Turning
Tower of Babel, and Abraham was              even if it is only one sin committed in     to Genesis 50~24  we read that Joseph,
not yet born. When he was born,              a moment of time, we may not have           one of the seed of Abraham, wanted
there were different nations, tongues,       anythingbutpunishment. Adamand              to be buried in the land of Canaan,
and tribes. For God confounded               Eve sinned very briefly, and quite          even while the descendants of Abra-
speech and scattered these descen-           harmlessly as far as mankind was            ham through Isaac were in the land of
dants of Noah. And when God called           concerned. It was no breaking of the        Egypt. Joseph said to his brothers, "I
Abraham, of the descendants of Shem,         second table of the law. But one sin        die; and God will surely visit you, and
to go to the land which He would             calls for everlasting punishment, be-       bring you out of this land, unto the
show him, Abraham was sent to                cause it is an act of hatred against our    land which he sware to Abraham, to
where the descendants of Ham had             God who created all things, possesses       Isaac and to Jacob." He also assured
settled. And Abraham had to ap-              them, and has the absolute right to         them that they would be able to carry
proach these descendants of Ham,             determine what His creatures must           his bones back to Canaan because
which were called the children of            do.                                         God wouldvisit them and bringthem
                                                    In obedience to our God who          back to that promised land. He as-
                                             was pleased, not in His grace, but in       sured them of that which God had
                                             His sovereignty, to give this land to       told Abraham, namely, that they
Rev. H~ZIJS is a minister emeritus in the    the descendants of Ham, Abraham             would become a great nation in the
Protestant Reformed Churches.                must buy a small piece of land for the      land of Canaan (Gen. 12:1,2).

                                                                                           November 15,1991/ Standard Bearer / 87


     Now Abraham, having no place            whichwelive. Our Goddidnotmove               full escape from aches and pains. But
to bury Sarah unless he could buy a          Moses to write this act of Abraham           the awesome truth which we must
piece of land, wanted a place very           merely in order that we may know             take hold of and maintain, as well as
badly, because he loved her. She had         who it was that his son married. It          preach more often and more emphati-
to be buried, and Abraham had `no            was not merely to reveal Abraham's           cally, is that salvation is deliverance
choice in this matter, no matter how         desire, and surely not as a desire of his    from the love of sin and bestowal
much he loved her. Her dead body             flesh. We have instruction here. We          upon us of love for our God.
must be hidden not only from the             have an evidence in that day of shad-             Did our God not begin the gos-
eyes of all those Hamites,  but also         ows of what we must do today in the          pel by stating and promising in Gen-
from his own eyes-and surely from            day Christ is gathering His church,          esis 3:15, which is called the Mother
their nostrils. That body would soon         and preparing the way for His return         Promise, that He is savingus from the
decay and bring forth a very foul            to glorify His church.                       victory which Satan got us to want
smell. That is also why we bury the               We today are surrounded by              andseek? God saidit  to Satan; but He
dead, not because we do not love             idol worshipers, probably in some            promised us enmity against the devil
them, but because our God's work             regions not as numerous as in the            and his kingdom of sin. The seed of
calls for that.                              days of Abraham, but under more              the woman will be caused to hate
     It is true that funeral directors       subtle power of Satan in his attempt         Satan and to love God. He promised
today will temporarily hide this cor-        to destroy the church of Christ. In          deliverance from the curse, but first
ruption and smell, and make it so that       that day, in the land of Canaan, the         of all from spiritual death. He .would
relatives and friends can come once          seedof the woman mentionedin Gen-            put enmity in us against Satan, which
more and see the body of that loved          esis 325 were surrounded by gross            means that He would work in us love
one. But a dead body must be buried,         idolators in very great number. And          for Himself.
as became plain also when our Savior         though we may be living in areas                  How many churches preach that
died, and they buried Him in a tomb.         where there are churches full of be-         today? So much is called evangelism
     Death is a terrible thing. It is the    lievers, we are surrounded not only          and the gospel. But this is Satan's
wages of sin. We must not hide that          by very crafty and enticing unbeliev-        method of getting our flesh to enjoy
body to get the idea of sin out of our       ers, but also by churches wherein            carnal pleasures. The word gospel
minds. We must bury it in the convic-        Satan has the victoryin his attempt to       means good news, and the word evan-
tion that by Gods grace it will be           get church members to be members             gelism means good tidings. But what
raised and glorified when Christ re-         of his godless kingdom.                      is THE good news and gospel is that
turnswithHis glorifiedbody. Believ-               We today are overwhelmingly             we are made capable of walking, and
ers must bury the dead believer's            surrounded by enticements, which             willing to walk, in love toward God.
body in the confidence that there will       not only turn us away from the truth              Indeed, we need bodies deliv-
be a resurrection because of Christ's        of God's Word, but also deter us from        ered from aches and pains, and we
death and resurrection.                      walking in the love of God. Our              need to be placed in a glorious king-
     Before Abraham himself died 38          young people are attacked far more           dom. Butallthisisgivenussothatwe
years after Sarah's burial, he had yet       subtly than in years gone by. What           can walk fully in love to God. We
to attend to the matter of securing a        are called Christian churches very           ought to learn from this workof Abra-
wife for Isaac, who had developedby          definitely are in many instances             ham in the day of shadows. May God
then .into a young man. Abraham              antichristian churches. And this is          cause us by His grace to be concerned
knew very well that his son should           because these churches have been             first of all to serve Him in love, and to
have a believing wife and not a              moved by Satan to consider salva-            teach our children to seek wives or
Canaanitishidolworshiper. Although           tion as nothing more than deliver-           husbands who will help, not make
this does not mean that parents today        ance from the punishment we de-              more difficult, their walking in love
must pick out wives for their sons,          serve, and the obtaining of pleasures        toward God. Because of Satan's vic-
and husbands for their daughters, it         and joy for the flesh.                       tory in much of the church world
does point out that their call is to              There is an awesome and ex-             today, we have a very serious calling
instruct their children, both young          tremely important truth to be learned        to do what Abraham did: Do all we
men and young women, to seek and             from the day of shadows, the Old             can to get our seed to seek the seed of
receive only a child of God who will         Testament dispensation, a truth that         the woman, the believers, for their
help them spiritually, not only as hus-      isignoredandpushedasideby Satan's            wives or husbands.
band and wife, but by all means as           craftiness today. Salvation is pre-               We have that awesome and im-
those who will bring up children in          sented merely as deliverance from            portant calling of striving to keep our
the fear of our God.                         the punishment of sin which man              children in the truth, and to be those
     Abraham's securing a wife for           deserves. And the glory of the king-         who want a salvation that means that
Isaac, in the day of shadows, reveals        dom of heaven is presented merely as         they are made able to live in love for
what we must do in these days in             enjoyment of bodily pleasures, with          God fully and everlastingly. Q

88 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


         Taking Heed to The Sovereignty Of
    the Doctrine                                      G o d   ( 3 )
    Rev. Charles Terpstra

          Thine, 0 LORD, is the greatness,            truth of God's sovereignty is not          authority is independent of any other
          and the power, and theglo y, and the        taught in them. The Word of God is         p e r s o n .
          victo y, and the majesty: . . . thine is    filled with testimonies to and ex-              The Scriptures refer to this su-
          the kingdom, 0 Lord, and thou art           amples of Gods sovereignty. One of         preme position of God repeatedly.
          exalted as head above all . . . . Thou      His names is Adonai, "Lord," which         He is spoken of as the great Ring
          reignest over all; and in thine hand is     reveals that He is the absolute Master     above all gods, indeed as the only
          power and might; and in thine hand          and Sovereign of the universe. An-         Potentate, the Ring of kings and Lor'd
          itis tomakegreat,and togivestreng-th        other name is El Shaddai, "God Al-         of lords, whose throne is established
          unto all.                                   mighty," stressing that His is supreme     in the heavens and who rules over all
                          I Chronicles 29:11,12       power to accomplish all that He wills      (Ps. 95:3; I Tim. 6:15; Ps. 103:19;  Rev.
                                                      to do.                                     19:6). ToHimis  ascribed the supreme
             In this prayer of humble thanks-              Hence Psalm 135:5, 6 declares,        right to plan whatever He pleases to
    giving to Jehovah for the willing and             "For I know that the LORD is great,        do in His eternal counsel and to carry
    generous offerings which the chil-                and that our Lord is above all gods.       that out (Isa. 46:10, 11); to Him is
    dren of Israel gave for the building of           Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that          attributed the paramount power to
    the temple, David confesses and cel-              did he in heaven, and in earth, in the     command what He wills with regard
    ebrates the absolute sovereignty of               seas, andalldeep places." And so too       to men and angels, so that His Word
    God. This is the second truth con-                in Daniel 4:35: "And all the inhabit-      and law must be submitted to and
    cerning the nature of God which we                ants of the earth are reputed as noth-     obeyed by all creatures (Isa. 45:23),
    want to consider andcontemplate. In               ing: and he doeth according to his         and so that He can execute His judg-
    our last study we pondered the su-                will in the army of heaven, and among      ment on them according to whether
    preme majesty of God, that the true               the inhabitants of the earth: and none     they do good or evil (Ps. 97:1,2).
    and living God is the God of infinite             can stay his hand, or say unto him,             It is important to stress in this
    greatness, beingtranscendent, incom-              What doest thou?" The Godrevealed          connection that God's sovereignty is
    parable, and glorious in His Being                in the Bible is the sovereign God. And     absolute. By this is meant first of all
    and in His works. This truth concern-             therefore you and I are obliged to         that Godhas therightinHimself  to sit
    ing God includes and implies His                  know and confess and worship Him           on the throne of this world and rule.
    sovereignty as well. Because Jehovah              as such.                                   His authority is not derived, but He
    is the great God He is also the sover-                                                       possesses His position as King inde-
    eign God. You will note that David                A Position of Supreme Rule                 pendently, i.e., of no manbut of Him-
    brings these two qualities of God to-                  When we speak of the sover-           self, by virtue of the fact that He Is
    gether in his prayer recorded in I                eignty of God, we have reference first     God alone. Herman Hoeksema ex-
    Chronicles 29:11,12:  "...Thine is the            of all to the position He possesses and    plains it thus in his Reformed Dog-
    majesty; . ..thine is the kingdom, 0              occupies of Himself as the only God.       matics:
    LORD, and thou art exalted as head                That is the position of supreme Ruler            Only He that is Self-existent and
         above all."                                  with absolute authority. Earthly rul-        absolutely independent is at the same
              The terms"sovereign" and"sov-           ers are sometimes called "sovereigns"        time absolute Lord. For Absolute
         ereignty" do not appear in the Scrip-        because they have a domain over              sovereignty is not merely supreme,
    tures, but this does not mean that the            which they rule and exercise author-         or highest, lordship; it is that virtue
                                                      ity. These earthly kings are only rela-      according to which God is sovereign
                                                                                                   in Himself. His is the only sover-
                                                      tive sovereigns however; for their rule      eignty . . . . His is the sole prerogative
                                                      islimitedbytheparticularrealmover            to establish the law for all the uni-
                                                      which they rule, and their authority is      verse, to judge the creature, and to
    Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant         derived  - from Jehovah. But God             execute His will. There is no crite-
    Reformed Church of South Holland, Illi-           alone is the absolute Sovereign, for         rion above or next to God, whereby
nois.                                                 His dominion is unlimited and His            He can be measured or judged, to

                                                                                                   November 15,199l / Standard Bearer / 89


  which He must conform Himself.           of His sovereignty, but by that very          is none that can deliver out of my
  There is no law to which He is sub-      fact they also rob God of His Deity! It       hand: I will work, and who shall let
 ject, no tribunal to which He is re-      is vital that we who profess faith in         it?" (Cf. also Isa 45:10,11;  Dan. 4:35;
  sponsible. He alone is the sole stan-    God keep Him where He indeed is               Job 23:13.)
  dard for all law and righteousness.                                                         This power of God's sovereignty
  He is the sole High One (p. 69).         and where Scripture places Him -
                                                                                         to accomplish all that He wills is a
     Secondly, by absolute sover-          on the throne of absolute sovereignty.
eignty is meant that God possesses         God is the Lord and the Lord is God!          power manifested not abstractly but
                                                                                         concretely in the works of His hands.
the right to rule and He does rule over                                                  It is manifested in 
everything and everyone. His rule is       A Power of Unsurpassed Working                                        creation, such that
not limited to a certain realm and              When the Scriptures speak of             what God purposed to create in the
                                                                                         beginning He sovereignly finished in
excluded from others. Rather is His        the sovereignty of God, they have
dominion universal. God sits as King       reference not only to God's supreme           six days of powerful working: "By
of all the earth and heaven and of         position but also to His great power.         the word of the LORD were the heav-
                                                                                         ens made; and all the host of them by
every creature in them, so that His        His sovereignty is not merely a mat-
kingdom truly rules overall (Ps. 47~2;     ter of having the right to rule over all      the breath of his mouth. For he spake,
10399).  He is sovereign over the          things but also the ability to rule; it is    and it was done; he commanded, and
                                                                                         it stood fast" (Ps. 33:6,9). This sover-
brute creation and the animal king-        not only His prerogative to deter-
dom; He has authority over nations         mine all things with regard to all            eign power of Godis displayedin His
and every man, wicked or righteous;        creatures but also His  capacity  to carry    acts of pm&&me, such that ,a11 that
He has rights over the angelic realm,      out whatever He has willed. Psalm             Godhas determined for His creatures
ruling over Satan and his hosts of         115:3  puts it this way: "But our God         - animate or inanimate, angelic, de-
demons as well as over the elect an-       is in the heavens: he hath done what-         monic, or human - He fully per-
gels; He is sovereign in all His pur-      soever he hath pleased."                      forms: "Whatsoever the LORD
poses and workings.                             For this reason God's omnipo-            pleased, that did he in heaven, and in
                                           tence is and must be included in His          earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
                                           sovereignty. David acknowledged               He causeth the vapours to ascend
       When some ascribe                   this in I Chronicles 29:12: 0 . . . And in    from the ends of the earth; he maketh
                                           thine hand is power and might."               lightnings for the rain; hebringeth the
       God's wonder-work                   Psalm 93:l connects these two ideas           wind out of his treasuries" (Ps. 135:6,
            of salvation                   as well: "The LORD reigneth . . . . the       7). "The king's heart is in the hand of
        to man's free will                 LORD is clothed with strength, where-         the LORD, as the rivers of water: he
 or to his meritoriot<s  works,            with he hath girded himself." God is          turneth it whithersoever he will"
           they not only                   able to exercise His supreme author-          (Prov. 21:l). "And he changeth the
                                           ity and carry out the counsels of His         times and the seasons: he removeth
   thraw  God off the throne               will because He is almighty in power.         kings, and setteth up kings...: (Dan.
       of His sovereignty,                 He works effectively in His universal         2:21). "A man's heart deviseth his
      but by that very fact                kingdom because He is of boundless            way: but the LORD directeth his
        they also rob God                  might. His handis not shortened that          steps" (Prov. 16:9).
           of His Deity!                   it cannot do all which He has deter-               This sovereign power of God
                                           mined to do.                                  displayed in His providential work-
                                                It is for this reason too that the       ings extends to and includes also the
                                           Word of God stresses that God's sov-          Fall and sin, the evil deeds of men,
     This truth of God's sovereign         ereign workings are never hindered            and all the "evils" which befall man-
position as supreme Ruler is no minor      or frustrated or overthrown. No thing         kind. This is often denied in our day,
one;ithastodowiththeveryGodhead            or no one ever stands in the way of the       but the Scriptures are abundantly
of God. This is what so many pro-          accomplishing of His sovereign will           plain on this point: "The LORD hath
fessed Christians fail to consider in      and rule. This is the truth which king        made all things for himself: yea, even
our day. When some ascribe God's           Jehoshaphat confessed according to            the wicked for the day of evil" (Prov.
wonder-work of creation in the be-         II Chronicles 206~ "0 LORD God of             16:4). Concerning the ungodly Pha-
ginning to evolutionary processes and      our fathers, art not thou God in              raoh, his hardening, and the judg-
mere natural causes, they not only         heaven? and rulest not thou over all          ments brought on Egypt, God said:
deny God to be sovereign; but by           the kingdoms of the heathen? and in           "Andinverydeedforthiscausehave
thatvery fact they also deny His           thine hand is there not power and             Iraisedtheeup,fortoshewintheemy
Godhead! When some ascribe God's           might, so that none is able to with-          power . .." (Ex.  9:16). Concerning
wonder-work of salvation to man's          stand thee?" This is what God Him-            things light and dark the Lord says
free will or to his meritorious works,     self declares through Isaiah: "Yea,           through Isaiah: "I form the light, and
they not only throw God off the throne     before the day was I am he; and there         create darkness: I make peace, and

90 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


create evil: I the LORD do all these       the sins of all men but for the sins of       A Truth of Great Practical Signifi-
things" (45:7). Concerning the issues      His elect people only, which in fact it       cance
of life and death, health and sickness,    did.                                                  The doctrine that God is abso-
riches and poverty the Bible speaks                But especially do we have in          lutely sovereign in Himself and in all
thusofthesovereignGod:  "TheLORD           mind the workings of God's grace in           His works is a doctrine of great prac-
killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth     the hearts of the elect, that efficacious     tical significance to Reformed believ-
down to the grave, and bringeth up.        work of God in actually taking them           ers. As Pink has written:
The LORD maketh poor, andmaketh            out of the miry pit of sin and setting                A due apprehension of Go$`s
rich..." (I Sam.  2:6, 7). Absolutely      their feet upon the rock Jesus Chuist.          Sovereignty promotes the spirit of
everything and everyone, therefore,        It is also at this point that so many           worship, provides an incentive to
are under the sovereign control and        cave in to the pride and pressure of            practicalgodliness, andinspires  zeal
direction of the omnipotent God.           making man the Lord of                          in service. It is deeply humbling to
                                                                           salvation.      the human heart, but in proportion
                                           Arthur W. Pink describes these as               to the degree that it brings man into
                                           follows:                                        the dust before his Maker, to that
 It is the divine Potter's right             They openly declare that whatever             extent is God glorified (The Sover-
        to have some men                     power He (i.e., God - CJT) pos-               eignty of God, p. 22).
                                             sesses must be restricted, lest He in-
      be "`vessels of mercy                                                              Does this truth have this effect upon
                                             vade the citadel of man's "free wW'         you? Does your life and mine reflect
  afore prepared unto glory"                 and reduce him to a "machine." . . .        our firm belief in this glorious doc-
           and others be                     They  enervate the invincible work of
                                             the Holy Spirit to an "offer" of the        trine?
        "`vessels of wrath                   Gospel which sinners may accept or                  Further, the truth of God's sov-
     fitted to destruction"                  reject as they please (The Athr'butes       ereignty is a constant source of com-
          (Rom. 9:21-23).                    of God, p. 28).                             fort to the people of God. When their
                                                   The Word of God, however, sets        way is made dark and difficult, they
                                           forth the God who is absolutely sov-          are able to fall back upon the hands of
                                           ereign in the work of saving elect            their sovereign God and trust Him
     Finally, this power of God's sov-     sinners. By His almighty power He             with the events of their lives, believ-
ereignty is revealed in His mighty         saves -without the will and work of           ing that He is working all things for
workingsinthesaZvationofHispeople.         man. God causes His elect to be born          good. Charles Spurgeon  put it well
God's sovereignty is already mani-         again (Jn. 1:12,13);  He works faith in       when he said, "Under the most ad-
fested in the fact that God has deter-     their hearts (Eph. 2:8); He draws them        verse circumstances, in the most se-
mined in His all-just and all-good         irresistibly to His Son through the call      vere trials, they believe that Sover-
counsel of predestination that not all     of the gospel (Jn. 6~44);  He sanctifies      eignty has ordained their afflictions,
men but some only should be saved          them, working in them both the will-          that Sovereignty overrules 
out of sin and death by His grace. It                                                                                   them, and
                                           ing and the doing of His good plea-
is the divine Potter's right to have                                                     that Sovereignty will sanctify them
                                           sure (Phil. 2:13); and He preserves           all" (quoted in Pink's Attributes, 
some men be "vessels of mercy afore                                                                                                 p.
                                           them in grace and glorifies them in           32).
prepared unto glory" and others be         the day of Christ (Phil. 1:6). Indeed,                May the Lord increase our
"vessels of wrath fitted to destruc-       salvation is of the Lord! God done is         knowledge and understanding of His
tion" (Rom. 9:21-23).  Anditlieswithin     the Savior! This is what must be              sovereignty and cause it to be a great
the sovereign rights of God that the       maintainedbyallwhobelieveinHim.               blessing to our hearts and lives. 0
death of His Son should not atone for

Book Reviews

D. Martyn Lloyd -Jones: The Fight          First Forty Years 1899-1939,  the first       preacher. Both are enhanced by a
of Faith 1939-1981, by Iain H. Murray.     volume of the biography, was pub-             number of photographs. The reader
EdinburghTheBannerofTruthTrust,            lishedin 1982, about a year after Lloyd-      will find fascinating accounts of de-
199O.pp.xxiv-831.  $36.95,cloth.  [Re-     Jones' death. The doctor himself au-          tails in the life of the doctor. For
viewed by Prof. Robert D. Decker.]         thorized his long-time friend and             example, one finds the story of how
                                           former assistant pastor at the Chapel         the doctor first met his predecessor,
     This massive work is volume           (1956-1959),  Iain H. Murray, to write        Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, at the
two of a biography of the late great       the biography.                                Chapel. Fascinating too is the story of
preacher of Westminster Chapel in                  The two volumes present a de-         how Morgan picked Lloyd-Jones as
London. D. Martyn LZoyd-Jones:  The        tailed account of the life of this great      his successor. The two preachers

                                                                                           November 15,1991/ Standard Bearer / !a1


were quite different doctrinally.                The heart of the Commentary is        family worship loses its importance
Morgan was Arminian in his theol-           foundin the section entitled, "Notes"      where children are not present.
ogy, while Lloyd-Jones was a Calvin-        . (pp. 339-497). In this section Mayor     Alexander tells the story, which rings
`ist. If one wonders how the one could      offers detailed exposition of the Greek    perfectly true to life among us, of the
succeed the other in the same pulpit,       text, proceeding almost word by            old Scottish couple who continued
he learns that after the War an entirely    word. This section would be of little      their daily worship after the many
different congregation emerged at           use to one not thoroughly acquainted       olive plants that had grown up about
Westminster.                                with New Testament Greek. In this          their table had gone:
     These books, especially volume         section too Mayor quotes other com-          . . * til he and his old partner found
two, are more than a biography of the       mentators and scholars in the original       themselves, just as at their outset in
doctor; One gains insights into the         languages in which they wrote. Thus          life, alone. But their family-worship
e&menicalmovement  and its impact           one finds Calvin quoted in Latin,            continued as of old. At last his fel-
on the church in Great Britain. One         German scholars in the German lan-           low-traveller left him. Still he car-
also learns of the influences of Cru-       guage, etc. For one able to use these        ried on the worship by himself. So
                                                                                         sweet was the memory of it in his
sade Evangelism, which Lloyd-Jones          languages this is a fine commentary.         father's house, and so pleasant had
steadfastly opposed, and of the influ-           The last main part of the bookis        he found it in his own, that he could
ences of the charismatic movement.          called "Commentary." Here Mayor              not give it up. But as he sat in his
     While the cost of the two vol-         gives his own paraphrase of each sec-        silent habitation, morning and
umes is rather high, the books are          tion of the Epistle of James, and then       evening, his quivering voice was
worth having to anyone interested in        in paragraph form discusses the main         overheard singing the old psalm-
the evangelical church in England           concepts found in the passage. For           tune, reading aloud the chapter, and
during the first half of the twentieth      example, in the first section (Chapter       praying as if others still worshipped
century. Lloyd-Jones was a great            l:l-15) there is a lengthy and helpful       by his side (p. 112).
preacher whose influence carried far        discussion of the difference between            The faithful, lively practice of
beyond thelarge  Westminster Chapel,        "trials" and "temptations." This sec-      family worship is a necessity.
through his travels, itinerant preach-      tionof the Commentary couldbe  used        Alexander is right in regarding "the
ing, and publications. n                    with profit by lay people.                 neglect of Family-Worship as spring-
                                                 Recommended for ministers,            ing from h&e-warmness  and world-
The Epistle of James, by Joseph B.          professors of theology, and seminary       liness in religion, and as a portentous
Mayor. Grand Rapids: Kregel  Publi-         students, and those who are able to        evil of our day." n
cations,1990.pp.l-621.$18.95,paper;         read both Greek and Latin. I
$24.95,cloth.  [Reviewedby Prof. Rob-
ert D. Decker.]                             Thoughts on Family Worship, by J.          God's Wedding Band: Reflections
                                            W. Alexander. Ligonier, PA:  Soli          on the Creation-Evolution Contro-
     This is a reprint of the third edi-    Deo Gloria Publications, 1990. 260         versy,byNormanDe Jong. Winamac,
tion of Mayor's commentary on James         pages. $16.95, hardcover. [Reviewed        IN: Redeemer Books, 1990.             102
which was published in 1913. Joseph         by the Editor.]                            pages, $7.95, paper. [Reviewed by
Mayor (1828-1916),  a theologian of                                                    the Editor.]
the Church of England, taught at                 This is a classic on family wor-
King's College in London. Mayor             ship in the covenant by the 19th cen-           This is a disappointingtreatment
was a carefulBible  scholar. His worlc      tury Presbyterian pastor J. W.             of the controversy between creation
is detailed.                                Alexander. Published in 1981 by            and theistic evolution that is being
     The Introduction alone consists        Sprinkle Publications as part of the       fought in Reformed and evangelical
of 309 pages of fine print divided into     larger work, The Family, it is now         churches at the present time.. In the
twelve chapters. In the Introduction,       made available as a separate volume        conflict, the professor at TrinityChris-
Mayor deals with such subjects as the       by Soli Deo Gloria Publications. Not       tian College is on the side of the angels
author, the authenticity, the date, the     only does Alexandei give detailed          alright, not on the side of thie mon-
addressees of The Epistle of James.         instruction as to whatfamilyworship        keys. He identifies the real war as
New Testament Greek scholars will           should consist of and how it ought to      Satan's attackon God's Wordin Gen-
appreciate chapters 9 and 10 in which       be conducted, but he also urges cov-       esis 1 and 2, rather than a conflict
Mayor deals with the grammar and            enant parents to this vital duty with      between genuine science and the doc-
style of Juames. Chapter 12 contains a      powerful appeals to the glory of God,      trine of creation. He pleads for a
detailed discussion .of the "Critical       the well-being of the home, and the        literal interpretation of Genesis  l-11,
Apparatus." The Introduction clearly        salvation of the children. Every newly     with one notable exception.
indicates that Mayor was thoroughly         marriedcoupleshould  have thebook.              But the book fails to take hold of
familiar with the critical scholarship      Parents especially should read it          the issues in the present controversy
extant in his day.                          yearly. This is not to suggest that        in any serious, thorough way. It as-

92 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


                                                                   i


serts but does not demonstrate theis-       esis 1 and 2? If De Jong may decide to       20th century understandable to the
tic evolution's contradiction of basic      take the days non-literally, why may         Christian. Since the thought of each
biblical doctrine. It does not try to       not N. H. Ridderbos adopt the frame-         of the seven men is hostile to the
show how the apparent testimony of          work-hypothesis concerning the               thought of Christ in Holy Scripture,
science might be harmonized with            days? WhymayHowardVanTillnot                 the book arms the Christian for his,
the contrary testimony of the Bible. It     take Adam and Eve non-literally?             and the church's, great struggle at -the
does not take up the arguments of           And third, one cannot make the days          end of the ages. A first principle of all
Howard Van Till (to whom the book           of Genesis long periods without com-         war is, "Know the enemy."
repeatedly refers) one by'one, in or-       ing into conflict with such truths as             The author is right, that "the
der to expose and refute them. Even         the entrance of deathinto the creation       essential battle of the world is exactly
the reference to the crucially impor-       only after the disobedience of Adam;         . . . a battle for the minds of men. The
tant scientific assumption of unifor-       the reproduction of the species after        struggles that matter today and to-
mitarianism is hardly more than that        their "kind"; and even the reality of        morrow are not fought with subma-
- a reference. Although De Jong             Adam, made directly by the hand of           rines, bombers, missiles, and moving
correctly states that this assumption       God from the dust.                           armies" (p. 155). How a man's think-
is contradicted by the Flood of Gen-             This is not a very helpful contri-      inginfluences humanlife on the broad
esis 7 and 8, he does not show how          bution to the struggle being waged           scale and results in trouble for Christ's
this is so, nor how the Flood might         for the doctrine of (biblical) creation      church is evident in John Maynard
account for some of the apparent find-      in the Reformed community today.             Keynes. Keynes advocated govern-
ings of science that the earth is very                                                   ment intervention in a country's
old. Similarly, although there is quo-                                                   economy, and deficit spending. The
tation of Scripture, there is virtually                                                  result is that
no interpretation.                                                                         Keynes has succeeded in putting the
     One critically important weak-         Seven Men Who Rule the World                   nations of the world in the position
ness in De Jong's defense of creation       From the Grave, by Dave Breese.                where they must come together un-
against theistic evolution is his posi-     Chicago: Moody Press, 1990. 235                der a new form of international con-
tion, or lack thereof, regarding the        pages, $14.95, hardcover. (Reviewed            trol. The final, stark necessity to-
                                                                                           ward which all of the world is head-
days of Genesis 1. First, he informs us     by the Editor)                                 ingis an international economic com-
that he is determined not "to get in-                                                      munity, an international manage-
volved in a debate with anyone about             The seven men are Charles Dar-            ment committee-yes, a world gov-
the meaning of the word `day' in            win; Karl Marx; Julius Wellhausen;             ernment (p. 201).
Genesis" (p. 39). But then he goes on       Sigmund Freud; John Dewey; John                   A lively young adult, or adult,
to assert that the matter of the days of    Maynard Keynes; and Soren                    Bible-study class could very profit-
Genesis 1, whether regular, twenty-         Kierkegaard. These men rule the              ably use the book for its program.
four hour days or long periods, is          modern world by their ideas. The             Discussion at one meeting would be
"either problematic or inconsequen-         areas of humanlife controlledby their        devoted to the thought of each of the
tial" (p. 41). In the meantime, he          ideas are biology (Darwin); econom-          seven men in succession. This would
ridicules those yho "insist that the        ics, politics, and history (Marx); bibli-    be followed the next week by a cri-
days of creation, described for us in       cal studies (Wellhausen); psychology         tique of each thinker in light of the
Genesis 1 and 2, are the twenty-four        and psychiatry (Freud); education            teaching of Scripture.
hour periods as we know them (empha-        (Dewey); economics and government                 The title maybe misleading. The
sis his - DJE)" (pp. 39,40).                (Keynes); and theology and philoso-          seven do control the ungodly world.
     The days of Genesis 1 are by no        phy (Kierkegaard).                           This, of course, is the author's mean-
means "inconsequential" to the de-               There is also a chapter on Albert       ing. But, in fact, seven men do not
fense of the faith against theistic evo-    Einstein. The author contends that           rule the world from the grave. There
lution. First, history has shown that       Einstein's theory of relativity con-         is One who rules the world. He rules
the day-age theorytaughtinReformed          cerning the physicaluniverse has been        from His seat on the right hand of
churches forty years ago softened up        taken over by the popular mind as a          God where He has gone in His resur-
those churches for theistic evolution       theory of  relativism,  particularly in      rection from the grave. Through the
today. Second, how one explains the         the area of morals.                          preaching of the gospel by a faithful
days of Genesis 1, each one of which             Breese gives a brief, simplified        church, He is presently busy pulling
is expressly limited by an evening          explanation of the world-shaking and         down the strongholds of the theories
and a morning, has a great deal to do       world-dominating theories of these           of Darwin, Freud, Marx, and the oth-
with one's literal or figurative inter-     men in language that the layman with         ers and bringing into captivity every
pretation of Genesis 1 and 2 in their       a high school education can grasp.           thought to the obedience of Himself
entirety. If the days are figurative, or    The book serves a valuable purpose:          (cf. II Cor. 10:4,5).  Cl
symbolic, why not all the rest of Gen-      It helps to make the world of the late

                                                                                           November 15,1991/ Standard Bearer / !93


News From Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger
EVANGELISM HIGHLIGHTS                        October 25, in commemoration of
         In an effort to focus on a more     ReformationDay  1991. Rev. Terpstra             DENOMINATIONAL  IHIGH-
effective local witness, using the           was scheduled to give an address                LIGHTS
means of personal evangelism, the            entitled, "The Beauty and B.enefits of                 The annual meeting of the
Evangelism Committee of the South            Our Reformed Confessional Heri-                 R.F.P.A. was held in the Grandville,
Holland, IL PRC proposed a three-            tage."                                          M.I PRC on October 3. This year Rev.
part plan to their fellow congregation            Before another issue slips by, let         K. Koole was the speaker. He ad-
members. The first part of this plan         me add here that this past summer               dressed the group on "The Standard
was an Evangelism Emphasis Week              the Evangelism Committee of the                 Bearer: Committed to Exposing Old
which ran from September 22 to Oc-           Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, AB,                    Wolves in New Wool."
tober 1. The purpose of this weekwas         Canada arranged a lecture program                      This year's Mr. and Mrs. and
to callthe attentionof SouthHolland's        with their pastor, Rev. D. Kuiper,              AdultBibleSocieties'FallMassMeet-
members to their calling in personal         speaking on the subject, "The Biblical          ing was held at the First PRC in Grand
evangelism and to give them practi-          Doctrine of Creation."                          Rapids, MI on October 8. Prof. H.
cal instruction in how to carry this              Rev. C. Terpstra also was the              Hanko spoke on "Drama, Film, and
out. To start this Emphasis Week             guest speaker at the ReformationDay             TV. What the Bible Says."
there was a special message on Sun-          lecture sponsored by the Evangelism
day evening, September 22, entitled          CommitteeofBethelPRCinElkGrove                  SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
"SoundingOuttheWordoftheLord,"               Village, IL. He spoke on October 22                    We extend our congratulations
based on I Thessalonians 1:5-S. This         on the theme "Solo Christo - Christ             to the Northwest Iowa PR Christian
was followed by a special presenta-          Alone."                                         School in Doon, IA, which recently
tion at South Holland's first Adult                                                          commemorated 25 years of covenant
Bible Society meeting on September           CONGREGATIONAL HIGH-                            education. On October 2 all support-
24, in which Rev. Terpstra, their pas-       LIGHTS                                          ers, friends, students, former students,
tor, laid out in more specific fashion            The congregation in Lacombe,               and teachers were invited to attend a
the biblical calling in personal evan-       AB, Canada was not only busy with a             program held in the auditorium of
gelism.                                      lecture this summer. Their Consistory           the Doon PRC.
         The Emphasis Week was con-          was also busily investigating differ-
cluded by a special workshop on Oc-          ent proposals to purchase land for a            MINISTERIAL CALLS
tober 1. Pastor Ronald VanOverloop,          future church building site. One pro-                  Rev. R. Cammenga asked for
of Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village,          posal to purchase four acres was to be          and received an extension regarding
IL, gave anintroductorypresentation          voted on, but before the congregation           his call to serve as missionary to the
on the specifics of personal evange-         could meet to vote, it was determined           Covenant Reformed Fellowship of
lism.                                        that development cost for that prop-            Larne, Northern Ireland. By God's
         The second part of this plan        erty would push the price out of sight.         will, Rev. and Mrs. Cammenga will
called for a special Reformed Doc-           So the search for a suitable building           be in Northern Ireland, on behalf of
trine Class. The content of this class       site goes on.                                   our churches, for three weeks in No-
was to be a summary of the Reformed               T h e   S o u t h w e s t   P R C   i n    vember; and Rev. Cammenga asked
Doctrine presented in the Belgic Con-        Grandville, MI recently approved two            if he could give his decision regarding
fession. This class was intended to          proposalsfromtheir Consistory. First,           this call after he returned in early
give South Holland's members, as             they approved the purchase of a lot             December.
well as friends from the community,          that borders their church property on                  Rev. W. Bekkering declined the
an opportunity to put into practice          the north; and second, they approved            call to serve as missionary to Venice,
the principles of personal evangelism        a proposal to construct a brick sign in         FL.
which they learned during the Evan-          front of their church building.                        Rev. R. VanOverloop has de-
gelism Emphasis Week.                             The congregation in the                    clined the call he was considering to
         The third part of the plan was a    Kalamazoo, MI PRC approved a pro-               serve as pastor to the Southeast PRC
public lecture held in their church on       posalfrom their Consistory to build a           in Grand Rapids, MI. From a new
                                             cariopy over the walkway leading to             trio, consisting of Rev. C. Haak, Rev.
Mr. Wigger is a member ofthe Protestant      their church. And they voted no on a            D. Kuiper, and Candidate M. Dick,
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,  Michi-      proposal to air-condition their audi-           Southeast has extended a call to Rev.
gan.                                         torium.                                         Haak.  Q

94 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


Report of Classis East

  September 8 and October 161991            1) their insistence on teaching their       is plain from the teachings of Romans
  First Protestant Reformed Church          children their convictions re the cross     14, I Corinthians 8, and other pas-
                                            issue, 2) their insistence on not wor-      sages of Scripture dealing with
     Classis East met in regular ses-       shiping or receiving sacraments in          udiuphoru and Christianliberty. These
sion on September 8th and in contin-        churches with large crosses.                brothers have erred in regard to the
ued session on October 16th.                     Classis decided to reject the pro-     doctrine of Christianliberty andneed
     The main item of business for          test of Southwest on the following          to be instructed in this area of doc-
these sessions was the consideration        grounds (summarized): 1) The deci-          trine. 2) These brothers may not be
of protests from two consistories in        sion of the May classis did not ex-         placedinthe category of weakerbroth-
regard to decisions taken at the May        clude matters of adiaphoru  found in        ers since the Synod of 1990 expressly
meeting of classis. At the May meet-        connection with corporate worship.          forbadethis(Article57,ActsofSyno@
ing, classis had decided to uphold the      Since these brothers have withdrawn         Synod further expressed itself that
appeals of two brothers relative to the     all charges of sin and have promised        the possibility of offense (causing the
transfer of their. membership papers        not to militate against the decision of     brother to stumble) is essential  fior
to churches which did not display a         synod, Article 31 of the Church Order       placing someone in the category of
large cross. Classis had decided that       has not been violated and the papers        weaker brother, but offense was not
their consistory had erred in not de-       should be transferred. 2) The deci-         possible with these brothers. With
claring these brothers to be weaker         sion of the May classis properly ap-        regard to Article 31 andits interpreta-
brothers in accordance with Romans          pealed to Romans 14 since it is appar-      tionbySouthwest,thefollowingwere
14; and, further, that the consistory       ent that these brothers, although in        the grounds for protest: 1) The error
had violated Article 31 of the Church       weak faith they consider a matter of        of these brothers in that they have a
Order by requiring that these broth-        udiuphoru to be unlawful, fall into the     wrong understanding of the doctrine
ers remain silent about their position      same category as those in Rome who          of Christian liberty and they need to
in the churches. The consistory was         considered udiuphoru (the eating of         conform themselves to the teaching
advised to send the membership pa-          meats) unlawfulas well. 3) The deci-        of the church on this doctrine. 2) The
pers as these brothers requested. The       sion in May does not overthrow the          primary purpose of Article 31 is to
consistories of Southwest and               decision of Synod 1990 re the cross         promote unity and harmony in the
Grandville, however, protested this         issue. The Synod did not say that           churches;  classis' decision, however,
decision of the May classis.                these brothers may not be regarded          leads to division and polarization.
     Southwest contended that the           as weaker brothers but only that they            Classis rejected this protest of
decisions of classis 1) violated Article    might not appeal to Romans 14 and I         Grandville on the following grounds:
31 of the Church Order by improp-           Corinthians 8 as grounds for their          1) Romans 14 applies to these brotih-
erly excluding from the settled and         protest. 4) The decision of the May         ers. There were those in Rome who
binding character of the ecclesiastical     classis does not contradict the             also considered the eating of meats
decisions matters of adiuphoru  found       Norristown decision since classis de-       unlawful, but Paul instructed the
in connection with the corporate wor-       cided there that a consistory may not       Roman church to receive these broth-
ship of the church, 2) erred in appeal-     be regarded as a weaker brother. 5)         ers. 2) Our churches have never re-
ing to Romans 14 and I Corinthians 8        The decision of the May classis does        quiredconformitywithregardtonon-
in regard to the weakerbrother (South-      not condone individualism in corpo-         creedal  doctrinal issues. 3) The May
west has tried to receive the brothers,     rate worship. Members, for con-             decisionisnot a violation of the Synod
but they refuse; Classis  has given them    science' sake, may transfer to churches     of 1990's decision regarding the cross.
this label, not Southwest; the concept      without crosses in their sanctuaries.       Synod's decisiondoesnot permit these
of weaker brother does not fit the               Grandville consistory protested        brothers to appeal to these passages
facts) and 3) violated Article 36 of the    this same decision of the May classis.      as a basis for protest. Synod, further,
Church Order since classis' decisions       With regard to placing these brothers       did not express itself on the question
overthrew the synodical  decision of        in the category of weaker brother,          of weaker brothers, nor did it state
1990; 4) contradicted classis' decision     Grandville gave the following               that the possibility of offense was
re Norristown; 5) condonedindividu-         grounds for protest: 1) These broth-        essential to placing someone in the
alism in corporate worship. South-          ers donot fit the category of the weaker    category of weaker brother. 4) The
west further informed the classis that      brother. Rather thanconsideringthese        decision of the May classis re weaker
membership papers will be trans-            brothers to be weaker, they should be       brothers will not divide and polarize
ferred if the following are retracted:      considered to be erringbrothers. This       the church as long as the injunctions

                                                                                           November 15,199l I Standard Bearer /!a5


&DMD
   BcllRER                                                                                                                 SECOND CUSS
                                                                                                                           Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                           Grandville, Michigan
   P.O.Box603
   Grandvile, MI 49468-0603


of Romans 14 are followed, namely,               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                               WEDDING ANNIVERSAIRY
that the strong  not  despise the weak              The Council of Grandville Protes-                  With thankfulness to our heavenly
and that the weaknot  judge the strong.        tant Reformed Church expresses its  sin-       Father, we announce the 30th wedding
         In other business, Classis again      cerestsympathytoourmembers, Mr.and             anniversary of our parents and gr,andpar-
dealt with a request fromNorristown            Mrs. KurtVanOverlorjp,  in the loss of Mrs.    ents
to use their extract of The Psdter.            VanOverloop's  mother,                          GARRIIT and DIANE PIKKERT
This request was declared to be ille-                    MRS. K. KNOPER.                                         (nee Flikkema)
gally before the classis.                      `May our gracious God comfort them by          on November 10, 1991. We thank the
         The following classical appoint-      His Word. `And I heard a voice from            Lord for blessing us with parents and
                                               heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed
ment schedule was adopted for South-                                                          grandparents who have led us in truth to
                                               are the dead which die in the Lord from        lead godly lives. May God presepfe  them
east, Lame, and Venice: SOUTH-                 henceforth: Yea,saiththeSpirit, thatthey       in their marriage, and may He continue to
EAST (PM only): October 6 -Koole,              may rest from their labours; and their         bless us with their guidance.
October 13 - Gritters, October 20 -            works do follow them" (Rev. 14:13).                     "...as for me and my house, we will
VanBaren, November 3  - Joostens,                   Mr. Jon Huisken, Vice-President           serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15b).
November 10 - Slopsema, Novem-                                Mr. David Harbach, Clerk        Jack and Mary Jean Mulder
ber 17 - Br@nsma, November 24 -                                                                        Jonathan, Kevin, Christopher,
Kamps,December8-Slopsema,De-                                                                  Stuart, Geoffrey
cember 15 - Woudenberg, Decem-                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       Allister and Kim Piers
ber 22 - VanBaren, December 29 -                    The Men's Society of Hudsonville                   Benjamin
Gritters, January 12 - Slopsema,                                                              Tim and Nancy Anderson
                                               Protestant Reformed Church express                      James, Katelyn
January 19 - Bruinsma, January 26              their sympathy to its fellow member            Linda
- Koole. VENICE: October 6,13 -                Gordon VanOverloop in the death of                     lmmanusl Protestant Reformed Church, tacombe,  AB
Bruinsma, October 27, November 3               his mother,
- K. Hanko, November 17, 24 -                   MRS. ANN (VanOverloop) SCHUT,                         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Gritters,December  8,15-Flikkema,              on October 3,199l. "The Lord is nigh                    On November  7,1991,  our parents
January 5,12 - Kamps, January 26,              unto all them that call upon him, to all       and grandparents,
February 2 - Joostens. LARNE: De-              them that call upon him in truth. He                     MR. and MRS. RICHARID
cember 1,8,15-Koole, January5,12,              will fulfill the desire of them that fear                         POORTINGA,
19 - VanBaren.                                 him: he also will hear their cry, and will     celebrated their 40th wedding anniver-
         The expenses of classis for both      save them" (Psalm 145:18,  19).                sary. We are thankful to our heavenly
sessions amounted to  $4,271.55.                                 Henry Boer, President        Fatherforthe love, guidance, and instruc-
Classis will meet next on January 8,                                                          tion which they have provided for 
                                                           Gerrit Holstege, Secretary                                                        IJS. It is
                                                                                              our prayer that God will bless them with
1992 at Hope Church. 0                                                                        many more years of happiness together.
                Respectfully submitted,                                                                "Be perfect, be of good comfort, be
                             Jon 1. Huisken      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       of one mind, live in peace; and the God of
                              Stated Clerk           The Council of the First Protes-         love and peace shall be with you" (II
                                               tant Reformed Church of Grand Rap-             Corinthians 13:ll b).
   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                      ids expresses its sincere Christian            Bob and Jean Poortinga
         TheMen'sSocietyoftheHudsonville       sympathy to our fellow officebearer,                     Carl, Steve, Jared, Karyn, Chad,
Protestant Reformed Church expresses           Jack DeVries,  and family in the pass-           and Jeff
its sincere sympathyto its fellow member,      ing of their mother and grandmother,           Randy and Deb Poortinga
Mr. Donald Knoper, in the death of his                                                                  Michael, Jenny, Becky, Richard,
                                                      MARGARET DEVRIES.
wife,                                                                                           Lisa, and Amy
                                               May we be comforted in the certitude
               KATHERINE.                                                                     Pete and Julie Zandstra
                                               that "the.eternal  God is thy refuge and                 Brenda, Laura, Sandra, Dale, Pam,
`May he and his family be comforted with       underneath are the everlasting arms"             Joanna, and Brett
God's Word. "The Lord knoweth the days                                                        Ken Poortinga
of the upright; and their inheritance shall    (Deuteronomy 33:27).
                                                                                              Daryl and Sue Poottinga
be for ever" (Psalm 37:i 8).                            Rev. M. Joostens, President
                                                                                                        Erika
                  Henry Boer, President                            R. VanPutten, Clerk
                                                                                                                                             Lsnsing, IL
              Gerrit Holstege, Secretary

96 /Standard Bearer / November 15,199l


