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Meditation -- Rev. lames D. Slopsema                                                                                                    BMER
      Wonder in Bethlehem ............................................................................. 123
Editorially Speaking -- Pro j. David  J Engelsma                                                                               ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial -- Pro j, David 1. Engelsma ................................................................. 125
      He Came for Friendship ......................................................................... 125                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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                                                                                                                               Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
Peace Through our Lord Jesus Christ - Rev. Cornelius Han/co ..................136                                              Secretary: Pmf. Robert D. Decker
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                                            Wonder i'il
Meditation                                  Bethlehem
Rev. James Slopsema


        And when they had seen it, they          As believers we also wonder at         a small village, it did not take thlem
 madeknownabroadthesayingwhich              the glorious events reported by the         long to find the babe of whom the
 was told them concerning this child.       shepherds. But our wonder is of a far       angelspoke. TheyfoundHimlyingin
        And all they that heard it won-     different kind.                             amanger  (afeedingtrough),wrapped
  dered at those things which were told               *  *  *  *  *  *  *               inswaddJingclothes,caredforbyHis
  them by the shepherds.                            What astounding news came           father and mother, all. according to
                            Luke 2:17,18    from the lips of the shepherds.             the word of the angel.
                                                    While the shepherds were keep-           This report the shepherds spread
        In the dead of night an angel       ing watch over their flocks by night,       abroad to whoever would give them
appeared to shepherds outside Beth-         an angel of the Lord came suddenly          an ear.
lehem, as they tended their sheep.          upon them and the glory of the Lord              This report of the shepherds
        What atremendousmessage this        shone round about them. And they            came on the heels of two other most
angel had for these shepherds! Unto         were afraid. For it was a common            remarkable events that were rumored
you is born this night in the city of       belief that to be visited by an angel       about.
David a Savior, which is Christ the         meant death.                                     The first had to do with the aged
Lord. And this shah be a sign unto                  But the angel spoke wonderful       priest Zacharias. About fifteen
you: you shall find the babe wrapped        words to them.                              months before this, Zacharias had
in swaddling clothes, lying in a man-               Hetoldthemnottobeafraid,for         seen a vision of an angel in the temple
ger.                                        he brought glad tidings of great joy to     while offering incense for the people.
        This was followed by the ap-        them and to all the people.                 Hehadbeenmthetemplemuchlonger
pearance of a multitude of angels,                  What were these glad tidings?       than the time necessary to perform
praising God.                               Unto you is born this day in the city of    his priestly function, and when he
        When the darkness and silence       David a Savior, which is Christ the         came to the door of the temple to
of night returned, the shepherds            Lord. No, there could be no doubt           pronounce the customary blessing
slipped away to Bethlehem to see the        about it. That angel had announced          upon the people, he was both deaf
wonder child, whose birth the angels        to them that the Savior, whom God           and dumb. What an amazing thing!
had announced.                              had promised long ago through the           Forthefirsttimein400years  Godhad
        Our attention is now drawn to       prophets, had just been born.               revealed Himself. The report of this,
the report that the shepherds spread                And the angel told them where       no doubt, spread like wildfire
abroad concerning what they had             tofindthisnewbombabe. Theywould             throughout Judea.
heard and seen as well as to the reac-      find the babe wrapped in swaddling               The second remarkable event
tion of those who heart their report.       clothes, lying in a manger.                 rumored about also involved the aged
Those who heard wondered at the                     But there was more. For sud-        Zacharias. About nine months after
sayings of the shepherds.                   denly the heavens were filled with a        God's revelation to himat the temple,
        This wonder was the wonder of       multitude of heavenly angels, prais-        Zacharias' aged wife brought forth
unbelief, a wonder which is prevalent       ing God. With angelic words they            their first and only child, a man-child.
even today.                                 ascribed honor and glory to God for         At the circumcision of their son the
                                            the birth of the Savior. For the earth      aged Zacharias suddenly received
                                            they proclaimed peace, good will to         again his speech and began to proph-
                                            men.                                        esy. He told of the appearance of the
                                                    Aftertheangelsretreatedtotheir      angeloftheLordtohimintheTemple.
                                            heavenly abode, the shepherds left          Thismiraclechildbomtohimandhis
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protes-     their flocks and made their way into        wife was the forerunner of the prom-
tant Reformed Church in Walker, Michi-      Bethlehem. SinceBethlehemwas  only          ised Savior. What remarkable news!
gan.

                                                                                           December 15,1991/ Standard Bearer I123


      And now some six months later         next verse. She kept all these things             For the Christ child was born in
this report of the shepherds was            andponderedtheminherheart. That              thelowliest of circumstances.  Hewas
noised abroad. Angels had appeared          is, she thought upon these things,           to be found in a foul cattle stall, reek-
to them, announcing the birth of the        meditatedupon them often, cherished          ing with the stench of animals. His
Christ-child! They had even seen            them. This is set forth as the contrast      bed was a feeding trough. He was
Him in a stable on the outskirts of         to the reaction of the citizens of           wrapped in swaddling clothes. His
Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling             Bethlehem. They were filled with             parents were obviously poor and of
clothes, lying in a manger.                 awe and amazement. But they nei-             no account in Israel. What could ever
         *  *  *  *  *  *  *                ther cherished these things nor dwelt        come of such a child? Were Hfe born
      And all they that heard it won-       upon them for any length of time.            of those who held earthly power, per-
dered at those things which were told       Very quickly these things were all           haps in a royal palace amidst splen-
them concerning this child.                 forgotten.                                   dor and wealth, it might be different.
      They wondered.                             What explains this reaction of          But certainly they were not interested
      This does not mean that they          Bethlehem's citizens?                        in this child of whom the shepherds
doubted. The term "wonder" has                   This is the reaction of unbelief!       spoke. His poverty offended them.
taken on the element of doubt in our             The nation of Israel had become         Wonder they must. For who could
modem English. Doubt, however,              apostate. She was characterized by           deny the report of the shepherds. But
did not characterize the wonder of          unbelief, an unbelief that determined        as quickly as they could, they dis-
the citizens of Bethlehem. For they         the expectations of the people. They         missed what they had heard, never
had no reason to doubt the report of        longed for earthly power and wealth.         bothering so much as to visit the child.
the shepherds. These were obviously         Israel some time ago had been swal-                   *  *  *  *  * *  *
men of good standing in Bethlehem.          lowed up by the Roman empire. How                 This same reaction of unbelief
Otherwise the Lord would not have           the people longed to throw off the           has prevailed down to the present.
chosen them to receive the angelic          oppression of Rome and return to the
news of the Savior's birth. Besides,        glory days of David and Solomon
there were the other reports of the         when Israel was the world power.               Perhaps the highest insult
angel's appearance to Zacharias and              All this apostate Israel expected               is the world's use
his miracle child. No, the citizens of      to have through the Savior God had
Bethlehem did not doubt the word of         promised.                                          of the birth of Christ
the shepherds. They wondered, that               Mind you, God had not prom-              to promote a peace on earth
is, they marveled. They were filled         ised such a Savior. He had spoken             void of any peace with God.
with awe and amazement.                     through the prophets of a Savior who
      The striking thing about this all,    would make payment for the sin of
however, is that this wonder did not        His people and deliver them from the              The world of unbelief is not in-
move anyone to go and see the Christ-       spiritual oppression of sin. He had          terestedinGod'ssalvation.  Itisinter-
child, as the shepherds had. You            spoken, indeed, of a kingdom, but of         estedin a salvation of its own designs
might expect the stable where Jesus         a heavenly kingdom wherein God's             - a utopia free from all the misery
was born to be crowded with those           people would live in the blessedness         that has plagued mankind through-
who sought to worship the Christ-           of God's fellowship.                         out history, a heaven here on earth.
child. You would at least expect some            But apostate Israel had blindly         For this reason the world rejects the
to visit out of curiosity. But we read      misinterpreted these promises. We            Christ of the Scriptures. Oh, indeed,
nothing of this in the Scriptures. And      must bear in mind that the unbeliever        the world is forced from time to time
several months later when the wise          believes what he wants to believe. If        to marvel at God's Savior, at His
men from the east came to Jerusalem         God's revelation does not measure            birth, miracles, death, resurrection,
seeking Him who was born King of            up to his expectations, the unbeliever       the signs of His coming. But invari-
the Jews, no oneknew  anything about        distorts God's Word to his own lik-          ably the world dismisses these great
the babe of Bethlehem. And remem-           ing. This is exactly what apostate           works of salvation as quickly as did
ber, Jerusalem was not that far from        Israeldid. TheyclungtoGod'sprom-             the citizens of Bethlehem.
Bethlehem. Quite obviously no one           ise for a Savior; but they distortedit to         This becomes very evident dur-
botheredto see the Christ-child. They       their own liking, so that they looked        ing the Christmas season. The world
marveled at the report of the shep-         for an earthly savior from the hand of       has commercialized thebirthof Christ.
herds. But they did not come to             God, a savior who would restore the          It uses Christ's birth as an occasion
worship or even to visit.                   nation to her former place of earthly        for drunkenness and partying- Per-
      The reaction of Mary to these         power and wealth.                            haps the highest insult is the world's
same shepherds, when they came to                Small wonder, then, that                use of the birth of Christ to promote a
her and reported the appearance and         Bethlehem had no interest in the             peace on earthvoid of any peace with
message of the angels, is found in the      Christ-child!                                God. In none of this does the world

124/Standaro'Bearer/Decemberl5,1991


keep or ponder in its heart the Christ-        a divine sign.                               life.
child, who was wrapped in swad-                      In the poverty of the manger                     By faith they wonder.
dling clothes, and laid in a manger.           they see the Son of God come into the                  By faith they also keep all these
     However, the believing saints of          poverty of their sin, that He might          things and ponder themin their heart.
Goddo.                                        i save them from sin's guilt and power                                                    cl
     For they see in the manger scene 1 andbringthem to the riches of eternal



Editorially speaking . , .

     All of us who are involved in              issue deserve our thanks. The idea of       and Suzanne Looyenga. Both re-
publishing the Stan&&  Bearer wish              a special, Christmas issue came up          sponded to special requests  - Mrs.
our readers the peace of the Savior's           late. The writers accepted their as-        DeBoer  that she tell the story of Jesus'
coming.                                         signment, and produced, on very             birth to our young children and Mrs.
     We have devoted this issue of              short notice. This kind of cooperation      Looyenga that she compose a poem
the magazine to the birth of Jesus              encourages us who are responsible           on the message of Christmas.
Christ. Our desire and prayer are that          for seeing to the publishing of the 5%.               If you enjoy and profit from the
the Holy Spirit will use these words            We are grateful.                            articles and poem, let the writers
about the Incarnate Word to promote                  The writers will not take it ill of    know.  0
the peace of the people of God.                 us if we single out the two women                                                 - DJE
      The contributors to this special          whowritefor thisissue,ViolaDeBoer


                                                He Came for
 Editorial                                      Friendship

   And so in these last times the Lord has      man nature, body and soul. The Son          two natures were joined in the one
  restored us to His friendship by His          of God, eternally begotten of the be-       Person of the eternal Son. Between
  Incarnation.                                  ing of the Father, became an embryo.        them was communion. It belonged to
      - Irenaeus,  Against the Heresies         The name for His corningis "Incarna-        the awesome power of the wonder
                             (c. A.D. 180)      tion"- `In-fleshing.'                       that the way in which it occurred was
           The wonder is not only that               "And the Word became flesh             a virgin conception and birth. The
      He came to us but also that He            and dwelt among us . .." (John 1:14).       One who performed the deed was the
                   came for friendship.              This was a wonder. This was the        Holy Spirit, the "Power of the High-
      God the eternal Son came to us            wonder. All of the wonders that              est." In doing it, He kept perfectly
in the conception of the holy child             preceded, beginning with creation,          pure the humannature that He formed
Jesus in the womb of the virgin Mary.           culminated in the Incarnation. All of       out of the depraved nature of the
 From afar, He came  - from the                 the wonders that follow, ending with        virgin. The baby was fully God and a
 heights of heaven, from the "realms            the creation of the new world, flow         real, holy human.
 of glory," from the bosom of the Fa-           from the Incarnation.                                  Still more glorious was the In-
 ther where eternally He lies embrac-                It was a wonder of power. More          carnation as a wonder also of love.
 ingandbeingembracedinlove. Close               than any other miracle this one              The Son of God came as our Friend.
 to us, He came - to earth, into the            showed that nothing is impossible           Hisattitudetowarduswasgoodwill.
 sphere of sin and curse and death, in          with God. Godhead and humanity,             His mission was our help. His pur-
 our flesh.                                     so radically different and since the         pose was our living with God in com-
      He came by creating from the              fall so sharply divided, were united.        munion and camaraderie. Because
 virgin and uniting to Himself a hu-            The union was vital and close. The           He came for friendship, He had to

                                                                                                     December 15,1991/ Standard Bearer I125


come as He did. Our sins separated        adopting an abandoned waif for no           and union of God with (the elect sin-
us from God. The guilt of our sin         other reason than to enable the child       ner) bywhichGodbecomestheorigin
madeusunworthyoffellowship. The           to enjoy the family's own delight.          of his life." Regeneration is an act of
depravity of our sin made us inca-             And those to whom God went             friendship.
pable of fellowship. Reconciliation       outin theincarnateSonforfriendship                   These are the persons who are
and renewal required One who is           WereHisenemies.  Theyhadbetrayed            irresistibly called by the gospel out of
both God and man in the unity of one      Him. They had spoiled His grand             their alienation, enmity, and loneli-
Person.                                   work of creation, They had turned           ness unto conscious fellowship with
                                          His kingdom over to His foe. They           God in Jesus Christ by a true faith.
                                          hated Him. They challenged His sov-         The calling is an act of friendship.
     The womb from which                  ereignty. They profaned His holi-           Their intimate union with the Son of
      the Incarnation itself              ness. They transgressed His righ-           God is made continually closer by the
           issued eternally               teousness. They blasphemed His              use of the sacraments. The sacra-
                                          Name. They were rebels devoted to           ments strengthen friendship, as the
     was the divine counsel               revolution against Him. Friendship          Heidelberg Catechism teaches con-
            of friendship.                would be costly for God. It would           cerning the Lord's Supper: "more
                                          cost Him His Son: "He . . . spared not      and more united to His sacredbody"
                                          His own Son, but delivered Him up           (Lord's Day 28).
      The Son came for friendship be-     . .." (Rom. 8:32). Friendship would be               These are the people whose life
cause this was the will of God who        costly for the Son: "(He) made Him-         on earth is a walk with God in prayer
sent Him. God decreed the Incarna-        self of no reputation, and took upon        and obedience. The Christian life is
tion in His love for us, a love that      Himtheformofaslaveand...humbled             friendship. This is their life in a true
desired friendship with the beloved.      Himself . . . unto death, even the death    church, institutedin the offices, where
The womb from which the incarnate         of the cross" (Phil. 2:7ff.). The Incar-    Christ is acknowledged as the only
Son came historically was that of         nation was the route to the cross.          Head of the church inasmuch as all
Mary. The womb from which the                  In power and love, He came for         things are managed according to the
Incarnationitselfissuedeternallywas       friendship.                                 pure Word of God. Friendship with
the divine counsel of friendship. God          The Bible calls this friendship        Godmeanschurch-life-sound,,lively
is eternally our Friend, and would        the covenant. The Incarnation was           church-life.
have us for His friends. In Christ,       due to the covenant. The explanation                 The friends of God celebrate the
God came for friendship.                  of the wonder is that God remem-            Incarnation by which they have this
      "In this was manifested the love    bered His covenant (Luke 1:72). The         friendship with God. Abrahalm re-
of God toward us, because that God        Incarnation aimed at the covenant.          joiced to see Christ's Day from afar.
sent His only begotten Son into the       Becoming flesh, the Word dwelt              God-fearing Jews gave thanks at the
world . .." (I John 49).                  amongus,  as aFriend dwells withHis         birth of Christ. Gentiles worshiped
      The wonderful love of the Incar-    friends (John 1:14). The Incarnation        and gave gifts. Old people were glad.
nation was gracious. God did not          was  the covenant. The name of the          An unborn child leaped for joy in his
need our friendship. For the living       incarnate Son was "Immanuel," i.e.,         mother's womb. The angels of heaven
and true God is not a solitary, lonely    `God-with-us,' or'covenant.' InHim-         sang.
God existing in splendid isolation.       self, Jesus is the friendship between
He is Triune. He is Father and Son        God and man. Friendship with God
enjoyinghappyfriendshipi.ntheHoly         for us, therefore, is only in Jesus. We                     Celebration
Spirit. Thus God is blissful love in      must be reconciled to God by His                       of the Incarnation
Himself. Neither did God create man       blood, and we must be united to Him
nor did He redeem men because He          by His Spirit.                                          must take form
needed man. When we were en-                   God did not come for friendship         in the activity of friendship
emies, God lacked nothing. Our hos-       with all His enemies indiscriminately.        among the friends of God.
tility toward God did not deprive         One chooses his friends. God is par-
God of friendship, but ourselves. The     ticular in His friendship. He chose
Incarnation was not born of divine        His friends in the eternal decree of             There is a wonderful frienldship
need but of divine grace. God willed      predestination. For them, God sent          in all this celebration of the Incarna-
to share His bliss with us by opening     the Son. For them, the Son came.            tion, a communion that overcomes all
up to us His own friendship. The          These are the men and women who             natural differences that divide. United
Incarnation was not like a lonely         are now united to God by regenera-          in their celebration of the birth of
person's taking in boarders in order      tion, strikingly described by the old       Jesus are Jew and Gentile; Old Testa-
to find companionship. But it was         Reformed theologian Aegidius                ment and New Testament peoples of
likeafullandperfectlyhappyfamily's        Francken  as "that gracious presence        God; rich and poor; male and female;

126/StandardBearer/December15,1991


old and young; men and angels;               the mind of Christ toward each other         help of each other, forgiveness end-
heaven and earth. Their communion            in the congregation, amind that looks        ing in reconciliation, and living fel-
with each other is their common union        on the things of the others, i.e., amind     lowship. It must begin at home in our
with the Christ-child. But their union       of friendship. II Corinthians 8:9 views      marriages and families. It must ex-
with Him results in communion with           the Incarnation as Christ's voluntary        tend to the members of the church.
each other.                                  impoverishing of Himself on behalf                This is the will of God in the
     He came also for our friendship          of ourbecomingrichin order to stimu-        Incarnation.
with each other!                             late the saints to dig deep in. their             This is the work of the Incarna-
     This points the way to a living,        pockets for the offering being taken         tionitself. The Incarnation creates the
spiritual, genuine celebration of the        for the poor, i.e., an act of friendship.    unbreakablebond of marriage, estab-
Incarnation. It is our living in friend-     I John 4:10,11 presents the Incarna-         lishes harmonious homes, moves
ship with each other in the church and       tion as the revelation of the love of        feuding saints to forgive and recon-
in the family. The great incarnational       God for guilty sinners with the pur-         cile in the way of repentance, and
passages in the New Testament insist         pose of calling these now forgiven           gives peace in the congregation.
on this as the practical purpose of the       sinners "also to love one another,"              This too is a wonder of power
incarnate Son Himself in His coming          i.e., a life of friendship.                  and love.
and as the practical purpose of the                Celebration of the Incarnation              The power and love of Him who
Triune God who sent Him.                     musttakeformintheactivityoffriend-           came for friendship.
     Philippians 2:6ff. reminds us of        ship among the friends of God. There              Jesus.  LI
the Incarnation so that we will have         mustbe goodwill toward each other,                                             - DJE



Letter

More on "Experimental Religion"              practical application of Scripture in        ture and its application by the Holy
     After reading your exhortation          the believer's life. Such was the case       Spirit is not enough. Hence, they
to active participation and the ques-        with A.W. Pink as well as those men-         have departed the faith to lean on
tion and answer given in the letters         tioned by the reader.                        their own understanding.
section (Standard  Bearer, Nov. 15,               However, there are those who                 Our foundation must always be
1991) I felt moved to respond.               hold their experience (Experimental          the Word of God, for only then shall
     Iagreewholeheartedlywithyour            Religion) as a prooftext of spirituality     we "have good success" (Josh. 1:B).
answer. Our experiences must al-             and they are subject to deception and        Whether we callit "Experimental" or
waysbeexaminedandinterpretedby               disillusion. This discouragement will        "Experiential" matters not as long as
the spotlight of Scripture rather than       result in defeat and has as its founda-      our definition as well as practice is
interpreting Scripture by experience,        tion doctrinal error.                        Scripturally, doctrinally sound.
as many do today.                                 If you look at the widespread                Thanks for touching upon this
     I would say that in many cases          rush toward psychological cures and          subject.
where the term "Experimental Reli-           counseling by many in the professing                                  Bill Sutherland
gion" is used it is referring to the         church, you see an attitude that Scrip-                                 Houston, TX




                                            For unto you is 60m tfiis duy
                                                  in the city of David
                                                        a&zzrio~
                                              which is Christ the Lord.


                                                                                             December 15,199l  lStandardBearerll27


                                            The Genealogy of
                                            Jesus (or, Jesus
Prof. David Engelsma                        the Son of Nathan)1

The Issue                                   establish his kingdom" (v. 12). Psalm       the royal line but through another son
     The genealogy of Jesus concerns        89 identifies this child as the Messiah.    of Ring David, namely, Nathan.
His descent as a real man from His          In Romans 1:3, Paul proclaims that          Nathan was also a son of David and
ancestors. It isHis "family tree." This     Jesus fulfills this promise: "Jesus         Bathsheba, as we read in I Chronicles
is a proper object of study because the     Christ . . . which was made of the seed     3:5: "And these were born unto him
Bible both reveals Jesus' line of de-       of David according to the flesh."           (David) in Jerusalem; Shimea, and
scent and points out that this line of           Implied by Jesus' descent from         Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon,
descent is important. Scripture gives       David is that He belongs to the tribe of    four, of Bathshua (Bathsheba) . . . fi (cf.
Jesus' genealogy in Matthew 1 and in        Judah, to the nation of Israel, and to      also II Sam. 5:14). Jesus and Mary
Luke 3:23-38. The importance of His         the family of Abraham. All of this is       were not in the royal line. But Joseph,
"family tree" is to be found in Gods        requiredby OldTestamentpromises.            the husband of Mary, was in the royal
promise that the Messiah would be           It is also implied that Jesus' mother       line, a physical descendant of Sol-
born from certain Old Testament per-        Mary was in the line, or family, of         omon, Rehoboam, Hezekiah, Josiah,
sons and families. Jesus must fulfill       David. This must be asserted, not           and Jehoiachin.
these promises.                             only because scholars question it, but              This is the issue.
     Two essential aspects of Jesus'        alsobecausetheBibleneverexplicitly                  Crucial for settling the issue are
genealogymaynotbe disputed. First,          states that Mary, Jesus' only biologi-      the two genealogies at the beginning
Jesus is physically descended from          cal parent, was a daughter of David.        of the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
Adam and Eve. This is demanded by           Several times Scripture calls Joseph a      The important question about these
the original promise of the gospel in       descendant of David but never does it       genealogies is this: Which of them
Genesis 3:15: He who is to crush the        say this of Mary (cf. Matt. 1:20; Luke      gives the actual, physical descent of
Serpent's head and thus deliver the         1:27; Luke 2:4). The fact that Jesus        Jesus through Mary from David?
chosen church of God willbe the seed        was of David's line establishes that                Both of them obviously have to
of mother Eve. We notice that the           His mother was of this line.                do with the birth of Jesus. Seemingly,
genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3 traces              The difficult and controversial        however, both of them give the gene-
Jesus back to Adam: "which was the          issue in the matter of the genealogy of     alogy not of Mary but of Joseph.
son of Adam" (v. 38).                       Jesus is His descent between David          Matthew's genealogy, which begins
     A second essential feature of our      and Mary. What is the family-line of        with Abraham and goes forward, ends
Lord's genealogy is that He is physi-       Jesus from His royal great grandfa-         with Joseph (Matt. 1:16). Luke's ge-
cally descended from David, Israel's        ther to His lowly mother? It is widely      nealogy, which begins with Jesus and
great king. In II Samuel 7:12ff., Jeho-     held in the Protestant Reformed             goes backward, seems to run through
vah God promised to David that the          Churches that Jesus descended from          Joseph (Luke 3:23). This confronts us
Messiah would be his son: "I will set       David through the royal line of             with a problem. It seems that neither
up thy seed after thee, which shall         David's son Solomon. On this view,          of them gives us the genealogy of
proceed out of thy bowels, and I will       Mary belonged to that royal line. In        Jesus, for Scripture tells us that Jesus
                                            fact, it is maintained that the virgin      didnotcomefrom Joseph(Matt.  1:18-
                                            was the sole survivor of the royalline.     25).
                                            The royal line ended in her. This was               What increases our problem is
                                            the teaching of the Rev: Herman             that the two genealogies are diff erent.
                                            Hoeksema (cf. The  Triple Knowledge,        This is immediately and conclusively
Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmatics    Vol. 1, pp. 603ff.).                        plain to every reader. In fact, enemies
and Old Testament in the Protestant              I want to show that the Savior         of Scripture have gleefully pounced
Reformed Seminary.                          came to us not through Solomon and          on this as proof that the Bible is fal-


lible. "Look," they exclaim, "here are      Nathan. A correct translation of verse       Mary, it is necessary to deny that
two genealogies of Joseph that are          23 makes this clearer. The translation       "begat" in verse 16 refers to physical
completely different."                      of the King James Version is not cor-        begetting. On this view, Jacob actu-
     Whatever now may be the solu-          rect: "Jesus . . . being (as was sup-        ally begat Mary. But Joseph's name is
tion of the problem, the difference         posed) the son of Joseph, which was          inserted because of his legal relation-
between the genealogies is this.            the son of Heli." This makes Joseph          ship to Jacob as Mary's husband. This
Matthew's gives the royal line of           the son of Heli. But we know from            explanation is impossible since
David, the line that runs through           Matthew 1 that Joseph is the son of          "begat" means physical procreation.
Solomon and Judah's kings. Luke's           Jacob. The correct translation of verse      The register of the royal line in Mat-
genealogy gives the "family-tree" of        23 is: "Jesus . . . being the son (as was    thew 1 is the genealogy of Joseph.
David through that other son, Nathan        supposed of Joseph) of Heli." Not                 TheviewofsomethatMarywas
(cf. v. 31). From Abraham to David,         Joseph, but Jesus is the son of Heli.        in the royal line also depends upon a
the genealogies are the same; from          Heliwas the father of Mary and,there-        mistakeninterpretation of Luke  1:34,
David to Jesus, they are different.         fore, Jesus' maternal grandfather.           Mary's astonished response to the
Matthew traces the line of Solomon,         Mary's name is omitted from the reg-         Annunciation: "How shall this be,
whereas Luke traces the line of             ister in keeping with the Jewish cus-        seeing I know not a man?" This is
Nathan.                                     tom. Mary and her father Heli de-            taken to mean that Mary knew all
     Which is the genealogy of Jesus?       scended from Nathan  (v. 31).                along that she was the sole survivor of
                                                 Several things should be men-           the royal line. She had figured out
Understanding the Genealogies               tioned in defense of this explanation        that no male remained in the royal
     Matthew's genealogy in verses          of the genealogies and this under-           line. Her response to the angelwas, "I
I-17is that of Joseph, whereas Luke's       standing of the genealogy of Jesus.          cannot bring forth the Messiah be-
is that of Jesus Himself according to       First, contrary to popular opinion, the      cause I am not aware of any man
actual, physical descent through            Messiah does not have to come from           whom I can marry."
Mary. That Matthew's is the geneal-         the royal line that runs through                  But this is misunderstanding of
ogy of Joseph is clear and                  Solomon. It is enough that He come           Mary'swords. "Know" heredoesnot
unchallengeable. It says so: "And           from David (cf. II Sam. 792ff.;  Psalm       have the sense of `being aware of
Jacob begat Joseph" (v. 16). Through-       89:35,36).                                   someone,' but rather refers, as often
out Matthews genealogy, the word                 Second, the Bible teaches that          in the Bible, to sexual intercourse.
"begat" means physical begetting, or        the Messiah will not come from the           The angel has said to her that she will
procreation. It keeps this meaning in       royal line, and may not come from the        conceive a child, evidently at once
verse 16: Jacob, descendant of Sol-         royal line. The royal line became            and in her present virginal condition.
omon, fathered Joseph.                      unfaithful, disobedient, and apostate.       Mary's perfectly natural response is,
     But the genealogy of Matthew 1         The judgment of Goduponit was that           "How can I possibly conceive a child
is the royal line. Joseph, therefore,       it would not produce the everlasting         apart from sexual relations with a
belonged to the royal line. The royal       King who establishes the kingdom of          man?" She had certainly not deter-
blood of Solomon coursed through            God. The next to the last king of            mined that, as the sole survivor of the
Joseph's veins. As far as Matthew is        Judah in the Old Testament was               royal line, she would have to be the
concerned the royal line of David           Jehoiachin, called" Jechonias" inMat-        mother of the Savior. When the angel
ended in Joseph, the man engaged to         thew 1:ll. Upon him andhis descen-           addressed her as "blessed among
the virgin who would become the             dants fell the judgment recorded in          women," Mary was "troubled at his
mother of the Christ.                       Jeremiah2230:  "ThussaiththeLORD,            saying, and cast in her mind what
     I suggest that this has wonderful      Write ye this man childless, a man           manner of salutation this should be"
possibilities for telling the Christmas     that shall not prosper in his days: for      (v. 29). As for a male survivor in the
story of Luke 2. The humble Jew             no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting    royalline, there was one, Joseph. Mary
trudging into Bethlehem with his            upon the throne ofDavid, and rulingany       was engaged to him. But Joseph
pregnant wife in order to register for      more in Judah. If According to Mat-          "knew her not till she had brought
taxation; the man who is turned away        thew 1, Jehoiachin produces Joseph.          forth her firstborn son" (Matt. 1:25).
from the inn in the city of David; the      But Joseph is not the father of the               Jesus descended from David
man who spends the night in the             Messiah-King who sits on the throne          through the obscure Nathan, not
stable  - this man is the son of            of David. This is the emphatic teach-        through Solomon and the royal line.
Solomon, heir-apparent to the throne        ing of Matthew 1:18ff.                       This has interesting and profound
of Israel, scion of a glorious dynasty.          Third, theviewthatMarywasin             implications.
     The genealogy in Luke 3 is the         the royal line and that Matthew 1 is
record of the physical ancestry of Jesus    the genealogy of Mary, not of Joseph,        Some Implications
through His mother Mary. Jesus is           simply cannot be maintained. To                   First, God kept His World to
descended from David through                make Matthew 1 the genealogy of              David. He fulfilledit differently than

                                                                                            Decemberl5,1991  lStandardSearerll29


anyone expected, through insignifi-            chapter of his gospel: Jesus was not        Nazareth; the obscure family of
cant Nathan rather than through                produced by the royal line.                 Nathan; the shepherd-boy of
prominent Solomon. But He kept His                   Third, in the way of this just        Bethlehem. Is not this exactly .what
promised Word.                                 judgment God exalts the humble line         Mary herself sang in celebration of
         Second, God judged the royal          of Nathan. Rejecting the outwardly          the genealogy of Jesus? "My soul
lineofIsraelforitsrebeBionandapos-             gloriousline of Solomon, Godchooses         doth magnify the Lord . . . for he hath
tasy. The judgment began already               lowly Nathan to bring forth the Great       regarded the low estate of his
with Solomon. It culminated in the             King. The message of the genealogy          handmaiden .., He hath put down the
dreadful Word upon Jehoiachin. It              of Jesus is the gospel of grace. God        mighty from their seats, and exalted
was evident in Israel's lack of a king         lifts up the nobodies and puts down         them of low degree" (Luke 1:46ff.).
during the five hundred years after            the somebodies. Not the noble did                His purpose?
the return from Babylon. It was real-          God choose, but the lowly, the de-               That the glory of the coming of
ized in the historical fact that Mat-          spised, and the no-account: a maid in       the Christ be His own. 0
thew calls attention to in the first


                                               The Church's
                                               Observance of
Rev. Ronald Cammenga                           Christmas
         It is that time of year again when    that the early celebrations of Christ-      ecclesiastical calendar, the daymark-
we celebrate Christmas. Radio sta-             mas were mingled with pagan obser-          ing the festival of Christ's birth. The
tions air Christmas music. Storefronts         vances. Long before Christmas be-           priests officiated at special masses,
and circulars advertise Christmas              came the customary day on which the         and hence the day came to be known
wares. Homes and shops are deco-               church commemorated the wonder              as  0 Christ-mass," or "Christmas."
rated for the holiday season. Christ-          of the incarnation, the heathen world            This is the beginning of any spe-
mas is observed the world over, in the         observed the day in a special way.          cial observance of the nativity. There
United States and Europe, by Protes-           The first mention of the celebration of     is no evidence that the apostolic
tants andRoman  Catholics alike. Even          Christmas occurs in A.D. 336 in an          church commemorated Christ's birth
if we wanted to forget Christmas, the          early Roman calendar. At this time          in any special way or on any special
world would not let us.                        various peoples in Europe held festi-       day. The church fathers of the first
         What really is the origin of the      vals in mid-December, at the time of        three centuries do not either make
day? What is the meaning and pur-              the winter solstice. These festivals        any reference to the observance of
pose of Christmas? What historically           celebrated the end of the harvest sea-      Christmas. Undoubtedlythisispartly
has been the attitude of the church            son and anticipated the arrival of the      explained by the fact that no corre-
towards Christmas? Ought the church            new year. As part of these celebra-         sponding festival was celebrated in
today to observe Christmas in any              tions, the people prepared special          the Old Testament, as was the case
special way?                                   foods, decorated their homes with           with Easter and Pentecost. The cel-
                                               greenery, and joined in singing and         ebration of the early church focused
The Origin of Christmas                        gift-giving.                                on the death and resurrection of
         Although the precise origin of             It was not until late in the fourth    Christ, as is plain from the record of
Christmas is uncertain, it is certain          century that Christmas became a             the Book of Acts and the fact of the
                                               Christian holiday. This took place          church's gathering on the first day of
                                               under the Emperor Constantine who           each week, the day of Christ's resur-
                                               made Christianity the official religion     rection, for weekly worship.
                                               of the Holy Roman Empire. At this
                                               time many of the pagan celebrations         The Observance of Christmasbythe
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protes-         were assimilated into Christianity.         Churches of the Reformation
tant Reformed Church of Loveland, Colo-        Ihis was true also of Christmas. The             By the time of the Reformation,
rado.                                          day became a significant day on the         the observance of Christmas had be-

130/SfandaMearer/December15,1991


come an ecclesiasticalinstitution. But      the church in paganistic celebrations.        harmful idleness (lediggang)  into a
like the other days and festivals re-       The Reformers were aware of the               holy and profitable exercise.
garded by Roman Catholicism, the            tainted origin of the Christmas cel-        Rather than to see these days given
observance of Christmas hadbecome           ebration, as well as the foolishness        over to the danger of abuse and rev-
carnal and superstitious.                   that had become associated with its         elry, the churches accommodated
        The Reformers reacted against       observance. They were fearful of            themselves to circumstances and be-
this abuse by abolishing the obser-         these evil influences on the church         gan to celebrate these days. The
vance of special days by the church.        and the members of the church.              people of God were called together
This abolition of days included Christ-          This rejection of Christmas con-       for prayer and worship under the
mas.                                        tinued in the churches of the Refor-        preaching of the gospel.
        There were particular reasons       mation. The Scotch-Irish Presbyteri-             Since 1578 subsequent synods
why the Reformers rejected the ob-          ans, many of them to this day, re-          have revised and expanded wh.at is
servance of Christmas. In the first         jected all observance of Christmas.         now Article 67 of our Church Order.
place, there is no indication whatso-       The Puritans condemned the celebra-         That article binds the observance of
ever that Christ was born on Decem-         tion and even issued ordinances for-        Christmas upon the Protestant Re-
ber 25. Fact is that, from everything       bidding all church services and fes-        formed Churches.
we read in the Scriptures, we must          tivities on Christmas. This viewpoint         The Churches shall observe, in addi-
conclude that He was born in the            was carried over to America from              tion to the Sunday, also Christmas,
warmer months of the year, probably         England by the Pilgrims.                      GoodFriday, Easter, AscensionDay,
the spring, and not during the winter.                                                    Pentecost, the Day of Prayer, the Na-
If it was winter, the shepherds would                                                     tional Thanksgiving Day, and Old
                                            The Dutch Reformed Churches                   and New Year's Day.
nothavebeenspendingthenightsout                  At first, the observance of Christ-
on the open plains while their sheep        mas was also rejected by the Dutch          Our Observance of Christmas
grazed. Neither would the Christ-           Reformed churches. The conviction                Our observance of Christmas is
child have been warm at night in an         that there ought not be a multiplica-       not merely, however, a matter of ful-
unheated stable with only swaddling         tion of man-made days in the church,        fillingtheletterofthelawofArticle67
clothes for covers.                         and the concern that there be no mini-      of the Church Order. There are ben-
        In the second place, the Reform-    mizing of the observance of the weekly      efits, outstanding spiritual benefits,
ers were moved to reject the obser-         Sabbath, were strong. The Synod of          for the church in a sanctified obser-
vance of Christmas by the fact that the     Dordt, 1574, decreed that the weekly        vance of the day.
observance of the day was not of            Sabbath alone should be observed in
divine but of human institution. The        the churches and that there should be
observance of Christmas cannot be           no observance of any other days, in-
grounded, like the weekly Sabbath,          cluding Christmas. This same synod            . . . who can fault the church
either on direct command from God           did decide, however, that it would be        for calling special attention
or example of the church in the New         appropriatefortheministerstopreach                      to His birth
Testament. The day as a special day         about the birth of Christ on the Sun-              and the significance
to be observed by Christians was in-        day preceding Christmas.                                of His birth
stituted by the church.                          Soon, however, this attitude                  one day in the year?
        The Reformers' rejection of         changed. Already by 1578, the Synod
Christmas was also motivatedby their        of Dordt made allowances for the
fear that the observance of special         observance of Christmas by the
days would lead to the minimizing of        churches. Monsma and VanDellen                   Although it certainly must be
the Sabbath, the God-ordained day of        state in their Church Order Commen-         admitted that Christmas is not of di-
worship. This was not an altogether         ta y, page 274:                             vine but human appointment, we do
unfounded fear. This had happened             The Synod of Dordt, 1578, Article 68,     not consider this an objection suffi-
in the Roman Catholic Church. Even            declared in substance that it would       cient to abolish the church's obser-
today there are those who, although           be desirable to celebrate Sunday only     vance of the day. Certainly the elder-
they hardly ever attend the weekly            according to God's ordinance. But,        ship has the authority to call the con-
worship services of the church, feel          inasmuch as Christmas Day and the         gregation to worship at appropriate
                                              day following upon Christmas, as
the necessity of gracing the church                                                     times, whether that be a time of war,
                                              well as the days following upon Eas-
building with their presence on                                                         during drought, or in observance of
                                              ter and Pentecost and in some places
Christmas and on Easter.                                                                the birth of Jesus. The authority of the
                                              also New Year's Day, and Ascension
        It also belonged to the reasons      Daywerelegalholidaysbyauthority            elders in this matter is similar to their
for their forbidding any longer the           of the governments, the Ministers         authority to call the church to wor-
observance of Christmas that the Re-          shouldpreachappropriatelyonthese          ship twice on the Lord's Day, even
formers feared the involvement of             days in order to turn a fruitless and     though there is no express command

                                                                                           December 15,199l  lStandardSearerll31


from God that the church must wor-          other times, confining contemplation         abuse of Christmas and the conrup-
ship twice on Sunday. Here the au-          of it to Christmas. Not at all! The          tion of Christmas by the world.
thority of the elders is controlled by      great mystery of godliness, the won-              What must be at the heart of the
that which I'... tends to nourish and       der of the Word made flesh, receives         church's observance of Christmas is
preserve concord, and unity, and to         attention in every sermon delivered          the Word. The church's observance
keep all men in obedience to God . .."      by the Reformed preacher, whether            of the day must be in the official
(Belgic Confession, Article 32).            explicitly or implicitly. The church's       gathering for public worship. That is
     And who can doubt the value of         observance of the birth of Christ is a       the prescription of Article 67. And at
the church's attention being directed       perpetual observance, day in and day         the heart of public worship is the
to the wonder of grace, the incarna-        out, Sunday after Sunday.                    preaching of the Word. Not plays
tion of our Lord Jesus Christ? Even if           It certainly is of practical benefit    and pageants, but preaching is how
there can be no certainty that Jesus        for the church to gather for worship         the church observes Christmas. But
was born on December 25, who can            on Christmas. Not only does this             thenpreachingthatnotonlyonChrist-
fault the church for calling special        provide the opportunity for the church       mas, but all through the year honors
attention to His birth and the signifi-     to call attention to the realmeaning of      the babe of Bethlehem as the Son of
cance of His birth one day in the year?     Christmas, but it also provides occa-        God, the sovereign Savior, theKing of
Neither does this mean that we ex-          sion for words of warning against the        kings.  0
clude attention to the incarnation at





                                            Marking the
Rev: Kenneth Koole                          Christmas Season
     The topic assigned me is for a         treacherous currents of the late 20th             The question arises, to what ex-
special issue on Christmas. It strikes      century. And one of the most power-          tent ought we as heads of homes
me that it is made to order for the         ful currents in our present-day soci-        permit our families to be involved in
rubric "When Thou Sittest In Thine          etyis the holiday madness, the Christ-       the "holiday" festivities at all? Should
House..." which deals with the Chris-       mas season. It touches on the lives of       there be any indication that we have
tian family and home. If there is one       everyone of us. It certainly bombards        even noted the season? Perhaps no
notion that we associate with Christ-       our children. Drive down the streets;        presents, no trees, no colored lights,
mas it is that of family get-togethers.     they are festooned with decorations          no wreaths, no sending of greeting
And if there is one fear we have, it is,    and lined with lights. Turn on the           cards, and maybe not even getting
I should think, the adverse effect that     radio; the Christmas songs fill the air.     together as family with relatives? Or
the world's celebration can have on         Turn on the TV, or open your mail-           maybe the latter could be permitted,
our children (some might even say,          box; and advertisements for a veri-          with a few cards sent out, and possi-
the adverse effect the CHURCH'S             table .mountain  of merchandise will         bly even a wreath . . . but no more?
celebration of Christmas has on our         bury you like an avalanche. As your               And here, of course, is the prob-
children). So this article will serve       childrenlookat the catalogs confront-        lem. You make your choice, I make
double duty.                                ing them with every delightful toy           mine. But whose observance (or lack)
     We are raising children and di-        imaginable, their eyes become large          thereof is the standard?
recting our families through the            with expectation. You and they can                At this point, appeal is com-
                                            notignoreit. The arrival of the Christ-      monly made to Christianliberty. You
                                            mas season shouts at us from every           do not intend to mark this time of the
                                            corner.                                      year with a tree, lights, or gift ex-
                                                 Weightyissuesareinvolvedboth            change and will not permit your fam-
                                            for the church and for the individual        ily to do so. I can respect you for that.
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant    believer and the Christian family. The       But does that therefore mean I ought
Xeformed Church in]enison, Michigan.        latter is our concern in this article.       not? There is a sin in these things?


Sayswho?  Youchoosetobuygiftsfor               mized. There is the gross material-              holiday trappings that go along with
your children on their birthday, we            ism. Itisnotonlychildrenthatgetlost              it: lights, trees, gifts, and family get-
for ours when the relatives get to-            in the maze of gifts and presents.               togethers) and to take the vow of
gether during the Christmas holiday.           Adults do. Parents may feel com-                 austerity?
The one is wrong, the other is not? A          pelled to prove their love, not only by                   While I well understand the sen-
person is going to be hard pressed to          buying for the child far beyond what             timent, I can not agree with the solu-
forbid altogether the marking of the           is good for him, but also by spending            tion.
seasonwithany "seasonal" activities.           far beyond their means. Families  end
The appeal to Christian liberty is cer-        up in debt because of all the gifts dad
tainly legitimate.                             and mom felt they had to buy to keep                           Declaring that
     Still, it would be foolish to say         their children happy (and to avoid                             eve y marking
that an appeal to Christian liberty is         being called a "Scrooge"). This is not                         of the season
an adequate answer for all the abuses          unknown in Christian families.
of our day and age in this area. One                It is sin, that's all. It is that, first                 is transgression
may say, "You may not legislate how            of all, because the child begins to                            and carnality
I and all other Christians mark the            think he has a right to a multitude of               is neither right nor wise.
holiday season!" (whichistrue), but it         presents; his happiness hinges on it.
borders on sheer folly not to recog-           And if this year's "haul" is less than
nize practical dangers.                        last year's, he has a legitimate com-                     Do not get me wrong. Heads of
     The question arises, by marking           plaint. And we have promoted this                homes may do this if they please. But
Christmas in so many ways, as our              attitudebycateringtotheir"Iwants."               whether they will accomplish w:hat
society does (the world!) with trees,          What they need is instruction about              they intend is another question.
and lights, and presents, are we not           Christianhappinessandcontentment,                         Suppose the church decided, due
succumbing to the spirit of the age?           not an excess of this world's goods.             to the world's abuse and the holiday's
     And what are we teaching our                   Butsuchissinalsobecausethere                pagan origin, to cease marking (in
children? Marking Christ's birth sim-          is sinful stewardship involved. The              December)Christ'sIncarnationinany
plybecomes the occasionforthe thing            child gets the unnecessary gifts . . . and       ecclesiastical way. No worship ser-
that really interests them, namely,            what goes begging? The kingdom                   vice, no programs. Just silence. What
getting all those gifts. The wonder of         causes, the church budget, the school            then? Things would change? That
the Incarnation is buried and lost             tuition, the benevolence fund, and               would be the end of trees and wreaths
amidst the onslaught of materialism            the special causes. Or though we give            and gifts with us? I doubt it.
and greed. The ones who profit most            to those causes, we contribute far less                   But more seriously, would the
are the merchants. The least? The              thanweshouldhavebecausesomuch                    church have the right or ability to
saints. So it seems.                           has been spent buying the presents.              enforce such a thing in the homes of
     Isn't it high time we lay all this        Whathasbeenviolatedisnothingless                 her members?
yuletide  business aside, and cease            than a central biblical principle,                        What if my dear fellow saint
trying to sanctify the profane both as         namely, seeking first the kingdom.               next door decides to put a tree up.
individuals (families) and as                        And the holiday eating and                 anyway with a few lights in the win-
churches?                                      drinking so often gets out of hand               dow, and they exchange gifts? N'ow
                                               (especially the drinking!). How can              what? They are to be put under dis-
                                               you relax and be merry without con-              cipline? For deciding in December to
  Parents may feel compelled                   suming generous amounts of "speak-               exchange gifts? In February it would
       to prove their love,                    easy"? It is party after party and               be alright? What if Jr. announces at
             not only by                       everything is funny. It is "eat, drink,          that time, "We do it now rather than
                                               and be merry, for tomorrow...??!"                at Christmas"?
       buying for the child                    And the conscience is salved by sing-                     Declaring that every marking of
             far beyond                        ing a few "Silent Night(s), Holy                 the season is transgression and car-
      what is good for him,                    Night(s)" before the guests disperse,            nality is neitherright  nor wise. You
      but also by spending                     some of whom do a bit of weaving as              have here an area impossible to legis-
    far beyond their means.                    they head down the road.                         late. Andin the end the church would
                                                     And thus the season is sancti-             have to make absurd distinctions as
                                               fied! No, I think not. But still, for            to what is permissible and what is
                                               many, so it goes. And we are not
      What is our response?                                                                     not. A Christmas tree is a matter
                                               immune.                                          worthy of discipline or rebuke? Then
      First of all, we do well to listen to          So what is the solution? To scrap          what about a wreath? All right, I am
those who remind us of the dangers.            it (that is, our marking of Christ's              going to buy my wife two poinsettias.
Those dangers are not to be mini-              birth in December, or at least all the           What can you say about that? And
                                                                                                    December15,1991lStandardSearerll33


what if there is more frequent refer-       ciple of moderation in holiday "cus-         attempt to keep the focus where it
ence in December in the prayers of          toms" than by attempting to ignore           ought to be. You must do what you
some to the wonder of the incarnation       the festivities altogether or to remain      think is wise.
than, say, in early spring? That is a       completely uninvolved. Why? Be-                   Inthe OldTestament,  at the time
sign of unspirituality? Less reference      cause you can practice a consistent          of harvest, the saints spontaneously
in December to this Wonder would            moderation and restraint, but you are        gathered together and rejoiced in the
be better? This would help our chil-        not going to be able to practice a           good things of God and in the com-
dren? We are going to listen for it in      complete severance from all mark-            pany of families and saints, and that
each other's prayers and measure            ings of the customs in any consistent        underthebenedictionofGod(cf.Ruth
spirituality accordingly? Let us be-        way. Someoneisgoingtogiveyou(or              3). We may do likewise in December;
ware the legalism.                          your child) a gift or two. Are you           but let our celebration be with true
     This is not to say that nothing        going to give them back? Relatives           joy, unmixed with the world's super-
should be done by our families to           are going to have their get-togethers        ficial merrymaking.  LI
guard against the world's materialis-       inviting your family. What better
tic excesses and abuses at this time of     time of the year than when fathers
the year.          There are things         have some days off? You are going to
which must be said. That which has          beinagroupthatsingsafew"carols."
to do with Santa Claus is to be con-        Youcannotsing'SilentNight"?  What
demned. Our chihlren must under-            about the Hallelujah Chorus? And
standthered-suitedelfdoesnotexist.          some grandmother will not be able to                Celebrate
To them he certainly is "believable."       endure the thought of not giving your
They have no more difficulty or disin-      children (her grandchildren!) gifts
clination to believe that he exists than    while she gives gifts to the rest of              Christmas!
to believe that the devil exists, whom      them. You will deny her and your
they have never seen either. The evil?      children that joy? What if, to be fair,
To this "omnipresent, all-knowing"          she gives the gifts to them in January        Behold the Babe in a manger low.
Santa is attributed divine attributes.      anyway?                                        Revel in the Revealed long ago.
"He knows when you're asleep, He                     Far wiser it is, in my judgment,     Delight in David's Son now born.
knows when you're awake . . . . U For       to teach our children the principle of         Laud our Lord this happy mom.
their behavior during the past year         moderation in all things (which is a               Praise the Prince of Peace
children are answerable to him. So          lesson with lifelong value). The                          who gives.
they say. He will punish or reward.         "Christmas" season is a good time to          Honor our Head; forever He lives.
     Thisisnoinnocent, childishfairy-       teach them this, not simply in word,              Glorify the Great Shepherd
tale. This is humbug, rubbish, and          but by our deeds. Gifts? Fine, but let                   who feeds us.
evil. Mr. Claus is set up as a competi-     them be within our means, not lead-          Triumph in the Truth who leads us.
tor to our children's all-knowing, car-     ing our children to equate happiness              Acclaim the second Adam,
ing heavenly Father. We are remiss if       with extravagance.                                       our salvation.
we permit this confusion in our                      And let the same restraint show      Extol Emmanuel, the Incarnation.
children's minds. Santa Claus is not        itself in our eating, our drinking, in               Magnify the Messiah;
a matter of Christian liberty.              holiday decorations, and in all the                   prophecy fulfilled.
     In the second place we are to          rest.                                            Carol the Chief Cornerstone,
teach our children not to partake in                 Wemustdowhatwecantokeep                   His church He will build.
the abuses and excesses of our mate-        the common fromburying the sacred,                Joy in Jesus come to save.
rialistic age, especially as that comes     the spiritual. For instance, in our                Alleluia to the Anointed,
to extravagant expression during the        home we do not "open presents" on                   victory o'er the grave!
holidays.                                   Christmas morning, but a few days                    Revere the Redeemer,
                                            prior to it. Why? In our circles the                 our guilt He has paid.
                                            saints have agreed to come together                    Worship the Way,
         Far wiser it is . . .              annually the morning of December 25                our pathway He has laid.
      to teach our children                 to contemplate the wonder of incar-                  Proclaim the Prophet
  the principle of moderation               nation and to worship. I want as little                sent from on high.
                                            to intrude into that worship as is
             in all things....                                                                  Sing to the Son of God
                                            possible. Presents just opened beg to              whose glory fills the sky.
                                            be played with. I want my children's                 Celebrate the Christ!
                                            minds to be on the Word of God
     In my judgment one can accom-                                                                                  Viola DeBoer
                                            (made flesh) rather than the toys they
plishthis betterbypracticing  theprin-                                                                                 HulK, Iowa
                                            can not wait to get back to. A small

134/StandardSearerlDecemberl5,1991


                                                 The Greatest Gift
                                                                         of All
                                                 The Christmas story written
Mrs. Viola DeBoer                            especially for younger children

     Christmas is coming! Does that        on an animal, maybe a donkey. It           that night. Suddenly a very bright
make you happy and excited? Yes,           took them at least three days to get to    light and an angel appeared! The
most children are excited about            Bethlehem.                                 shepherds were very scared! They
Christmas. You, as God's covenant               When they arrived, they found         had never seen such a bright light.
children, have special reason to be        that Bethlehem was a very busy town,       But the angel told them not to be
excited about Christmas. Maybe you         because many others had come to pay        afraid for he had very good news to
are excited about the presents that        their money also. The town was full        tell them.
come at Christmas time. Well, the          of people! Mary and Joseph had to                  He told them that Jesus, the Sav-
real Christmas story is about a Gift       find a place to sleep. They asked at       ior,hadbeenborn.  Theycouldgoand
too - the Greatest Gift of All. The        the inn (like a motel) but, no, there      see Him! They would know the baby
Christmas story is not a make-believe      was not one room left. There was not       because He was in a manger and
story; this truly happened along, long     one room in the whole town left for        wrapped in swaddling clothes. After
time ago. We know that because God         Mary and Joseph.                           the angel told them that, the whlole
tells us so in His Word, the Bible. So,         Theyfinallystayedinacavejust          sky filled with angels singing praises
here is the Christmas story about the      outside of the town. In this cave          to God. All the angels were happy
Greatest Gift of All.                      people kept their animals. Horses,         andexcitedabout this Greatest Gift of
     Many, many years ago a man            donkeys, cows, and other animals           All!
named Joseph and a woman named             were in this stable with Mary and                  After the angels went back to
MarylivedinatowncalledNazareth.            Joseph. In this dark and smelly stable     heaven, the shepherds hurried to find
They were not rich. In fact, they were     Jesus was born! Mary wrapped her           this Baby. They found Hi with
poor people. But they were happy           special Child in long strips of cloth      Mary and Joseph, andHe waslyingin
because they were soon going to have       (swaddlingclothes) to keep him warm        a manger wrapped in swaddling
a baby - a very special baby.              andthenlaidhiminthemanger-the              clothes, just as the angel had said.
     The ruler of their country made       feeding-trough for the animals. This       TheyworshipedHimbecauseHewas
alaw that everyone had to pay money        was the very first Christmas!              the Son of God. The shepherds were
to the ruler. Mary and Joseph had to            MaryandJosephmusthavebeen             very happy and excited about Christ-
travel toBethlehem  to pay their money     very happy about their new little Son.     mas too! They told everyone they met
because that is where their families       They knew that He was the Son of           about God's Great Gift and they re-
lived many years before. Bethlehem         God even though He looked just like        turned to their sheep singing praises
was a long way from Nazareth and           any other baby. God had told them          to God!
theydidnothaveafancychariotwith            before Jesus was born that their baby              Jesus, born on earth, was God's
pretty horses to take them to              would be the Son of God who would          Gift to us. Certainly that was the
Bethlehem. They had to walk or ride        save His people from their sins. So        Greatest Gift of All. The Son of God
                                           Mary and Joseph were very happy            was born on earth as a baby to sa.ve
                                           and excited about this Great Gift of       God's people from all their sins that
                                           God to His people.                         they may live in heaven forever. So,
                                                But would anyone else know            after all your other gifts are broken,
                                           about this great news? Yes! God sent       you still have the Greatest Gift of All,
                                           an angel from heaven to tell the news      because this Jesus lives in your hearts
                                           that His Son was born. God sent the        right now! That's Christmas! Doesn't
                                           angel to some shepherds in the fields.     that make you happy and excited?
Mrs. DeBoer is a member of the Protes-     The shepherds were watching their          Christmas makes all God's people
tant Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa.        sheep as the animals ate in the fields     very happy. Q

                                                                                         December 15,199l  I StandardSearerl135


                                            Peace Through our
Rev. Cornelius Hanko                        Lord Jesus Christ
                                               0 send the day of joy and light,          messengerfromheavenstandingthere
                                               For long has been our sorrow's            among these ordinary men in their
                                                     night.                              work clothes was enough to embar-
                                               Afflicted through the weary               rass them. Added to that, the:y were
     For unto you is born this day in                years,                              sinners, at enmity with God because
  the city of David a Savior, which is         We wait until Thy help appears.           of their many transgressions, deserv-
  Christ, the Lord.                                     (versification of Psalm 90 -     ing only God's just wrath and con-
                                                               Psalter number 246)       demnation. They hid their faces in
     Night had cast its long shadow                  The night had grown late, and it    terror.
over the fields of Judea where shep-        became darker as the dawn ap-                     But the angel set their hearts at
herds watched over their sheep.             proached. For some four hundred              easebytellingthemthathecamewith
     This was but a reminder of that        years after Judah's return from cap-         a message that would fill their hearts
long, weary night of sin and death          tivity the voice of prophecy had been        with unspeakable joy and peace.
that had rested on mankind ever since       silent. There was no prophet, no                  "For unto you is born a Savior!"
we became enemies of God through            vision, no dream. This was the time of            This message did not come to
our fall in paradise.                       which Malachi had spoken: "Then              the powers at Rome, nor to th.e wise
     That night would have been             they that feared the Lord spake often        men of Athens; not even to the elite of
hopelessly dark were it not for the         one to another: and the Lord hear-           Jerusalem, but to common, ordinary
fact that, like the heavenly luminar-       kened, and heard it, and a book of           shepherds as they were carrying out
ies, the promise of the dawning of a        remembrance was written before him           their work throughout the night.
new day shone through the darkness.         for those that feared the Lord, and               Common, ordinary shepherds,
     All the believers of the old dis-      that thought upon his name."                 yet representatives of the remnant
pensation cherished the hope of the                  Among those whom the Lord           according to election of grace, repre-
promise that the prince of darkness         remembered were the shepherds who            sentatives of the church of all ages, of
wouldbe  destroyed, the enmity would        kept watch over their sheep on that          every true believer. That means that
be taken away, and salvation would          night appointed by God from all eter-        the message is directed personally to
come from the Lord.                         nity.                                        you and me!
     They looked for the Savior to                   We know very little about them.          A Savior. The name itself re-
bring peace. Abraham longed to see          Their names have not been preserved          veals how great the mystery of salva-
His day. All the patriarchs died, not       throughout history. How many there           tion actually is. For the saints of the
having received the promise, but hav-       were we do not know. What is impor-          old dispensation were very much
ing seen it with an eye of faith in the     tant for us to know is that they be-         aware that salvation could come only
distant future. Spiritual Israel never      longed to the remnant according to           from God.
gave up praying:                            election of grace, appointed to be the            The song of hope lived in their
                                            first recipients of the "glad tidings of     souls:
                                            great joy" as they kept watch over              MysoulinsilencewaitsforGod,
                                            their flock by night.                           My Savior He has proved;
                                                     "And lo, the angel of the Lord         He only is my rock and tow'r;
                                            came upon them, and the glory of the            I never shall be moved.
                                            Lord shone round about them: and                        (versification of Psalm 62 -
                                            they were sore afraid."                                        Psalter number 162)
                                                     No wonder that they were afraid.         This was declared in so many
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the    The glory of heaven had never come           words through the prophet Isa..ah: "I,
Protestant Reformed Churches.               nearer to mortal man. Besides, a             even I, am the Lord, and beside me

136/StandardBearer/December15,1991


there is no Savior" (Isa. 43:ll). This is         The Catechism reminds us that         plished, that heriniquityispardoned
confirmed by the name that the Sav-          we can never do that, since we only        for she hath received of the Lord's
iorbears,thename  Jesus,whichmeans           increase our debt every day. No ani-       hand double for all her sins" (Isa. 40:1,
Jehovah salvation, or, Jehovah saves.        mal, no angel, nor any other creature,     n\
                                                                                        4
     Jesus, whose birth is announced         can atone for us, because God's jus-
to the shepherds, is none other than         tice demands that the "soul that sins
the Son of God. He is the second             must die."                                       I know my sin and misery,
person of the Trinity, the revelation of          We are hopelessly lost, except                all my imperfections;
the Father, the Word that became             for the fact that God has eternally
flesh.                                       prepared a way out, atonement for                      but I also know
     How marvelously simple is the           our sins and deliverance from its                        where to seek
explanation of this amazing wonder           power through the death of His dear                    my deliverance.
of His birth as the angel describes it to    Son on the cross. God was in Christ
Mary: "The Holy Ghost shall come             reconciling the world unto Himself,
upon thee, and the power of theHigh-         not counting our sins against us.                  By the power of His Word and
est shall overshadow thee: therefore              Thus Jesus carries with Him His       Spirit He applies His grace to our
also that holy thing which shall be          own credentials. He is Christ, the         hearts.
born of thee shall be called the Son of      Lord.                                              First of all, of this I am assured,
God" (Luke 1:35).                                 The name Christ means                 that I belong to my faithful Savior Jesus
     We rejoice with the church of all       Anointed. He is appointed of God           Christ. He has made me deeply con-
ages, saying, "For unto us a child is        from all eternity to be the great          scious of my sins, which stand as a
born, unto us a son is given: and the        prophet, the eternal High Priest, and      barrier between my God and me. He
government shall be upon his shoul-          the sovereign King, the fulfillment of     brings me on my knees with the
ders: and his name shall be called           all the types of the old dispensation.     humble prayer, "0 God, be merciful
Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty                 Throughout His life and unto all      to me, the sinner." In answer to my
God, The everlasting Father, The             eternity He is completely God and at       prayer He daily assures me of His
Prince of peace" (Isa. 9:6).                 the same time completely man.              forgiving mercy. Being justified by
          God lay there in the manger of          He humbles Himself in the form        faith, I have peace with God through
Bethlehem. Yet He was at the same            of a servant. He is called to fight the    my Lord Jesus Christ.
time fully man. Conceived by the             battle of the Lord against all the pow-            Moreover, He dwells in me. By
Holy Ghost, born of the virgin Mary,         ers of darkness. At the very begin-        the power of His grace and Spirit I can
He was flesh of our flesh and bone of        ning of His ministry He meets His          recognize and fight off all the evil
our bone, appointed from all eternity        opponent, Satan, and declares war          attempts of the powers of darkness to
to be Jesus, our Savior, representative      against Hun. His power to perform          overwhelm me. I know my sin and
of all those given to Him by the Fa-         miracles, especially to drive out dev-     misery, all my imperfections; but I
t h e r .                                    ils, shows that His victory is sure.       also know where to seek my deliver-
                                             Satan does his utmost to hinder Him        ance. The battle continues day by
                                             in His work, finally even kills Him by     day, but the victory is sure. More
              If we are ever                 the hands of His enemies; but through      than conquerors are we!
              to be restored                 His death of the cross He crushes the              In blessed hope I await the clay
             to God's favor,                 head of Satan, overcomes all the pow-      whenthebattleis fought, the courseis
                                             ers of sin and death, and triumphantly     finished, the faith is kept, and the
  satisfaction must be made.                 passes through the grave to His posi-      righteous Judge presents me with the
                                             tion of power in heaven. The mighty        victor's crown, and not only me, but
                                             Conqueror is Lord of lords and King        also all those who await His coming.
     We call to mind how necessary           of kings.                                          With the shepherds we go to
this was according to the teaching of             Our Lord Jesus Christ is now in       Bethlehem, to return "glorifying and
our Catechism. Lord's Day 5 tells us         heaven for the very purpose of bless-      praising God" for all that we have
that by the righteous judgment of            ing us with every temporal and spiri-      seen and heard. We experience a "joy
God we deserve temporal and eternal          tualblessingbyHisSpiritinourhearts.        unspeakable and full of glory." n
punishment. If we are ever to be             He lives that we might live trium-
restored to God's favor,  satisfaction       phantly with Him in His glory.
must be made. God's justice must be               From heaven He proclaims the
satisfied. Our enmity must be taken          glad tidings: "Comfort ye, comfort ye
away. Atonement must be brought              my people, saith your God. Speak ye
for every one of our sins. There is no       comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry
other way out.                               unto her, that her warfare is accom-

                                                                                              DecemberlS, 1991 lStandardSearerll37


                                                   Peace in the
Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                           Church

       "Glo y to God in thehighest, and on    harmony, unity and agreement. The          U the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
earth peace, good will toward men."           three Persons in the Godhead have a        peace" (Eph. 43). That which ,unites
                                              beautiful unity of mind, of will, of       them is the fact that God is the Friend
      So sang the angels that wonder-         desire, and of purpose, with not even      of each one of them. Their common
fulnight. So heard the shepherds the          a hint of discord.                         friendship with God makes them true
tidings of great joy on that night, a              Peace is of and from God. He          friends with one another.
night they remembered unto their              "makespeace" (Isa. 45:7; Eph. 2:14,15)              Thispeaceinthechurchisafact.
deaths.                                       and "God is not the author of confu-       It is just as true that there is peace
      Peaceis!  Theangelsputnoquali-          sion, but of peace." This peace God        among all the different kinds of mem-
fiers on their declaration. Their song        authors "in allchurches of the saints"     bers of Christ's Body as it is true that
made a statement of fact. They an-            (I Cor. 14:33).                            each one has peace with God in Christ.
nounced the presence of peace in the               The angels sang of peace on earth     The angels declared it to be true,
birth of the Prince of peace in a man-        because the Prince of peace made           whether we can see it or not, whether
ger in Bethlehem.                             peace, being God's instrument torec-       it is our experience or not. Believe the
      Can there be a more wonderful           oncile the elect unto God. The "chas-      angels! Or better yet, believe th!e God
pronouncement? Peace is most pre-             tisementofourpeacewasuponHim."             who sent the angels and gave them
cious to the church. Anyone who is a          (No wonder the angels sang!) There-        their song to sing.
member of a congregation or denomi-           fore the proclamation of this finished              Everyone of the epistles thleHoly
nation which is experiencing or has           work of Jesus is called the "gospel        Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to
experienced strife of one kind or an-         (good news) of peace." The  content        write to different local congregations
otherwillspeakhighlyandfrequently             of the gospel is that because sinners      began with a benediction which in-
of the value and sweetness of peace.          are justified by faith they have "peace    cludes"peacefromGod."  Theapostle
Peace in the church is a cherished            with God" (Rom. 5:l). Christ's am-         Paul, when he penned these words,
virtue. .                                     bassadors declare the word of rec-         not only wanted to make it clear that
      As precious as peace is to the          onciliation (II Cor. 5:19) and they        he was acknowledging the fact that
church, it is more so to God. This is         "preachpeace" (Isa. 52:7;Rom.  10:16).     the congregation of saints to which he
obvious from the f act that, along with       God speaks peace unto His people           was writing had peace from God, but
Jesus being called the "Prince of             (Psa. 85:8; Eph. 2:17).                    he was also praying that God their
peace," the Scriptures seven times                 Each elect of God comes to know       Father would give the blessfing of
refer to God as the "God of peace." In        this peace of God personally and ex-       peace to these churches. The fre-
addition, the Bible speaks of "the            perientially. Of this the Rev. C. Hanko    quency of this acknowledgment and
peace of God."                                speaks in the previous article. But        of this petition implies that it is of
      Peace is in God. In Him there is        peace on earth is seen not only in the     utmost importance that the members
the most perfect and undisturbed              individual Christian. It is enjoyed        of the church live and practice peace.
                                              and manifested also in the church.         It also implies that there is a need for
                                                   The church is the gathering of        this constant reminder that the mem-
                                              those with whom God has made               bers of the congregation must strive
                                              peace. Being at peace with God, the        to live and practice peace witlh God
                                              individual members of that church          and with each other; for not always is
                                              canbeatpeacewitheachother. Being           this evident in the life of the congrega-
Rev. VanOverloop  is passtor of Bethel        in agreement with God, they can agree      tion.
ProtestantReformed  Churchin ElkGrove         with each other. An effect of Christ's              The fact of peace must be seen
Village, Illinois.                            work within them is the creation of        and shouldbe practicedin the clhurch.


Peaceisexpectedinthechurch. Peace           God calls "my covenant of peace"            apparent destruction of the peace of
is expected in every local church.          (Num. 25:12). The covenant of Godis         the church. It cannot be called schism.
     The importance of living in and        defined as the relationship of friend-      Peace stands on the foundation of the
practicing peace is evidenced by the        ship and fellowship. Those in a cov-        truth. Therefore, the church on earth
numerous commands calling the               enant so defined should be friendly,        is militant; she fights.
saints to live in peace. "Seek peace        the friendliest people on earth!
andpursueit" (Ps. 34:14&IPet.  3:ll).            The citizens of the kingdom of
"Prayfor the peace of Jerusalem" (I's       Christ live constantly in the conscious-           There is a right way
122:6).  We are admonished to "fol-         ness that God has made peace for                     and a wrong way
low the things which make for peace"        them. They are not only peaceful and
(Rom. 14:19).  We are told that "God        peace loving, but they are "peace-                 to swing the sword
hath called us to peace" (I Cor. 7~15).     makers."                                                of  the Spirit.
"Let the peace of God rule in your               Salvation means that a person is
hearts, to the which also ye are called     made to be one with Christ, to be a
in one body" (Col. 3:15). "Be at peace      member of HisBody. This unionwith                 However, the manner in which
among yourselves" (I Thess. 5:13).          Christ and with those in Christ is          the church and her members are mili-
"Follow peace with them that call on        performed by the Spirit of Christ.          tant must reflect the honor of the
the Lord with a pure heart" (II Tim.        Therefore the saved ones are admon-         truth. Let everyone who says that he
2:22). "Follow peace with all men"          ished to endeavor (make absolutely          has peace with God in Christ fight the
(Heb. 1214).  Two women are specifi-        every effort) "to keep the unity of the     necessary battles for the truth in an
cally told to cease their division and      Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3).    honorable manner. The defense of
to "be of the same mind in the Lord"             Nothing is more beautiful than         the truth is never permission for rnal-
(Phil. 42).                                 believers pursuing peace with one           ice, spite, revenge, and vindictive-
     There may be some who are of a         another. And nothing is more ugly           ness. It is in times of war and in the
more irenic spirit than others. But no      than strife, hatred, and evil motives in    heat of the battle, that the basest parts
oneis exempt from obedience to these        the church. It is more than ugly; it is     of man's nature manifest themselves.
commands. Even those who are given          "carnaY  (I Cor. 3:3).                      Unadulterated pride and hatred are
to a temper and to a most pugnacious             The fruit of not endeavoring to        heard sometimes in what is said. But
nature must strive to obey these ad-        keeptheunityoftheSpiritinthebond            also they are seen in how things are
monitions for peace, as they thank          of peace is not good. One sad conse-        said. It is a great shame when the
God for the peace He has made with          quence is a lack of one's personal          doctrines of sovereign grace are de-
them in Christ.                             possession of peace. But a more seri-       fended in a manner completely lack-
     All who are the objects of God's       ous repercussion is what happens to         ingin grace. Especially in the defense
grace have had their evil, old natures      the church's witness to the world.          of the truth, the people of God must
crucified in the death of their Savior      Her light is hid under a bushel and         fight honorably. There is a right way
and Lord. They have been given, not         her Father which is in heaven is not        and a wrong way to swing the sword
only a soft heart of flesh, but also the    glorified (cf. Matt. 5:16). Occasion is     of the Spirit.
Spirit whose fruit is "love, joy, peace,    given to the adversary to speak re-              Careful distinctions must be
longsuff ering, gentleness, goodness,       proachfully and for the name of God         made. For the sake of the peace which
faith, meekness and temperance."            to be blasphemed. Her teachings are         Christ obtained at the cost of His ofwn
                                            considered not worth learning and           life, it is necessary that believers make
                                            heeding. What a deplorable witness!         distinctions. Some battles must be
      The covenant of God                        The pursuit of peace is not to be      fought or the truth is compromised.
               is defined as                at any price, or peace for the sake of      There are other battles which should
         the relationship                   peace. Remember that the angels             notbefought. Oftenissuesarisewithin
                                            sang also of the glory of God. The          the church which create division. No,
of  friendship and fellowship.              clear implication is that peace in the      the issue does not create the division,
      Those in a covenant                   church and the glory of God are in          the people on the varying sides of the
                so defined                  perfect accord. There are wolves (both      issue create the division. There are
       should be friendly,                  from without as well as from within         disagreements amongmembers of the
      the fkiendliest people                -the latter come in sheep's clothing)       same congregation or denomination
                                            who seek to destroy the church and          over non-confessional matters, or
                on earth!                   her peace. For the glory of God the         matters treated in the confessions but
                                            church must fight against these             which are open to some difference of
                                            wolves. For the glory of God it is          interpretation. The problem often is
     The Savior has given His saved         sometimes absolutely necessary that         that the saints on both sides exalt the
ones entrance into the covenant, which      there be re-formation. This is only an      issue to one of defense of the truth;

                                                                                           December 15,199l lStandardBearerll39


     and, of course, their side is defending        What a terrible thing if we judge our        Spirit. Let the striving be after recon-
     the truth. It is absolutely necessary          brother and treat him as our adver-          ciliation of fellow-members of the
     that each member of Christ's Body              sary or enemy when "yea, he shall be         Body of Christ. Let the striving be to
     not let these minor matters of differ-         holden up: for God is able to make           keep the unity of the Spirit. Let the
     ence divide the Body. How truly vile           him stand" (Rom. 14:4).                      striving be the putting away of "bit-
     is the purposeful lack of greeting as                Personalities may never be al-         terness, and wrath, and anger, and
     members of that Body walk together             lowed to interfere. No issue  may            clamour, and evil speaking." Let the
     into a worship service. "There should          create hatred. The children of God           striving be in being "kind one .to an-
     be no schism in the body" (I Cor.              may disagree, but they may never be          other, tenderhearted, forgiving one
     12:25).                                        disagreeable. Never, not any time,           another, even as God for Christ's sake
                                                    not even in battle, may anything be          hath forgiven you" (Eph. 4:31,32).
                                                    "done through strife." Issues may                 We are in the season of com-
                Issues may divide,                  divide, but they may never cause             memorating the biih of Him who is
                but they may never                  strife. Rather the spirit of each peace-     notonlyourSavior,but also thePrince
                   cause strife.                    maker (Jesus does not allow us to put        of our peace with God. May our
                                                    off that title at any time) is that "in      commemoration be sincere. May we
                                                    lowliness of mind . . . eachesteemother      hear the angels sing. May we reflect
                                                    better than themselves. Look not             on the wonder of the peace our Savior
                                                    every man on his own things, but             gives. May our commemoration of
              Always the one who has peace          every man on the things of others,"          the peace He brought be evidenlcedin
     with God must endeavor (make ev-               being "likeminded, having the same           our attitude and conduct one with
     ery possible effort) to keep the unity         love, being of one accord, of one mind"      another in His Body. May we forgive
     of the Spirit in the bond of peace. His        (Phil. 2:2-4).                               as forgiven, and pray for forgiveness
     speech must "be alway with grace"                    Peace is not experienced in the        as we forgive. Then may the peace of
     (Col. 46). Each servant of the Lord is         church without striving. Let the striv-      God, which passeth all human rmder-
     answerable to the Lord alone; "to his          ing be that each put down himself.           standing, dwell within you. Cl
     own Master he standeth or falleth."            Let the strivingbe after the fruit of the



                                                    Christmas and
                                                    World Peace
     Prof. Robert Decker


              As always, so again this year,              What these preachers and their         which was lost. We must not, there-
     there is all kinds of talk at Christmas        followers ignore, or perhaps we              fore, conceive of this word of Jesus as
     time of world peace. The citizens of           should say reject, is the word of Jesus      an exhaustive definition of what He
     this land will be urged to follow the          recorded in Matthew  10:34:  "Think          came to do on this earth.
     example of Jesus and work for peace            not that I am come to send peace on               This word does, however, get at
     on earth. Many preachers, the vast             earth: I came not to send peace, but a       the heart of the Savior's purpose. Jesus
     majority in fact, will be telling their        sword."                                      came to save His people from their
     congregations that Jesus, the great                  There are some statements in           sins by His death on the cross and His
     Prince of Peace, is the only hope for          Scripture which capture in just a few        resurrection from the dead. Thus
     peace on earth. These preachers will           words the entire truth. This is one of       Jesus fulfilled the eternal counsel of
     be exhorting their congregations to            those. The Savior is speaking about          God; and in Him and His Body, the
     pray for world peace.                          His purpose in coming to this earth.         church, the glory of God shall be
                                                    This is not the only such statement          perfectly manifest in the New Cre-
                                                    from our Lord. He tells us elsewhere,        ation. But all this is accomplished in
                                                    for example, that He is come not to          the way of Christ coming not toi send
     Prof. Decker is professor ofPractical  The-    call the righteous but sinners to re-        peace on earth but a sword.
     ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         pentance. Or again, Jesus tells us that           The meaning of this word is ob-
     nary.                                          He is come to seek and to save that          vious. Jesus did not come to send



L


peace on earth, He came to send a                                                      lives of the children of God. It is the
sword. Jesus came to send conflict,               Wherever God's cause                 struggle between the old man of sin
war, battle. He came to cause divi-             is manifest in the world               (the flesh) and the new man in Christ.
sion. According to the context, Jesus                                                  The apostle Paul's anguished confes-
came to set people at variance, the son          there is division, strife.            sion of his own struggle against sin
againsthisfather,thedaughteragainst                                                    recorded in Romans 7 is testimony
her mother.                                                                            enough.
      Is there a contradiction here? "I     prophesied of theimminentjudgment                There is, therefore, no contra-
am not come to send peace but a             of the ungodly and was translated          diction. Jesus is indeed the Prinoe  of
sword" appears to be the exact oppo-        that he should not see death. Noah         Peace! But this is not the peace of
site of what the Bible says elsewhere       for one hundred twenty years               which the world speaks. Jesus did
concerning Jesus. When they an-             preachedrighteousness. Nimrodand           not come to send peace on earth. The
nounce His birth the angels speak of        the unbelieving world after the flood      gospel of Jesus is not one of earthly
"peace on earth and good will among         built their tower of Babel in defiance     peace and tranquility for all peoples
men." In the ninth chapter of His           of God and His cause. The patriarchs       of the earth. The message of Christi-
prophecy, Isaiah lists among Jesus'         were strangers in a strange land. It       anity is not one of reconciliation and
names "The Prince of Peace."                was the children of Israel in Egypt's      harmony, or even one of co-existence
Ephesians 214-15  teaches that Christ       bondage. It was the heathen of Canaan      amongthepeoples of this world. And
is our peace, that He made both one,        against God's chosen people. It was        the message of Jesus is not one of
that He broke down the middle wall          the whole world: Assyria, Syria, and       union between church and world,
of partition between us, having abol-       Babylon, against God's Israel. Wher-       light and darkness.
ishedin His flesh the enmity between        ever God's cause is manifest in the
us, making one new man out of two           world there is division, strife.
and so making peace. And in Luke                 The climax came in the fullness                    By His cross
1:79 Zacharias sings of Him as He           of time when God sent His Son into
who came to "guide our feet into the        the world. The sword was obvious                        Jesus brings
way of peace." But here Jesus states        already at His birth when Herod  at-                    the peace of
emphatically, "I am not come to send        tempted to destroy Him, and it con-             the kingdom of heaven
peace, but a sword." How must we            tinued all through the ministry of                     to His people.
understand this? How can Jesus be           Christ. Wherever Jesus appeared
"The Prince of Peace" if He came to         there was the sword. He was tempted
send not peace on earth, but a sword?       of Satan. He was contradicted, de-               Christ came to send a sword. He
     There is of course no contradic-       nied, and rejected. Always there was       came to fight and destroy the un-
tion. This statement of Jesus is pre-       the deliberate attempt to destroy the      godly. So God purposed from all
cisely according to the eternal coun-       cause of God.                              eternity. According to the prophecy
sel of God. God's eternal purpose in             That became most clearly evi-         of Daniel Jesus is the stone cut out of
Christ according to which He saves          dent at the cross of Jesus. There the      the mountain by no human hand
His church out of the world is: war,        whole world cried, crucify Him, cru-       which grinds to powder the king-
division, strife, a sword!                  cify Him! But, it was at the cross that    doms of this world. Jesus dealt ithe
     God spoke of this immediately          the Prince of Peace crushed the head       death-blow at the cross! The cross of
after the fall of man into sin when He      of the seed of the serpent. There          Jesus is the destruction of the forces of
announced to Satan, "And I will put         Christ destroyed him that had the          unbelief under Satan. And the Word
enmity between thee and the woman           power of death. And in the resurrec-       of the cross destroys the antichristian
and between thy seed and her seed; it       tion of Jesus, death was swallowed         wisdom of this world. By His cross
shall bruise thy head and thou shalt        up in victory.                             Jesus brings the peace of the kingdom
bruise his heel" (Genesis 3:15). God             Even though the issue had been        of heaven to His people.
said there is going to be hatred be-        decided, the battle continued after             Peace on earth? Yes, it is com-
tween the two seeds: that of the            the ascension and return of Christ in      ing. Already in the very recent past
woman which is the elect church and         the Spirit. If church tradition be cor-    we have seen startling evidences of
that of the serpent which is the repro-     rect, only one of the apostles died in     this peace in the collapse of commu-
bate world. Between these two there         bed. By means of false teachers in the     nism in Eastern Europe and the So-
is war, division, strife. The first in-     church, by means of the temptations        viet Union. There will soon be peace
stance of this soon followed when           of the world, the devil and his host       on earth. But it will not be the peace
Cain slew his righteous brother, Abel.      opposed the gospel and attempted to        of Jesus. It will be the peace of Anti-
     The Bible from this point on           destroy the cause of Jesus Christ and      christ and his kingdom of darkness.
records the history of that greatbattle.    His church.                                The unbelievable manifestation of sin
Enoch, the seventh from Adam,                    This battle rages even within the     in our time: the homosexuality, the

                                                                                          December 15,199l  I StandardBearerl'l41


lawlessness, the frightening apostasy        slain with the sword. But in that last      saints of all ages. God's glory will
in the church, all these are indications     great battle they are more than con-        shine perfectly and forever.
thattherearealreadymanyantichrists           querors through Jesus. After only a              Come, Lord Jesus, yes, come
in the world.                                little while the Prince of Peace will       quickly is the prayer of every child of
     When THE antichrist comes,              return on the clouds to destroy allHis      God at Christmas time and all the
God's saints will be able neither to         enemies and to take all His saints into     time.  0
buy nor to sell. God's church will be        the new heaven and earth. Then there
persecuted, harassed, and His saints         will be perfect peace in Jesus for the

Book Review

                                             Satan. We need to know the devil's          and cultured and refined of the world.
Satan, His Motives andMethods,by             person, and his evil motives and pur-       He has a great system of influence in
Lewis Sperry Chafer, Kregel Publica-         poses. Much that is written today           modern-day culture and philosophy
tions, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990,         about Satan includes so many extra-         and education. He is the author of
143  pp.,$7.95,  (paper). [Reviewed by       biblical and even pagan ideas about         much modern-day religion that calls
Pastor Arie denHartog.1                      Satan. We need to know what the             itself Christian and that is so highly
                                             Bible has to say about Satan.               regarded by men but condemned by
     This book is a reprint. It was               The author affirms the reality of      the holy and righteous God. Espe-
originally published in 1919. The            Satan in all of his fearful power and       cially good is Chafer's discussion of
author of the book, Lewis Sperry             great wickedness and writes soberly         what is really involved in religion
Chafer, was an American Presbyte-            about him. Many today, even among           that has the form of godliness and
rian clergyman (1871-1952). He was           those who are in the church, imagine        denies the power of it. This religionis
the founder of what today is Dallas          Satan to be little more than a mytho-       Satan-inspired though it appears to
Theological Seminary. He was presi-          logical being concerning whom you           be godly. It is a religion that teaches
dent of Dallas and professor of sys-         can make cartoons and about whom            man the vain imagination that he can
tematic theology there untilhis death.       you can laugh without fear or seri-         save himself with only a little help
     This is a well-written book on a        ousness. The very minimizing  and           from God. It is a religion that speaks
subject that is certainly in need of         denying of his reality in the modern-       of Christ as a great example fior all
study. Though it was written a num-          day church plays right into the hands       men to follow but denies the truth of
ber of years ago it is still just as rel-    of Satan.                                   the atonement as the only hope of
evant today. We live in the day of the            In the first chapter Chafer gives      man's salvation. Throughout the
prevalence of Satanism and the oc-           a brief summary of the career of Sa-        book, and especially in the last chap-
cult. Even more seriously we see             tan, including his creation and fall,       ter, there is an emphasis on thle fact
Satan working in the church through          the various stages in the history of his    that Satan is so powerful and so de-
the deception of false doctrine. We          operation, and his final defeat. Cha-       ceptive in his devices that it is totally
see the works of Satan in so much that       fer shows from Scripture that Satan         impossible for the Christian to stand
has the "form of godliness but denies        was created by God as a good angel          against him in his own strength and
its power." We witness the works of          and is therefore absolutely depen-          wisdom. We are absolutely depen-
Satan in the rising power of the man         dent on God in all of his operations.       dent on the grace of God and the
of sin and the ever-growing influence        Though Satan is powerful and fear-          power of the Lord Jesus Christ to gain
of the "Satanic System" of this un-          ful, God is sovereign over him. There       the victory over Satan. And we shall
godly world.                                 are chapters with titles such as the        by that grace indeed have the victory.
     The excellence of this book is          following: The Satanic Host, Satan's        The defeat of Satan which has been
that it is written from a scholarly and      Motive, Satan's Methods, The Man'of         prophesied from the beginning is ab-
conservative perspective and that it is      Sin, Satan's ModernDevices, and the         solutely sure. Christ's final victory
solidly biblical. As the author says in      Believer's Present Victory.                 has been guaranteed by the cross and
thebeginningofthebook,allhissource                It would be easy to give many          resurrection.
material on the truth of Satan is taken      examples of excellent points made in             We recommend this book. It has
directly from the Bible and from the         each of these chapters. Chafer em-          one great weakness that must, in our
Bible alone. The book is absolutely          phasizes that Satan's works are not         opinion, be pointed out. It is dispen-
full of biblical quotations. The sheer       limited to what, even to the world,         sational in its perspective, and that
abundance of biblical references im-         seems horribly depraved, devilish,          does seriously affect some of the in-
presses one with the fact that God's         andblatantlywicked. Satanhasgreat           terpretation of Scripture presented in
Word has so much to warn us about            spiritual power to influence the great      it.  0


News From Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger


School Activities                           at the end of November unless. there      additional seating possible. Well, af-
        We begin this latest installment    were sufficient new grounds for con-      ter some delays, construction at last
of the "News" withanitem of interest        tinuing. The bi-weekly Bible Study        beganonthis ambitiousprojectinlate
from the South Holland, IL PR Chris-        willcontinueuntilitsreviewinMarch.        October.
tian School.                                     While Rev. Russ Dykstra, of our               TheCounciloftheBethelPRCin
        When school started this fall,      Doon, IA PRC, was in Boise, ID            Elk Grove Village, IL has been in-
both the 5th and 6th graders began          preachingfortheSovereignRedeemer          formedby the pastor of the Ascension
saving their own money for the pur-         Fellowship, he also arranged to give a    Lutheran Church, which facility they
pose of collecting $50 for people in        public lecture on the doctrine of cre-    use for their evening services, that
RussiawhodonothaveBiblesintheir             ation.                                    Bethel will not be able to use the
homes. It took about a month before              The annual Reformed Witness          facility beyond March, 1992. So the
enoughmoneywassavedandsenton                Committee Fall Lecture was held on        search begins, for Bethel, to find an-
to the Trinitarian Bible Society.           November 15 at Dordt College Chapel       other facility in which to meet.
        After six weeks the students re-    in Sioux Center, IA. Prof. David                   The young people of the Hope
ceived a letter from the TBS thanking       Engelsma spoke on the topic, "Gen-        PRC in Redlands, CA sponsored a
them for their generosity. The letter       esis l-11: Myth or History." Mem-         Thanksgiving  Hymnsing after .the
said, in part, something of which I         bers of the three congregations (Doon     evening service on Sunday, Novem-
think we can all be reminded: "Chil-        and Hull, IA, and Edgerton, MN)           ber 24. There were several special
dren, I hope you may realize what           were encouraged to pass the word          numbers and an offering was taken
privileges that you have, that you          and invite their friends and family       for the coming Young People's Con-
have Bibles. Be sure you read them          members to attend this very impor-        vention sponsored next year by Faith
every day, and pray about what you          tant lecture.                             Church in Jenison, MI.
have read, that God may apply it to              Also concerning Dordt College,
your heart."                                let me add here that the R.W.C. con-      Denominational Activities
                                            tinues to support a Bible Study on the             Rev. M. Kamps, pastor of .the
Evangelism Highlights                       Dordt College Campus. The Bible           Southwest  PRC in Grandville, MI was
        The semi-annual Protestant Re-      Study is treating this year the first     asked by the Contact Committee to
formed Evangelism Planning (PREP)           eleven chapters of Genesis as well.       represent our churches at NAPARC,
Committee meeting was'held on No-                                                     North America Presbyterian and Re-
vember 9 in our Byron Center, MI            Congregational Highlights                 formed Council of Churches. This
PRC. All persons interested in the               Many of our churches sponsor         meeting was held November 6 and 7
evangelism work of our churches were        lectures to correspond with the anni-     in Pittsburgh, PA.
invited to attend.                          versary of the Reformation in Octo-                TheFallLadies' LeagueMeeting
        The Council of the South Hol-       ber. One of our churches who did that     was held October 22 in the Doon, IA
land, IL PRC has approved their             was the congregation of the Pella PRC     PRC. Rev. R. Dykstra spoke on the
church's Evangelism Committee's             in Pella, IA. They invited Rev. Steve     topic "The Particular Task of Godly
recommendation that the preaching           Key, of the Randolph, WI PRC, to be       Women in the Last Times."
servicesinFt. Waynebediscontinued           the speaker. He spoke on the subject,              We send our congratulations to
                                            "ChurchMembershipinanEvilAge."            Rev. and Mrs. C. Terpstra of South
                                                 The December 15th, 1990 issue        Holland on the occasion of the birth of
                                            of the Standard Bearer contained an       a son, Justin Charles, born October
                                            item dealing with plans by the Faith      25.
                                            PRC in Jenison, MI to add a double-
                                            wing addition to their building. One      Ministerial Calls
                                            side would provide classroom space                 Rev.C.Haakdeclinedthecallhe
                                            while the other would serve as a so-      had received to serve as pastor of the
                                            cial room. These additions would          Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI.
Mr. Wigger is a member ofthe Protestant     make it possible to remove rooms                                                  0
Reformed Church ofHudsonville,  Michi-      which have been added to the sides of
gan.                                        the sanctuary, making much needed

                                                                                             December15,1991lStandardBearerll43


                                    He is Our Peace

Was ever there a peace like that
In Eden found -
When God for disobedience' sake
First cursed the ground
And gave the man a life of endless toil,
YJhe woman, sorrow
In the bearing of their seed?
What deep relief
That Justice, Mercifil
Already had put enmity                         Was ever there a peace like that
Between the stricken pair                      At Jesus' tomb,
And Satan, for eternity.                       When women, coming to embalm their Lord
                                               With grief and gloom,
Was ever there a peace like that               Found stone rolled back and angel bidding,
In Bethlehem-town,                             `Come,
When jubilant messengers from Heaven           Behold the place"?
Brought their anthems down                     Not there, but risen now.
To shepherds tending flocks upon her lonely    From Death's embrace
hills?                                         Torn free forevermore,
From heaven to earth                           That He might lead a captive band
Their "`glorias" did resound                   From death to life with Him,
To hail the virgin birth.                      And rule with them at God's right hand.
"To men of God's good will
The Savior now descends."                      Was ever there a peace like that
Long had the prophet-mantles lain unused,      In hearts of men
But now the waiting ends.                      Who bear a living hope that He shall come
                                               To earth again,
                                               And sing for joy to hear His footsteps now?
                                               Four horsemen run,
                                               And there is war and death and woe.
                                               But there is One,
                                               Who rides before them all
                                               To lead us where all sorrows cease,
                                               And lion dwells with lamb.
                                               Come quickly, Lord, our Prince of Peace!

                                                                             SuzanneLooyenga
                                                                             South Holland, Illinois


