A Reformed
Magazine                 BfER
Semi-Monthly





                                      PRC pastor, Rev. Jason Kortering,
                                         addresses Singaporean audience



                         "`Opportunities for labor in this part of the world,
                         and especially here in Singapore and the ERCS, are
                         staggering."

                                See "Reflections on the Training of Our Future Ministers"
                                                                            -page 275.



March         15,1992


                                                                                                                                                                                        :

CONTENTS:  '                                                                                                                                                        March 15, 1992

Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema
           A Prayer for God's Mercy . . . . . . . . . ..*...............*..~......~........................ 267
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
           As Others See Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.*...........................**................*...........                                                                                                269
           Family Conference in Northern Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..s........m...*...s...... 270                                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, inc.,
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . .  I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    271     4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Second Class
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273                                                                                  Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
Guest Article - Rev. Jaikishin Mahfani                                                                                                                                                                                      Postmaster:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            P.O. Box 603, Grandvilla, MI 49466-0603.
            Reflections on the Training of oirr Future Ministers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . 275
The Strength of Youth - Rev. Sfeven R. Key                                                                                                                                                                                  EDITORIAL  COMMlTrEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Editor:  Prof. David J. Engelsma
            Mind Games . . . ..*...............*.......*.....................................................                                                                                                       278     Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                  Managing E&or: Mr. Don Doezama
           John Hus ..,............................................................................***.*.*..                                                                                                        280     DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Rev. Ronald Cammenga. Prof. Robert Decker. Rev. Arie
Contribution - Rev. Kenneth Kooole                                                                                                                                                                                          denHartog. Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Carl Haak, Mr. Fred
           Analyzing the Disciples'Mistaken Kingdom Notion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283                                                                                                                      Henko, Prof. Herman Henko, Rev. John Hays, Rev. Marvin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            timps,  Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Koole,  Rev. Jason
Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                        285     Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting, Rev. George
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wgger . ...,.,........,.......,...,.,., 287                                                                                                                                           Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsama, Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Charles Tarpstra, Rev. Ronald VanOverloop, Mr. Benjamin
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudsnberg.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                            EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wiooer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4949 Ivanrest                6597 46th %a.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Grandville, Ml 49416         Hudsonville. MI 49426
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW  ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Don Doezema                  do Protestant Reformed
In This Issue..,                                                                                                                                                                                                            P.O. Box 603                    Church
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Qrandville. Ml               B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              49468-0603                 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            PH: (616) 536-l 776          Wainuiomata, New Zealand
             Both from the point of view of the labors within the Evangelical Reformed                                                                                                                                            (616) 531-1490
Churches of Singapore themselves, and, more especially still, from the point of                                                                                                                                             FAX: (616) 531-3033
view of apparent opportunities for labors by the ERCS, one cannot help but be                                                                                                                                               EDITORIAL  POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
impressed by the crying need for laborers. That's the thrust of Pastor Jaiki                                                                                                                                                articlss. Contributions of general interestfrom our readers and
Mahtani's Guest Article in this issue. In the absence of a seminary of their own,                                                                                                                                           questions for The Reader Asks department ara welcome.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
according to Pastor Mahtani, the ERCS have appointed a Theological Training                                                                                                                                                 mustbaneatlywrittenortypewritten,andmustbesigned.          Copy
Committee to explore opportunities for, and to supervise, the training of                                                                                                                                                   deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            communications relative to the contents should be sentto the
aspirants to the ministry, both at a local Bible College and in the Protestant                                                                                                                                              editorial office.
Reformed Seminary in the U.S. However, he leaves no doubt but that what he                                                                                                                                                  REPRINT  POLICY
calls "the need of the hour" requires serious pursuit of the longer-term goal of                                                                                                                                            Penission is hereby granted forthe reprinting of articles in our
establishing their own seminary in Singapore. It is especially for that that he                                                                                                                                             magazine byotherpublications,provided:  a)thatsuchreprinted
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            articles are reproduced in full: b) that proper acknowledgment
urges the friends of the ERCS to heed Christ's command to "pray the Lord of                                                                                                                                                 is made: c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
the harvest...."                                                                                                                                                                                                            appears is sent to our editorial office.
                                                                                   *  * *  *  *  *  *                                                                                                                       SUBSCRIPTION  POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Subscript@  price: $12.60 per year in the U.S., $15.00
              At the beginning of this volume year we informed our readers that Rev.                                                                                                                                        elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
StevenKeywouldshare  withRev. Dykstratherubric, "The Strengthof Youth."                                                                                                                                                     received, it Is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            subscriptiontccontinue,andhewill  bebilledforrencwal.  lfyou
In this issue we have the first of what we hope will be a good number of articles                                                                                                                                           haveachangeofaddrsss, pleasenotifytheBusinessOfficeas
from Rev. Key's pen. His topic this time, "Mind Games," is addressed to the                                                                                                                                                 early as possible in order to avoid the inconvsnience of
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
youth of the church; but it's a matter, surely, which concerns every child of God.
Having himself once studied marketing, Rev. Key can speak with some                                                                                                                                                         ADVERTISING POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The StandardBearsrdoes  not accept commercial advertising
authority about the ad industry's determined effort to manipulate people's                                                                                                                                                  of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
minds through hidden persuaders, the stated purpose of which is to bypass                                                                                                                                                   anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            placed for a $3.00 fee. These should be sent to tho Business
their conscious guard. That is, con them into buying the meat for its sizzle.                                                                                                                                               Office and should be accompanied by the $3.00 fee, Deadline
Now, if such psychological manipulation were limited to the marketing of                                                                                                                                                    for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            date. -
goods, its threat to the spiritual well-being of the child of God would not be so                                                                                                                                           BOUND VOLUMES
serious. But, says Rev. Key, it isn't. It involves more than meat. And it involves                                                                                                                                          The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
not only public-relations experts but the master deceiver himself. But . . . read                                                                                                                                           wpiesof!hecurrentvolume.  Suchordersarefillednssoonas
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            possible after completion of a volume year.
for yourself - "Mind Games."
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    D.D.    16mm  microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            International.
266/StandardSearer/March15,1992


                                              A Prayer for God's
Meditation
Rev. James Slopsema' Merc y

                                                     Let thy tender mercies come unto     of great struggle of soul. Due to the
                                              me!                                         difficult circumstances in which he
      Let thy tender mercies come unto               How beautiful and precious are       found himself, the psalmist's soul
me, that I may live: for thy law is my        the tender mercies of God.                  melted for heaviness (vs. 28). It clung
delight.                                             God's tender mercy is the pity       to the dust (vs. 25). Consequently, the
                           Psalm 11977        and compassion -God has for His             psalmist speaks repeatedly of his need
                                              people in their need. Whenever God          to be comforted. He also repeats the
      We do not know who the. in-             sees the suffering of His people, His       request over and over that the Lord
spired writer of this Psalm was.              divine heart goes out to them. He is        quicken him, i.e., make him alive.
      From the Psalm itself, however,         deeply affected by their plight. This                All this makes clear that the
we learn a great deal about him. He           inner compassion and concern for            psalmist was very concerned about
was a young man who was being                 His people led God to reach out to His      his spiritual existence. As a child of
persecuted for his faith. For his faith       people in their woes and to deliver         God he enjoyed a rich life of friend-
he had even been imprisoned by the            them.                                       ship and fellowship with God. That
princes of the land. The prospect of a               When the psalmist speaks of          life, however, was being disrupted,
martyr's death was very real.                 God's tender mercies (plural), he has       even threatened, by his persecution.
      In this Psalm the psalmist speaks       in mind specific acts of mercy in which     The devil was working mightily to
of the law of God. He refers to God's         God delivers His people from their          bring the psalmist to despair, to crush
law by several different terms. The           troubles.                                   his soul. Very real were the tempta-
psalmist speaks of God's word, His                   The psalmist utters a prayer, Let    tions to.turn from God that he may
ways, His statutes, His command-              thy tender mercies come unto me.            win the favor of his persecutors.
ments, His judgments, His testimo-            The psalmist is in deep distress. He
nies, His precepts. One of these terms        has need of help. His request is that
is found in each of the 176 verses of         the Lord in compassion deliver him                         Whenever we
this Psalm, with only two exceptions.         mightily from his troubles.                           in God's providence
It is clear from this Psalm that God's               Notice, too, thatthepsalmistasks
law served the psalmist as his guide,         for God's mercy specifically so that                 suffer due to sickness,
his joy, and his strength.      ,             he may live.                                         poverty, the loss of a
      In the particular verse we con-                Certainly the psalmist was con-                 loved one in death,
sider for this meditation the psalmist        cerned here about his physical life.                   family problems,
utters a prayer: "Let thy tender mer-         Remember, the psalmist had been                       or any other means,
cies come unto me, that I may live: for       imprisoned by the princes of the land
thy law is my delight."                       for his faith. He faced the very real         the devil is busily working.
     How urgent was this prayer for           prospect that he, like countless others
the psalmist!                                 in history, would be martyred for the
     How urgent this prayer is for us!        faith. When, therefore, he prays for                 In great agony of soul the psalm-
            *  *  *  *  * * *                 God's tender mercies that he may            ist cries out to God, Let thy tender
                                              live, heundoubtedlyisconcernedwith          mercies come unto me, that I may
                                              his physical life.                          live!
                                                     Nevertheless, it becomes appar-               This urgent prayer for tender
                                              ent from the Psalm itself that the          mercy must also be ours. For we are
                                              psalmist'sconcernwasprimarilywith           essentially in the same plight as the
Rev.  Slopsenza  is pastor of Hope Protes-    his spiritual life.                         psalmist.
tant Reformed Church in Walker,                      The psalmist gives indication                 It is true that our physical cir-
Michigan.                                     that his imprisonment was the cause         cumstances are not the same as the

                                                                                                    March 15,1992/ StandardBearer  1267


psalmist's. I doubt that anyone read-              These laws were very signifi-         find in it all their salvation. For that
ing these words has been imprisoned           cant for Old Testament Israel. For         reason the true believer also delights
for his faith, or faces the real prospect     they proclaimed to Israel the gospel       in the blood of atonement. It is the
of martyrdom.                                 of salvation. The ceremoniallaws, for      sure foundation of all that is precious
     Nevertheless, the powers of              example, provided Israel with a pic-       to him. For the psalmist this atoning
darkness also seek to disrupt and, if         ture of the coming Savior, who as the      blood was represented in and prom-
possible, destroy the wonderful life          Lamb of God would offer Himself as         ised by the sacrifices that the law
of friendship and fellowship we enjoy         atonement for their sins and obtain        required. The law proclaimed to him
with Godin Jesus Christ. The powers           their salvation. The kingdom into          the gospelof  salvation. Consequently,
of darkness seek to accomplish this           which Israel was organized through         his delight was in that law.
fiendish purpose, for example, by             the civil laws provided God's people            And now, in his plea for God's
dangling before us the pleasures of a         with a picture of the future kingdom       tender mercies, the psalmist sets be-
sinfulworld, hoping to allureus away          of heaven in which they would enjoy        foretheLordhisdelightinGod'slaw.
from God into sin. But the devil also         the fullness of their salvation. In        For this delight is the proof of the very
uses hardship and suffering in his            short, the whole gospel of salvation       faith through which he expects to
attempt to destroy us spiritually.            was pictured and powerfully pro-           receive the mercies of God.
Whenever we in God's providence               claimed through the law.                        So too must we be ready to set
suffer due to sickness, poverty, the               In that law the psalmist de-          before the Lord the fruit of our faith as
loss of a loved one in death, family          lighted. The law was to the psalmist       we seekHis mercies. That evidence is
problems, or any other means, the             the source of great pleasure and joy.      an inner delight, not just in the Old
devil is busily working. He seeks to          This delight of the psalmist was a         Testament law, but in the whole of
bring us to despair. He would make            delight in the gospel of grace which       God's Word that reveals to us Jesus
us bitter, evenrebellious against God.        the law proclaimed to him.                 Christ as the Lamb of God, come to
He tries every which way to use our                                                      take away the sin of the worl'd.
suffering to disrupt our life with God,                                                           *  * *  *  *  * *
to turn us from God and destroy us                    We must be ready                        Ask, and it shall be given you;
spiritually.                                       to set before the Lord                seek, and you shall find; knock, and it
     Consequently we find ourselves                                                      shall be opened unto you. For every-
in a continual battle for our very spiri-           the fruit of our faith               one that asks receives; and he that
tual life. In this battle it is veryimpor-        as we seek His mercies.                seeks finds; and to him that knocks it
tant that we cry out as the psalmist,                                                    shall be opened.
Let thy tender mercies come unto me,                                                          This truth about prayer spoken
that I may live.                                                                         by Jesus (Matt. 7:7, 8) the psalmist
         * * * *  +  *  *                          In this delight the psalmist          found to be true also.for himself. For,
     The psalmist grounds his prayer          grounds his prayer for mercy: Let thy      in answer to his plea, the Lord in
for divine mercy in his delight in            tender mercies come unto me, that I        mercy preserved the psalmist's life.
God's law: Let thy tender mercies             may live: for thy law is my delight.       The psalmist testifies that in the face
come unto me, that I may live: for thy             We must not understand the            of all obstacles he was able to perse-
law is my delight.                            psalmist to be presenting his delight      vere in the ways of God. He was also
     When we think of God's law, we           in the law as a good work that serves      able to enjoy the pleasures of God's
usually think just of the Ten Com-            as a basis for God's mercy to him.         friendship and fellowship. In fact, the
mandments. To the psalmist the law            God's mercies are not something we         psalmist even testifies that his afflic-
meant more than just the ten words            earn on the basis of our own works or      tion had been for his profit. Before his
written by God on tables of stone. To         worth. The mercies of God are freely       troubles he was inclined to wander.
the psalmist the law included all the         given. They are given on one basis         But through affliction God taught him
precepts given to Israel at Mt. Sinai         alone-theshedbloodof atonement.            to keep the statutes of God.
through Moses. In addition to the             Hence, we rule out any notion that the          Having seen the great mercy of
Ten Commandments, which formed                inspired psalmist bases his plea for       God for the psalmist, let us also come
the heart of the law, were the ceremo-        mercy on his delight in God's law.         before the Lord with the confidence
nial laws. These laws governed                     Rather does the psalmist set forth    of faith in the time of need.
Israel's worship. They instructed Is-         his delight in Gods law as the evi-             And may our prayer be .that of
rael to erect the tabernacle, ordain the      dence of his faith. The mercies of God     the psalmist.
priesthood, offer various sacrifices,         are received by faith alone.                    Let thy tender mercies come unto
and keep the feast days. In addition               Now faith has certain fruits, one     me, that I may live: for thy law is my
to this there were also the civil laws,       of which is an inner delight in God's      delight.  0
laws which organized Israel into a            law. Those who live by faith cling
nation in the land of Canaan.                 daily to the blood of atonement and

268/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


Editorials                                  As Others Se& Us

     The profane poet recornmended          taught. Nor did the schism that ripped       pecially the Christian Reformed
seeing ourselves as others see us.          the PRC in 1953 originate in Rev.            Church (CRC).
                                            Hubert DeWolf's  denial of presup-                "Thechurchsplitoffin1924from
      0 wad some Power the giftie gie us    posed regeneration. Rather, the              the CRC in a conflict in which Rev.
      To see oursels  as ifhers see us!     schismhaditsorigininRev.DeWolf's             HermanHoeksemaplayedanimpor-
                                            denial of an unconditional covenant          tant role. Immediately after the war,
     Even if we do not share the poet's     promise.                                     the (Liberated) Reformed emigrants
enthusiasm for the supposed benefit              It is a matter of common knowl-         joined especially this denomination.
ofseeing"ourselsasithersseeus" ("It         edge and public record that Rev.             This came to an end when around
wad frae monie a blunder free us, An'       HermanHoeksema  and the PRC have             1950 their own Canadian Reforrned
foolish notion"), we are interested in      always expressly condemned and               Churches were established.
knowing how others see us.                  sharply repudiated the teaching of                "The PRC came into existence
     A recent issue of the Dutch pa-        presupposed regeneration.                    after Rev. Hoeksema had criticized
per,  Nederlands Dagblad,  featured              Still, we are interested to see         the Kuyperian doctrine of common
the Protestant Reformed Churches in         how "ithers see us," especially among        grace and, therefore, was suspended
its section on "religion." The bold         the Reformed in The Netherlands.             and deposed. A few preachers and a
headingreads, "ClosedProtestantRe-          Therefore, I publish for the benefit of      few thousand church members were
formed Churches Observer at                 the readers of the Standard Bearer the       not in agreement with this and pro-
Interchurch Council." The reference         article that appeared  in Nederlands         ceeded to institute the (PR) church.
is to the decision of our 1990 synod to     DagbZad  (7/17/91).        Itwillbeevi-           "That after World War II many
send an observer to the annual meet-        dent that the articleis basedinpart on       `Liberated' emigrants entered this
ing of the North American Presbyte-         aninterviewwiththeeditoroftheSB,             particular church was connected with
rian and Reformed Council                   conducted by long-distance tele-             the contacts between Rev. Hoeksema
(NAPARC).                                   phone. It will also be evident that          and Prof. Dr. K. Schilder, who was
     Nederlands Dagblad  is a daily         certain analyses of the PRC and of           also a critic of certain Kuyperian con-
newspaper with wide circulation             their position in the Reformed com-          ceptions. But the ways of these emi-
throughout The Netherlands. It at-          munity are those of the paper itself, or     grants and the Protestant Reformed
tempts to give a Reformed viewpoint         its correspondent.                           separated when it appeared that
on current events and contemporary               Here follows the article, without       Hoeksema taught presupposed re-
issues. The influence of the Reformed       further comment on my part. I give           generation.
Churches in The Netherlands ("Lib-          the article in its entirety. The transla-         "On account of this doctrine this
erated") is dominant.                       tion from the Dutch is mine.                 denomination went through a split in
     By the article in this paper, the                                                   1953. Rev. DeWolf of Grand Rapids
PRC receive widespread publicity in             Closed Protestant Reformed               began to deny presupposed regen-
-The Netherlands.                                       Churches Observer                eration. Two thirds of the confessing
     This makes all the more regret-               at Interchurch Council                members followed Rev. DeWolf and
table the errors of fact that appear in                                                  left the denomination in order later
the article. The ways of the "Liber-             0 After years of traditional aloof-     again to join the CRC.
ated" emigrants and the PRC did not         ness, the synod of the doctrinally or-            "Since then the PRC are known
part in the 1950s "when it appeared         thodox PRC (6,000 members) has de-           as a solid ecclesiastical fellowship with
that Hoeksema taught presupposed            cided to delegate an observer to the         a strong uniformity in doctrine and
regeneration." But the "Liberated"          North American Presbyterian and              life. One who adheres to the
went their ownwaywhenit appeared            Reformed Council. A striking devel-          Kuyperian doctrine of common grace
that the PRC would continue to teach        opment, since this denomination is           would be able to become a member
the doctrine of the unconditional cov-      known for its critical distancing itself     only with difficulty. Also a commu-
enant of grace that they had always         from other Calvinistic churches, es-         nity morality is maintained, such as

                                                                                                March 15,1992/StandardSearerl269


      the denial of membership to labor          the periodical, the  Standard Bearer,            "The PRC, meanwhile, does not
      union members. As a result, this          has more subscribers outside the PRC         any longer seek her strength in criti-
      denomination hasmany independent          than within.                                 cizing the CRC and, related to this,
      business men as members. The mem-               "Theirowntheologicalseminary           summoning members to break with
      bers contribute heavily on behalf of      could recently again produce a candi-        the denomination The younger gen-
      Christian education. Parents send         date for the first time in five years,       eration has other interests than al-
      their children preferably to a Re-        who is now eligible for call. The            ways to be concentrating on thle CRC.
      formed school approved by the             number of students at present is five,            "Now that the CRC approaches
      consistory. The average churchmem-        but it is anticipatedthat thenumber of       a split, Prof. Engelsma does not ex-
      ber likes to read and is theologically    applications willincrease. Prof. David      pect this will result in much gain for
      well-informed.                            Engelsma calls this an answer to            his churches. That has to do with the
           "The 1440 families, distributed      prayer: `We have more than enough           relationship between conservative
      among 27 congregations, support 25        work. The PRC have three mission            CRC members and the PRC, which
      ministers, 3 professors, a seminaryin     fields - Florida, Northern Ireland,         has always been entirely negative. `I
      Grand Rapids, 6 emeriti ministers, a      and Jamaica - which really have no          see no role for the PRC in the present
      publishing house, and a theological       missionaries. If we receive more min-       problems in the CRC,' declares
      magazine of quality, the Standard         isters, our churches will surely grow       E n g e l s m a .
      Bearer.                                   still more.'                                      "The Protestant Reformed an-
           "The theologicalinfluence of this          "Mission work has also been           ticipate more recruiting strength from
     rather isolated denomination of            done in Singapore (Evangelical Re-          their solid ecclesiastical fellowship
      churches reaches further than might       formed Church). And conversations           and sharply defined theological posi-
      be expected on the basis of the num-      are going on with the Evangelical           tion. With the present 6,000 mem-
      ber,of members. The systematic the-       Presbyterian Church of Australia.           bers, the number of members has
      ology written by Rev. Hoeksema has        Two theological students from this          again been reached that the churches
      influence as a standard work for the      Australian church study at the semi-        had just before the split of 1953."
      whole of .Reformed America. And           nary in Grand Rapids.                                                       - DJE



                                                Family Conference
                                         in Northern  lrelancl

           From the British Reformed Fel-            In cooperation with Covenant           and-breakfast facilities.
      lowship (BRE), a group committed to       Reformed Fellowship, the BRF has                 The cost for those who attend
                                                organized a week-long family holi-          has been kept to a minimum. Guests
1     the promotion of the Reformed faith
      in the British Isles, we have received    dayconferencein August of this year.        are being charged for meals and ac-
      a request to publicize in the Standard    The dates are Saturday, August 15  -        commodation only. For a weeks
      Bearer  a family conference scheduled     Saturday, August 22. The conference         meals and lodging, prices range from
      for this summer. This we gladly do,       will be held at "Stricklands," a lovely,    65 pounds for an adult (about $130) to
      both because we are pleased to coop-      spacious conference center overlook-        15 pounds for a child under 5 (about
      erate with the promotion of the Re-       ing Belfast Lough (aninlet of the Irish     $30 dollars). A free-will offering will
     formed faith everywherein the world        Sea) in Bangor, County Down, North-         be taken during the week to help with
      and because the conference in North-      ern Ireland. The large, stately confer-     conference and other expenses.
      ern Irelandis connected with the Prot-    ence center can accommodate up to                The theme of the conference is
      estant Reformed mission in Northern       70 people with comfortable rooms            "The Covenant of Grace." An attrac-
     Ireland, the Covenant Reformed Fel-        having 2, 3, and 4 beds and with            tive brochure put out by the BRF to
     l o w s h i p .                            mattresses available for young chil-        advertise the conference states that
           The followinginformation about       dren. In addition, the nearby town of       "the covenant of grace is a theme of
     the conference is drawn from materi-       Bangor, a holiday resort, is well           increasinginterest at the present time.
     als provided by the BRF.                   equipped with ample hotel and bed-          That God has bound Himself by coti-

I    270/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


enant to His people (and their chil-               the other toDownpatrick,  Newcastle,                  Rev. Gise VanBaren
dren) in all ages of the church is a               and the Mourne Mountains. Half-                       5101 Beechtree Ave.
truth of profound importance and                   day excursions will also be arranged                 Hudsonville, MI 49426
one on which the Christian believer                to local places of interest.                       (telephone: 616-669-5380).
can completely and confidently rest                     The BRF is inviting readers of                I take the liberty to extend the
his faith. The Protestant Reformed                 the SB in the United States and Canada        invitation still more widely. Readers
Churches in America place great                    to attend this conference. TheFellow-         of the SB everywhere in the world -
emphasis on the covenant of grace                  ship is hopeful that a number of Prot-        the British Isles, The Netherlands,
           I,
. . . .                                            estant Reformed people in particular          France, Singapore, Australia, New
                 The speakers at the conference    but others also who have an interest          Zealand, South Africa, and other
will be Professors Herman Hanko                    in the covenant of grace will make this       places  - are invited to attend this
and David Engelsma of the Protes-                  conference their vacation this sum-           conference. What a fine thing that
tant Reformed Seminary.                            mer. It has, therefore, arranged that         lovers of the Reformed faith should
                 Meetings will be held each        two men in the States will serve to           come together for a week's fellow-
evening and on some mornings. Two                  give further information to interested        ship around the great truth of the
worship services will be held on the               persons, as well as to coordinate pos-        covenant of grace. This would de-
Lord's Day under the auspices of the               sible travel to Northern Ireland as a         light theBRF. It would, no doubt, also
Protestant Reformed mission in                     group. Brochures and further details          encourage the Covenant Reformed
Northern Ireland.                                  about the conference, including the           Fellowship and promote the mission
                 Although the teaching of the      possibility of traveling as a group, can      in Northern Ireland. Interested per-
Word of God will be central, the                   be obtained from                              sons outside the United States and
"programme" of the conference as-                              Mr. Bill Oomkes                   Canada should inquire of and make
sures us that the conference willbe of                       6299 Wing Ave. SE                   arrangements with Mr. Tony Horne,
a relaxed nature and adequate time                       Grand Rapids, MI 49512                  9 Church Road, "Thornbury," Bristol
will be available for recreation with                   (telephone: 616-698-6697).               BS12 lEJ, England.
family and friends. All afternoons                 ForgeneralinformationaboutNorth-                   Subject to the will of God, the
will be free. Two full-day coach tours             ern Ireland and the rest of the United        BRF assures all who attend "a rich
are planned, one to the North Antrim               Kingdom, interested persons should            spiritual feast and a relaxing and en-
Coast and the Giant's Causeway and                 get in touch with                             joyable holiday."
                                                                                                      See you in Ulster! Q
                                                                                                                                    - DJE



Letters

l                May Major Assemblies                                                            in the office of ruling elder. Only the
Depose?                                                                                          local church may preach, administer
                 I have some questions with re-                                                  the sacraments, and exercise disci-
specttosynodicalauthorityraisedby                  Response                                      pline. This includes the deposition of
your current editorial series,  ti Church              - Regarding. your first question,         officebearers. This is the church pol-
Unity, Reformed Synods, and Inde-                  concerning the right of major assem-          ity of the New Testament (cf. I Cor. 5,
pendency" (TheStandardBearer,Feb.                  blies to depose officebearers, I have         where the local church excommuni-
1, Feb. 15, and March 1,1992).                     treated this, if briefly, in the editorial    cates). This is the church order of
                 Does classis or synod have the    of June 1, 1991 that occasioned my            Dordt, which gives the local church
right and responsibility to depose                 present, short series of editorials ("The     the power of discipline (Articles 71-
officebearers? If so, for what reasons?            Binding Decisions of a Reformed               80) and never grants disciplinary
When officebearers promote seces-                  Synod"). The Protestant Reformed              power to the major assemblies. The
sion from their denomination, is this              Churches have insisted from the very          Protestant Reformed position is ex-
a legitimate reason for their deposi-              beginning of their history that the           pressed in the main by the Christian
tion?                                              major assemblies have no authority            Reformed authorities on Reformed
                                  Paul Wiersma     to discipline. Christ has given the           church order, Idzerd VanDellen  and
                    Hamilton, Ontario, Canada      keys of the kingdom to the local church       Martin Monsma, in their commen-
                                                   in the office of pastor and teacher and       tary on Article 79 of the church order

                                                                                                       March 15,1992  / Standard Bearer J 271


of Dordt (cf. The Church Order Com-          major assembly, the denomination              Luke 3:23 is incorrect, is tenuous at
mentary,  Zondervan, 1954, pp. 327-          must set that church outside the de-          best. It is argued that rather than
329).                                        nomination as having broken the de-           "Jesus . . . being (as was supposed) the
         Deposition of officebearers by a    nominational union.  01                       son of Joseph, which was the son of
major assembly is an attack on the                                             - DJE       Heli," we shouldread, "Jesus . . . being
autonomy of .the local church and                                                          the son (as was supposed of Joseph)
hierarchy.                                   0        The Son of David Through . ..?       of Heli." But this is an interpretation
         What the denomination can do                                                      of the text, not a translation. The KJV
when a consistory refuses to disci-                   Fiease permit one more response      is equally as valid and defensible.
pline officebearers as the major as-         to your article, "The Genealogy of                  Secondly, the argument that the
semblies have advised, or when a             Jesus (or, Jesus the Son of Nathan)"          prophecy spoken to wicked King
consistory otherwise refuses to con-         (the StandardBearer,  Dec. 15,199l).  I       Jeconiah (Jehoiachin) prevents the
sider decisions of the major assem-          cannot agree with your position that          coming of Jesus through the royal line
blies settled and binding, is to declare     Jesus is descended from David                 isnotnecessarilycorrect.  Thatproph-
the offending consistory outside the         through Nathan, and is therefore not          ecy is found in Jeremiah 22:30, "Thus
denomination as a body that has bro-         of the royal line. Let me defend as           saith the Lord, Write ye this man
ken the denominational union.                briefly as I can the position that Jesus      childless, a man that shall not prosper
         As to your second question, se-     is the Son of David through the royal         in his days: for no man of his seed shall
cession from a denomination is not           line.                                         prosper, sitting upon the throneof  David,
always sinful. Indeed, it is sometimes                First, let me argue for the posi-    and ruling any more in Judah." This
a calling from God so that failure to        tion that the genealogy of Matthew is         prophecy need not be understood to
secede is sinful. This is the case when      thatofJesusthroughhismotherMary,              preclude the possibility that the royal
the denomination displays the marks          while Luke's genealogy is that of Jesus       line nevertheless continued through
of a false church by corrupting the          through Joseph.                               Jeconiah. We know that he was not
gospel, denying the authority of Scrip-               1. The very fact that the geneal-    childless, Matthew 1:12. All that the
ture and the confessions, polluting          ogy of Luke does not make mention of          prophecy means is that no son of
the sacraments, and refusing to exer-        Mary is a strong indication that it is        Jeconiah will any longer prosper, sit-
cise discipline upon the openly and          Joseph's genealogy.                           tingon the throne ofDavidandruling
impenitently ungodly, especially the              2. Matthew's genealogy empha-            over the nation of Israel from Jerusa-
heretics (cf. the Belgic Confession,         sizes physical descent. Not only is           lem. That is exactly what happened
Articles 28, 29). But there is a right       this impliedin the word "begat" used          as a result of the Babylonian captivity
and a wrong way to go about seced-           throughout, but thisis also the signifi-      and the destruction of Jerusalem. No
ing. The right way is the way of             cance of the statement in Matthew 1:l         son of David ever sat upon the throne
protest and appeal followed byseces-         that this is the book of the N generation     again ruling in Jerusalem.
sionifsynodrefusestoheedandifthe             of Jesus Christ." The word for "gen-                Third, the position that Jesus did
consistory is convinced that it cannot       eration" is a word that means "gen-           not descend through the royal line
in good conscience before Christ re-         esis or origin." Thus, the emphasis of        does not do justice to the promises
main within the denomination. The            the genealogy in Matthew is on the            spoken to and about Solomon. There
wrong way is to remain within the            organic line of Christ. Then it cannot        are several of these. The word of God
denomination without following the           be the line of Joseph who had no              to David in I Chronicles 22:lO is an
way of protest and appeal but all the        organic connection with Jesus.                example: "He (David's Son) shall
while agitating against synodical  de-                3. The argument that making          build an house formy name; and he
cisions and making public charges of         Matthew's genealogy the genealogy             shall be my son, and I will be his
sin against fellow officebearers and         of Jesus through Mary forces us to            father;  and I will establish the throne of
fellow church members in the forum           interpret "begat" in verse 16 also as         his kingdom over Israelfor ever. N It is the
of public opinion. The only way of           actualphysicalbegetting, so that then         same one who will build the Lord's
dealing with sin in the denomination         Jacob begets Joseph, which cannot be          house (Solomon) whose throne will
that the Reformed church order rec-          the case if the genealogy is that of          be established for ever. It seems clear
ognizes is the way of protest and            Mary, carries weight. However, the            that the "sure mercies of David" were
appeal (cf. Art. 31 of the church order      problem is really the same in Luke,           continued through David's son,
of Dordt).                                   where in every case except that of            Solomon.
         Officebearers guilty of schism      Adam, "the son of" is used in the                   In the fourth place, the position
are worthy of deposition according to        sense of "physically begotten." This          that the royal line continued through
Article 80 of the church order of Dordt.     argument can be used with regard to           Solomon gives great significance to
But only the consistory may, or can,         either genealogy.                             historical events in connection with
depose them. If the consistory re-                4. The argument that the transla-        that line. For example, Athaliah's
fuses, contrary to the advice of the         tion of the King James Version of             attempt to destroy the seedroyal was

272/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


an attempt on the part of the Devil to              Fifth, one of the important is-        only to those who descended through
prevent the coming of Christ.                  sues in this whole discussion of the        the royal line of David.
Hezekiah's concern in his sickness             genealogies is Jesus' RIGHT to the               And what is the outstanding sig-
was not merely that he was going to            throne of His father David. The fact        nificance of Jesus' descent fromDavid
die, or even that he was going to die          of the matter is that if Christ did not     through the royal line? It serves to
without a male heir. But his great             descendfromDavid  through the royal         illustrate the fundamental truth that
concern was that if he died without a          line, He has no more RIGHT to the           God is faithful to His covenant prom-
son, not only would the royal line             throne thanany  other Israelite. The        ise notwithstanding the unfaithful-
come to an end, but Christ could               right to thekingship of Israelbelonged      ness of His covenant people. 0
never be born.                                                                                              (Rev.) Ron Cammenga
                                                                                                                    Loveland, CO

All Around Us
Prof. Robert Decker


0 The Fastest Growing Re-                      of Jesus is blasphemy to them. Salva-       a recent conversation with this writer,
ligion in America                              tion by grace is replaced by salvation      indicates that his congregation feels a
         One of every five individuals in      by good works.                              sense of relief. There is unity among
the world claims to be an adherent of               Let us not believe every spirit,       the members, who enthusiastically
this religion. Both Europe and the             but try them by the test ofScripture.       receive the Word preached.- Because
United States are undergoing an ex-            "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God:          of continued growth and because of
plosion of evangelism by this reli-            Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus     the number of visitors at the worship
gion. More than four million in the            Christ is come in the flesh is of God:      services they are looking for a larger
U.S. profess to be adherents of this           And every spirit that confesseth not        place of worship.
religion. The goal of this religion is to      that Jesus Christ is come in the fleshis         Since our last report, several
have six million followers in the U.S.         not of God: and this is that spirit of      more congregations or portions
by the year 2,000: Already four mil-           antichrist, whereof ye have heard that      thereof have withdrawn from the
lion dollars have been earmarked for           it should come; and even now already        CRC. These include Wellandport,
evangelism in America.                         is it in the world" (I John 4:1-3).         Ontario; Salem, 0regon;andPompton
         The religion of which we speak                        GZeaner,  Published by      Plains, New Jersey. Twenty-one fami-
is Islam, The first mosque and Islamic                 Evangelical Baptist Missions        lies (38 confessing members and 31
center was built in Washington, DC in                                                      baptized members; 69 members to-
1949. Today there are over one thou-           e Troubles Escalate in CRC                  tal) haveleft the College Avenue CRC
sand mosques and Islamic centers in                 Earlier (December 1,199l issue)        in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The council
the U.S. Chicago, alone, is home to            we reported that the Christian Re-          of the large (600 members) Mount
thirty-four mosques! There are more            formed Church in North America was          Hamilton, Ontario church informed
Muslims in the U.S. than in Libya. By          losing churches on account of dis-          the congregation by letter that, "Un-
the year 2,000 they expect to be the           satisfaction over the issues of women       less the CRC shows clearly and con-
second largest religion in the U.S.            in church office and creation/ science.     cretely at the Synod 1992 meeting that
         The Muslim "bible," the  Koran,       At that time we reported that the First     it repents of its sins and returns to the
has many references to Bible charac-           CRCinLethbridge,  Alberta (Rev. Jelle       Word of our God . . . we cannot remain
ters such as Adam, Abraham, David,             Tuininga, pastor) and Trinity CRC in        within the federation of CRC."
John the Baptist, and even Jesus.              St. Catherines, Ontario (Rev. Calvin             Again, let it be understood we
Muslims believe in one supreme God             Tuininga, pastor), both with a large        do not glory in the troubles experi-
whom they call Allah. They deny the            majority of their respective congrega-      enced by the CRC. It is our conviction
deity of Jesus Christ and His atoning          tions, had severed relationships with       that these troubles would have been
death on the cross. The resurrection           the CRC. In addition, 17 families           avoided had not the leadership of the
                                               from two other Ontario congrega-            CRC opened church offices to women
                                               tions formed an independent Re-             and had they taken a firm, biblical
                                               formed Church with Rev. Jerome              stand on the doctrine of creation. But
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-    Julien as pastor. This latter congrega-     church splits are never nice. Already
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         tion continues to grow and now num-         there are disputes overpropertysettle-
nary.                                          bers some 45 families. Rev. Julien, in      ments. Court cases are likely to occur.

                                                                                                  March 15,19921 Standard Bearer I273


Families are divided. These are all        viva1 movements. The  doZeantie             clear from the beginning," the procla-
extremely difficult experiences. But       brought with them an emphasis on            mation declares. Many prominent
none of these difficulties may hinder      the church as an organism, which            UMC evangelical leaders signed the
God's people from fighting for the         expressed itself actively in many           document, including Bishop Richard
truth of His inspired and infallible       spheres of life. Overeem called these       Wilke of Little Rock, Arkansas and
Word. We commend these brothers            differences "the depth and breadth"         iVil.liam  Hinson, pastor of the largest
and sisters for their courage.             of the GKN.                                 LTMC congregation in the country,
                    Christian Renewal          While the synod of unionin 1892         First United Methodist of Houston.
                                           was all celebration, these. and other            Three members of a Presbyte-
0     GKN Turns 100 in 1992                differences persisted in the GKN.           ian committee on abortion said they
      The  Gereformeerde Kerken            Each party continued with a sense of        `cannot stand before God" and  af-
(GKN) will mark their 100th year in        its own identity. Within the GKN            irm the wording of areport the panel
1992. It was on June 17,1892  that two     there were "A kerkm" (afscheiding) and      ti present to the General Assembly
separated churches merged at a union       "Blcerken" (Kuyperian),  Theafscheiding     >f the Presbyterian Church (1J.S.A.)
synod in Amsterdam. The one church,        group argued, correctly, that the in-       :I-& summer. Dr. Tom Miller, one of
Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerken          stitute of the church was responsible       ,he three `dissenting members of the
(CGKN, ufscheiding) seceded from the       for the training of ministers, and they     ?CUSA's  Special Committee onl'rob-
state church, the  Hervormde Kerk          maintained the Theological Univer-          em Pregnancies and Abortion, said
(NHK), in 1834. The other church was       sity of Kampen. Kuyper and his fol-         `the truths of Scripture are being
the doleanrie  (grieving), which broke     lowers argued that a society-con-           llayed  down" in the majority report
from the NHKin 1886 under the lead-        trolled university was responsible for      `atified  January 19. The statement, to
ership of Dr. Abraham Kuyper, Sr.          theological education, and theymain-        )e released March 1, frowns on at-
Some in the CGKN refused to ap-            tained the Free University of               empts to ban or limit access to abor-
prove of the union, and they remain a      Amsterdam. The two factions also            ion, but it outlines both pro-life and
separate denomination to this day.         differed over the question of the au-       )ro-choice views on the issue. Miller
Their seminary is in Apeldoorn, and        thority of the local consistories com-      md two others on the committee
they are the mother church of the Free     pared with that of the major assem-         vrote their minority report in order
Reformed Churches in North                 blies (classis, synod).                     o express "what we believe is an
America. Several of the ministers of            In light of the apostasy rampant       lbedient  response to the lordship of
this denominationreceivedallorpart         in the GKN there is little to,celebrate.    XristandtheauthorityofScripture."
of their seminary training in the Prot-    How quickly, less than a century, that                                            cl
estant Reformed Seminary.                  great Reformed church departed from         National  b International Religion
      TheGKNhaslongsincedeparted           the faith. Let him that stands, take                                       Report
from its Reformed roots. It allows         heed lest he fall!
homosexuals in the pulpit, and de-               Reformed Ecumenical Council
nies the biblical account of the cre-                            News Exchange
ation of the heavens and the earth.                                                             The Three Prayers
Some of its theologians do not con-        0 Conservatives in Main-
sider the virgin birth of Jesus to be a    line Churches Getting Vocal                 Lord, help me - so we pray -
necessary ingredient of the Christian           Among United Methodists, the                "Help me my work to do;
faith. The GKN is in the process of        "Memphis Declaration" may be the            1 am so ignorant and weak,
reuniting with the NHK.                    most talked-about item between now               Make me more wise and true."
     The 100th anniversary was the         and May 5, when the denomination's
subject of a special issue `of Centraal    1992 General Conference convenes in         "Lord, help me to do thy work,"
Weekblad,  a GKN newspaper. Rev.           Louisville, Kentucky. The proclama-              We pray when wiser grown,
E. Overeem said that they were not         tion, signed January 25 in Memphis;         When on the upward way
celebrating, nor even remembering.         TN, by some 80 clergy and lay mem-               Our feet have further gone.
That wouldbe  akind of triumphalism,       bers of the United Methodist Church
he wrote. Rather, he called for a re-      (UMC), calls Methodists to return to        Lord, do thy work through me;
thinking of the events of 1892. Other      biblical faithfulness and urges Gen-             So when all self we lose;
contributors noted that the two unit-      eral Conference delegates to vote to        His doing and His work, and we
ing churches had, in the main, two         uphold traditional sexual mores dur-             The tools His hand can use.
distinct spirits. Those of the earlier     ing the upcoming assembly. "Let us
separation, the  afscheiding  of 1834,     cease to debate homosexual practice                            Standard Bearer,
brought a deep piety with them, which      as if the witness of the Scripture and                        September 1,1933
they had inherited from earlier  re-       the tradition of the church were not

274lStandardBearerlMarch15,1992


                                              Reflections on the
                                              Trainin of our
Guest Article                                 Future 
                                                                           f/l inisthrs
Rev. Jaikishin Mahtani


  (This article is a report on a special      preserved so faithfully through the          the church should become weary or
  program organized by the Theological        centuries in the precious heritage of        frightened. He said, "Pray."
  Training Committee of the Evangelical       the Reformed faith. While Singapore               The purpose of this special pro-
  Reformed Churches of Singapore.)            boasts of economic @asperity  and            gram was toreflectupon the progress
                                              political stability, the Lord has en-        of the workalready done as well as on
                                              sured that the light of the gospel also      the plans for the years to come. The
      The harvest truly is plenteous, but     shines in this island, albeit in a small     keynote address was given by the
the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore      way. It is apparent to all that the          chairman of the Theological Training
the Lord of the hawed,  that he wil2 send     labors in the small denomination of          Committee, Pastor Lau Chin Knee.
forth laborers into his harvest.              the ERCS continue to multiply. It is         This address is also being prepared
                      Matthew 9:37,38         also abundantly clear that we need           for publication. Pastor Lau gave an
                                              more ministers of the gospel. As,            interesting and inspiring talk on the
      Only about thirty people were           Sower of the seed, the Lord reminds          theme of the program: "Reflections
gathered on the hot Saturday after-           us that the harvest is plenteous but         on the Training of Our Future Minis-
noon of 25th January 1992. The open-          the laborers are few. His divine in-         ters." He earnestly contended that
ing word of ihrelcome  included a word        struction to us is to pray for laborers      this awesomelabor demands the sup-
of encouragement taken from the               to be sent to the harvest field. In          port of the denomination as a whole,
words of the prophet Zechariah, chap-         obedience to the Lord's command,             with every member realizing its im-
ter 4, verse 10a: "For who hath de-           the Evangelical Reformed Churches,           portance. He demonstrated from the
spised the day of small things?" The          through the Theological Training             Scriptures that the training of men for
Evangelical Reformed Churches in              Committee, continue to labor dili-           the gospel ministry is the responsibil-
Singapore are only two in number.             gently for the preparation of minis-         ity of the church. In these days of
The work and influence of this young          ters of the gospelin our churches. The       pentecostalism and emphasis on emo-
denomination seem negligible com-             aspirations for a Reformed Theologi-         tions, he showed that the church needs
pared to the multitude of churches            cal School in Singapore continue to          a properly trained ministry, both in
and Christian organizations in                grow. Plans are for a senior minister        the academic and pastoral areas. We
Singapore. At present, only one stu-          from the Protestant Reformed                 would encourage you to read Pastor
dent is being trained for the ministry        Churches to arrive in Singapore in the       Lau's speech, which covers many dif-
of the gospel. Yet, "despise not the          near future to help us in this labor.        ferent and varying aspects of this
day of small things...."                      Although we feel that the interest           awesome task of the training of our
      The Reformed faith has been             amongst our people is not as great as        future ministers of the gospel in the
planted in Singapore by the hand of           desired, we believe that, with more          ERCS. May this article whet your
the LordHimself. It has pleasedHi             information and encouragement, the           appetiteinanticipationofPastorLau's
to raise up a people in this island who       saints will realize the great need of the    which will be published in the near
love the gospel of the Holy Scriptures        hour. Hence this article on our special      future.
                                              program, to keep our people and other             The Theological Training Com-
                                              of our friends and saints of God else-       mittee was present at the meeting to
                                              where informed, in order that they           give a report on what is going on so
                                              can join us in prayer for the awesome        thattheleadersdonotvainlypresson
                                              task facing our churches. Our Lord           with these labors without the support
 Rev. Mahtani is a pastor in the Evangeli-    did not say that, because the harvest        of the people. The work of the TTC,
 cal Reformed Churches in Singapore.          is plenteous and the laborers are few,       being a very important one, is being

                                                                                                  March 15,1992 / Standard Bearer I275


done slowly and deliberatively, in          proved the calling of a minister-on-       gave us his resolutions: 1) Convic-
order that a good foundation may be         loan for Singapore for this work. We       tions -he wants to learn about con-
laid for the years to come. The TTC         as a TTC have given some clear direc-      victions, he desires to be persuaded
was set up by the Classis to look into      tives as to what this minister would       of what is right according to Scrip-
the training of students who aspire         be doing when he comes to help us in       ture, and this through carefullystudy-
for the ministry as well as to super-       theselabors. Notonlyis thereinterest       ing the Bible and evaluating experi-
vise this training. Secondly, it was        amongst our own people, but more           ences in the light of Scriptures. 2)
also given the mandate to continue          and more also members of other             Character-throughlookingatmod-
with the training of our existing min-      `churches express a desire for more        els and learning from them, h'e seeks
isters. Presently, concentration is         instructionin the Reformed faith. Also     especially humility and gentleness;
being given to the training of our only     for the sake of neighboring countries      he wants not only information and
student, CheahFookMeng. Ourpas-             like Malaysia, Indonesia, India, etc.,     conviction, but especially character.
tors are giving him some classes and        the presence of such a school would        3) Competence, especially in the lan-
supervising the other courses he is         be of greatbenefit. A ReformedTheo-        guages, and he looks forward to go-
taking at the Far Eastern Bible Col-        logical School would be a most effec-      ing to the PR seminary because he
lege. All this is being done in consul-     tive way of spreading the Reformed         knows that that competence is em-
tation with the Theological School of       faith-training men who in turn will        phasized there; but he wants to be
the Protestant Reformed Seminary so         return to their lands to bring God's       competent not only inacademics, but
that Cheah Fook Meng can be as well         truth to their own people.                 alsoincounselling-heisresolvedto
prepared as possible for his seminary            Besides manpower, we are also         be competent to counsel the saints. 4)
training. All is being finalized for the    realizing the need of finances for this    CommunionwithGod-ourbrother
training of Cheah Fook Meng at the          great task. Our churches have be-          desires a DD, not a Doctor in Divin-
Protestant Reformed Seminary from           nevolence funds for -the poor and          ity, but he wants to be informed in
1993-1996. Upon his return, we plan         building funds for places of worship;      Doctrine, and rich in Devotions. 5)
to give him a year of under-study           now as a denomination we will have         Communication -he aspires to be a
with our pastorsbefore heis ordained        to start thinking about givingtowards      good preacher, but he knows that this
for the ministry of our churches.           the training of ministers. For the         cannot be possible without the first
     Besides these labors in training       present the First Evangelical  Re-         fourresolutions. 6) Change-finally,
our future ministers, the TTC has also      formedChurchwillbestartingaTem-            he is willing to change - to change
been given the mandate to train our         porary Fund so that both churches          for the better as he continues to be
existing ministers. This training will      can start giving for this worthy cause.    trained. Fook Meng did not want to
be done in consultation with the            As soon as all legal aspects can be        spend much time telling us about his
churches so that our pastors can be         cleared, we hope to have a denomina-       personal circumstances, although he
more effective in their ministry. How-      tion Student Aid Fund. For the tim.e       did mention that he plans to get mar-
ever, the real task of the TTC would        being, we may still need to ask our        ried to Lim Lee Choo in December
be to train our pastors so that, the        sister churches in the Protestant Re-
Lord willing, our churches would            formed denomination to help us sup-
eventually be able to supply trained        port the training of our students for
manpower to lead and instruct in a          the ministry.
Reformed Theological School in                   It is good for the people to hear
Singapore. Due to manpower and              the TTC give a rather detailed report
financial constraints, we are presently     of all their labors. This surely has
looking into local courses. Perhaps         enabled many of us to become more
later, with the help of a minister-on-      conscious of the work in order that
loan from the Protestant Reformed           we might pray more intelligently for
Churches, we will venture into more         this mammoth task ahead of us.
formal training abroad.                          However, what made the pro-
     With regard to the setting up of       gram really special was that the TTC
a Reformed Theological School in            invited our student CheahFookMeng
Singapore, we have asked the Protes-        to express his thoughts and plans for
tant Reformed Churches to provide           histrainingfortheministry. Inamost
us with help. Realizing that this kind      interesting manner, Fook Meng re-
of task will demand much wisdom             lated his experiences in FEBC, spoke
and experience, we asked the PRC in         of the training he has received from
1989 for a professor or senior minister     our pastors, and expressed his excite-
to come help us. We are thankful that       ment over going to the Protestant          Fook Meng, touched by a love g@ from
the 1991 Synod of the PRC has. ap-          Reformed Seminary. With six C's, he                  church members.

276/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


1992 and travel with her to the USA         edge so that he might effectively di-
for his training. After expressing his      vide the word and apply it to God's
desire to spend much time with the          people in the home, in the school, in
pastors to learn from them, he in-          the market. He concurred whole-
cluded a word of thanks for his train-      heartedly with the speech given ear-
ing and for the support of the mem-         lier and added biblical warrant to
bers. Especially he expressed thanks-       such ministerial training. However,
giving to Almighty God that he could        he also rightly emphasized the aspect
serve in the midst of a people with         of prayer. The student for the minis-
whom he agreed completely on the            try must not only study, but also
Reformed faith.                             pray, Such time spent in devotion
     All of us present were surely          and prayer is essential for prepara-
filled with a sense of gratitude to God     tion for the ministry. This would be
for what He has already done in this        the effective weapon so that the Word
young,man  aspiring for the ministry.       preachedwouldgoforthinthepower
It is abundantly clear that the Lord is     of the Spirit. Wise words of encour-
hearing our prayers and we have ev-         agement indeed. The TTC, our stu-
ery reason to march on. In an expres-       dent Fook Meng, and the churches
sion of thanksgiving, there was taken       will undoubtedly take heed to these
at the program a collection which           significant words.                           Presentation of gift to the Korterings
amounted to $700.00. This was pre-               Rev. Kortering gave an appro-
sented to Cheah Fook Meng to en-            priate closing remark also. He said         TheLordhasbegunthisgoodworkin
courage him to buy good books for           that the opportunities for labor in this    Singapore, and He will perfect it in
the ministry.                               part of the world, and especially here      His good time and will. The ERCS
     The program would not have             in Singapore and the ERCS, are stag-        need not become discouraged due to
been complete without one more sig-         gering. He encouraged us never to           the mammoth task she faces. Neither
nificant item. The arrival of Rev. J.       compromise on qualified laborers, but       should she in any way try to perform
Kortering with his wife was a great         to put forth our best effort for the        this work in the arm of flesh. It is not
thrill to the people of God here. They      glory of God. He also encouraged the        by might nor by power, but by His
were sent here for six months to help       TTC and our churches in the goal of a       Holy Spirit. The master builder is the
the churches chart out the work for         theological school in Singapore some        Lord Himself. The harvest field is
the minister-on-loan. Besides preach-       day, but meanwhile to begin training        His. He has sown the seed, He will
ing for the churches regularly, Rev.        in the capacity we could and with the       give the increase. The Lord of lords is
Kortering met with the Sessions and         alternatives we had.                        Jesus Christ, and all things are given
various Classical Committees. Espe-              A gift of appreciation was given       to Him. Therefore we must go forth
cially the TTC kept him busy with the       to the Korterings  - a book on              to preach the gospel and also to train
labors of planning for a Reformed           Singapore and a diary. The bookwas          men for that gospel ministry. All this
Theological School. Rev. Kortering          presented to Rev. Kortering so that he      so that in the end the glory will return
gave a course on "DecisionMakingin          can prepare himself in case he would        to our God Almighty who is pleased
a Reformed Church" and this was             return to Singapore some day; the           to use earthen vessels to reveal the
well attended by our people. He also        diarywasforMrs.Korteringtorecord            mystery of the gospel. This He has
began a course with Fook Meng on            fond memories if they would never           done through the ages, and continues
the Belgic Confession. Besides this,        set foot on this island again. Whether      to do today, also in the island of
the TTC found his advice and experi-        he will return, or whether another          S i n g a p o r e .
ence of great value in all her delibera-    senior minister will be sent by the PR           The harvest is plenteous, but the
tions during his stay here. Therefore,      churches, the prayer of the ERCS is         laborers are few, therefore pray! Pray
appropriately, he was asked for some        surely: "The harvest is plenteous, the      that the Lord will bless the labors of
finalwords of wisdom. Rev. Kortering        laborers are few, LORD, send forth          the ERCS in the training of our future
took the opportunity to emphasize           thy servants to thy harvest!"               ministers! PraythataReformedTheo-
the importance of a trained ministry.            As we began this program, so in        logical School may be set up in
Although on the one hand there were         closing prayer we were reminded not         Singapore according to God's time
those who warned against the danger         to despise the day of small things.         and will! Pray that God will send
of losing one's faith when emphasiz-        After all, the eyes of the Lord go forth    forth laborers into His harvest field!
ingacademics,Rev.Korteringwarned            to and fro on the earth. He knows.                                                0
us that ignorance does not make a           Although only 30 met in a program
pastor. A minister needs much dis-          unnoticed by the multitudes in
cernment; he needs a broad knowl-           Singapore, it was a significant event.

                                                                                               MarchiS,  1992/StandardBearer/277


The Strength
of Youth                                    Mind Games
Rev. Steven Key

     My younger brothers and sis-           can easily get us to exercise a wrong       schemes frequently enough that all
ters in the faith: I calI you today to      style of thinking, thatplays right into     you do is see certain things or hear
examine the way you think. I have           his hand, so to speak.                      certain words or music and you auto-
entitled this article "Mind Games."              Mind games take on many dif-           matically respond. In other words,
There are plenty of them being played       ferent forms. Let me mention just one       they try to get you to lay aside your
today. But what often are called mind       concrete example.                           thinking processes and become little
games are not games at all In fact,              About a hundred years ago there        more than one huge, exposed nerve-
there is a battle being waged today.        was a Russian physiologist by the           ending that can be manipulated by
And that battle is being fought on the      name of Pavlov. While studying brain        their sensory stimuli.
battlefield of our own minds.               functions, Pavlov happened to notice
     Have you ever stopped to. con-         that his dog began to salivate when-
sider what a wonderful gift God gave        ever food was placed in front of him.            The area of economics
you in your mind? When you con-             So Pavlov began to experiment.                   is only one small area
sider the concept of the mind in the        Whenever he put food under the dog's
Bible,andparticularlyinl?aul'sepistle       nose, he rang a bell. After a while that        where people are trying
to the Romans, you find that the mind       dog became conditioned to associate                    to play games
is the highest, most noble part of a        theringingofthebellwithfood. Some                    with your mind.
man's soul. It is the mind which            time later Pavlov pulled a fast one on
makes it possible for man to be reli-       the dog. Hejustrangthebell;nofood.
gious. It is the mind which makes it        The dog was so used to hearing the               One of the major advertising
possible for man to know God, and to        bell and equating it with food that he      agencies in the world in the years that
recognize his own relation to God           salivated anyway. Pavlov gave this a        I was in college - Doyle, Daine,
consciously and willingly. It is your       name: conditioned reflex. He con-           Burnbach  - published a book en-
mind, in other words, which makes           cluded that all mental activity de-         titled A Study @Youth.  It was not a
you distinct from all other creatures.      pends upon a chain of conditioned           bookwrittenforthegeneralpublic. It
That mind also marks you as a re-           reflexes and responses. Now that            was written for the advertising pro-
sponsible creature before God.              conclusion certainly is open to criti-      fession. The purpose of thebook.was
     The Bible speaks often of our          cism, and is not true of all mental         this: To explore how to get youth not
minds. It does so with purpose. Our         activity. But when you consider his         to think, but just to buy the manufac-
God, who knows us through and               hypothesis, you will find that there is     turers' product. And do you know
through, who knows our every                an element of truth there that calls for    what? They are pretty effective at
thought, who hears our every word           further examination.                        playing those mind games with you!
and sees our every action; our God               You wonder what Pavlov and             That is why some of you go out and
who knows that we are flesh, to use         his dog have to do with your mind?          buy things that you do not need, with
thelanguage of Scripture, alsoknows         His theory has been frequently ap-          money that is God's and not yours, at
that the devil is constantly playing        plied to you directly and to your way       a price that is absolutely ridiculous, to
mind games with us. That master             of thinking. Prior to my call to pursue     attain a certain status. If you sat down
deceiver does that through many             the ministry, I was studyingbusiness        and really thought about it, you would
means, because he knows that if we          management and marketing at West-           realize how foolish it is. But you do it.
are not living out of Christ, and if we     ern Michigan University. In an ad-          You know you do; and not only you
do not exercise the mind of Christ, he      vertising class the underlying theory       as young people, but we all do so to a
                                            was this-and I apply it to you young        greater or lesser degree. Do not think
                                            people: "We have to create a mental-        for a moment that a shoe manufac-
                                            ity among you that causes you to            turer would pay Michael Jordan mil-
                                            salivate when we ring your chimes."         lions of dollars, and spend more mil-
                                            (Do you recognize Pavlov's theory?)         lions for television spots, unless he
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-    So what do the advertisers do? They         has good reason to believe that that
formed Church  of  Randolph, Wisconsin.     hit you with certain advertising            could influence you to buy NIKES.

278/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


Let me tell you something: If a brew-        allits corruption. The devil so attacks     once prevailed. That renewal must
ery or a car manufacturer is going to        your minds, that he will try to get you     take place daily and you must grow in
spendmegabuckstoplaymindgames                tobelieve that your relationships with      that. The apostle is saying, "Let your
with you, you had better believe they        other individuals (peers) are more          mind determine what shall be your
are playing hard to ring your chimes.        important than your personal artd           walk." Be transformedby the renew-
And the area of economics is only one        experiential relationship with God.         ing of your mind.
small area where people are trying to        Do you think that you can have a                 Perhaps you are thinking, "Yes,
play games with your mind.                   relationship of friendship with some-       but...." The powers of darkness are at
     The devil is constantly-playing         one who is not committed to Jesus           work even now trying to influence
mindgames with you. Youhadbetter             Christ and to the truth of God and still    your thinking. "Yes, but then I must
be aware of his attacks. He knows            honor Christ? You are not in your           practically go out of the world!" Start
that our minds, which were created           right mind! Do you thinkthat you can        walking. Not a single person speak-
by Godbeautiful and good, have been          spend time partying with drunken            ing truthfully ever said that commit-
corrupted by sin. In the providence of       young men and women and with                ment to Christ is easy. Maybe you
God, you belong to those who have            fornicators, and yet avoid harming          say,"ButthenIwilllosemyname,my
come under the means of grace and            yourself spiritually? You are not in        friends." Lose them. If your "friends"
have been instructed in a different          your right mind! Do you think that          are given over to the mind games of
mind set. And to you who believe,            you can sit in front of the television      Satan, they are the wrong kind of
God says that He has given you a             and watch the filth that is readily         friends for you. He who would be a
spiritual mind, the mindof the Spirit        accessible to you, and that you can-        friend of the world is the enemy of
of Christ, by which you know all             serve Christ by doing so? I say, the        God(James44).  Maybeyouarethink-
things (I John 2:20). That does not          devil has twisted your thinking!            ing, "But I might have to die then, if I
mean  ' that you naturally know all               I thank God that He has gifted         walk so narrowly." Die then. There
things spiritual, that you naturally         many of you, I hope most of you, with       is no other way. Jesus said in Mat-
know the truth. But it means that God        the mind of Christ. .What I am con-         thew 16:25,  "For whosoever will save
has given you the mind of Christ, so         cerned about is that you put that           his life shall lose it: and whosoever
that by the testimony of the Spirit          mind of Christ to work and do not be        will lose his life for my sake shall find
through the Scriptures you know  the         a Pavlov's dog who salivates with           it." Turn that over in your mind.
truth and you discern the lie. But the       lust and covetousness every time your
fact remains that we carry with us in        chimes are rung.                                   God's will does not
our old sinful natures the mind of the            Hear the Word of God in Ro-                   drop out of the sky
old man which tries to shut God out          mans 12:2: "Andbe  not conformed to
and which is very open to the influ-         this world: but be ye transformed by                     like a brick
ence of those who would play mind            the renewing of your mind, that ye                with a note attached.
games with us. And by many means             may prove what is that good, and
and through many people, the devil           acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
would keep you from applying to                   The inspired apostle speaks of              That renewal of our minds re-
your thought processes the Christian         "the renewing of your mind." That           quires that the will of God becomes a
principles in which you have been            reference is to something  spir$ual.        living reality to our consciousness
instructed.                                  Your mind is renewed when, under            and conviction. And that means that
     The question to you, therefore,         the influence of the Holy Spirit, the       we must live out of the Scriptures. A
is a personal one: How do you use            truth of Scripture is laid hold of and      lot of so-called or self-named Chris-
your mind? Do you use your mind in           believed and practiced, so as to re-        tians are frustrated because they are
such a way that you know that you            place the error and ignorance that          running around looking for some-
belong to Jesus Christ? In Romans                                                                                             I
8:5,6, weread, "For they that are after             In order that this column might best serve "the strength of youth,"
the flesh do mind the things of the           Iwouldlikeinputfromyouyoungpeopleandyoungadultswhoreadthis
flesh; but they that are after the Spirit     column. May I ask therefore that if you have any questions, either of a
the things of the Spirit. For to be           doctrinal nature or pertaining to Christian practice, you send them to me
carnally minded is death; but to be           at225PierceSt.,Randolph,WI  53956. (Questionsrelatingtolifeincollege
spiritually minded is life and peace."        should still be addressed to Rev. Dykstra; but those of a more general
Do you see how important is a right           nature may be sent to me.) I will then try to treat your questions in this
mind and the right use of the mind?           column. Although I ask you to include your name and address when you
     The devil so twists the mind,            submit a question, I will treat all subject matter without revealing from
that young men and young women                where the questions arose. Any comments will also be appreciated.
freely give themselves over to the                                                                            - Pastor Key
pleasure madness of this world with

                                                                                               March 15,1992/ Standard Bearer I279


thing that they will never find. For        spired instruction in Philippians 4:8:     saying, "Incidentally, if you do not
God's will does not drop out of the         "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things      have anything else to do, thinkabout
sky like a brick with a note attached.      are true, whatsoever things are hon-       a few of these things." He is saying,
Knowing God's will is a matter of           est, whatsoever things are just, what-     This is the direction in which you
commitment to fellowship with Him,          soever things are pure, whatsoever         need to direct your mental activity.
and a matter of the development of          things are lovely, whatsoever things       "Let this mind be in you, which `was
yourmindinrelationship to  thescrip-        are of good report; if there be any.       also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). And
tures.                                      virtue, and if there be any praise,        the God of peace shallbe with you. Q
     The apostle Paul gives. the in-        think on these things." He is not



Cloud of
Witnesses                                   John Hus
Prof. Herman Hanko

     While we usually consider              movement of reform that not only           Constance, he wrote his friends in
Luther's act of nailing his 95 theses on    lasted to the, Reformation, but has        Bohemia that *he  ,hoped the goose
the chapel door of the church of            come down to the present in almost         might be released from prison and
Wittenburg to be the beginning of the       pureform,primarilyintheMoravians.          that "if you love the goose," try to
Reformation, the fact remains that          Wycliffe's teachings were almost iden-     secure the king's aid in delivering
God began the work of reformation           tical to those of Luther and Calvin;       him from prison.
longbefore the days ofMartinLuther.         Hus, apparently, was never able to              He was born of poor peasant
     Two men are called "Pre-reform-        condemn the Roman Catholic cor-            parents, all of which meant that his
ers" by historians: John Wycliffe of        ruption of the Lord's Supper. Wycliffe     early life was one of hardship and
England and John Hus of Bohemia.            reflected all his life the middle class    cruelpovertyunderthecrushingheel
Perhaps to call them pre-reformers          gentility of his upbringing; Hus, after    of lords and princes. The difficulties
reallydoesthemnoinjustice;butthey           the pattern of Luther, was of rough        of such a life were, amongst a peasant
were more than pre-reformers; they          peasant stock. Wycliffe, it seems, did     population, broken only by wild and
were reformers in the truest sense of       not know what it meant to laugh; Hus       riotous orgies of drinking and forni-
the' word - and perhaps Hus even            could banter and joke with his stu-        cation. While it is clear from Hus'
more than Wycliffe. The reformation         dents even while lecturing. Wycliffe       later letters that he was as riotous as
of the- church in the 16th century          went to the grave in peace; Hus was        his fellows,nevertheless, he earnestly
would have been impossible without          burned to death on a martyr's pyre.        confessed that he was never guilty of
them..                                      But God used them both.                    the immorality of his peers. From this
     The two men were different.                 In Luther's famous debate with        the Lord saved himinpreparation for
Wycliffe was first of all a scholar for     John Eck at Leipzig, Eck charged           greater work.
whom preachingwas secondary. Hus            Martin Luther with being a Hussite              Whilehisparentswerenotnoted
was above all a preacher, and schol-        because Luther appealed to the su-         in any way for their piety, and appar-
arly studies were subordinate- to           preme authority of Scripture. Luther       ently gave little thought to John's spiri-
preaching; The dusty library .was           was not sure about this, but spent the     tual instruction, they did want him to
Wycliffe's home; the pulpit wasHus?.        noon break reading what Hus had            go to schoolbecause they saw educa-
Wycliffe labored all his life for reform    written. At the beginning of the after-    tion as the only way for John and for
and left no movement that continued         noon session he surprised everyone         them to escape their grinding  plov-
to the. Reformation. Hus started a          by loudly proclaiming: "Ich ben ein        erty. In fact, they apparently consid-
                                            Hussite!" (I am a Hussite.)                ered an education for the priesthood
                                                 John Hus was born in 1373 in the      to be the surest way to wealth, an
                                            southern part of Bohemia (now              irony that spoke volumes concerning
                                            Czechoslovakia) in the village of          the sad state of affairs in the Romish
                                            Husinec - hence his surname, Hus.          Church.
Prof.  Hanko is professor of Church His-    The name Hus means "goose," a word              Although John became a highly
tory and New Testament in the Protes-       which Hus often used in referring to       educated man, his peasant upbring-
tant Reformed Seminarij.                    himself. While he was imprisoned in        ingremainedwithhimallhislife, and

280/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


his enemies repeatedly taunted him                                                     and preach them in the pulpit. It is not
for his crude and rough origins.                                                       surprising that the full fury of the
     In 1385, at thirteen years old,                                                   Roman Catholic Church was soon
John began his formal education in                                                     turned against him. When general
elementary school at Prachatice. Fin-                                                  reform, especially of clerical corrup-
ishing this part of his education in                                                   tion, was preached, even many Ro-
1390, he went to the University of                                                     man Catholics supported the reform
Prague, acquiring a B.A. degree in                                                     movement. ButwhenHus  and others
1393 (at the age of 20); a M.A. in 1396;                                               began to preach doctrinal reform as
and aB.D. in 1404. Until he earned his                                                 well as moral reform, Rome turned in
M.A., life was financially difficult;                                                  a rage against the reformers, and es-
and he earned a bit of money by                                                        pecially against Hus.
singing and doing manual work. But                                                          It seems as if from the time Hus
upon gaininghisM.A. degree, he was                                                     beganpreaching, Hus was under sus-
qualified to teach, which also he did                                                  picion. A curious document turned
in the university. He was soon the                                                     up near the end of Hus' life which was
most popular teacher in the univer-              John Hus, the Czech reformer          a collection of quotes from Hus'
sity, partly because he broke old tra-      preached, still am preaching, and if       preaching and teaching taken secretly
ditions by refusing to be the stern and     his grace will allow, shall continue to    andobviouslywith theintent of  using
unbending professor, preferring to          preach; if perchance I may be able to      them to charge Hus with heresy. But
laugh, joke, and socialize with his         lead some poor, tired, or halting soul     the more Hus emphasized that at the
students.                                   into the house of Christ to the Ring's     root of Rome's evils lay doctrinal er-
     In 1402 John was appointed rec-        supper."l                                  ror, the more Hus lost the support of
tor and preacher at the Chapel of the            The teachings of John Wycliffe        the church, of the politicians, and of
Holy Infants of Bethlehem in Prague.        hadcometoBohemiaasearlyas1390.             most of those in authority: It was the
Thus John occupied two of the most          A close alliance had been established      students Hus taught in school, and
strategic positions in all Bohemia  -       between England and Bohemia be-            the common people who loved his
although he was probably unaware            cause England's king, Richard II, had      preaching, who continued to support
of their importance. The city of Prague     married Anne of Bohemia, the sister        h    i      m     .
had a lengthy tradition of reform and       of Bohemia's king. Scholars had trav-           As the opposition to Hus grew,
couldboast some outstandingpreach-          eled between the countries, and one        pressure of many kinds was put on
ers, who even preached from the             eminent scholar, Jerome of Prague,         him. First 45 statements, purported
Scriptures. To this tradition Hus fell      had spent some time in Oxford,             to be Hus' teachings, were con-
heir. The University of Prague was in       Wycliffe's school, where he had ab-        demned. Then preachingwas forbid-
the very center of the reform move-         sorbed the teachings of Wycliffe. On       den in all the chapels. Then, when
ment and was a place of ferment as          his return, he had spread Wycliffe's       Hus refused to stop preaching, he
new ideas and programs for the              writings and teachings throughout          was excommunicated by the arch-
church were constantly being dis-           Prague and the university.                 bishop. Soon he was summoned to
cussed. The chapel to which Hus was              Although reform had been in           Rome for trial; but, knowing that he
appointed was raised in 1391 by a rich      the air for many years, the spread of      would never escape Rome alive, he
merchant as a center for reform             Wycliffe's teachings gave it direction     refused to go and was excommuni-
preaching.                                  and a doctrinal foundation. JohnHus        cated by the pope. Even this was not
     It was about the time that Hus         hadbecomethoroughlyfamiliarwith            enough; Prague was put under the
began preaching that he also was con-       the teachings of Wycliffe and, con-        interdict so that no religious services
verted. It seems as if his conversion       vinced of their truth, he had himself      could be performed in the entire city.
was centered in his calling to preach.      begun to teach them in the university      Gradually the might of Rome was
Prior to 1400 Hus had studied for the                                                  squeezing Hus into a corner.
priesthood in the firm conviction that                                                      In pity for the citizens of the city,
this was the way to escape from pov-                                                   and so that the interdict could be
erty. But when actually confronted                                                     removed, Hus left and returned to the
with the task of preaching, his life                                                   area of his hometown. But his new
underwent a fundamental change and                                                     residence soon became a center for
he was overcome by the conscious-           `Victor Budgen, OnFireFm&d.  This          preachingin all the surroundingcoun-
ness of the great task of preaching the     bookis far and away the best biogra-       tryside and it gave him the quietness
gospel of Christ. He himself wrote of       phy of John Hus which I have seen. It      that he needed to write. Perhaps this
howimportant he consideredpreach-           is accurate, detailed, butinterestingly    move did not lessen his effectiveness,
ing: "By the help of God I have             written and in a popular style.            but was Gods means of spreading

                                                                                                 March 15,1992/ Standard Bearer I201


 Hus' teachingbeyond the confines of       hearings in efforts to make him re-          Luther killed, but Charles insisted on
Prague.                                    cant. Through all his imprisonment           the safe conduct being enforced.
      At any rate, Rome could tolerate     he was permitted no books, not even          When Charles was later asked why he
Hus no longer. He was summoned to          his Bible. He was nearly starved to          permitted the dastardly heretic,
 the Council of Constance in 1414, a       death at times, and throughout he            Luther, to escape, Charles replied that
 council meeting called to settle the      was so cruelly treated that he suf-          he remembered all too well the blush
papal schism. Three popes were all         fered from hemorrhage, headaches,            of shame on the face of Sigusmund,
claiming to be the legitimate pope,        vomiting, and fainting spells.               when Sigusmund treacherously went
and the outrageous situation was                                                        back on Hus' safe conduct.
making a mockery of the claims of the                                                         Several times on the way to the
church.                                       . . . his testimony was to be             place of execution, Hus attempted to
      The Emperor Sigismund prom-                  the far more powerful                speak to the people, but was in every
ised Hus a safe-conduct both to and                                                     case silenced. Finally, when the crowd
from Constance regardless of the out-          testimony of martyrdom.                  arrived at the stake, Hus, with tears in
come of Hus' trial. And it was for this                                                 his eyes, kneeled in prayer. It was
reason that Hus determined to go,                                                       noon. .Hus' hands were tied behind
although he was not at all certain that            When finally he was brought          him and his neck bound to the stake
he would emerge from the trial alive.      before the council, he was permitted         with a sooty chain. The straw and
He told his friends, however, that a       to say nothing, although repeatedly          wood were piled around him up to
faithful testimony to his Lord and         he made an effort to give the testi-         the chin and rosin was sprinkled on
Savior required that he go.                mony to his faith he longed to give.         the wood. When he was asked to
      Hus would have been safe in his      God did not will that his testimony          recant once last time, his response
hometown. He testified to this in          would be that of a confession of his         way: "I shall die with joy to-day in the
Constance before his accusers when         mouth; his testimonywas tobe the far         faith of the Gospel which I have
he told them: "I have stated that I        more powerful testimony of martyr-           preached." As the flames  arose
came here of my own free will. If I had    dom.                                         around him, he sang twice: "Christ,
been unwilling to come, neither that               The trial was a joke, a violation    thouSonofthelivingGod,  havemercy
king (Wenzel) nor this king                of every rule of justice, a farce of the     upon me." Praying and singing until
(Sigismund) would have been able to        worst sort. But during its proceed-          the smoke began to choke him, he
force me to come, so numerous and so       ings, Hus was repeatedly made the            died a faithful martyr of Jesus Christ.
powerful are the Bohemian nobles           object of mockery, derision, humiliat-       To remove all possible opportunities
who love me, and within whose castles      ing treatment of the worst sort, and a       for his relics to be preserved, his cloth-
I should have been able to lie con-        cruel depositionwhen he was stripped         ing was thrown into the fire and all
cealed."                                   of all his clerical clothing and publicly    the ashes were gathered and thrown'
      For one month, while in              defrocked.                                   into the Rhine River.
Constance, Hus was permitted to                 Finally he was sentenced to bum-             So died this faithful man of God
move about freely, even administer-        ing at the stake, and the council, afraid    sealing his testimony with his blood.
ing the Lords Supper daily in his          of spilling the blood of a man, turned            Hus was a godly man through-
lodgings, the home of a widow whom         him over to the secular authorities to       out his reformatory career, and he
he called his "widow of Zarephath."        carry out the sentence.                      won the grudging praise of his en-
But Rome's godless and treacherous              One interesting sidelight gives a       emies. A Jesuit testified: "John Hus
clerics could not permit Hus to re-        `glimpse into the magnificent wisdom         was even more remarkable for his
main free, and so he was imprisoned        of God. When Hus was sentenced to            acuteness than his eloquence; but the
on the trumped up charge that he had       death, he appealed to the Emperor            modesty and severity of his conduct,
attempted to escape the city in a          Sigismund, who was present, to res-          his austere and irreproachable life,
wagon.                                     cue him, reminding Sigismund of his          his pale and melancholy features, his
     Three months he was in a dun-         promise of a safe-conduct. While             gentleness and affability to all, even
geon in a Dominican convent with a         Sigismund did not have the courage           the most humble, persuaded more
cell alongside the latrines. On March      to keep his promise, he did have the         than the greatest eloquence." An-
24, 1414, he was chained and trans-        grace to blush a fiery red at Hus'           other Roman Catholic, later a pope,
ferred to a castle dungeon at Got-         rebuke. All this would not mean so           wrote: "He was a powerful speaker,
telieven, where he was handcuffed          much in itself. But just over 100 years      and distinguished for the reputation
and bound to a wall at night, while        later, Luther went to Worms under            of a life of remarkable purity."
free to walk around in chains during       the safe conduct of Charles V, em-                Hus was not the original thinker
the day. After 73 days, he was trans-      peror of Germany, and made his cou-          that Wycliffe was, and indeed bor-
ferred to a Franciscan friary where he     rageous stand for Scripture. Then too        rowed most of his thoughts from
was subjected to cruel and heartless       the Roman Catholic Church wanted             Wycliffe-especially Wycliffe'sviews

282lStandardBearer/March15,1992


of the church as the elect body of             which joined the Reformation just           holy and true, wilt thou not judge and
Christ and the sole authority of Ship-         over 100 years later.                       avenge our blood on them that dwell
ture. But Hus was, what Wycliffe                    Rome has the blood of countless        on the earth?"
never attained, a powerful preacher.           people of God on her hands. She has              But to Hus, along with the other
of the Scriptures., By preaching he            never expressed one word of sorrow          martyrs of Christ, was given a white
moved a nation. And by preaching he            or regret for this. The blood of the        robe and the testimony that they
established a church in Bohemia                martyrs still cries from under the al-      should rest a little while until their
whichRome could never destroy, but             tar against Rome: "How long, 0 Lord,        brethrenshouldbekilledastheywere.n

                                               Analyzing the
                                               Disciples', Mistaken
Contribution                                   Kingdom Notion
Rev. Kenneth Koole

     (Whatfollows is the text of a speech      the coming of the Holy Spirit and the            Well, our children are shrewd
given last year to a gathering of Sunday       wonder of His gift to the church.           enoughto  realize and ask, "But wasn't
School teachers. 1 was asked to address              The maddening dullness of the         that also the conception of Jesus' dis-
the subject of the inability and refusal of    disciples in the Gospels to under-          ciples? Were they not guilty of the
the disciples to understand Jesus' teach-      stand Jesus' teachings on the nature        same error? Yet, the Pharisees are
ing on the nature of His Kingdom.)             of His kingdom serves to underscore         condemned for unbelief, but not the
                                               just how tremendous a gift the Holy         disciples. Is this fair? Or doesn't it
     Let me state here at the outset           Spirit was andis. We ought to use this      really make much difference what
that there is a very short explanation         inability of the disciples to under-        you believe on these matters after
for the disciples' inability to under-         stand Christ's words to point this out.     all?" Such are normal questions in a
stand Christ's teaching on His Ring-           It is the Holy Spirit who makes the         child's mind, and they must be an-
dom and for their refusal to receive it.       difference. Our children must under-        swered.
You know the answer as well as I. It           stand it is not that we today are so             We want our children to iden-
was because the Holy Spirit had not            much smarter than the disciples, but        tify themselves with the disciples, but
as yet been poured out, so they were           rather it is the Holy Spirit who has        not with the Pharisees. Certainly there
dull of understanding. Once the Holy           quickened our understanding. And            must be something about the dis-
Spirit came upon them, all became              when the Holy Spirit came upon the          ciples that distinguished them as be-
clear. They became receptive to the            disciples they too had deep insights        lievers from the unbelieving Phari-
truth of Christ's Kingdom and were             into Christ's words. In fact, what we       sees. What that difference is we will
able to expound its mysteries.                 know about Christ's Kingdom today           note a bit further down.
      I have an idea however that giv-         is exactly through the writings of these         An important question is, then,
ing such as an answer would be less            selfsame disciples when they became         what was the disciples' saving virtue
than adequate, and you would find              the wise Apostles.                          despite their obvious misunderstand-
the answer somewhat less than illu-                  Let me state that I can under-        ing of and refusal to listen to Christ in
minating or helpful in explaining              stand why for teachers the matter           this matter?
things to Sunday school students. So           under consideration stands as a very             First, however, there is the
I do have a bit more than that.                important and practical question in         shared misconception.
      Still, we must never forget that         teachingthe Gospel accounts.                     Really there is little to distin-
the key to the disciples' understand-                Again and again we have to con:       guish what the disciples were looking
ing the nature of the Kingdom lies in          front the student with the unbelief of      forinthecomingKingdom,fromwhat
                                               the hardhearted Pharisees, and with         the Pharisees expected and de-
                                               their rejection of Jesus as Christ be-      manded. Bothwerelookingforsome-
                                               cause of their earthly, fleshly concep-     thing earthly and visible, with its cen-
Rev. Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant       tion of the Kingdom. They were un- ter in David's Jerusalem, with politi-
Reformed Church in Jenison, Michigan.          b e l i e v e r s .                         cal and military prestige. As well, it

                                                                                                  March  15,1992/StandardBearer/283


     would be distinctively Jewish. The             able to ignore the sacrifices which not         Well, what Christ was saying to
     temple would be the only place wor-            even Abraham could ignore, and we          the disciples was that new. What
     ship would be allowed (idolatry at             willneednohumanpriesthood? How             Jesus was saying did not make sense.
     long last completely overthrown); and          can you draw nigh to God without           No temple, no sacrifices? How then
     the LAW of Moses would be applied              these?"                                    will we enter God's holy presence?
     with all its force.                                 And moreover, what was it that        Our fathers were punished for for-
I             It was especially this latter that    had gotten Israel, the people of God,      saking the sacrifices. How can there
     all expected the Messiah to bring to           into trouble with God to begin with?       be some kind of invisible kingdom
     bear on the lives of the people. That          Wasn't it. failure to use the temple       that does not need these things? How
     stands to reason. After all, consider          properly, laxity in attending its func-    will there be atonement for sin? Great
     what it was that had brought about             tions? And now the new Kingdom             questions present themselves.
     the diminishing of the Jews and God's          wouldnot need this visible holy place           And besides that, if Jesus was
     judgments upon Israel and their sub-           of God? Righteousness would now            the Christ, the Son of David,He would
     jectionto theheathennations tobegin            mean not using it? setting it aside?       have to rule in person. But how could
     with. Whatelsebutthefailuretokeep                   After all these years of punish-      that occur if He went to this wretched
     Gods law in conduct and worship!               ing Israel exactly for NOT using the       cross that He talked about every now
              So, what would reverse the pro-       temple, now God was going to ap-           and then, and died? How could He
     cess and bring God's favor? What               prove their dismissing it? You make        die and rule over the promised king-
     elsebut  keepingthelaw scrupulously,           sense out of that! Such was the dis-       dom at the same time? You put the
     having nothing to do with the `un-             ciples' quandary.                          two together. It's absurd.
     clean' whether they were Jew or Gen-                But how do you make sense out              Thus, you read in Luke l&34
     tile.                                          of it without the CROSS and under-         (after Christ informed His disciples
              We could properly analyze the         standing its power? I submit that you      that He was going to Jerusabem  to
     disciples' refusal to discard their own        d o   n o t .                              fulfill the words of the prophets,
     earthly kingdom conception by con-                  Secondly, how could the prom-         namely, the Gentiles were to put Him
     sidering it from three angles.                 ise concerning David's son be real-        to death, and the third day He would
              In the first place we ought to        ized if there was no throne in Jerusa-     rise again), "And they understood
     sympathize with their perplexity in            lem? Where was the Messiah going to        none of these things, and this saying
     this matter; from a second perspec-            rule from? Babylon? Rome? Grand            was hid from them, neither knew
     tive, the disciples are to be criticized       Rapids? It was beyond their compre-        they the things which were spoken."
     (that is, reproved); and finally we            hension.                                        The disciples reasoned like this:
     ought to consider what it was that                  To put it in comparable terms, so     You can rule in Jerusalem and lestab-
     distinguished their'unbelief' concem-          our children can identify with the         lish a kingdom, OR you can let your
     ing Christ's words in this matter from         disciples' pe+lexity, it almost would      enemies put you to death, but surely
     the Pharisees' unbelief. For they are          be like the minister announcing next       you can not do both. They did not
     of a different species despite their           Sunday that from now on there will         understand how Jesus could die (and
     outward similarity.                            be no more Sunday worship, no more         not seize David's throne in Jerusa-
              In the area of sympathy we must       comingtogether at church. We do not        lem), and yet rule over a kingdom.
     not lose sight of how central the cross        need/church' anymore. Families will             Remember that, relative to the
     is to any proper understanding of the          worship in their own homes from            disciples, you and I stand on the other
     heavenly, invisible, internal nature of        now on.                                    side of the cross. To the New Testa-
     Christ's kingdom.                                   Use this example in Sunday            ment believer, how the cross and
              The perplexity of the disciples       school and possibly the response           Christ's death puts everything into
     ties in with their powerful attach-            might be, "All right!" That's typical      perspective, and how it does away
     ment to the temple in Jerusalem. This          `mob' psychology. But get the same         with the ongoing necessity of the
     must never be underestimated. The              children up Sunday morning as par-         temple with its sacrifices, becomes
     temple was where God had chosen to             entsandtellthemyouarenot  goingto          amazingly clear. Hindsight is like
     dwell. It was beyond them how reli-            church anymore, and you will get           that. It is 20-20.
     gious life could outlive its usefulness.       their real reaction of perplexity and           But go to the other side of the
              You see, the disciples under-         worry. "All our friends continue to        cross and try to comprehend that
     stoodwell that thelqgicalinference of          go to church and to follow the same        somehow the Christ's coming is go-
     dispensing with a visible, earthly,            religious routine they always have,        ing to make the temple, the heart of
     Jerusalem-centered kingdom meant               butnotus? Thereissomethingwrong            David's theocracy and the heart of
     doingawaywith the temple worship.              about all this. This can not be!" You      God's worship since Moses' day, ob-
     The disciples understood that intu-            would not convince your children           solete. It becomes much more diffi-
     itively. But it was inconceivable.             very quickly that such a change in         cult. Try to comprehend that by dy-
              "You mean to say, .we will be         their religious conduct was right.         ingchrist  will bevictorious, and thus

     284/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


     establish His kingdom and defeat His          with its sacrifices and priesthood as      ing(anditisalwayshardtobelieve, to
     enemies.                                      the proper fulfillment, you really can     accept, what you can not understand),
          How is it possible that what hap-        not grasp the non-earthly, non-vis-        the disciples stood on the wrong side
     pens to you is what your enemies              ible, spiritual kingdom Jesus came to      of the cross.
     want  to happen to you (namely, your          establish. It was only after Christ             Because of who Jesus was,
     death), and in that way you achieve           arose that it began to dawn on the         namely, the Son-of God, we must not
     your objective? Is not death defeat?          disciples that Jesus could die, and        excuse these disciples for not submit-
          Andsothedisciplesblockedout              that His death at the hands of His         ting to Christ's words. They simply
     many of Christ's words. They heard            enemies did not spell the end of ev-       should have believed and accepted
     what they wanted to hear and ig-              erything.                                  everything He said. This is a lesson
     nored what they could not fathom.                  It was only when they saw Christ      every one of us must learn (wemust
     The disciples became condescending            ascend up into that higher place,          tell the children). Still, our criticism
     to Jesus. He was pessimistic by na-           heaven, that they began to under-          must be prefaced with a sympathy
     ture; that is all. In time His common         stand that Christ's death was a way to     lest our childrenbecome condescend-
     sense would prevail. They would               akingdomruledfromathronegreater            ing towards these'dull-witted,' rural
     stick with Him until He saw the light.        than the one in Jerusalem, namely the      disciples, and they become wise in
          The point is, until you grasp the        throne in heaven.                          their own eyes. 0
I    cross and how it replaces the temple               With regard to their understand-                          . . . to be continued


     Book Reviews

     The Secret of Communion with God,             prayer the first thing in the morning,     we should not allow ourselves to
     by Matthew Henry; Kregel Publica-             and understanding our calling to do        wander away from God in our
     tions, Grand Rapids, Michigan; 128            so, will help us to do what the next       thoughts. He concludes this chapter
     pp., $6.95 (paper). [ReviewedbyRev.           chapter presents, -namely, "How to         with an application of our calling to
     John A. Heys.]                                Spend the Day with God."                   wait on God. Read those nine points
                                                        Reading the second chapter in         for your instruction, and the five
          This book, written in 1712 by            this book raises an important ques-        motives for persuading us to %ve a
     Matthew Henry, brings to us an awe-           tion in our minds. The book indi-          life of communion with God, by wait-
     some  calling, which presents to us           rectly,butveryreally, raises the ques-     ing on Him all the day."
     what we must do every day without             tion to the reader as to how often he           It is noteworthy that each of the
     any exception. Let it be pointed out          has God in mind during the day. We         three chapters in this book begins
     that this is not a book about the sacra-      do well to read the book for the           with a quotation from the book of
     ment of Holy Communion, even                  strengtheningofourfaithinGod,and           Psalms. Thebookbegins chapter one
     though the word communion appears             to move us to a closer spiritualfellow-    withthequotingofPsalm5:3,namely,
     in the title of the book. The word            ship with God in whatever situation        "Myvoice  shalt thou hearin themorn-
     communion here means covenant fel-            we find ourselves.                         ing, 0 Lord; in the morning will I
     lowship with God.                                  To pray to God the first thing in     direct my prayer unto thee, and will
          We do well to read this book in          the morning, and then not to have          look up." The second chapter begins
     order to be reminded of our calling,          Him in our thoughts the rest of the        with the quoting of Psalm 25:5. There
     and to become more earnest in our             day, does not manifest a spiritual life    David writes, "On thee do I wait all
     prayers. The title of the first section of    of faith in Him. The text Matthew          the day." And now chapter three
     the book is, "How to Begin the Day            Henry quotes as the basis for what he      begins with Psalm  4% Notice then
     with God." With prayer we must                writes in this second chapter is Psalm     that, havingwritten about andquoted
     begin the day. As thebookpoints out,          25:5c. There we read, "On thee do I        Scripture in regard to praying in the
     we must with prayer commune with              wait all the day." And, beginning on       morning, and then of waiting on God
     God every morning of every day.               page 55, Matthew Henry presents to         all the day, the author of this book
          Read the book to see more fully          us four reasons why we must wait on        now.quotes these words of David, "I
     in chapter one the calling which we           God during all the day, and not merely     will both lay me down in peace, and
     have to come to Him in prayer, and            the first thingin the morning. Get this    sleep; for thou, Lord, maketh me dwell
     the blessedness for us when we do             book and read those four reasons           in safety."
     have communion with Him through               presented in chapter two.                     Thus all the day, from the first
     prayer. Surely, coming to God in                   Then follow the six reasons why       thing in the morning, until we close

                                                                                                     March 15,1992/StandardBearer/285


our eyes in sleep at night, we must, as           By communion with God in             willed, gifted heretics. Having split
David did, have communion with               prayer and contemplation we will          Calvary Reformed Church when he
God through prayer. We do well,              know that which is secret. We will        left to form Calvary Unde-
therefore, to read this book, and in         know and enjoy what He wrought for        nominational Church, DeHaan later
this thirdchapter to consider the II holy    us through Christ and His cross, and      .nearly  destroyed Calvary Unde-
serenity," or peace, which we have           in His grace. Be sure, then, to have      nominational Church by leaving it in
with God, and the "holy security,"           communion with God, and know the          order to found The Radio Bible Class.
which is the fruit of God's favor or         joy which unbelievers cannot have         Determinednot to submit to theBoard
grace. With that confidence we can           and enjoy. What is a secret, that is,     that governed the church, DeHaan
close our eye?  in sleep at night, with      hidden from the unbelievers, those        `walked out of the congregationin the
the assurance that all is well; for we       Saved by God's grace will everlast-       middle of a worship service:
are in the hands of an almighty, gra-        &gly know and enjoy. i                      OnaSundaymorninginMayof1938
cious God. Read, then, how this book                                                     . . . well before the end of the sermon
presents to us the truth that prayer is                                                  with about 15 minutes left of radio
the privilege and duty of those who          Grace and GIoy Days, by Thomas              time he announced that this was his
are chosen in Christ.                        Boslooper. Clearwater, Florida:             last sermon in Calvary Unde-
      This third chapter of the book         WoodswalkerBooks,  1990.130pages.           nominational Church, closed his
                                                                                         Bible, took his hat from inside the
contains four main sections; and then        Paper. No price given. [Reviewedby          pulpit., and proceeded up the aisle
it concludes with an application of          the Editor.]                                with a sobbing woman trying to take
whathadbeenpresentedinthatchap-                                                          hold of him, and headed for the door
ter. The first of these four sections             Grace and Glo y was a religious        (P.        88)
deals with the fact of our lying down        periodical published in Western                     The book makes abundantly
to sleep. The second presents our            Michigan in the late 1920s and early      clear that independency is fraught
lying down in peace when we seek             1930s. Its leading editors were the       with peril. It makes clear also that
sleep. The third deals with compos-          four preachers who are the subjects of    there are always ministers who find
ing wisdom in regard to sleep. And           this informative little history: M.R.     this church set-up appealing and that
the fourth one presents the neces+y          DeHaan, Harry Bultema, Albert             there are always people who willl fol-
of our believing and having complete         Waalkes, and JohnBennink. All were        low them, heedless of the peril.
dependency upon God.                         originally ministers in the Reformed                Herman Hoeksema is' men-
      Then comes the application of          Church of America or in the Christian     tioned as "one of Bultema's chief an-
all this. Therein we find six points.        Reformed Church. All were either          tagonists" at the CRC synod of 1918
And in this section the author begins        deposed or dismissedbecause of their      that treated Bultema's case  (p- 18).
with the truth that we must carry our        falling away from the Reformed faith      Hoeksema and Henry Danho:f are
religion with us wherever we go; and         to  dis$ensati&alism (premil-             characterized as "ultra-conserva-
thus also do this when we lie down to        lennialism).                              tives." Boslooper, aretiredRCAmin-
sleep.                                            This error involved them in the      ister, is mistaken in his history and
     How true is that last statement         denial of infant baptism and the cov-     confused in his theology (to saynoth-
in the last paragraph of this book. The      enant. DeHaan's  tr6ubles  in Calvary     ing of his grammar) when he writes
author states, "It is certain, all that      Reformed Church began when he re-         that a cause of the founding of the
will go to heaven hereafterbegin their       fused to preach Question 74 of the        Protestant Reformed Churches was
heaven now, and have their hearts            Heidelberg Catechism. Harry               the issue "whether or not Election
there." The idea is that, in this life       Bultema ended in a complete repu-         tookplace before (Hoeksema) or after
already, such who enter into spiritual       diation of water baptism. The only        the Fall" (p. 113).
rest, everynightbefore they fall asleep      baptismrecognizedin his church was             Certain incidents are memo-
have evidence that they "shall not           the baptism with the Holy Spirit.         rable. There is Prof. Volbeda of Cal-
rest day or night from praising Him,         Water baptism was for the dispensa-       vin Seminary coming to Bultema's
who is, and will be, our eternal rest."      tion of the Jews.                         church on the Sunday morning after
     Read the book for the strength-              DeHaan started Calvary               Bultema's deposition in order tIo oc-
ening of faith, and for more enjoy-          Undenominational Church in Grand          cupy the pulpit only to find the ser-
ment of sweet communion with God             Rapids (now Calvary Church);              vice well underway with Bultema
already in this life. Living in a day        Bultema, the Berean Church in             doing the preaching. The consistory
and age that, from a spiritual point of      Muskegon; Waalkes, The Church of          had decided to begin the service a
view, is  increasin$y devilish and           the Open Door in Grand Rapids; and        half-hour early in order to forestall
antichristian, it is well to be reminded     Bennink, the Bethel Gospel Taber-         Volbeda. Bultema's sermon that
of our calling to have more commun-          nacle in Muskegon.                        morning, taken from John 9:34, was
ion with God, rather than with Satan              Grace and Glory Days follows         entitled, "And They Cast Him Out."
and his godless host.                        the stormy careers of these strong-                                                    cl

286/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


 News From Our Churches
 n/lr. Benjamin Wigger

 Young People's Activities                  a brief program. The proceeds of this     of board; one for the seat and another
          The thought crossed my mind       eveningwere to be given to the church     for the back. These are functional but
 just now that perhaps it would be a        for the purpose of purchasing kitchen     not designed for comfort - nor for
 good idea to have a section of the         utensils.                                 sleeping, for that matter."
 "News" dealing with young people's         Evangelism Activities
 activities.                                     The Evangelism Committee of          Congregational Activities
          There seem to be more and more    the Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL writes             On February 11, the congrega-
 activities each month. Why not give        concerning their activities that they     tion of the Kalamazoo, MI PRC met in
 them their own section of this back        "continue to distribute our Peace         a congregational meeting to consider
 page? So, without any further intro-       Church brochure and the Reformed          whether or not they should sell their
 duction, let us include a couple of        Literature brochure. These two, along     parsonage. Evidently no decision was
 young people's activities.                 with copies of pages from Rev. Heys'      reached that night and the matter was
          The Young People's Society of     Meditations are displayed in busi-        placedin the hands of a committee for
 the Faith PRC in Jenison, MI con-          nesses, rest homes, and other places."    further study.
 tacted members of area PR churches         And in the near future they plan to            The Council of the Peace PRC of
 to have them take part in an Apple Pie     place an ad in "Christianity Today."      Lynwood, IL reported to their con-
 Phone-a-thon. Faith's society was               In a letter received from Jack-      gregation that, since approval of the
 selling fresh 9" deep-dish apple pies,     son, MS by the Evangelism Commit-         purchase of the Lansing property, the
 by phone -with proceeds going, of          tee of the South Holland, IL PRC, a       Building Committee has been seek-
 course, to this year's `92 YP Conven-      correspondent writes, "I am a mis-        ing permission from the city to con-
 tion.                                      sionaryonmywaytoBogota,Colum-             struct a church building on the prop-
          The Young People's Society of     bia. There I will be trying to preach     erty. The committee has also been
 the South Holland, IL PRC invited the      the biblical message in the face of       considering several matters which
 young people of the two other PR           Catholicism, and Pentecostalism. It       must be decided before plans can be
churches in Illinois to join them for       would be a great help to me if1 might     drawn up. For instance: 1) the seating
 their annual ski-outing at Bittersweet,    receive a copy of the following of        capacity of the auditorium; 2) the
 near Kalamazoo, Michigan.                  your helpful pamphlets...."               kind of structure the congregation
          The Hull, IA  PRC's  Young             The Evangelism Committee of          can afford; and 3) whether to build
 People's Society sponsored a               the Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village,      the auditorium or a wing first.
! singspiration on February 9 in their      IL sponsored a lecture on "The Bibli-          A Potluck Lunch was planned
 church. The theme for this  sing-          calDoctrine  of Creation" by Rev. Dale    by the Helping Hands Committee of
 spiration was "God's Sovereignty in        Kuiper on February 26.                    the Faith PRC in Jenison, MI for all
 Salvation." Everyone in the area                                                     Faith's seniors and retirees.
 churches was invited to come and           Mission Activities                             A monthly church calendar will
join in an evening of fellowship andin           Rev. G. VanBaren,  who recently      soon be included in the bulletins of
 the singing of praise unto the God of      completed a classical appointment to      the Lynden, WA PRC. These calen-
 our salvation.                             the Covenant Reformed Fellowship          dars will appear in the bulletin only of
          On the evening of February 21,    in Larne, Northern Ireland, wrote         the last Sunday of each month and
the young people of the Lynden, WA          about his three weeks there to his        will serve to inform the congregation
PRC invited their fellow church mem-        congregation in Hudsonville, MI. He       of birthdays, anniversaries, and im-
bers to aHostess Supper, followedby         writes in part: "The CRF is meeting at    portant functions occurring the next
                                            present in a small Sunday School          month.
                                            chapel in Ballymena. It is in an up-
                                            stairs room which resembles a small       Ministerial Calls
                                            church auditorium. Sunday School               Rev. D. Kuiper has accepted the
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protestant    classes have been conducted in this       call he was considering to serve as
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-      room for about 150 years. It is ad-       pastor of the Southeast PRC in Grand
gan.                                        equate for the group. The benches are     Rapids, MI.

                                                                                            March 15,1992/ StandardBearer/


STANDARD
   Bc4REER                                                                                                   SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                             Postage Paid at
                                                                                                             Grandville, Michigan
   P. 0. Box 603
  Grandville, MI 49468-0603


     And as the result of voting on          Larne, Northern Ireland, the congre-        Hudsonville, MI PRC, called Rev.
February 23 for missionary to the            gation of the calling church, the           Kortering.  IJ
Covenant Reformed Fellowship of

                                                                                                                           -
                                                                                                CALL TO ASPIRANTS
                                                                                                     TO THE MINISTRY
                                                                                                All young men desiring to be-
                                                                                          gin studies for the 1992-i 993 aca-
                                                                                          demic year in the Theological
                                                                                          School of the Protestant Reformed
                                                                                          Churches should make application
                                                                                          at the April 16,1992 meeting of ,the
                                                                                          Theological School Committee.
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                        A testimonial from the pro-
     The con&tory and congrega-                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     spective students consistory that
tion of the Loveland Protestant Re-               The Mary Martha Society of the          he is a member in full communilon,
formed Church express their heartfelt        Redlands Congregation would like to          sound in faith, and upright in walk,
sympathy to Mr. and Mrs. Ray Ezinga          express their Christian sympathy to          a certificate of health from a repu-
and family in the death of her father,       their fellow members Donna Huisken           table physician, and high school
         MR. JOHN HAGER.                     and Esther Huisken and their families        and college transcripts must ac-
May the bereaved be comforted by             in the death of their father and grand-      company the application. Before
the promise of God's Word that I`... if      father,                                      entering the seminary, all students
our earthly house of this tabernacle            MR. HENRY VANDERBURG.                     must have earned a bachelor's
were dissolved, we have a building of        May the family find comfort in God's         degree and met all of the course
God, an house not made with hands,           Word, "I am the resurrection, and the        requirements for entrance to the
eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. 5:i).       life; he that believeth in me, though he     seminary. These entrance require-
      Rev. Ron Cammenga, Pres.               were dead, yet shall he live" (John          ments are listed in the seminary
                    Mr. Bob Brands, Clerk    11:25).                                      catalog available from the school.
                                                        Pastor denHartog, President             All applicants must appear be-
                                                           Laurie Jabaay, Secretary       fore the Theological School Corn-
                                                                                          mittee for interview before admis-
RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                    sion is granted. In the event that a
     The Mary Martha Society of the                                                       student cannot appear at the April
Redlands Congregation would like to            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     16th meeting, notification of this
express their Christian sympathy to               The Mary Martha Society of the          fact, along with a suggested inter-
their fellow members Anna Mae                Redlands Congregation would like to          view date, must be given to the
Meelker, Anna Bodbyl, Janine                 extend heartfelt Christian sympathy          secretaryoftheTheologicalSchool
Meelker, and Karen Meelker and their         to our Pastor and his wife, Sherry           Committee before this meeting.
families, in the death of their mother-      denHartog and their family in the death            All correspondenceshould be
in-law and grandmother                       of Sherry's uncle,                           directed to the Theological School
      MRS. HILDA MEELKER.                               MR. GEROLD DEUR.                  Committee, 4949 lvanrest Ave.,
May the family find comfort in God's         May they find comfort in the words of        Grandville, Ml 49418.
Word, "For this God is our God for           Isaiah 53:4, "Surely he hath borne our                    Jon Huisken, Secretary
ever and ever:, he will be our guide         griefs, and carried our sorrows."                             * * *
even unto death" (Psalm 48:14).                            Laurie Jabaay, Secretary             The Protestant Reformed
         Pastor denHartog, President                                                      Seminary admits students of any
             Laurie Jabaay, Secretary                                                     race, color, and national or ethnic
                                                                                          origin.

288/StandardBearerlMarch15,1992


