                      "We believe that this true church must be governed by that
                   spiritual policy which our Lord hath taught us in His Word."
                                                -Belgic Confession, Article 30

Vol. 68, No. 14
April 15, 1992


   CONTENTS:                                                                                   April 15, 1992                    STANDARD
   Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema                                                                                                   BEARER
         All Things Decently and in Order .................................................. 315
   Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                I                                                         ISSN 0362-4692
         Reformed Church Order: Law  of'christ
                                                                              ....................................... 317
   Letters.. ..................................................................................................       319       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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   The Authority of Broader Ecclesiastical Assemblies                                                                           EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                                                                                Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
         Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop ............................................................                      323       Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
   The Questions of Article 41                                                                                                  Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
         Rev. Russell`J, Dyksfra ....................................................                  . ............... 326    DEPARTMENT EDITORS
   Mutual Censure -Article 81 of the Church Order                                                                               Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Aris
                                                                                                                                denHs.rtog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Carl Haak,  Mr. Fred
         Rev. Wayne Bekkering ....................................................................                  :328        Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Marvin
   Consistorial Promotion of Christian Schools                                                                                  Kamps,  Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Kools, Rev. Jason
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         Rev. Arie denHartog.. ...... . ..................... .l................... :. ..................... 330                Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. James Slopsema, Rev.
   Separate Meetings of Elders and Deacons                                                                                      Charles Terpstra, Rev. Ronald VanOvsrloop, Mr. Denjamin
                                                                                                                                Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
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   314 /Standard Bearer 1 April 15,1992


                                               All Things Decently
Meditation                                     a n d   iri  O r d e r   '
Rev. James Slopsema


     For God is not the author of con..-            In all this let the women keep            discord, or disorder. There is only
sion, butofpeace.... Let all things be done    silence. It is not permitted for women         perfectlovemanifestingitselfincom-
decently and in order.                         to speak in the public worship of the          plete harmony, unity, and peace.
                I Corinthians 14:33,40         church. If women will learn any-                    Hence, neither is God the author
                                               thing, let them.ask  their husbands at         of confusion or discord among men.
     The church of Corinth had been            home.                                          He is rather the source of peace.
especially blessed with the special                 It was necessary that the chaos                This is clearly seen in the origi-
gifts of the Spirit. These gifts in-           that prevailed in the worship of               nal creation of man. God created man
cluded speaking in tongues, interpre-          Corinth cease and that order be re-            in His own image. Reflected in man's
tation of tongues, prophecies, and             stored. For God is not the author of           very being were the virtues and per-
revelations.                                   confusion, but of peace.                       fections of God. By reason of this
      However, there was a problem                      Let all things, therefore, be done    creation there existed a most beauti:
in Corinth with all these gifts. Those         decently and in order.                         ful love between God and man. God
endowed with these gifts tended to                      There was confusion in other          was drawn to man, who bore His
compete with each other at the public          areas of the life of the Corinthian            likeness. Man adored his God and'
worship so that there was confusion            church as well. The congregation was           served Him in love according to the
and chaos.                                     badly divided by a party spirit. An            laws that God set over him to order
      In this fourteenth chapter of his        incestuous relation continued                  his life. There `was not confusion,
letter to Corinth the apostle Paul gives       unchecked in the church. There were            discord, or chaos but peace.
instructionconcerningtheorderlyuse             lawsuits among the members of the                   This same peace existed in the
of these gifts, especially the gifts of        church. The Lords Supper had de-               beginning among mankind. God
tongues and prophecy.                          generated into a feast from which              originally made two, Adam and Eve,
      Concerning tongues, let no more.         some were wrongfully excluded and              from whom developed the whole
than two, or possibly three, speakin a         at which others became drunk. There            human race. Since both Adam and
service. Let them speak only when              was also strife and confusion occa-            Eve knew the love and peace of God
one is present with the gift of inter-         sioned by questions of marriage and            as God's imagebearers, they too were
pretation, so that the whole church            eating meats offered to idols.                 drawn together with cords of perfect
may be edified. If there is none to                     These also are the concern of         love. In their life together there was
interpret, let the one with the gift of        Paul.                                          no strife or conflict but perfect peace,
tongues speak to himself and to God                     God is not the author of confu-       as they demonstrated their love  to.
but not in the public worship.                 sion, but of peace.                            each other according to the law which
      Concerningprophecy, let two or                    Let all things, therefore, be done    God had ordained-for their life to-
three prophesy. Let the rest of the            decently and in order.                         gether.
congregation judge and discern its                         *  *  *  *  *  *  +                     This peace extended even to the
truth. Should anythingbe revealed to                    God is not the author of confu-       whole earthly creation over which
one who sits (i.e., an elder or minis-         sion, but of peace.                            God placed man as king. In that
ter), let the one who began to proph-                   This is a general truth that has      original creation all the creatures of
esy first hold his peace and yield. Let        broader application than just the pub-         God, great and small, organic and
those who prophesy do so one by one.           lic worship or life of the church.             inorganic, were designed to exist in
                                                        God is the author of peace be-        perfect harmony according to certain
                                               cause He is the God of peace within            "laws of nature" which God estab-
                                               Himself. Godis triune: three persons           lished. Under the kingship of man,
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protes-        subsisting in the one divine Being.            peace prevailed on the earth.
tant Reformed Church in Walker,                Among these three (Father, Son, and                 God is not the author of confu-
Michigan.                                      Holy Spirit) there is no confusion,            sion, but of peace.
                                                                                                    April 15,1992 / Standard Bearer 1315


      But then sin entered the world.         and His commandments, an obedi-              cency, good order, and peace.
By the instigation of the devil, Adam         ence which brings peace - peace                       This is the concern of the apostle
and Eve rebelled against God. And             with God, peace among the saints.            Paul.
the consequences of this original sin         The redeemed of God even seek to                      Let all things be done decently
have been devastating.                        bring this glorious peace to the war-        and in order.
      Not only did our first parents,         mongers of this world, who know not                   For God is not the author of
Adam and Eve, lose their original             the Lord nor His salvation.                  confusion, but of peace.
righteousness, so did the whole hu-                God is not the author of confu-                     *  *  *  *  * *  *
man race that develops from them.             sion, but of peace.                                   The principles God has ordained
Losing the image of God, the human                     *  *  *  *  *  *  Y,                for the good order and peace of the
race has become evil, corrupt, des-                In this section of his letter to the    churcharereflectedinthegreat church
peratelywicked, inclined to hate God          Corinthian church the apostle Paul           order of Dordrecht, to which this is-
and each other.                               applies this truth specifically to the       sue of the StandardBearevis  devoted.
      This, in turn, has led to strife,       life and worship of the church.                       Some of the rules laid down in
conflict, and disorder.                            God is not the author of confu-         the church order of Dordrecht are
      There is strife between God and         sion, but of peace.                          based directly on the principles God
man, as one generation after another               Let all things in the church, there-    has set down in Scripture for the life
demonstrates its contempt of the liv-         fore, be done decently and in order.         and government of the church. Oth-
ing God by trampling under foot His                For the peace of the church God         ers are practical applications of these
commandments. This conflict can               has ordainedcertainprinciples which          principles for the life of the church.
only result in the destruction of man         are to govern the life and worship of        Still others are not based at all on
in hell.                                      the church. These principles are found       these principles but have been made
      There is also strife within the         in the New Testament Scriptures, re-         with a view to providing orderliness
human race itself. The evil hatred of         vealed either by the example of the          in the life of the church where Godhas
heart that has taken hold of fallen           apostolic church or by direct com-           given the church freedom to do as she
man shows itself in jealousy, anger,          mand of God.                                 deems best.
strife, and conflict on every level of                                                              This church order has been a
human life: in marriage, in the home,                                                      tremendous blessing to the Reformed
in the state, in business, among the             The church order has been                 churches down through the ages. For
races, among the nations.                          a tremendous blessing                   it has been the tool of God to provide
      The confusion of sin has even                                                        decency, good order, and peace for
fallen upon the creation as a whole.             to the Reformed churches                  the church.
For in consequence of man's original              down through the ages.                            And this is above all precious. 0
sin, the curse of God came upon the
whole universe, disrupting the origi-
nal peace that prevailed.                          Thus, for example, God has or-
      From this confusion of sin God          dained that there shall be three offices
has saved His church in Jesus Christ.         in the church (minister, elder, and
      In the blood of Jesus Christ God        deacon) through which Christ speaks,
freely forgives His people all their          rules, and provides for the poor in
sins. But He also changes them. He            every congregation. There shall be
delivers them from the power of sin           public worship on the Lords Day, in
that has taken hold of them. He               which the preaching is primary but
restores them to His own image in             which also includes the sacraments,
which they were originally created            prayers, singing, and the giving of
but which they lost in the fall. He           alms. There shall be discipline exer-
makes them righteous and holy as He           cisqd in the church, involving all the
is. This glorious transformation of           members but under the supervision
heart and soul is only begun in this          of the office of elder.
life. It will be perfected in glory.               When these and other principles
      The result of this great salvation      laid down by God for the life and
is that the redeemed of God love the          worship of the church are neglected,
Lord their God. They also love one            thereis confusion, discord, chaos. This
another for God's sake. They even             is what had happened in the
love the neighbor who continues on            Corinthian church.                             Rev. Cammerzga,  Rev. Houck, and
in sin without Christ. This love mani-             When by the grace of God these              Mr. John VanDenTop  (Doon)
fests itself in a life of obedience to God    principles are followed there is de-

316 /Standard Bearer / April 15,1992


                                                   Reformed Church
                                                                            Order:
Editorial                                                     Law of Christ
        The life and labor of the Protes-     and justice (Is. 9:6,7). The Reformed        churches must provide honorably for
tant Reformed Churches are regu-              church order is an instrument of this        emeriti (retired) ministers. Since the
lated by a church order. This is the          governing and ordering.                      children of the church are covenant,
church order adopted for Reformed                  The church order is not merely a        baptizedchildrenwhomustbereared
churchesbytheSynodofDordt,  161%              pragmatic code drawn up by 16th              in the truth, consistories must see to it
19.                                           and 17th century church politicians.         that there are good Christian sch.ools
        The church order is law for the       It is not even a useful list of rules        in which the parents have their chil-
churches. It is the authoritative stan-       hallowed by its many years in the            dren instructed according to the de-
dard to which'both consistories and           Reformed tradition. The church or-           mands of the covenant. In view of the
church members must conform.                  der is the spiritual polity of Ring Jesus    seriousness of the deposition of
There are sanctions for the unruly            for His Kingdom.                             officebearers and of the excommuni-
and disobedient. The member who                    In all its many fundamental or-         cation of members and in view of the
handles sin in the congregation by            dinances, the Dordt church order             wisdom found in the multitudle  of
broadcasting it from the housetop, or         bases itself squarely and directly on        counselors, the local church should
over the telephone, rather than fol-          Holy Scripture. Its rules concerning         not proceed with deposition and ex-
lowing the way prescribedin Articles          the four main aspects of the life of the     communication without the advice of
71-74 of the church order, will himself       church  - offices; assemblies; super-        the major assemblies.
                                              vision of doctrine, sacraments, and               Here, also, the church order is
                                              ceremonies; and Christian discipline         Messiah's scepter.
  The Reformed church order                   -are the Word of Christ, Holy Scrip-              Even as regards those relatively
                                                                                           fewregulationsthatderivefromScrip-
       is the law of Jesus Christ             ture.  Scripture teaches that Christ's
                                              church orders herself and functions          ture neither directly nor indirectly
       for His redeemed church.               in offices. Scripture teaches that the       but are common sense rules for or-
                                              offices are those of minister, elder,        derly life, adapted to the local situa-
                                              and deacon. Scripture teaches the rule       tion at a certain time, one should not
be disciplined. The minister who              of the local congregation by a body of       too quickly conclude that the regula-
publicly agitates against the decision        qualified, male elders.  Scripture           tions have nothing to do with the will
of his consistory will be censured for        teaches the union of congregations in        of Christ. The rulers of the church are
schism. The elder who is "captious            major assemblies whose decisions are         authorized by Christ to "esta0lish
and . . . vehement in speaking" at classis    binding. Scripture teaches the excom-        certain ordinances amongthemselves
will be silenced and, if need require,        munication of impenitent sinners by
disciplined by the president of the           the local congregation after repeated
assembly. The consistory that refuses         admonitions.                                         . . . the church order
to submit to a decision of synod will              The church order is for the church
be set outside theunionof the churches                                                          should not be written
                                              the will of her Sovereign.
of Christ.                                         In other important rules, al-               in a loose-leaf notebook
        The Reformed church order is          though direct warrant in the Bible is            but should be engraved
the law of Jesus Christ for His re-           lacking, the church order applies bib-                     in stone.
deemed church. Christ is King of the          lical truth wisely. If ministers are
church. As King He governs the                called for life and if the churches are
church. God haslaid the government            bound to provide for the financial           for maintaining the body of the
upon His shoulders. Christ orders             support of the ministers, not muz-           church," as long as these ordinances
HisspiritualKingdomwithjudgment               zling the ox that treads the corn, the       do not conflict with the institutions of

                                                                                                 April 15,1992 / Standard Bearer / 317


Christ (Bel. Conf., Art. 32).                vided: "For the maintenance of good            with an aversion bordering on dread.
     In its fundamentals, therefore,         order in the church of Christ . . . ."         Theirs is a church life of lawlessness.
the church order of Dordt is the law of            Disorder in the church is a curse.             The Dordt church order, as the
Christ for the New Testament church          It is misery for the people. It is dis-        law of Christ, is a blessing in the life of
always and everywhere. It is not the         honoring to Christ, the alleged Ruler          the Reformed church that practices it.
law only for churches of mainly Dutch        of such a tumultuous ecclesiastical            As is always the case with law in the
members in North America. It is also         outfit.                                        life of the redeemed, the blessing of
the law for the church in Jamaica, the             Disorder plagues the indepen-            the church order is nothing less than
church. in Northern Ireland, and the         dent, nominally evangelical churches.          the service of the gospel. The church
church in Singapore.                         Rejecting the Dordt church order's             order is instrumental in the maintain-
     It is not a book that can be, or        leading provisions of the rule of the          ing of the gospel in the Reformed
even ought to be, revised every cen-         local congregationby a body of elders          churches. This is the claim that was
tury, much less every ten years. It is       and of the mutual subjection of                made for the church order that John
as immutable as the will of Christ. As       churches to each other in authorita-           Calvin gave to the church in Geneva
regards the fundamentals, the heart          tive major assemblies, these churches          in the preface to the "Ecclesiastical
and soul of the church order, as well        are constantly exposed to division             Ordinances" of 1541:
as the overwhelming mass of its ma-          and uproar. Their life is chaos.
terial, the church order should not be             To avoid this anarchy, many flee           .., having considered that it is a thing
written in a loose-leaf notebook but         for refuge to the equal but opposite             worthy of commendation above all
should be engraved in stone. In fact,        evil of the hierarchy of the lordly              else that the doctrine of the holy
it is engraved by the Holy Spirit upon       minister. The rule of many of the                Gospel of our Lord should be care-
the fleshy table of the heart of the true    largest, most popular, nominally                 fully preserved in its purity and the
                                                                                              Christian Church properly main-
church, the churchthat acknowledges          evangelical churches in North                    tained . . . which cannot be done un-
Jesus Christ as the only Head of the         America today is rule by a man, the              lessthereisacertainruleandmethod
church and manages all things ac-            preacher. In church as in state, rule by         of livingby  which each estate attends
cordingto the pure Word of God (Bel.         a man, as opposed to rule by law, is             to the duty of its office: for .this
Conf., Art. 29).                             the worst form of government pos-                reason it has seemed to us advisable
                                             sible. There is a papacy in much of              that the spiritual government of the
                                             nominally evangelical Protestantism              kind which our Lord demonstrated
         There is a papacy                   that.bids fair to outstrip that of the           and instituted by His Word should
                                                                                              besetoutingoodordersothatitmay
      in much of nominally                   Roman idol. It is incredible, though             be established and observed among
  evangelical Protestantism                  undeniably a fact, that men and                  us. And accordingly we have made
                                             women who profess to be Reformed
    that bids fair to outstrip                                                                it a fixed rule to observe and main-
                                             join these pathetic Protestant papa-             taininourcityandterritorytheec~cle-
    that of the Roman idol.                  cies. They get then what they have               siastical polity which follows, since
                                             chosen:      the lordship of Lew                 we see that it is taken from the Gos-
                                             VanderMeer,  or of Bill Hybels, or of            pel of Jesus Christ (The Xegisteir of
     Insofar as any church disregards        JackHyles. What theyturntheirback                the Company  of  Pastors  of  Geneva
thechurchpolitysetforthmthechurch            on is the Lordship of Jesus Christ.              in the Time of Calvin, ed. and tr.
order of Dordt, that church fails to         This is sure: Leaving out of sight the           Philip Edgcumbe  Hughes, Eerdmans,
subject herself to the Lordship of           forsakingof the  gospelof salvationby            1966,  p. 35).
Christ. She  wiIl suffer the conse-          sovereign grace, these people are                    The law of Christ standing in the
quences.                                     abandoning Reformed Christianity in            service of the gospel of Christ-this
     `The law bound up in the Dordt          the matter of church government. For           is the church order of Dordt.
church order is a blessing to the PRC.       as Harro Hopfl has written in his                    Rightly then may the members
It is a blessing that is not appreciated     recent study, The Christian Polity  of         of these Churches express their love
nearly enough. Law-the good law              John Calvin  (Cambridge University             for the PRC in the words of number
of God - is always a blessing to the         Press, 1982),  p. 112, "There was noth-        350 in The Psalter thus: "For there is
redeemed saints.        Whether in the       ing Calvin detested more than any-             judgment's royal seat, Messiah's sure
nation, in the family, in personal life,     one or any group in a position to              and lasting throne" - Reformed
or in the church, law provides order.        exercise a sic volo sic iubeo (thus I will,    church order.  0
Upon order depend stability, peace,          thus I decree)."                                                                   - DJE
and prosperity. The life regulated by              As for the charismatic churches
thelawofChrististhelifeofprecious,           with their rejection of all church order
priceless liberty. The opening line of       in favor of the open-ended guidance
the church order of Dordt matter-of-         of a free-wheeling "Spirit," a Re-
factly announces the blessing pro-           formed man regards these churches

316 /Standard Bearer I April 15,1992


Letters .

0 Church Government in the                       Bible-believingReformedChris-             body of the whole church . . . . n Refer-
Presbyterian Tradition                     tians reject both episcopal  mon-               ences to the church universal abound
                                           archianism and Baptistic egalitarian-           in Scripture, e.g., Acts  12:5, I
     I have been heartened by your         ism. Christ  alone is head of the Church,       Corinthians 10:32, and Ephesians 5:23.
consistent stand for the ancient land-     and He has chosen certain men (nei-                      Government by elders in the lo-
marks, most recently church govern-        ther alone man, nor all men), through           cal congregation is seen in Acts 14:23
ment (cf. the Standard Bearer, Feb. 1,     whom to rule His church.                        and Titus 1:5. For the church at large,
Feb. 15, March 1). I wait with anxious           In the local church, these men            we see the council at Jerusalem in
anticipation the arrival of each issue.    constitute thesession/consistory.  You          Acts 15. The presbytery is less clearly
     I have written to add one elel        talked about this level, but I thinkthat        evident, but can be seen by way of
ment to that discussion, an element        this is the only level you would refer          analogy to session and general as-
which, I believe, distinguishes the        to as the church.                               sembly, and also in the references in1
Presbyterian from the Continental                In the Presbyterian tradition we          Timothy 4:14, and in the church at
tradition.                                 go beyond this. In the Form of Gov-             Antioch in Acts 13.
     As I understood your exposi-          ernment of my own Orthodox Pres-                         Thus, unlike our  Contin'ental
tion, you see the denomination as a        bytexian Church (chapter XIV), we               brethren, Presbyterians see the
federation of congregations, who vol-      read, "A regional church consists of            presbytery and general assembly as
untarily cede a portion of their spiri-    all the members of the local congrega-          integral to our understanding of the
tual authority to regional and de-         tions and the ministers within a cer-           church. They do not function by
nominational assemblies. I take this       tain.district  . . . . The presbytery is the    delegatedorvoluntaryauthority,but
to imply that the local congregation       governing (body? - DJE) of a re-                by divine authority, under the
can also revoke that authority.            gional church." This use of "church"            headship  of Christ and the discipline
     In contrast, you correctly reject     is based on such passages as Acts               of His Word.
the evils of episcopal government (au-     9:31,  ". ..the church throughout all                    My belief is that God gave great
thority coming down from an indi-          Judea  . . . . N Note the singular.             wisdom to the men of the Westminster
vidual), and congregationalism (the              And also the church in general            Assembly and the Synod of Dordt,
sovereignty of the local congregation      is, indeed, the church. The Form of             and it is only at great peril that Dr.
inisolationfromthoseinotherplaces).        Government (chapter XV) says, "The              DeKosterremoves  those ancient land-
Dr. Lester DeKoster  has bought into       whole church consists of all the mem-           m a r k s .   0
that American heresy of individual-        bers of its regional churches. The                                    Chris topher S. Cole
ism: "just me and my Bible."               general assembly . . . is the governing                                      Charlotte, NC


                                           Officebearers'
                                           /Conference
                                                                                                                 Mr. Ron Kl9ole


                                                 Doon Protestant Reformed                  delegates to the  Classis, professors
                                           Church in Doon, Iowa was the site of            and students from Mid-America Re-
                                           the spring officebearers' conference.           formed Seminary, and men from our
                                           This conference was held on March 3,            Protestant Reformed churches in this
                                           1992, one day prior to the meetirig of          area.
Mr. Koole is an elder in the Protestant    Classis West. The conference was                         As `in the past, the conference
Reformed Church ofloveland,  Colorado.     attendedby more than 65 men, which              dealt with a particular subject. The
                                           number included: pastor and elder               subject for this conference was "The
                                                                                                     April 15,1992 I Standard Bearer I319


                                                 hour-longdiscussionsfollowingeach              good that we, one Lord confessing,
                                                 presentation cannot be captured in             together dwell in brotherhood, or&
                                                 print, but they did serve well to en-          unity expressing."
                                                 rich the topics. Also, one cannot help               The conference  committlee  is
                                                 but be struck by the important place           planning a future conference, D.V., in
                                                 that God ("who is not the author of            conjunction with the meeting of the
                                                 confusion, but of peace, as in the             September Classis in Loveland, Colo-
                                                 churches of the saints" [I Cor. 14:33])        rado. The topic will be "Pastoring the
                                                 has given to the church order in the           Flock." I look forward to this confer-
                                                 Reformed churches. This church or-             ence with eager anticipation. Surely
                                                 der, which.has its principle roots in          those who attended the Doon confer-
                                                 the Reformation, enables the churches          ence would say, "The lines are fallen
                                                 to heed the command of Scripture to            unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have
                                                 do all things decently and in order. A         a goodly heritage" (Psalm 16:6). 0
      Chairman, Rev. Ron Hanko                   conference of this nature serves as a
                                                 stimulus to officebearers to read and
church order of Dordt." The history              study carefully the articles of the
and the value of this "minor" confes-            church order.
sion was the subject of the keynote                    One final observation by this
address presented by Rev. R.                     writer has to do with the attitudes
Cammenga. The rest of the confer-                that the officebearers at a Reformed
ence was conducted in sectional for-             conference such as this display to-
mat in which two presentations were              ward the workGod has given them to
given at each of three scheduled sec-            do. One could not help but be im-
tional times. The content of these               pressed by the deep sense of respon-
presentations is the copy for this issue         sibility these men felt to preserve and
of the  Standard Bearer.                         uphold the demands of the Scriptures
      Attending an officebearers' con-           with respect to Reformed church pol-
ference was a first for me. It was an            ity for the good of the churches. Even
opportunity that proved to be a very             though there may not be complete
valuable experience. Because the                 agreement on every point of interpre-
material presented has a direct bear-            tation, there is nevertheless always a
ingontheworkdonebyofficebearers,                 unity of goal and purpose. The words
such a conference provides opportu-              of Psalter # 371 take on deeper mean-
nity to grow in the office. The lively,          ing:. "Behold how pleasant and how                 Elder Ron Koole, Rev. Carl Haak

                                                                  The Value of
                                                      the Church Order
                                                                                Today
                                                                                                   Rev. Ronald Cammenga

                                            I         Article 32 of the Be&c Confession of Faith reads in part:
                                                 In the meantime we believe that it is useful and beneficial, that those, who are rulers of
                                                 the Church, institute and establish certain ordinances among themselvesfor maintain-
                                                 ingthebodyoftheChurch;yet  theyoughtstudiously to takecare, that theydonotdqart
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protes-           from those things which Christ,ouronlyMaster,hathinstituted  . . . . Thereforeweadmit
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,                only of that which tends to nourish and preserve concord, and unity, and to keep all men
Colorado.                                        in obedience to God.

320 /Standard Bearer I April 15,1992


                                           consistory meetings or on the floor of      publicly advocate repeal of the church
                                           the broader assemblies. To approach         order and whose view of the church
                                           the church order this way is a mis-         orderisthatitisadrybonethatserves
                                           take; worse, it is destructive of its       no useful purpose in the modern
                                           main purpose: "to nourish and pre-          church. We are not in agreement with
                                           serve concord and unity" in the             those promotingrevision of the church
                                           church.                                     order, but revision that will compro-
                                                What is a good Reformed church         mise fundamental biblical principles
                                           order? A good Reformed church or-           and cut the heart out of the church
                                           der aims to show how the Lord Jesus         order.
                                           Christ rules His church and wills that           We are convinced that if the
                                           His church be ruled. It summarizes          Reformed church is to be Reformed
                                           what the apostles have spoken and           and ever reforming, she must con-
                                           written regarding church govern-            tinue to adhere to the Reformed
                                           ment, church office, and church disci-      church order, or, in cases wher'e  she
                                           pline, applying all this to present cir-    has departed from it, return to it. To
         Rev. Ronald Cammenga              cumstances.                                 a great extent the explanation for the
                                                Based on these criteria, our           loss of concordandunity inReformed
This article explains the rationale be-    church order, which is basically the        churches today is disdain for that
hind our Reformed church order. Our        church order adoptedby the Synod of         which has been instituted to preserve
church order articulates the funda-        Dordt, 1618-1619,is  a good Reformed        that concord and unity, the Reformed
mental principles which Christ, the        church order. It sets forth the funda-      church order.
only Master of the church, has insti-      mental principles of church govern-
tuted for the government of the            ment contained in the Word of God,          Value of the Church Order
church. Based on those fundamental         as well as those ordinances which,               The first value of the church or-
biblical principles, the church order      although they are not explicitly men-       der is that it serves to maintain good
also sets down certain ordinances          tioned in the Bible, are based upon         order in the churches. Repeatedly the
establishedby the rulers of the church     biblical principles and serve the good      apostolic command given in I
for maintaining the body of the            order and unity of the church. For          Corinthians 14:40,  "Let all things be
church. These are ordinances deemed        nearly 400 years the church order has       done decently and in order," was
"useful and beneficial," both for the      proved its usefulness in the life of        included in the early Reformed church
localcongregationandforthebroader          Reformed churches the world over.           orders. Our church order refers to it
fellowship of churches. These are                                                      also. The words "good order," found
ordinances that "tend to nourish and                                                   in several articles, are derived from
preserve concord and unity." And                 To a great extent the                 the apostle's expression. The first
these are ordinances which serve the           explanation                             article of our church order justifies
better 0 to keep allmeninobedience to                          for the loss            the "matters the following articles
God."                                            of concord and unity                  treat" on the ground of "the mainte-
     What is a good Reformed church         in Reformed churches today                 nance of good order in the church of
order? A good Reformed church or-                     is disdain for that              Christ."
der is NOT a detailed set of regula-          which has been instituted                     In1 Corinthians 1433  the apostle
tions, attempting to spell out proper          to preserve that concord                Paul states that "...God is not the
procedure in any given situation. A                                                    author of confusion, but of peace, as
Reformed church order is not a "How                       and unity,                   in all the churches of the saints." It is
To...." manual for ecclesiastical me-        the Reformed church order.                ONLY after he has said this that he
chanics, or a playbook  for clerical                                                   finishes the chapter by saying, "Let all
athletes. A Reformed church order is                                                   things be done decently and in or-
not a fixed, rigid system of rules, dos         We are convinced that the church       der," (vs. 40). God wills that there be.
and don'ts imposed upon the                order continues to be of use and value      peace in the church; He is the Author
churches. Any study of our church          to Reformed churches today. We are          of peace. For the sake of this (God-
orderwillrevealtheamazingamount            not in the company of those Reformed        approved peace, in order that .there
of flexibility in procedures and prac-     churches, some of long standing, oth-       will be peace in the church, good
tices possible within the perimeters       ers lately sprung up, who deliber-          ordermustbemaintainedinhermidst.
set down by the church order. The          ately decline adoption of the church        Thatis thefirstandoutstandingvalue
main purpose of the church order is        order. We are not in sympathy with          of the church order.
NOT to settle arguments over fine          those in Reformed churches formally              Secondly, and closely connected
points of church polity raised in          governed by the church order who            to this, the value of the church order

                                                                                                 April 15,.1992 / Standard Bearer 1321


is that it preserves the unity of the       It is not independent church politi-        and the "Three Forms of Unity," the
church. From the very beginning the         cally. But it is not independent either     church order has a place in settling
fathers insisted that the Reformed          in the sense that it stands isolated        disputes and deciding issues in the
churches ought to be united not only        from the church of the past.                church. The church order is not the
in doctrine, but also in polity. The             The Reformed church stands             finalarbiterof truthandpractice. The
church orderisanimportantbasis  for         connected with the church of the past,      final arbiter is the Word of God. But
church unity; is itself an expression of    and the church order is one means to        inasmuch as the church order sets
church unity; and is a means to safe-       maintain this connection. Through           forth the principles of Holy Scripture
guard the unity of the churches bound       the church order the church has ac-         and applies these principles to the life
by its regulations.                         cess to the wisdom of the church of         and government of the church, the
     How we ought to value any-             the past and the guidance of the Holy       church order has authority in the Re-
thing that serves, in the language of       Spirit in the church of the past. It        formed church and the Reformed fel-
the Belgic Confession, "to nourish          would be both foolish and wrong to          lowship of churches.
and preserve concord and unity"! The        ignore that guidance as though the
churches' unity depends on the pure         church of ages past was not Spirit-
preaching of the Word, the proper           filled and Spirit-led.                         All who desire to become
administration of the sacraments, and            Fifth, the value of the church              or to remain members
the faithful exercise of Christian dis-     order is that it serves a regulative
cipline. It is the value of the church      purpose. The church order contains                     of the church
order that it establishes those regula-     the various provisions according to             must willingly consent
tions in the life of the church that        which the local congregation, as well                 to be governed
assure that the pure preaching is           as the broader assemblies, classis and             by the church order.
maintained, the sacraments are prop-        synod, are governed. How the church
erly administered, and discipline is        is to be governed is set forth in the
faithfully exercised.                       Word of God. However, Scripture is               In addition, the church order is
      In the third place, the church        not a ready-made church order or            also authoritative because of the will-
order has confessional value. The           manual of church government. In-            ing consent of the churches them-
church order serves as a "minor con-        stead, the Scriptures set forth the fun-    selves. The churches have mutually
fession" in the church. The "major          damental principles upon which the          agreed to bind themselves by the au-
confessions" of our churches are "The       government of the church is based.          thority of the church order. All who
Three Forms of Unity":  The Heidel-         The church order seeks to enunciate         desire to become or to remain mem-
berg Catechism, The Belgic Confes-          and apply these principles in the ac-       bers of the churchmust willinglycon-
sion  of  Faith,  and  The Canons  of       tual government of the church.              sent to be governed by the church
Dordt.  But our churches also have               Andsixth, the value of the church      order. Thus, the binding authority of
"minorconfessions." Thesewouldbe            order is that it serves a juridical pur-    the church order is the authority we
especially our adopted liturgical           pose in the church. This means that,        willingly consent to give it. 0
forms, as for example "The Baptism          in connection with the Word of God                               . . . to be continued
Form,u "The Form for the Adminis-
tration of the Lord's Supper," "The
Form of Ordination of Ministers of
God's Word." To be included as a
"minor confession" is also our church
order.The church order is the confes-
sion of our churches concerning what
we believe to be the Scriptural prin-
ciples of church government. The
church order sets forth fundamental
biblical truths concerning such things
as: authority in the church of Jesus
Christ; the nature and duties of the
special offices; the sacraments; and
Christian discipline.
      In the fourth place, the value of
our church order is that it connects us
to the church of the past. The Re-
formed church is NOT independent.                               Dr. Nelson Kloosterman,  Rev. Dale Kuiper

322 /Standard Bearer  /April  15,1992


                                                          The Authority of
                                                                            Broader
                                                                Ecclesiastical
                                                                   Assemblies
                                                                                               Rev. Ronald VanOverbop

     The subject assigned is that of          does not know one without the other.             all the churches for the church at
the authority of the broader assem-                     Anunderstandingoftheauthor-            Jerusalem. Schaver believes that
blies. It is the position of the author of    ity of the broader assemblies is gained          "these several manifestations of the
this paper that the church order of           through a proper understanding of                unity of the apostolic churches were
Dordt clearlyestablishednot onlythe           the place of the broader ecclesiastical          anticipations of the ecclesiasticalcoun-
fact of broader ecclesiastical assem-         assemblies and especially of the fed-            cils which later gave expression to the
blies, but also the authority of these        erative relationships out of which the           unity of the primitive Church" (Vol.
broader assemblies, which authority           broader assemblies arise. What does              1, pp. 79, SO). Schaver states that "the
both is given to the broader assem-           the church order and what do the                 most pronounced anticipation of
blies by the local congregations and is       Scriptures have to say about these               major assemblies in apostolic days
always to be recognized by the local          relationships and their assemblies?              was the council of Jerusalem ,... N the
churches.                                               Observe that the church order          decisions of which n were made appli-
      The church order of Dordt was a         calls for the presence of the broader            cable to the several churches of Syria
product of the Reformation. It shows          assemblies  (classis and synod) as               and AsiaMinor." "The decisions were
how the Reformers established a               much as it calls for the presence of the         not merely advisory, as adherents of
church polity which walks, as it were,        consistory. And observe that it does             independent polity claim, but were at
abalance  beam. On the one side of the        not make the presence of the broader             the time considered to be binding in
beam are the evils of hierarchy; on the       assemblies a matter of choice. They              character" (p. 81). The Scriptures
other side are perils of  indepen-            "shall be"!                                      describe the conclusions reached by
dentism. The balance beam on which                      Why was this so? Why did the           the meeting in Jerusalem as resulting
the Reformers walkedis wide enough            Reformers establish federative rela-             from the leading of the Holy Spirit
for the two feet on which Reformed            tionships? The churches of the Refor-            (Acts 15:28);as  "decrees" ("dogmata,"
church polity stands. One foot is the         mation recognized the fact of federa-            Acts 16:4); as binding on all the Chris-
autonomous nature of the local con-           tiverelationships and the authority of           tian churches of that time; and as
gregation. The other foot is the au-          their broader assemblies because they            having the result that the churches
thority of the ecclesiastical assem-          believed this to be historical and bib-          were blessed and grew (Acts 16:5).
blies which arises out of federative          lical.                                                A study of the history of the
relationships. The Reformers held                       J.L. Schaver, in his Tlze Polity of    early church after the apostles also
thesetwoessentialprinciples together,         the Churches,  maintains that the                yields evidence of provincial assem-
feeling the tension, but not letting          churches in apostolic times, although            blies. And later there were the re-
them conflict. Just as a person cannot        lacking visible organization, never-             nowned ecumenical councils of r\Jicea,
walk or run with only one foot on a           theless were united by the persons,              Constantinople, Chalcedon, etc.
balance beam, so can the Reformed             preaching, and work of the apostles.                  The Reformers also maintained
church order of Dordt not be read             In addition, he maintains that the               the practice of broader assemblies,
without seeing both of these prin-            II early unity in the Church was made            for they established, as soon as it was
ciples side by side. The church order         manifest by the interest that one part           possible, federative relationships
                                              of the Church had in the activities of           within their countries and with other
                                              the other parts," citing as examples             Reformed bodies in other countries.
Rev. VanOverlooy  is pastor of Bethel         the interest the church at Jerusalem             This acceptance of federations and
Protestant Reformed Church in Elk Grove       hadin the conversions insamaria  and             broader assemblies is surprising, for
Village, Illinois.                            Antioch, and the collection taken in             it took place at a time in the history of

                                                                                                     April 15,1992 / Standard Bearer / 323


the church when the Reformers were             the church is unto the glory of Christ      the Churches" (VanDellen and
responding to the evils in the Church          her Head.                                   Monsma,  op cit.,  p. 133).
of Rome, many of which arose di-                    Although churches are autono-               In the federative relationships
rectly out of its hierarchical church          mous (relatively, for they are depen-       the local church cooperates with oth-
polity. Instead of reacting to Rome's          dent upon Christ their Head), they          ers in the Lord's work, doing together
hierarchy with independentism (as              may not stand alongside each other in       what it cannot do alone, or doing
theradicalReformersweredoingand                adisconnectedandunconcernedman-             better what no one church can do as
whose lead it would have been so               ner. Entrance into a federative rela-       well on its own.
easy to follow), the Reformers consis-         tionship may be said to be voluntary,            What is the nature of the author-
tently called for federative relation-         but no less so, demanded.                   ity of the broader assemblies in Re-
ships and for the assemblies which                  The federative relationship is         formed thinking?
have been instituted for the proper            voluntary because a local congrega-              It is ecclesiastical authority. The
functioningof these relationships. The         tion, which manifests the three marks       authority of the broader assemblies is
first record of a broader assembly             of the pure church, is a complete           derived from the local churches, as
during the Reformational era was the           manifestation of the body of Christ,        they delegate men with authority to
Synod of the Reformed Churches of              and is not a sub-division of a large        the broader assemblies. Because the
France in 1559. The Reformed                   super-church. Therefore, the local          authority of the broader assembly is
Churches in The Netherlands have               church freely joins herself to a de-        the authority of the local church as
been meeting in broader assemblies             nomination of churches. There is no         designated for that purpose, there is
regularly ever since 1563. The Re-             earthly authority, not even a denomi-       not a fundamental difference. The
formed Churches in The Netherlands             nation, which may or can force a fed-       difference is not in the nature of the
initially held their broader assemblies        erative relationship upon a local           authority, but in the areas in which
across the border in Germany be-               church.                                     the authority is exercised. The church
cause of persecution, but hold them                 However, the federative rela-          order delineates the different areas in
they did.                                      tionship is not strictly voluntary and      which the assemblies (consistory,
      Therefore, the church order of           a matter of choice. It is demanded          classis, and synod) exercise their au-
Dordt in Article 29 accurately reflects        because the local congregation is not       thority. The church order correctly
the thought of early church history            eclual to THE church; it is not the         reflects Scripture when it gives only
and of the Reformation when it man-            whole of the body of Christ. It is          to the consistory the authority to
dates the presence of ecclesiastical           demanded in the divine call to seek         preach, administer the sacraments,
assembliesincluding"theclassis,  (the          the unity of Christ's body and to exer-     and exercise Christian discipline.
particular synod), and the general             cise the communion of saints. It is         However, the consistory may not in-
synod."                                        demanded by the fact that each mem-         dependently change and revise the
                                               ber of the body of Christ has life not      church order or one of the confes-
                                               only in relationship to the Head, but       sions, for this latter belongs to the
             Entrance into a                   also in relationship to the other mem-      broader assemblies. The church or-
     federative relationship                   bers. Thus each local church has the        der assigns to the broader assemblies
                                                                                           activities such as the examination of
 may be said to be voluntary,                  calling to manifest the oneness of the
                                               body of Christ. When the Dutch Re-          men for the ministry of the Word, the
   but no less so, demanded.                   formed churches met at Emden in             approval of the call, the dismissal, the
                                               1571 the stated purpose was "in order       emeritation, and the deposition of
                                               to institute the unity of the churches      ministers, the institution of a congre-
      The recognition of the federa-           in outward form."                           gation, church visitation, the work of
tive relationships (and broader as-                 A denomination is a union of           missions, etc.
semblies) arises out of the important          autonomous churches, which do not                VanDellen  and Monsma infform
biblical principle of the unity of the         surrender their autonomy by mem-            us that at the very first Synod of the
church of Christ. The spiritual unity          bership in the federation. "Reformed        Reformed Churches of the Low Coun-
of Christ's body must come to institu-         Church polity therefore upholds the         tries the delegates were delegated
tionalmanifestation.  Thisis certainly         integrity of the local Church, but at       with authority to act for the sake of
accomplished in the local congrega-            the same time does full justice to all      the general welfare of the churches;
tion; but it is not fulfilled there, for no    the Churches federally united and the       but at the same time rules were made
single local manifestation of the true         spiritual unity underlying the federa-      which protected the rights of the indi-
church exhausts the unity of Christ's          tion.... There is a very definite spiri-    vidual members of the churches, and
body. By federative relationships the          tual obligation flowering forth from a      which would counteract all  wilful-
individual congregations show the              real spiritual union and agreement          ness and arbitrariness (p. 132). On
unity of Christ's church to the world,         which makes ecclesiastical federation       this same matter Schaver  states, "The
and this manifestation of the unity of         and its implications mandatory upon         autonomy of the local church has its

324 /Standard Bearer  /April  15,1992


limitations because of the agreement         that the decisions of major assemblies        Churches regarding all decisions
into which it enters with other              aretobe"consideredsettledandbind-             which agree with the Word of God
churches to consider certain matters         ing." Anythingthatis"settled"  should         and the Church Order in force" (op.
together and to abide by the com-            not continue to be the subject of dis-        cit., pp. 144,145). "Let us not forget
bined judgment of the affiliated             cussion, which would raise discordin          that denominational co-operation
churches. The local church bestows           the body of Christ. "Binding" indi-           would be out of the question if classi-
upon the major assembly a part of its        cates that all the churches are obli-         cal and synodical gatherings were not
authority so that through the com-           gated to live up to the decisions of the      vested with the authority attributed
binedauthority of all the churches the       assemblies concerned. "This provi-            to them in Article 36. Ecclesiastical
local church may be governed the             sionisindeedajewelof greatvalue. It           federatiolz according to the Reformed con-
better. And the judgments of the             is . . . indispensable for Reformed           ceptionsimplyimpliesauthoritativerights
major assembly with respect to the           church government" (op. cit., p. 145).        on the part of the major assemblies over
matters of mutual interest or of mu-              Later VanDellen and Monsma               minor assemblies. N The nature of the
tual agreement the local church must         state that "whatever is decided by            ecclesiastical federation is such that
of course respect" (op. cit., p. 97).        majority vote becomes settled and             the "major assemblies exercise abind-
     That Article 30 of the church           binding for all, not against the will of      ing authority regarding all matters
order purposefully uses the terms            the minority, but by their common             which concern the Churches in gen-
"major" and "minor" is in order to                                                         eral and which have not been specifi-
avoid any concept of a system of                                                           cally left to the individual Churches
lower and higher courts, as if the                "Let us not forget that                  or congregations" (op. cit.,  p. 161).
consistory is lower and has a more           denomination alto-operation                         The church order presents us
limited degree of authority while the                                                      with a beautifulbalance. The balance
synod is higher and has the most              would be out of the question                 beam is broad enough for the Re-
extensive degree of authority. The              if classical and synodical                 formed church to stand on both feet:
use of the terms "major" and "minor"           gatherings were not vested                  the autonomy of the local congrega-
indicates that the authority of the          with the authority attributed                 tion and the delegated authority of
broader assemblies is the same in                 to them in Article 36."                  the federative relationship and its
essence as the authority vested in the                                                     broader assemblies. This balance has
local church. "Major assemblies do                                                         been tried and it has proven to be
not have power or authority that is          consent. Minorities conform them-             true. To lean too far in either direc-
distinctly different from the power          selves voluntarily to the officially ex-      tion, to take one of these feet off the
that resides in the local church."           pressed opinion of the majority, for          balance beam, can prove to be dan-
"Their power or authority does not           the sake of good order and the zoezfnre of    gerous. May God give to the church
reside in themselves but is delegated        the Churches concerned. And let it be         today the wisdom to walk this bal-
to them by the local churches. These         said, the minorities at our ecclesiasti-      ance as calmly as the church order of
through their delegates bring their          cal assemblies are duty bound to do           Dordt directs us.
united power or authority together in        so. For note that every Church has                  (The extensive use of quotations
the major assembly, and its authority        voluntarily joined itself to the federa-      from recognized authorities of Re-
is greater because it is the united          tionof Churches forming one denomi-           formed church polity is to show that
authority of the local churches"             nation. Together they have agreed to          the presentation of the authority of
(Schaver, op. cit., p. 96).                  cooperate, upon the basis of the              the broader ecclesiastical assemblies
     That thebroaderassemblies have          Church Order, which Church Order              in this paper is not just that of its
authority is indicated in Article 36 of      presupposes and even expresses co-            author, but that of the historical. Re-
the church order which uses the word         operation on the part of all the              formed churches.) 0
"jurisdiction." VanDellen  and Mon-
sma correctlybelieve that the original
Latin word auctoritas could have bet-
ter been translated "authority," but
with the caution that "the Church
Order refers to a moral and spiritual
authority," not "in a legalistic, com-
pelling sense" (op. cit., p. 160). The
nature of this authority is not judicial,
but moral and spiritual.
     The fact of authority in the
broader assemblies of federations is
also clear in Article 31 which states                                               Sectional

                                                                                                  April 15,1992 / Standard Bearer I325


                                                     The Questions of
                                                                    Article 41
                                                                                                   Rev. Russell Dykstra

     Article 41 of the church order of        to submit ourselves to the supervi-          trine, and work. Not only that, but
Dordrecht sets forth some practical           sion of peers. And to admit the need         elders are called to oversee the work
rules for good order in classical meet-       for help is difficult for most individu-     of the deacons-without taking over
ings. Recognizing, however, that the          als, and even more so consistories.          the work of the deacons! No doubt
main function of classical meetings           Some might argue that today the need         the danger exists of a consistory (or
ought to be spiritual in nature, the          no longer exists for these questions to      consistories) lording it over another
Reformed fathers included the fol-            be answered at classical meetings -          consistory, just as the danger exists
lowing in this article:                       that church visitation (being much           that one elder lords over another. But
  . ..Furthermore. the president shall,       more complete) has made them largely         that is a violation (forbidden by the
  among other things, put the follow-         irrelevant, and that the practice has        church order), not a right use of,
  ingquestions to the delegates of each
  church:                                     become an empty formality in most            mutual supervision. Properly ex-
  1. Are the consistory meetings held         Reformedclasses. Whilethereissome            ecuted, therefore, these questions do
  in your church?                             truth to this, we nevertheless hope to       not violate the autonomy of the local
  2. Is church discipline exercised?          demonstrate that the questions of            congregation.
  3. Are the poor and the Christian           Article 41 remain valuable for a classis          One of the main principles be-
  schools cared for?                          meeting, for the unity and the spiri-        hind Article 41 is the unity of the
  4. Do you need the judgment and             tual well-being of the churches. But it      church of Jesus Christ. We confess
  help of the classis  for the proper         is also evident to most observers that       the oneness of the church. OurLord's
  government of your church?                  the manner in which these questions          prayer in John 17reveals this as one of
     These questions of Article 41 are        are asked and answered could stand           the purposes of His life and crucifix-
the focus of our attention. A thor-           some improvement. This can be done           ion ("that they may be one"). We are
ough examination and discussion of            simply by the classes returning to the       admonished "to keep the unity of the
these questions has merit for the Re-         original intent and practice of Article      Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3).
formed church today because they              41.                                          This unity comes into expression in
touch on vital principles in Reformed                To understand the validity and        congregations joining together to
church government. These questions            value of the questions of Article 41, let    form a denomination (the church or-
have to do with the Reformed prin-            us briefly examine the principles            der assumes that, too).
ciple of the unity of the church of           which underlie them. First of all,                But the unity of the church of
Christ on the earth, in general, and of       remember that one of the basic prin-         Christ is a unity in Christ, which is to
the unity of congregations in a de-           ciples of the Reformed church order
nomination, in particular. They also          is the autonomy of the local congrega-
touch on the principle of corporate           tion. Christ rules His church, and
responsibility and the necessity of           does so through the office of elder.
mutual supervision within a denomi-           No one overrules the consistory, over-
nation. Thus these questions are es-          turns its decisions, br takes over the
pecially significant inlight of the spirit    government and/or work of the
of independence both in our culture           consistory. The question must be
andin the Reformed church world. It           faced, do these questions of Article
is contrary to our rebellious natures         41, which require mutual supervi-
                                              sion, violate the autonomy of the local
                                              congregation? The answer is "No."
                                              To see that mutual supervision does
                                              not violate the principle, notice that
Rev. Dylcstra is pastor of the Protestant     elders are also called to a mutual
Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa.                supervision of each other's life, doc-                Rev. Russell Dylcstra

326 /Standard Bearer / April 15,1992


say, in the truth. Striving for this,         of each congregation and its mem-             for the spiritual good of the churches.
Reformed churches require subscrip-           bers. This becomes evident from an                     To finish the brief sketch of Ar-
tion to common creeds [the Three              examination of the history of Article         ticle 41's history, it should be noted
Forms of Unity(!)], and require faith-        41 in the Reformed Churches of The            that the Christian Reformed Church
ful preaching of the Heidelberg Cat-          Netherlands. The Synod of Emden,              has revised these questions at least
echism.                                       1571, established some of the first           four times - 1930 (5 questions), 11942
      In addition to this doctrinal           rules for classical meetings. The first       (11 questions), 1947 (5 questions), and
unity, certain, agreed upon, biblical         two articles were:                            oneadditionaltimetoitspresentform:
standards must be required for life in          1) In the classical meetings one of               In order properly to assist the
each congregation,beginningwith  the            the ministers shall deliver a sermon              churches, the president, on behalf of
work of the officebearers. That is the          which the other ministers gathered                classis, shall among other things
purpose of the questions in Article 41.         together shall judge, and if there is             present the following questions to
They set forth some minimum re-                 something to improve, they shall let              the delegates of each church:
                                                                                                  1. Are the council, consistory, and
quirements for faithful labors of the           it be known. All the others shall do
                                                the same, each in his turn, in follow-            diaconate meetings regularly held
officebearers. This is an effort to             ing classical meetings.                           according to the needs of the congre-
insure unity among the congregations            2) After this the president shall be              gation?
within certain biblical limits.                 chosen by the general vote of the                 2. Is church discipline faithfully ex-
      The other principle assumed in            ministers and after he has offered                ercised?
these questions is that of corporate            prayer, he shall ask each one indi-               3. Are the needy adequately cared
responsibility. Corporate responsi-             vidually whether they hold                        for?
bility results from the fact that God           consistorymeetingsintheirchurches.                4. Does the council diligently pro-
deals with man in his (man's) rela-             Whether church discipline is main-                mote the cause of Christian educa-
tionships. That we are born guilty              tained [in them]. Whether they have               tionfromelementaryschoolthrough
                                                any struggle with any heretics.                   institutions of higher learning?
and worthy of hell is due to the fact           Whether they have any doubt con-                  5. a. Have you submitted to the sec-
that God deals with us as part of the           cerning any articles of doctrine.                 retary of our Home Missions Board
human race, descendants of Adam,                Whether the poor and the schools are              the names and addresses of all bap-
and thus God imputes Adam's guilt               cared for. Whether they need the                  tized and communicant members
to us all. There is a legal responsibility      advice and help of the other minis-               who have, since the last meeting of
connectedwithbeinginacertainbody,               tersforrulingthechurches,andother                 classis,  moved to a place where no
or, "corporation."                              such things.                                      Christian Reformed churches are
      With respect to the church, cor-                 The Synod of Mddelburg,  1581,             found?
porate responsibility means, on the           adopted a church order which in-                       b. Have youinformedother coun-
                                                                                                  cils or pastors about members who
one hand, that each member is re-             cludedthefollowingonclassicalmeet-                  reside,. even temporarily, in the vi-
sponsible for all the decisions of the        ings:                                               cinity of their church?
congregation, classis, and synod, in            Art. 30 . ..Further. the president                   c. Have you, having been in-
which he is a member. On the other              among other things shall ask each
                                                one whether consistorymeetings are                formed yourself of such members in
hand, it means that each congrega-              held in their churches; whether                   yourownarea,doneallinyourpower
tion is responsible (accountable) for           church discipline is exercised;                   to serve them with the ministry of
what happens in a sister congrega-              whether the poor and schools are                  your church?
tion. The Bible clearly teaches this in         provided for; finally, whether there              6. Does the council diligently en-
the matter of Achan, whose guilt was            is anything for which they need the               gage in and promote the work of
                                                                                                  evangelism in its community?
imputed to the whole nation of Israel,          judgment and help of classis  for the       (Note: These questions are answered
even when only a handful of Israelites          proper government of their church.          on the credentials and reviewed by a
even knew about his sin (Joshua 7).             The minster who was appointed by            committee who reports any irnegu-
Another illustration is the prayer of           the previous classis  shall deliver a
                                                short sermonfrom the Word of God,           larity to classis.)
Daniel for the sins of all Israel. Al-          which the others shall evaluate and if
though Daniel personally had not                it is lacking in anything they shall                 Having noted the underlying
committed many of the horrible sins             point this out.                             principles of the questions of Article
enumerated, he described it as "my            The same was adopted by the Synod             41, let us briefly examine the meaning
confession" (Daniel 9). The reality of        of Dordrecht, 1618-19, in Article 41,         and importance of the individual
this responsibility demands mutual            and is substantially what the PRC             questions.
supervision. That is the purpose of           have in Article 41.                           1.       Are the consistory meetings
Article 41's questions.                                The emphasis of these articles is    held in your church?
     Notice, however, that the pur-           clearly the spiritual welfare of the                   Certainly the question assumes
pose of these questions is not nega-          congregation. The fathers were con-           that regular consistory meetings are
tive, i.e., to escape corporate guilt, but    cerned about the preaching as well as         held, a minimum of one per month,
positive, viz., the spiritual well-being      the workof the elders and deacons-

                                                                                                          April 15,1992 / Standard Bearer / 327


and more often for larger churches.           this question may also well imply an          for Christian schools are two differ-
Good order in the congregation, and           inquiry into whether or not the Word          ent matters, and a church might well
thus its spiritual welfare, demand that       is so preached that its discipline is felt    be faithfulin one and not in the `other.
consistories meet regularly, and of-          in the congregation" (StandardBearer,              The care of the poor relates di-
ten enough to take care of the                Vol. 36, p. 117).                             rectly to the work of the deacons. The
congregation's needs.                               The importance of faithful Chris-       purpose is to determine whether or
2.    Is church discipline exercised?         tian discipline is obvious. It is one of      not Christ's office of high priest func-
      This question is not simply             the marks of the true church (Belgic          tions in the church so that His mercy
whether the consistory has any cases          Confession, Art. 29), is necessary be-        is concretely experienced through it.
of discipline at that time. Rather, as        cause the church of Christ must ex-           At the least, it inquires concerning
Rev. G. VandenBerg  explains it, "the         hibit holiness and maintain purity in         diligent collecting and distribution of
idea is whether the consistory ob-            doctrine, and is required out of love         the alms. Are the deacons faithful to
serves that all things, doctrine and          for the erring member. Failure to             their ordination vows?
life, are maintained in the church in         exercise Christian discipline will de-             Since the care of Christian
harmony with the Word of God. Does            stroy the congregation.                       schools is covered in another sec-
the church faithfully punish evil do-         3.    Are the poor and Christian              tional, we will not discuss this part of
ers with the spiritual power of the           schools cared for?                            the question.
keys  of  heaven's kingdom? The                     The question could better be di-             The fourth question will be
preaching of the Word is itself a chief       vided, since care of the poor and care        treated, the Lord willing, in a second
means of discipline and, therefore,                                                         article on Article 41. 0


                                                    Mutual Censure --
                                                        Article 81 of the
                                                             Church Order
                                                                                                  Rev. Wayne Bekkering


      The mutual supervision and the          one man or a very few may dominate.           ity to supervise passes down through
mutual censure of allthe  officebearers       This may be done consciously or un-           the ranks. The archbishop supervises
is a necessary and desirable thing. If        consciously, but when the responsi-           the bishops, the bishops supervise the
it is lacking, some serious conse-            bility for supervision and censure is         priests, the priests supervise the dea-
quences will result. The first danger         not firmly held to be the right and           cons, etc.
is that nothing will be done with re-         duty of every consistory member (el-                The Reformed churches, follow-
spect to the question of faithfulness in      der, deacon, and minister), then bad          ing the Scriptures, became Presbyte-
carrying out the duties of the offices.       patterns may develop. A general rule          rian in church government, i.e., they
This is the natural direction of things       of life is that if we do not supervise        were ruled by elders. In Presbyterian
and this is the general trend that we         ourselves, someone else will super-           church government the officebearers
see in the church world today. We as          vise us. Hierarchy will fill the void if      are equalin authority as they function
Protestant Reformed Churches are              we do not take hold of our responsi-          in the local church, and supervision is
not immune to laxity in-this area, and        bility to exercise mutual censure ac-         mutual (see Art. 17 of the C.O.).
therefore need to be on our guard.            cording to Article 81 of the church                 Calvin was the first to introduce
The second danger that may come               order.                                        mutual censure. He didso, already in
from a failure to exercise proper mu-               Before the Reformation, the             1544, among the officebearers in the
tual censure in our consistories is that      church of Christ was under a faulty           church in Geneva, according to
                                              system of church government: the              Rutgers in his KerkeZyke  AdGezen.
                                              hierarchical system. The Roman                Mutual censure was later (1568,
                                              Catholic Church has the hierarchical          Wezel) adopted in some of the Re-
Rev. Bekkeringis  pastor of the Protestnnt    system of government. The Pope is             formed churches in the Lowlands
Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa.               the highest authority, and the author-        under the influence of a' Lasco. In

326 /Standard Bearer I April 15,1992


1578theSynodmeetinginDordtmade             of office, as of moral behavior or con-    the Lord's Supper together.
mutual censure a practice of all the       duct of the officebearer. Our present      VanDellen  and Monsma, in their
Reformed churches in the Lowlands.         Article 81 speaks of Christian censure     Church Order Commenta y, in treat-
The Synod in 1578 added to the pro-        or mutual censure, not censure of          ing Article 81, say, "the mistaken con-
vision for mutual censure these stipu-     morals. We ought to stop using the         ception just noted is quite general."
lations: first, that it be conducted       term censwa morum, and use "mutual              This attempt to expose some
before the Lord's Supper; secondly,        censure" or "Christian censure" as         misconceptions concerning mutual
that it have a view to the doctrine and    Article 81 expresses.                      censure must not be taken as an at-
walk of the officebearers.                      Another factor that may tend to       tempt so to "lighten" mutual censure
     The 1578 version of our Article       make Article 81 in our 1914version of      as to render it useless.
81 probably proved to be too heavy in      the church order  "heavy" is the                The main purpose of mutual
its implications to be readily used in     reintroduction of the phrase "before       censure, clearly, is to be able to ad-
the churches. Its connection to the        the celebration of the Lord's Supper,"     monish one anotherin a friendly spirit
Lord's Supper seems to imply cen-          which was dropped in 1586.                 with regard to the discharge of the
sure in a more formal sense. The                Prof. Hanko in his Notes 011 the      respective offices. Under the best of
Synod of s' Gravenhage in 1586 made        Church  Order says, "It is clear, how-     circumstances that is always difficult.
some fundamental changes in the ar-        ever, from this history that Censura       Whenever' one's performance in his
ticle. It dropped the phrase "before       Morum is not intended to be a cen-         office is examined, many different
the celebration of the Lord's Supper,"     sure of conduct in relation to the cel-    human reactions come into play. Fear,
and it omitted the words "doctrine         ebration of the Lords Supper."             doubt, defensiveness, feeling of inad-
and walk" and substituted the words                                                   equacy, and anger may arise within
found in our present version: "with                                                   one. Why is this true? The answer is
regard to the discharge of their of-                  Officebearers                   sinful human pride. Every  office-
fice." These changes seem to have                  in Christ's service                bearer knows that he is not perfect
lifted some of the heavy implications                                                 and that he can improve the dischcarge
of formal censure, because no other           must show that they have                of his office, yet the prospect of hav-
changes were made in the article in          the mind of Chsist in them               ing someone else point that out is
the Reformed churches in The Neth-             by humbling themselves                 painful to his pride.
erlands.                                          before each othei....                    Officebearers in Christ's service
     It seems to the present writer                                                   must show that they have the mind of
that Article 81, as we have it today,                                                 Christ in them by humbling them-
stillsuffers from that "heaviness" that         The reference to the Lord's Sup-      selves before each other, andbybeing
the Synod of 1586 attempted to lift.       per probably was intended to insure        servants to God's people.
For example, we still use the term         the use of mutual censure at regular            Joh. Jansen nicely captures the
censura  mot-urn,  which is the Latin      intervals by the consistories. W.W.J.      spirit of mutual censure in his Korte
translation, not properly of our ver-      VanOene, in his "practical guide to        Verklaring  van de Kerkenordening  as
sion, but of the version before 1586,      the use of the Church Order of the         he comments on Article 81. The fol-
which spoke of censure of doctrine         Canadian Reformed Churches," en-           lowing is this writer's translation of
and walk. Censura morum implies            titled, With Common Consent, says          Jansen. "The purpose of Christian
censure, not so much of the discharge      concerning this point, "There was          censure is not to be disagreeable by
                                           regularity the few years during which      bringing all sorts of picky things, or to
                                           the Christian censure had to be held       argue about personal opinions. But
                                           before each celebration of the holy        to sharpen each other, and to spur
                                           supper. Later on this regularity was       each other to greater diligence in the
                                           often missing, although many               discharge of their offices for the wel-
                                           consistories continued the custom of       fare of the church, and to God's honor.
                                           having it at the last meeting before       Every officebearer must remember
                                           this celebration."                         that he not only has the right and
                                                No doubt we need to have the          responsibility, in a loving way, to
                                           regularintervals specifiedlest  welose     bring his criticism of his fellow
                                           the practice altogether. We can keep       officebearer's performance, but also
                                           the phrase "before the celebration of      has the right and responsibility to
                                           the Lords Supper" as long as we            receive the legitimate criticism of his
                                           understand that it refers to regular       fellow officebearers, brought in alov-
                                           intervals, and not to the question of      ing way, concerning his performance.
                                           whether or not officebearers can go to     Only in this way will the holy purpose
        Rev. Wayne Bekkering                                                          of mutual censure be a blessing." 0

                                                                                            April 15,1992 I Standard Bearer / 329


                                                         Consistorid
                                                            Promotion of
                                                  Christian Schools
                                                                                                   Rev. Arie denHafog

     "Theconsistories shall see to it that    ferent form than the present article        struction of children in reading, writ-
there are good Christian schools in which     does. At that time it read, "Every-         ing, math, sciences, the arts, etc. prop-
the parents have their children instructed    where Consistories shall see to it, that    erly belongs to the calling which the
according to the demands of the cov-          there are good schoolmasters who            Lord has given to the institute church.
enant "                                       shall not only instruct the children in     She must not entangle herself in these
   Article 21 of the Church Order of          reading, writing, languages and lib-        kinds of matters because her sole call-
  the Protestant Reformed Churches            eral arts, but likewise in godliness        ingis to preach the Word, and thereby
                                              andin the Catechism." The reason for        also to instruct and buildup the youth
     From the time of the Reforma-            this particular formulation had to do       of the church to take their place as full
tion, Reformed churches have been             with the fact that at that time free        members of the church in their later
convinced of the urgency of promot-           parental Christian schools were not         life. Catechetical instruction prop-
ing good Christian schools for the            yet known. The state and the church         erly belongs to the ministry of the
instruction of the covenant youth of          were considered to be related in the        church. Preparingchildrenandyoung
the church. Faithin the truth of God's        matter of the education of children.        people for their secular occupation in
covenant, according to which God              The government of Holland was               life does not belong to the task which
gathers His church in the line of con-        largely committed to the Reformed           the Lord has given to the church. This
tinued generations, convinced the             faith, and it promoted this faith also      is the responsibility of parents. The
earliest leaders of the Reformed              in the schools. The government used         Reformed Christian school is there-
churches of the great benefit such            the Reformed churches to establish          fore a parental school, established by
Christian schools serve for the future        and promote and supervise its               a society of parents and governed by
welfare of the church and the strength        schools. The church could greatly           this society.
of her members. She was convinced             influence the instruction given at the           There are however several rea-
that the church, even as institute, has       schools throughthe appointment and          sons why the church must be greatly
a calling and obligation to promote           support of good school teachers. The        interested in promoting good Chris-
such Christian schools. This convic-          church also gave catechism instruc-         tian schools. Article 21 suggests that
tion is expressed in Article 21 of the        tion in the schools.                        parents should consider the matter of
church order. The original form of                 Article 21 in its present form         good Christian schools as implied in
this article had its birth already in the     was first adopted by the Synod of           the "demands of the covenant." When
late 1500s. This conviction is further        Roseland in 1914. The change in the         we bring our children to be baptized
emphasized by one of the questions            wording of this article is in accord        we promise that we intend to "see
of Article 41 of the church order, in         with arecognition of the proper sepa-
which eachConsistory  at classis meet-        ration of church and state. It was
ings is asked whether "the poor and           carefully formulated to avoid the sug-
Christian Schools are cared for."             gestion that the church as institute
      Article21 as adoptedbythe great         should involve itself in the actual es-
Synod of Dordt had a somewhat dif-            tablishing and governing of schools.
                                              Reformed churches do not support
                                              the idea of a church-run school. This
                                              is contrary to the teaching of Scrip-
                                              ture, which makes the education of
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Protes-     children the first responsibility of the
tant Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-       parents. Secondly, the Reformed
fornia.                                       church does not believe that the in-                  Rev. Arie denHartog

330 IStandard Bearer I April 15,1992


these children, when come to years of        and for the promotion and defense of       financial support of such schools.
discretion (whereof you are either           the Reformed faith which we love           These schools are becoming increas-
parent or witness), instructed and           and which we believe to be in every        ingly expensive to operate. In many
brought up in the aforesaid doctrine,        point based on Gods Word. As a             cases, especially the larger families
or help or cause them to be instructed       church we are greatly interested in        have great difficultyin paying tuition
therein, to the utmost of your power"        having the youth of the covenant in-       bills. It is certainly proper that regu-
(FormforInfantBaptism).  Thechurch           structed also in the day school in such    lar offerings for Christian schools be
has the calling to see to it that parents    a way that their instruction helps to      collectedin the worship services. This
fulfill their covenantal obligation and      prepare them for their role as church      is certainly a worthy cause. It is good
keep the vows they made at the time          members and for their calling as Re-       to encourage those who are not par-
of the baptism of their children.            formed Christians in the midst of the      ents to contribute also regularly to
     Furthermoreitisabsolutelyfun-           world and in the kingdom of Christ.        Christian schools - especially those
damental to the Reformed faith to                 The consistory, including the         whoaregrandparents. Thelatterisin
understand that "all of life is reli-        ministers, elders, and deacons, pro-       harmony with what Psalm 78 states
gious." Our religionis not something         mote good Christian schools in sev-        about the concern we should have,
isolated to our worship of God on the        eral specific ways. First of all, of       not only for our children, but even for
Lord's Day or to our involvement in          course, the minister of the Word is        our children's children in the cov-
the life of the church. The Reformed         obligated by this article of the church    enant of God.
Christian must live his whole life, by       order to emphasize the great impor-             The seriousness of the calling of
the grace of God, from a Christian           tance of good Christian schools regu-      consistories which Article 21 requires
perspective, applying the principles         larly in his preaching. He must by the     can hardly be over emphasized. Ours
of the Word of God to every area of          power of the Word of God exhort            is a day of increasing ungodliness.
life and living according to the doc-        Christian parents wherever possible        This ungodliness is promoted by the
trines taught by the church. When            to band together to establish good         wicked, humanistically oriented, un-
parents instruct their children they                                                    godly schools of our land. It is cer-
must inculcate this. This is very im-                                                   tainly dangerous to send covenant
portant. This must be one of the chief           Consistories must labor                children to such schools. These
motives for Christian parents to es-            towards unity of purpose                schools in their philosophy and per-
tablish Reformed Christian schools.                                                     spective of education are under the
     If at all possible we want to have            among God's people                   dominion of the evil one. They are
our children instructed in schools            and to impress upon parents               mighty instruments of the devil to
where the instruction is permeated                     the urgency of                   influence the youth of the world and
with biblical principles and perspec-             their covenant calling.               to seek to lead astray the members of
tives. Not only that, we want the                                                       the church of Christ.
instruction to be distinctively Re-                                                          It is not always possible in every
formed, if at all possible. When we in       Christian schools. He must strongly        case, because of various circum-
our baptism vows promise to instruct         exhort parents to send their children      stances, for parents to establish a
our children in the "aforesaid doc-          to such schools. The minister who          Christianschool. Nevertheless, striv-
trine" this doctrine is the doctrine of      regards Article 21 of the church order     ing for this ideal certainly belongs to
the Reformed faith as believed and           encourages existing Christian schools      our calling to instruct our children in
preached and taught in our churches.         by frequently praying for them and         a godly way "to the utmost of our
Our doctrine will greatly influence          for the teachers in these schools as he    power." Maintaining good Christian
the whole of our perspective on life.        leads the congregationinprayer. The        schools is becoming increasingly dif-
This is of course true because doc-          consistory fulfills this obligation by     ficult and expensive. Doing this re-
trine and life go together. Our doc-         mentioningthis matter on familyvisi-       quires great sacrifices on the part of
trine will determine the perspective         tation. The consistory must admon-         parents. It is contrary to the sinful
of instruction in our parental schools.      ish parents who do not use good            nature of all of us to want to make
The church is greatly interested in          Christian schools when they are avail-     such great sacrifices. The history of
there being good schools where in-           able. The consistory fulfills the de-      the establishing of our own Protes-
struction is given that is in harmony        mands of this article by encouraging       tant Reformed Schools has been one
with the Reformed doctrine taught in         serious Christian young people to          which always involved great struggle.
the church. The ideal that we must           considerteachinginaChristianschoo1         Opposition to our own schools has
strive for is the so-called "triple alli-    as a high and worthy occupation in         been great. Sometimes this opposi-
ance" in which church, home, and             the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.      tion has come even from the members
school are all laboringtogether for the      Consistories promote Christian             of our own churches. Consistories
glory of God, for the spiritual welfare      schoolsbyencouraginggivingforthe           must labor towards unity of purpose
of the children of God's covenant,                                                      among God's people and to impress

                                                                                              April 15,1992 / Standard Bearer J 331


upon parents the urgency of their           not always possible everywhere for          error has had serious consequences
covenant calling.                           parents to establish our own Protes-        for the direction in which many of
      In connection with Article 21         tant Reformed schools. God in His           these schools have gone.
several questions have often arisen.        providence rules over the circum-                When today we look at existing
The question has been asked: "Are           stances which make this possible or         Christian schools in most communi-
parents who oppose Christian educa-         not. Furthermore, when parents are          ties, we see them being far from ideal
tion for their children and refuse to       diligent in fulfilling their covenant       as "good Christian schools." Many of
send their children to available good       calling with respect to their children      them are overrun with humanistic
Christian schools the proper object of      in areas where there are no Protestant      philosophy and even promote teach-
church discipline?" As is the case          Reformed schools, they can be confi-        ings such as the ungodly theory of
with all questions of discipline, this      dent that the Lord will preserve their      evolution, feminism, laxity towards
must be carefully answered. Re-             children according to His will.             morality, and worldly entertainment
formed churches are always careful                                                      among the youth. As the  church-
about discipline. On the one hand,                                                      world becomes more and more apos-
there may be legitimate special cir-        As the church-world becomes                 tate in doctrine this is also reflected in
cumstances according to which par-              more and more apostate                  the schools. This of course is to be
ents decide not to send their children                                                  expected; it could not be otherwise.
to a Christian school. There is an area                 in doctrine                     As time goes on there is increasing
where this whole matter must be left               this is also reflected               urgency on the part of the parents of
up to the conscience of God's people                  in the schools.                   our churches to labor to "the utmost
as parents. Aslongasitisevidentthat                                                     of their power" to establish Protestant
such parents are seriously striving to                                                  Reformed Christian Schools. Article
the utmost of their power to nurture             Already early in the history of        21 of the church order obligates
and admonish their children in the          our churches this whole question was        consistories to do all within their call2
fear of the Lord they are of course not     debated. It was seen at that time           ingto encourage and promote Protes-
to be disciplined. However, carnal          already, for example, that the error of     tant Reformed Christian Schools.
reasons for opposition to Christian         ucommon grace" had very serious                  Let me conclude with a personal
schools may not be tolerated in the         implications for the instruction given      note. For the first time in the history
church. And there are of course many        in many of the existing Christian           of our family, since we have come to
carnal reasons for being opposed to         schools. It was recognized that this        Redlands  to be pastor of the church
Christian schools. Parents who are          error in the philosophy of education        we have the great privilege and bless-
evidently negligent in fulfilling the       andin thelife-stylepromotedinthose          ing to send our children to one of our
demands of the covenant and are             Christian schools was no minor, in-         ownschools. As a pastor Iwitness the
careless about the instruction of their     significant matter. This error was in       tremendous blessing this school has
children are proper objects of church       large part the basis for a philosophy       been for our children and I can see the
discipline.                                 of education which borrows much             great impact it has had on the life and
      It has also been asked in the past    from humanistic and worldly, sup-           strength of the church. I for one am
whether men who are opposed to              posedly great leaders in the philoso-       deeply grateful to those who have
Christian schools ought to be nomi-         phy of education, and seriously com-        gone before and endured the
nated for the special offices in the        promises the calling of Christians to       struggles, suffered the hardships, and
Reformed church. One who is openly          live antithetically in every area of.       made the great sacrifices necessary to
opposed to Christian education obvi-        their life. History has proven that this    establish this Christian school. IJ
ously could not submit to Article 21 of
the church order and ought not to be
nominated.
      Another question that has arisen
often in our own churches in connec-
tion with Article 21 is whether this
article implies the necessity of estab-
lishing our own Protestant Reformed
Christian schools wherever possible
rather thanjust using already existing
Christian schools in the community.
In harmony with what has been said
about promising to instruct our chil-
dren in the "aforesaid doctrine," Ar-
ticle 21 does imply this. Again, it is

332 /Standard Bearer / April 15,1992


                                                Separate Meetings
                                                           of Elders and
                                                                     Deacons
                                                                                                     Rev. Richard Moore

     My sectional is intended to deal        Word and the elders forming the             church of Christ. To the consistory
with the practical and spiritual impli-      Consistory. We quote part of the            has been given the rule of the church
cations of having separate meetings          article: "In all Churches there shall be    and the calling to take the oversight of
of elders and deacons. My contention         a Consistory composed of the Minis-         the preaching of the Word, the labors
is that if a congregation grows to a         ters of the Word and the Elders, who        of the officebearers, and the life of the
size such that the number of                 at least in larger congregations, shall,    congregation. Thus they are to exer-
officebearers makes it possible to have      as a rule, meet once a week."               cise the royal office of the Lord. To the
separate meetings of the elders and               This has been the distinction          deacons has been given the calling to
deacons, then it is profitable to do         made by the churches since 1574 at a        be busy with the labors of mercy in
this. It is profitable for the work of       synod of Dordt. But also there is the       the church of Christ, and thus to exer-
both the elders and the deacons, and         exception of this distinction made          cise the priestly office of Christ. While
thus also for the congregation. We           when the Consistory is small. Notes:        all the officebearers together mani-
will attempt to draw attention to some       "Whenever the number of the Elders          fest the threefold office of Christ,
of these points of profit during the         is small, the Deacons may be added to       Christ has made this distinctionin the
course of this paper. We will attempt        the Consistory by local regulation;         exercise of His office in the church on
also to set up certain guidelines for        this shall invariably be the rule where     earth. The churchorder sets this truth
the division of labor when a Council         the number is less than three." The         forth in the separate articles on the
decides to hold separate meetings for        last part of this statement, that "this     offices of minister, of elder, and of
the elders and deacons.                      shall invariably be the rule," was          deacon. Further, we understand that
     There is a definite distinction         added in 1914 as a matter of safety         the labors of the Consistory and of the
madeintheScriptureandinthechurch             and sanctified wisdom. Because God          deacons require lengthy and diligent
order of our churches between the            providentially has kept our congre-         work to perform rightly these duties,
consistory and the deacons. The ar-          gations limited in terms of member-         which can be accomplished much
ticles of the church order that speak of     ship, and because the preaching of the      moreefficientlyandcarefullyinsepa-
the Consistory make reference to the         pure gospel of Christ is not attractive     rate meetings that concentrate on the
ministers and the elders, and this in        to the mass of people, the exception        work that is peculiar to the respec  tive
distinction from the body of deacons.        has almost become the rule in our           offices.
We refer especially to Articles 4,5,10,      denomination. For the majority of                With this said we must add that
and others that speakof  the Consistory      our congregations, the deacons have         when a Consistory is still small and
and make this distinction. In the            been added to the number of the el-
church order, Article 37, there is how-      ders to serve in Consistory. In many
ever provision made for deacons to           cases this remains necessary because
be included in the Consistory. But           of size limitation. However, when it
this article also makes clear that the       is possible, and, I believe, especially
rule is that there is to be a distinction    when the number of elders is more
madebetweentheConsistoryandthe               than four, it would be beneficial for
deacons, with the ministers of the           our churches to have separate meet-
                                             ings of the Consistory and deacons. I
                                             believe we should strive for this.
                                                  The reason for this separation of
                                             labors is simple: to the Consistory
Rev. Moore is pastor of the Protestant       and to the deacons God through His
Reformed Church of Hull, Iowa.               Son has given distinctive labors in the                 Rev. Richard Moore

                                                                                               April 15,1992 I Standard Bearer I333


the deacons are added to the                suggest a need within the congrega-            deacon to welcome new members to
Consistory, the deacons must be in-         tion for their labor of mercy. There is,       our congregation. Finally,  censura
cluded in all the decisions of the          further, the necessary consideration           morum shallbe  conductedin harmony
Consistory. They give advice and            of the needy causes that are worthy of         with Article 81 of the church order at
vote on all matters of the Consistory.      the labors of the deacons to collect           the Council Meeting.
This includes the matters of spiritual      alms and distribute them for these                  Thereshallbeminutebookskept
concerns within the congregation, and       causes. Includedis all other labor that        by each body, the clerk of Consistory
upon matters of Christian discipline        belongs specifically to the work be-           acting also as the clerk of the Council.
as well. In effect, while they are          longing to their office in harmony             The deacons shall choose their own
added to the Consistory, the deacons        with Articles 25 and 26 of the church          officers, including President, Secre-
also in these decisions are acting el-      order. Also, for practical reasons,            tary, and General Adjunct. There
ders. The converse is also true, the        although this does not belong specifi-         shallbe an elder or minister preslent at
elders togetherwith the deaconsmake         cally to their labor as deacons, all           the deacon meetings. This is in har-
decisions concerning the work of the        financial matters including general,           mony with the oversight that the
office of mercy. To do otherwise            building funds, etc., are often given          Consistoryis to take over thelabors of
would be contrary to the church or-         into the care of the deacons. And the          the deacons.
der.                                        financial reports are presented at the              In conclusion, it should be obvi-
        Let us consider now how the         Council meetings.                              ous from all the various labors re-
labor of a Councilis tobe divided and             The elders take the oversight of         quired of the officebearers that the
carried out when there is sufficient        the congregation: exercise discipline,         labors of the officebearers willbemuch
size to warrant separate meetings of        make provision for and report on               better served from such a division of
the Consistory and deacons. In this         family visits, make catechism class            labors whenever this is possible. Our
connection let us understand that the       visits, visits to the aged, and take           Lord Jesus Christ gives to the
church order in several articles teaches    oversight of the deacons and of the            officebearers a very serious responsi-
us that the ministers, elders, and dea-     preaching of the Word. They are to             bility in caring for the souls of His
cons are to meet regularly and              make decisions on the representation           people, and it is necessary that we
monthly, at the very least. The vari-       to the broader assemblies. Further,            undertake the same in the most or-
ous articles of the church order men-       they take oversight of confessions of          derly and spiritually edifying way
tion meeting even weekly; and, if the       faith, baptism requests, transfers of          possible. Even the apostles found
workwarrants, this maybe necessary          membership. They take oversight of             that they could not do justice to the
in a very large church. However,            the minister, and all other spiritual          labor of the spiritual feeding of the
practically, the work of the church         matters of the congregation, includ-           flock of Christ and the spiritual over-
can usually be handled properly in          ing that labor that is given to them or        sight of the same, and also properly
our churches by holding regular             implied in the church order, Articles          carry out the mercies of Christ in the
monthly meetings, and making pro-           16,21,  and 23.                                church. Graciously our Lord insti-
vision for special meetings to con-               The Councilis composed of both           tuted the office of deacon to care for
sider pressing matters that ought not       the elders and deacons. At the Coun-           these needs. Surely we also should
to wait for the next regular meeting,       cil meetings the deacons will present          see that it is the part of sanctified
whether that be by the Consistory,          a written report of their work, and the        wisdom to accomplish our labors in
Diaconate, or Council.                      elders will report to the deacons on           the several offices by the means af-
        Therefore each month the Coun-      their labor as it affects the labors of the    forded us in separate meetings where
cil, the Consistory, and theDiaconate       diaconate. The Council will handle             our time canbe devoted to the calling
are to meet in separate meetings to         the work of. evangelism, the general           of our offices in the best possible way.
accomplish the work of the church.          fund budget, the buildings and prop-                                                 cl
How then is the work of the church to       erty, nominations for office, the call-
be divided? In the first place, we          ing of the minister, any discipline
must hold that the basic division of        necessary of any officebearer, the
work is determined by the peculiar          agenda for congregation meetings,
offices in which the officebearers la-      the approbation of the congregation
bor. The following is a suggested           meetings, etc. -in short, all matters
division of labors.                         not concerning benevolence or the
        The deacons will handle all work    exercise of Christian discipline within
of benevolence. This includes the           the congregation and the spiritual
scheduling of visits to the widows          oversight of the same. We must also
and orphans, and the aged or infirm,        include here the annual church visits.
as well as the consideration of the         Also, we havefoundit helpful to have
affairs of the congregation that might      a committee of one elder and one

334 /Standard  Bearer / April 15,1992


News From Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger

Ministerial Trios and Calls                sideringthree calls (one to continue to      Congregation Highlights
     The congregation of the               serve as pastor of the Grandville, MI             Prof. D. Engelsma traveled to
Immanuel PRC of Lacombe, AB,               PRC; one from the Hudsonville, MI            Pella, IA on Friday, March 13, at the
Canada has extended a call to Candi-       PRC to serve as a missionary to Larne,       request of the Pella PRC to give a
date M. Dick to serve as their next        Northern Ireland; and one to service         public lecture at the Central College
pastor.                                    in Singapore), he sent a letter asking       Chapel, entitled, "Genesis l-11: Myth
     Last year's Synod appointed the       for an extension to consider                 or History?"
Hope PRC of Walker, MI as the call-        Hudsonville's call. The Lord willing,.            The congregation of the South-
ing church for a minister-on-loan to       he will answer these calls on April 12       east PRC of Grand Rapids, MI was
the Evangelical Reformed Church of         - which means that many of our               invited to an open house of their newly
Singapore (ERCS). This pastor will         readers will know the answer Rev.            renovated parsonage after their
have the status of associate pastor of     Kortering gives before this "News"           Prayer Day Service.
Hope Church, and he will also be           even comes out.                                   On Tuesday evening, February
under the supervision and discipline                                                    25, the congregation of the Hope PRC
of Hope Church. You may also be            Young People's Activities                    in Walker, MI met for an hour of
interested to note that the original            Our March 15th installment of           fellowship to welcome the Higgs and
term of service calls for a period of      the "News" contained an item about           Laning families and to show support
three years. This is subject to renewal    the young people in our Faith PRC in         and appreciation for their seminary
for periods of two years with the          Jenison, MI and their Apple Pie phone-       students. It appears from the bulle-
consent of the pastor concerned, and       a-thon fund-raising project. Well, let       tins of Hope that presently Hope has
at the discretion of Hope Church to        me start outby saying, What a Project!       four of its members who are prepar-
whom the request of the ERCS will be       These young people sold 1,850 nine-          ing for the gospel ministry.
directed.                                  inch apple pies. Of course, selling               Since Rev. C. Terpstra, pastor of
     The ERCS asked for a rninister-       pies is one thing, making them is            the South Holland, IL PRC, was on a
on-loan to help them fill a need for       something else. On Saturday, March           classical appointment to the Hope
assistance in doing mission work in        14, the youngpeople, withlots of help        PRC of Isabel, SD over Prayer Day,
Singapore itself as well as the possi-     from their parents, as well as from          the Council of the Peace PRC of Lan-
bility of doing work in other coun-        Great Lakes Fundraisers Inc., met in         sing, IL, South Holland's closest
tries. There is also a need in dealing     the gym of Heritage Christian School.        church neighbor, extended an invita-
with various problems that have            They started at 7:30 AM, and work            tion to South Holland's congregation
arisen within the Singapore churches,      continued until 4:00 PM, followed by         to worship with them on that evening.
as well as a need for assistance in        a clean-up committee until around
doingpreparatoryworkforseminary            730 at night.                                Address Changes
instruction.                                    You really had to see it to believe             Rev. George Lubbers
     Now that Rev. J. Kortering and        it. Heritage's gym was transformed                Raybrook  Manor, Rm. 111
his wife have returned from                into a pie factory.                                   2121 Raybrook  S.E.
Singapore, having completed a short-            Great Lakes Fundraisers pro-               Grand Rapids, MI 49546
term supply to the churches there,         vided everything from the Michigan                 telephone: (616) 285-8049
Hope has begun, in earnest, to call a      Ida Red apples to the hair nets and
pastor-onlloan.  Hope's Council pre-       gloves. There were machines that                   Pastor Jaikishin Mahtani
sented a trio to their congregation,       cored, peeled, and sliced up the apples.             75 Jalan Hitam Manis
consisting of the Revs. M. Kamps, J.       Then, in assembly-like fashion, the                     Singapore 1027
Kortering, and G. VanBaren;  and at a      pies were made and boxed.                            Republic of Singapore            ,
congregational meeting following                `Without doubt, Faith did an ex-             telephone: 011-65-472-3441.
Hope's Prayer Day service on March         cellent job. We probably haven't seen                                                0
11, Hope extended a call to Rev. J.        the last of this fundraiser. After all, I
Kortering.                                 can attest to the fact that apple pies
      Since Rev. Kortering is now con-     don't last forever.

                                                                                              April 15,1992 1 Standard Bearer I335


                                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                            Postage Paid at
                                                                                                            Grandville, Miohigan





Report of Classis West

      Classis West met on Wednes-            PRC regarding the manner of index-         R. Cammenga, C. Haak, and R.
day, March 4, 1992, in Doon, Iowa.           ing the classical archives was rejected    VanOverloop. Elder delegates cho-
Classis met in three sessions and fin-       by Classis. Eight subsidy requests         sen were Messrs. R. Bruinsma, A.
ished its business at about  7:30            totaling $165,692.00  were approved        Brummel, K.  DeJong,  and C. Van
Wednesday evening. Rev. D. Kuiper            for 1993 and will be forwarded to          Meeteren.
served as President of Classis and           Synod, 1992 for its approval.                   Classis also decided the dates
also bid farewell to Classis West, since          Various elections were also con-      and meeting places for the next two
he has accepted a call from Southeast        ducted. Rev. R. Moore was re-ap-           meetings of Classis. The next two
PRC of Grand Rapids, in Classis East.        pointed to the Classical Committee;        meetings of Classis West are sched-
     Most of the business conducted          Rev. S. Key was elected as delegate nd     uled for September 2, 1992 in
by Classis was routine. Classical ap-        examina;  and Revs. R. VanOverloop         Loveland, Colorado, and March 3,
pointments were scheduled for Hope           andR. Moore as Church Visitors. The        1993 in South Holland, Illinois.
PRC of Isabel, SD and for the                ministers chosen as delegates to                                    Rev. R. Hanko
Immanuel PRC of Lacombe, Alberta,            Synod, 1992 were Revs. W. Bekkering,                                  Stated Clerk
Canada. An overture from  Doon




                                                                                                       NOTICE!!
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
     The Christian Fellowship Soci-                                                           LECTURE TO BE HELD
ety of the Hudsonville Protestant Re-
formed Church expresses its heartfelt                                                                April 30, 1992
and sincere sympathy to their mem-
bers, Tom and Vicky and Greg and                                                                           at
Vicki VanOverloop and their families                      NOTICE!!!                      First Protestant Reformed Church
in the death of their dear sister-in-law,         Classis  East will meet in regular            2800 Michigan N.E.
      LINDA VANOVERLOOP.                     session on Wednesday, May 13,1992               Grand Rapids, Ml 49506
      May the family find comfort in the     at the Hudsonville Protestant Re-
words of our Lord in John 14:2,3, "In        formed Church.                                           Time: 8 PM
my Father's house are many man-                                    Jon J. Huisken,
sions: if it were not so, I would have                                 Stated Clerk        Theme: Office of All Believers
told you. I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for                                                 Speaker: Rev. Meindert Joostens
you, I will comeagain, and receive you                                                       who will address the topic
                                                                                            "Power and Responsibilities
unto myself; that where I am, there ye
may be also.                                                                                           of the Pew"
             Pete Miedema, President                                                      Tapes will be available from the
                Judy Wigger, Secretary                                                               above address.



336 /Standard Bearer I April 15,1992


