A Reformed





                    Ulrich Zwingli (1484-l 531).
                          Swiss Reformer
                                 see: "A Cloud of Witnesses" - p. 465


Vol. 68, No. 20
September 1,1992


CONTENTS:'                                                                      September I, 1992                           SiiiilDMD
Meditation - Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma                                                                                                BEARER
      Our Great God ................................................................................ 459
Editorially speaking ... - Prof. David J. Engelsma .................................. 461                                  ISSN 0362-4692
Editorials - Pro f David J. Engelsma
      Does God Take dare of Oxen? ...................................................... 461                               Semi-monthly. except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                           Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
      A Brotherly Reqliest that the RCUS Prove Its Charge                                                                  4949 lvanrest Ave., Qrandville, MI 49416. Second Class
            against the PRC ........................................................................ 462                   Postage Paid at Grandville. Michigan.
Letters ..................................................................................................         464     Postmastor: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                           P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49466-0603.
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C, Hanko
      Ulrich Zwingli: Swiss Reformer (2)                                                                                   EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
                                                                  ............................................... 465      Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
In His Fear - Mr. Fred Hahko                                                                                               Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                           Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
      Grades and Report Cards .............................................................. 467
Decency and Order- Rev. Ron Cammenga                                                                                       DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                           Rev. Ronald Cammenga. Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arie
      Prayer at the Assemblies ............................................................... 469                         denHartog. Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Carl Heak, Mr. Fred
Church and State - Mr. James Lading                                                                                        Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys. Rev. Marvin
                                                                                                                           Kamps, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth Koole,  Rev. Jason
      School Choice Gains Momentum .................................................. 471                                  Kortering. Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting, Rev. George
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                      Lubbers, Mrs.MaryBethLubbers.  Rev. JamesSlopsema.Rev.
                                                                                                                           Charles Terpstra. Rev. Ronald  VanDverloop. Mr. Benjamin
      "A Declaration of Principles" and its Results ............................... 473                                    Wiggar, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
The Day of Shadows - Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                     EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
      A Gracious Revelation of Divine Mercy ........................................ 475                                   The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
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Book Reviews .........................................................................................             477     Grandville. MI 49416         Hudsonville, Ml 49426
                                                                                                                           BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger ................................ 478                                          The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
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In This Issue ., .                                                                                                         PH: (616) 536.1776           Wainuiomata. New Zealand
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a "B," be a more appropriate reward for that effort? But . . . this is where that                                          date.
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458 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1992


 Meditation                                   Our Great God
 Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma


 Thy way, 0 God, is in thesanctuary  zoho     It is. We cannot escape sickness and       the jump from a heart overwhelmed
 is so great a God as our God?                death; controversy in home, church,        with sorrow to a confession of the
                            Psalm  77:13      or work place; an incessant struggle       majesty and greatness of God? He
                                              against our own sin. How many              can do that because in the midst of his
        An earnest expression of praise       times do we not experience great spiri-    depression he recalled to mind the
 to God! The psalmist is overwhelmed          tual drought in our lives  - depress-      way God leads His people. "I  .will
with the greatness of our God: who is         ing slumps which twist our hearts          remember the works of the Lord:
 so great a God as our God? What'             and souls! Certainly, God does not         surely I will remember thy wonders
 powerful display of God's majesty            promise us that He will not send us        of old. I will meditate also of all thy
 and might could have moved him to            hard times.                                work, and talk of thy doings." When
 speak such lofty words concerning                    Who has not experienced at one     the psalmist recalls all of this, then
 our God? Read the Psalm. You will            time or another what the psalmist          there is only one conclusion to which
 discover that these words were born          describes for us in verses 2-4 of this     he can come in the midst of adversity
 out of some very painful and trouble-        Psalm?. "In the day of my trouble I        and trouble: "Thy way, 0 God, is in
 some experiences. And that is the key        sought the Lord: my sore ran in the        the sanctuary: who is so great a God
 to the real beauty of this passage.          night, and ceased not: my soul re-         as our God?" When the troubles of
        Many are the different ways           fused tobe comforted.... Thou holdest      life confront us, then we must re-
 along which God leads His people.            mine eyes waking: I am so troubled I       member the God of our salvation and
 My life takes one direction, and yours       cannot speak." We all have had times       understand that His way is in the
 another. At times they cross and we          when things troubled us so much we         sanctuary.
 walk together, but soon they part            could not sleep. We have had times               "In the sanctuary" - that is a
 again and we go our separate ways.                                                      beautiful expression. The sanctuary
But there is one universal truth that         -                                          was the innermost part of the temple,
 characterizes all our ways: much of                    When the troubles                which was set aside or consecrated
 the time they are difficult and trouble-               of life confront us,             for the worship of God. As such the
 some. We will have our good times                                                       sanctuary was known as the place of
 and our happy times in this life. In                then we nmst remember               highestcommunionbetweenGodand
 fact, the life of the child of God ought          the God of ow snluntion . . . .       man. It was a type, therefore, of
to be filled with the peace and con-                                                     heaven, where God will dwell with
 tentment of salvation. But we will                                                      His people in perfection. Thus, when
never escape the fact that this life is       when it was difficult to pray because      we confess that God's way is in the
riddled with pains, troubles, and sor-        the thought of God troubled us. Is it      sanctuary, then we confess, in the
rows. We live in a sin-cursed earth,          not true that during the hardest of        first place, that His way is in the
 and sin inevitably brings sorrow and         these times we may have asked our-         heavens. And if that way is in heaven,
 woe - not only to the wicked, but to         selves questions very similar to the       then it is far above us; that is to say, it
 the child of God too! It is little wonder    psalmist's? "Will the Lord cast off        is far beyond all human comprehen-
 that the Heidelberg Catechism char-          forever? and will He be favorable no       sion. So the psalmist says in this verse
acterizes thislife as a"valley of tears."     more? Is His mercy clean gone for-         exactly what he says in a different
                                              ever?  dot11  His promise fail forever-    way in verse 19 of this Psalm: "Thy
                                              more?  Hat11 God forgotten to be           way is in the sea, and thy path in the
                                              gracious?  hat11 He in anger shut up       great waters, and thy footsteps are
                                              His tender mercies?" Ah, the psalm-        not known."
Rev. Bruinma is pastor of First Protes-       ist knows exactly how we feel at times          But why is God's way with us
 tan t Reformed Church in Holland,  Michi-    in our lives!                              beyond our understanding? Why are
gan.                                                  But how can the psalmist make      His footsteps not known? It is  be-

                                                                                           September 1,1992 / Standard Bearer / 459


cause the way of which the Psalmist          troubles and afflictions of life beset          sent the Flood to deliver the church
speaks in this Psalm is the way of           us: God's way with us is always holy,           and keep alive the seed of the cov-
God's eternal counsel.                       just, and good. Never does God send             enant so Christ could be born. The
      Before time began, from eter-          us hardships in life because He takes           same can be said of Sarah's barren-
nity, God carries with Him His eter-         delight in our woes, or because He is           ness, Joseph's being sold into Egypt,
nal counsel for all things. In that          in Himself an evil God. Our troubles            Israel's bondage in Egypt, the c.aptiv-
counsel God has ordered everything           befallusbecause of our own sin. They            ity; and so the list can go on. All of
(in its smallest detail) that takes place    are a result of man's fall into sin. God        these were hard and bitter experi-
in this world. He has ordered all            is ever holy and just in His dealings           ences in the lives of God's people; But
things in creation, in the history of        with us.                                        God used all of these things for the
this world, in the nations and in the                 And . . . He is ever merciful.         good of His church and His people.
church. Also in that counsel, how-                    This is a third idea implied in the    God's way with His people, even in
ever, God has ordered every little           phrase, "in the sanctuary." The sanc-           affliction, is one of mercy.
detail of our lives. These details are       tuary is that place where God meets                    We can say this with confidence
not arbitrary. They do  not  happen          with His people in intimate, covenant           for a second reason too. That reason
without reason. All are ordered by           communion. Therefore, we can also               is this: Christ. For us who are in
God to work toward the accomplish-           interpret this phrase to say, "Thy way,         Christ there is no more condemna-
ment of that one way of God: His             0 God, is in the midst of Thy church."          tion. God has poured out all of His
glory by way of the salvation of His         And that way in which God always                wrath and condemnation upon.Christ
people and church. And that we must          deals with His church is in mercy. In           as He hung on the cross. And the
bear in mind first of all, when experi-      other words, although we perhaps                result of this gracious work of our
encing the troubles and difficulties of      will never understand fully why we              Savior is this: God never sends us
life. "Ere into being I was brought,         must walk through a valley of tears in          anything in this life to punish us any-
Thy eye did see, and in Thy thought          this life, nevertheless we do know              more. Chasten? Yes: But punish in
my life in all its perfect plan was          that God is always dealing with us in           wrath? No! Our sin and guilt are
ordered ere my days began" (Psalter          His love and mercy toward us. God               taken from us and we have become
383, stanza 2). We fall before the God       is always One who suffers long with             the objects of Gods favor and fellow-
of heaven and earth and confess His          His children and pities them in their           ship. He will never withhold any
transcendence and majesty! We bow            troublesand afflictions. And He sends           good thing from us. Never! Not even
before Him in humble submission              those trials only because He knows              when He sends us hardships in this
because we know that the counsel of          that they will turn out to the profit           life! In faith we cling to that, too,
God `stands forever, and He sends            and the salvation of His people. God            amidst all the troubles that surround
these troubles in our lives to accom-        uses the most troublesome difficul-             us.
plish His divine will. Never may we          ties in life for their good.                           It is then that we will be able to
falter at this point: Jehovah reigns,                                                        say, even when we are so troubled
and His will He accomplishes.                                                                that we can not sleep, even through
     There is more, of course. We do          God's way with His people,                     the midst of tears: "Who is so great a
not submit to God's way because,                        even in afliction,                   God as our God?" Our God, the God
after all, what else can we do? God                                                          who has chosen us from eternity, the
will have His way with us no matter                       is one of mercy.                   God who has loved us so much that
what we like. That surely is not our                                                         He has sent His only-begotten Son to
attitude! We must understand that                                                            die for us, the God who guides and
there is more implied in the phrase                   There are two reasons I can say        leads us every step of our lives, our
"in the sanctuary" than what perhaps         that.                                           God is the greatest! He is most excel-
at first meets the eye. The sanctuary                 First of all, the Bible abundantly     lent in power, in majesty, in holiness,
of the temple was that place where           testifies to this in the lives of Gods          and in love. Nothing can compare to
God dwelt in all His holiness and            people who are found on the pages of            Him. He alone is all glorious! He has
purity. It was a place that was dedi-        Holy Writ. Do you think that the fall           revealed His greatness and excellence
cated and consecrated to the worship         into sin was a pleasant experience for          in the riches of His grace toward us in
of the holy God of heaven and earth.         Adam and Eve? Can you imagine the               Christ. No, God has not in anger shut
Also implied, then, is this: "Thy way,       burden they had to bear their entire            up His tender mercies! God's mercies
0 God, is  in Izoliness."  This becomes      earthly lives? Yet, God used their sin          are new every morning! He has with
clear when we realize that the name          to send our Savior, did He not? Do              His arm redeemed His people. He
for God in this passage refers to His        you think that enduring the Flood               will not suffer our feet to be moved. 0
glory as seen in all of His infinite         was a simple, painless matter for Noah          God, how great Thou art!  0
perfections or attributes. This too is       and his family? It was the greatest of
what we must confess when the                all trials for these saints! Yet, God

460 /Standard Bearer / September 1,1992


Editorially speaking . . .

     The Reformed `Free Publishing         adopted by the Christian Reformed         pology  of Scripture. Long out of print,
Association has just published a timely    Churchin 1924. Originally written at      Pnstoml Theology is a sound, thor-
bookonScripture'steachingconcern-          the time of the common grace contro-      ough treatment of the office of the
ing the godly woman. The title is Far      versy, the work was last reprinted in     pastor in the church. Written for
Above Rubies: Today's Virtuous             1942 and has, therefore; been out of      practical purposes, the book is espe-
Wonzan. It is a collection of sermons      print for some time. The booklet has      cially useful to seminarians, pastors,
and articles by ministers in the Prot-     not been merely photocopied, but has      and elders. This is abookto addto the
estant Reformed Churches, with the         been set in new, clear print. It has      church library. A review of the book
exception of several articles by Abra-     been dressed with a handsome cover.       will appear in a later issue of the
ham Kuyper. Rev. Dale H. Kuiper            An appendix gives the "Three Points"      Standard  Bearer. The price of this
reviews the book elsewhere in this         as the CRC adopted them, with             hardcoverpublicationis$15.95.  There
issue. I recommend the book to the         Hoeksema's succinct restatement of        is no additional charge for shipping.
readers of the StandardBearer.  It can     the essential teaching of each point.     Order from Old Paths  Publicatfions,
be ordered from the Reformed Free          The booklet can be ordered from the       223 Princeton Road, Audubon, NJ
PublishingAssociation,P.O.B0~2006,         Evangelism Committee of the South-        08106, or call (609) 546-4802. The
Grand Rapids, MI 49501. The price is       west PRC, 4875  Ivanrest Ave.,            publisher, a zealous newcomer to the
$9.95, plus $1.75 for shipping and         Grandville, MI 49418. The price is        publishingbusiness, has plans for the
handling.                                  $1.50 plus $1.25 for shipping.            reprintingofotherworthwhilebooks,
     The Evangelism Committee of                Another recent publication that      including Abraham Kuyper's  liz  the
the Southwest Protestant Reformed          I gladly bring to the attention of our    Shadow of Death. Work on James
Church has done us valuable service        readers is Pastoral Theology:  A Trem     Fraser's book on sanctification is al-
by reprinting Herman Hoeksema's            tise on the Office and Duties of the      ready underway. Ask Old Paths for
" ATripleBreach."  The77-pagebook-         CI&s&nPnstorbyPatrickFairbairn.           information.  0
let is Hoeksema's critical analysis of     This 19th century Scottish Presbyte-                                         - D J E
the "Three Points of Common Grace"         rian is well-known for the classic Ty-


Editorials

                                                                                       churches, and that Classis West urge
n                                          support from his congregation when
     Does God Take Care                    he resigned. But, temporarily, he has       the churches to contribute to this
of Oxen?                                   no call from a Protestant Reformed          worthy cause.
                                           congregation. He is, therefore, de-
     In the previous issue of this         pendent upon the denomination                  I bring this need to the attention
magazine, we informed the readers          which he has joined, although synod       of all our churches, our members per-
of the StandardBearer  of Christ's gift    has not budgeted any money for this       sonally, and others who have means
to the Protestant Reformed Churches        purpose.                                  and a heart for this good cause.
of a pastor and teacher, the Rev.               Classis West made provision for           There is a need. This family of
Audred Spriensma, from another             the support of Rev. Spriensma by the      seven requires support.
denomination.                              following decision:                            The need is urgent. Support is
     Reception of a minister by way                                                  required now.
of Article 9 of the church order of          We recommend that . . . South Hol-           This is a responsibility, and privi-
Dordt involves special measures for          land PRC Council be responsible for     lege, of the entire Protestant Reformed
the financial support of the man and         Rev. Spriensma's financial support,     denomination, and not only of the
his family. Naturally, he gave up the        seeking assistance from our other       churches in  Classis  West.

                                                                                       September 1,1992  / Standard Bearer I461


     The South Holland Council ex-             willingly and cheerfully to give to-           Missions Committee of the RCUS
horts the proper attitude, and sets a          ward their needs.                              presented a report that labeled the
worthy example of generosity, in its              At this time the Council has set            Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC)
letter to the South Holland congrega-          three offerings to be taken for this           hyper-Calvinists.
tion of July 19, 1992. With permis-            Fund: July 26, August 16, and Sep-
                                               tember 6 (all P.M.). Let us as a body               It is true that the synod of the
sion, I quote this letter in full:             of believers give proof of our love for        RCUS did not officially adopt the
                                               the gospel and give generously to              report of the Home Missions Com-
  Dear Congregation,                           this cause (cf. II Cor. 8:9; 9:7).             mittee. Such is not the nature of the
     As you are well awarebynow, at                                          Sincerely,       working of a Reformed synod re-
  the special meeting of Classis West                                     The Council         garding the annual reports of its per-
  last month, Rev. Audred Spriensma,                             South Holland PRC            manent committees. But the report
  formerly a Minister of the Word in                                                          containing the labeling of the PRC as
  the Christian Reformed Church, was              From thisletter, it is evident that
  examined with a view to becoming a                                                          hyper-Calvinistic was referred to the
  Minister of the Word in our Protes-        South Holland's Council needs $3,425             "standingmissions committee"  &the
  tant Reformed Churches. He suc-            each month, beginning with July, to              1992 synod of the RCUS (comparable
  cessfully sustained this examination,      meet the needs of the Spriensmas.                to a committee of pre-advice at a PRC
  was declared to be a Minister of the            In collections and other contri-            synod) and, in this way, became part
  Wordin our churches, and was made          butions, let us rise to the occasion, as         of the official business of the synod.
  eligible for a call. He and his wife,      our people always do.                                 The synod of a Reformed de-
  Alva, and their five children have              Rev. and Mrs. Spriensma acted               nomination is responsible for the re-
  since become members of our South          in the faith that trusts God to provide          ports of its committees. The synod of
  Holland congregation.                      the earthly needs of those who seek
     One of the immediate concerns of                                                         the RCUS did not disavow the charge
  Classis West was the financial sup-        His kingdom first.                               against the PRC. The decision that
  port of Rev. Spriensma and his fam-             We will act in the same faith -             synod made on that aspect of its mis-
  ily. With this in mind, the Classis        the faith that seeks the kingdom first           sion labor that involved the reference
  took the following decision: "We           in the use of earthly things.                    to the PRC was based in part on the
  recommend that..., South Holland                In this way God will fulfill the            charge that the PRC are  hyper-cal-
  PRC Council be responsible for Rev.        ordinance that He revealed in the                vinists. And then the RCUS pub-
  Spriensma's financial support, seek-       prohibition of Deuteronomy  25:4                 lished the report of its Home Mis-
  ing assistance from our other              against muzzling the ox that treads
  churches, and that Classis West urge                                                        sions Committee with its description
                                             the corn. His care is not so much for
  the churches to contribute to this                                                          of the PRC as hyper-Calvinists in its
  worthy cause."                             oxen as for the faithful minister of the         "1992 Abstract" (comparable to the
     In order to carry out this mandate      Word who has devoted his life to the             PRC "Acts of Synod") for its people,
  of Classis West, our South Holland         work of the gospel (I Cor. 9:lff.)               and all the world, to read.
  PRC Council has set up a "Classical             Send the contributions to the                    The report of the RCUS labeled
  Minister Support Fund" for the fi-         Council of the South Holland PRC,                the PRC hyper-Calvinists.
  nancial support of Rev. Spriensma          16511 South Park Ave., South Hol-                     I say "labeled" advisedly. No
  and&family.  Basedon theirpresent          land, IL 60473. Designate them for               evidence for the charge was given.
  needs, we have drawn up an annual          the "Classical Minister Support
  salary of $41,100.00,  which includes                                                       Indeed, no explanation of the charge
                                             Fund." Those who may desire to
  health insurance and a car allow-                                                           was offered. The report simply as-
  ance. We                                   communicate with the Spriensmas can
               have "seeded" this Fund                                                        serted that the theology of the PRC is
  with$3,500.00fromourGeneralFund            do so through the South Holland                  hyper-Calvinistic.
  and also made an initial contribution      Council.                                              Hyper-Calvinism is, at the very
  to it of $1,400.00.  From here on this          And a hearty welcome to Rev.                least, a serious doctrinal error with
  special Fund is to be supported by         Spriensma and family!                            equally serious practical conse-
  the offerings taken by our congrega-                                               - DJE    quences. That the RCUS regards
  tion and by the rest of the churches in                                                     hyper-Calvinism as a grave evil is
  Classis West.
     For this reason we lay this need                                                         plain from the fact that this alleged
  before you as a congregation. As                                                            influence of the PRC upon a group in
  Classis stated, this is truly a worthy     q   A Brotherly Request                          Minnesota disqualifies the group from
  cause. It should be evident to us that     that the RCUS Prove Its Charge                   joining the RCUS, apparently even as
  while the support of this new minis-                                                        an official mission.
  ter in our churches is our duty (cf. I     against the PRC                                       The report of the Home Mis-
  Cor. 9), it is also our privilege. With                                                     sions Committee of the RCUS con-
  thankfulness to the Lord for leading             At the synod of the Reformed               cerns "the possibility of RCUS in-
  this servant and his family into our       Church in the United States (RCUS)               volvement" in a work with a certain
  churches, we as a congregation ought       held in April of this year, the Home             group in Minnesota. In this  connec-

462 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1992


tion, the report refers to the theology     report of i ts Home Missions Commit-        slightest from the rightfulness of their
of the PRC:                                 tee. I ask also that this spokesman         being thus called. Even thoughChrist
                                            prove that the theology of the PRC is       did not die for them and even though
  There are several different influences    hyper-Calvinism. This spokesman             they are unable to believe, it is their
  withinthisgroupthatarenothealthy.         might wellbe the chairman of the sub-       duty to repent and believe.
  There is strong "Reformed" Baptist        committee that handed in the report              Accordingly, the  PRC  prleach
  leanings amongst some of the mem-         to the Home Missions Committee of           Christ to all persons promiscuously
  bers. Some expressed to us that they                                                  and without distinction to whom God
held to the Baptist position of             the RCUS, or of the Home Missions
  believer'sbaptismasopposed toCov-         Committee that delivered the report         in His good pleasure sends the gospel
  enantBaptism....Thereisalsoahyper-        to the synod of the RCUS, whose             by them. They present Christ to all as
  Calvinist influence, coming from          name appears in the "1992 Abstract."        the only way of salvation. They ur-
  Protestant Reformed and Strict Bap-            The PRC reject the charge that         gently call all to repent and believe,
  tist (British) teaching.                  their theology is hyper-Calvinism.          promising those who do believe that
                                            These Churches repudiate hyper-cal-         they shall be saved. They engage in
After speaking of the group's "exclu-       vinism as a deviation from the Re-          evangelism at home and in missions
sive singing of psalms," the report         formed faith.                               at home and abroad.
continues:                                       Hyper-Calvinism is the denial               Why then does the RCUS label
                                            that, in the preaching of the gospel,       the PRC as hyper-Calvinists?
  Considering the strengthsand weak-        God calls the unregenerated sinner to            The PRC do indeed firmly be-
  nesses of this group, the sub-com-        repent of his sins and to believe in        lieve, and boldly confess, that the
  mittee does not believe it should join    Christ. The grounds given for this          sovereign grace of the Holy Spirit
  the RCUS now.... We believe that                                                      works through and with the preach-
  this Fellowship must conform its          denial by genuine hyper-Calvinists
  doctrine and practice to those cur-       are, first, that Christ did not die for     ing of the gospel irresistibly to draw
  rent in the RCUS. This is particularly    the reprobate unregenerate and, sec-        some particular persons to Christ in
  tmeconcerninghyper-Calvinismand           ond, that the unregenerated sinner is       distinction from others. The grace of
  Psalm-singing("l992 Abstract" of the      unable to obey the call, since he is        God in the preaching is particular.
  RCUS, p. 35).                             totally depraved.                           Scripture makes a sharp distinction
                                                 The practical consequence of the       between the external call that comes
     I refrain from commenting on           erroristhatahyper-Calvinisticchurch         to all who hear and the internal call,
the allegation that exclusive singing       restricts the preaching of the gospel to    which alone is saving, that God ex-
of the Psalms in worship constitutes a      the regenerated elect. Particularly,        tends only to some (cf. Matt.  22:14;
"weakness."                                 the call of the gospel, "Believe on         Rom.8:30;CanonsofDordt,I/6;11/7;
     The charge of hyper-Calvinism          Jesus Christ," is limited to those who      III,IV/10ff.).
grieves the PRC.                            show election by giving evidence of              Is this our hyper-Calvinism in
     It grieves us that ministers and       regeneration. Such a church rules out       the mind of the RCUS?
elders on the Home Missions Com-            the possibility of missions.                     The PRC firmly believe also, and
mittee regard us as hyper-Calvinists.            In keeping with the Reformed           unashamedly confess, that this dis-
It grieves us that the synod of the         tradition and in harmony with the           tinction which God Himself makesin
RCUS, at the very least, countenances       Reformed confessions, the PRC teach         the preaching between hearer and
and spreads this accusation. It grieves     that the external call of the gospel        hearer is due to God's eternalpredes-
us that members of the RCUS, read-          must go out to all without distinction.     tination. God draws certain persons
ing the fi 1992 Abstract," will conclude    God wills it. In the preaching of the       to Christ by sovereign, particular grace
that the PRC are undoubtedly hyper-         gospel, God Himself calls, or sum-          because He eternally chose them in
Calvinists and, therefore, beyond the       mons, or commands, all who are in           Christ unto salvation. The others,
pale. It grieves us that men and            the audience, unregenerated as well         although they are outwardly called
women outside the RCUS who may              as regenerated, reprobate as well as        by God, seriously called, Godleavesin
read the "1992 Abstract" will con-          elect, to repent of their sins and to       their unbelief and depravity, and even
clude that it is an established fact in     believe on His Son, Jesus Christ. In        hardens, according toHis eternalrep-
the Reformed community that the             this external call, God is serious (cf.     robation of them (cf. Acts 13:48;  Rom.
PRC are hyper-Calvinists. It grieves        Matt. 22:1-14;Mark  16:15;  Acts 17:30;     9:14-23).
us most of all that a Reformed church       Canons of Dordt, 11/5;  III,IV/8,9).             Does this make the PRC h.yper-
condemns the theology of the Canons              Neither the truth that Christ did      Calvinists in the thinking of the RCUS?
of Dordt (for this is what the theology     not die for some who are externally              Surely the RCUS did not intend
of the PRC is) as hyper-Calvinism.          called (the reprobate) nor the truth        to besmirch the PRC with a veiled
     I ask that a spokesman for the         that they are unable to comply with         accusation of antinomism, an evil
RCUS inform us what the RCUS un-            the call by believing (for they are         sometimes associated with hyper-
derstood by hyper-Calvinism in the          totally depraved) detracts in the           Calvinism. Antinomism is rejection

                                                                                          September 1,1992 I Standard Bearer / 463


of the law of God as the rule of life for       diligence of the PRC to discipline             In the world, among the unjust,
the redeemed. In humility before                impenitent transgressors.                 condemnation requires a hearing and
God, I may say (the RCUS having                      Nevertheless, the RCUS labels       the producing of evidence.
forced me to speak as a fool) that the          the PRC hyper-Calvinists.                      All the more is this the require-
Reformed world in North America                      Why?                                ment of brotherliness between
knows of the zeal that the PRC have                  The RCUS ought to demonstrate        churches alike professing to be Re-
for the "third use of the law," that is,        the charge.                               formed.  ~1
the holy life of the saints, and of the                                                                                 -- DJE



Letters                                                                                  I Asked the Lord

                                                                             I asked the Lord that I might grow
                                                                                 In faith, and love, and every grace,
 4 Continuing Dialog on Mysticism                                            Might more of His salvation know,
                                                                                 And seek more earnestly His face.
      Concemingl'rof.  Hanko'sreview of my book,
Mysticism: An Evangelical Option?, in the De-                                `Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
cember  1, 1991 Standard  ,Bearer,  I do want to                                 And He, I trust, has answered prayer;
thank you for your analysis and your good com-                               But it has been in such a way
ments. You appear to have caught the gist of                                     As almost drove me to despair.
much of what I am trying to communicate, and I
appreciate your endorsement of those ideas.
      You correctly observe that I do not define                             I hoped that in some favoured hour
faith "carefully," in this study; in fact, I do not                              At once He'd answer my request;
define it at all in the book. Having read your                               And, by His love's constraining power,
comments, I do wish I had, but, just as I did not                                Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
specify my Christology or soteriology in all re-
spects, Ididnot realize the need to be more careful                          Instead of this, He made me feel
to work out my understanding of faith in this                                    The hidden evils of my heart,
context. I certainly find the notion of faith as a                           And let the angry powers of hell
&Zing as hair-raising as you do. I would agree                                   Assault my soul in every part.
with you completely that faith is a matter of trust
and assent (cf. my comments in  Handmaid to
Theology, Baker, 1981, pp. 71-75); feelings are just                         Yea, more, with His own hand He seemed
feelings  - sometimes God gives them, some-                                      Intent to aggravate my woe,
times he does not; feelings are not faith, and can                           Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
never be such.                                                                   Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
     If you will double-check my statements of
disparagement of a  purely rational Christianity,                            "Lord, why is this?" I trembling cried,
the contrast is not to a Christianity based on                                   ti Wil t Thou pursue Thy worm to
feelings without rational basis, but to the work of                                 death?"
God in our lives apart from mediation by any of                              "`Tis in this way," the Lord replied,
our faculties at all. My point is that, once we have                             "I answer prayer for grace and faith.
received Christ by faith, He works in our lives
directly as agent  - sometimes apart from our
cognition, let alone from our feelings. I don't                              "These inward trials I employ,
know if that strikes you as more orthodox; I                                     From self and pride to set thee free,
realize it may not. I would enjoy continuing to                              And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
dialog with you on this matter.                                                  That thou mayest seek thy all in Me."
                              (Dr.) Wi$Gd Corduan
            Professor of Philosophy and Religion                                                    John Nezutoq  1725-1807
                                   Taylor University
                                             Upland, IN

464 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1992


A Cloud Of                                  Ulrich Zwingli:
Witnesses                                   Swiss Reformer (2)
Prof. Herman Hanko

(Note: In the last article, we began to          The first disputation in Zurich                 With the Reformation firmly es-
discuss Zwingli'sworkasa reformer.  We      ended in a complete victory for                tablished in Zurich, it quickly spread
continue that discussion now.)              Zwingli and his fellow reformers, and          to  other parts of Switzerland.  From
                                            the Council instructed Zwingli "to             Zurich it spread to Glarus,  Schaff-
Zwingli the Reformer                        continue to preach the holy gospel as          hausen, Appenzell, and the city of St.
     The Reformation spread through         heretofore, and to  procIaim  the true,        Gall. The spread continued when the
Switzerland in a way different from         divine Scriptures."                            leading canton of Bern adopted Ref-
the spread of the Reformation in any             Just prior to the disputation,            ormation principles and proceeded
other land. Upon a petition from a          Zwingli had published 67 articles of           to introduce them into the cantons of
reformer or a group of reformers, the       faith. This document is an important           Vaud,  Neuchstel and Geneva  -
ruling Council of a Swiss city would        historical document because it con-            where Calvin was later to do his great
order a disputation to which the pub-       stitutes the earliest declaration of the       work. In every case the Reformation
lic was invited. Reformers and  Ro-         Reformed faith. A few articles will            came by way of a leading reformer
manCatholictheologianswouldcarry            indicate some of the basic beliefs of          working closely with Zwingli, and by
on the disputation by debating a spe-       Zwingli.                                       a Disputation ordered by the Coun-
cific matter of reform. In every in-                                                       cil. Of interest are the ten theses or
stance where a disputation was held,             All tiho say that the gospel is           Conclusions adopted as a confession
the Council in charge made the rule           nothing without the approbation of           of faith in Bern. They read in part:
that the disputation had to be con-           the Church, err and cast reproach
ducted on the basis of the Scriptures         upon God.                                          The holy Christian Church,
                                                 The sum of the gospel is that our
alone. This put the Roman Catholics                                                          `whose only Head is Christ, is born of
                                              Lord Jesus Christ, the'true Son of
at a decided disadvantage, for there                                                         the Word of God, and abides in ,the
                                              God, has made known to us the will             same . . . .
                                              of his heavenly Father, andredeemed                The Church of Christ makes no
                                              us by his innocence from eternal               laws and commandments without
     "Christ is the only way                  death, and reconciled us to God.               the Word of God....
            to salvation                          Therefore Christ is the only way                Christ is the only wisdom, righ-
                                              to salvation to all who were, who are,
   to all who were, who are,                                                                 teousness, redemption, and satisfac-
                                              who shall be.                                  tionfor the sins of the whole world....
   who shall be." -Zwingli                        Christ is the head of all believers             The mass as now in use, in which
                                              who are his body; but without him              ChristisofferedtoGodtheFatherfor
                                              the body is dead.                              the sins of the living and the dead, is
                                                  All who live in this Head are his
were very few theologians of note                                                            contrary to the Scripture. . . .
                                              members and children of God. And
who knew anything about the Scrip-                                                                As Christ alone died for us, so he
                                              this is the Church, the communion of
tures, while the reformers had stud-                                                         is also to be adored as the only Me-
                                              saints, the bride of Christ, the Ecclesia      diator and Advocate between God
ied them intensely. Further, it is obvi-      catholica.                                     the Father and the believers.
ous to any one that those  Romish                 Christ isour righteousness. From                Scripture knows nothing of pur-
practices against which the Reform-           this it follows that our works are             gatory....
ers protested simply cannot be sup-           good so far as they are Christ's, but               The worship of images is con-
ported by Scripture in any way.               not good so far as they are our own.           trary to Scripture.
                                                                                                  All to the glory of God and his
                                                  These truths are now veryfamil-            holy Word.
                                            iar to us, but if one will only think of
                                            writing them in the context of 1000                   The high water markof the Swiss
                                            years of papal error, it will give him a       Reformation was reached in 1530
Prof. Hank0 is projessor  of Church His-    sense of how great a workof God was            when Zurich, Bern, Base1 and most of
tory and New Testament in the Protes-       performed in the Reformation.                  north and east Switzerland were  Re-
tant Reformed Seminary.
                                                                                             September 1,1992 / Standard Bearer I465


formed and no longer Roman Catho-            Zwingli and the Swiss who  w,orked         lit. One Protestant was even burned
lic.                                         with him.                                  alive. To relieve their oppressed and
        Two important events, in addi-            The other event of note was the       martyred brethren, the Protestant
tion to his reformatory work, belong         Marburg Colloquy, held in the city of      cantons were prepared to go to war
to this period in Zwingli's life.            Marburgin1529.  Becauseofthethreat         with the Roman Catholic country-
        The first was the controversy        of a united Roman Catholicism and          men, forgetting the words of Jesus
with the Anabaptists.                        the armies of Charles V, the Elector of    Himself: "They that fight with the
        Anabaptism arose in Zurich           Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse          sword, perish with the sword."
during Zwingli's work there. It was a        wanted to unite all the Protestants in           The story is quickly told. In 1529
grievous threat to the well-being of         a common cause. To accomplish this,        the Roman Catholics were in no mili-
the Reformation, for it was not only a       the differences between Lutheranism        tary shape to wage war and  so sued
doctrinal departure from the truth of        and the Swiss theologians had to be        for peace. Zwingli urged strongly
Scripture, but it was, in some branches      taken away. The  Marburg Colloquy          against peace and gloomily predicted
of the movement, a radical move-             was called for this purpose.               that if the Protestants did not take the
ment opposed to the authority of the              Luther, Melanchthon, and other        opportunity to fight the Roman Catho-
magistrate and intent on setting up a        German theologians were there.             lics when victory was almost assured,
kingdom of heaven upon earth.'               Zwingliand his colleaguesin the Swiss      they would eventually lose. He
Zwingli and his followers were               reformation were there. Calvin did         proved to  ,be right.
fiercely opposed to Anabaptism, as           not come. It did not take very long to           The Roman Catholics used the
well they might be. But the secular          discover that the reformers from Ger-      peace given to strengthen themselves
magistracy, in cooperation with the          many and Switzerland were agreed           and prepare for war. A blockade,
Reformers,         persecuted         the    on all matters except the doctrine of      imposed on the Roman Catholicprov-
Anabaptists severely, banishingthem,         the presence of Christ in the Lord's       inces by the Protestants, and which
imprisoning them, and in some in-            Supper- the Lutherans maintaining          caused much suffering and even star-
stances, drowning them. Anabaptism           their view of consubstantiation, and       vation, goaded the Roman Catholics
continued to be a threat to the Refor-       the Swiss maintaining their position.      to go to war in 1531. In this battle the
mation throughout the rest of the 16th       Luther was harsh and unyielding. A         Protestants were decisively defeated,
century.                                     story has it that he wrote in the dust     and Zwingli, who had insisted on
                                             on the table in front of him: "This is.    going along with his troops as their
                                             mybody," so that he would not forget       chaplain, was killed.
        God uses the struggles               his insistence that the real body and            Zwingli was stoopingto console
        and trials of the church             blood of Christ were present in the        a dying soldier w-hen he was struck
               for good.                     sacramental elements.                      on the head with a stone. He man-
                                                  When agreement proved irnpos-         aged to rise once more, but repeated
                                             sible, the Swiss delegates wanted to       blows and a thrust from a lance left
                                             extend the hand of fellowship to the       him dying. Seeing his wounds, he
        As always, God uses the              German theologians, but were re-           cried out: "What matters this misfor-
struggles and trials of the church for       buffed with the cold and cutting re-       tune? They may kill the body, but
good. Though Anabaptism was a                mark of Luther: "Your spirit is differ-    they cannot kill the soul." For the rest
serious threat to the Reformation, it        ent from ours." Even Zwingli's tear-       of the day he lay under a pear tree,
was the immediate occasion for the           ful expression of respect and love for     hands folded as in prayer and eyes
Swiss reformers to begin the develop-        Luther could gain little more from the     fixed upon heaven. Towards evening
ment of covenant theology. In de-            unbending reformer than a brief ex-        a few stragglers of the victorious army
fense of the truth of infant baptism         pression of regret that he had some-       asked him to confess his sins to a
over against Anabaptism, the great           times spoken overly harshly.               priest. He shook his head to indicate
truth of the covenant was set forth by            Unity among Protestants  ~was         his refusal. But after a bit one of the
ZwingliandlaterbyotherSwisstheo-             impossible.                                men, in the light of his torch, recog-
logians. We who so deeply cherish                                                       nized him and killed him with the
the truth of the covenant do not look,       Zwingli's  Death                           sword, shouting,  !`Die, obstinate  her-
in the first place, to Calvin as our              It is not difficult to understand     etic!"2
spiritual father in this doctrine, but to    that the Roman Catholics were not                The soldiers, joyful at his death,
                                             about to see Switzerland become en-        quartered his body for treason,
                                             tirely Protestant without some kind
`For more information on the                 of opposition.
Anabaptists, cf. the special Reforma-             This opposition began by severe
tion Day issue of the Standard Bearer        persecution of Protestants in those        2See Schaff, H~s~o~J  of the Christian
of October 15,199l.                          cantons thatremainedRomanCatho-            Chrrrch for details.

466 /Standard Bearer I September 1,1992


burned the pieces for heresy, mixed        phasized strongly the truth of sover-            And, in his opposition to Romish
the ashes with the ashes of pigs, and      eign and eternal predestination and         masses, he went to the opposite ex-
scattered them to the four winds.          preached it from the pulpit. He cor-        treme and taught that the Lord's Sup-
     So died one of God's faithful         rectly and vigorously opposed all the       per is nothing but a memorial feast,
witnesses.                                 Romish practices contrary to Scrip-         and that Christ's presence in thebread
     The spread of the Reformation         ture. He was instrumental in laying         and wine are not different from the
in Switzerland was halted.                 the foundation for the beginnings of        presence of one we love whosephoto-
                                           covenant theology.                          graph we cherish and by which pho-
Zwingli's Importance                            But, on the other hand, he never       tograph we remember our loved one,
     Zwingli was, in some respects,        quite shook free from his humanism.         but who has, nevertheless, gone on to
an anomaly. On the one hand, he was        He held to the end his notion that          heaven.
a reformer faithful to the Scriptures.     heathen men of renown could be                   Ulrich Zwingli's place in the
He insisted on the sole authority of       saved. He taught that all children in       Reformation was to prepare the way
Scripture before Luther raised his         the world who  die-in infancy go to         for a purification of the Reformation
voicein  Scripture's defense. He taught    heaven. And he continued to his last        in Switzerland where Calvinism fi-
emphaticallysalvationinChristalone         breath to admire Erasmus, that hu-          nally developed and flourished.  0
and in His perfect sacrifice. He em-       manistic enemy of the Reformation.



                                           Grades and  .'
In His Fear
Mr. Fred Hanko                             Report Cards
     So here it's report card time         dent had a disconcerting way of being       among the students in the quantity of
again. This is a hard time for teachers    average in only a single or a few           material that they have learned. In
(ignoring for the moment that it's         subjects and non-average in others,         the higher grades, then, the perfor-
also, often, a hard time for parents       or even of being average at one time        mance of the students is measured
andstudents.) It'snotjust that there's     and not at others.                          more easily and accurately in per-
a lot of work connected with averag-            Letter grades below C are rela-        cents which are translated into letter
ingall those numbers so that I can put     tively rare for  ~primary and elemen-       grades.
all those letters on the cards. What       tary students.  .This is due to the fact         Some parents wqnder why their
makes it hard is all the concern that      that the material in those grades is        child, who received consistently high
goes along with those little letters.      taught for mastery. The intention is        marks in the primary grades,  nlow
Every teacher wants to make those          that every student learn the skill or       receives lower marks. This is often
letters as fair and honest a reflection    the facts being taught. In those grades     due to the fact that the teaching is no
as possible of the performance of the      the teacher can't be satisfied until        longer being done for mastery of all
student.                                   every student has learned how to            students. Nearly all students receive
     Theletter grade system was origi-     read and every student has learned          grades of C or. higher in the lower
nally set up with the intent that the      the addition facts or the multiplica-       grades, while the distribution is
letter C represented the performance       tion tables. Since every student should     broader in the higher grades.
of the average student when he was         havemastered thematerial, the grades             Somewouldsay,"Whynotteach
working well. This sounds really           represent the ease of mastery and           for mastery in all grades? Why not
good in theory, but has not worked         somewhat the degree-of mastery.             teach so that everybody, regardless
out so well in practice. Part of the            When the student moves into            of ability, can get an A if he works
problem is that of identifying the av-     middle school, his grades are more          hard." Good as it sounds, there are
erage student. Then the average  stu-      nearly a reflection of the degree of        several reasons why this doesn't work
                                           skill he has attained or the percentage     very well. One important  reason  is
                                           of the facts that he has mastered.          that we would have to progress much
                                           Mastery is still necessary as far as        more slowly than we do now and
Mr. Hanko is a teacher at Hope Protes-     possible in mathematics and in at           wouldteachmuchlessmaterial. While
tant Reformed School in Grand Rapids,      least certain areas of the other sub-       this might be nice for the slower stu-
Michigan.                                  jects, but we expect more variation         dents, the average and more able stu-

                                                                                         September 1,1992 I Standard Bearer i 467


 dents would not receive the educa-         havinggreatintelligence.Hereported          n other activities as well. Chances
 tion they are able to master. Then         proudly to all others that he "never        Ire that such students have attitudes
 these students would be short-             cracked a book." He often laughed at        .s well that will make their abilities
 changed. Another reason that low-          those who worked hard; he was per-          useful to themselves and to the com-
 ered standards would not work is           fectly content with the  better-than-       nunity of believers.
 that all students would work even          average grades he could get by work-            The point of all this is that we
 less. I have tried a number of times to    ing  aslittle  as possible. Proud of his    iced to adjust our own attitudles and
 teach some material more slowly and        abilities as if he had received them        ,alues toward the performance of
 spend more time in explanation and         because of his superior qualities, he       lur children and the marks that are
 practice. I have found that there is       could boast of his intelligence bu t was    iven to indicate that performance.
 very little difference in the distribu-    unable to show any accomplishments          Ve need to get rid of several false
 tion of grades. Because the work was       resultingfromit. Hegot"goodmarks"           leas: "My marks show that I am
 easier, everybody worked less, and         in school, but his teachers had no          etter than you are." "He gets good
 most learned even less than before.        pleasure in giving them to him.             larks. The teachermustlike him." "I
      I think it's important that the             Oh,Ihaveknownafewstudents             ot these bad marks because the
 grades we give students have real          who were especially talented bu t were      ?acher doesn't like me." And we
 meaning and are not given just to          yet able to escape the snares of pride      eed to promote proper attitudes  to-
 make students feel good. The stu-          or laziness. They were willing to           vard grades. A student's grades are
 dents themselves are quick enough to       work hard beyond the demands of             LO indication of his value as a person.
 recognize cheap grades and to take         assignments they could handle eas-          Good grades" are any grades that
 advantage of them. Giving everyone         ily. They recognized the fact that          re the result of the student's best
good marks only devalues the marks          from those to whom much is given            fforts. A student's abilities are a
and, like the devaluation of currency,      much is also required. They have            leasure of his responsibilities rather
makes them worthless. Both students         been willing to devote their talents to     nan of his importance. CI
and parents are entitled to know ex-        thebenefit of the people of God, Such
actly what the students' performance        people are rare. My experience has
is as compared to others. It is impor-      been that those who are rich in tal-
tanttotheminmakingdecisionsabout            ents, like those who are rich in mate-                    The
their future in advanced education or       rialpossessions,hardlyentertheKing-
career. Because the devaluation of          dom of Heaven.                                Standard Bearer
grades has happened in some grade
schools and high schools, it has been                                                    will be sent, free,
done in some colleges as well. Soon                   "Good grades"
the diplomas become meaningless.                are any grades that are                              to all
      The greatest problem of all with
marks and report cards comes from              the result of the studen  t's              college students
the fact that we don't interpret cor-                   best efforts.                      who are living
rectly their meaning and don't use
them properly. Consider some oE these                                                   away from home.
cases from the past:                             I have known many students
      There was a student who was           who have worked hard to get the                    Send name
extremely intelligent. He rarely got        grades they have received. They have
any grade lower than a straight A and       been diligent in their efforts to gain            and address
became quite upset when it did occur.       the knowledge and skills they have
Looking with pride upon his own             been taught. Because they have been                 at college
abilities, he gave me no pleasure from      diligent, they have also learned valu-                  to the
the "good" marks he received. He            able habits of regular study, organi-
was greatly admired by his parents          zation, and effort. Some of them               business office
and relatives who reported with awe         having average abilities have earned
to all who would listen the young           better-than-average grades. Some,                    of the SB
man's distinguished college career.         having lesser abilities, have worked
The last I heard of him he had left the     very hard just to earn passing grades.                   for a
church and was determined to gain           Whatever grades such students get,
wealth and fame in the world. The           those are good grades, indicating that        complimentary
church of God will not benefit from         they have learned not only the things            subscription.
his great intelligence.                     they have been taught but also the
     I knew another young man also          habits that will make them successful

466 /Standard Bearer / September 1,1992


                                                   Prayer at the
Decency and Order                                  Assemblies
Rev. Ron Cammenga


         The proceedings of all assemblies     combined the two opening prayers            of the church, Jesus Christ. In Psalm
shall begin by calling upon the name of        and added the provision for a closing       127:l we are reminded that "Except
God and be closed with thanksgiving.           prayer of thanksgiving. Our present         theLordbuild the house, theylaborin
                Church Order, Article 32       Article 32 is essentially the provision     vain that build it." In James 1:5 we are
                                               adopted by Middelburg.                      exhorted, "If any of you lack wisdom
An Article of Long Standing                                                                (and we all do by nature), let him ask
         Article 32 calls for prayer at the    Prayer at  "All Assemblies"                 of God, that giveth to all  meln  liber-
beginning and conclusion of all eccle-              Officebearers must be men of           ally, and upbraideth not; and it shall
siastical assemblies. This kind of ar-         prayer. They must be men of prayer          be given." According to Acts 1~24, at
ticle has had a place in Reformed              in their personal lives; they must be       the time that the apostles chose a
church orders as far back as that              men of prayer especially in their work      successor to JudasIscariot,beforethey
adopted by the Synod of  Emden in              in the office of Christ. No minister can    cast their lots, they first offered up
1571:                                          carry out the work of the ministry          prayer to God.
                                               apart from prayer and being constant             But then we must be sure that
  When they have thus gathered, the            in prayer. No elder can rule in the         such prayers are very consciously
  minister of that place, or if there is       church of Jesus Christ without  con-        made in the awareness that without
  none, the one who presided in the            tinuallybetakinghimself to the throne       the Lord's blessing the proceedings
  last meeting, shall lead in prayer to
  choose a president, and a vice presi-        of God's grace for the strength and         of our assemblies cannot prosper.
  dent, and a clerk. The president,            wis,dom to carry out the duties of his      Such  prayers must never become a
  having been chosen, shall lead in            office. No deacon can engage in the         matter of mere custom, the mere fol-
  prayer concerning the whole                  workand make the difficult decisions        lowing of a rule.
  agenda....                                   that deacons must make without re-               The "assemblies" referred to by
                                               ceiving God's grace and guidance            the article would include the meet-
The Church Order of Emden called               through prayer.                             ings of the consistory. Consistory
for two prayers at the  .beginning  of              Asmuchasitisnecessaryforthe            meetings must be opened and ended
every major assembly. There was to             individual officebearers to pray, so        with prayer. This would also apply to
be an opening prayer, either by the            much is it also necessary that the          the elders' meetings and the deacons'
minister of the convening church or,           assemblies of officebearers pray. The       meetings. Of the deacons' meetings,
in case the church were vacant, by the         work of the assemblies is too great!        this is specifically required in Church
last president, which prayer should            The responsibilities of the assemblies      Order,  Article40: "The deacons shall
be offered with a view to the election         too solemn! The delegates at the            meet, wherever necessary, every week
of officers. After the election of offic-      assemblies too weak!                        to transact the business pertaining to
ers, the newly chosen president was                 The reason why our Cln1rc1z Or-        their office, calling upon the Name of
to lead the assembly in prayer once            derincludesanarticlerequiringprayer         God...." Article 32 would also have
again, this time asking Gods blessing          at the assemblies is to create an aware-    application to thelocal  congregational
on the assembly's work. The Synod              ness that the ecclesiastical assemblies     m e e t i n g s .
of Emden said nothing about a clos-            must labor in conscious dependence               Included in the "assemblies"
ing prayer of thanksgiving.                    upon God. The ecclesiastical assem-         would also be the`broader  ecclesiasti-
         The Synod of Middelburg, 1581,        blies are not mere business meetings,       cal assemblies:  classis and synod.
                                               gatherings of the executives of some
                                               earthly corporation. The assemblies         The Nature of these Prayers
                                               are the meeting of the officebearers of          Generally, the prayers offered
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of the Protes-         Christ's church. The assemblies are         up at our assemblies are free prayers,
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,              met to do the workof Christ's church.       that is, they are prayers prayed ex-
Colorado.                                      As such, they depend upon the Head          temporaneously. Nevertheless, it is

                                                                                            September 1,1992 I Standard Bearer I469


significant  that  liturgical prayers  have      and may engage in public worship.          vine guidance and blessing. It is
been written for the ecclesiastical as-          Thou hast also been present with           proper that at the conclusion of the
semblies. The Psalter  Hymnal in-                Thy Holy Spirit in our assembly,           meetings gratitude be expressed to
cludes opening and closing prayers               guiding our deliberations according        God for granting these.
                                                 to Thy will, and binding our hearts
for the assemblies that date back to             together in mutual peace and unity.
the time of the Reformation.                        Wilt Thou, 0 faithful God and           Bible Reading, Singing,  Devotional
                                                 Father, graciously bless the efforts       Addresses, and Sermons
          Opening Prayer for                     that we purpose to put forth, and               Article 32 does not say anything
      Ecclesiastical Assemblies                  wilt Thou finish in power the work         about Bible reading, singing, devo-
     Heavenly Father,. eternal and               which Thou hastbegun. Continue to          tional addresses, or sermons. This
  merciful God: It has pleased Thee              gather unto Thyself a true Church,         does not mean, of course, that these
  according to Thy infinite wisdom               and causeit to preserve the purity of      things have no place at our ecclesias-
  and lovingkindness to gather a                 doctrine; guide it in the proper use of    tical gatherings. None of them may
  Church unto Thy self out of the                the holy sacraments; and' inspire it       take the place of prayer, but along
peoples of all the earth, and to gov-            with zeal for the maintenance of
  ern Thy Church through the service             church purity.                             with prayer these also have their place.
  of men. Thou hast graciously called               Bring to nought all wicked and               Certainly, Scripture ought to be
  us to this office of government, and           subtle counsels that are devised           read, and there ought to be singing of
  hast enjoined us to watch over our-            against Thy Word and Church. Give          the Psalms at appropriate times. There
  selves and to bestow due`care upon             strength to. all whom Thou hast            is also a place for devotional addresses
  theflockwhichChristpurchasedwith`            placedinauthorityoverThy Church,             at the beginning of the  classis meet-
  His precious blood.                            to the end that they may preach Thy.       ings. Classis West of our churches
     We are now assembled in this                Word in faithfulness and steadfast-                                   `.
                                                                                            carries on this tradition, with thepresi-
  place in Thy holy Name, in order to            ness.                                      dent of the previous  classis deliver-
  deal, after the fashion of the apos-              Strengthen the civil magistrates
  tolic churches, with such matters as           ofThypeople,in order that they may         ing the address. Over the years these
  shallcome before us and concern the            wield thesword of worldly power in         addresses have been greatly appreci-
  edification and welfare of Thy                 justice and with wise restraint. In        ated and they served well to set the
  churches, agreeably to our office. We          particular do we pray for the civil        proper tone for the meetings. These
  confess that we are unworthy and               rulers, both higher and lower offic-       addresses ought not, of course, to be
  unable of ourselves to acconiplish             ers of government, whomThou hast           overly long and ought to be appropri-
  any good thing. We beseech Thee,               been pleased to appoint over us. We        ate to the ecclesiastical gathering.
  therefore, faithful God and Father,            commend unto Thee especially the                The "Rules of Order For the
  that, in accordance with Thy prom-             esteemed council of this city. Grant       Synod of the Protestant Reformed
  ise, Thou wilt abide in the midst of           that their rule may be entirely di-
 , the present assembly through Thy              rected toward the supremacy of the         Churches in AmeTica" state: "On the
  Holy Spirit, and that He may lead us           King of kings over rulers and ruled        Tuesday evening preceding the open-
  into all the truth.                            alike.` May through their labors the       ing of Synod a prayer service, in charge
      Remove all misunderstandings               shameful and wicked dominion of            of the convening Consistory, shall be
  and guard us against the influence of          Satan be increasingly disturbed and        held in the city'in which Synod is to
  our sinful hearts. Grant that Thy              broken down. May it be given unto          meet. The members of Synod are
  Word may be our only rule and stan-            us to lead a quiet and peaceable life      expected to attend this service in a
  ,dard, in order that our deliberations         in all godliness and gravity.              body" (Article  1,4).
  may redound to the glory of Thy                    Hear us, 0 God and Father,
  Name, the edification of Thy                   through Thy dear Son, Jesus Christ,
  churches, and the peace of our own             who with Thee and the Holy Spirit,         Pre-service Prayers in Consistory
  consciences.                                   the only true God, is worthy of eter-            Article 32 does not prescribepre-
      This we askin the Name of Christ           nal praise and glory. AMEN.                worship service prayers within the
  Jesus, Thy Son, who with Thee and                                                         consistory, as is the tradition of the
  the Holy Spirit, the only and true                 Notice ought to be paid'to the         .Reformed  churches. Nevertheless,
  God, is deserving of eternal praise          specific language of Article 32. The         this is a worthy tradition.
  and glory. AMEN.                             proceedings are to begin "by calling              This practice dates from the time
                                               upon the name of God." This is to be         of the  Afscheiding of 1834. During
          Closing Prayer for                   a prayer of  sup$lication.  Its purpose      the days of this secession movement
      Ecclesiastical Assemblies                is to implore God's guidance of the          in The Netherlands, congregational
      Lord God, heavenly Father, we            assembly in all the issues it must face      worship was often disrupted by gov-
  thank Thee from our hearts that it                                                        ernment or by antagonistic citizens,.
  pleases Thee to gather a Church in           .and in all the decisions it must make.
  our land and to employ our services          The proceedings shall be closed "with        Consistories began to feel the need for
  to that end. Thou dost graciously so         thanksgiving." This is fitting since         asking God's protection and blessing
  order all things that we can preach          the proceedings begin by asking  Di-         of the worship services, praying in
  the gospel without any hindrance                                                          particular for the needs of the  minis-

470  /Standard Bearer I September 1,1992


ter. In The Netherlands the serving        tory prayers. Occasionally the  pre-        minister that he may be  givlen the
elder, that is, the elder who would        service consistory prayers take on the      strength to lead the worship service
lead the minister up to the pulpit, led    form of mini-congregational prayers;        and preach the Word in truth to the
also thepre-serviceconsistoryprayer.       an attempt is made to bring all the         edification of the congregation. Sup-
      We continue to follow this tradi-    needs of the congregation before the        plication ought to be made for the
tion in our own Protestant Reformed        throne of God in prayer. This is not        consistory especially in its supervi-
Churches. These prayers are gener-         the time or the place for that kind of      sion of the Word. Supplicationought
ally offered up by the officebearers       prayer. The pre-service consistory          to be made for the congregation that
according to rotation.                     prayer ought to be brief and to the         the worship given be in Spirit and in
      From time to time complaints         point. God's blessing ought to be           truth and that all have open ears to
are heard concerning the length and        sought on the worship service. Sup-         receive the preaching of the gospel. 0
content of these pre-service  consis-      plication ought to be made for the





                                           School Choice
Church and Stat&
Mr. James Lanting                           Gains Momentum

Public Funds and Private Education         concept. Distributed to parents, these      lutionize public education in America.
     Ever since theBush Administra-        vouchers would be used at the school        Although such predictions may be
tion unveiled its "America 2000" pro-      of the parents' choice, including pri-      exaggerated, it is clear that support
gram in the spring of 1991, the  na-       vate and parochial schools, thereby         for the concept of school choice is
tional debate over "school choice"         potentially funneling billions in tax       growing.
has been escalating rapidly. In fact,      money to private and parochial
many are predicting that school choice     schools. These "choice in education"        Choice Legislation
will soon eclipse abortion as the most     proposals have fostered intense de-                  In addition, since 1991 over thirty
controversial political, social, and       bate over the church/state issues           states have introduced choicebills in
church/state issue of this decade.         raised whenever government tax              their legislatures. Although few if
     Engendered by growing frus-           monies are channeled into private           any of these bills have become law,
tration with the nation's notoriously      and parochial institutions.                 choice advocates are increasingly
inept public school monopoly,-school                                                   optimistic that many states will soon
choice was originally conceived to         Impetus  From Wisconsin                     adopt some kind of voucher legisla-
foster healthy competition between            The choice movement `gained              tion.. Indeed, state legislation maybe
public schools by eliminating resi-        some momentum this past spring              more likely than federal funding, since
dency requirements and permitting          when the Wisconsin supreme court            Congress has frustrated the Bush ad-
parents to choose the best public          ruled that Milwaukee's "Parental            ministration by rejecting two recent
school for their children. More re-        Choice Program" passed constitu-            modestattemptstoaddprivateschool
cently, however, school choice has         tional scrutiny, even though it allows      voucher plans to pending education
become identified with Education           inner-city children to use state funds      bills. Both theHouseandSenatehave
Secretary Lamont Alexander's pro-          to attend private, "non-sectarian"          as yet resisted the voucher con'cept in
posal to revive the tuition voucher        schools. This landmark decision             President Bush's America 200 pro-
                                           marks the first time a high court has       gram.
                                           allowed poor families to use state                   Nonetheless, theDepartment  of
                                           .education  money to send their chil-       Education has recently announced
                                           dren to non-public schools.                 that it will continue to promote a
                                                Some of the proponents of the          "full-choice program" and predicted
Mr. Lanting,  a member ofSouth Holland     Milwaukee program predicted that            that 1993 will promise to be a good
Protestant Reformed Church, is a prac-     this court victory will create a nation-    year for the President's education
ticing attorney.                           wide grassroots movement to  revb-          plan.

                                                                                        September I,1992 I Standard Bearer I471


The Edison Project                          ernmental establishment of religion          zensforExcellenceinEducation(CEE)
      Moreover, in the private sector,      -a breach of the traditional "wall of        also recently warned that Bush's
the concept of school choice gained         separation" betweenchurchandstate.           Choice program may well bring non-
considerable credibility early this               Additional opposition is being         public schools under unwanted gov-
summer when  Benno Schmidt, the             raised by the public educational es-         ernment scrutiny. In contrast, CEE
President of Yale University, resigned      tablishment (such as the National            boldly called for a voucher system
his position to head up the Edison          Education Association), which argues         devoid of government control or su-
Project. The Edison Project is a  for-      that the demise of the existing public       pervision.
profit business venture which envi-         school system will result in greater              This issue  - whether tuition
sions ownership and operation of a          inequities for the poor and racial mi-       vouchers will inevitably be accompa-
nationwide chain of innovative              norities, and engender widespread            nied by loathsome government over-
schools jointly owned by media mo-          confusion and chaos in education, at         sight over. admissions, curriculum,
gul Chris Whittle and Time Warner           least during the lengthy transition          and certification of parochial andpri-
Corporation. The new company has            p e r i o d .                                vate schools  - is the fundamental
already attractedinvestment commit-                                                      and threatening unknown for choice
ments in excess of $60 million. The         Governmental Control                         proposals. Initial tuitionvoucherpro-
Edison Project company anticipates                But in addition to the potential       grams  may well be accompanied by
establishing about 100 for-profit gram-     inequitiesand  thechurch/stateprob-          certain government assurances, but
mar schools by 1996 and facilities for      lems predictedbychoice detractors, a         all parental Christian schools should
more than two million students by           more troublesome difficulty is the           monitor these choice developments
the end of the decade. Tuition is           prediction that acceptance of vouch-         very carefully, and zealously guard
estimated to be $5,500 per student,         ers will inevitably result in a loss of      against a loss of autonomy which
which approximates the national av-         autonomy by private and parochial            historically results from receipt of
erage now spent in public schools.          schools. A conservative Catholicedu-         public funds.  Q
Although Whittle  in,sists  his Edison      cator recently noted that Catholic
Project will not need federal funding,
many suspect that the company an-
ticipates and needs some form of state              .*. vouchers  mny be
or federal aid vouchers to survive.          "the gift of the Trojan House"
Choice Opposition                                for non-public schools.
      Choice proposals are, however,
facing formidable opposition on both
the federal and state levels. Many          schools should be wary of Bush's pro-
detractors warn that a modest voucher       posal to give vouchers to "lawfully
or tax credit (of say $2,000 per stu-       operated" non-public  scl~ools. Writ-
dent) will only result in greater racial    ing that many schools have already
and economic segregation and less           "bartered away their souls for  gov-
choice for the poor. This is because        ernmen t funds," this columnist
the underclass will continue to be          warned that vouchers may be "the
economically excluded from the more         gift of the Trojan Horse" for non-
attractive suburban schools where           public schools: N What will happen to                         Zlie
tuition costs typically exceed $5,000       theCatholicchildrenofRomanCatho-                   Standard Bearer
annually per student. Unable to pay         lit parentage (large families, little fi-
the "gap" between the voucher and           nancial resources) when parochial                           is still
the actual tuition at the more affluent     schools may be inundated by a major-
schools, thepoorwouldremainlocked           ity of children whose parents have                         /iaGfprice
in the inner-city schools.                  opted for the `discipline' of Catholic
     Moreover, the choice voucher           schools, but share no similarreligious                      f or an
proposals face stiff resistance from        values with the Catholic children in
watchdog groups such as the Ameri-          their formative years?"                               introductory
cans United for the Separation of                 Phyllis Schafly is also critical of             dscrip tion!
Church and State, who argue that            Bush's "America 2000" program, ac-
such vouchers which funnel tax mon-         cusing the Administration of attempt-
ies into private and parochial schools      ing to transform private schools into
constituteagrossviolationoftheFirst         public institutions. A conservative
Amendment prohibition against  gov-         California organization called  Citi-

472 /Standard Bearer / September 1,1992


                                             "A Declaration of
 Taking Heed to the
 Doctrine                                    Principles" and its
Rev. Bernard
 Woudenberg                                  Resulfs

Moreover, brethren, I deck-me unto you      fore at the synod with the report of the      and the Three points of 1924, and
the gospel which I preached unto you,       Mission Committee. Two churches               profession of adherence to the Three
which nlso ye have received, and wherein    had been organized in Canada, one in          forms of Unity and the Church Or-
ye stand.                                   Hamilton and one in  Chatham; and             der of Dordrecht and professing the
                    I Corinthians  15:l     with Rev. Andrew Cammenga now                 Scriptures to be the infallible Word
                                            as missionary more, were to be ex-            of God (as stands to reason): "The
      I remember well the Synod of          pected. But there was a snag. With            promise of the Gospel, both as to the
1950. Three friends and I had set out       the letter of Prof. Holwerda, and the         will of God to save His people and
for a tour of the western states; and                                                     the execu tion of His will to save them,
                                            reply, first of Rev. Ophoff and then of       is not general, that is, it does not
our first stop was Hull, Iowa where         Rev. Hoeksema, the question was               include all the baptized children of
the synod of the Protestant Reformed        everywhere, did the Protestant Re-            the church,butisparticular, thatis,it
Churches was meeting.                       formed Churches have a covenant               pertains only to the elect of God."
      Much of the closeness and inti-       view, and was it "binding" on our             [Acts of Synod, 1950, p. 541
macy which had always character-            churches? Inquiries of interest were             For Rev. Hoeksema it was an
ized our small denomination still ap-       still being received from new immi-         opportunity to be grasped. His con-
peared tobe there; but it was strained.     grants all across the continent, and        cern at that point was to go beyond
Deep divisions had risen over our           visits were being made; but no one          the question of whether or not we
relationship to theLiberated churches,      would proceed any further without           would be organizing more congrega-
and they were growing. Groups were          this question being answered.               tions. It was not as though he had any
gathering everywhere, with  eachside             It is this especially that I remem-    objection to such work, or to working
defending its own position, and try-        ber of that synod, the image of Rev.        with immigrants from the Liberated
ing to win others to it. The experi-        Cammenga pacing the floor in Hull           churches or anywhere else. In fact, he
ences were painful. Families stood          church relating the frustrations he         had himself worked with the new
together over against long standing         was meeting. He could workwith the          people in Hamilton and  Chatham,
friends, and others were divided            people. They were kind, and he got          and had enjoyed it immensely. He
within themselves. In some instances        along fine. But they wouldn't take          had come to know these people well,
households were torn, husbands from         anything he said as final. He needed        andherespected theirspiritualityand
wives, and parents from their chil-         some kind of an official declaration as     discernment. But his concerns were
dren. And over it all hung a wistful        to the position of our churches, a          running deeper than that. At stake, in
conviction that something must hap-         form, perhaps, which could be used          his mind, was the very integrity of
pen to heal these differences; surely a     for the organization of churches.           our churches.
denomination so firmly built on doc-        Without it he didn't know what he                There is in the tradition of Pres-
trinal conviction could notbe allowed       could do.                                   byterian/ Reformed church  govem-
to split.                                        And so it was that the Mission         ment a principle which is basic to the
      The whole matter came to the          Committee had come with a proposal,         whole system upon which it is built, a
                                            requesting just such a form, in their       principle of primary dedication. That
                                            words:                                      is to say, a Reformed denomination
                                                                                        by virtue of its organization is com-
                                              To adopt the following clear-cut ex-      mitted to a basic doctrinal position,
Rev. Woudenberg is pmfor offhe Profes-       pressionasone which should appear          and all who join such a denomination
tmt Reformed Church of Knlamazoo,            in eachrequest for organization, along     are expected to honor it. Basically
                                             with the denial of common grace
Michigm.                                                                                this commitment is found within the

                                                                                         September 1,1992 / Standard Bearer / 473


Reformed creeds; but because of the          Hoeksema could not stand disagree-           were teaching a grace of God which is
differences which do arise over the          ment or opposition.  He knew that            common to everyone baptized in the
use and interpretation of the creeds, it     `such could be expected; and he had          church without distinction between
may in effect become more specific           always been ready to meet it, as long        elect and reprobate, inasmuch as it
than that.                                   as it was openly and honestly set forth      comes in a promise which is condi-
      Our own denomination is per-           on the basis of sound biblical  argu-        tionally given to all. Clearly it stood
haps as good an illustration of that as      .mentation.-  In fact, it was this th@ he    in contradiction to the position we
any, particularly regarding special          had expected and would have liked            had always taken; and yet it was our
grace. In 1924 the ChristianReformed         when he first began to work with Dr.         own men, most of whom had lived
Church adopted the position.that  the        Schilder and the Liberated churches.         personally through our painful sepa-
grace of God is in certain instances         He had realized that ttiere were great       ration from our  mother church, who
common to all men, including the             and important differences between            were suggesting that these views
non-elect. It was a position to which        -us; but he had expected, knowing Di.        could be given serious consideration.
our leaders could not agree, and so          Schilder as personally as he did, that       It was, whether recognized or not, as
they were dismissed from the de-             they would be treated in open and            though the very integrity of our his-
nomination. The result was that the          forthright discussion, such as hadbeen       tory was being called into question,
Protestant Reformed denomination             denied both of them when they were           and that by those  who should have
was formed. Naturally, therefore; it         ejected from their respective denomi-        been       most committed to its
was understood that those who joined         nations. And so he looked forward to         distinctives.
it recognized this originating com-          free and profitable discussion on the             `And so it was that this request
mitment to special grace and would           pages of the  Stmdard  Bearer,  and          for a form of organization for new
honor it. Or at least, should some           their church paper as well, the  Refor-      churches provided a prime opportu-
havecertainreservations, theywould           mafim These then could possibly be           nity. It allowed for the laying out
have to understand that they  would          followedbypersonalconferenceshere            without rancor, judgment, or personal
worship under the preaching of this          and there, to the benefit of all.  .And      accusation the very principles upon
doctrine, and would not militate             through it all he had certainly  as-         which all were expected to stand, and
against it.                                  `sumed that the young men whom he            that in distinction from those of both
      And so twenty-five years had           and Rev. Ophoff had prepared fsr the         the Christian Reformed Church in
passed, with this being understood           ministry would support. what they            our country and the Liberated
by all. Churches had been formed,            hadlearned, andparticipatein devel-          churches in The Netherlands. If these
and a complete roster of ministers           oping it to the advantage of everyone.       principles could be accepted as the
had been educated and prepared for           But that was not what happened.              starting position, and discussed
the ministry under the instruction of             The. first disappointment,  ,and        openly and with mutual respect, the
Rev. Hoeksema and Rev. Ophoff in             perhaps the greatest, was that the           possibility of future work together
harmony with this principle. In fact,        Liberated churches showed no par-            had -real possibility; and, if not, the
during that time a complete theology         ticular interest in doctrinal discus-        possibility of  ,further interaction be-
had been developed, carefully carry-         sion. Their only action was to  pro:         tween us and them  was indeed dim.
ing the principle of special grace           pose an immediate sister-church rela-             Thus it was that, within a few
through from beginning to end, all ori       tionship in which ministers could be         days, Rev. Hoeksema, working with
the basis of a firm exegetical founda-       exchanged back and forth across  the         the committee appointed for thispur-
tion, and including a fresh and scrip-       ocean,  to.Rev. Hoeksema's mind a            pose, produced what was called and
turallybased doctrine of the covenant.       proposal of questionable wisdom,             is now known as "The Declaration of
All this had been learned  and loved;        considering the doctrinal differences        Principles."
and the strength of our churches was         that were sure to  come out.  It  was             We as a foursome of young col-
to be found in the fact that these           more apt to aggravate than bring to-         lege students, perhaps somewhat
doctrines were consistently held to          gether. But even more disconcerting          naively, listened to the first readingof
by all. Now, suddenly, however, this         was the fact that, while the Dutch           these principles and went on our way
was changing. As an aftermath of the         theologians remained silent, it was          presumingthatnoonewouldbelikely
visit of Dr. Schilder, and aggravated        our own men who began to suggest             to have any difficulty with them. After
by Rev. Hoeksema's ownillne`ss,  pub-        that our theological positions might         all, they were nothing more than had
lic agitation was arising which s&ght        not be that important, and we could          always been taught and accepted
tocompromisethisverystartingprin-            perhaps learn more from the theolo-          within our churches. Who could ques-
ciple. Questions and doubts were             gians across the  sea; and all that in       tion that?
being heard everywhere, and rela-            spite of the fact that much of what                  And it wasnot until, a few weeks
tively few seemed to appreciate the          they were saying seriously contra-           later, we reached our churches in
seriousness of it all.                       dicted the veryprinciples upon which         California that we discovered such
      The problem was not that Rev.          our denomination was founded. They           was not to be.  0

474 /Standard Bearer  / September  1,1992


                                             A  Gracio.us
The Day of                                   Revelation of
Shadows                                      Divhe Mercy
Rev. John Heys


     "It is not of him that willeth, nor     and Eve, is not presented as an elect       mother's relatives. This Isaac did
of him that runneth, but of God that         child of God. But his brother Abel          because his wife, Rebekah, advised
showeth mercy." That we read in              revealed himself very plainly, by his       him to -have Jacob get a wife that
Romans  9:16 in `connection with the         proper sacrifice, to be the one God         believed in God. In Genesis  28:8 we
truth presented  -in the preceding           chose and caused to be born as His          read that Esau, knowing that it did
verses.                                      covenant child.                             not please his father for him to get a
     In this New Testament chapter               What is striking in the account is      Canaanitish wife, who would defi-
the awesome truth presented in the           the reaction of Isaac to the manifesta-     nitely be an unbeliever, went to the
Old Testament, and in regard to the          tion that Jacob should receive the cov-     house of Ishmael to get his wiffe. For
love of God "which is in Christ Jesus        enant blessing. Isaac  - and he had         Ishmael was a son of Abraham
our Lord," is held before us. here by        reason for doing so, since Esau was         through Hagar.
the apostle Paul. He presents the            the firstborn of those twins  - in-              So Jacob left his father and
truth which we considered last time          tended to pronounce the covenant            mother and twin brother and went to
in this department of the Day of Shad-       blessing upon Esau, and not on Jacob.       where his mother had been born. He,
ows. Paulpresents the  truthinchrist,        His wife, Rebekah, according to Gen-        Isaac, told Jacob to go and get a be-
and emphatically declares that he does       esis  25:28 loved Jacob, while Isaac        lieving wife. But, first of all, behind
not lie. What is more, he expresses the      loved Esau. This may also be the case       this mission was his mother's fear
heaviness of his heart because of what       because of their physical appearance.       that Esau would kill Jacob. For she
happened to some who were called             Esau appeared to be a physically            had been told that Esau planned to
Israelites, who were such in the physi-      strong man, and a vigorous son. He          slay Jacob as soon as his father died
cal sense but not in the spiritual sense.    was a cunning hunter, a man of the          (Gen. 27:42-45).  She told Jacob what
     He refers to the fact that although     field; while Jacob was a plain man,         Esau intended to do, and that when
Esau was in the physical sense a de-         dwelling in tents (Gen.  25:27). This,      the fury of his brother passed away
scendant of Isaac, and therefore an          but also the fact that he, Esau, was the    she would "send and fetch" Jacob
Israelite as a descendant of Abraham,        firstborn son of the two twins, ex-         f r o m   t h e n c e .
not he, Esau, but his brother Jacob is,      plains why Isaac intended to pro-                Surely we have here a fulfill-
according.to  election, Prince of God,       nounce on him the covenant blessing.        ment of that Mother Promise in Gen-
as implied in the name Israel. Indeed             However, the striking thing re-        esis  3:15.  Here was enmity between
there are many striking things pre-          vealed to us `in Genesis, but also in       Jacob, the seed of the woman, and
sented to us in the day of shadows.          Romans 9, is that Isaac did bow be-         Esau, the seed of the serpent. And the
     Although the almighty God               fore God's will and decree. He, not         seed of the serpent openly and boldly
chose Jacob, his father Isaac chose          only as presented in Genesis 27:37-40,      revealed his enmity and intention to
Esau, because he was the firstborn of        but also in Genesis 28:1-4, bowed be-       crush the heel of the seed of the
these twins. We do here have a reflec-       fore Gods will, and in no way and to        woman. What is more, this intention
tion of what was revealed, namely,           no degree tried to bring any part of        of Esau reveals what lies ahead for us.
that the very first child born to man-       that covenant blessing upon Esau,           .WhatintheOldTestament,namelyin
kind, namely, Cain, the son of Adam          when God revealed to him that Jacob         Genesis 3:15, is called the seed of the
                                             had been blessed, and that there was        serpent, and is here manifested in
                                             nothing of a covenant blessing left for     Esau, can correctly be called the
                                             Esau. And Isaac, agreeing with his          antichristian forces, which will try to
                                             wife' Rebekah, blessed Jacob and            wipe off the face of this earth all those
                                             charged him not "to take a wife of the      who are the spiritual seed of Jacob,
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the      daughters of Canaan," but to go to          and are beautifully called Christians,
Protestant Reformed Clzurcl?es.              Padan-Aram to get a wife from his           as we read in Acts 11:26.

                                                                                           September 1,1992 I Standard Bearer I475


     Esau hated Jacob and intended            return unto his father in peace, the        to deal with some sinnersir&& mercy.
to kill him, so that he would get the         Lord would be his God. This was             We all deserve God's curse upon us;
inheritance and possessions of his            after the dream which God gave him.         but He is eternally pleased to bring
father. He did not kill Jacob; but he         And we must indeed see God's al-            upon some of us His mercy.
intended to do so in order to get             mighty power and infinite wisdom,                Our God revealed that in the
worldly possessions, not God's bless-         in order to have confidence and hope.       day that Adam and Eve fellinto spiri-
ing. That reveals what lies ahead for              Our salvation is not given us          tual death. He told Satan that He
the seed of the woman, Gods elect             because we wanted it. Take hold of          would put enmity in some people's
people. What lies ahead Isaac de-             the comforting truth of Scripture that      hearts against him, that is, Satan. He
clared to Jacob when he, at Rebekah's         we want salvation because God has           was not going to sell it to them. Dead
advice, said to him, "God Almighty            already begun it in us. Our salvation       people cannot buy a thing. He was
bless thee . . . and give thee the bless-     is a gift, but not a gift we deserve        not going to offer it to spiritually dead
ings of Abraham" (Gen. 29:3,4).               becauseweaskedforitand"accepted             people.  He will put it in those whom
     It is true that Esau, because he         aninvitationtoreceiveit." Evcrybifof        He eternally chose to be His people.
got so wealthy, and his flesh was             our salvation, including the desire for     He will have mercy-not offer it and
pleased with and delighted in the             it, is a gift of God's mercy. And mercy     wait to see whether we want it. Dead
things of this world, did not try to kill     is compassion and pity. It implies not      people want nothing! Read again that
Jacob. For God keeps His covenant             only that one suffers, but also that all    verse wherewith this article begins.
promises to His church, and will save         men deserve torment and everlasting         God said that it is  not  of him that
every one of His elect from physical          punishment and have no right to re-         willeth, but of God that showeth
death until he has been born again,           ceive one blessing.                         mercy (Rom.  9:16).
until the body of Christ is perfect, and           We have that truth so clearly               Therefore we must teach and
untilHischurchhasallitsmembersin              manifest in Jacob's life. And in the        maintain in humble thankfulness,  fi 0
their places in that body of Christ           Old Testament times there is pre-           God, how good Thou art to all the
which He eternally designed.                  sented to us time and again some who        pure of heart, though life seems vain;
     Jacob goes as commanded by his           are sinners but who do have God's           burdened with anxious care, Igroped
father to get a wife out of the church        mercy bestowed upon them. Mercy             in dark despair, till in Thy house of
and not  out, of the world. It was a          is an aspect of love. As David wrote        prayer, all was made plain" (Psalter #
painful trip and required a slow walk         in Psalm 23, "Surely goodness and           204,basedonPsalm73). Wemustnot,
where he had never been before. He            mercy shall follow me all the days of       cannot, and cannot truthfully teach
would be leaving the promised land,           my life: and I will dwell in the house      that we get the blessings of salvation
and leaving behind all the earthly            of the Lord for ever." And Jacob, who       because of what we did, because we
material that was promised  +him by           lied to his father and deceived him,        fulfilled a condition which God pre-
hisfather. Thispicturedthe truth that         claiming to be Esau, deserved to be         sents to us. InHis grace God givesus
all of God's people will, when Christ         cast into hell at once! He did  rzof        the right to blessings, by giving us
returns, receive a glorious, wonder-          deserve the birthright blessing which       Christ and all that  ye earned for us.
ful life in a creation of which this          would be a shadow of what Christ                 Jacob did not deserve covenant
present world is only a picture, and          has earned for us. Jacob's sin before       blessings any more than Esau did.
which is a means of serving the church        his father was as serious as Adam and       Surely his work of deceit and lying
to receive what God has promised in           Eve's, when they ate a piece of forbid-     called for the opposite of a blessing.
a sweet communion with Him.                   den fruit. It was rebelling against         But he got it in God's grace, and
     What an awesome thing, then,             God, and it revealed that Satan got         through it received works of God's
when Jacob was all alone and was              the whole human race to go against          mercy. We do not even deserve to
leavingthepromisedland.  Heleft his           God, dying spiritually and coming           have the gospel preached to us. But
father and mother behind. He had to           into this life spiritually dead!            our God shows us here, in this day of
flee from his twin brother. And he                 We have here in Jacob a shadow         shadows, His mercy and grace as a
was, by his mother's efforts, going for       of what is everywhere in the world          work of His love and kindness. What
a wife -not because he was eagerly            today, namely, that God saves sin-          Paul wrote in Romans 9:13 is so very,
looking for amarriage, but to be where       ners in His mercy, not because they          very true. God said, "Jacob have I
his uncle, aunt, and cousins dwelt,           deserve or to any degree desire to          loved, but Esau have I hated." And,
and because his father told him not to        have it until God has already begun it      if you please, according to verse 11,
take a wife of the daughters of Canaan.       in them by a spiritual rebirth. Jacob       U the children being not yet born, nei-
     We may believe that Jacob went           did not earn and deserve the birth-         ther having done any good or evil,
with faith in God. He made a vow              right blessing any more than Esau,          that the purpose of God according to
that, if God would help him on the            from whom it was completely kept.           election might stand, not of works,
way, and give him bread to eat and            This incident in the life of Jacob re-      but. of him that calleth; it was said
raiment to wear, so that he could             veals Gods grace, which causes Him          unto her, The elder shall serve the

476 /Standard Bearer / September 1,1992


 younger.`! And then comes that awe-           of Psalm 139 once again be what your                  I give my Maker thankful praise,
 some truth that God hated Esau and            heart says:                                           Whose wondrous works my soul
loved Jacob before they were born,                  AII that I am I owe to Thee,                       amaze.  cl
not after the way they lived.                       Thy wisdom, Lord, hath fashioned
      Let that beautiful  versification               me;





 Book Reviews

                                               chapter headings will whet the  appe-        thoughts that a mother's work is of
Far Above Rubies: Today's Virtuous             tite: "A Virtuous Woman," "Chil-             great significance, and that the work
Woman,  edited by Herman Hanko;                dren in Marriage," "The Calling of           is one which only she can perform, we
Reformed Free Publishing Associa-              the Truly Liberated Woman,"                  heartily concur!.
tion, 1992; 187 pp., $9.95, paper. [Re-        "Women in Church Office."                             This book ought to be in every
viewed by Rev. Dale H. Kuiper.]                      A couple of criticisms come to         Christian home. The older girls and
                                               mind.. Perhaps it is inevitable with a       young women should read it to learn
      The1atestofferingoftheR.F.P.A.           compilation such as this that there is       what they are called by God to be. The
is a compilation of eleven sermons,            a degree of overlapping or repetition        older women should read it to dis-
speeches, pamphlets, and magazine              in the articles. In several chapters the     cover what they should be teuclzingby
articles by five ministers and three           same biblical passages are treated,          word and example. The young men
professors from the Protestant Re-             identical arguments are made, and            must read these things to know what
formed Churches. Editor Hanko has              the same examples employed. While            to look  for in a wife. The older men
also included four articles of charm-          this results in some reinforcement of        should also read it, that they might
ing simplicity by Abraham Kuyper               the reader in the biblical positions, it     know what to gum-d  nguinsf and what
from his popular book, When  Thou              does become tedious if several chap-         to sfnrzdfor in the home and church. A
SittestinThineHouse.  Asthesubtitle            ters are read in one sitting. Perhaps it     profitable book, then; one that the
of the bookindicates, the subject of all       would be best to read the book over a        Holy Spirit will surely use to bring
this writing is the woman  - more              period of time.                              forth fruit in the home and in the
particularly, ti today's virtuous                   The second matter that we ques-         church of Gods Son.  n
w o m a n . "                                  tion is the elevating of the place and
      Several words come to mind as            work of the woman to such exalted
one reads through these chapters:              heights that the labors of others are        Women in the Maze: Questions `~3
timely, biblical, consistent, practical,       made all but insignificant.' For ex-         Anszuerson Biblical EqzlaIity,byRuth
and positive. Timely because the place         ample, the work of "mothers in the           A. Tucker. Downers Grove, IL:
of the woman in marriage, the home,            home is an everlasting work. From a          Intervarsity Press, 1992. 276 pages.
the church, and society needs defini-          certain point of view, it is the only        Paper. $9.95. [Reviewed by the Edi-
tion today. Biblical because only God          work that will ever endure" (p. 72).         tor.]
may, can, and does define these im-            The work of artists and craftsmen,
portant roles. Consistency is itself a         etc., will not endure; "there is one                  When evangelical and conser-
ruby because it is rare that across a          great work that will not be removed,         vative churches ordain women as
denomination and its seminary a uni-           but shall endure, and that is the life of    preachers and elders, one reason will
fied, certain sound is sent forth. The         the child who has been formed and            be books such as this.one. RuthTucker
great need is for the prrrcticrzl  applica-    molded by believing hands" (p. 82).          makes every effort to avoid the radi-
tion of the Scriptural givens, so that a       We are of the conviction that all the        cal extremes of feminism andpersua-
woman's daily problems are ad-                 labors of every child of God are king-       sively argues for full equality of men
dressed and she knows where to turn            dom labors, that none of them are in         and women. For her, full equality
and how to behave. Believing women             vain,  and,that  God is faithful to re-      means especially two things: women
are not only informed what they are            ward every one of them in time and in        in every office that is open to men in
not to be doing, but are in every chap-        eternity. Among those labors of the          the church and strippinghusbands of
ter encouraged positively in the calling       faithful are those performed by be-          authority over their wives in mar-
whereunto God calls them. A few                lieving women in the home. With the          riage. She has a passion for the cause:

                                                                                             September 1,1992 I Standard Bearer / 477


,I             we must seriously address the     Ruth Tucker chooses the second way         33) is, nevertheless, devoid of auth.or-
      . . .
women's issue. Indeed, this is one of            of resistance. Professing allegiance to    ity, I will begin to consider taking the
the most critical issues that confront           inspiration in the passages, she ex-       feminist position seriously. When
the church today" (p. 10).                       plains away the clear, obvious'mean-       this exegete demonstrates that it is
                Women in the Maze takes the      ing with appeal to  "hermeneutics."        possible in Ephesians  5:22ff. to strip
reader through all the areas of the                   Tucker's "interpretation" of I        the husband's headship of all author-
feminist debate: the implications for            Timothy 2, 3 (pp.  il2ff.) and of          ity without robbing Jesus Christ of
the doctrine of God;' the issue of               Ephesians  5:22-33 (pp. 126ff.)  is`pa-    His authority over the church, and
headship at creation; patriarchy in              thetic. I Timothy2:12  is said to mean     every member of the church, I will
the OldTestament;  the teaching of the           that Paul temporarily forbade the          considerbecominga feminist myself.
New Testament, including exegesis                women of the congregation to teach              As Ruth Tucker's high-handed,
of the crucial passages; church his-             until they had learned more about the      or cavalier, treatment of Holy Scrip-
tory; and contemporary issues.                   faith. When this had happened, he          ture indicates, it is impossible for any-
                Likeitscause,thebookfounders     gladly suffered women to teach. His        one to be a moderate feminist. The
on one stubborn fact: Scripture for-             prohibition against the woman's            movement is, essentially, a radical
bids female officebearers'in the New             "usurpingauthority" over the man in        deviation from biblical Christianity.
Testament church and requires the                church was merely directed against         Despite her efforts to distance herself
husband's authority in marriage and              her "domineering." As long as the          from her extremist sisters (andbroth-
the family. I Timothy  2,3 is decisive           woman would rule the man in the            ers), Tucker admits that she does not
on the issue of female ministers and             right way, the apostle had no objec-       think it sinful to address God as
elders; Ephesians  5:22-33 is conclu-            tion.  Headship in Ephesians 5 does        "Mother"; alleges that the God who
sive on the issue of the wife's being            not refer to authority at all. The hus-    bars women from office only because
under her husbands. authority in                 band is head of his wife only as her       of gender is a "chauvinist," that is, a
m a r r i a g e .                                source. Besides, Tucker assures us,        sinner; and advocates a new view of
               There are two ways for "evan-     marriage has greatly changed since         the Christian family in which it is not
gelical feminists" to resist the author-         Paul`s day.                                the calling of the wife and mother to
ity of God the Holy Spirit speaking in            z When a feminist exegete will            be a worker at home.
these passages. One is to charge the             show me that a headship that is com-            I recommend this book to our
apostle with being mistaken, as a child          parable to Christ's headship over the      readers on the principle, Know the
of his time. This was the way chosen             church (Eph.  5:23)  and that demands      enemy."  0
by Fuller Seminary's Paul K. Jewett.             subjection (v. 24) and reverence (v.


News from Our Churches
Mr. Benjamin Wigger

Congregational Activities                             Our readers might also be inter-      Dick chose for his first sermon was
                As you might expect, the con-    ested to know that Rev. T. Miersma,        "Devoted to  .the Ministry of the
gregation of the Immanuel PRC of                 pastor of the First PRC of Edmonton,       Word," based on Acts  6:4.
Lacombe, AB, Canada was very busy                AB, Canada, officiated at the ordina-           We certainly want to extend our
duringthemonth of Junegetting their              tion service for Rev. Dick on the          congratulations toRev.Dick,  thatGod
parsonage ready for its latest occu-             evening of July 3. Quite appropri-         has brought him to this calling in our
pants, Rev. and Mrs. M. Dick. Much               ately, Rev. Miersma preached on the        churches. We should also be re-
of the parsonage received new car-               theme, "The Calling to Fai thful Labor     minded that Rev. Dick, as well as all
peting as well as a fresh coat of paint.         in the Ministry," based on I Timothy       our pastors, need our prayers and
And the entire inside was given a                4:11-16. After the ordination service,     encouragement so that through them
good cleaning.                                   the entire congregation was encour-        the Word of God may increase and
                                                 aged to meet in the fellowship hall for    the number of disciples be multiplied
                                                 refreshments and an opportunity to         (Acts 6:7).
                                                 meet Rev. and Mrs. Dick. And on                 While we are considering first
                                                 Sunday, July 5, Rev. Dick preached         sermons, let us also add here that
Mr. Wigger is a member ojthe Protestant          hisinauguralsermonasbothanewly-            Rev. Kortering, while not a  newly-
Reformed Church of Hiudsonville,  Michi-         ordained and a newly-installed min-        ordained pastor, did preach a first
gun.                                             ister of the Word. The theme Rev.          sermon as the newly-installed  associ-

478 IStandard  Bearer I September I,1992


ate pastor of the Hope PRC in Walker,        this church and its pastor, Rev. Rob-      "Thoughts on God's Loving  Kind?
MI. After being installed, and before        ert Hargrove. Featured speakers at         ness" and "All Hail the Plower of
being loaned to the Evangelical Re-          this conference were Prof. H. Hanko        Jesus' Name"; and Mr. Marty
formed Churches of Singapore, Rev.           and Rev. C. Terpstra.                      VanderWal  played a piano solo en-
Korteringpreached his inaugural ser-              Rev. Dykstra gave a presenta-         titled, "Praise to the Lord, the King of
mon on Sunday evening, June 28.              tion of his work in Ghana, Africa on       Creation."
Rev. Kortering chose for his source of       August 3 at Hope PRC in Walker, MI.              If the convention was as enjoy-
Scripture I Corinthians  9:16-19, and                                                   able as this Singspiration, then the
entitled his sermon, "The Necessity          Young  People's  Activities                young people had a good week.
to Preach the Gospel."                            Thisyear'sYoungPeople'sCon-
         The following night, the congre-    vention, sponsored  by. the young          Ministeiial Calls
gation of Hope was invited to a com-         people of the Faith PRC in Jenison,              A call has been extended to Rev.
bined welcome for Rev. Kortering as          MI, was held July 27 through `31 at        C. Haak, presently serving as pastor
their associate pastor,  and.a farewell      both the Grand Rapids Baptist Col-         of the Lynden, WA PRC, to serve as
to him and his wife as they planned to       lege and the Reformed Bible College.       missionary pastor to the group in
leave for Singapore the first week in        This year's convention developed the       Northern Ireland.
July.                                        theme, "What is a Christian?" and 262            Rev. R.  VanOverloop  declined
         Beginning this fall the students    young people were expected to at-          the call he had been considering to
in grades l-3 in the Randolph Chris-         tend. This theme was also the basis of     serve as pastor of the Grandville, MI
tian School will begin using the Bible       the &e-Convention Hymn-Sing the            PRC. Consequently, the Council of
curriculum material written by Mrs.          night before, held at the Sunshine         Grandville presented a new trio to
Gertrude Hoeksema, wife of the late          Ministries. This sanctuary holds 2,300     their congregation from which to call.
editor-in-chief of the StandardBearer,       persons, and the crowd that night          This trio consisted of Pastors W.
Prof. H.C. Hoeksema. This material           was estimated to be around 1,700.          Bruinsma,B. Gritters,andC.Terpstra.
was made available by a collection                Mr; Jerry Kuiper was the song         Arid on August 9 they extended a call
taken this past June at the Randolph,        leader at that hymn-sing, and he was        d
                                                                                        t , Rev. Terpstra.
WI PRC.                                      accompanied by his wife, Bonnie, on
         A "Conference on the Covenant       the organ and his daughter, Karen
of God" was heldin Spokane, WA on            Daling, on the piano. Miss Sarah           Food for Thought
July 17 and 18. This conference was          Ondersma and Mr. Jerry VanderKolk                "Shew me a man's books and
sponsored jointly by the Evangelism          helped out on several numbers with         shew me a man's companions, and I
Committee of our South Holland,  IL          trumpet accompaniment. Besides             will tell you what sort of a man he is."
PRC and the Sovereign Grace Church           some enthusiastic singing, a couple of                              William Tiptaft
of Spokane, WA. For some time our            special numbers were featured. The                                      (1803-1864)
churches have been in contact with           Hope Heralds sang two numbers:                                                     cl



                                               RESOhJTION'dF  SYMPATHY
                                                  The Mary.Martha Society of the
                                             Hope Protestant Reformed Church of            RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
         CHANGES OF ADDRESS                  Redlands, California would like to ex-           The Christian Fellowship Soci-
            Rev. and Mrs. Bernard            press their Christian sympathy to their    ety of Hudsonville Protestant Re-
                 Woudenberg                                                             formed Church expresses its Chris-
               1355 Bretton Dr.              fellow member, Nancy Hendriks, and         tian sympathy to our Bible leader, Mr.
            Kalamazoo, MI 49006              her husband Randy, and their chil-
                                             dren in the death of Randy's mother,       ,Pete Miedema, and his family in the
                                                  MRS. MARIE HENDRIKS.                  .death of his mother,
         Rev. and Mrs. Jason Kortering       May they find comfort in the words of             MRS. ANN MIEDEMA.
              9C Happy Mansion               Revelation 21:4, "And God shall wipe             Maytheyfindcomfortinthewords
              Happy Ave., North              away all tears from their eyes; and        of Psalm. 116:15,  "Precious in the .,
               Singapore 1336                there shall be no more death, neither.     sight of the Lord is the death of his
            Republic of Singapore            sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there    saints."       '
              telephone or FAX:              be any more pain: for the former                  Tom Schipper, Vice President.
               011-65-741-3074               things are passed away."                                 Judy Wigger, Secretary
                                                  Pastor A. denHartog, President
                                                   Mrs. Laurie Jabaay, Secretary

                                                                                          September 1,1992 / Standard Bearer I 479


     &DMD
          BE4RER                                                                                                         SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                         Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                         Grandville, Michigan
          P. 0. Box 603
          Grandville, MI 49468-0603


          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
            On Septem,ber 9, 1992 our                        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                REMINDER!
     parents,                                                 On September 8, 1992, the                   Corrected pages are avail-
           REV. and MRS. HERMAN                         Lord willing, our parents,                   able for the green, ring-bound
                    VELDMAN,                                 CLARENCE and JANICE                     "Church Order of the Protestant
     will celebrate 60 years of mar-                                  KUIPER,                        Reformed Churches," to update
     riage. We are grateful to God for                  will celebrate their 25th wedding            the book with amendments made
     the example of their godly lives                   anniversary. We thank God for                after the original printing.
     and their continuing advice and                    giving us these covenant parents                  A set of these selected, re-
     counsel.              -                            who have raised us in the fear of            placement pages can be obtained
            This occasion also marks the                His name. We pray that God may               without charge, on request to the
     60th year in the -ministry for Rev.                continue to bless them, "Being               Stated Clerk:
     Veldman. Our family is grateful to                 confident of this very thing, that he             Rev. Meindert Joostens
     the congregation of the South-                     which hath begun a good work in                  2016 Tekonsha Rd. SE.
     west Protestant Reformed Church                    [them] will perform it until the day             Grand Rapids, Ml 49506
for recognizing'this milestone at a                     of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).                    (616) 247-0638
     special program in October, 1991                   0     Nick and Deb Kleyn                                        or
     at the beginning of his 60th year of                      Lynette, Peter                        call the seminary (616) 531-l 490.
     service to the churches and of                     0 Doug, Brian, Marc,  Cara,                                                         -
     their 60 years of marriage.                        Kevin, Rachel, and Randy Kuiper                          LECTURE
            Their testimony to us and to                                         Walker, Mlchlgan
     all who know them has always                                                                           Sex and Dating in the
     been that God.has been good to _                                                                           Christian Life
     them. Their confession and their
     hope has always been. that of                                                                                 Speaker:
                                                                     NOTICE!!                              Rev. Ronald VmOverlooy
     Lord's Day 1.:.                                          Classis East will meet in regu-                  pastor of Bethel
            "That I with .body and soul,                lar session on Wednesday, Sep-                  Protestant Reformed Church
     both in.life and death, am not my                  tember 9,1992 at the Byron Cen-
     own, but belong unto my faithful                   ter Protestant Reformed Church,                                 at
     Savior, Jesus Christ . . . that all                at 9 A.M.                                              Calvin College
     things must be .s~ubservient to my                                     Jon J. Huisken,                   Fine Arts Center
     salvation, ,and-,ttierefore,  by .His                                       Stated Clerk                  3201 Burton SE
     Holy Spirit, he also assures me of                                                                   Grand Rapids, MI 49546
     eternal life, and makes me sin-
     cerely willing and ready, hence-                                                                             Thursday
                                                                                                             September  17,1992
forth, to live unto him."                                            NOTICE!!                                         8 p.m.
            May God continue to bless                         Classis West of the Protes-
     them richly in the days ahead.                     tant Reformed Churches will meet                Question and answer session
0           Cornie and Evelyn DenOuden                  in Loveland, Colorado, on                              to follow speech
            " 3 children, 7 grandchildren               Wednesday, September 2,1992,
-           .Jack and Elaine VanDyke                    at 8:30 AM, the Lord willing.                      Tapes are available from
             4 children, 8 grandchildren                                    Rev. R. Hanko,             Southeast Protestant Reformed
     Q      Jon and Joanne' Huisken                                                                                   Church
                                                                                 Stated Clerk
             4 children, 1 grandchild                                                                        1543 Cambridge SE
                                                                                                          Grand Rapids, MI 49506
                                  Jenlson,  Mlchlgan

     400  /Standard Bearer / September I,1992


