                                                                        SPECIAL
                                                   REFORMATION ISSUE

                     \





                                                                                                      _
                                      ' . . To make the,wqy smodther for`the unlearned -
                            :

                                 for only  them  dq  1 serve  +I  shall set down the
                                           following two propositions.concerning  the freedom
                                           3rd  t h a   knrrrlcxrra  nf.tha   eni&-
                                           UI  IU  LI  IG  UUI  ruayw   vi  bt  is2  3pf  1s.
                                                `A Christian is
                                 -to  ,none.
                                                 A Chri&/an is
                                           subject to all..

                    I"'
                                 <
                    Ill               /                                                           -  Martiri'Luther,   1111
                                                               ' The Freedqm of k Cfirisfian  (1520)
                                                                                           ,I-


                          The Reformation and Freedom

 Vola, 69, No. 2
October 15,1992


C O N T E N T S :                                                                                                       October 15, 1992,                                              STANDARD
                                                                                                                                                                                               Bu3RER
Meditation -Rev. James D. Slopsema
             Standing Fast in our Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Editorial -Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                  ISSN 0362-4692
             The Reformation and Freedom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29                          Semi-monthly, except mcnthiy during June, July, end August.
Freedom is Submission -Rev. Marvin Kamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..<............*....31                                                                   Published by the Refotmed Free Publishing Aesoclatlon, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                      4948  ivanreal Ave.,  Grand'& MI  42418.  Bemnd  Class
Ecclesiastical Freedom Vs. Papal Tyranny - Prof. Herman C. Hanko......... 33                                                                                                          Postage Paid at Grendvllle, Mlchlgan.
Freedom from Fear of Death and the Future State -                                                                                                                                     Poetmeetrr: Bend address changes to the standard  Bearer,
           Rev. Audred.T.  Spriensma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36    P.O. Box 602, GramMIle, MI 48468-0603.
Not Commanded, Not Forbidden -Rev. Barrett L. Getters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39                                                                              EDlTORlAL  COMMflTEE
Freedom Re the Things of This Life - Rev. Kenneth Koole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41                                                                          Editor: Prof. Davld J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                      Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
The Reformation's Restoration of Communion With God -                                                                                                                                 Managlng Edkci: Mr. Don Doezeme
             Rev. Thomas Miersma .,,.....,.,..............,..,..,.....................,....,................. 44                                                                      DEPARTMENT EDITORS
Freedom from the Bondage of Works-Righteousness -                                                                                                                                     Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Pmf. Robed Decker, Rev. Me
                                                                                                                                                                                      denHartog, Rev. Sany QrlItere, Mr. Fred Hanko, Pmf. m
             Prof. Robert D. Decker ..,........................................................................ 46                                                                    Henko, Rev.JchnHeye,  Rev.MarvlnKamps,  RexSteven Key,
News From Our Churches -Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47                                                          Rev. Kenneth U&e, Rev. Jason Kortedng, Rev. Dale Ku&%
                                                                                                                                                                                      Mr.  James Lantlng, Rev. George Lubbere,  Mm. MarySeth
                                                                                                                                                                                      Lubben, Rev. James Blop8eme, Rev. ChadeeTeqxtre, Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                      Qlse VanBarm, Rev. Ronald VenDvedocp,  Mr. Benjemln
                                                                                                                                                                                      Wlgger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.

                                                                                                                                                                                      EDfTORtAL OFFICE               CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                      The Standard Bearer            Mr. Ben Wlggw
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        This specialissue in commemoration of the Reformation is different                                                                                                            ccmmunketlons  relative to the mntente  should be sent to the
from those that preceded.. The past two years we concentrated on the                                                                                                                  edltorlal oflke.
conflict of the Reformation with its two main enemies, Rome and                                                                                                                       REPRINT POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                      PennlsslonIsherebygrantedfwthereprinUn~dartldosInwr
Anabaptism (see the Oct. 15, 1990 and Oct. 15, 1991 issues of the                                                                                                                     maclazlnebvotherwta,provided:a)that~reprlnted
Standard Bearer). In this issue, we examine the priceless benefit of                                                                                                                    made; c) th'al a copy of the p&d&d in whkh euch &lnt
liberty that has come to the Reformed church from the Reformation.                                                                                                                    appear8 Is rent to cur ednodal oflice.
        As the articles will show, the freedom of the church and of the                                                                                                               SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                      Subecrlptlon  p&3: $12.00 Per year  in the U.S., $15.00
Christian, achieved by the 16th century Reformation, is wide-ranging. It                                                                                                              elsewtmre.  Unless P deflnlte request for  diecci?tlnuance  I8
extends from the justified soul of the believer to the government of the                                                                                                              recehred, It  I6  assumed that the  wbecrlber   wishes  the
                                                                                                                                                                                      wbscdpUontomntlnue,andhowUlbeblllodforrenwrsl. tfycu
congregation by the eldership, and from the enjoyment of the delights                                                                                                                 haveachangeofaddreos,pleasonottfytheBusinerarOtRcePs
                                                                                                                                                                                      early aa possible In order to avold the Inconvenience of
of marriage to the hope of everlasting bliss.                                                                                                                                         interrupted dellvery. Include your 23~ or Postal Code.
        Our thanks to the writers who accepted their assignments and                                                                                                                  AOVERTISING POUCY
produced on time. A special thanks to Rev. Audred Spriensma, who                                                                                                                      The .%nda~Beamrdoes  not acceptmmmemial  sdverdeing
                                                                                                                                                                                      of any kind. Announcements of church and e&cd events,
agreed, almost at the deadline, to help out with the article on freedom                                                                                                               ennlversaries, obituades, end sympathy resolutions will  be
                                                                                                                                                                                      placed for a $3.00 fee. These shot&t  be sent to the Suslne8.9
with regaid to the future state.                                                                                                                                                      Cffice and should be accompanied bythe $303 fee. Deadllne
        The Reformed church and Christian today are called to stand fast in                                                                                                           for anmuncemente  Is at I"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     one month priorto puMlcatlcn
                                                                                                                                                                                      date.
their liberty over against an enslaving false gospel of self-salvation on                                                                                                             BOUND VOLUMES
the one hand and an enslaving lawlessness on the other hand.                                                                                                                          The Suelneaa  Dfflce will accept etandlng otdefa for bound
        Our desire is that these articles help the church and the saint to find                                                                                                       copfeeofthecunentvolume. Suchordereerefilledaeraa
                                                                                                                                                                                      pcsslMe after completlm  of a volume year.
their way in the light of the liberating Word of God.                                                                                                                                 16mm  mlcmfilm, 25mm mlcrofilm  and 1 C6mm microfiche,  and
                                                                                                                                                                 - DJE                article copies are available through Unlvereity Mlcmtllms
                                                                                                                                                                                      Inlematlonal.
26 /Standard Bearer I October 16.1662


         Standing Fast in our Liberty

         Stand fast therefore in the liberty            The yoke of bondage!                all of man's needs and fills him with
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and                 To understand what this hor-        joy-
be not entangled again with the yoke of         rible yoke of bondage is all about, we               This is man's freedom.
bondage.                                        contrast it to the liberty of which the              However, should man fail to
                             Galatians  5:l     apostle speaks.                             keep the laws of God, the curse of
                                                        Liberty (freedom) is the ability    God comes upon him and he dies.
         What slave, liberated from a           to live within the confines of God's        This curse the Bible calls the curse of
most cruel bondage by the payment               law.                                        the law. This transgressing of God's
of a great price, would ever consider                   Many will challenge this defini-    law and its subsequent curse of death
returning to his slavery? What slave,           tion of freedom. Many consider free-        are not freedom but bondage.
having tasted freedom, would ever               dom to be the ability to live without                By nature we are not free but
consent to being enslaved once more?            law, to have no restraints or restric-      under a terrible yoke of bondage.
Such things are unheard of, unthink-            tions, to do as they please. To live                 A yoke was abeamplacedon tlhe
able!                                           under law is bondage.                       shoulders of animals, against which
         Nevertheless, the apostle Paul                 But consider.                       they pushed and struggled as they
saw the necessity of admonishing                        In the natural world God has a      did the work required of them by
former slaves to stand fast in their            law for every creature. He has a law        their owner, whether plowing or tum-
liberty and be not entangled again              for the fish, which is to swim in the       ing the millstone or whatever. Since
with their former yoke of bondage.              water. He has a law for the bird-to         the yoke was associated w&h hard,
This yoke of bondage was not an                 fly in the air. For the animal, God's       harsh work, it was' used to describe
earthly yoke but a spiritual one. Paul          law is to roam the fields. For every        the hard work of a slave. The slave
was addressing thosewho had at one              creature God has such a law. Now, so        was considered to be under the yoke.
time been slaves to sin. At a great             long as the creatures of God stay           Sometimes that was true literally,
price Jesus Christ had set them free.           within the confines of God's laws for       other times only figuratively. The
Yet they were inclined to return to             them, they live. They are free. But         expression "yoke of bondage," there-
their former yoke of bondage. Paul              just as soonas they violate God'slaw,       fore, depicts a slave under a heavy,
therefore exhorted them to stand fast           they lose their freedom and die.            oppressive yoke that ultimately de-
in the liberty wherewith Christ had                     In the natural world freedom is     stroys him.
made them free, and not to be en-               the ability to live within the confines              By nature we are all under such
tangled again with the yoke of bond-            of God's law.                               a spiritual yoke of bondage. On ac-
age.                                                    So is it in the spiritual realm.    count of the fall we are all born dead
         Againandagaininthehistoryof                    In distinction from the animals,    in sin. We are corrupt and depraved,
the church this same exhortation has            mankind has a spiritual side to him         defiled with the original sin of Adam.
had to be sounded. For it seems that            that places him in personal contact         We have lost all ability to serve God
the saints of God are forever and               with God. He discerns God's revela-         and to keep His commandments. We
again entangling themselves with the            tion so that he knows of God and            are prone to every evil and crooked
yoke of bondage from which Christ               always acts in relationship to God.         way. In short, we are slaves to sin.
has made them free.                                     To govern this aspect of man's               Thisisahoniblebondageinthat
            *  *  *  *  *  *  *                 life God has set over mankind the ten       it denies us the blessings of God's
                                                commandments, which express God's           friendship and brings upon us the
                                                will for man's life.                        curse of God.
                                                        When man keeps these spiritual               We are naturally under the yoke
Rev. Slopsema is pastor  of Hope Protes-        laws, he lives. This is a wonderful life    of bondage.
tant Reformed Church in Walker,                 of friendship and fellowship with                    This bondage to sin has shown
Michigan.                                       God, a life in which God provides for       itself in different ways.

                                                                                                    October 15,1992 / iStandard  Bearer / 27


         Among the pagan Gentiles, who             Christ has redeemed us from the               This was happening in .the
had only the revelation of God in            curse of the law, being made a curse           Galatian churches.
nature, it has shown itself in crude         for us: as it is written, Cursed is every           Many of the Gentile members
forms of idolatry. In theirbondage to        one that hangeth on a tree (Gal. 393).         had not completely left the wanton,
sin they repudiated the God they saw               This redemption secures our              immoral living of the pagan commu-
in nature, making idols of stone and         right to eternal freedom.                      nity  from which Christ had called
wood. Essential to this idol worship               Our actual freedom or release            them. They were much inclined to
was immorality, drunkenness, and             from the power of sin comes through            turn back to their former yoke of
abominations of every kind. All of           the saving call of the gospel, as the          bondage and become ensnared in it.
this brought upon them the horrible          apostlehimselfestablishesinverse 13                 Others, both Jew and (Gentile,
curse of God.                                of this same chapter, where he writes,         were influenced by the Judaizing
         Among the carnal element of         "For, brethren, ye have been called            teachers to embrace the error of
Israel this same spiritual slavery           unto liberty . ..."                            works-righteousness. This too was a
showeditselfinworks-righteousness.                 Jesus Christ calls all who hear          turning back to the former yoke from
To Israel God had given the Mosaic           the preaching of the gospel to repen-          which they had been liberated. It
law. This law was wonderfully de-            tance and faith in Him. Generally this         certainly was for the Jewish element
signed to regulate God's covenant            call falls upon deaf ears. But when it         in the church that hadlivedunder the
with Israel. It did that by showing          comes to the ear of the elect, it is           yoke of the self-righteous Pharisees.
Israel her sin, pointing her to God's        accompanied by the inner working of            But that was also true for the Gentiles,
Savior (the Lamb of God), and then           the Holy Spirit, who makes this call           who in their paganism were brought
setting before her the way of loving         effective by the irresistible power of         under a horrible yoke of trying to earn
gratitude and service. However, car-         grace. The result is true repentance           the favor of their gods through works.
nal Israel, being under the bondage of       andfaithuntosalvationinJesusChrist.                 We see the same tendencies in
sin, repudiated the law in its true                It is through this saving call that      the church down through history.
intent. They twisted the law into            the elect of God are actually made                  Again and again there hals arisen
becoming a means whereby they                free. For being called .to faith they          in the church an antinomian spirit in
might work their own salvation. To           cling to the redemption of the cross,          which a certain element thinkthey are
God's law they also added. their own         finding in Jesus Christ the forgive-           "free" in Christ to transgress the law
rules and regulations (the traditions        ness of sins and reconciliation with           of God and indulge themselves in the
of the elders), which in many instances      God. By faith they are also trans-             pleasures of sin. Instead they simply
contradicted thelawof Godbyallow-            formed to live a new life in Jesus             entangle themselves in a miserable
ing them to rob widows, afflict the          Christ, a life of obedience to the laws        yoke of bondage.
poor, etc. All this resulted in a hor-       of God. In that new obedience they                  The normal reaction to
rible curse upon them, a curse that          find the sweet joy of God's friendship         antinomianism in the church is legal-
eventually destroyed Israel as a na-         and fellowship. They also find the             ism. Legalism is the imposing of
tion.                                        security of a heavenly Father's care.          man-made rules on the church, rules
                                             In Jesus Christ they are free, wonder-         that require or forbid more than God
            *  *  *  *  *  *  *              fully and gloriously free, free to serve       does in His laws. The legalist thinks
         A glorious liberation!              God, free to enjoy Him forever!                that by his strict rules he will purge
         Christ has made us free from the                                                   the church of worldliness. Instead he
yoke of bondage!                                      *  *  *  *  *  *  *                   entangles the church in the yoke of
         He has done this, first, by re-           Stand fast in the liberty where-         bondage. For eventually obledience
deeming us from the curse of the law.        with Christ has made us free.                  to these man-made rules becomes the
         A slave was redeemed when the             Andbenotentangledagainwith               church's righteousness  before  God.
price necessary to set him free was          the yoke of bondage.                                Be not entangled again with the
paid.                                              The necessity of these admoni-           yoke of bondage!
         In like manner Jesus Christ has     tions arises out of the fact that the               Stand fast, rather, in the liberty
redeemed us. In order that we might          works of God's grace and salvation in          wherewith Christ has made us free!
be freed from the horrible yoke of           us are only begun in this life. Al-            In the power of Jesus Christ conform
sin's bondage, the price of sin must be      though we have been made wonder-               your life, your thoughts, your words,
paid. This price Jesus has paid for us.      fully free through a great transforma-         your actions, to the holy law of God.
The price was extremely high. It cost        tion in our life, we still possess a sinful    From this course do not waver, ei-
Him His life. For, to pay for our sins       nature that is inclined to turn back to        ther, to indulge in the pleasures of sin
required that Jesus stand before God         the former way of sin and slavery.             or to bow to the rules of mere men.
with the burden of our sin and endure        Due to the influence of our sinful             Persevere in the ways of Giod and
the horrible curse of Godin our place.       nature we do, in fact, turn back again         live!  Q
This Jesus did at the cross.                 and again to the bondage of sin.

28 /Standard Bearer I October 15,1992


                               The Reformation
                                         and Freedom

      The goal of the 16th century Ref-    civilauthorities; the exclusive right of      the doctrine of the church and the
ormation was the freedom of the            the pope to interpret Scripture; and          doctrine of the state, is "Christian
church. This stoodin thenatureof the       the sole authority of the pope to call a      Freedom." Calvin opened up this
case. The Reformation was the work         council of the church.                        vital chapter with these words:
of the Spirit of Christ to restore the           "TheBabylonianCaptivityofthe
gospel to the church and, thus, to         Church" was Luther's assault on Ro-             We must now discuss Christianfree-
form the church anew by the gospel.        man Catholic sacramental teaching,              dom. No summary of gospel teatih-
And the gospel sets men and women          especially the Roman doctrine of the            ing ought to omit an explanation of
f r e e .                                  Lord's Supper. By this, wrote Luther,           this topic. It is a matter of prime
     Jesus Christ sets men andwomen        "the church has been robbed of all her          necessity,  and without a knowledge
free. He is the true "Liberator." He       liberty." What that slavery was from            of it consciences dare undertake al-
said about Himself, "If the Son there-     which the Reformation freed the                 most nothing without faltering . . . .
fore shall make-you free, ye shall be      church, Luther made plain when he                       The Reformation gave Christ's
free indeed" (John 8:36). Christ makes     went on to say about the "papal tyr-          church her liberty. It gave her the
men and women free by the preach-          anny," that is, the Roman Catholic            truth, and the truth made her free.
ing of the gospel (Luke 416ff.). This      Church, that "it has extinguished faith,                As a denomination of churches
liberation through the gospel of the       obscured the sacraments and op-               that still enjoy the freedom of the
forgiveness of sins takes place and is     pressed the gospel; but its own laws,         gospel of grace, the Protestant Re-
enjoyed in the power of the Spirit of      which are not only impious and sac-           formed Churches celebrate the Refor-
Christ: "Where the Spirit of the Lord      rilegious, but evenbarbarous and fool-        mation as their liberation in post-
is, there is liberty" (II Cor. 3:17).      ish, it has decreed and multiplied            apostolic history from the worst of all
     The reformers understood full         without end."                                 slaveries. The members of these
well that the purpose of their great            "The Freedom of a Christian,"            Churches might wellmake  something
work was liberty. Martin Luther an-        an open letter to Pope Leo X, de-             of this celebration by reading some of
nounced that his goal was the free-        scribed the life of the Christian as a        the documents of the liberation, e.g.,
dom of the church in the three, great      life of freedom. This book, said Luther,      Luther's "The Freedom of a Chris-
treatises of 1520 with which the Ref-      "contains the whole of the Christian          tian" and Calvin's "The Necessity of
ormation was irrevocably unleashed:        life in a brief form." Freed by grace         Reforming the Church."
"An Open Letter to the Christian           from "all sins, laws, and commands"                     Celebration does not mean com-
Nobility of the German Nation con-         in the matter of justification, the Chris-    placency. A vigilant defense of their
cerning the Reform of the Christian        tian is united with Christ and, in            liberty in Christ is necessary for the
Estate"; "The Babylonian Captivity         Christ, is "a perfectly free lord of all,     PRC at the end of the 20th century.
of the Church"; and "The Freedom of        subject to none."                             Much of Protestantism has already
a Christian." These powerful works              John Calvin agreed with Luther           lost its liberty and perishes in a bond-
maybe regarded as a threefold eman-        that the Reformation aimed at liberty.        age that is every bit as bad as tha.t in
cipationproclamationfortheenslaved         In his "Reply by Calvin to Cardinal           which the church groaned at the time
church.                                    Sadolet's Letter" and his "The Neces-         of the Reformation. Powerful pres-
     In the "Open Letter," Luther          sity of Reforming the Church," Cal-           sures and subtle temptations assail
pleadedfortheliberationofthechurch         vin defended the Reformation as the           and allure the true church with the
in Germany from the slaveryin which        liberation of the church from the spiri-      purpose that she surrender her free-
she found herself on account of three      tual tyranny of the false gospel of           dom. These pressures and tempta-
Roman Catholic doctrines (Luther           Rome.                                         tions come not only from the "liberal"
called them "three walls" behind                The title of the sixth chapter of        left but also from the "conservative"
which Rome's tyranny was                   the original, 1536 edition of the Ins&        right.
unassailable) : papal power over the       tufes, in which Calvin treated both                The church as well as the indi-
                                                                                             October 15,1992 I Standard Bearer I29


vidualbelieveris called to "standfast           tian . . . freedom. That one thing is the    Christianity, is the defense of the gos-
. ..inthelibertywherewithChristhath             most holy Word of God, the gospel of         pel as the good news of grace --free,
made us free, and be not entangled              Christ . ..."                                sovereign, particular, unconditional
again with the yoke of bondage" (Gal.                 Contrary to the notion of the          grace. Liberty is at stake., The liberty
5:l).                                           "liberals," Christ does not effect the       that comes down from the 16th cen-
         The PRC must insist that the           freedom of His people by synodical           tury Reformation is at stake. The
freedom of the church and her mem-              pronouncements on the full equality          liberty of the gospelis at stake. Where
bers is spiritual. In "The Freedom of           of women in the church or by legisla-        the lie of conditional salvation is
a Christian," Luther wrote, "This is            tion in Congress that gives political        preached and believed, there is bond-
that Christian liberty, our faith . . . . fl    and social rights to homosexuals. But        age (Gal. 5:1-4).
Writing in the final, 1559 editionof his        the "conservativesn are similarly in               Such radical freedom will be
Institutes, Calvin declared: M We must          error when they seek Christian free-         abused by unspiritual people in the
carefully note that Christian freedom           dom, whether in personal life, in the        church. They will seize upon it as a
is, in all its parts, a spiritual thing. Its    church, or in society, by means of law.      license to sin freely. Luther antici-
wholeforceconsistsinquietingfright-             It makes no difference  whether this         pated this response to the proclama-
ened consciences before God . .."               "law" is the "touch not, taste not,          tion of liberty that he was making in
(3.19.9). Freedom is the state and              handle not" of the legalist or the rig-      "The Freedom of a Christian": "If
experience of standingbefore God as             orous enforcement of the moral law           faith . . . is alone sufficient unto1 righ-
righteous on the basis only of the              of the ten commandments by the               teousness, why then are good works
obedience of Another, Jesus Christ.             reconstructionist. The law does not          commanded? We will take our ease
The liberated life is the life that finds       give freedom. The law cannot give            and do no works and be content with
its source in this gracious justifica-          freedom. It can neither justify nor          faith."
tion. It is the life of deliverance from        sanctify. Only the gospel gives, main-             Calvin also warned of this reac-
guilt, from shame, and from the de-             tains, and enlarges liberty. If the law      tion to the Reformation's gospel of
mand to do anything or be anything              could have freed us, the Son of God          liberty:
upon which acceptance with God                  would not have had to become flesh
depends. It is the life that is empow-          (Rom. 8:3).                                    For, as soon as Christian freedom is
ered to serve God willingly and cheer-                                                         mentioned, either passions bo?l or
fully in thankful love.                                                                        wild tumults rise, unless these wan-
         The freedom of Christ, which                    The truth of grace                    tonspirits(whootherwisemostwick-
the Protestant and Reformed church                                                             edIy corrupt the best things) are op-
                                                           is fundamental                      posed h time. Partly, on the pretext
has inherited from the Reformation,                                                            of this freedom, men shake off all
is not earthly and political. It is not             for the liberating power                   obedience toward God and break
deliverance of the materially poor, of                      of the gospel.                     into unbridled license . ..(1536 Insti-
the physically oppressed, or of fe-                                                            tutes, 6.A.l).
males in the church, as the "liberal"
left supposes. Indeed, it is not the                  This gospel, which is the only              This misuse of the freedom of
unshackling of actual slaves. But nei-          truly liberating power in the world,  is     the gospel results once more inbond-
ther is it the transformation of the            the message of salvation from sin by         age. For the licentious church and
lawless United States into a nation             grace alone. The truth of grace is           individual are the slaves of sin. Sin
governed in its economic policy and             fundamental for the liberating power         rules, rather than the Holy Spirit of
judicial system by the laws of God, or          of the gospel. The announcement of           Christ.
the rule of Northern Ireland from               righteousness and salvation out of                The threat to gospel freedom
London or Stormont rather than from             pure grace for the sake of Christ's          from the side of lawlessness is as
Dublin, as the "conservative" right             redeeming death, grounded in  un-            great in the Protestant churches of
would have us believe.                          conditional election, bestowed by the        our day as is the threat from the false
         The spiritual liberty of Christ's      sovereign work of the Spirit, and re-        gospel of salvation by man's wilI and
church is realized by the preaching of          ceived by faith (which itself is no          works. Antinomism, revolution, and
the gospel. This, too, the PRC must             work of man but the gift of God),            unholy disorder disgrace the
contend for, if they are to continue in         liberates helpless and otherwise hope-       churches, all in the name of genuine
the liberty with which Christ made              less sinners. To corrupt this message        liberty. The evil is as prevalent among
them free in the Reformation. Free-             of grace in the slightest, so that salva-    "conservatives" as among "liberals."
dom depends upon the gospel. It                 tion depends somewhat upon the               Both glorify rebellion against unjust
depends only upon the gospel. Luther            sinner's own work, will, or worth, is        civil government, making heroes of
asserted this clearly in his "The Free-         to forfeit liberty.                          revolutionaries against the state. Both
dom of a Christian": "One thing, and                  The need of the hour in Protes-        show contempt for the ecclesiastical
only one thing, is necessary for Chris-         tant Christianity, not to say Reformed       authority that displeases them. Both

30 /Standard Bearer I October 15,1992


 approve the gross violation of the            Freedom of a Christian," the teaching        freedom, there can be no freedlom
 seventh commandment by unbiblical            that "a- Christian is a perfectly free       without the law.
 divorces and by remarriages.                 lord of all, subject to none" must be                 Through the Reformation, Christ
      The PRC are called by the Lord           accompanied by the teaching that "a         has given us liberty; infinitely pre-
 Jesus to defend true freedom by teach-        Christian is a perfectly dutiful ser-        cious liberty.
 ing the law of God, the ten command-         vant of all, subject to all." This teach-             Thank the Lord who liberated
 ments, as the inviolable rule of life for    ing must be accompanied by firm              us.
believers and their children. As              disciplineuponimpenitenttransgres-                    Value the liberty.
Luther strikingly put it in his "The          sors.                                                 And defend it.  0
                                                       Although the law cannot give                                             - DJE




               Freedom in Submission

      The Christian man understands           freedom of grace is blessedness itself!      freedom but hellish bondage. Apos-
well that true freedom is freedom             "Then said Jesus to those Jews which         tasy from the Solu Scriptura  principle
from one's own depraved reasoning.            believed on him, If ye continue in my        brings a fearful bondage to the proud
One is free when he is governed by            word, then are ye my disciples in-           individualist whose conscience is
Christ Jesus through the Wordof God.          deed; And ye shall know the truth,           forced by sinful inclinations of the
God in Christ makes a man free from           and the truth shall make you free"           depraved heart. Collectively this is
the prejudices found in the hearts of         (John 8:31-32).                              true for the whole of society. Man has
depraved men and from the decep-                       Unbelief today is more and more     deified his own conscience. Man is a
tions of his own heart. Freedom is            characterized by a demand for abso-          god unto himself.
itself the gift of God's grace in Christ.     lute freedom in matters of religion                  Ecclesiastically speaking, prior
      The freedom we are considering          and morals. Men claim a freedom to           to the great Reformation of the 16th
is therefore religious freedom. Free          believe and do whatever may be their         century, a similar bondage held fast
to obey God alone. We have but one            inclination in the pursuit of personal       those who desired to be saved. The
Master. This isnot contradictory. For         happiness. No divine prerogatives or         Romish Church held the whole Chris-
we do not imagine a freedom for the           institutions: are recognized. If a           tian church enslaved to its popish
creature, man, that is absolute. Abso-        woman's pursuit of,happiness means           doctrines. One was called upon by
lute freedom is God's and His alone.          the destruction of her unborn child,         the Romish Church to hold for truth
The absolute freedom of God is His as         then nearly the whole of society in all      whatever the church taught to be true,
the alone holy, righteous, sovereign          western, so-called Christian countries       upon threat of the loss of salvation
over all. But man, who is the Creator's       vehemently defends the right andfree-        should he dare to contradict the in-
dependent subordinate, is graciously          dom of such an individual to termi-          structions of the infallible and holy
grantedacreaturelyfreedominChrist             nate her pregnancy. Free to divorce  at      church. Rome's appeal for this au-
Jesus. This freedom in Christ Jesus is        will; free to abandon the responsibil-       thority was not primarily to the au-
the great blessing of salvation. Free         ity lovingly to care for and rear chil-      thority of Scripture but to the author-
not only from the guilt of sin, but also      dren; free to despise governments;           ity of tradition. Her ,@adition,  as ex-
from the tyranny of depravity, from           free to impose upon the hapless em-          pressed by church councils and papal
the bondage to Satan; free to will the        ployer the will of the laboring force;       decrees, was to be regarded as divine
good; free to obey the Master; free to        free to believe and to express said          pronouncements. The doctrinal pro-
serve our neighbor for the Lords sake         belief no matter how monstrous it            nouncements that were found to be
and for the neighbor's salvation. This        may be. This freedom is limited by           offensive by the reformers were not
                                              modem society only by its protection         those common to the Christian church
                                              of one's living, air-breathing neigh-        in all ages, but those that made ,the
                                              bor. We may not impinge the rights           Roman Catholic Church uniqulely
Rev. Kamps is pastor of Southwest Prot-       and freedoms of the neighbor by our          Romishin distinction from the church
estant Reformed Church in Grandville,         actions. The unborn, though living,          of the apostles and early church fa-
Michigan.                                     have no such protection. This is not         thers. The biblical doctrines of the

                                                                                                  October 15,1992 I Standard Bearer 131


eternal divinity of Jesus Christ, the           fully transmitted, and preserved in                                 of faith and life was
Trinity, the infallible inspiration and         the Church. 3) That they constitute a         tobeheldworthyofdeathitself. Rome
authority of Scripture, the doctrine of         part of the rule of faith for all believ-     hated beyond comprehension the
Creation, etc. were not doctrines that          ers . . . . From this it appears, 1. That     Reformation's doctrine of the sole
made the institution of the church              these traditions are called unwritten         authority of Scripture. Nor must we
                                                because not contained in the Scrip-
Romish.  The Christian church ever              tures. They are, for the most part,           overlook the fact that this is still
held to these. But the popish doc-              nowtobefoundwrittenintheworks                 Rome's teachings. Scripture is the
trines made the church Romish, and              of the Fathers, decisions of councils,        inspired Word of God, but this Word
these had to be believed in order for           ecclesiastical constitutions, and             can only be rightly interpreted by
one to be saved. The authority of               rescriptsofthePopes.  2.Theofficeof           Rome. And the authority of tradition
tradition demanded, upon threat of              traditionis toconveyaknowledgeof              is equal to that of Scripture.
excommunication, compliance to and              doctrines, precepts, and institutions              For example, we should1 con-
animplicitfaithintheteachingsofthe              not contained in Scripture; and also          sider the dreadful action of the Coun-
church. These Romish or popish doc-             to serve as a guide to the proper             cilofConstance.  JohnHuswasburned
                                                understanding of what is therein
trines are: the mediatorial office of           written. Tradition . . . therefore, in the    at the stake in 1415, having been con-
the Pope as the vicar of Christ Jesus,          Church of Rome, is both the supple-           demned as a heretic for demanding
the ex-cathedra infallibility of the Pope,      ment and interpretation of the writ-          that Rome give the cup of the Lord's
all the doctrines that pertain to her           ten word. 3. The authority due to             Supper  b&k to the people in the cel-
ludicrous Mariolatry, the prayers to            tradition is the same as that which           ebrationof the Sacrament. His appeal
the saints, indulgences, transubstan-           belongs to the Scriptures" (Sysfem-           was to Scripture, which records the
tiation or the physical presence of             atic Theology, Hodge, Vol. I, pp.             Lord's institution of the Lord's Sup-
Christ Jesus upon the altar, the Mass           109-110).                                     per and the explicit instruction that
as a repeated sacrifice necessary to                                                          the communicant drink all of iit. But
one's salvation, the seven sacraments,              Rome's doctrine of tradition is           Rome condemned Hus on the basis of
purgatory, justification  by  works  and      of several elements. The doctrine of            the authority of tradition. Jn addi-
faith, the obscurity or darkness of           the personal succession of apostolic            tion, Hus had been a strong defender
Scripture, theinability of the so-called      authority of Peter to the Bishop of             of the theology of Wyclif, the English
laity to interpret Scripture, the Pope's      Rome, or the Pope. The church as the            reformer. Popish doctrines were de-
alleged supremacy and authority even          divinely guided interpreter of the              fended by Rome on the basis of tradi-
in matters civil and governmental,            obscure scriptures. The doctrine of             tion. The authority of tradition pro-
and many other doctrines unique to            the unwritten Word. "Tradition is               vided the church of Rome the grounds
Rome and which made the church                always represented by Roman&s  as               for declaring him a heretic, even
Romish iridistinction from Christian.         not only the interpreter, but the               though he taught nothing that was
     Rome's doctrine of tradition is          complement of the Scriptures. The               not founded upon the Scriptures.
that it has equal authority to that of        Bible, therefore, is, according to the                Charles Hodge sets forth the ter-
Scripture, and that tradition is also         Church of Rome, incomplete. It does             rible consequences when tradition is
the arbitrator of the right and only          not contain all the Church is bound to          exalted to equal authority to tlhat of
acceptable interpretationof Scripture.        believe; nor are the doctrines which it         Scripture.
This traditionis exclusively the tradi-       does contain, therein fully or clearly
tion of the Roman Catholic Church.            made known" (Hedge's  Systematic                  Making tradition a part of the rule of
And Rome understands her church to            TheoZogy,  p. 106). Therefore, what               faith subverts the authority bf the
have been the Christian church                the church taught, every Christian                Scriptures. This follows as a natural
throughout the centuries. The gov-            must believe. All else were heretics.             and unavoidable consequence. If
ernment of the church and the deter-                                                            there be two standards of doctrine  of
mination of what is to be taught in the                                                         equal authority, the one the explana-
                                                                                                tory, and infallible interpreter of the
churchis to be decided exclusivelyby                         Rome hated                         other, it is of necessity the interpreta-
Rome. The Council of Trent set forth               beyond comprehension                         tion which determines the faith of
Rome's position in regard to the au-            the Reformation's doctrine                      the people. Instead, therefore, of our
thority of tradition.                                of the sole authority                      faith resting on the testimony of God
                                                                                                as recorded in His Word, it rests on
  That                                                       of  Scripture.
           Council, and the Latin Church                                                        what poor, fallible, often fanciful,
  as a body, teach on this subject, 1)                                                          prejudiced, benighted men tell us
  That  Christ and his Apostles taught                                                          what is the meaning of the Word.
  many things which were not com-                   We should understand that this              Man and his authority take the p'lace
  mitted to writing, i.e., not recorded       was no mere theoretical matter. To                of God. As this is the logical conse-
  in the Sacred Scriptures. 2) That           oppose Rtime  and to appeal to the                quence of making tradition a rule of
  these instructions have been faith-         authority of Scripture alone as one's             faith, so it is an historical fact that the
                                                                                                Scriptures have been made of no

32 IStandard Bearer I October 15,1992


  account wherever the authority of         Presbyterian denominations. Con:             the Bible. Pastors promote a "Chris-
  tradition has been admitted. Our          gregations are  weaned away  from a          tian faith" that has no structure, no
  Lord said, that the Scribes and Phari-    creedal consciousness on the ground          definite character, and little specific
  sees make the Word of God of no           that the only authority in the church        content. This is done in the name of
  effect by their traditions; that they     of Jesus Christ is the Bible. No matter      love, toleration, and freedom. But
  taught for doctrines the command-
  ments of men. This is no less histori-    how often it is pointed out that the         this perversion of the Sola Scriptura
  cally true of the Church of Rome" (p.     Creeds have a derived and subordi-           principle flies in the face of history.
  128).                                     nate authority and that the dogmas of        The greatest defenders of the author-
                                            the church are always subject to the         ity of Scripture were also those who
     Today the doctrine of the exclu-       principle, sola scriptura, men still re-     encouragedtheReformationchurches
siveauthorityof.theBibleisperverted         sist the Reformed churches' doctrine         to express her faith in Creeds, and
and misapplied. Today the Protes-           of the Creeds. The church institute is       who appealed to the ancient ecumeni-
tant churches openly despise the con-       denied a systematic, authoritative           cal Creeds for a statement of the Chris-
cept of the authority of the Creeds in      statement of her beliefs on the ground       tianfaith.  0
the life of the church. This attitude is    that these are man-made documents
found even within Reformed and              and contrary to the sole authority of




           Ecclesiastical Freedom Vs.
                                     Papal Tyranny

     The Reformation was the great          tire life. They were: Address to the         church. An old Medieval distinction
work of God which delivered the             German Nobility, The Babylonian              between the "teaching church" (the
church from the slavery and tyranny         Captivity  of the Church, and Con-           clergy) and the "hearing church" (the
of Roman Catholicism. The tyranny           cerning Christian Freedom. In them           laity) effectively put the lay members
of Rome extended to every part of the       Luther demolished the pope's tyran-          under the complete control of the
Christian's life, including the             nical rule in the church and restored        pope and his minions. All that was
Christian's place in the church of Jesus    to God's people the "liberty where-          permitted the laity was passive obe-
Christ.                                     with Christ has made us free."               dience to the directives and orders of
     This article purposes to take a              Luther despised the tyranny of         the clergy.
look at the freedom which the Refor-        the pope and spoke of it as that gov-             The second wall of Jericho was
mation gave to God's people as mem-         ernment which "agrees with the gov-          the claim of the church to have the
bers of the church of Christ in her         ernment of the apostles as well as           exclusive right to interpret Scripture.
institutional formr                         Lucifer with Christ, hell with heaven,       The people of God were tyrannized
                                            night with day . . . . "I                    by the refusal of the church to allow
Luther's Groundwork                               In his Address to the German           God's people to interpret Scripture
     Already in 1520, just abare three      NobiZity, Luther speaks of papal tyr-        themselves-indeed, they might not
years after he nailed his theses on the     anny in the church as three walls of         even possess or read a Bible without
chapel door  of. `the church at             Jericho whichneed to be pulled down.         the express consent of a member of
Wittenberg, Luther wrote three of the       We mention only two.                         the clergy. The church assumed all
most important pamphlets of his en-               The first wall is Rome's exclu-        right to explain God's Word.
                                            sion of the laity from all matters of the         Luther's address is a massive
                                                                                         assault on these walls, by which they
                                                                                         were completely thrown down.
                                            1 Quoted from Philip Schaff, TheHis-              These walls were destroyed, first
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-     toy  of  the Christian Church  (Grand        of all, by the great truth of the priest-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-        Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Co.,             hood of all believers. Not the clergy
tant &formed Semina y.                      1950),  Vol. VII, pp. 206,207.               only have the Spirit; all God's people

                                                                                             October l&1992  / Standard Bearer 133


are anointed with the Holy One. Not          before God was laid on the shdulders        Him. The beautiful words of Luther
only the clergy are prophets, priests,       of the believer; the home and family        ring true today: The Christian is lord
and kings who alone are able to inter-       were elevated to their crucial place in     of all and subject to none by virtue of
pret Scripture, intercede with God,          the church.                                 faith; he is servant of all and subject to
and rule in the church. All God's                 In  The Babylonian Captivity of        everyone by virtue of love.
people are able to interpret Scripture       the Church, Luther explains how the
and know what it teaches; all God's          Roman Church held her members               Calvin the Builder
people are able to come to God with-         captive by her doctrine of the sacra-                Luther did not and could not
out the intermediaries of the church's       ments. The church controlled the life       complete the work of Reformation in
appointment; all God's people rule in        of Christians from the cradle to the        matters of church government. That
the name of Christ.                          grave and brought every act and event       work awaited the genius of the re-
      Luther writes:                         under the power of the priest. It is not    former of Geneva, John Calvin.
                                             difficult to see how this was done. It               All the reformers were in com-
      AUChristiansaretruIyofthespti-         was as if the grace of God was held by      plete agreement on the principle that
  tual estate, and there is no difference    the church in a huge bowl, to be doled      the Word of God alone had authority
  among them, save of office alone. As       out drop by drop to the members of          in the lives of God's people and in the
  St. Paul says, we are all one body,        the church by the clergy, through the       affairs of the church. Calvin, among
  though each member does its own            sacraments, and at the whims of the         alltheotherworkwhichheperformed,
  work, to serve the others. This is
  because we have one baptism, one           local parish priest. It was his to de-      restored to the church the biblical
  gospel, one faith, and are all Chris-      cide whether to give or to withhold.        rule.
  tians alike; for baptism, gospel and       The people were in slavery too and                   From a negative point ad view,
  faith, these alone make spiritual and      tyrannized by the sacraments.               Calvin understood full well that the
  Christian   p e o p l e .                       By repudiating such presump-           alternative to Rome's tyranny was
                                             tuous ideas, making the sacraments          not liberty in the sense of license -
      Or again,                              subordinate to the Word, and restor-        every man doing as seemed good to
                                             ing the sacraments to their original        him. Rome had accused the reform-
      It is faith that makes men priests,    number, Luther smashed this wall            ers of bringing license into the church
  faith that unites them to Christ, and      too. The power of the sacraments,           by  rejecting the authority of the
  givesthemtheindwellingoftheHoly            Luther insisted, was faith worked in        church; but the reformers repudiated
  Spirit, whereby they become filled         the heart by the Holy Spirit.               the charge by insisting on the author-
  with all holy grace and heavenly
  power. Theinwardanointing-this                                                         ity of Scripture as that by which we
  oil, better than any that ever came                                                    are bound and delivered fromlicense.
  from the horn of bishop or pope -                                                               Calvin knew firsthand what li-
gives them not the name only, but              The Christian is lord of all              cense meant. Not only had the
  the nature, the purity, the power of                                                   Anabaptists rejected authority, but
  priests; and this anointing have all              and subject to none                  the Libertines in Geneva, who re-
  they received who are believers in                 by virtue of faith;                 fused to be bound by any law and
  Christ.                                           he is servant of all                 were the early proponents of what
                                                                                         today is called "the new morality,"
      The secondassault against those            and subject to we yone                  were responsible for driving Calvin
walls was the truth of the sole author-              by virtue of love.                  from Geneva after his first sojourn,
ity of Scripture. In Luther's teaching,                                                  and for making life as miserable as
not the church but God's Word alone                                                      they could for Calvin during his sec-
stands as the rule and guide of the                                                      ond stay - until they were finally
faith and life of God's people. If only           His third book,  Christian Free-       driven from the city.
the church possesses the power to            dom, has got to be one of Luther's                   Concerning them, A. Mitchell
interpret Scripture, Luther wrote,           finest works. Luther understood that        Hunter writes:
then, "Let us bum the Scriptures and         the alternative to tyranny and the
be content with the learned boys at          synonym of freedom is not license -                  [Calvin] spoke of the spirit of
Rome."                                       as some wanted it to be.2 Liberty in          Libertinism as U the most pernicious
     These mighty cannonades not             the gospel is in Christ, not awayfrom         and execrable which ever existed in
only demolished the walls, but gave                                                        the world, a fire kindled to s,cathe
to God's people the freedom of the                                                         and destroy everything a cont,agion
gospel. The doors of the church were                                                       which will infect the whole earth
opened to lay participation in the af-                                                     unless some remedy is found." The
                                             2The riots in Wittenberg while Luther
fairs  of the  church; individual and                                                      whole aim of these men, he asserted,
                                             was hiding in the castle of Wartburg
personal responsibility for his life                                                       was "to destroy all religion whatso-
                                             were a case in point.                         ever, to efface all knowledge of the

34 /Standard Bearer I October 15,1992


  spiritual nature of man, to deaden         thority in the church. Not papal tyr-        by Christ who is exalted on high, but
  his conscience, and obliterate all dis-    anny, not Libertinism, not Ana-bap-          performed here in the visible church
  tin&on between men and brutes."            tism; the Scriptures. The Word of
  Compared to them the Pope was a                                                         through officebearers called and ap-
  virtuous character....3                    God is the rule for the whole church.        pointed by Christ.
                                             It is the infallible rule which deter;             But the question still remains:
      It was during the happy years in       mines that the church is ruled by            What was Calvin's view of the rela-
Strassburgthat Calvin didmost of his         officebearers. It defines what offices       tion between the special offices (of
work in the area of church polity.           are to be found in the church and            elder, deacon, and minister) and  ,the
Upon hisreturn to Geneva, he had the         what the work of these officebearers         office of all believers? What role did
opportunity to implement his church          is. It prescribes the role of the "laity"    they play in the government of ,the
polity, and that under the most diffi-       in the church. It settles the relation       church?
cult circumstances.                          between officebearers mutually, and
      In 1542 Calvin laid down the           between officebearers and the mem-
principles by which the church ought         bers of the holy congregation.                 In all the rule of the church,
to be governed ai found in the Word                Calvin was a strong proponent                  believers are called
of God. This work, Geneva's Church           of the need for discipline in the church                to parh'cipate.
Order, was called "Ecclesiastical Or-        - meaning, by "discipline," subjec-
dinances," the opening words of              tion to the rule of the church and the
which are:                                   enforcement of the rule of Christ.
                                             Nearlytheentire12thchapterofBook                   Two answers to this question
                                                                                          must be given.
     In the name of God Almighty, we         iv of his Institutes  is devoted to this           In all the rule of the church, be-
  the Syndics, Small and Great Coun-         subject, and especially the first para-
  cils with our people assembled at the      graph speaks strongly of the need for        lievers are called to participate. The
  sound of the trumpet and the great         discipline: `I... If no society, nay, no     calling of officebearers is by the con-
  clo& according to our ancient cus-         house with even a moderate family,           gregation; the work of the church
  toms, have considered that the mat-        can be kept in a right state without         must be done only with the knowl-
  ter above all others worthy of recom-      discipline, much more necessary is it        edge and approval of its member-
  mendation is to preserve the doc-          in the church, whose state ought to be       ship; even the discipline of the church
  tine of the holy gospel of our Lordin                                                   is carried out with the approbation of
  its purity, to protect the Christian       the best ordered possible."                  the congregation.
  Church, to instruct faithfully the              Calvin found in Scripture the                Secondly,         each believer,
  youth, and to provide a hospital for       requirement for the offices in the           prophet, priest, and king in his own
  the proper support of the poor, - all      church.5 Calvin brought into the
  of which can not be done without a         church the offices of elder, deacon,         right, has the freedom of individual
  definite order and rule of life, from      and minister of the Word, and re-            conscience, bound only by the Word,
  which every estate may learn the           stored the church according to the           in his walkbefore God. He is answer-
  duty of its office. For this reason we     pattern of Scripture.6  His point was        able to God alone. No individual, no
  have deemed it wise to reduce the          that the authority of the Word of God        assembly, no papal decree, no mere
  spiritual government, such as our                                                       decree of  man  can bind his con-
  Lord has shown us and instituted by        is found in the Scriptures, exercised        science.' Luther had said it first: "My
  His Word, to a good form to beintro-                                                    conscience is bound by the Word of
  duced and observed among us.
  Therefore we have ordered and es-                                                       God. Here I stand. I can do nought
  tablished to follow and to guard in                                                     else. So help me God."
  our city and territory the following       5Wallaceis  wrongwhenhesays, "The                 Those who claim to be heirs of
  ecclesiastical polity, taken from the      Scriptural basis which Calvin gives          the Reformation want today too to
  gospel of Jesus Christ.(                   for the office of elder is so flimsy that    interpret the freedom of the gospel,
                                             many Calvin scholars have felt that          which the reformers restored to ithe
     The Word of God was the au-             he was simply trying to find sanction        church, as. a kind of liberty from all
                                             for an institution that had been de-         biblical principle. Let us remainfaith-
                                             vised to meet the urgent needs of the        ful to the Reformation, also in our life
                                             church of his day: (Ronald S. Wallace,       in the church of Christ. 0
3 A. Mitchell Hunter; The Teaching of        Calvin, Gem&a, and the Reformation
Calvin, (Glasgow: Maclehose, Jack-           [Grand Rapids: Baker, Book House,
son & Co., 1920), p. 219.                    1988], p. 141).
4 Quoted from: Richard Taylor                                                             ' How this is to be applied in the
Stevenson,  John Calvin: The States-         6 Actually Calvin had four offices in        practical life of the individual mem-
man  (New York: Eaton & Mains,               the church: the office of teacher was        bers of the church is a subject for
1907), p. 129.                               a separate office.                           another paper.
                                                                                              October 15,1992  I Standard Bearer I 35


     Freedom from Fear of Death]
                       andthe Future State

     What is your attitude toward             feel, smell, taste, or move. Earthly       ing relatives at the grave of His friend
death? What should be the Christian's         relationships are severed. One is tom      Lazarus, wept as He saw the grief of
attitude toward death? Is your atti-          from family and friends, work and          His friends and. felt in Himself the
tude that of fear, or of hope? The way        play. Death is separation of body and      awfulness of this enemy. But we
you answer will reflect how much              soul- the body to decay in the grave;      sorrow not as those without hope!
your thinking is affected by the great        the soul to meet its Maker.                     While death remains a dreadful
Reformation. Fear or Hope!                         Itisimportanttoknowthatdeath          experience (dissolution of our earthly
     Concerning death the apostle             is God's curse upon a sinful world         house - the apostle Paul likens the
Paul writes in I Thessalonians 4:13ff.,       and sinful man. In Genesis 2:17 we         loss of the body by the soul to the state
"But I would not have you be igno-            read, "In the day thou eatest thereof,     of nakedness, in II Corinthians 5:1-4),
rant, brethren, concerning them that          thou shalt surely die." The Bible          death is no longer to be feared by the
are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as       teaches that death is the wages of sin     child of God. Rather it is the bound-
others which have no hope."                   (Rom. 6:23). Death is the avenging         ary line between this world and the
     The nature of death and the fu-          punishing, and damningworkof God,          next, the portal through which our
ture state is such that they are un-          the expression of God's holy wrath.        Lord qntered to prepare the way for
knowable apart from the teaching of           Death is the beginning of eternal mis:     His own. Our salvationis sure. When
Scripture. Deathis often a topic which        ery and eternal separation from God.       i.ntheLord'sappointedtimeHecomes
is painstakingly avoided. Yet every           That is the terrible reality of death.     for us, it is for the purpose of leading
personknowsthatdeathisinevitable,             Spiritually, death is separation from      us into our inheritance. The day of
unless the Lord returns first.                God- forsaken, left in sin, punished       our death is the day of our corona-
     Death: heart attacks, disease,           forever.                                   tion. We leave a world of sin and
accidents, murder, wars, crib death,               Well might the unbeliever, the        sorrow, affliction and pain, tempta-
old age, and many other causes ac-            reprobate, fear death! But the child of    tion and struggle, to enter a farbetter
count for death. The grim reaper may          God need not fear, for the sting of        world, a world of perfection and ho-
come to anyone, young or old, rich or         death is removed. Jesus Christ has         liness, blessedness and glory, free-
poor, healthy or sick, saint or sinner.       satisfied the wrath of God that was        dom and fellowship with God. That
When God calls, none can escape.              due us. He took our curse. He died         is why the apostle Paul could write,
Scripture tells us: "It is appointed          our death. He was forsaken by God          "For me to live is Christ, to die is
unto men once to die, but after this the      that we might forever be accepted by       g a i n . "
judgment" (Heb. 9:27).                        God. Christ did that for every one of           From the above it should be ap-
     We see then that death is not a          those whom the Father gave to the          parent that death is not the end (of our
natural phenomenon. It is appointed           Son to be saved. How beautifully we        existence. Many believe that there is
by God. "There is a season," says the         can repeat the words of David, "In         nothing more after death.  SIO eat,
writer of Ecclesiastes. Job said, "The        that day thou shalt say, 0 Lord, I will    drink, and be merry. Today you live;
Lordgiveth, the Lord taketh away . . . . *    praise thee: though thou wast angry        who knows about tomorrow. "You
     Death is destruction, a tearing          with me, thine anger is turned away,       only go around once. Make the most
down, a separation. Death marks the           andthoucomfortedstme" (Isa.  1211).        of it." How the wicked like to delude
end of our earthly existence. A man's              Death should hold no terrors for      themselves that there is nothing more,
name and place is cut off. It is a            the true Christian. Oh, the last enemy     for they do not want to confront the
separation from all earthly things.           remains. A cruel tyrant, it relent-        almighty, righteous God who pun-
No longer does the person see, touch,         lessly brings grief and misery to all      ishes the wicked in time and eternity.
                                              those touched by it. The apostle Paul      Jehovah's Witnesses andseventlh-day
                                              describes it as a terrible foe with an     Adventists, as well as some leading
Rev. Spriensma is a minister in the Prot-     awful sting like an adder. Christ          evangelicals  today, assert that the
estant Reformed Churches in America.          Himself, as He stood by the sorrow-        wicked will be annihilated. They do
36 /Standard Bearer I October `I!&1992


this to soften or do away with the           ration makes the fire of hell more           been referred to as "the goldmine of
doctrine of eternal punishment. They         terrible than that of purgatory."            the priesthood," since it accounts for
defend the character of God as a "God        Again, Bellarmine is quoted as say-          such a large part of their wealth.
of love who certainly could not eter-        ing, "There is absolutely no doubt                 The Roman Catholic doctrine of
nally punish and damn sinners."              that the pains of purgatory in some          purgatory gives to the death and fu-
     Death, rather than being an end         cases endure for entire centuries."          neral of the Roman Catholic a dread-
to our existence, is a transition. The            The Roman Catholic doctrine of          ful and terrible aspect. Under the
soul enters eternallife for the believer     purgatory was defined by the Coun-           shadow of such a doctrine, death is
and eternal death for the unbeliever.        cil of Trent as follows: "There is a         not, as in Protestantism, the coming
What happens to these souls? It is not       purgatory, and the souls there de-           of Christ for His loved ones, but the
my intention now to trace the misery         tained are helped by the prayers of          ushering of the shrinking soul into a
of the wicked reprobate. I want to           the faithful, and especially by the ac-      place of "unspeakable torture."
look at the blessedness and hope of          ceptable sacrifice of the Altar" (Ses-             It is no wonder that millions
believers. What happens to believers         sion XXV).                                   born and raised in Roman Catholi-
at death?                                         This holy council commands all          cism, not knowing the Scriptures, live
     The Roman Catholic Church has           bishops "diligently to endeavor that         and die in the fear of death, the fear of
built up a doctrine in which it is held      the wholesome doctrine concerning            spending unknown years in the pain
that all who die at peace with the           purgatory . . . bebelieved, held, taught,    and anguish of a place called purga-
church, but who are not perfect, must        and everywhere preached by Christ's          tory. These people live in fear and
`undergo penal and purifying suffer-         faithful" (SessionXXV).  Withrespect         servitude to the priests, who, they nre
ing in an intermediate realm known           to the person who rejects this doc-          taught, hold in their hands the ability
as purgatory. Only' those believers          trine, the same council declared, "Let       to alleviate, shorten, or terminate suf-
who have attained a state of Christian       him be anathema" (Session VI).               -fering for the right price. These
perfection go immediately to heaven.              The Roman Catholic doctrine of          blinded people live in fear whether
All unbaptized adults and those who          purgatory rests on the assumption            friends and relatives will remember
after baptism have committed mortal          that while God forgives sin, His jus-        them, pray for them, and pay for
sin go immediately to hell. The great        tice nevertheless demands that the           them that their sufferings may be
mass of partially sanctified Christians,     sinner must suffer the full punish-          shortened.
who die in fellowship with the church        ment due to him for his sin before he              Roman Catholicism has often
but whonevertheless are encumbered           will be allowed to enter heaven. The         been described as a religion of fear.
with some degree of sin, go to purga-        period of suffering can be shortened         All their lives the followers, of the
tory, where for a period of time they        by gifts of money, the prayers of the        Church of Rome are kept in servitude
suffer until all sin is purged away.         priests, and Masses held. These gifts,       by the fear of death. No wonder! Lilt
     The  Roman Catholic Church              prayers, and Masses can be provided          Lehmann says this concerning :his
holds that baptism removes all previ-        for by the person before his death or        boyhood in Ireland:
ous guilt, both original and actual, so      by relatives and friends after death.
that if a person were `to die immedi-        Purgatory is believed to be under the          A sense of constant fear overshad-
ately after baptism he would go di-          special jurisdiction of the Pope, and it       owed everything. Ingrained fear is
rectly to heaven. All other believers,       is his prerogative as the representa-          in fact thepredominantnoterunning
except the Christianmartyrs, must go         tive of Christ, and the priests' as rep-       through the life of all children born
to purgatory to pay the penalty for          resentatives of the Pope, to grant in-         and raised in Catholic Ireland. Few
sins committed after baptism.                dulgences (i.e., relief from suffering)        ever get rid of it completely in after
                                                                                            life, even in America. That fear con-
     As regards the intensity of the         as he sees fit. So the priesthood has          cerns everything in this life, and still
suffering,  Bellarmine, a noted Roman        the power to alleviate, shorten, or            more terrible is the fear of the terrors
Catholic theologian, says, "The pains        terminate the sufferings. The priest is        in the life beyond the grave" (I%?
of purgatory are very severe, sur-           authorized to accept gifts and to offer        Soul of a Priest,  p. 34).
passinganythingenduredinthislife."           the prayer for the alleviation of suf-
In another place we read, "according         fering or the deliverance of the soul.            We must be thankful that Glad
to the Holy Fathers of the church, the       In effect, therefore, the church sells       delivered His church,. by the great
fire of purgatory does not differ from       salvation. The rich can pay for the          Reformation, from the shackles of such
the fire of hell, except in point of         removal of their suffering. The people       a servitude to fear. Freed by the
duration. `It is the same fire,' says St.    are enslaved to the greedy priest-           Scriptures.
Thomas Aquinas, `that torments the           hood. Look in the third world coun-               We were freed from the fear of
reprobates in hell and the just in pur-      tries how the people live in shacks          animaginarypurgatorywithitsbum-
gatory.' The least pain in purgatory         and huts while large expensive cathe-        ing hell fire. We have the blessed
surpasses the greatest sufferings in         drals are built in their midst. The          hope that when we die we are taken
this life. Nothing but the eternal du-       doctrine of purgatory has sometimes          immediately up to heaven!

                                                                                              October IS, 1992 / Simdattl Bearer I37


     Jesus said to the thief on the           cleanse ourselves. Jesus paid it all.              Romans 8:l -There is therefore
cross, "Today shalt thou be with me           Jesussaid,"Itisfinished" (John1930).           nownocondemnationtothemwhich
in paradise" (Luke 23:43).  Not some-         It was He who sustained for His                 are in Christ Jesus.
day, not after you have paid for alI          peopleetemalredemption(Heb.912)                    John 142, 3 - In my Father's
your heinous crimes, but, Jesus said,         by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. 9:26).       house are many mansions: ifit were
                                                                                             not so, I would have told you. I go to
Today! Paradise! Jesus said (John             It was by means of His one offering            prepare a place for you. And if I go
5:24), "He that heareth my word and           that He perfected those who are sanc-           and prepare a place for you, I will
believeth on him that sent me, hath           tified  (Heb.  10:14). "The blood of           come again, and receive you unto
everlasting life, and shall not come          Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from          myself; that where I am, there ye
into judgment, but is passed from             all sin" (I John 1:7). We are sanctified       may be also.
death unto life." Paul wrote that to          by the Holy Spirit (II Thess. 2:13), not           Revelation 1413 - Blessed are
depart was to "be with Christ," and           by the terrible fires of a supposed             the dead which die in the Lord from
that it would be "far better" (Phil.          purgatory.                                      henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that
                                                                                              theymayrestfromtheirlabours;and
k23).                                              We were freed from the fear that           their works do follow them.
         We were freed from the grip of       our enjoying the bliss of heaven de-
greedy, accursed priests trying to sell       pendsuponrelativesandfriendspray-                  For the believer, there is hope in
salvation, "The blood of Jesus his Son        ing and paying for us. For some               death and in the future state. We will
cleanseth us from all sin . . . . If we       elderly people the knowledge is only          be with Jesus, with the angels and
confess our sins, he is faithful and          too keen that it is difficult for children    saints in heaven, continuously prais-
righteous to forgive our sins and to          and relatives to remember and visit           ing God. But, of course, we keep one
cleanse us from all unrighteousness"          us while still alive. Perish the thought      eye on that great day when Jesus will
(I John 1:7,9). All our sins - yes, all       that our final deliverance from the           come again on the clouds of he'aven,
of them - are forgiven by the sacri-          hell fires would depend upon those            to usher in the new heavens and earth,
fice of Jesus Christ, once for all, not to    relatives to remember us when we are          whenourbodieswillberaisedandbe
be purged away by priests saying              gone!                                         gloriously transformed. Then, with
Mass or prayers, or by hell fires rag-             How wonderful is this freedom            body and soul, we will see Him, wor-
ing for centuries. To the question,           the Reformation brought to the                ship Him, and enjoy Him forever. A
"What must I do to be saved?" the             church.. Because of Jesus' work, His          great hope!
answer is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus         sacrifice on Calvary was sufficient to             Always, as Protestant Reformed
Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts        purge all of our sins, without the need       Churches, we must beware of false,
1631).  There is no reference to con-         of any  Upurg"-atory.  Christ says,           teachings creeping into the church,
fession to a priest, penance, purga-          "And their sins and their iniquities          sucking away her hope and her life,
tory, or anything else the Roman              wil.lIremembernomore"  (Heb. 10~17).          shackling again the church in the
priests demand.                                    Over against the fears of Rome,          shackles of fear. "For God hath not
         We were freed from an accursed       as Christians of the Reformed persua-         given us the spirit of fear; but of
works-righteousness. Man cannot               sion we have the glorious hope that at        power, and of love, and of a sound
save himself. Salvationis Gods work           death we go straight to heaven!               mind" (II Tim. 1:7).
We do not pay for our sins. We do not         HOPE!                                              HOPE  - freed from fear! 0

                                                 The Dream City
There's a city that hath no need of           I have dreamed of that city I shall see       I have thought I could hear the angels
           light                                  When the mists roll in splendor                    sing
    Of the moon, or the stars or sun;                  away                                     As, unnumbered, they stood
There is no noon, neither is there            And morning dawns, as it will for me                   `round the throne
           night,                                 At the close of life's brief day.         On which One sat whom they
    For the day and night are one.            Of its jasper walls and its pearly gates,              crowned their King,
There is no sin there, neither pain nor           Of its streets of bright shining              And I knew Him - Christ, my
           care,                                       gold,                                                 !
    Toil or sorrow, death or decay;           And the home therein which for me             As He lzzd at me I beheld Him
Everlasting beauty abideth there,                      awaits                                        smile,
    That shall never pass away.                   When the portals bright unfold.               AndHis tender voice1 could1 hear
                                                                                            Saying: "Tarry yet but a little while,
                                                                                                For the morning draweth near."
                                                                                                                      Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                      January I,1933

38 /Standard Bearer I October 151992


                              Not Commanded,
                                     Not Forbidden
                              "Freedom In the Adiaphora"

      "Should I do it? Or should I            in his conscience from the terrors of              What is amazingabout these pro-
not?"      For a good portion of the          the law. Second, he has freedom-of         nouncements is that they come from
Christian life, the Bible does not give       conscience to obey the law from the        the pope. Having really pulled them
directanswertouswhetherweshould               heart. Third, he is given freedom of       from his sleeve, or having sucked
or should not. These things, about            conscience regarding the use of the        them from his thumb, he audaciously
which the Bible does not give direct          indifferent things.                        claims that they come directly from
instruction, are called  adiaphora.                The restoration of this teaching      God.
Adiaphora means, literally, "the              rescued the poor people of God in the              But this is no different from the
things indifferent." The concept is           Roman church. Holding the miser-           lordly Pharisee who said, "You go to
important - as important as your              able view that every area of the           hellifyoueatwithunwashedhands,"
salvation. The word ought to be               Christian'slifemustbecircumscribed         or the proud legalist today who says,
known by us. Thus, I included it in           by the church, the Roman church            "Ifyoudrinkaglassofwineorabottle
the title of the article. Please learn it:    made law upon law, precept upon            of beer you are damned." Both bind
adiaphora, The things indifferent.            precept for the sheep under their          the believer's conscience with a law
      In contrast to the Roman Catho-         "care." The twin error of the Roman        not found in Scripture. We must
lic Church (and other modem, legal-           church, and thus the double oppres-        resist this with all our might, lest we
istic churches or sects), the Protestant      sion for the people of God, was that       make "void the grace of Christ" (Cal-
Reformed Churches must guard jeal-            these regulations, although not found      vin on Colossians 2:16ff.).
ously the freedom of her members in           in the Word of God, were binding on             `The men whom God raised up
the things indifferent. The members           their conscience for salvation.  Extra-    to give deliverance to His oppressed
of these churches, under the careful          biblical, yet necessary for salvation!     people found these abusive regula-
protection of their officebearers, have            The laws regulated almost ev-         tions to be insufferable. Carefully
the right freely to use and enjoy all the     ery nook and cranny of life, public        they pointed the people of God to
good gifts of God, receiving them             and private, for the clergy as well as     their freedom to live as they them-
with thanksgiving and sanctifying             laity. A former Roman Catholic priest      selves judged to be pious Christian
them with the Word of God and                 recounts that, in addition to the regu-    behaviorinallareaswheretheBibleis
prayer.                                       lation for priests, "Thou shalt not        silent.
      They believe that things which          marry," the institution where he was               Luther has a marvelous expla-
God neither commands nor forbids              trained required, "Thou shalt not look     nation of the broad picture of Chris-
maybeperformedoromittedbythem                 out the window; thou shalt not touch       tian liberty, "A Treatise on Christian
as a matter of indifference. None             flowers; thou shalt not have close         Liberty," in which he spells out the
decides for them. They are free to do         friendships." "Brother Ass" (the           whole message of the gospel in a
or not do, use or not use, as they            body), they claimed, must be ruled         clear, heartwarming manner (see the
themselves determine.                         strictly. (see H. J. Hegger,  I Saw the    Works of  Martin Luther, Philadel-
     According to the reformer John           Light, 1961, Presbyterian and Re-          phia Edition, 6 volumes, 1982, Baker,
Calvin this aspect of our freedom in          formed, pages 27,31).                      Volume 2). Every Reformed Chris-
Christ is the third main part of Chris-            For the laity the laws included,      tian would do well to read this short
tian liberty. First, the Christian is free    "No wine at the Mass, No meat on           treatise. But in a sermon to the people
                                              Fridays, worship and love Mary or          at Wittenberg, Luther puts briefly that
                                              you will be damned." Still today the       aspect of Christian liberty we refer to
Rev. Gritters is pastor of the Protestant     Roman Catholic Church makes                here. He says, "Takenote of these two
Refmed Church of Byron Center, Michi-         these extra-biblical yet binding pro-      things,`must' and'free.' The'must'is
g a n .                                       nouncements for her members.               that which necessity requires, and

                                                                                             Otto ber 15,1992 I Standard Bearer / 39


which must ever be Unyielding; as,            commendeth us not to God: for nei-          make) any rules for their members
for instance, the faith, which I-shall        ther, if we eat, are we the better;         that are extra-biblical, which bind the
never permit any one to take away             neither, if we eat not, are we the          conscience, for which the member
from me, but which I must always              worse." Eating meat is a thing indif-       may be excommunicated. Tempted
keep in my heart and freely confess           ferent.                                     sorely, seeing the great evil of the
before every one. But `free' is that in            Warning j against those who            abuse of the television, to make a law
which I have choice, and may use or           would spy out and pilfer their liberty,     against television (as one Reformed
not.... Now do not make a `must' out          Paul says, "Let no man therefore judge      congregation is reported to have
of what is `free,' as you have done..."       you in meat, or in drink, or in respect     done), we resist, believing that the
(Works, volume II, page 395).                 of an holyday,  or of the new moon, or      danger of legalism is a soul-destroy-
      Commenting on Colossians                of the sabbath days..." (Colossians         ing evil. Observing the grievous de-
2:16ff.,  and referring to those church       2~16).  Puzzled that those who are          struction that alcohol wreaks o:n the
members or rulers who would con-              dead with Christ from the ordinances        lives of some of the members, the
demn us in these indifferent matters,         of the world would return to bond-          pastors and elders maybe tempted to
Calvin warns, "How bright a mirror            age, Paul asks the Colossian Chris-         say, "Drinking alcohol brings your
there is as to this in popery! . . . human    tians, `Why are ye subject to ordi-         membership in this church into jeop-
traditions are a labyrinth, in which          nances, (Touch not; taste not; handle       ardy." They will not make that regu-
consciences are more and more en-             not; Which are all to perish with the       lation, knowing that the Word of God
tangled; nay more, are snares, which          using;) after the commandments and          does not prohibit the use of alcohol:
from the beginning bind in such a             doctrines of men?" (2~20-22).  He ex-            Observing the abuse of televi-
waythatincourseoftimetheystrangle             poses the vanity of these laws in the       sion or liquor or tobacco or birth. con-
in the end." MIn short, when persons          next verse, pointing out that these         trol or any other "indifferent" thing
have once taken it upon them to tyr-          regulations are no more than hypoc-         the pastors and elders warn with all
annize over men's souls, there is no          risy, "a show of wisdom in will wor-        their heart from Galatians 5:13, "`Your
end of new laws being daily added to          ship, and humility, and neglecting of       liberty is not meant for the satisfying
old ones, and new enactments start-           the body..." (verse 23).                    of your flesh." Doing this, God's
ing up from time to time." In his                  Both as regards the Old Testa-         servants believe (as do Christian par-
Institutes,  he warns against con-            ment civil and ceremonial laws              ents who face the same problems)
sciences which are "tormented about           (theonomiststothecontrarynotwith-           that the warnings of Scripture are
the use of things indifferent" (I&+-          standing) and as regards man-made           used by the Holy Spirit of Chrjst to
tutesof theCkristianiZeligion,3.19.9,         regulations, "brethren, ye have been        sanctify wholly the children of God.
translated by Ford Lewis Battles).            calleduntoliberty" (Galatians5:13a).
      Taking his starting point at Ro-             The reason for this liberty is that
mans 14, one of the important pas-            the church has come of age. By the           . . . it matters who is looking
sages on the adiaphora, Calvin hears          indwelling Spirit of Jesus Christ, the         when we do what we do,
Paul subject "all outward things to           church is' sufficiently mature to be
ourfreedom,providedthatourminds               freed from the minute regulations             or refrain from something.
are assured that the basis for such           that control every second. Paullikens
freedom stands before God" (I&i-              the maturity of the church of the new
t&es, 3.19.9). What Paul says is, "I          dispensationtothematurityofachild                Whentheywaminthisway(n0
know, and am persuaded by the Lord            whoreachesadulthood(GaIatian&l-             rules, but passionate, stern cautions
Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of       7). For anyone to believe he may (or        against abuse), officebearers are faith-
itself" (Romans 14:14a).                      must) regulate the life of the believers    ful to Scripture and follow in the path
                                              with even one law that the Scripture        restored by the reformers. Relpeat-
                                              does not bind us with is,`among other       edly, when Calvin raises the subject
          To allow others                     .things, to deny the maturity of New        of the things indifferent, he acknowl-
                                                                                          edges that many will be tempted to
      to bind our conscience                  Testament believers, to do despite          give reign to unbridled lusts. This,
         is to lose the light                 unto the Spirit of grace. Calvin calls
                                              it "pernicious" (Commentary on              unbridled lusts, is one result of and
           that is in us . . . .              Colossians2:lGff.).  To allow others to     reaction fo the attempt to bind the
                                              bindourconscienceistolosethelight           child of God with unnecessary laws!
                                              that is in us, and to offer insult to       Some will live licentiously without
      In I Corinthians, the apostle re-       Christ, the author of our freedom           provocation. Others are driven to it
peats the doctrine in this way: "All          (Calvin's Commentary on Galatians           by the spying out of their liberty (see
things are lawful unto (for) me" (612,        5:l; Institutes, 3.19.14).                  R.C. Wallace, Calvin's Doctrine of
1023). In I Corinthians 8:8, speaking              The Protestant Reformed                tke Christian Life, Eerdmans, 11969,
of food, he says, "But meat                   Churches do not make (and may not           pages 310,311).

40 /Standard Bearer  I October  15,1992


     At almost every point where            Liquor, tobacco, food, sports, all have          when I am finished, I am able before
Scripture teaches our liberty in Jesus      that dangerous power. Christians are             God to say to Him, "Thanks, Lord, for
regardingindifferent things,it sounds       free. Do not become slave to these.              that good gift" (I Cor. 10:30, I Tim.
a clear warning not to prostitute that           Third,, Paul warns, "But take               4:4,5). Do it "unto the Lord." "Do (all
liberty. This is a different warning        heed lest by any means this liberty of           to the glory of God" (I Cor. 10:31).
than the other writers refer to else-       yours becomes a stumblingblock to                       Free, with the glorious liberty of
where in this issue, different from the     them that are weak." We care for the             Jesus Christ, we wilI let no one rob us
apostle's caution, "Thinknot that your      neighbor; we love him. So it matters             of it. We take the advice of Calvin in
liberty gives you permission to vio-        who is looking when we do what we                his commentary on I Corinthians
late the law of God" (see, probably,        do, or refrain from something. Be-               10~29:  "The soul of a pious man looks
the editorial and the meditation).          cause we love the neighbor, we do not            exclusively to the tribunal of God, has
Here, the warnings call us to live out      want him to stumble.                             no regard for man, is satisfied with
ourmaturitybyaskingourselvessome                 Fourth, requiredby the Word of              theblessingoflibertysecuredforitby
important questions as regards  zuhy        God is that anything we do be done               Christ, and is bound to no individu-
we will use or avoid the use of the         "unto the Lord" (Rom.  14:6). Is a               als, and to no circumstances of time
indifferent thing.                          thing pure and lawful for me? Then, 1 and place."  Cl
     First, where Paul proclaims, "All                                                                                                     I
things arelawful unto me," he quickly          Closely related, but too large a subject to treat in this article, is the subject of the
adds for the sake of our maturity,             adiaphora in public worship. Although the second commandment binds us to
"but not all things are expedient" (I          include in our worship services only those things which the Scriptures require,
Cor. 6:12,10:23).  Out of love for God         there are minor things related to the worship  that are a matter of indifference.
and the neighbor, the mature child of          The PRC have recognized this, as their Acts of Synod show, 1990, page 145.
God is able to answer this question,           Nevertheless, consistories have the right to make extra-biblical regulations for
"Is my use of the thing profitable for         good order and decency in regard to the worship services. But the consistory
me and for others?"                            makes rules for the sake of edificatioi  not strangulation. Nor do any of these
                                               rules bind the conscience of the believer. When a member physically cannot
     Second, Paul says, "All things            comply, the consistory does not bind him with the rule, or does not make it in
are lawful for me, but I will not come         the first place. The warnings of the Belgic Confession, article 32, must be
under the power of any." Both Luther           carefully heeded. On this subject, read Luther's interesting treatise, "On the
and Calvin warn that, because we are           Councils and the Churches" in his Works, referred to above, vol. V, especially
lord of the good gifts of God, we must         pages 187,250,251.
not let them become lord over us.



                                Freedom Re  `.
             the'Things of This Life
     In days of self-indulgence, in         restraint, and perhaps even a good               was the well-known licentiousness of
days when hedonism and worldli-             dose of self-imposed austerity -                 the clerics of Rome that made Rome
ness saturate the life of the churchlike    sometimes known as fasting (which                so odious to the multitudes, and that
fat does bacon, one becomes appre-          is not to be confused with dieting).             proved that therewas somethingdes-
hensive about extolling freedom in               The reformers, -Calvin in par-              perately wrong with her doctrines,
the use of the things of this world         ticular, promoted such. In fact, hu-             both of dogma and of life.
(with the fullness thereof). The need       manly speaking, if the thousands of                    Words such as "moderation,"
of the hour, it is everywhere appar-        Rome's monks under their vows of                 "frugality," "temperance," and the
ent, is moderation, self-discipline,        asceticism had practiced self-control            call to the avoidance of all excess are
                                            and moderation to half the extent that           scattered throughout Calvin's writ-
                                            Calvin did in his life of Christian              ings. (Cf. for instance, his sermons on
                                            liberty and freedom, the Reformation             Job 1 and his commentaries on I Cor.
Rev: Koole is pastor of Faith Protestant    might well not have happened, at                 6 & 7). And what he preached he
Reformed Church in  ]enison,  Michigan.     least not in the century that it did. It         practiced. (But he was not stingy; his

                                                                                                  October 15,1992 I Standard Bearer I41


hospitality and liberality were well        this Prince William, "without feeling        demned has been of long standing in
known.)                                     ashamed of his own life." Shame for          the New Testament church. Paul
       Still, the reformers did not pro-    what? One's carnal excesses andlack          warns against it in Colossians, where
mote monkish asceticism. They were          of single-minded interest in the here-       he rebukes those who promtoted  a
well aware of its inherent dangers.         after, in gaining heaven. The evident        "taste not, touch not, handle not"
They knew it arose out of a misread-        sincerity of this once "rich, young          perspective for the truly spiritual life.
ing of what the Christian life and          ruler," Prince William of Anhalt, and             It was, as we stated, a bondage,
what true piety was all about. Luther,      the cost he was willing to `count to         a bondage which gave rise to many
of course, knew>by  personal experi-        assurehimselfofetemallifeandGod's            errors.
ence, himself havingbeen a monkand          approval, were remarkable. But it                 It was a bondage of guilt, first of
having labored mightily to make his         was also horribly misguided. And it          all. The sincere felt they had to feel
peace with God through the rigor,           was against this that the reformers          guilty and without assurance in order
poverty, self-inflicted suffering, and      thundered -not against the piously           to have hope for divine approval,
vows of the cloister. The reformers         well-intentionedbutmisledsoulslike           because, if they were not troubled by
were vigorous opponents of the mo-          Prince William, but against the sys-         guilt and uncertainty, that could only
nastic `mentality' and its abuses.          tem and theology that produced such          mean they felt they had done enough
       Thisisnottosaythattheyscoffed        pitiful specimens of spiritual despera-      to please God. But they knew that
at the sincerity of all who broke with      tion as they sought eternallife. It was,     such an assessment of self amounted
life's pleasures and comfortsin order       and is, a bondage.          .                to pride, which was the most serious
to devote themselves to finding peace            The Reformation was a commit-           sin of all. So they had to retreat back
with God in the monastic life. The          ted return to freedom, freedom in            to the cell of guilt in order to be
great Augustine himself founded a           Christ; freedom from guiltbefore God         humble enough.
monastic order devoted to celibacy          as Judge and Father; freedom from                 There was therefore this psy-
and regular spiritual devotions. As         enslavement to darkness, the Devil,          chological bondage. Either one was
well, he demanded physical labor by         and to sin; freedom from the fear of         feeling guilty for having confidence
all members, to sustain their own           death and its horrors; freedom to find       over feeling guilty enough to please
cloister on the sound scriptural prin-      joy in God in this life as well as in the    God, or he was trying to cleanse his
ciple that "...if any would not work,       life to come; freedom to serve Him as        mind of all confidence so that he
neither should he eat" (I Thess. 3:lO).     Lord and to find his approval in that        would not be tempted to boast in his
And, as is well known, Luther felt          way, freedom to use the things of this       confidence in having felt guilty
compelled to become a monk to cer-          life. In other words it was committed        enough. Psychologically, spiritually,
tify his own salvation and to cease         to knowing the freedom a child has in        it was devastating, a bondage like a
sinning against his Maker and Judge.        his own home where love is, which            maze to which there was no exit door.
For such, one can feel only pity. Some      freedom is "dread-free," but not                  For .others  it fostered pride in
drove themselves to death through           "boundary-free."                             subtle ways. Because one had rigor-
austerity in order to have some hope             Calvin condemns a philosophy            ously abstained from certain food for
for heaven. Luther speaks of a Prince       of life "which, in allowing no use of        a time, one felt good about himself.
                                            the creatures but for necessity, not         And that led to the next step of pride,
                                            only maliciously deprives- us of the         namely judging others as inferior.
     . . . freedom is "`dread-flee/"        lawful fruit of the divine beneficence,      "Surely we are better than many of
     but not `bounda y-free.."              but cannot be realized without de-           the brothers who have not denied
-                                           priving man of all his senses, and           themselves the things we have." So,
                                            reducing him to a block" (3.10.3).           as one knelt like a publican  in the
William of Anhalt who forsook the                The "necessity" to which Calvin         comer, he was thinking, "How thank-
royalcourts  tobecome  abeggingfriar.       refers was a word used by the radical        ful I am that I am not as these others.
`Luther reports that as a lad he saw        ascetics. They meant by this only            Note, Lord, my greater humility and
with his own eyes this renowned             those things absolutely necessary for        abstinence." It fostered the twin evils
William carrying a sacklike a donkey.       life, which wouldbe bread and water,         of self-righteousness and the ciespis-
Luther writes, "He had so worn him-         and then perhaps precious little of          ing of others.
self down by fasting and vigil that he      that. One was to live without shelter             Having warned of the futility of
lookedlike a deaths-head, mere bone         or heat as well, if possible. It was         vigils, long fasts, lying on the cold
and skin. No one could look upon            those who imposed the greatest physi-        ground, and doing without many of
him without feeling ashamed of his          cal suffering on themselves who were         the good things of this life, Calvin
own life."                                  judged the most holy and God-fa-             makes a significant statement con-
       What is interesting is that last     vored. This Calvin dismissed as a            ceming Paul's words toTimothy that
comment of Luther with regards to           hateful doctrine.                            "bodily exercise profiteth little."
                                                 The error which Calvin  con-            States Calvin,
42 /Standard Bearer I October 15,1992


  This is a needed warning, for the           mented. The impression left by his          ing to one's fellow saints (as Christ's
  world always has a strong tendency          "table-talks" (though admittedly            body), and it involves bearing wit-
  towards worshipping God by exter-           sometimes a bit exaggerated) is that        ness in society to Christ's name. "Ye
  nal observances (imposed bodily dis-        the marriage-bed, some frothy Ger-
  comforts - KK), which can be fatal.                                                     are the light of the world." One does
  Even leaving out the perverse notion        man beer, and good companionship            not do this by becoming a recluse.
  that there is merit in it, our nature       and laughter, is not only permissible             The call to service means one
  always disposed us strongly to think        forthebeliever,butnecessaryifoneis          must make wise, spiritually mature
  that the ascetic life is of great value,    to enjoy his freedom to its fullest.        decisions on how best he will use the
  as though it were a notable part of               The more austere Calvin was no        thingsofthislifeforhisownserviceof
  Christian sanctification.... If the an-     less a promoter of freedom with re-         the Lord. I may decide it is best for
  cient monks had not believed that           specttotheuseofthethingsofthislife          me to forgo all alcoholic drink, not to
  there was some divine or angelic            and a foe of gnostic dualism. Writes        marry, to abstain from coffee with its
  perfectionintheiraustererule of life,       Calvin, "Now then, if we consider for
  they would never have practiced it                                                      caffeine, to enjoy no pipe or cigar, and
  with such ardour. In the same way if        what end [God] created food, we shall       tobecomebasicallyvegetarian. Won-
  pastors had not unduly overvalued           findthatheconsultednotonlyforour            derful! One has the freedom to make
  the practices then observed as a            necessity, but also for our enjoyment       such choices for the sake of more
  means of mortifying the flesh, they         and delight.... Were it not so, the         profitable service. Against such
  would never have been so strict in          Prophet would not enumerate among           choices there is no law.
requiring them. And yet Paul says             the mercies of God'wine that maketh               But against something,  due to the
  the opposite, that even if a man has        glad the heart of men, and oil to make      saint's freedom in Christ, there is a
  worn himself out much and long in           his fa to shine' Ps.104:15"   (Ins%         law. And that is this, that I begin to
  theseexercises, the profit willbe small     t&es x48
  and meager, for they are nothing but                    I 2).                           make my decisions in these matters
  the rudiments of a childish discipline            And Calvin ties this in with our      the standard by which I judge my
  (Corm-n., I Tim. 47).                       newfoundfreedominChrist.  "God...           brother. As though because I have
                                              by ingrafting us into His Son, consti-      chosen to refrain from some of these
     NotethatCalvinstatesthat,even            tutes us anew to be lords of the world,     things, he ought to also, andif he doles
apart from the erroneous notion of            that we may lawfully use as our own         not, his spirituality is suspect. This, is
meritbymeansof self-imposedphysi-             all the wealth with which He supplies       legalism, namely, imposing on one's
cal deprivation and suffering, the            us" (Comm., I Tim. 45).                     brother more than does God's own
simple fact is that the notion of salva-            If we were to summarize in one        Word with respect to the things of
tion through "monkery" was                    word the governing principle of the         this life.
unbiblical and valueless.                     reformers for their ownlife, we could             The perfect balance is struck I
     The reformers (and Calvin in             do worse than use the word "ser-            Timothy6:6ff.,wheretheapostlePaul
particular, with his followers) have          vice ."                                     does not condemn being rich, but
been caricatured as equating sour-                  This is how the reformers faced       does warn the wealthy believer about
ness in life with piety, and looking          life as redeemed and forgiven sin-          the snares riches have, and then calls
upon all joy in the midst of material         ners. How shall I serve my Lord?            them to put their trust "...inthe living
abundance as the death of spiritual-          How shall I show my thanks for His          God,whogivethusrichlyallthings to
ity. This simply is not true. For all         great mercy shown me? What does             enjoy; that they do good, that they be
their castigating Rome for the glut-          the Lord consider proper response to        rich in good works, ready to distrib-
tony, avarice, wine-bibbing, and pro-         the privileges and goodness shown           ute..." (vss. 16,17).
miscuity loose amongst her clergy,            me? It had to do with a life of service.          We are free to enjoy the things of
the reformers did not fall into the           It is encapsulated wellin John Calvin's     this life . . . but not to consume thelm
error of gnostic "dualism" as a rem-          well-known motto, "Promptly and             upon our own lusts. Rather we are
edy. Gnostic "dualism," is the erro-          sincerely I offer my heart, 0 Lord, to      free to keep our sobriety, to give God
neous teaching that there is some-            thee." He was saying, use me Lord in        thanks, and to show it through-king-
thing inherently "unspiritual" (and,          thy service. It was the recognition         dom service.
hence, "tending to evil") in the mate-        that the believer has been set free in            And please remember, that en-
rial, physical side of this life. The         order to serve.                             joying this life's goods and corrupt-
reformers would have none of this.                 It is this very consideration that     ingthe mind are two different things.
     Luther, the reformer most out-           underscored the inappropriateness of        For the latter there is no freedom.
spoken about the Christian's                  and error behind the monastic move-               This is as thoroughly Reformed
newfound liberty in Christ, is a clear        ment and withdrawal from life. Of           as it is biblical. 0
case in point. His enjoyment of life          what service to Christ can one be if he
from music, to food, to marriage, once        is physically separated from life and
he broke with Rome, is well docu-             preoccupied only with his own eter-
                                              nal security? Service means minister-

                                                                                              October 15,1992 I Standard Bearer I43


                           The' Reformation's
        Restoration of Communion
                                           with God                                                             `.

     In the modem age in which we          vine. In the medieval church His           with the spit of the priest. At age
live it is perhaps difficult to under-     humanity was almost lost, and His          twelve they were confirmed (the sac-
stand the wonder of that direct access     divinity was stressed at the expense       rament of confession of faith), usually
we have to God through Jesus Christ,       of His manhood. Still the Mediator,        with a minimal knowledge of the
which was brought again to light by        He was remote, the One who in awe-         Christian faith.
the Reformation. We live in an age         some majesty would judge the quick            Spiritual life centered in the
where the opposite tendency; to hu-        and the dead, the One before whom          Mass, a dramatic reenactment of the
manize God, to bring Him down to           all sinners trembled in fear of His        cross, culminating in the sacrifice of
our level, so pervades the church that     coming judgment. Christ could be           Christ afresh in an unbloody imanner
the remoteness of God and of Christ        approached onlyby co-mediators, by         at the altar,bywhichbread  was  magi-
which dominated the church at the          prayers toMary,  "ourlady," the saints,    cally changed into the literal body of
time of the Reformation is almost          and angels, who were nearer to man         Christ. The altar, as in the Old Testa-
wholly foreign to our thinking. The        than was Christ in His exalted glory.      ment; was the one place where God
church at the time of the Reformation      It is not without reason that our Con-     had fellowship with man in Christ. It
had utterly forsaken the riches of the     fession of Faith says in Article 26,       was the one place that Jesus' human
New Testament in the cross of Christ.      "But this mediator, whom the Father        nature was manifested as the media-
It had returned under the yoke of          has appointed between him and us,          tor, but now in a piece of bread to be
bondage to Mt. Sinai which trembled        ought in no wise to affright us by his     worshiped. The medieval church was
and quaked with the holy presence of       majesty, or cause us to seek another       not a place for the gathering of the
God. But Israel stood at Mt. Sinai as      according to our fancy." The church        people of God, the body of Christ, for
a redeemed people, borne on eagle's        walked in fear. The people stood afar      fellowship with .God by His Word in
wings by grace. It was by grace that       off.                                       Christ. It was a temple whose sweep-
the law was added to the promise.                  God could be approached only       ing arches and pillars reaching to the
NotsointhemedievalRomishchurch.            by way of the sacraments, a system of      high vault above spoke of the majesty
God was a God of holy, righteous           sacraments centering in the sacrifices     of God. Its windows of multilzolored
wrath against sin, whose grace was         of the Mass, by penances imposed by        glass surrounded the people with
afar off.                                  the priest in the confessional and by      saints, floating as it were in the vault
     In our age the Lord Jesus Christ      the mediation of an earthly priest-        of heaven. Myriads of carved and
has been falsely reduced to a mere         hood. One entered the church by the        painted statutes of saints were clus-
man, neither righteous man nor di-         sacrament of baptism as a washing          tered in the vaults, adding to the holy
                                           away of original sinby the water. The      presence. Carved angels in a (canopy
                                           sacrament of baptism was not admin-        hovered over the altar. Candles flick-
                                           isteredfortheedificationofthechurch,       ered in the holy sanctuary, and in-
                                           but as a superstitiousritual in a sepa-    cense smoldered as the people stood
                                           rated rite, children being presented       as far off as Israel in the outer court.
                                           by godparents, baptized with water,             The choir of priests and monks,
Rev. Miersma is pastor of First Protes-    and anointed with the sign of the          liketheleviticalchoirs,stoodbetween
tant Reformed Church in Edmonton,          cross by chrism, a holy anointing oil      the people and the altar, chanting the
Alberta, Canada.                           like that of the Old Testament, mixed      psalms and hymns of the church in a

44 /Standard Bearer  I October 15,1992


language the people understood not.         again and again. To eat of the sacra-       likewisewasrestoredtoitspureform,
The priests and bishops were clothed        ment was for one moment to have             centering in the Word of God and the
in holy vestments like the priests of       communion with Christ and receive           preaching of His Word.
the Old Testament, put on with              grace by the bread.                                 The Reformation restored to the
prayers for each piece, with the kiss-            Again and again that sacrifice of     life and worship of the church true
ing of garments and many genuflec-          the Mass had to be offered for the          spiritual fellowship and communion
tions.' They wore garments which            living and for the dead, for without it     with God. The Romish sacramental
dated from the clothes worn in the          there was no forgiveness of sins. The       system and its accompanying wor-
Roman emperors' courts centuries            Roman sacramental system held the           ship had taken from us that commun-
before.                                     people in spiritual bondage all their       ion. The worship of God had become
     The priests entered the church         life. Even at the hour of death there       an outward religion of form, separat-
and ascended to the altar with all the      was the sacrament of extreme unc-           ing God and His people. The Ron-&h
pageantry of a parade, a solemn as-         tion, the anointing again with holy oil.    sacramental system of worship is a
sembly, there to perform incompre-          The church was held in a yoke of            multimedia artistic event of sight,
hensible rites, bowing and bending.         bondage and superstition in life and        sound, and color, or pageantry and
The people, observers, responded to         death.                                      drama. Grace itself is outwardly ad-
the liturgy by crossing themselves,              From that bondage the Refer!-          ministered in the bread to be e,aten
utteringstockrefrains, bowingthem-          mation of the church and return to the      with the mouth, and worshiped as
s e l v e s . The people held their         truth of God's Word wrought a true          God.
sacramentals, little sacraments, count-     liberation. Christ was restored as the              The Romish system is a corrupt
ing the beads of the rosary, reciting in    true mediator between God (who              unity. We must see it as a whole if we
vain repetition as the heathen the          ought not to "affright us by His maj-       are to understand the writings and
Lord'sPrayerandtheir"HailMarys."            esty") and men. The truth that we are       language of the reformers when they
They would depart perhaps with a            reconciled to the holy God by the one       speak of "books for the laity" and of
                                            sacrifice of Christ once offered upon       the Mass as "an accursed idolatry,"
                                            the cross was restored. The Reforma-        lest we take their writings out of their
           The Reformation                  tion gave us again the truth that we        proper historical context or treat the
    gave us again the truth                 have access to God through Jesus            issues involved piecemeal. Theircon-
  that we have access to God                Christ, our high priest, and no longer      cem for purity of worship was not a
      through Jesus Christ,                 have need for an earthly priesthood.        concern over church decoration but
                                            The truth that we are to come boldly        with a whole ceremonial system of
           our high priest,                 to the throne of grace through Christ       corrupt worship, corruption of the
    and no longer have need                 our Savior in prayer, was restored.         sacraments and the whole life of the
  for an earthly priesthood.                The truth was again brought to light        church, all of which robbed the child
                                            that we have a merciful and faithful        of God of forgiveness and fellowship
                                            high priest who can be touched with         with God through Jesus Christ by
little statue of a saint for their com-     the feelings of our infirmities, who        substitutingextemalformandsuper-
fort, like the Ephesians before them        understands our needs and will not          stition. Their concern was to restore
with their silver images of the god-        turn us away. True spiritual fellow-        true communion with, God through
dess Diana, or a medallion or a bottle      ship with God was restored, while           Jesus Christ.
of holy water. The people watched           outward rites and ceremonies, the                   It points us too to the present
until the mystery took place. Bells         inventions of men, as barriers be-          folly of much of Protestantism  which
were rung in the hands of the priests       tween Christ and His people, fell           can no longer see any difference with
to drive out the ever-present demons.       away. The Mass was seen for what it         Rome, for Rome has not changed. A
Then the priest elevated the bread of       was,adenialofChrist'satoningdeath,          folly too as the sacraments are again
communion, the host, and said the           an accursed idolatry and superstition       corrupted by human invention, at-
magic words, "In hoc corpus meus est, M     (HeidelbergCatechismQ/A SO). The            tended by the corruption of worship.
"This is my body"  - or "hocus              sacraments were reduced to their            TheworshipofProtestantismisagain
pocus," as it sounded to the people.        proper number of two, baptism and           turning to ritual, to pageantry, in li-
There Jesus was beheld, the sacrifice       the Lord's Supper, and to their spiri-      turgical drama, dance, and ceremony.
for sin made anew. The people wor-          tual function as visible signs and seals    Inventing its own books for the laity
shiped the piece of bread.                  for the confirmation and strengthen-        to replace the preaching of the Word
     On special days, in their super-       ing of our faith. The sacraments were       with films, plays, pseudo-Christian
stition, they roamed from church to         stripped of man-made additions and          rockconcerts. So that again the people
church in the big cities in hurrying        restored to their purity as signs and       of God sit afar off as observers to be
multitudes, hoping to see the magic         seals of the covenant. The worship of       entertained and not as worshipers. 0
                                            the church in fellowship with God

                                                                                            Oot~bar  15`1992  I Standard Bearer 145


       Freedom From the Bokidage!
             of Works-Righteousness

       To be righteous is to be right          give eternal life, glory, honor, and        ing to Rome, I will need to spend
with God. It means that God judges             peace. To those who are contentious         some time suffering in purgatory be-
one to be guiltless and worthy of              and who obey not the truth, but who         foreGodwillallowmetogotoheaven.
everlasting life and glory. God for-           obey unrighteousness, God will give               If Rome's doctrine of works-righ-
gives one's sins, adopts that personas         indignation and wrath, tribulation          teousness be true (thank Godit isn't!),
His own child and makes that person            and anguish. Scripture says, "We            I am indeed in bondage. What if my
an heir of eternal life. This, in brief, is    must all appear before the judgment         works are not good enough? What if
the plain teaching of Scripture in             seat of Christ; that every one may          God in the end is not pleased with
Galatians 4:4-7. This passage pre-             receive the things done in his body,        what I have done? If Rome's doctrine
sents the good news that God in the            according to that he hath done,             be true, I am held in the icy grip of the
fullness of time sent forth His son,           whether it be good or bad" (II Cor.         terror of death. That indeed is `bond-
made of a woman and made under                 5:lO). .                                    age of the worst sort! Martin Luther
the law, to redeem them that were                    How then can I be righteous           experiencedthisterriblebondageuntil
under the law, "that we might receive          beforeGod?  Crucialquestionindeed!          Godtouchedhisheartwiththewords,
the adoption of sons." And as sons             If I can be assured in my heart that I      "The just shalllivebyfaith" (Halb. 24,
we are "heirs of God through Christ."          am righteous before God, I have no          Rom. 1%`).
       The crucial question is: how can        fear of the day of judgment. I am at             Only slightly different is the an-
I be righteous before God? Only the            peace. If not, I am held in the terrible    swer Arminianism gives to this cru-
righteous inherit eternal life. Only           bondage of the terror of death and          cial question, "How can I be righ-
they are saved from their sins and             judgment.                                   teous before God?" The Arminian
brought into God's blessed fellow-                   Rome answers the crucial ques-        tells me Jesus died for all men. The
ship. Theunrighteouswillbe  damned.            tion by telling me I have to perform        way to be righteous before Gold is to
For the unrighteous there is only "a           .good works in order to merit or earn       exercise my free will and accept Jesus
certain fearful looking for of judg-           righteousness. If I do works of pen-        as my personal Savior. The Arminian
ment and fiery indignation . . . . It is a     ance, of mercy; if I obey the com-          saysthatsalvationisby gracethrough
fearful thing to fall into the hands of        mandments of God; if I faithfully par-      faith, but I must really perform the
the living God" (Heb, 10:27-31).               ticipate in the Mass, God will on the       workof  faith in order to be righteous.
       There is a day of judgment, a day       basis of those good works infuse me         What is more, according  tlo the
of reckoning. Jesus told us this when          with the righteousness of Christ. If I      Arminian I must persevere in faith,
He said; "For the Son of man shall             fail to perform these good works,           because if1 do not I will perish in hell.
come in the glory of his Father with           according to Rome,1 willbe punished         In other words, the possibility exists
his angels; and then he shall reward                                                       that I may accept Jesus one day and
every man according to his works"                                                          reject Him the next, in which case I
(Malt. 16:27). Romans 25-U teaches                         If  Rome's doctrine             would lose my salvation.
that God, the righteous Judge, will                 of works-righteousness                      If the Arminian answer to the
render to every man according to his                            be true,                   crucial question be true (thank God it
deeds. To the righteous, God will                                                          isn't!), I am held in the same terrible
                                                   I am indeed in bondage.                 bondage of Rome's works-righteous-
                                                                                           ness.The Bible answers the crucial
                                                                                           question, "How can I be righteous
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-    eternally in hell. If I do not perform      before God?" quite differently. The
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         enough good works, or if I do not           Bible tells me I am by nature dead in
                                               perform them well enough, accord-
mY*                                                                                        trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1-3).
46 IStandard  Bearer I October 15,1992


Because I am dead in trespasses and          This is the gospel. Only this gospel        impossible because I and all of God's
sins I am unable to be subject to God's      frees me from the terrible bondage of       elect in Christ are God's workman-
law, and according to my flesh I can-        works-righteousness. Because I am           ship,createdinChr.istJesusuntogood
not please God (Rom.  87-8). The             justified (made righteous) by faith I       works which Godhas  before ordained
Bible tells me I am totally depraved,        have peace with God through my              that we should walk in them (Eph.
and for that reason I am unable to do        Lord Jesus Christ.                          210).
any goodat all. BynatureIdon'teven                Rome objects to this precious                   This is the answer to the crucial
have the desire to do good works or to       truth by saying this doctrine makes         question, SHOW can I be righteous
strive to please God.                        mencarelessandprofane. Ifitisallby          before God?" This assurance frees
     The Bible tells me that I have          grace through faith, God's gift, Rome       me from the terrible bondage of
beenchoseninChristbeforethefoun-             says (and so says the Arminian as           Rome`s works-righteousness and
dation of the world, that I have been        well) I deny man's responsibility. Still    Arminianism's free-will error. In this
predestinated unto the adoption of           more, Rome and the Arminian say I           blessed assurance I am free from the
children by Jesus Christ according to        may as well sin that grace may              terrors of death and judgment. I am
thegoodpleasureofGod'swillandto              abound.                                     free to love and serve my God in the
God's praise (Eph. 1:3-6). The Bible              The apostle Paul faced this ri-        way of His good commandments. It's
tells me I have been made alive in           diculous objection long ago. Under          not without a struggle! Every day I
Christ because of God's rich mercy           the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he       havetoputofftheoldmanandputon
and great love for me. The Bible             answered, "God forbid. How shall            the new (Eph. 422-24).  And I need
assures me that I am saved not by            we that are dead to sin, live any longer    the whole armor of God in order to be
works, but by grace through faith,           therein?" (Rom. 6:2). The Bible says        strongintheLordandinthepowerof
God's gift (Eph. 2:48).                      we have been buried with Christ into        his might (Eph. 6:10-20).
     The Bible's answer to the crucial       hisdeathandraisedwithhimtonew-                       In that struggle, that battle, I am
question, "How can I be righteous            ness of life (Rom. 6:3-4).                  confident of this very thing, "... he
before God?" is by faith! And faith is            No, this doctrine does not make        which began a good work in me will
God's gift to me. Faith is not another       me careless or profane. Far from it! In     performituntilthedayofJesusChrist"
work, as the Arminian would have it.         fact, that's an impossibility! The Hei-     (Phil. 1:6).
Faith is the bond which unites me to         delberg Catechism sums the biblical               By grace through faith, God's
Christ, and through that bond I re-          teaching well when it says, "... it is      gift -that's how I am righteous be-
ceive all the blessings which Christ         impossible that those, who are im-          fore God? To God be the glory! Thank
merited for me at the cross. I am            planted into Christ by a true faith,        God for the Reformation, by which
righteous by faith. It is all the work of    shouldnotbringforthfruitsofthank-           He which brought the church back to
the sovereign God of my salvation.           fulness" (Q. 64). Ultimately that is        this precious truth. 0





     Classis East met in regular ses-        support of Rev. Audred Spriensma.           January 10 - R. Flikkema; NORTH-
sionon Wednesday, September 9,1992           This cause was commended to the             ERN IRELAND: September 27, Oc-
at the Byron Center Protestant Re-           churches with the request for a quick       tober 4, October 11 - M. Kamps,
formed Church. All the churches,             response to this need.                      November l-15 - G. VanBaren,  De-
with the exception of Norristown                  Classical appointments were            cember 6-20 - K. Koole, January 17-
which had one delegate, were repre-          requested by Grandville and by              31- B. Gritters.
sented by two delegates. This session        HudsonvilIe  for Northern Ireland.               Expenses o f   t h i s   classis
was chaired by Rev. Kenneth Koole.           The following schedule was adopted:         amounted to $1447.25. Classis will
     The main item of business for           GRANDVILLE (p.m. service only):             meet next in the Faith PRC on January
this session was the appeal brought          October4-D.  Kuiper, October ll-            13,1993.
byabrotherregardingcensure. Given            M. Joostens, October 25  - B.                                Respectfully submitted,
the nature of the case, classis dealt        Woudenberg, November 1 - W.                                            Jon J. Huisken
with this case in closed session. Two        Bruinsma, November S- J. Slopsema,                                        Stated Clerk
consistories brought requests for  in-       November 22 - D. Kuiper, Novem-
creasingcensure. Theserequests were          ber 29 -M. Joostens, December 6 -
also considered in closed session.           B. Woudenberg, December 20  - W.
     Classis approved the request of         Bruinsma, December 27  -  J.
the South Holland PRC for help in the        Slopsema, January 3 - D. Kuiper,

                                                                                             October 15,1992 I Standard Beam I47


&D!D
   BHER                                                                                                    SECOND CUSS
                                                                                                           Postage Paid at
                                                                                                           Grandvile, Michigan
   P.O. Box603
   Grandville, MI 4946&X03





Ministerial Calls                           that the group in Boise is desirous to     his brother Herm and Rev. Joseph
        The Council of the Grandville,      begin workingwith the MissionCom-          Posta, traveled to Hungary and Ro-
MI PRC presented a trio consisting of       mittee with a view to becoming a           mania for two weeks in September.
the Revs. B. Gritters, J. Slopsema, and     home mission field, and that the Mis-      Rev. Woudenberg was scheduled to
A. Spriensma to their congregation          sion Committee expressed a desire to       meet with the head of the Reformed
for consideration and on Sunday             help in this labor. This will also give    Church Publishing Department in
evening, September20, they extended         the group a wider exposure in our          Hungary. One of the things he would
a call to Pastor A. Spriensma to be-        churches and enable them to get to         like to look into is the possibility of
come their next undershepherd.              know our ministers in Classis East.        translating and publishing The Triple
        Rev. C. Haak, pastor of the              The Evangelism Committee of           Knowledge  into Hungarian. These
Lynden, WA PRC, declined the call           the Hope PRC in Redlands, CA is            men are also to meet with the bishops
he had been considering to serve our        working on the possibility of airing       of the churches in Romania in an
churches as missionary to the Cov-          the Reformed Witness Hour on Sun-          effort to assist in their return to nor-
enant ReformedFellowship  of Lame,          day afternoons on K-Life Radio Sta-        mal church life after the demise of
Northern Ireland.                           tion. They are also working on hav-        communism. Toward the end of the
                                            ing a book table at the Redlands  mar-     tip theywere to travel into the moun-
Congregational Activities                   ket-night.                                 tain villages to examine church life
        With regard to the above item            The Evangelism Society of the         there.
dealing with the CRF of Lame, it was        Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids, MI               Rev. Joostens and Elder Clare
also reported to the congregation of        sponsored a lecture September 17 at        Prince returned to Jamaica Septem-
the Hudsonville, MI PRC immedi-             Calvin College Fine Arts Center with       ber 11 to evaluate and work with the
ately after Rev. Haak's decline that        Rev. R. VanOverloop speaking on            churches there. 0
their council hadagreed to grant their      "SexandDatingintheChristianLife."
pastor, Rev. G. VanBaren, a leave of        Rev. VanOverloop spoke to a good-
uptoayearinlengthsothatheandhis             sizedgroup,withalotofyoungpeople
wife could go to Lame and work for          and families present. (The Young
an extended time with the saints            People's Society of the First PRC of                      NOTICE!!!
there. Rev. and Mrs. VanBaren are           Holland, MI attended as a group.)               On October 1,1992, our pastor,
scheduled to leave for Northern Ire-        Rev. VanOverloop set this lecture                    REV. DALE H. KUIPER,
land on October 19.                         squarely on the Word of God as its         completed 25 years in the ministry in
                                            standard. What does the Bible say          the Protestant Reformed Churches.
Evangelism Activities                       about sex and dating? One statement        ,For this we praise and thank our cov-
        At a recent meeting of the Coun-    that he made really struck me, "Ask        enant God.
cil of South Holland a decision was         not, who am I (as if to say I am God's          "For we preach not ourselves,
made to ask the Mission Committee           gift to women or men), but whose am        but Christ Jesus the Lord; and our-
of our churches to assume responsi-         I." We belong, after all, to our Lord      selves your servants for Jesus' sake.
bility for work with the Sovereign          and Savior Jesus Christ, and our dat-      For God, who commanded the) light to
Redeemer Fellowship inBoise, Idaho.         ing should reflect that. You can order     shine out of darkness, hath shined in
This decision was based on the fact         a tape of this very worthwhile lecture     our hearts, to give the light of the
                                            by contacting Southeast Evangelism         knowledge of the glory of God in the
                                            Committee at 1543 Cambridge Ave.,          face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians
                                            Grand Rapids, MI 49506.                    45, 6).
Mr. WiggerisamemberoftheProtestant                                                                                  Council of
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-      Denominational Activities                       Southeast Protestant Reformed
gan.                                             Rev. B. Woudenberg, alongwith                                         (Church

48 /Standard Bearer I October 15,1992


