                  .  .  i-T




                                 THE
          STANDARD
     A Reformed
     Semi-Monthly
~  Magazine




                                  What happens when the insurance
                                  companies can no more pay out on
                                  policies because of extensive di-
                                  sasters? What happens to the health
                                  system when it becomes over-
                                  whelmed with incurable illnesses?
                                  What happens to this world when
                                  famine affects vast portions of the
                                  planet? What happens to a country
                                  when it drowns in its own "red ink"?

                                                                          I
                                     See "Is He Coming Soon?" - page 69

~                                                                            .
     N o v e m b e r   1,1992


C O N T E N T S :                                                                 November I, 1992                        STANDARD
Meditation - Rev. Jaikishin Mahtani                                                                                               BH#?
      Seek Ye My Face'............................................................................... 51
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                      ISSN 0362-4692
      The Death of Confessional Calvinism in
            Scottish Presbyterianism (4)                                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June. July, and August.
                                                                                                                         Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
      Denial of Total Depravity .................................................................. 54                    4949 tvanrest Ave., Grandville. MI 49416. Second Class
Letters .....................................................................................................     56     Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
Contribution - Mr. Henry Huisken                                                                                         Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                         P.O. Box 663, Grandvtlle. MI 494669603.
      Free Christian School: Edgerton, Minnesota ................................. 59
Contribution - Mr. John Hi/ton                                                                                           EDITORIAL COMMtnEE
                                                                                                                         Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
      Reflections from the Bible about Tornadoes .................................. 59                                   Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker ...................................................                        61     Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
The Strength of Youth - Rev. Steven R. Key                                                                               DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                         Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arle
      The Bible and Your Faith (2) ............................................................ 63                       denHartog. Rev. Barry Gritters,  Mr. Fred Hanko, Prof. Herman
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                             Henko. Rev. John Heys, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Kenneth
                                                                                                                         Koole,  Rev. Jason Kortering. Rev. Dale Kuiper,  Mr. James
      John Knox: The Reformer of Scotland ........................................... 64                                 Laming, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                        JamesSlopsema. Rev. CharlesTerpstra,  Rev. GiseVanBaren,
                                                                                                                         Rev. RonatdVanOverloop. Mr. Benjamin Wtgger,  Rev. Bernard
      The Christian and Sickness ............................................................. 67                        Woudenberg.
Come, Lord Jesus - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren                                                                                 EDITORIAL OFFICE               CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
      Is He Coming Soon'.......................................................................... 69                    The Standard Bearer            Mr. Ben Wigger
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Meditations for the S.B. Rev. Slopsema will continue writing for alternate issues; but,                                  EDITORIAL POLtCY
after becoming aware of the sheer volume of work demanding his time and attention                                        Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
in Singapore, Rev. Kortering asked to be relieved of his end of that arrangement for this                                articles. Contributions 
                                                                                                                                                    ofgeneratinterestfromourreadersand
year. Rather than looking for a single replacement, we decided to ask several different                                  questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                         Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
ministers for an occasional Meditation. Already you have seen a couple from Rev.                                         mustbeneattywrittenortypewritten,andmustbesigned.  Copy
Bruinsma. This time we have one supplied by Rev. Mahtani. It may be of interest to                                       deadlines are the first  and fifteenth  of the month. All
know that his article is a condensation of a speech he gave at a prayer meeting in the                                   communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                                         editorial offtce.
Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore a few weeks ago, and that at the
time of this writing Rev. Mahtani is looking forward eagerly to spending three weeks                                     REPRINT POUCY
                                                                                                                         Permission is hereby granted forthe reprinting of articles In our
in India, having been invited to speak at a conference of Sindhi Christians in that                                      magazine byotherpublications,  provided: a) that such repdnted
country. The Mission Committee of the ERCS decided to send both Rev. Mahtani and                                         articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
Rev. Kortering, to take full advantage of this rare opportunity.                                                         is made: c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
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                                                                                                                  not    date.
long after a severe storm system in the area spawned a powerful tornado, the likes of
which strike fear in the hearts of men. Mr. Hilton directed the attention of the elderly                                 BOUND VOLUMES
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Soon?" - the first article in Rev. VanBaren's  new rubric, "Come, Lord Jesus."                                           16mm microfilm. 35mm  microfilm and 105mm microfiche, and
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50 /Standard Bearer I November 1,1992


         -0  *  0                                                                           -a       d                I  I


                             Seek Ye My Face!

      When thou saidst, Seek ye my face;     David's heart reminded him, in the           seek Jehovah, the reference is to at
my heart said unto thee, Thyface, LORD,      first place, of Jehovah's call to prayer.    least three things. Themostbasicidea
will I seek.                                 "Concerning thee, my heart said: Seek        of seeking Jehovah is the call to serve
                             Psalm 27~8      ye my face!" As David was praying            Him humbly and to obey Him joy-
                                             already in verse 7, such questions as        fully as God alone. Thus, for ex-
      We are not surprised to find this      these flooded his soul: "Why do I            ample, when Moses brings God's law
sweet dialogue in Psalm 27, another          pray? What right do I have to disturb        and precepts to Israel he says in
of David's beautiful Spirit-inspired         God with my cries? Will the LORD             Deuteronomy429,"Butiffromthence
songs. The psalm extols Jehovah's            hear me?" And do you know what               thou shalt seek the Loan thy God,
gracious care. for His suffering chil-       David's heart said concerning Jeho-          thou shalt find him, if thou seek him
dren. When exactly David penned              vah? Yes, his heart told him that it is      with all thy heart and with all thy
these words we are not sure. Whether         Jehovah Himself who has  com-                soul." Psalm 40:16 so beautifully
he is presently fleeing from his en-         manded,"Seekyemyface!"  TheKing
emies, or is writing in humble reflec-       James does after all translate with the           To seek the Lord, then,
tion of past afflictions, we cannot tell.    correct sense: "When  thou  saidst:
But God's people have fallen in love                                                              means that we do
                                             Seek ye my face.1" David's heart was
with these familiar lines. "The Losois       right. He did not come barging into            what is pleasing to Him...
my light and my salvation; whom              the presence of God, demanding to be
shall I fear?" (v. 1). "One thing have       heard. Rather, he came as a crying           describes this seeking of Jehovah: "Lz
I desired of the LORD, that will I seek      servant, at the beckoning of his Mas-        all those that seek thee rejoice and be
after..." (v. 4). "For in the time of        ter. If the Lord calls me to seek His        glad in thee: let such as love thy
trouble he shall hide me in his pavil-       face, let the world deride, let father       salvation saycontinually,let theLoso
ion: in the secret of his tabernacle         andmotherforsakeme, butIwillseek             be magnified." A New Testament
shall he hide me..." (v. 5). Verses 7-9      Him. I will then come to God obedi-          parallel is not difficult to find. In
record David's cry to God in prayer,         ently, joyfully, courageously.               Matthew 6:33 the Lord Jesus admon-
and within this prayer we find the                Let us then try to understand           ishes His disciples to "seek first the
most intimate dialogue of verse 8.           this divine call to seek Jehovah. Such       kingdom of God and His righteous-
      If you pick up your Bible you          a command comes to us clearly in His         ness." Countless other passages can
will find the words, "When thou              Word. The very idea of "seeking" is          be quoted to prove that the basic idea
saidst," in italics. This is to indicate     itself an interesting concept in the         of this divine call is to serve the Lord
that they are not in the original. The       Scriptures. The verb "to seek" in the        and to obey Him. We know of course
literal reading of the text is quite dif-    vivid Hebrew language literally              what it means by nature to seek self.
ferent: "Concerning thee my heart            means to search for something by             When we do that we seek our own
said: Seek ye my face; thy face, Jeho-       earnestly looking for that object until      pleasure, we seek the honor of our
vah, I will seek." David's heart did         it is found. For example, in Proverbs        own name, and we want it our way.
not only respond, "my heart saidunto         2:4 we are called to seek wisdom "as         To seek the Lord, then, means that we
thee, thy face, LORD, will I seek."          silver," and to search for her "as for       do what is pleasing to Him, we desire
Rather, as the original indicates,           hid treasures." Psalm 3414 urges the         that His name be hallowed, and we
                                             righteous "to seek peace, and pursue         seek His way, His will.
                                             it." Clearly, "to seek" refers to an              But there is also a second and
                                             activity demanding a wholehearted            more narrow idea found in God's
                                             search, with the earnest desire to find      Word with reference to seeking Jeho-
                                             the object sought after. The Lord            vah. Frequently the Scriptures call us
Rev. Mahtani is a minister in the Evan-      says: "Seek Me!"                             to seek Jehovah by calling upon the
gelical Reformed Churches  of  Singapore.         When the Scriptures call us to          name of the Lord in prayer. Very

                                                                                             November 1,1992 / Standard Bearer / !51


often the divine call to seek Jehovah       journ,  long before the temple of God       turely virtues are only a finite picture
refers to our duty to pray, to seek the     was ever built in Jerusalem, accord-        and small expression of the infinite
will of the Lord by humbly crying out       ing to Exodus 33:7: "And Moses took         and blessed God in whose image we
to Him. For example, when God               the tabernacle, andpitchedit without        are all made.
comes to Israel in captivity He says        the camp, afar off from the camp, and
through Jeremiahinchapter29:i2,13,          called it the Tabernacle of the congre-           The sinner devoid of
"Then shall ye call upon me, and ye         gation. And it came to pass, that                    the grace of God
shall go and pray unto me, and I will       every one which sought the Loso went
hearken unto you. And ye shall seek         out unto the tabernacle of the congre-        in Christ Jesus cannot even
me, andfindme, when ye shall search         gation, which was without the camp."            see the kingdom  of  God,
for me with all your heart." Another             To seek the Lord clearly meant                 much less seek it.
example is the prayer of Daniel in          to enter into His presence, there to
chapter 9:3: "And I set my face unto        bring Him worship and adoration.                 Only the child of God can begin
the Lord God, to seek by prayer and         David, the man after God's own              to understand this knowledge of rev-
supplications, with fasting, and sack-      heart, knew this very well. In verse 4      elation. It is true that according to
cloth,andashes...."                         of this psalm he longs for that blessing    Romans 1:18 also the ungodly can see
      1tisstrikingthatthewords"seek"        to dwell in God's house, there to be-       the power and Godhead of the Cre-
and "pray" are so very often found in       hold the beauty of the LORD and to          ator around them; The apostlel'aulat
the same breath in Scripture. The           enquire in His temple. For us, too,         Mars' Hill also preachedin Acts 1727
clearest New Testament example that         seeking the Lord can never be merely        that God is not far from all of us, for
refers to seeking Jehovah in prayer is      a personal, private, individual mat-        in Him we live, move, and have our
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in       ter. God calls His church to seek His       being. Nevertheless, the unregener-
Luke 11:9,10:  "And I say unto you,         face. Throughout eternity, in the new       ate can never know God, because by
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek,       heavens and new earth, we shall wor-        nature he is blind to this revelationof
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall      ship Him with the multitude of saints       God. The sinner devoid of the grace
be opened unto you. For every one           gathered from all ages and from all         of God in Christ Jesus cannot even see
that asketh, receiveth;  and he that        nations.                                    the kingdom of God, much less seek
seeketh findeth; and to him that                 This brings us to the great won-       it. Instead, as the Romans and Acts
knocketh it shall be opened." God           der of our text. For the divine call to     passages quoted above tell us, the
calls His people to pray, and no one        seek the Lord contains also a word of       ungodly make gods of wood and stone
shouldexpecttoexperience  thebless-         revelation. Seek ye my face! We un-         and bow before them in rebellion
ings of God except through prayer.          derstand, of course, that this is an        against God. Because of the sin and
Our text itself is in the context of        anthropomorphism. It is the way the         fall of mankind, there is no longer the
prayer. All who would taste of such         Scriptures reveal the invisible and         possibility of knowing God from the
sweet communion with God ought to           spiritual God to earthly creatures.         creaturely evidence of His Being in
realize that David's heart recounts         God has no face, no hands, no body          and around us.
this divine call in the very midst of       composed of flesh and blood. He is a             Insteadofbowingbeforerevela-
prayer!                                     Spirit. But the only way you and1 can       tion, the ungodly have always sought
     However, there is an even more         know and understand His Being and           to make a face for God. This bowing
fundamental aspect to this matter of        attributes is by God's revealing Him-       down before an image is to be sharply
seeking the Lord which we must al-          self to us in language we can compre-       contrasted with the idea of the face of
ways remember. We read in our text          hend.                                       God in our text. It is heathenish to
that, when the Lord calls us to seek             How else will we know of His           imagine thatwe can paint a picture of
His face, He commands, fl Seek ye my        might except He describe Himself to         God and bow before it. God Himself
face." That is in the phral, and it is      usashavingamightyandoutstretched            prohibits this in His moral law, the
important. This call comes not only to      arm to save? Figuratively, we are           ten commandments. To make an
David, but to God's people collec-          made to know His love when the              image or idol of God is an abomina-
tively. This refers, then, to the divine    Bible so beautifully tells us that our      tion in the sight of God. God is a
call for worship. It is Jehovah, the        names are written on the palms of His       Spirit, and He must be worshiped
LORD, who calls out to His people:          hands. We know that these  crea-            only in the manner He is pleased to
"Seekye  my face." He is the I Am, the      turely parts of the body are men-           reveal Himself. It is a foolish thing,
faithful, covenant-keeping God who          tioned with reference to God, only to       then, for the Sunday School teacher to
sends out this call to His people.          help us understand the invisible great-     imagine that the children when they
     Throughout her history, Israel         ness of our God.                            grow up will forget a picture of Jesus
knew that Jehovah was pleased to                 Indeed, it wouldbe well for us to      shown to them. It is. an abhorrent
dwell with her as a people. That was        remember that, in actuality, our            thing to put such an idol into the
true already in the wilderness so-          hands, our feet, and all of our crea-       minds of children, for they will for-

52 /Standard Bearer / November 1,1992


ever have that mental picture of this             Herein lies the thrill for the child     Word, itis our prerogative and sour
man-made face of God.                        of God. It rises above all earthly            duty to do the same. Without fear of
     Instead of suchvainidolatry, we         communion and friendship. The infi-           rejection, without doubt or despair,
must understand the wonder of our            nitelyholyandjust Godsays,  "Seekye           Thy face, Loao, I will seek! This, after
text. The Scriptures clearly use the         my face! My face is not against you!          all, is true prayer, and acceptable
"face of God" as a figurative expres-        With you I am willing to make a               worship. It is Jehovah Himself who
sion. Through a person's face, we            covenant, a bond of friendship. Be-           calls us, and through us flows His
come to identify who the person is.          fore my face you will not die, but you        praise.
God's face is the glorious revelation        shall live, forevermore!"                          Notice too the very personal re-
of His ownBeing!  He is the Holy One,             But how can this be? This is             sponse of David. Although the call
the glorious and magnificent One,            possible only because of the divine           comes to God's people collectively:
before whom even the holy angels             revelation of God's grace and favor in        "Seek ye my face," David beautifully
cover their faces. In Exodus 33, from        the face of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is,     responds, "Thyface, Lo~~,willIseek"
which we earlier quoted, we read of          after all, the Angel of God's face (trans-    Indeed, there is an important place
God revealing only His back parts to         lated in this KJV as Angel of God's           for praying together as the people of
Moses, for "no man can see God's             presence) who comes as Savior to              God. There is also the duty of praying
face and live" (Ex. 33:20). Especially       deliver His afflicted people; for inHis       in thebehalf of one another. But every
sinful man can never come to the             love and in His pity He redeemed              child of God must be able to respond
presence of the face of God!                 them (Is. 63:9). Of course, the Old           personally before the face of God.
     Besides this, it is through the         Testament saints already saw that by          There is no way somebody else can
face that one reveals his or her atti-       faith. Thus the psalmist could sing of        pray this for you.
tude or countenance. A smile on the          the prospect of "beholdingGod's  face              "Thy face, LORD, will I seek."
face, a twinkle in the eye, a willing-       in righteousness" (Ps. 1715).  And            This is the obedient and determined
ness to speak face to face, these are all    thus, in the fullness of time, the Mes-       cry of the psalmist. The rest of the
expressions of attitudes one has for         senger of the Covenant has come into          psalm continues to express this sin-
the ,other. Thus, for example, Cain's        His Temple, and Him we seek (Mal.             cere response of David. These are not
"countenance fell" (Gen. 4:5) for he         3:l). He is the "express image" of            empty words. For we read that he not
was"verywroth."                              God's person (Heb. 1:8), and we have          only continues to cry out to God in
     What kind of countenance does           beheld His glory, the glory as of the         verse 9, but also in verse 11 he prays:
God have towards us? We read in              only begotten of the Father, full of          "Teach me thy way, 0 LORD, and lead
Psalm 34:16: "God's face is against          grace and truth (Jn. 1:14). It isin Jesus     me in a plain path, because of mine
them that do evil ..,. N We know that        that we seek the face of Jehovah our          enemies." Then David closes so ap-
the holy Father of lights cannot smile       Savior!                                       propriately, in verses 13 and 14, by
upon sinners! He looks down upon                                                           recounting the goodness of the  LORD
fallen mankind, and His countenance              To seek Jehovah Himself                   in the past, encouraging himself to
is filled with wrath and holy displea-             is our highest calling.                 wait on the LORD for the future. Clearly
sure against us all.                                                                       here is a man whose heart sought for
     And yet Jehovah says to His                  Joyfully, thankfully, and most           the LORD!
people, "Seek ye my face!" The Lord          spontaneously the child of God cries               ForDavid'sisaresponseoflove.
does have a favorable countenance            out in response, "Thy face, L                 It was his heart that said concerning
                                                                             ORD, will
towards His people. In the Scrip-            I seek!" No, this is not a mere form,         Jehovah, "Seekye my face!" Now his
tures, it is called grace. For while         parroted by one who simply repeats            heart responds in love and devotion,
Jehovah's face is indeed against the         the divine command. Rather, here is           "Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek!" A
wicked, His eyes are upon the righ-          a most beautiful prayer which re-             more beautiful prayer, a more lofty
teous, and His ears are open unto            sponds to the clear call of God. It           ambition, there cannot be. To seek
their cry (Ps. 34:15, I Pet. 3:12). A man    arises out of gratitude for the wonder        Jehovah Himself is our highest call-
like Noah and a woman like Mary -            it contains. Jehovah has directed;            ing. To know Him and to love Him is
they both found "grace in the eyes of        what else do I want? Thou hast said,          our greatest joy. Already now we can
the Lord." Thus also God's people            therefore I also say the same!                enjoy that blessed covenant of friend-
love to hear the Aaronitic blessing               We ought to learn to pray, then,         ship with Jehovah our God. But the
pronounced upon them: "The Lord              according to the will of God. If God          day will come when we shall see Him
make his face to shine upon thee, and        has not commanded, how dare we                face to face in His Son, and we shall
be gracious unto thee: `the LORD lift up     pray for it? If the L                         hear Him say to us eternally, "Seekye
his countenance upon thee, and give                                   ORD has not so
                                             revealed, what right do we have so to         my face." And we will eagerly re-
thee peace" (Num. 6:25, 26). This is         worship Him? But if we know assur-            spond, "Thy face, LORD, will we seek!"
the gracious attitude which Jehovah          edly that God has so revealed in His          Amen!  0
shows to His own.

                                                                                              November 1,1992 / Standard Bearer J 53


                                         The Death of
          Confessional Calvinkm
      in Scottish Presbyterianism

                                 Denial of Total Depravity

 InfluentialScottishPresbyterian            the unregenerated world.                      2:15 where he describes the world of
theologian Donald Macleod denies                                                          unregenerated men as "a crooked and
the creedal  Reformed and Presbyte-           (The objection to common grace) ig-         perverse nation." The glorious per-
rian doctrine of total depravity. This        nores Paul's recognition in Philip-         fections of Philippians4:8,  uponwhich
is the biblical truth that the natural        pians 4:8ff that there are things of        the saints are always to be thinking,
man, that is, the unregenerated hu-           good report outside the sphere of           are the perfections revealed in the
                                              grace 
man, is completely sinful. Macleod                      (BYG, p. 127).
                                              Paul indicates in Philippians 4:8ff         gospel of Christ and found only in the
denies this doctrine in his recent book,      that there exist, even outside the          holy church. As the following verse
Behold Your God (BYG).                        sphere of redemption, things which          indicates, the perfections of
     The denial of total depravity is         are true, righteous, honourable,            Philippians  4:8 are "those things
clear, bold, and explicit:                    praiseworthy and virtuous and               which ye have both learned, and re-
                                              which deserve the support of the            ceived, and heard, and seen in me."
  Some unregenerate men . . . (are)good       Christian . . . (BYG, p. 129).                   According to Macleod, however,
  (BYG,  p. 130; emphasis, Macleod's).                                                    unregenerated men, possessingthese
  Laudable qualities (are) to be found      Christians then are to be thinking            "laudable qualities," can perform
  in the lives of those who are totally     always on the excellent things in             works that are really good: "Fallen
  alienated from God  (BYG,  p. 117).       Homer; on the virtuous things in              man remains capable, of both civil
                                            Socrates; on the just things in Roinan        good and domestic affection" (BYG,
     Such is the goodness and moral         jurisprudence; and on the lovely things       pp. 119,120). Havingposed theprob-
excellence of these- praiseworthy           in the latest novel, movie, and piece of      lem of the flat declaration in Romans
qualities in the unregenerated and in       secular music.                                3:12 that "there is none that does
the wicked world outside of Christ,              If the perfections of Philippians        good, no, not one," Macleod hedges:
according to Donald Macleod, that           4:8 are indeed found in the unbeliev-         "The range of such statements needs
the apostle of Christ commends them         ing world (the world judged by the            to be carefully defined, however."
to the believer and commands the            Bible to be a Christ-crucifying world),       With appeal to the Westminster Con-
believer to think on them constantly.       the Holy Spirit of sanctification is          fession, 16.7, Macleod then affirms
In what must rank as the most ex-           superfluous; the judgment upon the            the ability of the unregenerate to do
travagant praise of common grace            world and all that is in it in I John 2:16    works that are truly, though not "spiri-
hitherto penned, Macleodascribes the        is false; and the call to separation          tually," good:
perfections of Philippians 4:8 ("what-      from the worldinIICorinthians  6:14ff.
soever things are true, whatsoever          is unreasonable.                                But the unregenerate man may still
things are honest, whatsoever things              The truth is that the perfections         be capable of works which, "for the
are just, whatsoever things are pure,       of Philippians 4:8 are not found in             matter of them, maybe things which
whatsoever things are lovely, what-         unregeneratedmenand the system of               God commands, and of good use
soever things are of good report") to       life that they control. That Paul did           both to themselves and others" (BYG,
common grace and locates them in            not think so is plain in Philippians            p. 129).

54 /Standard Bearer / November 1,1992


   These good works of the wicked            some depravity or is somewhat af-           tion of "total" for the gospel of `grace
  occur in the sphere of theology; in        fected by depravity. But there is also      -the heart of the Reformed faitlh -
  the sphere of ethics; in the sphere of     some good in their mind, in their will,     appears in this, that now the will of
  science; andin the sphere of art (BYG,     and in their body. Or, to say it differ-    theunregeneratedsinnerissomewhat
  pp. 133-142).                              ently, their mind, will, and body are       good, or somewhat affected by good,
                                                                                         that is, somewhat free. When this
     The cause and explanation of            also affected by good - good that
                                                                                         teaching is brought into connection
thegoodworksofthemanandwoman                 comes from God by the operation of
                                                                                         with Macleod's doctrine that "the
outside of Christ is common grace. In        the good and Holy Spirit in common
                                                                                         sending of preachers is an expression
the favor that God has for every hu-         grace.
man, according to Professor Macleod,                                                     of God's desire that allmen shouldbe
                                               The third objection is that the notion    saved and that it puts men in a posi-
He works by the Holy Spirit within             of common grace is inconsistent with
most, if not all, unregenerated people,                                                  tion of hope by placing the possibZty
                                               the doctrine of man's total depravity.
preserving them from being com-                                                          of faith and salvation within their
                                               AccordingtobothScriptureandcon-
pletely depraved; making them vir-                                                       grasp" (BYG, p. 131), the result is the
                                               fessional theology every function of
tuous with "laudable $ralities";  and                                                    Roman Catholic and Arminian her-
                                               human personality is affected by sin
enabling them to do much good.                 (Z?YG,  p. 127).                          esy of salvation by the free will of the
                                                                                         sinner.
  All the blessings enjoyed by the rep-           What percentage of every func-
  robate, all their laudable qualities       tion of human personality is affected
  and all their achievements derive ul-      bysin,Macleoddoesnot  tellus.  90%?            Denial of total depravity
  timately from this source (namely,         SO%? lo%? Is theunregeneratedman                always and necessarily
  common grace - DJE)  (BYG, p.              then 90% good? 50%? or only lo%?
  117).                                                                                         leads to affirmahon
                                                  It would be interesting to see
                                             how successful this redefinition of                     of free will...
     Scottish Presbyterian Donald            "total" would be in everyday life. I
Macleod denies the Reformed doc-             tellmyinsurance agentthat my house
trine of total depravity. With the rare      and its furnishings were totally de-             Macleod professes to oppose the
exceptions of a Judas Iscariot, a Hitler,    stroyed in a fire, but he discovers that    heresy of free will. But his doctrine
the keepers of Auschwitz, and the            I mean that the damage extended             favors it. The theory of common
men of Sodom, unregenerated men              somewhat to every part of the house         grace embraced by Macleod teaches
and women, although depraved to an           so that much of the house and many          an operation of the Spirit within the
extent, are also good (cf. BYG, pp.          of the furnishings, in fact, are in good    ungodly that makes them somewhat
128,129).                                    shape.                                      good. This is, as such, denial of the
                                                  The redefinition of U total" makes     Reformed doctrine of total depravity.
Partial Depravity                            for intriguing revision of Bible his-       Denial of total depravity always and
     Macleod believes and teaches            tory. Saul informs Samuel that he has       necessarily leads to affirmationof free
the doctrine of  partial depravity.          totally exterminated Amalek, people         will: The will of the natural man is
     In order to establish the doctrine      and animals. When the prophet con-          able to respond positively to the gos-
of partial depravity as Presbyterian         demns him for disobeying the Word           pel. And the doctrine of free will cuts
orthodoxy in the face of the historic,       of Jehovah (to say nothing of lying) in     the heartout of the gospel of salvation
creedal  Presbyterian confession of          that he spared Agag  and the best of        by the mercy of God (Rom. 9:16).
tofal depravity, Macleod does three          the beasts, Saul protests that for him           In this denial of total depravity
important things. First, he redefines        "totally" means `every part of the          is the death of confessional Calvinism
the English word, "total." "Total" no        nation.'                                    in Scottish Presbyterianism.
longer will mean `complete.' "To-                 Peter asks Ananias and Sapphira             If Professor Macleod's denial of
tally," as in "totally depraved," will       how much of the money that they             total depravity represents theview of
no longer mean `wholly,`or  `entirely,'      received for their land they are giving     contemporary Scottish  Pres-
or `completely.' Rather, it will now         to the church. They respond, "The           byterianism on the doctrine (as I sus-
mean `in every part.'                        total amount." But just before they         pect), Calvinism is already dead in
     That theunregeneratedman and            are to be struck dead, they inform the      the country that was the mother of
woman are "totally depraved" merely          apostle that to them "total" means a        Presbyterianism.
means that thereis depravity in every                                                         If Macleod's denial of total de-
                                             part of each payment that they re-
part of their being. Their mind has          ceived for the land.                        pravity is  influenci.ng Scottish
some depravity or is affected some-                                                      Presbyterianism, Calvinism is
what by depravity. Their will has            Partial Depravity and Free Will             doomed in Scotland.  0
some depravity or is somewhat af-                 The seriousness of this redefini-                                      - DJE
fected by depravity. Their body has

                                                                                            November 1,1992 I Standard Bearer IS5


n The ReformedView  of the                  swers 75-79; Netherlands Confession,          other traditions make it apply to "ev-
"Real Presence"                             Article.35. More attention is given to        ery detail and circumstance connected
     As a subscriber to the Standard        this subject in our creeds than to al-        with public worship." This is, I be-
Bearer,  I have been reading with in-       most any other doctrine.                      lieve, not correct. The BritishJScot-
terest Prof. Hanko's articles in recent              Rev. Herman Hoeksema has also        tishReformed  traditionalunderstand-
issues on TJlrich Zwingli (cf. the SB,      written extensively on this subject,          ing, for example, is the same as the
August 1 and Sept. 1,1992).                 and his writings reflect the commit-          Dutch Reformed. It is simply a matter
     In the most recent article, you        ment of the Protestant Reformed               of historical record that every divine
mention the problem of the Real Pres-       Churches to the Reformed creeds.              who wrote on the subject to any ex-
ence. You reject the extremes of con-       His discussion of Christ's presence in        tent made the qualification that the
substantiation (and, I am sure, tran-       the bread and wine of the Lord's              principle applies to the matters actu-
substantiation) and Zwingli's               Supper is found in The Tripk KnowZ-           ally connected to the worship of Al-
memoriahsm. But what view lies in           edge, Volume II, pages 568-633. This          mighty God, and not to the circum-
between? What is your own view or           workis a commentary on the Heidel-            stances of the worship. It would be
the view of your church? I have read        berg Catechism. Rev. Hoeksema has             wrong historically, I believe, to say or
severalbooks and tracts publishedby         additional material on the question in        suggest otherwise. The Westminster
your church, but I have yet to see this     his Reformed Dogmatics,  pages  701-          Confession makes this qualification
issue discussed in any detail.              726. I urge you to consult this mate-         in Ch. I, vi.; and Dr. W. Young sum-
     My interest in this issue is not       rial.                                         marizes the historicunderstandingof
only personal. I am working on a                     Thank you for writing and for        the British/Scottish Reformed tradi-
book on ,the subject, and I want to         your interest in our Standard Bearer.         tion in an article he wrote, The Puti-
convey to the reader an accurate idea                       - Prof. Herman Hanko          tan Principle of Worship. He writes:
of the different positions that one can                                                   "The regulative principle does not
take on this subject as well as what the    n Instrumental Accompani-                     entail an impossible demand that an
various churches believe.                   ment in Worship                               indefinite number of minute circum-
     I would appreciate any enlight-                 I have appreciated very much a       stances concerning -the worship of
enment that you could provide.              recent article you wrote on the prin-         God should be deduced from Scrip-
                       Jack E. Simmons      ciple of Scripture alone being the regu-      ture. The time and place of worship
                      Long Beach, CA        lator of our worship ("Worshiping             for a Christian congregation are not
                                            GodasHe Wills," theStandardBearer,            mmutely  prescribed. Yet this does
Response:                                   May 1,1992).  I have also read with           not mean that all circumstances are
     The position of the Protestant         interest your reply to a question di-         adiaphora. The circumstances not
Reformed Churches on the question           rected to you about the application of        prescribed by the Word of God are
of the presence of Christ in the sacra-     this principle in worship (the Stan-          only such as are `common to human
ment of the Lord's Supper is the his-       dard Bearer, July 1,1992). The ques-          actions and societies' and only some
toric Reformed position as this is de-      tion was, why do the Protestant Re-           such."
fined in the Reformed creeds. Both          formed Churches use the organ in                   As I understand you, professor,
the Heidelberg Catechism and the            worship if they hold to the "regula-          you further suggest that some, to-
Netherlands (Belgic) Confession             tive principle" of worship?                   gether with John L. Girardeau, "mis-
speak of this matter in detail. Both                 As one who does not believe it is    understand the principle itself." You
Confessions were written in the con-        consistent biblically to use musical          give a brief quote from Girardeau's
text of the battle which the Reformed       accompaniment in the worship of               work on the subject, Instrumental
Churches had to fight against the con-      God, I wonder if I could make the             Music in the PubI& Worship of the
substantiation of Lutheranism and           following points in connection with           Church,  and make that quote to be a
the transubstantiation of Romanism          your reply to the above query.                statement of Girardeau'sunderstand-
on the one hand, and Zwinglianism                    If I read you correctly, there is    ing of the "regulative principle." You
on the other hand. You may expect,          the suggestion in your response that          find fault with this statement, to the
therefore, that the position in these       the interpretation of the "regulative         effect that it is a "serious misstate-
creeds is carefully thought out and         principle" by other "Reformed tradi-          ment of the `regulative principle,"'
written. The references are: Heidel-        tions" is different from the historic         because it says that "whatsoever in
berg Catechism, questions and  an-          Dutch interpretation, and that these          connection with the public worship

56 /Standard Bearer / November 1,1992


of the Church" must have a biblical          and Amesius (William Ames), firmly          in the popular mind they assum'e  a
warrant. It seems you assume that            believed that musical accompaniment         religious function, and are used to
Giiardeau's  "whatsoever" means "ev-         in the worship of God was not a non-        assist the worship of God, they are no
ery detail and circumstance" sur-            religious and non-worship circum-           more a circumstance. The writings of
rounding the worship of God. If this         stance. As they point out (such as          thefatherswe wouldbothesteemare,
is so, it is simply not true. Girardeau,     Calvin's commentaries on the Psalms         I believe, clear on this.
following those Divines who wrote            which refer to musicalinstruments in             I respect it as proper, and one
on the matter before him, spends             the worship of God), the use of instru-     thing, for the Protestant Reformed
about twenty-six pagesmakingit clear         mental music was intricately tied up        Churches to order their own spiritual
that he does not mean his "whatso-           with Temple worship in Scripture. It        house so that they understand that
ever" in the sense in which you repre-       had a deep connection with such             instrumentalmusicalaccompaniment
sent his position, but in the sense in       worship, and thus had clear religious       to the praise of God is a thingwith no
which it has been understood by the          significance, and was not treated as a      religious or spiritual significance in
divines of the past, including authors       circumstance in the worship of God.         their worship, even though the de-
of the Westminster Confession of             This is seen, for example, from the         nomination I come from, which is a
Faith. (See Chapter IV of his work.)         fact it was introduced by divine war-       friend to your own, does not. It is
     W.hile it is true that the              rant, and not by the will of man. Such      however another thing, I would sug-
Westminster standards do not use             fathers understood that musical ac-         gest, to say that theReformedchurches
the actual word "whatsoever" in con-         companiment in worship was a part           in their past understood the matter
nection with their expression of the         of those religious types and shadows        the same way as your churches. I do
"regulative principle," nevertheless,        such as altars, candles, incense, and       not believe that this can be histori-
they certainly mean, as Girardeau is         special clothing vested with a reli-        callyverified. Isitnot simplyamatter
simply pointing out, that all that is not    gious meaning, that passed away with        of historical record that the original
a mere circumstance of worship must          the Old Testament worship. It seems         Reformed Synods and Churches of
have a biblical warrant to be intro-         to me, that we cannot argue that ei-        The Netherlands did not see them as
duced into the worship of God. For           ther the Scriptures or our fathers of       a mere circumstance? Was it not only
example, the Westminster Confession          the greatest periods of the Reformed        at a later date, as in Britain, when the
of Faith, Ch XXI, I, states, "But the        faith, even on the continent, believed      full-blooded earlier Reformed theol-
acceptable way of worshipping the            that instrumental accompaniment to          ogy was no longer widely appreci-
true God is instituted by Himself, and       worship was a mere circumstance.            ated, that such thinking crept in?
so limited to His own revealed will,         Might we not as well argue that                  For these above reasons, I find it
thatHemaynotbeworshipped...any               candles, incense, vestments, altars,        difficult to see that it can be main-
other way not prescribed in the holy         etc. can be used where worship is           tained that the place of instrumental
Scripture." (See also the Larger Cat-        conducted, and be seen as only aids to      music is in the category of lights and
echism number 109.) We could also            worship, not worship itself, and there-     heaters and pews - things of mere
quote from the works of such                 foreareonlynaturalcircumstances? I          circumstance and decency and order
Westminster divines as George                presume that you would not agree            in the worship service.
Gillespie, JeremiahBurroughs, etc. to        with the use of such things in the place         In summary, I believe that, in
show that they also understood the           where worship is offered to God, and        light of what our Reformed fathers of
matter in that way. See for example,         would see them as badges and sug-           theearlyReforrnedchurchesbelieved
Burroughs' treatise,  Gospel Worship         gestions of a false ritualistic worship     from Scripture on this question, the
(pages  13-15), (recently published by       such as Rome practices. I ask then, if      argument that musical accompani-
Soli Deo Gloria Publications).               we disagree with incense, candles,          ment to singing and prayer in the
     Youalso suggest, professor, that        etc., how do we keep them out when          worship of God is a mere circum-
the use of musical instruments in the        we let things of the same category be       stance of worship, and therefore the
worship of God is a mere circum-             used in the worship services?               "regulative principle" is not relevant
stance. I believe we need to ask,                 I appreciate, of course, that it       to the question of its use or not, is very
should we in the light of the place          could be argued that vestments,             difficult to maintain. For myself, I
instrumental music had in the wor-           candles, incense, etc., are also mere       cannot see, then, as you suggest in
ship of God; as revealed to us in            items of circumstance. I would agree        your response, that Girardeau, and
Scripture, see it as a mere natural          that they would be, if they were to         others who cannot in good conscience
circumstance? To me, this is the real        keep one warm in winter, light the          accept the use of musicalinstruments
issue, and the question we needto  be        building in the absence of electric         in the worship of God, have "not
addressing.                                  lights, or keep the mosquitoes away.        simply an overly rigorous applica-
     TheReformed fathers we would            But when they go beyond this natural        tion of the principle but rather a mis-
both esteem, including famous Con-           and non-religious use, and are con-         understandingoftheprincipleitself."
tinental ones, such as Calvin, Voetius,      nected to the worship of God, so that            May the Lord graciously con-

                                                                                            November 1,1992 / Standard Bearer J 57


time to bless His cause in the midst of      The foregoing argument has pro-            in connection with the public wor-
yourchurches,andmakethemabless-              ceededprincipallybytwosteps. The           ship . ..."
ing to His true church throughout the        first is: Whatsoever, in connection              By this formulation of the "regu-
                                             with the public worship of the church,
world.                                                                                  lative principle," Girardeau meant to
                                             is not commanded by Christ, either
                   (Rev.) Chris Coleborn                                                condemn the worship that uses in-
                                             expressly or by good and necessary
                   Brisbane, Australia       consequence, in his Word, is forbid-       strumental accompaniment as "her-
                                              den. The second is: Instrumental          esy in the sphere of worship." In fact,
                                              music, in connection with the public      he condemned a2Z worship as "her-
Response:                                    worship of the church, is not so com-      esy," since no congregation can keep
     My response to a question about          manded by Christ. The conclusion          the "regulative principle" as formu-
organs in the July 1, 1992 Standard           is: Instrumental music, in connec-        lated in this way.
Bearer contended that instrumental            tion with the public worship of the             Instrumental accompaniment of
accompaniment of congregational               church, is forbidden (p. 201).            congregational singing is not a dis-
singing does not sin against the "regu-                                                 tinct element of public worship, like
                                                 Thisismisstatement of the "regu-
lative principle." The "regulative                                                      preaching or the use of the sacra-
principle" regarding public worship,        lative principle." It is deliberate mis-    ments. It is not some rite or ceremony
as expressed in Q. 96 of the Heidel-        statement of the principle (no doubt,       which the Protestant Reformed
                                            sincerely) in order to bring instru-
berg Catechism, requires that the ele-                                                  Churches have introduced into pub-
ments that constitute the worship of        mental accompaniment under the ban          lic worship in defiance of the "regula-
the church be those, and those only,        of the "regulative principle." But it is    tive principle." John Calvin notwith-
that are commanded by the Word of           misstatement. Not one Reformed or           standing, instrumental accompani-
God. The church is not at liberty to        Presbyterian confession explains the        ment is one of the incidental circum-
introduce, as part of her worship,          second commandment as requiring             stances connected with worship that
whatever activities please her.             biblical warrant for "whatsoever in         is perfectly allowable in the church's
     The "regulative principle" does        connection with the public worship          freedom. Indeed, to use the language
not require that there be biblical war-     of the church." With one clear voice        of the Belgic Confession in the article
rant for all the circumstances and          all the Reformed and Presbyterian           that speaks of this freedom, instru-
details pertaining to the church's ser-     confessions explain the second com-         mentalaccompanimentis"usefuland
vice of worship. The church has free-       mandment as requiring biblical war-         beneficial."
dom here, although she must take            rant for the elements themselves that              Nor is the organ or piano the
care in this area not to depart from the    make up the church's public worship         only means of assisting congregational
Word and to cultivate the peace of the      (cf. the Heid. Cat., Questions 96 and       singing that falls in the category of the
congregation (cf. the Belgic Confes-        103; the West. Conf., 21.1 and 5; and       freedom of the church within the
sion, Art. 32).                             the West. Larger Catechism, Q. 108).        bounds of the "regulative principle."
      Regardless of his treatment of        Not "whatsoever in connection with                 In the Scottish Presbyterian tra-
the circumstances of worship else-          the public worship of the church," but      dition, it is common that congrega-
where in                                    the worship itself as regards its ele-
             his book, Instrumental Mu-                                                 tional singing in public worship be
sicin thePublic  Worshipof the Church       ments, e.g., preaching, prayer, sing-       helped by means of a precentor. Of-
(New Covenant Publication Society,          ing, and sacraments, must have war-         ten, this precentor helps himself, and
1983),  it is essential to John L.          rant in the command of Christ.              the singing of the congregation, by
Girardeau's condemnation of instru-               The seriousness of Girardeau's        having recourse to a "wee" instru-
mentalaccompaniment that he phrase          misstatement of the "regulative prin-       ment - a pitch pipe or a tuning fork
the "regulative principle" exactly as       ciple" (which is the formulation that              Scripture nowhere commands a
he does: "Whatsoever, in connection         is necessary in order to condemn in-        precentor, much less a tuning fork.
with the public worship of the church,      strumental accompaniment) is sim-           The precentor with his tuning fork is
is not commanded by Christ . . . is         ply this, that on this formulation of       a "whatsoever in connection with
forbidden."                                 the "regulative principle" every last        public worship" that has no warrant
      The importance of expressing          aspect, detail, and circumstance con-       in a command of Christ. For all this,
the "regulative principle" in just this     nected in any way with public wor-           Scottish Presbyterians are not guilty
way for the condemnation of instru-         ship must have warrant in a com-             of transgressingthe secondcommand-
mental accompaniment may not be             mand of Scripture. The failure of the       ment in their worship. On the con-
ignored. Girardeau himself tells us         worshiping congregation to ground            trary.
 that this phrasing of the "regulative      the least detail of public worship, no             Just so, for singing Psalms with
 principle" is basic to his entire argu-    matter how remotely connected to             the help of an organ the PRC are not
 ment. In the last chapter of his book,     the worship, in a command of Christ          guilty of the horrendous iniquity
 "Concluding Remarks," Girardeau            renders the worship violation of the         charged against them by John L.
                                            secondcommandment. Whatsoever
 writes:                                                                                 Girardeau: "They rebel against the

 58 /Standard Bearer / November 1,1992


law of Christ, their King."                    But we do not allow our con-         for an hour. 0
      We forgive him this grossly un-     sciences tobe oppressedby it. No, not                                      - DJE
just accusation.




                    Free Christian School
                    Edgerton, Minnesota

     What is "Free"? This question        Church received aid from the State at          We in Edgerton  believe it is a
has been asked over and over. The         that time. The reason they separated      good name. Had we included the
name was suggested by Rev. William        was that the State Church had be-         name of our church in the name of our
Verhil, who was pastor of the Protes-     come too liberal and had drifted away     school, we would have been without
tant Reformed Church in Edgertonin        from the truth. The State Church          a school for ten years after the split of
1944, the year that the school society    gave aid to the church and school, but    1953. We believe it is a good thing to
was organized. Rev. Verhil was an         also had rule over the church and         keep church and school separate. Our
immigrant from The Netherlands.           school. In 1834, when our forefathers     schools are parental schools, not pa-
     In1834ourforefathersseparated        separated from the State Church, they     rochial schools, not controlled and
from the State Church. The State          agreed to be "free" from any rule         ruled by the state or by the church,
                                          from the State or from the church.        but by the parents.
                                               In those days there were many             May this answer the "What's
Mr. Huisken is a member of the Protes-    churches and schools that included        `Free'?" question.  0
tant Reformed Church ofEdgerton, MN.      "Free" in their names.




         Reflections from the Bible
                               about Tornadoes-  *
     On the evening of June 16,1992,      between forty and fifty million dol-           As far as I know, the Ring James
God sent a powerful tornado through       lars. At least twenty-nine injuries       Version of the Bible (which1 use) does
an area just east of Edgerton, Minne-     were reported, and one woman later        not use the word "tornado." There
sota. In the nearby towns of Leota,       died from the injuries she sustained.     are, however, numerous references
Chandler, and Lake Wilson, many                No one who lived near or in the      to whirlwinds, which seem to have
farms, homes, and businesses were         path of the storm could help but be       the same power as tornadoes. Much
completely destroyed or severely          awestruckby such a tremendous dis-        of what I will say from the Bible about
damaged. Damage was estimated at          play of God's power. People who           tornadoes is said literally about whirl-
                                          have lived in the Midwest all their       winds. The rest of my comments
                                          lives, including the newscasters who      about tornadoes will come from what
                                          reported on the storm, said that the      the Bible has to say about turbulence
                                          storm system of that night was the        in the skies, mighty clouds which the
Mr. Hilton is principal/teacher in the    most powerful and widespread of           Lord directs to doHis will, andstorms
Free Christian School of Edgerton, MN.    any that they can remember.               in general.

                                                                                       November 1,1992 / Standard Bearer / 59


A Picture of the Destruction of the        to come, whether for correction, or          be the name of the Lord."
Wicked                                     for. his land, or for mercy. Hearken              The Lord may allow Satan to sift
      The overwhelming majority of         unto this, 0 Job: stand still, and           us as wheat (Luke 22:31),  even as He
references to whirlwinds in the Bible      consider the wondrous works of               allowed Satan to have power over all
present them as pictures of the de-        God."                                        Job had, to afflict him (Job 1:12), by
struction of the wicked. Some of                                                        taking away his children in a great
these references are Psalm 58:9; Prov-     A Trial to Work Patience in God's            wind. But the Lord always sustains
erbs 1:27 and 10:25;  Isaiah 17~13 and     People                                       His people, that their faith does not
40:24;  and Jeremiah 23:19,25:32,  and          If we also consider the life of Job     fail (Luke 2232). Even though the
30:23.  In Psalm  58:9-11,  we read:       a little further, we can see how God         storms of this life may remove from
"Before your pots can feel the thorns,     sends trials on His people through           us all of our earthly pride, God uses
he shall take them away as with a          tornadoes and other storms. Job was          these things to prepare us more and
whirlwind, both living, and in his         a man "perfect and upright, and one          more for His heavenly kingdom.
wrath. The righteous shall rejoice         that feared God, and eschewed evil."
whenhe  seeth thevengeance: he shall       And yet when Satan asked permis-             A Sign of the Coming of Christ
wash his feet in the blood of the          sion from God to afflict Job, God.                Another important aspect of
wicked. So that a man shall say,           allowed Job to suffer. When all of           God'ssendingsuchagreatstormisto
Verily there is a reward for the righ-     Job's seven sons and three daughters         see it as a sign of the comingof  Christ.
teous: verily he is a God that judgeth     were eating and drinking wine in the         In Luke 21, verses 11 and 26 speak of
in the earth."                             eldest brother's house, great wind           "fearful sights and great signs from
                                           came from the desert and smote the           heaven" and "men's hearts f.ailing
A Manifestation of the Power and           four corners of the house so that it fell    them for fear and for looking after
Sovereignty of God                         on them all and killed them. When            those things which are coming on the
      Some places in Scripture present     the Bible describes the wind as smit-        earth, for the powers of heaven shall
the whirlwind, or tornado, as one of       ing the four corners of the house, I         be shaken."
many types of weather, all of which        believe we have the description of a              Almost everyone agrees that we
are under God's control, and which         tornado.                                     are seeing an increase of destruction,
show forth the glory of God. Job 37 is                                                  intensity, and frequency of natural
suchapassage.  Considerverses2-14.                                                      storms in these latter days. We Chris-
"Hearattentivelythenoise ofhisvoice,                   Our response                     tians should therefore be increasingly
and the sound that goeth out of his          to the increase of the signs               aware that the days are hastening on
mouth. He directeth it under the                                                        toward the end of the world, the com-
whole heaven, and his lightning unto           of the coming of Christ                  ing of Christ in the clouds, the de-
the ends of the earth. After it a voice        must be always to draw                   struction of the wicked, and the glori-
roareth: he thunderethwith thevoice                  nearer to our God.                 ousfinalredemptionofallGod'select.
of his excellency; and he will not stay                                                 (As further proof of the increased
them when his voice is heard. God                                                       intensity of tornado destructio'n,  we
thundereth marvellously with his                Such a loss of his family brought       could recall that in April, 1965, forty-
voice; great things doeth he, which        untold misery to Job, of course. Ro-         seven tornadoes swept across the
we cannot comprehend. For he saith         mans 5:3 tells us, however, that "... we     Midwest in two days, killing 257
to the snow, Be thou on the earth;         glory in tribulations also: knowing          people. In February, 1971, tornadoes
likewise to the small rain, and to the     that tribulation worketh patience."          caused 115 deaths in the Mississippi
great rain of his strength. He sealeth     The patience of Job is proverbial.           delta area. And on April 3, 1974,
up the hand of every man; that all         James 5:ll tells us of Job's patience.       tornadoes swept from Georgia to
men may know his work. Then the            "Behold we count them happy which            Ontario, killing approximately 350
beasts go into dens, and remain in         endure. Ye have heard of the patience        people.)
their places. Out of the south cometh      of Job, and have seen the end of the
the whirlwind: and cold out of the         Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful and      A Warning to Live Godly Lives
north. By the breath of God frost is       of tender mercy."                                 Although as God's people we
given: and the breadth of the waters            Job went through a time of in-          are exhorted in the Scriptures not to
is straitened. Also by watering he         tense personal suffering when the            be overly anxious and fearful of the
wearieth the thickcloud: he scattereth     Lord took away all his possessions,          terrible signs of Christ's coming, it is
the bright cloud: And it is turned         even all his children. But by the grace      likewise true that we are wame<d not
round about by his counsels: that          of God he could say, "Naked came I           to be complacent and worldly minded.
they may do whatsoever he                  out of my mother's womb, andnaked            Our thoughts must not be on this
commandeth them upon the face of           shall I return thither: the Lord gave,       present world, as the people in the
the world in the earth. He causeth it      andtheLordhathtakenaway:  blessed            days of Noah before the flood came,

60 /Standard  Bearer / November 1,1992


giving ourselves to our eating and            come on all them that dwell on the          stand before the Son of man." God
drinking, marrying and giving in              face of the whole earth."                   hears the trustful prayer, andHe com-
marriage, so that the day of the Lord              Our salvation is sure; but an          forts us in Psalm 91:9,10:  "Because
will come upon us as a thief in the           important part of our Christianliving       thou hast made the Lord, which is my
night, even as the great flood came           in these last days is to forsake the        refuge, even the most High, thy habi-
upon the unbelieving world and                things of this present world and set        tation; There shall no evil befall thee,
swept them all away.                          our hope on the things that are eter-       neither shall any plague come nigh
         Our response to the increase of      nal. When we see more and more              thy dwelling."
the signs of the coming of Christ must        destruction of earthly things we                 Finally, above all, we must re-
be always to draw nearer to our God.          should not sorrow over their loss,          joice, even in the midst of the most
If destruction touches our property           and strive all the more to build up our     terrible of God's judgments in the
or loved ones we must maintain our            earthly possessions. But we should          earth. "The Lord reigneth; let the
patient trust in the Lord, as Job did         see the beginning of the end of this        earth rejoice; let the multitudes of
when he said to his wife, "What? shall        present world, and be exceedingly           isles be glad thereof. Clouds and
we receive good at the hand of God,           glad that we "have in heaven a better       darkness are round about him: righ-
and shall we not receive evil?" (Job          and an enduring substance" (Heb.            teousness and judgment are the habi-
2:lO. As Romans 8 instructs us, noth-         10:34).  Our lives should "declare          tation of his throne.... Zion heard,
ing can separate us from the love of          plainly" that we "desire abetter coun-      and was glad; and the daughters of
Christ, and all things work together          try, that is, an heavenly," that God be     Judah rejoiced because of thy judg-
for good to them that love God.               not ashamed to be called our God            ments, 0 Lord" (Ps. 97:1,2,8).  That
         If, on the other hand, we are        (Heb. 11:14-16).                            same Savior who has removed all
personally untouched by the terrible               Should we find that we are truly       curse from us on the cross is coming
upheavals in the earth that portend           scaredby  all theincrease of the fearful    upon the clouds to show to all that we
the coming of Christ we must not              signs of Christ's coming, in spite of       are His, and that He has earned an
relax our vigil and live carelessly.          God's promises, again we must see           eternal, glorious inheritance for us.
Luke 21:34 and 35 tells us: "And take         that our only comfort is to draw near            "And when these things begin
heed to yourselves, lest at any time          to God and live close to Him. Luke          to come to pass, then lookup, and lift
your hearts be overcharged with sur-          21:36 tells us, "Watch ye therefore,        up your hearts; for your redemption
feiting, and drunkenness, and cares           and pray always, that ye may be ac-         draweth nigh" (Luke 21:28). 0
of this life, and so that day come upon       counted worthy to escape all these
you unawares. For as a snare shall it         things that shall come to pass, and to





                                              tional loyalty. The seven newly
n More Leakage                                                                            led the way of the conservative cause
                                              formed independent congregations            in the CRC. Rev. Rein Leestma, re-
or Hemorrhage?                                total some 1,400 members. The total         centlyretired pastor of Lynwood, led
         Since we last reported on the        number of seceders has now topped           the unsuccessful attempt to discipline
statistics of those congregations which       4,000 in twenty churches and shows          Dr. Harry Boer for his denial of the
have seceded from the Christian Re-           no signs of slackening.                     doctrine of reprobation. Leestma also
formed Church (CRC), seven more                    The two largest seceding               helped in the formation of the Alli-
groups have formed independent                churches are Dutton Independent             ance of Reformed Churches. Dutton,
churches. Only three of the previous          Reformed Church and Lynwood                 under a succession of pastors (Rev.
secessions have occurred outside of           Christian ReformedChurch  (Indepen-         Leestma in the 195Os, Outlook  editor
Canada. Of the seven which have left          dent). Both of these congregations          Rev. Peter DeJong in the 197Os, and
the CRC, four are in the United States        voted to leave the CRC by over eighty       Rev. Warren Lammers in the 198Os),
and three of the four are in West             percent margins. The Dutton church          has been opposing liberal trends in
Michigan, long a center of denomina-          is located just south of Grand Rapids       the CRC for forty years. Dutton's
                                              and numbers over 300 members.               current pastor, Rev. Paul Murphy,
                                              Lynwood, with nearly 600 members,           has been an active participant in the
                                              is located in a suburb on Chicago's
Prof. Decker is professor ofPractical The-                                                Committee of Concerned Members
                                              south side.
ology in the Profesfant Reformed Semi-                                                    of the CRC.
                                                   Both of thesechurches havelong
nary.                                                                                          Both pastors of these congrega-

                                                                                             November 1,1992 I Standard Bearer I 61


tions, Rev. Murphy of Dutton and              from the Christian Reformed Church.          w     All Within Us
Rev. Kenneth Eiten of Lynwood, cite                This semester also marks the                  With the Editor's permission I
theauthorityofScriptureanditsfunc:            return of Rev. Mark VanderHart to            include this bit of news that has to do
tion in the life of the church as the         the faculty. VanderHart has com-             with our own denomination and its
issue causing them to secede.                 pleted a two-year study leave at the         seminary in Grandville, Michigan.
     The other two congregations in           Potchefstroom University for Higher          The seminary community was de-
Michigan are in Cutlerville (25 fami-         Christian Education in South Africa.         lightedjustthisweektoleamthattwo
lies and i90 attenders) and Overisel          VanderHart's replacement, Rev.               donors have contributed just over
(80committedmembers). Cutlerville             Raymond Zom of Australia, has re-            $42,000.00  to our Building Expansion
is just five miles from Dutton, and           turned to his homeland.                      Fund. Total contributions thus far are
Overisel is a bit south of Holland.           Christian Renewal                            about $170,000.00.  Synod has autho-
     The other three churches are in                                                       rized the Theological School Com-
Canada  - Emmanuel Reformed                   H  R e f o r m e d   E c u m e n i c a l     mittee to proceed with getting con-
Church in Neerlandia, Alberta (150            Council 1992                                 struction drawings when $220,000.00
members), Smithers (72 members),                   The Reformed Ecumenical                 has been received through voluntary
and Agassiz (84 members). The latter          Council held its last meeting in Ath-        gifts, and to award the construction
two churches areinBritish  Columbia.          ens, Greece. Amongotherthings, this          contract when $330,000.00  has been
     More groups are poised to pull           gathering came close to terminating          received. These goals are now within
out in London, Hamilton, and                  the membership of one of its charter         reach, it would seem, in the near fu-
Ancaster, Ontario.                            members, the Gereformeerde Kerken            ture. The total cost of the project is
     We commend these churches                in Nederland (GKN). The GKN has              estimated at about $430,000.00
and their members for taking the dif-         been "under fire" from member                      A hearty thanks to all who have
ficult step out of the denomination of        churches of the REC for some time            contributed! And, to those who as yet
which they have for so long been a            because of its approval of homosexu-         have not, will you help your seminary
part. What does the future hold for           ality and other errors. Several de-          reach the goals? The seminary really
them? Will they eventually form still         nominations, the Orthodox Presbyte-          does need the library-study area and
another Reformed denomination?                rian Church in North America for             office and storage space.
Will they remain independent? This            example, have left the REC because of              More news of the seminary will
latter surely cannot be a valid option        its refusal heretofore to oust the GKN.      appear, D.V., in the December 1 issue
for a Reformed church. Will they seek         At its meeting in June the REC's in-         of the  Standard Bearer. 0
union with an existing Reformed or            terim committee, while strongly criti-
Presbyterian denomination?                    cal of the GKN, recommended that
     And, yes, just one more ques-            there were insz&`cienf  grounds to ter-
tion: is there any possibility at all that    minate the membership of the GKN.                   ZTiere  is  time
they would be willing to sit down             Amajorityof theadvisorycommittee
with our Protestant Reformed                  recommended that there were suffi-
Churches, as this writer thinks they                                                                     fO?-U
                                              cient  grounds for terminating the
should, and discuss in a brotherly            membership of the GKN. This failed
fashion, on the basis of the Three                                                               C2k&W%R5
                                              to gain the necessary two-thirds ma-
Forms of Unity, the issues (especially        jority required by the REC consti-
common grace) which currently di-             tution. The minority report of the                         GIFT
vide us?                                      advisory committee (virtually the
                             The Banner       same advice as that of the interim
                    Christian Renewal                                                             Suhcrip tion
                                              committee) also failed. The GKN
  Reformed Believer's Press Service           delegation walked out of the sessions
                                              in protest. When they later returned                       to the
n Mid-America Preparing                       they informed the REC that it is likely
 to Move                                      that the next synod of the GKN will               Stundid 13earer.
     Mid-America Reformed Semi-               decide to withdraw from the REC.
nary, located in Orange City, Iowa, is             It is a sad commentary on the
negotiating a purchase price on a             REC that it lacks the votes to oust the
seven-acre site in Munster, Indiana.          GKN, which has openly and even
Theirgoalis tooccupyanewbuilding              defiantly denied most, if not all, of the             gay-price  for
on this site by August of 1994. Cur-          cardinal truths of the Reformed faith.
rently Mid-America has a student                               REC News Exchange                       fil r st-time
body of 18 men. Most of these are                                 Trowel and Sword                    su& i6er s!

62 /Standard Bearer I November 1,1992


     The Bible and Your Faith (2)

     In our last article, I asked you to     not need to prove to an unbeliever the       tive. For a young man to shack up
put on your thinking caps to consider        truth of the Scriptures. For you the         with a woman outside the bond of
the place of the Bible in your defense       testimony of the Bible itself is enough.     marriage is not necessarily wrong
of the faith and in resolving your own       The Spirit testifies with your spirit,       anymore. The rightness or wrong-
doubts and struggles. You were able          that these things are true. To you the       ness depends entirely upon the cir-
to see, even briefly, how Scripture          matter of the Bible's authority is as        cumstances and maturity of the indi-
bears testimony within itself as to its      sure as the fact that you came from          viduals involved. The Bible's con-
authority. Scripture itself bears wit-       your mother's womb. If a professor           demnation of such an arrangement as
nessthatitisfromGodHimself.  When            or classmate should question the fact        fornicationisrejected. Thatisjustone
you face attacks against your intelli-       of your origin, you would immedi-            example out of a multitude. Almost
gence for believing the inspiration
                      .                      ately understand that he is either play-     our whole society is built upon the
and authority of the Bible, you may be       ing a game with you, or that he be-          thinking of relativism. That is why it
confident that you have a strongintel-       longs in a mental institution. Just as       has become more of a crime in our
lectual and reasonable foundation for        sure is the matter of the Bible's origin     country to endanger animals than to
your faith.                                  and authority to you who are in Christ       murder unborn babies.
     But there is another matter in-         Jesus.
volved. There is a spiritual dimen-                                                       TheLife-givingBreath  of Scripture's
sion as wellin this matter. You must         The Practical Application of Bibli-          Authority
not expect that the testimony within         cal Authority                                     Only a strong view of Scripture
the Bible itself will convince the unbe-          "Now," you ask, "what does all          will enable you to withstand the pres-
liever of its inspiration and authority.     this deep thought have to do with my         sure of such wavering and foolish
The unbeliever, especially one with a        own life from a practical point of           thinking. Without a strong commit-
high regard for his own intellect, has       view?" Everything! The Bible alone           ment to God's absolutes set forth in
set man's mind as the authority over         provides a unified answer for all of         theBible,  the early church couldnever
all things. When you point him to the        life. When you put away your ratio-          have remained faithful in the face of
self-testimony of Scripture, you must        nalism, your worship of your own             such severe persecution. Without a
not consider yourself a failure when         mind, you will recover the beautiful         strong commitment to the authority
you do not convince him. Nor must            understanding that is seen in rational       of God's absolutes set forth in the
you let his unbelief cause you to sway       Christian thought as guided by the           Bible, Martin Luther would never
from your position. For there is a           Scriptures. Through the Bible you            have stood in the face of persecution,
spiritual dimension to our belief that       will see that which embraces allratio-       to restore the church long lost in pa-
the Bible is the authoritative Word of       nal thought and raises it to a higher        gan thought. Without a strong com-
God. Only the God-given bond of              level, the level of true knowledge.          mitment to God's absolutes set forth
faith and a personal relationship with                                                    in the Bible, you will be consumed by
the living Christ enables one to hear        The Death-blow of Relativism                 doubt and by the doctrines of devils.
His voice, also as He speaks through              Let me put it negatively, first of      When the ungodly haul you before
the Scriptures. Herein also lies the         all. If we donot have the Scriptures as      the judges of the antichristian world
necessity that our witness to unbe-          the inspired Word of God, absolutely         power, and demand you to reject the
lievers be bathed with our prayers           authoritative and determinative for          Scriptures or die, you will stand only
that the Spirit open their blind eyes, if    doctrine and life, we have absolutely        in the power of faith, with a strong
He is willing to save them.                  no standard of right and wrong. None,        commitment to the absolute author-
     You who are in Christ Jesus do          except the ever-changing opinions of         ity of the Bible.
                                             sociologists and psychologists. That              But still more must be said.
                                             is evident in today's culture and soci-
                                             ety. It is evident that for the most part    Your Calling Toward Scripture
Rev. Key is pastor of the Protestant Re-     there are no absolutes in today's soci-           The Bible is not some magic
formed Church  of  Randolph, Wisconsin.      ety. Rights and wrongs are all rela-         medicine to heal all diseases and to

                                                                                             November 1,1992 / Standard Bearer / 93


ward off,all superstitions. It is not       because of our own neglect or even                ye children of Israel: for the Lore hath
some air purifier that works by lying       rejection of the Word of God.                     a controversy with the inhabitants of
on a table in your house, sucking                    We are called always to search           the land, because there is no truth, nor
awayfromyouandintoitselfall temp-           the Scriptures, even as did the Bereans           mercy, nor knowledge of God in the
tations that surround you and clear-        after hearing the preaching of the                land . . . . My people are destroyed for
ing the air of all doctrines of devils.     apostlePaul(Acts1791).  God'swords                lack of knowledge: because thou hast
The Bible must be read and under-           of judgment upon Ephraim (Hosea                   rejected knowledge, I will also reject
stood and believed -by you.                 8:12) are frightful words: "I have                thee, that thou shalt be no priest to
     If you do not understand and           written to him the great things of my             me: seeing thdu hast forgotten the
submit yourself to the truths and stan-     law, but they were counted as a                   law of thy God, I will also forget thy
dard of the Scriptures, you will not        strange thing."                                   children" (Hosea 4:1,6).
resolve your doubts and you cannot                   Yes, it is a sign of great sin in our         It may be -we have fallen into
possibly grow in knowledge and ho-          midst, when we know all abo.ut what               such sinfulness without meaning to
liness. That is why it is so sad that we    is going on in the National Basketball            do so. But inadvertent sin is still sin.
live in an age when so many are hos-        Association or we know all the statis-            Let us repent of our sins, and heed the
tile to the Bible and its authoritative     tics of the major league baseball play-           call of Isaiah (55:6, -7): "Seek.ye  the
teaching. Unresolved doubt devel-           ers, but know not the substance of                LORD while he `may be' found, call ye
ops into error and sin. And one need        Jesus' teachings in the gospel accounts,          upon him while he is near: Let the
not look far beyond his or her own life     nor the truth taught in Paul's letter to          wicked forsake his way, and the
to see the truth of that. Our whole         the Romans. It is an indication of our            unrighteous man his thoughts: and
society ispermeated with the conse-         bondage to sin, when we know all                  let him return unto the LORD, and he
quences of the rejection of and hostil-     about what is going on in Washington              will have mercy upon him; and to our
ity toward the Scriptures as the Word       D.C., yet are ignorant of the Psalms,             God, for he will abundantly pardon."
of God. And, sad to say, those conse-       or the prophecies of Zechariah and                     Let us hear and obey the au-
quences are often our own experience        Malachi. "Hear the word of the LORD,              thoritative Scriptures.  m




                                            John Knox:
           The Reformer of Scotland
     God not only calls men to par-         Scotland's gloomy heathsHeir  of the              for centuries,: unchallenged and
ticular tasks in His kingdom; He also       dour, unbending individualism which               unmolested, was a church in which
suits the man He calls with the per-        so characterized Scotland's populace,             corruptionhadreacheddepthsfound
sonality, gifts, and strength to do the     he was tempered to stand alone                    in the few othe? places. One would
work.                                       against queens and princes, unmoved               think that reformation here would be
     So it was with John Knox, the          by their threats or tears. He was, in             impossible.
Reformer of Scotland.                       God's wisdom, the only one who                         John Knox was born sometime
     Born.and raised in a harsh land,       could bring the Reformation to Scot-              during the year 1505 in the small
he emerged from his years of prepa-         land.                                             village of Gifford in East Lotham. His
ration a harsh and unbending de-                                                              parents were sufficiently wealthy,
fender of the faith. With roots deeply      Youth and Education                               apparently, to provide him with a
sunk into the soil of his motherland,                It is quite amazing, and a per-          good education. He received his early
he was fed with the sturdiness of           petual testimony of the power of grace,           training in Haddington  and was then
                                            that the Reformation came at all to               sent to the University of Glasgow. In
                                            Scotland. Scotland was known                      the university he earned his M.A.
                                            throughout Europe as the most back-               degree and was sufficiently proficient
Prof. Ha?zko is professor of Church His-    ward,themostsuperstitious,  themost               in his studies to gain an assistant
tory ad New Tesfamwt  in the Profes-        Roman Catholic of any country. And                professorship.
taut Reformd Seminary.                      the church which had held sway here                    Somewherenear1530Knoxwent

64 IStandard  Bearer 1 November 1,1992


to St. Andrews, on the East Coast by          and others were made prisoners of            began a new work on the continent, in
the sea, just a bit north of the Firth of     theFrench,  and, afterbeing sentenced        Frankfurt-on-the-Main, in a church of
Forth, to teach. It may have been here        in France, Knox was condemned to             English exiles. Things did not work
that his studies included some of the         the galleys as a slave chained to an         out well here, for a dispute rose over
old church fathers, particularly Jerome       oar.                                         liturgy, particularly responsive read-
and Augustine, and that the first                     Who knows what agony he en-          ings, and Knox, with some disgust,
doubts concerning Roman Catholi-              dured during the nineteen months of          resigned his work and took up resi-
cism rose in his soul. At any rate, he        his slavery? Who knows how often             dence in Geneva.
remained a firm Roman Catholic for            he questioned the ways of God when,               Calvin was at the height of his
the present and was ordained into             e.g., he could glimpse through the           powers and influence, and the two
clerical orders.'                             small oar opening the spires of St.          spent much time together discussing
                                              Andrews cathedral as his galley rode         theology and,  .more particularly,
Early Reformation and Exile                   the waves off the coast of Scotland?         church polity. Knox pastored  an En-
     It was not, however, until 1542          He emerged from this ordeal with             glishcongregation and spent the hap-
that Knoxbecame a Protestant, under           infirmities which were to remain with        piest time of his life on the shores of
what influences or by what means is,          him all his life (his own ti thorn in the    Lake Leman, beneath the shadow of
not known. So clearly did he begin to         flesh"), but with a faith tempered in        the Alps, and, to use Knox's own
proclaimProtestantviews  that he was          the fire of suffering and a stronger         words: "in the most perfect school of
degraded from orders as a heretic,            then ever determination to engage in         Christ that ever was since the days of
and he was compelled to go to the             the Lord's work.                             the apostles."
south part of Scotland to find hiding                 Knox was released only because            His stay in Geneva was inter-
from those who hated him.                     Edward VI, Protestant king of En-            rupted by a rather hasty trip back to
     While in the southern part of his        gland, directly intervened on his be-        Scotland. It is not entirely clear why
country, Knox tutored the sons of two         half with the king of France.2  It was       Knox went; nor is it clear why he
nobles and occasionally preached. It          probably for this reason that Knox           returned to Geneva. During his stay,
was during this period that he met            did not return to Scotland, but took         however, he preached, taught, and
and became a close friend of George           up residence in England. Here he             visited day and night. His influence
Wishart, a bold minister and teacher          spent about five years, married              was great, especially on some of the
of Reformation doctrine. Wishartwas           Marjory Bowes, often preached every          nobles. The result was that events
soon apprehended by the Roman au-             day of the week, worked with the             began to favor the Reformation, and
thorities and was taken away to be            reformers in England, and was of-            the first National League &Covenant
tried and condemned to burning at             fered a bishopric. This offer he de-         was sworn to in 1556.
the stake. Here really began Knox's           clined, partly, it seems, because he              Some have charged him with
commitment to the Reformation.                already had some misgivings about            cowardice for not staying in his na-
Clinging to Wishart  as he was led            the hierarchical form of church gov-         tive land; it is most likely true that if
away, and hoping to die with him,             ernment practiced in the Church of           he had stayed he would have been
Knox. was told by his friend: "Nay,           England, but also partly because he          killed. Immediately after his flight he
return to your bairns, and God bless          foresaw "evil days to come."                 was condemned in absentia and
you; one is sufficient for a sacrifice."              These days came soon enough          burned in effigy.
     Wishart  was burned to death by          with the untimely death of Edward                 Two things resulted from his
Cardinal Beaton  of St. Andrews in            and the accession of Mary Tudor,             stay in Geneva: he was thoroughly
March of 1546. Nobles, sympathetic            "Bloody Mary," as she was called, a          equipped to establish a complete ref-
to Protestantism,  stormed the castle,        loyal daughter of Rome and one de-           ormationin Scotland, not only in doc-
killed Beaton, and invited other Prot-        termined to restore Roman Catholi-           trine, but also in church polity and
estants, including Knox to take up            cism to England-even at the price of         liturgy. He also authored a pamphlet
residence in the castle.                      the blood of the Protestants.                entitled (in characteristic language):
     Knox lived in the castle for                     Knox fled to Europe. The year        "First Blast of the Trumpet Against
awhile, preaching and teaching, but           was 1554. He had wanted to stay in           the Monstrous Regime of Wbmen."
in July of 1547 the castle was captured       Englandbecause, as he said with some         The pamphlet was written primarily
by a part of the French navy, Knox            understatement, "Never could I die           against Bloody Mary (although no
                                              in a more honest quarrel." But, pre-         names were mentioned), but it got
                                              vailed upon by friends to flee, he           him into endless trouble with Eliza-
1 Knox holds a certain distinction in this                                                 beth, queen of England, and with
respect: he was a priest in the Roman                                                      Mary, queen of Scotland.
Catholic Church, a prelate in the Church                                                        In 1559 Knox returned to Scot-
of England, and a minister in the Church      z The date was February, 1549, and Knox      land for good, and with his return the
of Scotland.                                  was 44 years old.                            work of reformation advanced rap-

                                                                                              November 1,1992  I Standard Bearer / 65


idly. It was evident that the common                   In all of these activities, Knox
people hungered for thepurepreach-            assumed a leading role. Perhaps no
ing of the gospel, ahunger created by         more interesting part in all his refor-
a mighty work of the Spirit of Christ.        matory work can be found than in his
Romanism was abandoned, supersti-             interviews with Queen Mary.' Mary
tion was condemned, the chains of             wanted nothing so much as to return
Rome were broken, and the nation              Scotland to the papal fold. Knox
moved steadily in the direction of            stood in her way. In at least two
becoming a Protestant country.                interviews with him she tried by ev-
         A few of the outstanding events      ery means to dissuade him from his
and characteristics of the progressing        course. She argued, pleaded, cajoled,
reformation are the following:                threatened, attempted to move him
         The Protestants began to be          with her feminine wiles (of which she
called "The Congregation" and the             had plenty, for she was a beautiful
leaders, "The lords of the Congrega-          woman); and even was reduced to
tion." A presbyterian system of               tears. Through it all Knox stood firm           many. But his influence continued to
church government, which Knox had             and unmovable, to the point where               be felt. When Mary was forced to
learned in Geneva and which was               some of his contemporaries and sub-             abdicate the throne in 1567, reforms
markedly different from that in En-           sequent historians have sometimes               continued. It was decided, for ex-
gland, was instituted.3                       criticized him for failure to show              ample, that the ruler of Scotland must
         As Protestantism advanced, es-       proper respect to his queen and for a           henceforth be protestant, and many
pecially in some areas in south and           hardheartedness which bordered on               provisions were made for  thle sup-
east Scotland, particularly in Perth,         cruelty.                                        port of the clergy. Also under Knox's
riots broke out during which images,                   But this was Knox, a man of iron       influence, schools were established.
Romish liturgical trappings, monas-           will and implacable purpose; a man              He wanted schools in every parish, a
teries, and altars were smashed and           who did not know that the word                  college in every important town, and
burned by runaway multitudes of               "tact" existedin theEnglishlanguage,            three universities to serve the nation!
those who had come to see Rome's              or, if he did know, did not know what                  In 1570 Knox was felled by a
idolatry.                                     it meant. He spoke forthrightly and             stroke, from which he partially recov-
         When war was threatened by a         clearly,andworriednotaniotawhom                 ered. he retired toSt.  Andrews, where
possible invasion from France, and            he offended if it was for the cause of          hisreformatoryworkhadbegun,and
by the decision of England to send            the truth of God.                               there preached even though he had to
troops, a compromise was reached                       He triumphed over incredible           be carried to the pulpit. But he him-
which avoided war and called for the          odds. He was shot at, ambushed, and             self spoke of the fact that he was
meeting of a free Parliament to settle        verbally abused beyond what many                "weary of the world" and "thirsting
.religious  questions. This Parliament,       others had to endure.               Of an       to depart." On November 24,1570, at
which met in August, 1960, estab-             archbishop's greed, he wryly said,              the age of 65, the Lord tookhim home.
lished the Reformed religion, and             "As he sought the world, it fled him                   Though he was small and weak,
adopted a confession,4  a Book of Dis-        not." His purpose he himself defined:           beset since his daysin the galleys with
cipline,5 and- a Book of Common Or-           "To me it is enough to say that black           many infirmities, he was of a vigor-
der.6                                         is not white, and man's tyranny and             ous mind and implacable will. His
         In that same year, in December,      foolishness is not God's perfect ordi-          piety and zeal knew no bounds. He
the first General Assembly of the Scot-       nance."                                         stamped his character on the church
tish Church met in Edinburgh in St.                    As was true of the reformers           which he was instrumental in estab-
Magdalene's chapel.                           throughout Europe, Knox was first of            lishing. In Geneva, Switzerland stands
                                              all a preacher. Every Lord's day he             a Reformation Monument on which
3 This difference was to lead to great        preached two times, and during the              appear figures of the great reformers.
trouble later during the time of the Cov-     week three times in St. Giles Cathe-            By Knox's figure are written the
enanters and the persecution under            dral.                                           words: Un hommeavec Dieu est toujours
Charles I and Charles II, times called                 In 1563 he retired to relative pri-    dans la majorite ("One man with God
"The Killing Times."                          vacy because his forcefulness and               is always a majority"). Such men the
4 The Scottish Confession of Faith, which     uncompromising attitude offended                church needs today.  0
was the confessional basis of the Scottish
Presbyterian Church until it was super-
seded by the Westminster Confessions.         7 NotMaryTudor,  called"BloodyMary,"            8 How striking it is that all the reformers
5 It functioned as a Church Order.            who ruled in England, but Mary Guise,           were profoundly concerned with Chris-
6 A guide for ministers in their work and     sometimes called "Mary, Queen of the            tian education and did much to advance
calling.                                      Scats."                                         il.
66 /Standard Bearer / November 1,1992


      The Christian and Sickness

     Sickness and disease is a com-                There are those who teach the          much of what today calls itself Chris-
mon, fearful reality that we all have to      false doctrine that God does not want       tianity. There are those who call them-
deal with in this simcursed  world.           any of His children ever to be sick. Or     selves Christians who believe that all
How many hundreds of different                they teach the idea that, whenever the      sickness is from the devil, and that
kinds of sicknesses there are! From           Christian is sick, God will immedi-         God has nothing at all to do with it.
birth our bodies are filled with an           ately heal him. Those who teach this        I'hese are pagannotions, even though
army of germs and potential diseases.         false doctrine stand condemned be-          they are held by professing Chris-
Some already afflict the babe in its          fore God. They shall be judged espe-        tians. There are others who teach that
mother's womb and prevent it from             cially for the cases where they by their    sickness, disease, and suffering are
ever seeing the light of a single day.        false teachings have caused true saints     simply part of the inherent makeup of
Sicknessctiafflictmaninthestrength            of God in times of sickness to doubt        the world in which we live. It has
of his youth and cut him down and             and to be cast into the depths of de-       always been that way and we can do
leave him languishing on a bed with-          spair.                                      nothing to change it. Those who hold
out even being able as much as to                  The Christian who knows the            to the theory of evolution are driven
move. Other diseases afflict espe-            truth of God's Word and the ways of         to such a conclusion. The philosophy
cially the elderly, near the end of their     God's providence knows that God's           of these ungodly men is entirely pes-
life's pilgrimage. Some diseases are          inscrutable purpose is often realized       simistic. There is no difference, ac-
so terrible that men die from them            for His saints along the deep ways of       cording to them, between good and
very quickly, in just a few days. Oth-        fearful suffering, great sorrow and         evil. This is a miserable wretched
ers will torment a man for months             affliction. It is of greatest importance    world we live in. The best a man can
and even years. What fear and anxi-           that we have a right attitude and           do in his life is try to get as much
ety are brought on by sickness! What          understanding in regards to sickness        sensual pleasure as possible; and, for
pain and sorrow and trouble. Be-              and suffering and God's purpose in          the rest, he must accept with a stiff
cause God made our bodies and spir-           it. If we are not presently afflicted we    upper lip, and stoically endure, the
its to be one, sickness often causes the      must prepare ourselves for the times        wretched misery and misfortune that
deepest depression and despair.               we will be. We need to be armed with        life may bring him.
      Every man in this world will be         the truth of God's Word and theprom-             The first important truth that
afflicted with disease and sickness           ises of salvation, so that when sick-       the Bible teaches us about sickness
sometime during his life, some much           ness comes we are not overwhelmed           and suffering is that it is all under the
more severely and terribly than oth-          with sorrow and despair. We need to         sovereign' control of God. It is not
ers. If we are not sick now, let us not       understand God's way so that we will        true that sickness is entirely of the
boast or imagine that we shall never          not become envious of the wicked            devil and God has nothing at all to do
be sick. Our day will come. If the            when we are afflicted, while the            with it. It is indeed the case that the
Lord tarries in His coming we will all        wicked before our sight prosper and         devil works in connection with the
finally be brought to death and the           are in good health.                         sickness and suffering of men. He has
grave by some dreadful disease, even                    Heathen and ungodly philoso-      terrible power in this area. The book
if that disease is only what is called        phy seeks to come up with various           of Job teachesus this clearly. Further-
"old age." The Christian is not ex-           explanations for all the sickness and       more, he will often try to use sickness
empt from any of the terrible diseases        misery, suffering and death in this         and suffering to discourage and try to
that afflict man.                             world. Heathen religion teaches that        destroy the faith of the child of God.
                                              there are two forces, two kinds of          But there is only one God. The devil
                                              gods in the world, good ones and evil       is riot god, not even in the area of evil
                                              ones. All prosperity comes from the         and in the terrible diseases and suf-
                                              good gods, and all trouble and afflic-      fering of men. God rules over the
 Rev. clenHartogis  pastor of Hope Protes-    tion comes from the evil gods.              devil, who can do nothing without
 tantReformed  Church in Redlands, Cali-                It may surprise some of us how    the permission of the Lord.
                                              these very same notions are current in            Furthermore, sickness and suf-
fornia.
                                                                                              November 1,1992 / Standard Bearer J 67


fering is actually in the hand of the        angry with wicked men. He does not          sorrow and misery. When Jesus heard
Lord. He controls it completely. No          love wicked men, nor does He show           that Lazarus whom He loved was
sickness can ever afflict our bodies         His favor to all men, as some may           sick He made the surprising state-
without the will of God. God's will is       imagine. One way in which God               ment: "This sickness is not unto
absolutely determinative of all that         reveals His wrath against wicked men        death" (John 11:4). He said this know-
happens to us, in this life as well as in    is by sending them sickness and suf-        ing that Lazarus would die. ,Because
eternity. Whether we are sick or             fering and pain and sorrow in this life     of the cross and resurrection of Christ
healthyisentirelydeterminedby God.           already. This is a very fearful truth       Jesus, sickness and disease no longer
This is the only ground of comfort for       that the ungodly should know. For           have the power to destroy the 6hild of
the child of God. If sickness is of the      the ungodly, sickness is a sign of the      God. They do not lead us  ,to our
devil we have no comfort in times of         more dreadful judgment of God that          eternal death as they do the ungodly
sickness. Rather we have reason only         will come upon them if they do not          outside of Christ.
to be terrified.                             repent from their great wickedness.
     If sickness is something that just      Few churches today preach this truth
happens, without any explanation, or         anymore. But this is the clear teach-            In His, pegect tiisdom
if it is something that is inherent in       ing of the Word of God concerning               He  has &b determined
this earthly creation, then also we          sickness and suffering.                                for each of us
have no comfort at all in the midst of            NeitherwillGod  hear the prayers
our trouble. The true Christian finds        of the wicked. He is angry with the                   a certain measure
the profoundest comfort in times of          wicked every day and will laugh at                     of suffering....
sicknessin the knowledge that God's          them in their trouble and distress. It
hand is upon Him and that nothing,           is amazing how wicked men in the
not even sickness and suffering, can         world will often pretend to turn to              Because of the workof  our Lord,
ever separate us from His everlasting        God when they are sick and in trouble.      sickness and suffering along with
and unchangeable love.                       They will even ask others to pray for       everything else in this world and in
                                             them. Usually such talk means noth-         our life must work for our good and
                                             ing at all, of course, but let no wicked    salvation. That is the fourth great
    If s<ckness  is of the devil             man imagine that God is suddenly            truth that the gospel teaches us. Sick-
       we have no comfort                    going to hear his prayer just because       ness and suffering are stillin the hands
                                             he is sick, and that God is going to        of God, who for Christ's sake is our
       in times of sickness.                 heal him even if he does not repent         heavenly Father and who uses all our
                                             from his great wickedness. It is not        afflictions and sufferings to workour
                                             true that God wants to deliver wicked       salvation and prepare us for our place
      The second &eat  truth that the        men from their diseases and sickness        in glory. This is -the solid and sure
Bible teaches us about sickness and          for their earthly good. When God            comfort of the child of God in the
suffering is that it came as a result of     does heal a wicked man, He does so          midst of all his suffering and sickness,
the fall of man into sin. God did not        not in mercy but only in His forbear-       no matter how awful they may seem
create a world full of sickness and          ance. In fact, He Himself, as the           to be.
misery. He created the world good            Sovereign God, is judgingwicked men              God is dealing with us in His
and perfect. He created man's body           by disease and suffering and will send      good and wise providence when He
perfect, strong and healthy and beau-        them even far more terrible judg-           sends us affliction and suffering. He
tiful. Sickness is the curse of God          ments in the life to come.                  is never cruel or unsympatheti.c. He
upon fallen man who has made a                    The third great truth that the         does not afflict us needlessly or be-
league with Satanandrebelled against         Christian knows from the' Gospel is         cause He delights to see us suffering,
God his creator. Sickness and suffer-        that Christ Jesus, through His cross,       tormented by pain and sorrow. In
ing among men had their beginning            has redeemed us from the curse of sin       His counsel God has determined ex-
with the .fall.                              and death. This certainly also has          actly what is necessary to lead us to
      This is a very important truth to      great significance for all our sickness     our final salvation and glory. In His
understand. Again, this truth is de-         and suffering. No, this does not mean       perfect wisdom He has also deter-
nied by the modern philosophy of             that those who put their trust in the       mined for each of us a certain mea-
evolutionism. The curse of the holy          Lord Jesus Christ will never after-         sure of suffering that is necessary for
and righteous God came upon the              ward suffer any more sickness and           us and that is good for us.
world and also upon the body of man          disease. Rather, we understand from              When we begin to consider this
because of sin. Even today the wrath         the Gospel that Jesus, through His          we will soon realize that we are deal-
of God is revealed from heaven against       wonderful work, has delivered us            ing with deep mysteries. God's ways
all unrighteousness and ungodliness          from the curse of sin and guilt which       are very deep. There are many times
of men. God, the Holy One,is fiercely        is the root cause of all sickness and       when we cannot understand the rea-

68 /Standard Bearer / November 1,1992


son for His providential dealings with      sovereign grace in working our salva-          the Lord. There are many reasons
us. Especialiy  when we are-in the          tion, and that is that God never deals         why sickness and sufferingworks for
midst of the awful pain of a terrible       with His children in any other way             thegoodandsalvationofGod'speople
disease, or when we see our loved           than in His love. No sickness or               that are clearly revealed in His Word.
ones in great anguish, we will ask,         suffering, no matter how terrible, can         we want to consider some of these in
"Why Lord, why!?" The truth of              ever separate the child of God from            our next article. We also want to
God's Word can be received only by          the love of God.                               consider something of what the
faith. Often we must simply believe,                 Though we often cannot under-         Christian's attitude must be in times
even though we do not fully under-          stand fully God's mysterious way               of sickness and suffering. Finally,, we
stand the ways of the Lord. One thing       with His saints when He sends sick-            want to consider what our calling as
is sure, according to the blessed truth     ness and suffering, it is not true that        Christians is toward others who are
of the gospel and according to the          we are left totally without any word           sick.  0
wonderful reality of God's absolute         of God to explain the good purpose of





                      Is He Coming Soon?

        The closing prayer of Scripture     which God .has determined to take                   Many in the churches today be-
is found in Revelation  22:20: "He          place is fulfilled.                            lieve that His return is some time in
which testifieth these things saith,                 Jesus warned that we must not         the far distant future. We ourselves
Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even           seek to determine the day or the hour          do not often consider the fact that
so, come, Lord Jesus." The prayer           of His return. And what is true of             Jesus will surely come soon. Current
appears to be misleading. Uttered           these smaller segments of time is true         events seem to be almost expected
nearly 2,000 years ago, it has not yet      obviously of the larger segments of            and ordinary. Consequently, we are
beenfulfilled. Whatthenwaschrist's          "month" and "year" (Matt. 24:36).              not always faithfully watching. Our
meaning when He declared, "Surely I         One surely is not interested merely in         lives do not always reflect our confes-
come  quickly"?                             determining the day and hour of                sion that we must be looking for His
        Some claim that the writer mis-     Christ's return. Why should that be            return.
understood or else wrongly antici-          of such great interest? But what can-               The purpose of this rubric will
pated the soon-return of the Lord.          not be determined with respect to the          be to point out what ought to be
Yet Christ speaks. His Word is true.        hour, cannot either be determined              obvious. Strange events are  t,aking
ThequickretumofChristmustnotbe              with respect to the month or year.             place about us. We see and hear this
understood in terms of the span of          Christ teaches that we must not try to         on news broadcasts. We read of it in
man's life, but rather it is a reference    anticipate the exact time of His re-           papers and magazines. Are we look-
to the time-clock of God. The last          turn. Rather we ought ever to watch            ing up for Christ's return? Or are we
great event was the ascension of Christ     and pray for that return - living              trying to find some "natural" expla-
to God's right hand. The next event         always as those who expect His re-             nation to the signs which we see?
will be His return on the clouds of         turn soon.                                          In following articles I would like
glory. That latter event will happen                 This is not to say that we have no    to point out both what Scripture has
quickly - just as soon as all that          knowledge of the time of Christ's              to say and what we see happening
                                            return., On the contrary, Matthew 24           about us which is the fulfillment of
 : .                                        and the book of Revelation, as well as         that Scripture. There are events tak-
                    :;.                     other passages of Scripture, give. the         ing place within the family of nations
                                            signs which precede Christ's return.           which are very unusual to say the
                                            The signs are seen throughout the              least. The U.S.S.R. is no more. Yugo-
Rev. VanBarenispastoroftheProtestant        New Testament age, but they do defi-           slavia has fallen apart. Germany is
Reformed Church  of  Hudsonville, Michi-    nitely increase towards the end of             being torn by riots. Our own country
gan.                                        time.                                          is by no means as stable as many

                                                                                              November 1 ,1992 / Standard Bearer I69


would have us believe. What does it          hundreds, caused incalculable dam-         tember 15, 1992, reported, "An un-
all mean?                                    age and left survivors shaken.             precedented string of natural disas-
     We must take note of the rapid               "On the same day in mid-Au-           ters from Florida to Guam has left the
developments in the sciences. Much           gust, a volcano erupted in Alaska, an      American Red Cross and sister agen-
of what we use today, and a great deal       earthquake hit Alaska's Andreanof          cies in need of relief themselves.
of the workwhich is done, simply did         Islands and another rocked                         "Hurricane Andrew was only
not exist 50 to 100 years ago. Some          Kyrgyzstan in the former Soviet            the most visible of one of the worst
stilllivingremember the first appear-        Union. Two weeks ago, Hurricane            strings of natural calamities in mod-
ance of the car and plane; of electricity    AndrewhittheBahamas,  thenripped           em times. Hundreds of thousands
and phone; of radio and television; of       through Florida and Louisiana. Last        have been victimized by rapild-fire
cameras (still, moving, and now              week the chain of disasters contin-        blows from Andrew in Florida and
video); of computer and fax. We can          ued. Tropical Storm Polly drenched         Louisiana, tornadoes in Wisconsin,
hardly live today without these in-          eastern China and killed at least 150      Typhoon Omar in Guam and the lat-
ventions. Just consider what hap-            people. Typhoon Omar, which had            est, Hurricane Iniki on the Hawaiian
pens when we lose our electricity for        earlier raked Guam, headed for the         island of Kauai.
a time.                                      Philippines. In Afghanistan flash                  ti `It's fair to say that this kind of
     We hear of the great "natural"          floods swept through the valleys of        situationisunprecedented,' Red Cross
disasters taking place. Scripture has        the Hindu Kush, leaving hundreds           spokesman David Giroux said  .Mon-
told us that these shall occur. The          dead or missing.                           day.
book of Revelation teaches that at the            "Probably the most spectacular                N `These cataclysmic events are
end these will increase in intensity         of the week's calamities began with a      almost Biblical in proportion,' Salva-
and number: from one-fourth to one-          major earthquake under the Pacific         tion Army Col. Leon Ferraez said.
third and then to one whole. This            Ocean 30 miles off the west coast of       `We think there's going to be a real
increase will cause havoc in this earth.     Nicaragua. The temblor spawned             crunch' in resources for disaster re-
What happens when the insurance              tsunamis, commonly known as tidal          lief, estimating the Salvation Army
companies can no more pay out on             waves, that towered as high as 45 feet     will spend $40 million to $50 million
policies because of extensive disas-         in spots and rolled over dozens of         on Andrew aid....
ters? What happens to the health             small towns along 200 miles of coast.              "And worse, this marks the
system when it becomes over-                 Surging inland, the waves crushed          fourth year in a row to strain relief
whelmed with incurable illnesses?            houses and hotels and swept people         budgets.
What happens to this world when              out to sea. Nicaraguan civil defense               "National and local Red Cross
famine affects vast portions of the          officials said 116 were killed and 150     offices spent a record $224 million in
planet? What happens to a country            missing."                                  the1989-90fiscalyear,whichincluded
when it drowns in its own "red ink"?              In the same issue of Time, in an      Hugo and the San Francisco earth-
     Wehave theinfallible, and there-        article titled, "Catastrophe 101," the     quake. The year 1990-91 wasn't much
fore reliable, Word of God to tell us of     following was stated, "Hurricanes as       better, with expenditures of $184.4
these things. We need no outside             wicked as Andrew are thought to            million.
source of information to confirm the         come along perhaps twice a century.                "In this fiscal year ending June
truthfulness of Scripture. Neverthe-         Earthquakes shudder on and off, but        30, with Cyclone Val in American
less, it hasbeen striking how the secu-      the big, continent-cracking convul-        Samoa, mud slides in Puerto Rico and
lar press recently is pointing to un-        sions tend to space themselves out         floods inTexas,  Louisiana and south-
usual occurrences with frank state-          over generations. Biblical floods are      ern California, the national Red Cross
ments. These recognize that present-         rare, like killer tidal waves, volcanic    alone had committed$62  million, well
day events differ in marked ways             eruptions and the other cyclical calls     over its $42 million budget....
from those things which occurred             to humility in the face of nature's                "The pinch from Andrew, Omar
several years ago. I quote from a few        destructive power. But last week it        and Iniki is being felt by the govem-
recently printed articles which ex-          somehow seemed that the clock was          ment as well. The Federal Emergency
press this very fact.                        running fast: Typhoon Omar men-            Relief Agency said Monday it has
     Time  magazine, September 14,           aced Guam, a tornado attacked Wis-         suspended about $80 million in pay-
1992 stated, N `Natural' is not a word       consin, fires burned out of control in     ments to some disaster areas until
thatlinkslogicallywith'disaster.' But        California, a four-story tidal wave in     Congress refills its depleted. re-
together the words emphasize how             Nicaragua dissolved whole neighbor-        serves...."
little control humans have over the          hoods, and the residents of South                  The same GX Press, September
events they describe. Almost with-           Florida spent Week Two picking up          14,1992,  stated about the Philippines,
out pause, naturelately has shattered,       the pieces of their damaged homes          "When Pinatubo exploded last year
crushed, and flooded the earth with a        and disrupted lives."                      in one of the most violent eruptions of
series of cataclysms that have killed             The Grand Rapids Press, Sep-          tRe century it devastated a once-pros-

70 /Standard Bearer I November 1,1992


perous farming and commercial area            thing in its path in a thick layer of hot      and clearly. Have we been listening?
of centralLuzonisland,about60miles            mud, pumice and stones that hardens            What is our response?
north of Manila.                              like cement.                                         The response of the ungodly is
         "Regardless of whether the vol-            "Scientists estimate that only a         told in Scripture, "And the rest of the
cano explodes again, the densely              small portion of the debris . . . has          men which were not killed by these
populated area faces a grim future.           washed down so far. That means the             plagues yet repented not of the works
More than 100 million tons of debris          threat of annual avalanches, or la-            of their hands, that they should not
remain on the slopes from the June            hars, may persist for up to eight more         worship devils, and idols of gold, and
1991 eruption.                                years."                                        silver, and brass, and stone, and of
         "With the onset of the rainy sea-          And so it goes. The secular press        wood: which neither can see, nor
sonin June, the debris has been wash-         recognizes unprecedented disasters             hear, nor walk: neither repented they
ing down the jagged slopes of                 striking this earth, disasters of "Bibli-      of their murders, nor of their sorcer-
Pinatubo,  thundering along the river         cal proportions."                              ies, nor of their fornication, nor of
basins and valleys, covering  every-                God hasbeenspeaking-loudly               their thefts" (Rev. 9:20,21).



Ministerial Calls                                   After Loveland, Rev. Spriensma           cates that the committee has obtained
         As many of our readers know by       was scheduled to deliver a Reforma-            floor-plan sketches of the proposed
now, Rev. A. Spriensma accepted the           tion Day lecture at the Central Col-           church building. They are also in the
call he was considering to serve as           lege Chapel in Pella, IA sponsored by          process of obtaining a three-dimen-
pastor of the Grandville, MI PRC.             the Pella PRC. Then he moves on to             sional, so that everyone willbe able to
Rev. Spriensma was scheduled to fill          the Trinity PRC in Houston, TX, where          see the kind of buildingbeingplanned.
a classical appointment at Grandville         he was scheduled to present a Refor-           The Finance Committee has also de-
the week after he received the call. So       mation Day Lecture on October 30               termined the approximate cost of the
at that evening service he first read         and preach for them on November 1.             project. Peace's Council hoped to be
his letter of having received the call              After all this, Rev. Spriensma           able to present something to their
from Grandville and then he read              heads home where Grandville's par-             congregation before too long.
another letter of his acceptance of that      sonage should be ready about the                     You may remember that a couple
call.                                         middle of this month, with the                 of issues back we mentioned Pella's
         We could also add here, as a         Spriensmas planning to move in on              new piano. Well, evidently more than
footnote to the above, that since Rev.        November 13 and 14. Rev. Spriensma             enough money was received, thus
Spriensma's joining our churches back         istentativelyscheduledtobeinstalled            enabling the congregation in the Pella,
in June, he has been kept more than           as Grandville's second pastor on               IA PRC to spend the surplus to install
busy preaching for our different con-         November 20.                                   ceiling fans in the church auditorium.
gregations. In fact, Grandville will                                                         They also gave approval to hire out-
have to wait until later this month to        Congregational Highlights                      side help to finish the exterior of their
install him as their pastor due to                  Building Committee news from             church as well as the outside steps
preaching commitments in Classis              the Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL indi-             before winter. 0
West. Rev. Spriensma was scheduled
to lead the Lynden, WA PRC in wor-
ship on October 4 and 11. In addition,
he was asked to preach in British               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHV
Columbia on October 12 for their an-                The Consistory and Congregation                The Consistory and Congregation
nual Thanksgiving Day. After this he          of the Edger-ton Protestant Reformed           of the Loveland Protestant Reformed
was to move on to the Loveland, CO            Church express their heartfelt sympathy        Church express our heartfelt Christian
PRC and preach there on October 18            to Mr. Allen Hendriks and his family in the    sympathyto Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert FL Griess
and 25. While in Lynden and                   loss of his wife,                              in the death of his brother-in-law,
Loveland he was also to lead their                       MARIE HENDRIKS.                             MR. ROBERT RATH.
societies and teach their catechism                 Maytheyfind comfort in the Word of       May the bereaved family take comfort in
classes.                                      God, "For we know that if our earthly          the assurance of God's Word, "Blessed
                                              house of this tabernacle were dissolved,       are the dead which die in the Lord from
                                              we have a building of God, an house not        henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they
                                              made with hands, eternal in the heavens"       may restfrom  their labors; and theirworks
Mr. Wigger is a member of fhel'rotestant      (II Corinthians 5:l).                          do follow them" (Revelation  14:13);
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,  Michi-           Rev. Michael  DeVries,  President              Rev. Ron Cammenga, President
gan.                                                          Andrew Brummel, Clerk                       Mr. Robert Brands, Clerk

                                                                                                November I,1992 I Standard Bearer / 71


                                                                                                                                      SECOND CLASS
       BMER                                                                                                                           Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                      Grandville, Michigan
       P.O. @ox 603
       Grandville, MI 49468-0603


       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                    WEDDING AilNIVERSARY                                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
         TheConsistoryoftheSouthHolland                           On October 10, 1992, our dear                          October 30, 1992 marked the
Protestant Reformed Church expresstheir                  parents,                                                 40th wedding anniversary of
sympathy to Mrs. Sadie Knoper, Mr. and                   LOUIS and MARTHA REGNERUS,                                      MR. and MRS. EDWARD
Mrs. Rob&t Lenting, and Mr. James Buiter                 celebrated their 40th wedding anni-                                   OPHOFF, SR.
in the sudden death of husband, father,                  versary.                                                        "It is of the Lord's mercies that
father-in-law, and stepfather,                                    We rejoice with them and are                    we are not consumed, because his
          MR. DONALD KNOPER,                                                                                      compassion fails not. They are new
whom the Lord took unto Himself on July                  thankful to our covenant God for the
30, 1992.                                                godly upbringing, love, and care they                    every morning: great is thy faithful-
          May the comfort of God's Word live             have given us these many years. May                      ness (Lamentations 3:22,23).
in their hearts. "I was dumb, I opened not               God continue to bless and keep them                      +#     Eric and Marilyn Ophoff
my mouth; because thou didst it" (Psalm                  in the years that He may give them.                              George, James, Eric, Jr.
39:9).                                                            "The Lord shall bless thee out of               :+     Edward, Jr. and Elizabeth Ophoff
        Rev. Charles Terpstra, President                 Zion: and thou shalt see the good of                             Alisa, Edward III, Erin, Joseph
                       George Vroom, Clerk               Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea,                 +?     Mark and Cindy Ophoff
                                                         thou shalt see thy children's children,                          David, Kristin
        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                              and peace upon Israel" (Psalm 128~71,                    4%     James and Faith Noorman
         The Lord willing, on Friday, Oc-                6).                                                              Alison, Elizabeth
tober30,1992,  our parentsand grand-                     + Ed and Kathy VanderMeulen                              a
                                                                                                                  a,*    Ray and Joy Schwarz
parents,                                                           Marisa, David, Tim, Kara                                                 Grand Rapids, Michigan
       SIDNEY and IRENE VANDER                           f Ryan and Nancy Regnerus
                       WAL,                                        Ryan, Kelly, Aaron, Katie, Mary
will celebrate their 50th wedding anni-                  :# Homer and Evelyn DeJong
versary.                                                           Courtney, Tyler, Case
          We are thankful to our covenant                :I? Bill and Elaine Regnerus
God that He has blessed them with                                  Kimberly, Bill, Sandy
these 50 years of marriage.                              :# Joe and Marcia VanBaren
          "Not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us,                       Kyle, Ross, Corrine, Caleb,
but unto thy name give glory, for thy                                Annelee  -
mercy, and for thy truth's sake" (Psalm                  + Lou and Cheryl Regnerus
115:l).                                                            Luke, Jade, Leah, Glen
%         George and Patricia Nobel                      + Jim and Brenda Regnerus
           L&lee and Lisa                                          Karyn, Stephan, Jana
d         Russell  and Lavone Smith                      % Dave Regnerus
           Chris and Melanie                                                           South Holland, Illinois
%         Wayne and Ruth VanderWal
           Paul and Tamara                                        "The Battle for the Bible"
-IL
h*        Louis and Janice VanderWal                             Prof. Herman Hanko, speaker
           Karlee and Matthew                                   Professor of New Testament in the
%         David and Lois Austin                                   Protestant Reformed Seminary
           Loren
:fi       Richard and Ruth Laman                                     Dordt College Chapel
                               Grand Raplda, Mlchlgan             November  6,1992   8:OO  p.m.
                                                                     We invite you to attend
              Foodfor  27iougtit:                                      and bring a-friend!!!
          "AllChristiansandchurchesshould
be reforming, but the rule for such reform                             Sponsored by the
must be the Word of God, not the tradi-                         Protestant Reformed Churches of
tions of men nor the spirit of the age."                           Hull,  Doon, and Edgerton
                                        J.C. Ryle

72 /Standard Bearer I November 1,1992


