                     THE
       . STANDARD
A Reformed
Semi-Month/y
Magazine





                     -the ,krops .that' -will' soon. be
                      plan@? ,Or, sitice ovWpro-
                      duction,s&kk to be a p~rob-
                     `Iem,  ,shall  J&E  .pray  that  bw
                      crops  <-do  .well  .`but not our



                                     See "Our Day of Prayer" - p. 281



     6Y, NO.
March 15, .-I 993


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                   Adarch 15, 1993                                                   sTS4hfDt~.
Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hank0                                                                                                                                                                                     BEARER
      What Will You Do With Jesus? . . . . . . . . . . . ..D........................................ 267
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                          ISSN 0362-4692
       l&4?- "Maybe Wrong"? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Letters                                                                                                                                                                                                      Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, end August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Published bythe Refofmed Free Publishing Ae!~~~Ieticm,  Inc.,
       S&I? Maybe Wrong? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..................................................                                                                                  271            4949 lvanrmt Ave., Gmndvlllee, Ml 49418. Second Class
      Tarring Dr. Dobson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273                               Postage Paid at Qmndville, Michigan.
       Caging the Wild Dog  `
                                                           . . . . . . . . . ..                                                                                                      `2
                                                                              . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 4    Po&neeter: Send addreea  changes to the Standard Bearer,
       Is the Pope Antichrist? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~........................................ 276                                                                                 P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 4WWO603.
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                 EOllORtAL COMMlllEE
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Editor: Prof. DavM J. Engelsma
       William Farel: Fiery Evangelist of the Reformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279                                                                                                      Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Guest  Article - Rev. Audred T. Spriensma                                                                                                                                                                    Managlng Editor: Mr. Don Doezeme
       Our Day of Prayer . . . . . . ..**.............................................*..**.*.............                                                                                    281            DEPARTMENT EDtlORS
When Thou Sittest in Thine House - Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers                                                                                                                                                     Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. RobM Decker, Rev. A&
                                                                                                                                                                                                             denHattog, Rev. @any Grittere,  Mr. Fred Hanko, Prof. Hermen
       The Reformed Family: Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~........................................ 283                                                                                                  Hanko, Rev. John Heye, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. KennMh
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I.................................................... 286                                                              Kook, Rev. Jawn Kortering, Rev. Dale Kuipef, Mr. Jamm
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Lsnling, Rev. George Lubber& Mm. MatyEeth LubW8, Rev.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I......... 286                                                                                                        JamseSlopsema.Rev.CharlesTerpstra,Rsv.GbeV~Baren,
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Rev. FtonaldVenChrerloop,  Mr. BenjaminWigger, Rw. Bernard
                                                                                                                                                                                                             wwmberg.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             EDlTORlALOfTtCE            CHURCH NEWS E@TOFt
                                                                                                                                                                                                             The standard sewer          Mr. Ben Wlggw
                                                                                                                                                                                                             4940 Ivanmat               6507  4OthAve.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             GmnMle, MI 49418            Hudaonville, MI 48426
                                                                                                                                                                                                             DUSlUESS OFFICE            NEWEEALANDWPtCL
                                                                                                                                                                                                             TheStrmderdBearer          The Stenderd Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                             DonDoezemn
                                                                                                                                                                                                             P.O.  Sox 653               d"
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               zTt Ref-
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Grwdvilb. MI                E. VenHti
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         88FraMlSt.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             PH-177&l                   WaInuIomata, New ZeaIand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                      (616) 531.1490
                                                                                                                                                                                                             FAX: (1318) 531-3033

                                                                                                                                                                                                             EDmORlALPoLlcY
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Every sdltor la wlely re@onsible for the oontenta of hb own
                                                                                                                                                                                                             tutkh.  Contributkneofgeneralintereetfromourmdemend
                                                                                                                                                                                                             quesW#  for The Reeder Ada depertment are w-me.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Contributions will be limited to appmtimetely  300 WC&. end
                                                                                                                                                                                                             must~neettywrinenwtypemitton,andmustbeeigned. &py
                                                                                                                                                                                                             deedlines  ere the  Rret and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                                                                             communlcaUonsrelathretomecomenEsshouMbt,swttothe
                                                                                                                                                                                                             ednorlal offlca.

        In this issue are a number of reminders to our readers to observe the                                                                                                                                REPRINT POUCY
rule that appears in the masthead: "Contributions wilI be limited to                                                                                                                                         Penni~ionisher~ygrantedfwther~~ofarticlmlnou
                                                                                                                                                                                                             magazlnetyotherp,pmvkled:  a)thatstimprinted
approximately 300 words."                                                                                                                                                                                    articles are reproduced in MI; b) that prop# acknowledgment
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Is made: c) that a copy of the periodioel kr wt~kh such reprint
        The purpose of the "Letters" column is not to afford readers the                                                                                                                                     appear8 I8 wnt to our editorial offke.
opportunity to publish lengthy refutations of articles with which. they                                                                                                                                      SUBscRIPmoN POLICY
disagree. We welcome response, whether favorable or critical. This is                                                                                                                                        Subscriptin   prlw:  S12.M) per year In the U.S.,  515.00
                                                                                                                                                                                                             elsewhere. Unless a d-efinite request fw dbwntln- Is
why we introduced the column. But the response must be brief and                                                                                                                                             received, It I8 assumed that the rubscriber wishen the
                                                                                                                                                                                                             su~plontocMltinue,endhewillbrMlledfor.nyou
pointed.                                                                                                                                                                                                     haveachanOeofaddress,pleesenotifytheBwlntwsOmcees
        We may reject "letters" that are too long. We are not obligated to                                                                                                                                   early m possible in order to avoid the Inconvenlen~ of
                                                                                                                                                                                                             interrupted delivery. Indude your Zip or Poet& Code.
publish refutations of the articles that appear in the Standard Bearer,                                                                                                                                      ADVERTISING POLICY
        This having been said, the long letters printed in this issue of the SB                                                                                                                              The Sten&rdBeamrdoee  not accept oommeroial  advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                                             of any kind. Anno~ernents  of church and whool events,
raise issues that are worthy of the attention of all our readers. We think                                                                                                                                   annhremarlw,  obltuadm,  md sympathy  reeolutions will be
that many will be interested in, and will profit from, the discussion of                                                                                                                                     placed for a 53.00 fee. These should be cent to me Buelneee
                                                                                                                                                                                                             ~caendshouldbeaccom~iedbythr53.Wfee.  Deedllne
these issues.                                                                                                                                                                                                for ennounoements is at 1-t one month prior to publication
        Besides, we are determined that the                                                                                                                                                                  date.
                                                                                                        SB be open as much as possible.
        Therefore, you will find much of the space in this issue taken up                                                                                                                                    BOUND VOLUMES
                                                                                                                                                                                                             The Buaineea  rMce will accept standing ordera for bcund
with four, long letters critical of what has been written.                                                                                                                                                   copissofthecurrentvolume. Suchordemerefilledaeoonae
                                                                                                                                                                                                             possible after completion of a volume year.
        Accompanied by our response.                                                                                                                                                                         16mm  microfilm, 35mm microfilm end 105mm miaofiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                             DJE             article coples ere available through Univereity Miiofilme
                                                                                                                                                                                                             International.
266 /Standard Bearer I March V&l993


 What Will You Do With Jesus?

                                             would not ordinarily meet on the            WhobutOnesentofGodcanraisethe
       Again the highpriest asked him,       great Jewish feast of the  Passover.        dead?
and said unto him, Art thou the Christ,              Another illegality of no little             Adding insult to injury, last Sun-
the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I    weight is the fact that they have a         day He came riding into Jerusalem on
am.                                          prisoner before them, but they still        a colt of an ass, causing large multi-
                       Mark 14:61,62.        have no accusation charged against          tudes to hail Him as the promised
                                             Him on which He should be tried.            Messiah, Israel's king.
       The Sanhedrin has been called                 Yet the case before them can not            We are determined to kill Him
together in the dead of night. This          bepostponed,notevenuntilthemom-             to prevent people from following
highest ecclesiastical-judicial body in      ing, much less until after the Pass-        Him. It is better that He die than that
Israel is convened for the weightiest        over. Themattermustbesettledright           we be forced to abandon our hope of
case ever brought before them. The           now.                                        an earthly kingdom, and lose our own
judiciary of Jerusalem, which nor-                      *  *  +  *  *  +  *              positions of authority among the
mally had the right to pass a death                  A certain Jesus, who came from      people.
sentence and even to ban a person            Galilee, from the town of Nazareth,                 We had arranged to kill Him in
from the kingdom of heaven, will             has gone about preaching and teach-         secret immediately after the Passover
deal with a man named Jesus.                 ing among the people. He is not one         feast. We even knew a man who
       We can picture in our minds 72        of us, say the leaders of the Jews, nor     would help us to eliminate Him. But
seats in a semi-circle, partially filled     has He been mandated by us. In fact,        all of our plans were foiled. Illegal or
with the most prominent leaders              He has deliberately ignored and has         not, therefore, we must meet. Ex-
among the people - scribes, Phari-           defiantly opposed us, teaching a king-      traordinary circumstances demand
sees, and Sadducees.  Before them on         dom of heaven, not as a restoration of      extraordinary measures.
the dais sits the functioning highpriest,    David's kingdom here on earth, but a                Regardless of who He is, He
Caiaphas, having been appointed to           heavenly kingdom in which He will           must die. For He opposes us.
that office in the stead of Annas by         be Ring. In one word, He claims to be                  *  *  *  *  *  $  *
none other than Pilate, the power of         the promised Messiah, Israel's Hope                 The Sanhedrinis now in session.
Rome.                                        of salvation.                                       All are well agreed that this
       Because of the press of the mat-              What makes the matter so            "Deceiver" must die. Since their plan
ter before them, this special meeting        troublesome is that no man has ever         to kill Him in secret has failed, they
has been called by the highpriest on         come with greater authority than He.        mustnowdestroyHimwithoutarous-
the eve of the Passover feast. True,         In fact, like Elijah and Elisha, He per-    ing a tumult among the people who
under ordinary circumstances this            forms many miracles, whereby He             think so highly of Him. A public trial
meeting would be considered illegal.         draws many people to Him. The               and condemnation is the only way
For all meetings were to be held dur-        people say of Him, "No man ever             out.
ing the day; and no new case might be        spoke like this man," and, "No man                  If at all possible, there must be
introduced in the afternoon. Besides,        ever did greater miracles than He."         no reference, in the trial, to His being
the regular meeting place was in the         To that we have no answer.                  the promised Messiah. That would
temple; but, since the temple was                    We have tried to ignore the fact    surely complicate matters, since they
closed at night, they had to find an-        that He meets all the qualifications of     plan to declare Him worthy of death.
other place. Added to all that, they         the promised Messiah; He is all that                (What they fail to realize is that
                                             the prophets have said of Him. Just         they are not in charge of this session.
                                             recently, not far from Jerusalem, He        The sovereign Lord of heaven and
                                             raised a certain Lazarus from the           earth still sits upon the throne, and He
                                             dead. The people all stand amazed,          controls also the affairs of this nightly
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the     and we have no way of denying that          session of the Sanhedrin. In fact, what
Protestant Reformed Churches.                He has actually done this. They say,        they refuse to recognize is that this


sovereign Lord stands in their midst.       too sacred to be taken upon the lips of           Theissuemustbeperfectlyclear.
He, not they, has control over all that     an Israelite.                                Theremustbenodoubtinanyoftheir
transpires.)                                        It was the name of their God, the    minds. There must be no pretense of
     The Sanhedrin, at any rate,            I AM THAT I AM.                              piety. The mask of hypocrisy must be
presses on now with the trial. Since                     *  *  $  *  *  *  $             torn from their faces. God stands
no charges have been filed against                 Not long before this, Jesus had       before them in His Son Jesus Christ.
Him,accusationsmustbesoughtfrom             stood with His disciples in the garden       And God demands of them, What do
among the assembly. Anyone who              of Gethsemane confronted by a band           you do with Me when I stand before
has-a charge against Him may present        of soldiers who could not distinguish        you in the person of My Son, helpless,
it, as long as another witness can be       Him from the disciples in the dark-          defenseless?
called in separately to confirm the         ness of the night.                                No one here in this august as-
charge.                                             Jesus asked them, "Whom seek         sembly can plead ignorance. Every
     Many charges are made, but             ye?" They answered Him, ti Jesus of          one is very much aware of the ques-
none can be substantiated.                  Nazareth." Jesus said unto them, "I          tion that confronts them: Shall we
     A few of the assembly bring the        am" (John 185).                              confess Him as the Christ, as God
charge that at the very beginning of                Thereupon He struck them             Himself, therightfulKingof  the Jews?
His public appearance, "We heard            down, that they lay helpless before          Or shall we take the only other pos-
him say, I will destroy this temple         Him. Instead of walking away He              sible alternative, accuse and condemn
that is made with hands, and within         raised them up again.                        Him as the greatest blasphemer that
three days I will build another made                "Then asked he them again,           ever lived?
without hands." But when this charge        Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus                They chose the latter. This Man,
is investigated, the accusers again fail    of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have          and therefore God, did not meet their
to agree on what He had said.               told you that 1 am; if therefore ye seek     qualifications of a desired Messiah!
           *  *  *  *  +  Y  *              -me, let these go theirway" (John 18:6-           No wonder that Caiaphas tore
     The Lord is thus driving them          8).                                          his highpriestly robe. It could serve
into utter confusion, even to the ex-               Judas and the chief priests and      no good purpose anymore. What a
tent that they trump up false charges       their band of soldiers then stood be-        sad end to Aaron's highpriestly of-
of all sorts, in order to prevent Him       fore the question: Shall we take Jesus,      fice! No wonder that the entire as-
from escaping out of their hands.           the Son of the living God, prisoner?         sembly arose and gave vent to their
     Little do they realize that He has     And they did. They bound Jesus, the          rage and hatred by spitting on Him,
no intention whatever of escaping.          Son of the living God, and led Him as        buffetingHim,andslappingHimwith
Nor do they realize that He is forcing      a prisoner back to Jerusalem.                the palms of their hands, saying,
the issue, confronting them with the                The very horror of it! God al-       Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, who is
question: Am I, or am I not, the            lows Himself to be bound and led             he that smote thee? (Mark. 26:65-68).
promised Messiah, the Christ, the Son       away as a prisoner by wicked men!                 All the sin of Israel as a nation, as
of the living God? You know I am.                   Now the highest judicialbody of      well as all the sin of each individual in
      The ultimate question is: What        Israel stands confronted with the same       this assembly, reaches its culmina-
do you do with Jesus, who is indeed         question.                                    tion here. The measure of their iniq-
the Christ?                                         How can they help but be re-         uityisfull. Heresinrevealsitselfatits
           Y  *  *  *  Y  Y  *              minded of the fact that this is actually     worst, in all its bold opposition to the
      So the assembly is forced into a      nothing new. There was that occa-            living God. The outcome is death,
dilemma.                                    sion in the temple when He boldly            everlasting death in hell, under the
     Here is one man in whom can be         stated, "Before Abraham was am I"            righteous judgment of the living God.
foundnofault. ByHisverysilenceHe            (John 8:58). In their rage they had                   *******
challenges them: "Who of you ac-            taken up stones to kill Him. Besides,             We, too, stand before the judg-
cuses Me of sin?"                           repeatedly He had made statements            ment seat of God every minute of
      The Lord leaves them with no          like: I am the Bread of life. I am the       every day.
choice. In consternation the highpriest     water of life. lam the resurrection and           We, too, are confronted with the
is at last forced to ask the question:      the life.                                    question: What will you do with
"Art thou the Christ, the Son of the                Even now as He stands before         Jesus, the Son of the living God, the
Blessed?"                                   these earthly judges He confirms His         only Name under heaven whereby
      An awesome silence falls on the       I am by adding, "And ye shall see the        you can be saved.
entire assembly. The voice of Jesus         Son of man sitting on the right hand of           Again in our day God and His
rings loud and clear: "I am" (Mark          power, and coming in the clouds of           Christ are cast out by that which calls
14:62).                                     heaven" (Mark  1462).  Your day to           itself church.
     In the Hebrew it is but one word:      appear before Me as your Judge is                 You who profess Him as your
Yaweh. It is the one word that was far      coming!                                      Savior, is He also Lord over your life?

268  /Standard Bearer I March 15,1993


Do you seek the guidance and ap-            may know Him, love Him, and serve          salvation, forever and ever!
proval of His Spirit in whatever you        Him! What a blessedness of peace                In Him alone is all our hope of
do?                                         and joy tobe able to confess: This God     eternal life! 0
       What a wonder of grace that we       is my God, the God of my eternal





           1994? - "Maybe Wrong'??

       In the "letters" column of this      vealed. He has forbidden His dis-          prohibiting one from speculating
issue of the Standard Bearer appears        ciples to predict the time of His com-     about the day and hour but permit-
a letter under the heading, "2994?          ing.                                       ting one to set the week and month is
Maybe Wrong?" This long letter takes                                                   fooling with the Scriptures.
sharp issue with my editorial of Janu-        Butofthatdayandthathourknoweth                 Asamatter of fact, Mr. Camping
ary 1, 1993 examining Mr. Harold              no man, no, not the angels which are     has no hesitation to fix the likely day
Camping'srecentpredictioninabook              in heaven, neither the Son, but the      of Christ's return:
entitled 1994?  that Christ will come in      Father. Take ye heed, watch and
1994. Thewriteroftheletteriswilling           pray: for ye know not when the time        lf this is so, then His second coming
to admit merely that Camping "may             is (Mark 13: 32,33).                       on the Day of Atonement, Septem-
be wrong in his interpretation."                                                         ber 15,1994, is entirely reasonable.
Hence, the heading of his letter, and               The phrase, "that day and that       This will then have been precisely, to
the title of this editorial.                hour/ in verse 32, refers to any and         the very day, forty Jubilee periods
                                                                                         after His birth. For all these reasons
       This editorial is my response to     every date-setting whether hour, day,        we wonder if September 15 is the
the letter, which the reader should         week, month, year, or decade. When           date of His return. However, a day
consult as he reads the editorial.          Christ said, "But of that day and that       during the Feast of Tabernacles is
       Because others are interested in     hour knoweth no man," He did not             also a distinct possibility (p. 521).
Camping's prophecy and because is-          merely forbid predicting a certain,
sues are involved that are of impor-        literal day or a certain, literal hour.          Since the exact time of the com-
tance to all our readers, I respond to      He was forbidding all prediction of        ingofChristisnotrevealed,  theproph-
the above letter editorially.               the precise time of the end. This is
                                            plain from the explanation that fol-       ecy of the date as September, 1994 is
                                                                                       Mr. Camping's prophecy, not the
Predicting an Exact Date                    lows in verse 33: "for ye know not         prophecy of the Word of God. It is
       2994?  is a-prophecy of the exact    when the time is." Christ did not say,     Mr. Camping's prophecy in disobe-
date of Christ's return and of the end      "For ye know not when the day and          dience to the prohibition of Christ in
of the world: September 15, 1994  -         the hour are."                             Mark 13:32,33.
September 27,1994.                                  This is how the commentators             "Maybe wrong"?
       This prophecy is not a Word of       mentioned in the letter interpret the            The prophecy of 1994? is defi-
God in Scripture. It is not a biblical      phrase, "that day and that hour." J. A.    nitely wrong. It is false prophecy. It
prophecy. The reason why it is not a        Alexander says that the reference is to    is sin.
biblical prophecy is not that Mr.           the "exact time" of the end. H.
Harold Camping has miscalculated            Ridderbos explains that "the exact         Prophesying When He
the date. But the reason is that the        date and the precise moment (`hour')       Will Not Come
Bible does not contain this prophecy.       are a mystery" (commentary on Mat-               I responded to Mr. Camping's
All data necessary to make the proph-       thew  24:36). In his commentary on         prophecy by declaring, in the name of
ecy of an exact date of the end of the      Mark 13:32,33, J. A. C. Van Leeuwen        Christ, that Christ would not come in
world are lacking in the Bible.             remarks, "And as certain as the `that'     1994. I made this strange prophecy
       The Chief Prophet and Teacher        is, souncertainis the/when"' (Markus,      deliberately, in order toimpressupon
of the church has told us that He           in K&e Verkluring, my translation of       gullible Christians that Camping's
Himself does not know the exact time        the Dutch).                                prediction is certainly false.
of His coming. It has not been re-                  To explain Mark  13:32,  33 as           It should be noticed that I did

                                                                                             March 15,1993 I Standard Seam I269


not predict when Christ would come,            "man of sin" of II Thessalonians 2:3ff.     ceremony continuing in the age of the
but prophesied when He would not               is Antichrist. This Antichrist is "Pop-     new covenant in d literal fashion.
come. There is a difference. Paul did          ery . . . the vicar of Satan,"                   The truth is that the ceremonies
the same thing in II Thessalonians                                                         of the old covenant have been so ful-
2:lff. Against those who were trou-              Now, everyone that has learned from       filled in Christ as to have ceased "so
bling the church by predicting that              Scripture what are the things that        that the use of them must be abol-
the "day of Christ" was at hand, Paul            more especially belong to God, and        ished among Christians" (Belgic Con-
confidently affirmed that that day               will, on the other hand, observe what     fession, Art. 25). There is no literal
"shall not come, except there come a             thel'opeclaimsforhimself-though           continuation of the Feast of Taber-
falling away first, and that man of sin          he were but a boy of ten years of age
                                                 - will have no great difficulty  in       nacles in the New Testament. Sep-
be revealed, the son of perdition" (v,           recognizing Antichrist (commentary        tember 20-27,1994  is not the period of
3). He made perfectly plain to the               on II Thessalonians 24).                  "theDays  of theFeast  of Tabernacles."
Thessalonians that they were not to                                                        No period of history after Christ's
expect the coming of Christ the next                The importance of the identifi-        death, resurrection, and gift of the
day, the next week, the next month,            cation of Antichrist as Satan for Mr.       Spirit is "the Days of the Feast of
the next year, or the next decade. For         Camping's prediction of September,          Tabernacles."
the great falling away and the revela-         1994 as the date of the end of the               To teach that this Feast, or any
tion of Antichrist could not be accom-         world is that this enables him to es-       Old Testament Feast, continues un-
plished in so short a time. In no way          tablish the period, May 21,1988-Sep-        der the new covenant in a literal man-
did this conflict with Christ's instruc-       tember 6, 1994, as the final tribula-       ner, involving periods of time and
tion in Mark 13:32,33  that we do not          tion. If Antichrist is a human king-        dates, is grossest reversion to "the
know, and must not predict, the exact          dom of evil headed by an ungodly            weak and beggarly elements" of type
time of the end of the world.                  ruler that must still appear in the         and shadow (Gal. 4:9ff .) andextremest
          IfAntichristmustyetberevealed        future, 1994 cannot possibly be the         violation of the principle that "the
before Christ comes, as the apostle            date of the end. Mark well, the impli-      law made nothing perfect, but the
says  he  must,  Christ  cannot come in        cation of this identification of Anti-      bringinginofabetterhopedid"  (Heb.
1994. This is God's own Word and               christ as Satan is that the church does     219).
revelation. Myboldprophecy, there-             not face persecution at the very end,            This havingbeen said, the fact is
fore, was not mine, but Gods. I stand          as Scripture clearly warns is the case.     that the Feast did not typify "the har-
by it.                                              "Maybe wrong"?                         vesting of the elect at the end of time."
                                                    The prophecy of 2994? is cer-          Mr. Camping saw "harvest" in con-
Is Antichrist Satan?                           tainly wrong.                               nectionwiththeOldTestamentFeast.
          1criticizedM.r.  Camping's teach-                                                He found the word "harvest" in con-
ing concerning the last things for its         The Latter-Day Feast of Tabernacles         nection with Christ's return in Mat-
identification of Antichrist as Satan.              As the letter points out, 1994?        thew 13:38-42.  From this, he drew the
This is inexcusable error for anyone           makes the Old Testament Feast of            conclusion not only that the Old Tes-
who reads the Bible, much more for             Tabernacles important for its dating        tament Feast typified Christ's harvest
one who claims the position of teacher         of the exact time of the end of the         of the elect but also that the harvest of
oftheBible.  IIThessalonians2sharply           world (cf. Ex. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 23:39-    the elect at Christ's return would take
distinguishes Antichrist from Satan.           43; Deut. 1616).  The author supposes       place during the Old Testament Feast
Antichrist is one whose coming is              that the Old Testament Feast of Tab-        of Tabernacles perpetuated in the
"after the working of Satan" (v. 9). He        ernacles is continued in the New Tes-       New Testament.
is, therefore, distinct from Satan. Also,      .tament  in a literal manner so that he          The Feast of Tabernacles typi-
verse 3 calls him N the man of sin" (v.        can figure out the exact time of that       fied the thankful remembrance of
3). Satan is not a "man." In Revela-           Old Testament Feast in the present          God's covenant care of them during
tion 13:1-10,  the beast from the sea,         age and determine that "the days of         their earthly pilgrimage on the part of
which is Antichrist both as a world-           the Feast of Tabernacles for the year       the covenant people. This was the
power and as the personal head of              1994 . . . will be the period from Sep-     meaning of the dwelling in taber-
this empire, receives his power from           tember20 to September27."  The time         nacles or booths. It also typified the
the dragon, which is the devil. Anti-          of this Old Testament Feast, contin-        saints' joy in the covenant goodness
christ, therefore, is not the devil, but       ued literally into the age of the new       of God in giving them the blessings of
the devil's creature.                          covenant, will be the exact time of         salvation,particularlytheforgiveness
     Calvin never identified Anti-             Christ's return (cf. 2994, pp. 521-525).    of sins and fellowship with God. This
christ as Satan himself. For Calvin,                Regardless what the Feast of           was the meaning of the rejoicing over
Antichrist is distinct from Satan.             Tabernacles signifies or does not sig-      the completed harvest.
Antichrist is human. Heis the human            nify, the grievous error of Mr. Camp-            The reality of the Feast is the
papacy. According to Calvin, the               ing is that he has an Old Testament         thankfulness and joy of the people of

270 /Standard Bearer I March 15,1993


God throughout the present age over                 I described this method in my            importance to every Reformed and
the covenant care, blessing, and fel-         editorial of January 1, 1993. I also           Presbyterian believer. What church
lowship of Godin Jesus Christ through         pointed out several, glaringinstances          called him to be teacher of the Word?
the Spirit. Christ fulfilled this Feast at    in 1994?  of this illicit interpretation of    What training has he received for this
His first coming. It is a reality for the     Scripture.                                     difficult work? What body of elders
church in a spiritual manner. We                   Well-trained            preachers,        supervises his teaching, subject to the
enjoy and keep the Feast by faith in          grounded in the grammatical-histori-           judgment of what classis (presbytery)
Jesus Christ. Every day is a day of the       cal-spiritual method of interpreting           and what synod (general assembly)?
Feast of Tabernacles, especially the          the Bible, sometimes struggle over             In the Church Order of Dordt, the
Sabbath day. The perfection of the            the question whether a passage is              Reformed churches have guarded
Feast will be the saints' everlasting         literal or figurative. But only an             themselves once and for all against
remembrance in heaven of God's re-            allegorist could suggest that the              unordained, unsupervised, and un-
demption of them from sin and death           "eleven days journey from Horeb . . .          trained teachers of the Word.
and of God's care of them during              unto Kadesh-barnea" of Deuter-                      With great, good reason!
their earthly pilgrimage, as well as          onomy  1:2 really means                             Untrained laymen and lay-
their exuberant rejoicing in the full                                                        women who have made themselves
salvation.                                      . ..ll.OOOyears?  WasGodteachingin           teachers of the church, answerable to
     This is the interpretation of the          thisversethattherewerell,OOOyears            no ecclesiastical authority, have been
Feast by John Calvin:                           from creation to the coming of the           among the greatest threats that the
                                                Messiah? Was God saying that there           church has known.
                                                were 11,OOOyears  (eleven days) from
  Hence we gather that, though the              creation (Horeb, where the law was
  ceremony is now abolished, yet its                                                         "New Light" on Eschatology
  usestilIexistsinspiritandintruth,in           given) to the Messiah  (Kadesh-
                                                bamea, where Israel was to enter the               It may well be that the "pastors
  order that the incomparable power                                                          and teachers" whom the ascended
  and mercy of God should be con-               promised land), by way of the world
                                                (Mount Seir)? (2994?,  pp. 360,361)          Christ gives to the church for the
  stantly kept before our eyes, when
  He has delivered us from darkness                                                          perfecting of the saints lead the church
  and from the deep abyss of death,                 It is by way of such interpreta-         into a richer understanding of the last
  and has translated us into the heav-        tion  of the Word of God that Mr.              things as the end approaches. The
  enly life (Commentaries on the Four         Camping leads his reader a merry               church should pray for it. We who are
  Last Books  of  Moses,  Vol. II,            chase through Scripture to set the             called to labor in the Word and doc-
  Eerdmans, p. 463).                          date of the coming of Christ.                  trine should strive for it.
                                                    Do not, I beseech you, minimize                But this richer understanding
       "Maybe wrong"?                         the deadly seriousness of allegorical          will not come by allegorical interpre-
       The prophecy of 1994?  is em-          exegesis. It is destructive of the very        tation.
phatically wrong.                             possibility of knowing the truth as                  It will never involve bringing
                                              revealed in Scripture. It is a practical       the Old Testament ceremonies liter-'
Allegory                                      attack on Scripture rivaling                   ally into the age of the new covenant.
       As to the project itself, speculat-    modernism's outright denial of inspi-                Nor will it consist of the predic-
ing on the exact date of Christ's com-        ration, It does grievous injury to the         tion of the exact time of our Lord's
ing, 2994?is disobedience to the Lord.        saints, as the publication of 2994?            return and of the end of the world.
As to the assumption upon which the           abundantly proves.                                   The Father has not revealed the
dating depends, the literal continua-               "Maybe wrong"?                           exact time.
tion of Old Testament days and feasts               The prophecy of 1994?-is  assur-               The Son has forbidden predic-
into the new covenant, the book is            edly wrong.                                    tion of it.
Judaizing. As to the method of inter-               This raises questions about the                And the Spirit declines to illu-
preting Holy Scripture by which the           right and ability of Mr. Harold Camp-          mine in opposition to the Father and
project of fixing the date of Christ's        ing to teach the Bible to the people of        the Son. 0
return is carried out, 1994?  is alle-        God. These questions are of crucial                                             - DJE
WY*




+  1994? Maybe Wrong?                         concerning Mr. Harold Camping's Presbyterian Church, who was
     This letter is written in response       book, 2994?.  I am a Reformed be-              broughttotheReformedFaithth.rough
to your editorial of January 1, 1993,         liever, belonging to the Orthodox              the teaching ministry of Mr. Camping
                                                                                                  March 15,1993 I Standard Bearer I271


and Family Radio. I am also one who        vin enmity to Christ within the sphere          as J.A. Alexander on Mark 13:32 and
has a high regard for the history,         of the church itself. Applying the              HermanRidderbosonMatthew24:36
government, and confessions of the         term, "apostasy," to the church uni-            hardly needed to act of "despera-
church, as well as the singular impor-     versal, he says, "The church must be            tion," when they spoke of these verses
tance of the preaching of the Word. I      reduced to an unsightly and dreadful            as conveying precisely the idea of
highly respect you and your work for       state of ruin." Would you judge Cal-            exact time. Mr. Camping speaks of a
the Lord and His kingdom. In light of      vin to be involved in "serious doctri-          range of time. Isn't it a contradiction
what I have just said, I do hope you       nal error" here?                                in terms to say, "The exact time will
willnot misunderstand what follows.                Through numerous expressions,           be the period between" such and such
      You identify the book 2994?  as      you may have described accurately               dates?
N the prophecy of Mr. Harold Camp-         the characteristics of one who truly                 Irealizethattheformatyouchose
ing," though what Mr. Camping is           practices allegorical exegesis. How-            to use was not a book review, but
attempting to do is interpret the          ever, this allegorizing which is alleg-         there are three foundational premises
prophecy as it is found in the Bible.      edly "dishonoring of Holy Scripture"            on which the bookis  based, and these
He may be wrong in his interpreta-         is overstated and misstated. Mr.                premises need treatment and answer.
tion, but he is not prophesying in the     Camping is not claiming that Scrip-             The first concerns the Feast of Taber-
sense that many readers may under-         ture is solely allegorical (i.e., that it is    nacles. You say that the three major
stand the term. Admittedly, if proph-      not historical). In fact, statements            feast days were fulfilled in Christ.
ecy is rightly understood as a declara-    such as, "If everything can mean any-           But if the Feast of Tabernacles or
tion and exegesis of God's written         thing, everything means nothing,"               Ingathering does not typify the har-
Word, then Mr. Camping is in fact          make me wonder if in your sincere               vesting of the elect at the end of time,
prophesying. I trust your readers will     zeal to confront head on what you               then what aspect of the workof  Christ
understand the distinction. Would          believe to be error, you have over-             on earth did it specifically typify, and
one not be justified in identifying the    stepped thebounds of Christian char-            when in time was it fulfilled?
last two columns of your editorial as      ity.                                                 Regarding your comment that
"the prophecy of David Engelsma"?                  Professor, you severely criticize       "the book is as dull as a volume of
WouIdyoupleaseexpIainwhatseems             Mr. Camping's hermeneutics. When                mathematics," I wonder what the
to be a contradiction when you say         I read the writing of many Puritan              mathematics major in college would
that "Expectancy of the Lord's com-        and Reformed men of the days of                 say about a Greek textbook used for
ing must dominate all the life and         Reformation, I see that their exegesis          theological training? Likewise, be-
labor of His church in 1993," and yet      often embraced a theory of interpre-            cause one finds the use of arithmetic
state, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I     tation that on the one hand was not             boring, does not relegate arithmetic
declare with absolute certainty that       arbitrary or extremist, but on the other        to a level of unimportance or incor-
Jesuswillnotcomeandtheworldwill            hand did not strangle the text with a           rectness. God did not utilize num-
not end in 1994." Apparently you           hermeneutically sealed austerity.               bers in the Bible to bore us. Simple
have calculated a minimum of time,         There was a degree of latitude for              arithmetic lies behind Mr. Camping's
at least, before Christ could come,        speculative exegesis, which recog-              chronological evaluation1 and deter-
and this is also prediction (proph-        nizes levels of confidence and de-              minationof the calendar of the earth's
ecy?). Yet, why did men such as            grees of certainty (even question               existence. This is the second founda-
Martin Luther, and at least two of the     marks). I, as a layman, struggle with           tional point, and it is a critical area
eminent Westminster Divines,               knowing when a verse is to be taken             upon which the whole of the book
namely, Thomas Goodwin, and                figuratively, and when literally. Why           rests. What answer should one give
Jeremiah Burroughs, believe that the       is it not legitimate for the believer to        to this argument of Mr. Camping?
return of Christ was very likely to be     read a verse and consider first the                  Thethirdpointisthattheremust
in their day? And why did they even        literal interpretation? This seems to           be a convincing exegesis of Daniel
consider the very years that He might      be following sound hermeneutical                12:4, 8-10, along the lines of what
return?                                    principles. When is a day 24 hours?             certain Reformers referred to as "new
      One of your criticisms of Mr.        When is an hour 60 minutes? It seems            light" to be expected at "the evening
Camping is his denial of Antichrist as     that those who wouId generally raise            of the world." Were all the truths of
a human. But, John Calvin also re-         objection to the claim of specificity in        Scripture revealed at the culmination
jected the suggestion that an indi-        Mark 13:32,  are the same ones who              of the Reformation, especially in mat-
vidual man is meant. In his commen-        regularly and strenuously resist figu-          ters eschatalogical, or can we expect
tary, he thinks that Antichrist implies    rative interpretation. Yet why do               further illumination?
a kingdom, the rule of Satan's repre-      they seem to have no difficulty in                   Your editorial left me with the
sentative in the church, who will usurp    taking such liberty here despite the            impression that there is nothing good
the authority of God. Antichrist in        first, literal, and "clear" meaning of          inorabout  thebook1994?,  butinfact,
the true sense of the word is for Cal-     the words used? Commentators such               that is not the case at all. Mr. Camp-

272 IStandard  B88r8r / March 15,1993


ing has made a strong and rather              cature," ends by saying "The solu-            ous view of self-esteem, but for hav-
pointed defense for the literal and           tion to caricature is commitment to           ing ti tarred Dr. Dobson with the Rev.
historical account of creation. He            truth." I believe my anger would              Schuller brush." It is obvious to any-
upholds the authority and supremacy           have been avoided had the advice of           one well-versedin the Christian com-
of the Holy Scriptures. Additionally,         JonHuiskenbeenheeded:  "Thebooks              munity that these two men are cut out
through a collation of various pas-           and pamphlets (articles) we write . . . if    of a different cloth. Dr. Dobson is
sages, he has carefully refuted the           capable editors would take their red          recognized as an evangelical Chris-
dispensationalist. He has also an-            and blue pens to the text before it was       tian. I do not judge him otherwise.
swered the charismatic error.                 published"; "The positive develop-            Robert Schuller, on the other hand,
Camping's arguments ultimately re-            ment of the concept of the catholicity        cannot be acknowledged as such by
sult in a defense of the truth. You did       of the church has been slow in coming         anyone who examines his teachings
not see fit to mention any of this,           but it is coming!" (emphasis mine).           and confession in the light of Scrip-
maybe because the format you used             Dr. Dobson is your brother, whether           ture.
was an editorial and not a book re-           you like it or not, treat him as such!                 It was not my intention to place
view.                                              While many people perceive evil          James Dobson and Robert Schuller in
                            Ernie Springer    in the CRC, of which I am a member,           the same category from the view-
                            Audubon, NJ       one thing to be said in its defense is        point of their broader Christian per-
Response:                                     that CRC readers are free to praise or        spective. And I readily apologize to
     I respond to this letter in the          criticize and an article such as this         all those who may have perceived
editorial in this issue.                      appearing in the Banner would have            such from the article. I was merely
                                   - Ed.      received a ton of letters, which is           calling attention to the fact that both
                                              good. I often wonder why the Stan-            these men have had a major influence
                                              dard  Bearerreceives solittle response        in the thinking of modem-day Chris-
+ Tarring Dr. Dobson                          from its PRC readers. Is it because           tianity concerning the idea of self-
     I have recently written a letter to      they fully agree with every article? I        esteem. They come from different
the Editor, and he was kind enough to         highly doubt it, at least I hope not.         theological perspectives and, Iwould
allow my comments to be printed.              Maybe they don't read it, which is            guess, with different motivations. But
Lest I overdo my welcome, I hesitate          worse, or don't care, which is                both have had an influence in this urea
to write so soon again. But an article        lukewarmness. Or are they afraid of           ofsev-esteem  which has not been bibli-
by Rev. Steven Key has stirred up my          their leaders' responses? In any re-          cal. And such is not caricature, but
righteous indignation. .Lest you get          spect, as with any organization, mem-         fact.
the impression I have a lot against the       bers are responsible for what is said                  Although Dr. Dobson has made
PRC, let me assure you that much of           and done.                                     worthwhile contributions in his field
what I read in the Standur~  Bearer is             Finally, "guarding each man's            and offers much common-sense ad-
appreciated.                                  dignity and saving each man's pride,"         vice, even the teaching of such a "pil-
     SteveKeyinhisarticleon'Woper             the phrase in a song under Rev. Key's         lar" must be examined and evaluated
Christian Self-Esteem" (1) (2) and (3)        criticism is basically the same as lov-       biblically, and rejected where they
(SE, Dec. 1,1992; Dec. 15,1992; Jan. 1,       ing our neighbors as ourselves. Do            are in error. Some of what Dr. Dob-
1993) tars Dr. Dobson with the Rev.           we like ridicule and condemnation?            son has to say, perhaps much of what
Schuller brush, but the accusations           Neither do our neighbors. Jesus gave          he has to say, is in harmony with
were not substantiated. Dr. Dobson,           us an excellent example in John 8:3-          biblical teachings. He is to be com-
a man who enjoys popularity with a            11, and they'E.know  we are Chris-            mended for his willingness to speak
largesegment of the Christian com-            tians if we do the same.                      out against many of the evils that
munity, while being at the same time                                        Carl Smits      permeate our ungodly society today.
hated and ridiculed by the vast secu-                                      Lansing IL       I have never questionedDr.  Dobson's
lar community,isan  articulate spokes-        R e s p o n s e :                             ability as an articulate spokesman,
man, a pillar of faithin a hostile world,          I stand rebuked. Perhaps not             nor do I have reason to judge him
a friend, and a brother. He has been          without reason. But I appreciate the          other than a brother in Christ. But I
"caricatured" or, better stated, slan-        letter and the opportunity to respond         must also point out that in the issue at
dered. Unless the author backs up his         and expand on that which I have               hand he is an erring brother.
accusation with facts and even offers         written. I must admit that after I saw                 I may also have erred in not
Dr. Dobson an opportunity to re-              my article in print, I expected to get a      expanding on his error  - although,
spond, he owes Dr. Dobson and his             negativeresponseforexactlythepoint            as I expressed in the article of Decem-
readers an apology.                           that has "stirred up the righteous            ber 1, 1992, I would hope that the
     An excellent article by Jon              indignation" of the correspondent.            reader, being led to a clearer under-
Hr.&ken, "Historyof the PRC-Cari-                  I am sorry - not for having              standing of what is involved in a
                                              taken on Dr. Dobson for his errone-           proper Christian self-esteem and  ex-

                                                                                                     March 15,1993  / Standard Bearer I 273


amining the issues biblically rather        Christ Jesus. In that view I find tre-     My pen pal said in his letter, "a friend
than taking a popular man's word for        mendous comfort and confidence,            of mine has sent me photo copies
it, would also be able to see quite         even in the face of my own weak-           from the Standard Bearer which I
readily the error of Dr. Dobson in this     nesses, struggles, and God's evident       believe comes from your neck of the
matter.                                     wrath throughout the creation.             woods. The editor is taking issue
      Dr. Dobson is a Pelagian. That             There is a vast difference be-        with the Scottish theologian Donald
is, although he may readily confess         tween the two positions. The former        Macleod. They hold that he is un-
that a man is a "sinner," he denies the     establishes men upon a false founda-       sound on Providence and Sin, and is
biblical truth of original sin and total    tion of human pride; the latter upon a     said to deny Total Depravity."
depravity.                                  firm and unchangeable foundation of             I decided I would read the chap-
      That error is not a problem for       Christ's righteousness. I'll take the      ters in Behold Your God that the edi-
most people in the broader church           latter, and reject the former.             tor saidcontainednon-Reformed the-
world. The fact is, the Christian church         Dr. Dobson is in a position to be     ology and then make a sound judg-
for the most part has also rejected the     a powerful witness. How much more          ment. Maybe Macleod has forsaken
truth of total depravity. Rather than       powerful would his witness be, if the      the Reformed Faith.
calling sin "sin" they like to speak of     foundations of his thinking and teach-          I got a copy of the book Behold
a "low self-esteem" or "the conse-          ing in this issue were built upon the      Your God and looked up all the places
quences of a low self-esteem."              truth of Scripture!                        cited by the editor where- Macleod
      But this denial of total depravity         Finally, "guarding each man's         had denied the doctrine of total de-
and the exceeding sinfulness of sin is      dignity and saving each man's pride,"      pravity. I notice for example that the
most certainly not biblical, and must       is not the same as "loving our neigh-      editor quotedpage 127 of BehoZdYour
be rejected even for practical pur-         bors as ourselves." Scripture says         God  to prove Macleod taught "partial
poses. As I pointed out in the articles,    (Prov. 15:25):  "The LORD will destroy     deprevity." I quote from Article (4),
the failure to deal concretely and bib-     the house of the proud." Add to that       page 55 (November 1,1992/  Standard
lically with sin  and total depravity       the words of Proverbs 16:5: "Every         Bearer).  Here is what the editor
has had devastating consequences            one that is proud in heart is an abomi-    quoted from the book: "the third
from a practical point of view.             nation to the LORD: though hand join       objection is that the notion of com-
      For example, in the book, Dr.         in hand, he shall not be unpunished."      mon grace is inconsistent with the
Dobson Answers Your Questions (tie          For a Christian to allow his neighbor      doctrine of man's total depravity.
quote of which I recently took from a       to walk in pride while he views him-       According to both Scripture and con-
newspaper), he says, "Boys and girls        self as dignified apart from Christ is     fessional theology every function of
should know they are accepted sim-          to allow that neighbor to walk speed-      human personality is affected by sin
ply because they are created that           ily on'the way to hell. God spare us       (BYG, p. 127)." Then the editor asks,
way." That -answer, for its incom-          from such "love"! Love for the neigh-      "What percentage of every function
pleteness, is devastating to a proper       bor is to get him (or her) to face his     of human personality is affected by
nurturing of biblical Christ-esteem and     sinfulness and to point him to the         sin? Macleod does not tell us. 90%?
hence a biblical self-esteem in a child.    salvation which is in Christ alone,        50%? lo%? Is the unregeneratedman
      He states it this way in his book,    and that not of self, lest any man         then 90% good? or only lo%?" What
Hide or Seek (Revised Edition, Old          should boast. That is the example          bothered me about this quotation and
Tapan, NJ: Fleming H. Revell Com-           Jesus gave in John 8:3-11.                 comments by the editor is that it seeks
pany, 1979, p. 147): "The sooner you             (Those interested in a thorough       to say Macleod denies total deprav-
can accept  the transcending worth of       critique of Dr. Dobson's views are         ity. If the editor had quoted more of
your humanness, the sooner you can          referred to the book,  Prophets of         Macleod the readers of the article
come to terms with yourself" (em-           PsychoheresyII,byMartinandDeidre           would have seen Macleod holds to
phasis mine).                               Bobgen, SantaBarbara,  CA: Eastgate        the doctrine of total depravity. I will
     Dr. Dobson's view of self-es-          Publishers, 1990.)                         quote Macleod: "According to both
teem, therefore, is established upon                       - (Rev.) Steven R. Key      Scripture and confessional theology
the fact that man is a creature of God.                                                every function of human personahty
I find little comfort in that. My                                                      is affected by sin. We are incapable of
struggles and sins are too great, and       + Caging the Wild Dog                      attaining to the biblical standard of
the wrath of God too evident, for me             Recentlymypenpalfrom Wales            love. Our perception of facts is dis-
to have a joyful self-concept in being      brought to my attention the articles in    torted. Our wills are enslaved to
a wonderfully formed creature, like         theStundavdBeurevtitled"TheDeath           selfishness, worldliness, and godless-
all other human beings.                     of Confessional Calvinism in Scottish      ness. The light of conscience is often
     Our view, the Bible's view, is         Presbyterianism" by Rev. David  En-        darkness. Even our bodies are af-
that self-esteem may only be estab-         gelsma (August l-December 15,1992).        fected- we have enlisted them in the
lished on being a friend of God in                                                     service of unrighteousness (Romans

274 IStandard  Bearer I March 15,1993


6:13). The result of this pervasive de-     that nowhere does Macleod say com-                 may desire that to be done by man
pravity is that we are dead in sin          mon grace makes a sinner "some-                    under the influence of his common
(Ephesians  2:11), in enmity against        what pure." It is like a man putting a             grace in the common call, which he
God, and quite unable to keep His           wild dog who would attack people                   may not decide and purpose to make
law (Romans 8:7). We see no beauty          into a cage. The dog is restrained by.             him do by the operation of his special
                                                                                              grace in the effectual call. His desire
in Christ (Isaiah 53:2) and cannot re-      the cage, but its nature is not changed.           that sinners would hear his universal
ceive the things of the Spirit of God (I    The Holy Spirit restrains sin in cor-              call to repentance may be, and is
Corinthians2:14).  Collatingthesebib-       rupt sinful men, but does not make                 unlimited; but his purpose to over-
lical passages we arrive at the conclu-     thempure. Onlytheworkof theHoly                    come their unwillingness and incline
sion that man `has lost all ability of      Spirit in particular or special grace               them to repentance may be, and is
will to any spiritual good accompa-         brings about a radical change in a                 limited. God offers Christ's sacrifice
nying salvation' (Westminster Con-          sinner (gratis communis  is different               to every man, without exception, and
fessionIX.III).  TheShorterCatechism        from                                               gives him common grace to help and
                                                     gratis  particularis sive specialis).
expresses the same doctrine less tech-      Common grace is a chain on the cor-                encourage him to believe. This is a
                                                                                               proof  that God loves his soul and
nically: `No mere man since the fall is     rupt nature of man/fallen man.                      desires its salvation. But God does
able in this life perfectly to keep the          Macleod's views on the Well-                  not,inadditiontothisuniversal'offer
commandments of God, but doth               meant Offer or Free Offer of the Gos-               of mercy, promise to overcome ev-
daily break them in thought, word           pel is, from all I have read, in line with          ery man's aversion to believe and
anddeed' (Answer82)" (pp. 127,128).         Confessional Presbyterianism/Re-                    repent and his resistance of common
      I wonder why the editor did not       formed Presbyterian Theology.                       grace. Election and preterition have
quote all of what Macleod said on the            In the articles, "The Death of                 no reference to the offer of salvation
doctrine of total depravity? From the       Confessional Calvinism in Scottish                  or to common grace. They relate
above one can see Macleod holds to          Presbyterianism," the editor said that              only to special grace and the effec-
                                                                                                tual application of Christ's sacrifice.
the Reformed doctrine of total de-          the Westminster Standards never                     The universal offer of mercy taught
pravity, not "partial depravity." I say     taught the universal offer of mercy. I              in this section evinces the universal-
it was unjust to misrepresent Mac-          found that odd since I have been                    ity of God's compassion towards sin-
leod's theology on man's sinfulness/        reading the Westminster divines for                 ners.
total depravity so repeatedly in those      17 years and find that they teach the
articles.                                   same view of the Free Offer of the                     In closing, in Article #7, the edi-
      I do not want to get into a deep      Gospel as Donald Macleod.                         tor makes this statement: "This doc-
theological discussion on Common                  In the book,  CaZvi$sm:  Pure               trine of an ineffective universalism is
Grace, but I want to say that I read        and Mixed,  by W.G.T. Shedd,.he has               directly related to the glaring absence
Macleod's chapters on Common                a chapter titled, "The Westminster.               in the whole of Macleod's bookabout
Grace and then read throughmybooks          Standards and the Universal Offer of              God of the truth of reprobation.
and found his view to be the view of        Mercy." Shedd writes:                             Macleod has no place for an eternal,
theologians like Charles  Hedge,                                                              sovereign decree ordaining some per-
W.G.T. Shedd, Rev. G.H. Kersten,              Confession vii.3, declares that "man            sons to damnation" (p. 126). In this
Jonathan       Edwards,       Thomas          by his fall having made himself inca-           statement I see the editor objecting to
Goodwin, and many others. One                 pable of life by that (legal) covenant,         Macleod's decretal theology/his
might not accept the doctrine of Com-         the Lord was pleased to make a sec-             infralapsarianism. Macleod does
mon Grace as set forth by Macleod,            ond, commonly called the covenant
                                              of grace: wherein he freely offered to          writeonpages106-109achaptertitled,
but his view is found to be the view of       sinners life and salvation by Jesus             "Will Christians Rejoice in the
Confessional Presbyterianism/Re-              Christ, requiring of them faith in              Wrath?," his views concerning the
formed theology.                              him, that they may be saved, and                damnation of the wicked. I think
      Ilike tomakeanotherpoint. The           promising to give unto all those that           Macleod's theology-theological tra-
editor writes in Article (1) (August 1,       areordaineduntolife,hisHolySpirit,              dition is mainly focused on the Lord
1992lStandard Bearer, pp. 437,438):           to make them wiling and able to                 Jesus Christ the Savior of sinners, not
"The common grace defended by                 believe." Two distinct and different            Supralapsarianism or the Decree of
Macleod restrains sin as an internal          things are mentioned here: (a) an               God. That is because Macleodis from
operation of the Holy Spirit upon the         offer of salvation;  (b) a promise of           the Free Church of Christ where the
                                              theHoly Spirit tomake theunwilling
heart of the unregenerate that keeps          sinner willing to accept it. The num-           Lord Jesus is preached in allHis glory.
him frombeing totally depraved and            ber of those to whom the offer of               In the Protestant Reformed Churches
that makes him somewhat pure. It is           salvation is made is unlimited;. of             that is not the main focus. The Decree
this to which the Protestant Reformed         those to whom the promise of the                of God is the focus - the "eternal
Churches are opposed as the plainest          Spirit to "make them willing" is                sovereign decree ordaining some per-
denial of the Reformed doctrine of            made, is limited by "ordination to              sons to damnation."
total depravity." All I want to say is        life" or election. It is clear that God              The editor might find great dis-

                                                                                                   March 15,1993 I Standard Bearer I275


agreement with Donald Macleod's              ogy. Lo, common grace changes the            editorial(s) that you do not believe
views found in his book Behold Your          wild dog into a fine, helpful pet.           with the Westminster Confession of
God,  but I personally have found him             Prof. Macleod plainly and               Faith that:
to be writing what a large majority of       unhesitatingly teaches, in the last
Reformed theologians have set forth          chapter of BYG,  that God loves all            There is no other head of the church
in their books.                              men with the love of John 3:16, de-            but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the
                                  1. Keen    sires to save them all, has Christ die         Pope of Rome in any sense be head
                           Holland, MI       for them all, and essays the salvation        _ thereof; but is that antichrist, that
                                                                                            man of sin, and son of perdition, that
Response:                                    ofthemallbythegospelinitsvaunted               exaltethhimselfinthechurchagainst
      Iappreciateyourwritingtostate          (but impotent) offer.                          Christ, and all that is called God (ch.
your disagreement.                                You believe the same, you say,            25, section 6).
      I remind you that the book, Be-        withshedd. LikeMacleodandShedd,
hoZd Your God (BYG), attacked the            you draw this from the well of com-               In denying that the Pope of Rome
theology of the Protestant Reformed          mon grace.                                   is the Antichrist, you do a great dis-
Churches as virtual blasphemy and,                This is universalism, not Re-           service to those saints who have laid
therefore, I would surmise, as un-           formed particularism.                        down their lives for the cause of the
reformed.                                         This is a resisted love and grace       Gospel in past ages of the church.
      My reply can be very brief, since      - a love and grace that fail, not            You in America and we in Britain are
you do not disprove my charge. In-           Presbyterianism's irresistible grace.        privileged to live in democratic soci-
deed, overall, you do not attempt to              Find this for me in the                 eties where religious persecution is
disprove my charge.                          Westminster Standards.                       virtually unknown. It has not always
      I didnot allege that Prof. Macleod           Confessing reprobation has             been the case and is not the case today
couldnot  find supporters of his theol-      nothing to do with supralapsarianism         in some parts of the world where the
ogy in various theologians. I charged        versus infralapsarianism.                    Roman Catholic Church holds sway,
his theology in BYG with being plain,              It has to do withbeingfaithful to      forinstanceinMexicoandotherLatin
significant departure from  confessional     the Westminster Confession of Faith,         American countries.
Presbyterianism, i.e., departure from        3.3,4,  6,7.                                       A reading of church history re-
the Westminster Standards.                         It has to do with believing and        minds us of the terrible suffering in-
      BYG  clearly and explicitly            confessing the doctrine of the Bible         flicted upon our forefathers in Eu-
teaches that the unregenerate, so far        (John 10:26;  Rom. 9).                       rope by the Inquisition of the Middle
from being totally depraved, possess               It has to do with maintaining          Ages. It is estimated that upwards of
the good qualities `spoken of in             and confessing a doctrine of election        a hundred thousand Albigenses were
Philippians  48. They do good in             that is genuine, i.e., biblical. An elec-    massacred in the 13th century and
many areas of life. Find this for me in      tion that is not accompanied by rep-         perhaps as many as a million
the Westminster Confession.                  robation is not the biblical doctrine of     Waldenses have perished duringthe
      Macleod teaches "pervasive de-         election.                                    long history of that illustrious people.
pravity," i.e., that every part of a man           It has to do with preaching the        The Huguenots in France suffered to
is affected by depravity. He rejects         Lord Jesus in His glory, for a "Jesus        the tune of between forty and sixty
the doctrine that every part of the          for all," i.e., the Jesus sincerely in-      thousand and some ten thousand
unregenerate is completely depraved,         tended by God for all and offered            perished in Paris alone following St.
so that there is nothing good in any         well-meaninglyby God to all with the         Bartholomew'sDay,  August24,1572.
part. This latter is the doctrine of the     desire that all be saved, is not the         A century later things were no better
Reformed creeds (cf. WCF, Chap. VI;          glorious Jesus of the Bible (cf. John 10     and, following the repeal of the Edict
Heid. Cat., Q. 8; Canons of Dordt, III,      and John 17).                                of Nantes in 1685, for upwards of
IV/1-4). It is also the teaching of the                                       - DJE       another hundred years it was a crime
Bible (John 15:5b; Rom. 8:5-8; Eph.                                                       punishable by death  - not, to prac-
2:lff.).                                                                                  tice the Protestant faith, or to attend
      Macleod teaches far, far more                                                       Protestant services, or to evangelize
than that common grace "cages" the           + Is the Pope Antichrist?                    or to teach children - but it was a
unregenerate sinner. The Reformed                  I refer to your editorial, "A.D.       crimejust tobeaProtestunt!  Thisisnot
faith teaches that God controls the          1993: The Lord is Coming," in the            to mention the carnage of the Duke of
ungodly (and the devil) by His provi-        Standard Bearer of January 15,1993           AlvaintheNetherlands,theburnings
dence. But Macleod has common                and in particular the statement, "An-        of the Protestant martyrs in England
grace producing the lovely qualities         tichrist has not yet been revealed in        during the reign of "Bloody Mary,"
of Philippians4:8in theunregenerate,         his time" (p. 174). It is plain from this    and similar events in Ireland, Scot-
and enabling them to perform good            remark and the whole thrust of your          land, and elsewhere. In the massacre
works in the arts, sciences, and theol-

276 /Standard Bearer I March 15,1993


in Ulster in 1641 the priests told their    the other side, for all to see clearly the      from the Papacy, a future Infidel
people that "the Protestants were           difference between the two opposing             Anti-Christ was  looked for, and the
worse than dogs, they were devils,          forces. Rather he is presented as Anti-         historic Protestant view handed
and served the devil, and the killing       Christ, i.e., "in the place of" Christ or       down by the Reformers was despised
of them was a meritorious act." In-         the vicegerent or vicar (dictionary:            by many. These are the hard facts of
                                                                                            history. A Protestantism saturated
deed, such attitudes still linger on        one who holds authority as the del-             with  Ribera's  Futurism is not the
and account, in no small measure, for       egate or substitute of another) of              Protestantism of the Reformers, nor
the continuation of the "troubles" in       Christ. He "sits in the temple [or              is it feared by the Papacy  (77ze   Ro-
that sad land today.                        church] of God, shewing himself that            man Anti-Christ).
     To forget these facts, to forget       he is God" (2 Thess. 2:4), and no more
the suffering of our Reformed forefa-       fitting picture of the papacy can be               Fifthly and finally, you make the
thers, to pour scorn upon a view of         imagined. Charles Hodge in his Sys-           rather astonishing claim that, "With
history long held and cherished by, I       tematicTheology,commentingonthis              the true church everywhere, the PRC
believe, the majority of the Reformed       passage, says: "This portrait suits the       will stand fast in and for the truth.
church is, I would suggest, to do a         Papacy so exactly that Protestants            They will confess it. They will defend
great injustice to the memory of these      have rarely doubted that it is the            it to the death. They will compromise
saints of God, the like of which we in      Antichristwhichtheapostleintended             nothing." I sincerely trust this willbe
this day and age are not worthy to be       to describe."                                 so -but which of us has had experi-
compared.                                        Fourthly, you say, "There are,           ence of facing persecution, torture,
     May I be permitted to make one         however, plain signs that the world is        and death? The Scripture cautions
or two further observations? Firstly,       becoming more ungodly. These are              us: "Lethimthatthinkethhestandeth
to bolster your case you fall back on       the signs that Scripture itself presents      take heed lest he fall."
the Second Helvetic  Confession, but        to the church to show the nearness of              Like many others on this side of
where, may I ask, is there any evi-         the day of Christ." Throughout his-           the Atlantic, I owe a tremendous debt
dence in the standards of your              tory-there have been those who have           to the Protestant Reformed Churches
churches, the Three Forms of Unity,         fallen into the trap of applying all of       and have come to love the historic
to support your contention about a          Scripture, particularly the prophetic         ReformedFaithas  outlined in themajor
future Antichrist?          Like the        portions, to the age in which they            Reformed Confessions.  There are other
Westminster Standards, they do not          were then living. Nevertheless, Peter         matters andinterpretations, however,
speculate on such matters, believing        reminds us that "one day is with the          which cannot but be described as
them to be not of the essence of the        Lord as a thousand years, and a thou-         specuhztive  and, I have to say, that
faith and therefore not binding upon        sand years as one day" (2 Peter 3:8).         recent editorials of your esteemed
the consciences of the people of God.       In consequence, as far as God is con-         paper fall within this category.
     Secondly, you seem to believe          cerned, Christ died just two days ago,                                      Tony Home
that certain great events must take         and who would be so bold as to try to                                 Bristol, England
place before the second coming of           predict how many further  II days" our        Response
Christ and you reject the notion that       world has yet to run! Moreover, I                  Scripture teaches that, prior to
His appearingcould occur at any time.       hasten to point out that your view of         the coming of Christ, Antichrist will
This is in spite of such warnings as        Antichrist is in fact shared by the           be revealed (II Thess. 2; Rev. 13).
"the day of the Lord will come as a         Roman Catholic Church. Professor                   The full reality of Antichrist is
thief in the night" (2 Peter 3:lO) and      F.S. Leahy of Belfast has written:            political. Antichrist is a world-power,
"forin such an hour as ye thinknot the                                                    a kingdom (Dan. 7; 11; Rev. 13:1-10).
Son of man cometh" (Matt. 24:44),             alarmed by the fact that the Reform-             There is solid evidence that An-
and indeed the whole thrust of Mat-           ers were pointing to the Pope as the        tichrist will also be an individual hu-
thew 2442-51.                                 Man of Sin, the Jesuit Ribera at the        man person - the powerful head of
     Thirdly, regarding your under-           end of the sixteenth century invented,      the worldwide kingdom of Satan. The
standing of Antichrist himself, you           oratleastpropagatedfuturisticviews          precursors of Antichrist in history
                                              of the Anti-Christ, and pointed to a
appear to view him as a "charismatic,         solitary Infidel Anti-Christ who            were great kingdoms with their per-
supernaturally endowed president."            would appear in the dim future. This        sonal ruler, e.g., Babylon and Nebu-
I beg to suggest, however, that Scrip-        is largely the Romanist view today....      chadnezzar (Dan. 2; 7). Also, II
ture portrays him differently. In 2           Ribera's  view soon infected the High       Thessalonians 2 speaks of "that man
Thessalonians  2:9,10 he is described         Church party. J.N. Darby caught the         of sin"; "the son of perdition"; and
as a deceiver, and this is exactly what       contagionand finally Dr. C.I.  Scofield     "that Wicked (One)."
the Pope has been throughout his-             swallowed the Jesuit's pill. Thus                As the name, "Antichrist," indi-
tory. Antichrist is not presented as          Ribera succeeded beyond his wildest         cates, this coming world-ruler with
some great Goliath against which              dreams, for the attention of  thou-         his universal kingdom will both take
                                              sandsofl'rotestantsbecamedeflected
David (the church) is arraigned on                                                        Christ's place and oppose the Christ

                                                                                               March 16,1663 I Standard Bearer I277


               i


of Scripture. He will deceive all those           Kuyper, Dictaten  Dogmatiek, Vol.                           Antichrist in the book of Revelation
nominalChristianswho"receivednot                  V, J.-H. Kok, 1910, pp. 207-236; H.                         (cf. his Systematic Theology, Vol. III,
the love of the truth" (II Thess.  2:lO).         Bavinck, Geref. Dog., Vol. IV, J. H.                        Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1873, p.
He will persecute the saints with the             Kok, 1911, pp. 751ff.; L. Berkhof,                          830).
great tribulation (Dan.  11:33;  Rev.             Systematic Theology,  Eerdmans,
                                                  1965, pp. 701-703).                                                  Why a denial that the papacy
13:7).                                                                                                        exhausts the biblical reality of Anti-
          Antichrist must be revealed in               The certain truth in the West-                         christ should be thought a "disser-
his time before the Day of Christ can          minster Confession of Faith's identi-                          vice" to the hundreds of thousands of
come (II Thess. 2).                            fication of Antichrist with the pope of                        saints killed by the Roman Catholic
          This understanding of the bibli-     Rome is that the reality of Antichrist                         Church is not clear. Is the only true
cal doctrine of Antichrist is the  Re-         inch,idesfalseprophecy(IJohn2:18,22;                           martyrdom a martyrdom at the hands
formedtradition.  HermanHoeksema               Rev.  19:20).  Romans  13:llff.  ass&i-'                       of the pope viewed as Antichrist?
expresses this tradition in his  Re-           ates with the political Antichrist a                           Were not the Old Testament saints
formed Dogmatics (pp. 804-815), as             second beast that looks like a lamb                            killed by Jezebel, Athaliah, Manasseh,
well as in his commentary on Revela-           but speaks as a dragon. This beast                             and Nebuchadnezzar genuine mar-
tion, Behold, He Cometh! (pp. 451-             exercises all the power of the first                           tyrs? Were not the Christians-tor-
464).                                          beast in order that all the world will                         tured and killed by the Jews and by
                                               worship the first beast. In the future                         the Roman empire in apostolic and
  Before the coming of the Lord on the                                                                        post-apostolictimesgenuinemartyrs?
  clouds of  heaven,  there will be a          coming of Antichrist the false church,                         Were not the missionaries killed by
  culmination of the development of            nodoubtheadedbytheRomanCatho-'                                 the pagans genuine martyrs?
  the Man of Sin in the power of Anti-         hc Church, that is, the pope, will play                                 Although I deny that the papacy
  christ  (RD, p. 804).                        an important role.
  The ultimate manifestation of Anti-                  Besides, Antichrist has a history.                     is exclusively, exhaustively, or even
  christ will assume the form of a po-         The mystery of iniquity has always                             primarily the Antichrist of the Bible,
  litical world-power, a kingdom and           b e e n   w o r k i n g   i n   v a r i o u s   w a y s . :    holding that Antichrist is a future
  its ruler, or government  (I?D, p. 807).     Antiochus Epiphanes, enemy of the                              kingdom with a personal, political
  In the future there will be the full         covenant people in the inter-testa-                            head, I believe, with Article 29 of the
  realization of a great world-power,                                                                         Belgic Confession, that the Roman
  combining in itself all powers of the        mentary period, was Antichrist-in-                             Catholic Church is a false church. As
  earth, with a government which has           type. The Roman Empire that perse-                             such, she "persecutes those who live
  all the authority of the dragon, the         cuted the church from about A.D. 65                            holily according to the Word of God,
  old serpent, the devil  (Behold, p. 458).    until about, the beginning of the 4th
  Antichrist . . . represents both the         century was the typical Antichrist. So                         and rebuke her for her errors, covet-
  world-power and its government....           also was the persecuting Roman                                 ousness, and idolatry" (cf. my edito-
  We come to the conclusion that this          Church of the 16th and 17th centuries                          rial, "God's Continuing Controversy
  beast is the symbol of a political gov-      developing Antichrist. The Reform-,                            with Unchanged Rome," in the Oct.
  ernment as we know it . . . as it natu-      ers, therefore, were not in error when                         15,199O  issue of the Standard Bearer).
  rallyculminatesinandisrepresented                                                                                    The suggestion, in this regard,
  by its head (Behold, p. 454).                they regarded the blaspheming, per-                            that my editorial of January  15,1993,
  And it is not at all inconceivable that      secuting Roman Catholic Church as                              or any of my writings,  tipour  scorn
  this worship shall be offered to one         Antichrist.                                                    upon a view of history long held and
  person, the personal Antichrist, at                  But a doctrine of Antichrist that
  the head of the  Antichristian  king-        does not look for a future culmination                         cherished by . . . the ,majo$y  of the
  dom. Why should it be impossible             of the history-long coming of Satan's                          Reformed Church" is false.
  that an individual should arise, en-         imitation of God's Christ in a literal                                  Thenotionthatthebiblicalwarn-
  dowed with the power of a universal          world-power uniting all nations un-                            ingof Christ's coming as a thief means
  genius, who is able to create a condi-       der one man is a mistake. Although                             that Christ cancome at any momentis
  tion of world prosperity, so that men                                                                       a popular misconception. That this is
  will be glad to forget that they be-         Charles Hodge took the position that                           not the meaning of the warning is
  lieve in democracy, and hail this            Antichrist is the papacy, even he was                          proved conclusively by Paul's teach-
  world-savior as-their lord and wor-          forced to acknowledge that "the pre-
  ship him as their god? (RD, p. 811)          dictions concerning Antichrist may                             ing in II Thessalonians 2:lff. The
  Let me also warn you not to make the         have had a partial fulfilment in                               apostle had taught in the first epistle
  mistake of finding him  (Antichrist--        Antiochus Epiphanes, in Nero and                               that Christ comes as a thief in the
  DJE) already in his fullmanifestation        Pagan Rome, and in the papacy, and,                            night (5:2). Nevertheless, in the sec-
  and power. Never yet has there been          it may still have a fulfilment in some                         ond epistle he told the Thessalonians
  a power such as is pictured here....         great antichristian power which is yet                         that they must not suppose that the
  Let no one beguile you. This                                                                                Day of Christ was at hand, that is, that
  antichristian power is not yet in its        to come." That which forced him to                             it could come at any moment. Two
  full reality (Behold, p. 463; cf. A.         this admission was the description of                          great events had to take place before

276 IStandard  Bearer I March 15,1993


Christ's coming: apostasy and Anti-               be. All the signs of the times point to         Did Paul make an "astonishing
christ.                                           such a tremendous power, such a            claim" when he assured the
          For the Thessalonian Christians         league of the nations that has control     Thessalonian church, "But ye, breth-
Christ's coming as a thief did not                over all things, to such a unity of all    ren, are not in darkness, that that day
imply the possibility of His coming at            religion, in which man is exalted and      should overtake you as a thief.... For
                                                  the Christ of the Scriptures is blas-
any moment. Nor does it imply this                phemed and His blood trampled un-          God hath not appointed us to wrath,
for us.                                           der foot. And therefore I would say:       but to obtain sal.vation  by our Lord
          I do indeed reject the notion that      the time is at hand! Watch therefore!      Jesus Christ" (I Thess. 5:4,9)?
Christ can come at any moment. This               Let no one beguile you; but watch!              Is this how humility addresses
is premillennial, rapture doctrine;               (HermanHoeksema,BehoZd,  p.464).           the church at the end of the ages:
          Before Christ comes, Antichrist                                                    "Beloved saints, Antichrist and the
must be revealed in his time (II Thess.              The exhortation and encourage-          great tribulation are upon you, and it
2).                                             ment that I ventured to give the Prot-       is doubtful whether you will stand
          This is not far off. The saints       estant Reformed Churches with the            fast in and for the truth"?
ought to be seeing this sign and arm-           true church everywhere, to "stand                 Two important elements of Re-
ing themselves with spiritual arma-             fast in and for the truth," was quali-       formed eschatology are not specula-
ment for this last and greatest of the          fied by the words, "If the Protestant        tion, but biblical revelation: Anti-
battles of Christ's church.                     Reformed Churches see the signs. U It is     christ is a sign of the coming of Christ,
                    :                           Christ's own promise that those who          and in her war with him the true               "'
  Let me also warn you that the time            see the signs with the spiritual sight of    church will do valiantly. 0
  (of Antichrist -DJE) is at hand. We           faith will endure (cf. Matt. 2442-46;                                           - DJE
  know not how soon, but soon it will           Luke 2236).




William Farel: Fiery Evangelist
                             of the Reformation

Introduction                                         Farel's work was destructive            other Reformers could not have ac-
          We who are of the CalvinRefor-          rather than constructive. He could         .complished what they did.
mation rightly honor John Calvin as               pull down, but not build up. He was
the great Reformer of Geneva and the              a conqueror, but not an organizer of       Early Life
spiritualfatherofCalvinisticchurches              his conquests; a man of action, not a           WilliamFarelwasbomnear  Gap
throughout the world. But it is not an            man of letters; an intrepid preacher,      in Dauphiny, in the mountainous re-
exaggeration  to say that Calvin's work           not a theologian. He felt his defects,     gions of the Alps, in the southeastern
would not have been possible with-                and handed his work over to the
out the intrepid labors of another                mighty genius of his young friend
                                                  Calvin. In the spirit of genuine  hu-
Reformer, William Farel, who hacked               mility and self-denial, he was willing
away the undergrowth of Roman                     to decrease that Calvin might in-
Catholic superstition and plowed the              crease. This is the finest trait in his
soil of Switzerland so that the seeds of          character.*
Calvin could be sown and bear their
fruit.                                                                                       1    Philip Schaff,  History of the
          Schaff writes of him:                 The character which God gave him,            Christian Church (Grand Rapids:
                                                forceful and belligerent, admirably          Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
                                                suited him for the work of the Refor-        1950) VIII, 238, 239. Schaff has an
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-         mation and the unique place in the           interesting and helpful, though brief,
tory and New Testament in the Protes-           Reformation which he occupied. The           biography of Farel, which we recom-
tant Reformed Seminary.                         work was important, for without it           mend to our readers.

                                                                                                  March  15,1993  I Standard Bearer I279


part of France.2  This part of France        given to the use of tact, impulsive in       hear his thunder without trembling,
had at one time been under the influ-        his actions and preaching, and one           or listen to his most fervent prayers
ence of the Waldensians, but they had        who roared against papal abuses. As          without being almost carried up to
been all but destroyed in France             zealous as he had once been for              heaven."5
through the horrors of the inquisi-          `Romish practices, so zealous and
tion.3 He was the oldest of seven chil-      fierce did he become as a promoter of        Evangelist
dren, born from a family which be-           Reformation causes. He was a man                  To understand this part of his
longed to the nobility, but which had        who prepared the way for others, for         labors we must try to put Fare1 in the
fallen on bad times and was very             he could break down, but lacked the          setting of his times.
poor. He was baptized with the name          gifts to build up. He was no theolo-              Although the views of Luther,
Guillaume, the approximate French            gian, and he left no significant works       and to a lesser extent those of the
equivalent of William. He was born           which contributed to Reformation             Swiss theologians, were being circu-
five years after Luther and Zwingli          thought; he was rather the man who           lated, read, and studied in many
and twenty years before John Calvin.         with mighty blows tore down the              places, the common people had not as
He belongs, therefore, to the first gen-     imposing structure of Roman Catholi-         yet heard them. Darkness still cov-
eration of Reformers.                        cism.                                        ered the land where Fare1 worked.
        Paris, the center of Roman Catho-             He was a man of unsurpassed         The Reformation was just beginning
lic studies, beckoned him and, in his        energywhotraveledincessantlyuntil            in France, Southern Germany, and
studies there, he concentrated on phi-       old and worn he died; always on the          Switzerland. The people were hyp-
losophy, theology, and the ancient           move, full of fire and courage, as           notized as yet by the priests, bishops,
languages, including Hebrew. He              fearless as Luther, but even more radi-      and monks who promoted with zeal
had, at this time, very little religious     cal. His close friend and fellow Re-         the superstitions of Rome. The dark-
conviction, although he was zealous          former, Oecolampadius wrote him:             ness of corrupt Roman Catholic domi-
for Rome and was, in his own words,          lYour mission is to evangelize, not to       nation held the people in slavery.
"more popish than popery."                   curse. Prove yourself to be an evan-              InfluencedbyLefevre,Farelhad
        But God used these very studies      gelist, not a tyrannicallegislator." And     come to love the truths of the Refor-
to bring him to faith in the truths of       Zwingli, shortly before his death,           mation and had devoted his life to
Scripture as set forth in the Reforma-       admonished him not to labor rashly,          promote them through his fiery
tion. Even in Paris Luther's thoughts        but to keep himself for God's work.          preaching.
were being circulated and discussed,                  Fare1 hated the pope with a pas-         William Fare1 was  never offi-
and Fare1 was brought under the in-          sion and despised all papal ceremo-          cially ordained to the ministry, al-
fluence of Jacques Lefevre d'8taples.        nies. His mission in life, as he con-        though he had been licensed to preach
Lefevre was one of those shadowy             ceived it, was to destroy every rem-         when he first came to Meaux. He
figures in the Reformation who him-          nant of popery in images, ceremo-            believed that his call came from God,
self was convinced of the great truth        nies, and rituals, which were the stan-
ofjustificationbyfaith,butwhonever           dard diet of those held in Rome's
could summon the courage to break            chains.
with Rome and join the Protestant                     His strength was in his preach-     2    I have in my possession two ex-
cause. It was Lefevre  who said to the       ing. That is, it was not so much in his      cellent and interesting biographies of
young Farel: "My son, God will re-           careful preparation of sermons, for he       William Farel, although both are old
new the world, and you will witness          mostlypreachedwithoutpreparation,            and probably out of print. They are:
it."                                         and none of his sermons have come            Rev. Wm. M. Blackburn, William
        From that point on Fare1 im-         down to us. His strength was in his          Fare1 and The Sto y of the Swiss Re-
mersed himself in the Scriptures and         powerful delivery. Schaff writes:            form  (Philadelphia: Presbyterian
was soon (1521) sent to Meaux in                                                          Board of Publication, 1865); and:
France, where he received authority               He turned every stump and stone         Francis Bevan, The Life of William
to preach.                                     into a pulpit, every house, street, and    FareZ(Edinburgh:  Pickering&Inglis).
        And it was in his preaching that       market-place into a church; pro-           Thelatterhas theinterestingandalto-
his character began to become appar-           voked the wrath of monks, priests,         gether appropriate sub-title: "A Spiri-
ent.                                           and bigoted women; was abused,             tual force in the Great Reformation
        We are told by his contemporar-        called `heretic' and `devil,' insulted,
                                               spit upon, andmore than once threat-       who nobly endured `the reproach of
ies that he was rather short, always           enedwithdeath.... Whereverhewent           Christ."'
carrying about a gaunt look, and pos-          he stirred up all the forces of the        3    See my article on the Walden-
sessing a red and somewhat unkempt             people, and made them take sides           sians in Volume 68 of The Standard
beard. He reminded those who saw               for or against the'new gospel!             Bearer,  pp. 380-382.
him of the rough appearance of an                                                         4    Philip Schaff, p. 242.
Elijah. He was fiery and forceful, not       But Schaff also writes: "No one could        5    Schaff, p. 446.

200  /Standard Bearer I March 15,1993


as that call had come to the prophets       great Pelican, who later was profes-           - He once interrupted a priest who
in the old dispensation. Nor did he         sor of Greek and Hebrew in the Uni-          was urging the people to worship
ever stay long in one place, but trav-      versity of Zurich and became a bril-         Mary more zealously, and became
eled about in Switzerland, Eastern          liant Reformation scholar. It was in         the victim of a mob of women who
France,andSouthemGermany,bring~             this city that he visited the great Swiss    were bent on tearing him to shreds.
ing his powerful word. No one has           Reformers: Oecolampadius,  My-                    In Metz he preached in a Do-
been able to compute the miles he           conius, Haller, and Zwingli.                 minican cemetery, booming out his
traveled. But in all kinds of weather,           But it was also in Base1 that he        message over the ringing of the con-
through the dangers of robbers, brig-       ran afoul of the humanist Erasmus,           vent bells, which were rung furiously
ands, and Romish clerics who hated          who still had sufficient influence to        in an attempt to drown his voice.
him, he rode his horse or traveled on       run Fare1 out of the city. It seems that          While celebrating the Lord's
foot to areas where the true gospel         Fare1 called Erasmus "a Balaam,"             Supper on Easter, he and those with
had not yet been heard.                     something the learned Erasmus could          him were attacked by an armed band.
        He aroused the hatred of Romish     not forgive. Erasmus wrote the coun-         Many were killed or wounded. Fare1
prelates wherever he went, but drew         cil: "You have in your neighborhood          himself, though wounded, found ref-
huge crowdsby the fire of his oratory.      the new evangelist Farel, than whom          uge in a castle and escaped the city by
        To trace his frequent travels       I never saw a man more false, more           leaving in disguise.
would involve us in lengthy lessons         virulent, more seditious."                        At 72 years old, still preaching,
in geography. But everywhere he                  After a short sojourn in Strass-        he was thrown into prison, rescued
went, his preaching did not permit          burg, where he made the acquain-             by friends, and, as Paul, saved in a
that town or village or city to remain      tance of MartinBucer,  Farelwas found        basket let down from the walls.
the same. We can only tell of some of       in 1525 back in France in Monteliard,             Hislifewasoneofconstantperil,
his work and recall with amazement          where he preached in his usual vio-          but nothing could deter him. Not all
the troubles from which, by God's           lent manner. On a procession day he          the power of Rome itself could move
providential hand, he escaped.              pulled the image of St. Anthony out of       him to abandon his work.
        Already in Meaux, France, where     a priest's hand and threw it from a               While we can, if we choose, criti-
Fare1 began his preaching, he was           bridgeinto ariver.  Hebarely escaped         cize Fare1 for his vehemence and tact-
soon in trouble for his zealous procla-     being pulled in pieces by a mob.             lessness (as his contemporaries often
mation of biblical doctrine. It was a            Not only was Fare1 fearless, but        did), one wonders sometimes whether
time in France when persecution of          he refused to be swayed by the ap-           the times in which we live do not
Protestants was beginning and those         proval of men. In Neufchbtel of Swit-        require preachers of equal courage.
who had given him permission to             zerland he publicly rebuked a noble          His trust was in His God, and the
preach were nonplussed by his sud-          woman who had left her husband.              labor of the Lord He was intent on
den proclamation of biblical truth.         When she refused to return to him,           doing, come what would.
He was soon forced to flee for his life,    Fare1 roared against her and her sup-             His greatest labors were the
narrowly escaping those who hated           porters from the pulpit and created          work he performed as a co-worker of
him.                                        such a riot that he was saved only by        Calvin. But the story of this work
        In Base1 in Switzerland he was      a vote of the council, which was             must be left to another time. 0
instrumental in the conversion of the       moved by his vast energy.




                           Our Day of Prayer

                                                 Again March comes and it is             one more sermon to prepare. The
                                            time for the annual National Day of          questionis-why?  WhyaPrayerDay
                                            Prayer. God's people sometimes               service?
Rev. Spriensma is pastor of the Protes-     wonder why they have another wor-                 Do we come together to pray
tant Reformed Church  of  Grandville,       ship service in their busy schedules.        because our President calls the citi-
Michigan.                                   And the Pastor knows that it means           zens of our nation to go to some

                                                                                              March 15,1993 I Standard Bearer I281


higher being however one may con-             flictions,  the pressure of which is felt    This article is based on I Timothy 2: l-
ceive it to exist, and ask for his be-        throughout the Churches, it is fitting       4: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all,
nevolent help and blessing?                   that the Classes proclaim a Day of           supplications, prayers, intercessions,
      Many evangel&& are asking,              Prayer.                                      and giving of thanks, be made for all
"How can we pray?" "For what are                  The Churches shall observe, in
                                              addition to the Sunday, also Christ-         men; for kings, and for all that are in
we to pray?" "Do we pray for a presi-         mas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension          authority; that we may lead a quiet
dentthatweperhapswishwerenotin                Day, Pentecost, the Day of Prayer,           and peaceable life in all godliness and
the White House, to undo any good             the National Thanksgiving Day, and           honesty...."
that former presidents seemed to have         Old and New Year's Day.                           Do you ask, "Must we pray for
accomplished . . . allowing gays into                                                      ungodly leaders too?" My answer is,
the military, doing an about-face on              Moreover, as God's people we             "Most certainly we do," Romans 13:
many of the issues relating to abor-        come together to worship on the Day            1 tells us that God has given magis-
tion, raising taxes that he promised        of Prayer because our elders call us to        trates theirauthorityandrule.  "There
not to do?"                                 worship, and in them Christ calls us           is no power but of God; the powers
      Shall we pray "God bless              to the divine worship service.                 that be are ordained of God." God
America," as if America was God's                 But, I propose that we observe           controls and governs leaders so that
own people, God's chosen nation?            the Day of Prayer also because corpo-          His eternal plan is carried out by
Shall we overlook our national sins-        rate prayer is important in the life of        them. They are but instruments in
including, yes, sodomy, that is.per-        God's people. As God's children we             His hand. This is what we read in
mitted and legalized?                       live in this world, with all our needs,        Proverbs 21:l: "The king's heart is in
      Shall we pray for the economy?        affected by that world. So it is our           the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of
Shall we pray for the crops that will       privilege, it is our duty, and it is our       water: he tumeth it whithersoever  he
soon be planted? Or, since over-            need to pray! We heed the injunction           will." That is true whether it be a
production seems to be a problem,           of the Psalmist: "trust in him at all          President Reagan, President Bush, or
shall we pray that our crops do well        times; ye people, pour out your hearts         President Clinton, or any other elected
but not our neighbor's, or that our         before him: God is a refuge for us"            government official. So we pray for
crops in America do well but not the        (Ps. 62:8).                                    our government officials because they
crops elsewhere, so that there will be            Because there is a new politician        are 0 the ministers of God to do thee
a good market for our crops?                in town are we less eager to pray for          good" (Rom. 13:4).
     For industry, how shall we pray?       him? Maybe the best thing that can                   This does not mean that we ask
Do we pray that the manufacturing           come out of the recent change of               God to cause our leaders to prosper in
plants that are going overseas to re-       President in the United States is that         all their efforts if they are sinful. For
duce costs will prosper? Do we pray         evangelicals  quit looking at their presi-     as we -approach the last evil days,
for the unions that call their members      dent, or lawmakers, or policies made           those efforts will be directed more
to strike to demand higher wages or         as bringing about the Kingdom of               and more against the church and
to ensure better benefits? Do we pray       Heaven on earth. Our hopes do not              God'speople. Makenomistakeabout
that somewhere in this dog-eat-dog          rest upon presidents (godly or un-             it. We see it increasingly today. But
world we will have a place to earn our      godly, Republican or Democrat) or              we pray for our leaders and our na-
daily bread?                                lawmakers in Washington. Our trust             tion so that, as we read in II Timothy
      As legitimate as some of our          is in God at all times. God is our             22, "we may live a quiet and peace-
complaints, our unhappiness, and            refuge!                                        ablelifeinallgod.linessandhonesty,"
shaking of our head might be, our                We pray. We pray for our lead-            so that the gospel might go forth
calling is not to grumble but to pray!      ers, godly leaders and ungodly lead-           unhindered and we might continue
         *  *  *  *  *  *  *                ers. That is our calling. The Belgic           to lead godly lives unmolested.
     It is time for another Prayer Day      Confession, Art. 36, says:                          We must pray for the economy.
Service. Why pray? Who are called to                                                       While the rich get richer and the poor
pray? To whom do we pray?                     It is the bounden duty of everyone, of       poorer; while in North America we              __
     We come to our Prayer Day ser-           what state, quality, or condition            bathe in luxury at the same time that
vice, not because our president en-           soever  he may be, to subject himself        in many third world countries people
courages his citizens to look to some         to the magistrates; to pay tribute, to       die of starvation and malnutrition;
higher being. We have a Prayer Day            show due honor and respect to them,          and while the economy causes resent-
service, not because it is the popular        and to obey them in all things which
                                              are not repugnant to the Word of             ment, greed, misery, and hatred -
thing to do, but because our Church           God; to supplicafe  for fhknt  in their      what shall we pray? Shall we, dare
Order demands it (Articles 66,67).            prayers, fhaf God may rule and guide         we, tell God how He should govern
                                              them in all their ways and that  we may      the affairs of the world? Or shall we
     In time of war, pestilence, na-          lead a quiet and peaceable life in all       advise the Most Mighty how every-
  tional calamities, and other great af-     godliness and honesty.                        one should share equally in the wealth
282 /Standard Bearer / March 15,1993


of His creation? Shall we adopt any of             We pray not only for ourselves         pray to show their thankfulness. They
the policies of the world and present         but for all of Christ's church. We pray     praybecause theyknowthatbymeans
it to the Lord as the best economic           that His church will prosper, that it       of their cries God is pleased to give
policy? God forbid! God forbid that           will grow numerically and spiritu-          them His grace and Spirit.
we come in our prayers with that              ally. We pray that she will live anti-           Let us pray, beloved. Let us
arrogance. How are we then to come?           thetically in the world as a light in       pray earnestly. We pray not for the
Humbly we ask for our daily bread,            darkness, setting forth the only.true       world, but for the church living in a
not because we are worthy but only            hope. Not in government! Not in             sinful, ugly world. Corporately let us
for Christ's sake. Humbly we ask for          human leaders! Not in economic              bring our prayers for all our needs to
our daily bread so that we may care           policies! Not in legal decisions! We        the throne of grace. In our churches
for our families and have to give to          trust only in the Lord.                     may the Day of Prayer not just be held
the poor. Humbly we acknowledge                    And in our prayer services we          once a year when the President calls
that all that we have is of the Lord.         pray that in all these things God will      for it, but many times, called by our
Since He is the giver of all good gifts,      receive the glory; that His will will be    churches (C.O., Art. 66), especially as
we pray that we may be thankful in            fulfilled; and that His Name will be        we see the evil days approaching.
prosperity, patient in adversity, and         praised.                                    Thepressureofafflictionsisfeltamong
full of confident trust as to the future.          The Day of Prayer is for the           the churches. Pray, not for the worldly
He will supply all our needs.                 church. OnlytrueChristianscanpray.          interests and agendas of men and
      We pray because God is in con-          They have been given the new hearts         leaders, but for God's plan and glory.
trol. We do not seek to change God's          that know and love the true God.            Pray that God will give us grace to
plan, but by prayer we come into              Only they have an entrance made for         stand. And pray that God's kingdom
submission of God's plan and pur-             them to address "the High and lofty         will be fully revealed. 0
p o s e s .                                   One that inhabiteth eternity." They




               `The Reformed Family:
                                                    MUSIC

                                              erally hundreds of references to mak-       should hold their peace, the stones
                                              ingmusicunto thelord. "Singpraises          would immediately cry out" (Luke
"Is any merry? let him sing psalms. w         to the Lord, which dwelleth in Zion:        19:40). He will be praised! If not by
                               James 5:13     declare among the people his doings"        His people, then stones will serve this
                                              (Ps. 9:ll). Like prayer and studying        purpose.
      Is your family happy? Do you            God's Word, music belongs to our                 For music the adage holds true:
talk together, work together, play to-        holy duty. It is not optional. The          "One man's meat is another man's
gether? Do you sing together, in your         birds of the air sing (Ps. 104:12); the     poison." You like Bach; I prefer
home, as a family? Is singing together        mountains and forests burst into song       Beethoven. You like sixteenth cen-
an expression of your happiness? Is           (Is. 44:23); the trees of the field clap    tury plain songs; I prefer anthems.
singing Psalms together one of your           their hands (Is. 55:12). Man praises        You like uplifting tunes; I prefer
merriest occasions?                           God with the voice of singing and           plaintive ones. You like music with a
      There are, in the Scriptures, lit-      upon the instruments. Music is our          pronounced beat; I prefer smooth,
                                              gracious privilege. And it is a privi-      flowing music. Bothof  us must agree,
                                              lege. When the disciples began to           however, that music is an integral
                                              rejoice and praise God during the           part of the believer's life. It has en-
Mrs. Lubbers is a teacher in South Hol-       triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusa-       hanced the joyous events in his life,
land Protestant Reformed School. Inter-       lem, the Pharisees were critical of this    and intensified his feelings of remorse
spersed in her article are the expressions    wild exuberance. But Jesus repri-           and sadness. Martin Luther wrote:
of some of her students regarding their       manded these detractors sharply with        "If any man despises music, as all
favorite  Psalter  numbers.                   the words: "I tell you that, if these       fanatics do, for him I have no liking;

                                                                                               March 15,1993 I Standard Bearer I 233


for music is a gift and grace of God,        often the writers of the Psalms, espe-       Songs which are admittedly crafted
not an invention of men. Thus it             cially David and Asaph, speak of             by "tunesmiths" (those who cleverly
drives out the devil and makes people        wrath and judgment and lots of other         weld an enchanting melody, catchy
cheerful. Then one forgets all wrath,        unpleasant topics. Should we sing of         chorus,andeasilymemorizedwords),
impurity, and other devices."                such?                                        but are notably lacking in substance.
      Is it true, then, that there is no          History has shown that Psalms           Many of these are patterned after the
standard by which a Christian can            were the only songs sung by the New          love ballads of country music, and are
measure music? Is music merely a             Testament church, and, therefore, by         sung to the rhythm and beat of
matter of taste and preference?              Christ Himself. Subsequent history           society's demand for amplified sound.
      As Reformed believers andfami-         illustrates, moreover, that heretics,        Those who sing them voice their own
lies and churches, we sing the Psalms.       such as the Gnostics and the Arians,         shallow personal experiences and
In our worship services we sing the          first introduced songs other than            longings. They sing of such things as
Psalmsexclusively. This is, and must         Psalms into the worship service. The         "placing one's heart on the altar of
be, an uncompromising position. But          Council of Laodicea which met in AD          Jesus" and of "sweet surrender."
do we also sing the Psalms in our            360 forbad the use of hymns in the           These are no modern day Asaphs or
homes and classrooms for devotions,          churches. Psalm singing was pre-             Miriams.
and pleasure, and recreation? The            served in the monasteries during the
150 Psalms of David were meant to be         Dark Ages. It was one of the benefits
sung. As John Calvin wrote in the            of the Reformation that Psalm singing             I like Psalfer #306 because it
Preface to the  Genevan Psalter:             was reinstated in the churches.              comes from Psalm 113, and I like that
"Wherefore,althoughwelookfarand                        The singing of Psalms is as ap-    Psalm. Number 306 is also very
wide and search on every hand, we            propriate for us- today as for the Old       bouncy and fast, so it's fun to sing. In
shall not find better songs nor songs        Testament believers and New Testa-           this Psalfernumberthereareall  black
better suited to that end than the           ment Christians. "How blest is he            notes.
Psalms of David which the Holy Spirit        whosetrespass/Hathfreelybeenfor-                  Psalter #306 is mostly about
made and uttered through him. And            given" (PsaIternumber  83)is as timely       praise: it also says God reigns over us
for this reason, when we sing them           for the 1993 Christian as for the 993        and isverymighty. Instanza we find
we may be certain that God puts the          BC saint. Has our awareness of sin           that we can rely on God for any prob-
words in our mouths as if Himself            been diminished throughout the               lem. This song comforts me some-
sang in us to exalt His glory."              years? Has our need for grace and            times when I am feeling down orsome-
                                             forgiveness become obsolete? Have            thing is wrong-I can still rely on God.
                                             the sovereignty and majesty of God                I've liked this song for about two
  The Psalter Number I Like Best             grown tarnished? If we discard the           years now, and I love to sing it.
                                             Psalms, it will not be that the message                              Valerie Wories
      I like /Jsa/ter#40.  I like it be-     of the Psalms has changed; it can only                                      Grade 6
cause it is about God's law, telling how     be that we have changed. The one
pure it is. This Psalfernumber  asks         thing the Psalms do not lack is con-
that the Lord will hear my prayer.           tent. This is primarily the reason why            In our homes and classrooms,
Psalter #40 says that it is better to        they are so eminently singable. The          may we sing hymns? May we sing
have the law than to be rich! It is far      Psalms are rich and full and deep. .No       spiritual songs, gospel songs, an-
better than gold.                            songbook  runs the full gamut of hu-         thems, choruses?
      This song says that God's law          man need, dependency upon God for                 We certainly may. Martin
and commandments are pure with no            salvation, and paeans of thankfulness        Luther's "A Mighty Fortress is Our
mistakes. If we follow His command-          forallHisgreatnessasdoesthePsalter.          God" stands as a testimony to a
ments and laws we will have a great          Most importantly, the Psalter versifi-       soundly Reformed hymn. But for
reward - heaven,                             cations are God-centered. Many               every hymn one opts to sing, be pre-
                   David VanderMeulen        hymns are Christocentric, whereas            pared to critique as well as to enjoy.
                                  Grade 5    Christ Himself was very careful to           For example, the Wesleys (Samuel,
                                             giveallgloryandhonortoGod:"And               Charles, and John) wrote many
                                             I seek not mine own glory..." (John          hymns. One of the Wesleyan beliefs
      Enemies of the Psalms would            8:50),                                       of sanctification maintains that it is
tell us that Psalm singing is unsuit-             I am somewhat alarmed with              possible for a truly devout believer to
able for twentieth century believers.        the inflwc of new songs which are            attain heavenly perfection on earth
Since the Psalms are Old Testament,          steadily thrumming their way into            and thus live without consciouslysin-
they do not adequately span the full         our homes (by radio stations such as         ning. When a man posits such a
Christian experience. The Psalms do          Moody in the Chicagoland area), our          belief, his hymns become suspect, too.
notinclude any Christmas carols. So          classrooms, and church choir music.          In fact, "Rock of Ages," by Augustus

284  /Standard  Bearer I March 15,1993


Toplady,  was written specifically to           My Favorite Psalter Number                             we should sing all of them
refute this Wesleyan belief. Then,                My favorite Psalter number is           - the complete Psalm. @ee Psalter
too, many hymns speak of personal            #55; it has been my favorite ever since      #289 for a versification of too many
feelings and emotional responses to          I got my Psalter in 2nd grade. I like        stanzas.)
the facts and doctrines of the Bible. It     this song because it always assures               The Psalter - we heard those
is interesting to note that the familiar     me that God will take care of me and         sweet words first from the lips of our
hymn, "WhenISurvey  the Wondrous             supply my needs. I love all the verses       mothers. We heard them sung long
Cross," writtenby Isaac Wattsin 1707,        and I think that the tune is very pretty.    before we understood their meaning.
was controversial already in its day         Psalter #55 has a pretty low tune            They reassured us during the thun-
for this very reason. One must also          except on line 3 where it reaches a          der and lightning:
remember that the primary purpose            high F.
for singing is not to make me feel                Th,is  Psalter number is taken               The voice of Jehovah,
good, but to bring glory and honor to        from Psalm 23 and the tune is written             The God of all glory,
God. John Calvin, a Reformer who             by Alexander Ewing. This song is                  Rolls over the waters,
had very little use for hymns, wrote in      titled "The Good Shepherd." Psalter               The thunders awake;
the Foreword to his 1543 Psalter:            #55 also tells me that God is a good,             The voice of Jehovah,
"There must be a great difference            true God and will be there when I have            Majestic and mighty,
between the music used to                    sinned. If I truly am sorry for my sins,          Is heard, and the cedars
entertain...and the psalms which are         He will be willing and ready to have              Of Lebanon break.
sung in the church in the presence of        mercy on me, a sinner.                                          (Psalter number 76)
God and His angels."                                             Stefanie Bruinsma
     There can be no criticism of the                                        Grade 6           And their words will comfort us
Psalms. To criticize the Psalms would                                                     on our deathbeds when we have last
be to criticize God. To set the Psalms       day schools, as tunes which are syr-         contact with most of the things of this
to versification must be careful work,       upy and sentimental. Maybe our               world.
the work of godly men who esteem             present PsaIter needs improvement.                A rich musical heritage is ours
the words and intent of the Psalms. I        Possibly there are tunes which do not        through theinspiration of the Psalms.
personally have no criticism of the          fit the words. Perhaps it is true that       Inadaywhenmanyarelamentingthe
Psalter versifications and tunes, al-        some of the tunes are. "bar-room"            musical dearth in their churches, let
though I am not deaf to the argu-            songs and need to be deleted from the        us dig in, and hang on with both
ments of those who do. Some, for             Ps@ter. I'm not up on all that, al-          hands to  our Psalter.     0
instance, take exception to the tunes        though none of them sound all that
of William Bradbury, a pioneer in            ribald to me. Usually, the criticism of
writing music for the American Sun-          Psalter tunes is that the melodies are                  Why I Love to Sing
                                             too mournful, reflecting Old Testa-                     Psalter Number 227
                                             ment gloom not at all like a happy,                   My favorite Psalter  number is
                                             born again, Hallelujah-Praise Jesus-         227 and I love to sing it because it
    My Favorite Psalter Number               believer should sing. The 1912 Psalter,      talks about the Lord God. Most of all
     and Why I Love to Sing It               as our churches presently sing it, has       I like it because it is not too low. The
     My favorite Psalter number is           served my rather unsophisticated             song talks about our heart and flesh
418 and is called "Praise the Lord, Ye       musical needs for over 50 years. And         crying out to God. I like this little
Lands."                                      to delete Psalter number 182, as I           saying because we should cry for
     I like this Psalfer number be-          have heard some would like to do,            God, and I am that way sometimes.
cause it is a joyful and fast-moving         would not go unchallenged.                        The second verse tells of the
song, not sad and slow. I also like this          Amazingliberties are taken with         swallow finding a nest where it is
song because it is a song of praise          the Psalms in today's culture. No one        peaceful for her young. And I like that
toward the Lord. It shows that He is         in reciting a well-known poem omits          because it sings of nature and ani-
Lord of the earth.                           a stanza. No one in a faithful Shake-        mals.
     This song is telling us to Praise       spearean rendition skips over a few               A little later in the song it talks
the Lord, and spread His fame all over       lines. Why are we then so careless           about God's love sheltering me. By
the earth so others may hear and             with Psalm versifications? The Pres-         that stanza you can tell that God is
believe in the Lord. Also, we are to lift    byterians almost always sing all the         caring for us by using the example of
our voice and sing glory to our Lord.        stanzas of any given song. If any            a bird and her young. I like to hear that
     I like many joyful songs. I just        Psalter  improvements are forthcom-          God is caring for me. It makes me feel
think this one is my favorite song.          ing let this be included: to render          that I am in safety.
                      Pamela Zandstra        faithfully each Psalm, or segment of                              Michelle VanBaren
                               Grade 5       it, in a singable number of stanzas.                                          Grade 5

                                                                                               March X5,1993 I Standard Bearer / 285


The Christian Faith, by Theodore             Judgement." This includes the decla-            prepared for destruction (Rom. 9:22;
Beza. Tr. James Clark. Lewes, East           ration:                                         Ex.  916) (p. 9).
Sussex, England: Focus Christian
Ministries Trust, 1992. Pp. i-122, plus        As for the rest, the mad fantasies of             ThiswasBeza'sfaithconcerning
index of subjects, $8.20 (paper). [Re-         those who think they can determine           the spiritual condition of fallen men
viewed by the Editor.]                         when this day shall come, the specu-         and women:
                                               lations of old women regarding the
        There is really only one thing         An~+rist,  the joys of paradise and           This corruption makes us trulyinca-
                                               the pains of hell, these are debates
that needs to be said about this book                                                         pable and even enemies of all good,
                                               which we not only despise but detest           and enslaves us totally to sin.... The
to recommend it to all our readers: It         with all our heart (p. 120).                   will is not constrained, yet cannot
is the English translation of Theodore                                                       but continually desire only evil....
Beza's personal confession of the                 To choose among the sections                The nature of unregenerate man (that
Christian faith. This confession, writ-      would border on the foolish. This                is to say, of a man who is not restored
ten at the request of Beza's father, was     compressed work is the Reformed                  and as recreated by grace) is not only
first published in 1558 at Geneva; as        orthodoxyofGenevaatitsmostflour-                 damaged, it is also totally corrupted
Confession De Foi Du Chretien. In it,        ishing period. Calvin was still living,          andvoluntarilyenslavedtosin(p.8).
Beza tells us in the "Preface," he has       and his successor was in his prime.
written "in the best order that I can,                                                           The lengthy chapter on the
                                             But a couple of selections will serve as
thatwhichIhaveleamedintheChris-                                                             church is outstanding. The treatment
                                             examples of the whole.
tian Religion through the reading of              Beza establishes God's sover-             of the sacraments is superb.
the Old and New Testament, with              eignty with regard to man's fall in                 The conviction that was basic to
reference to the most faithful com-          these words:                                   the book was also basic to the entire
mentatorsN (p. iv).                                                                         Reformation: "The Kingdom of God
        I have been given to understand        But God, being not only very righ-           is not a Kingdom of ignorance, but of
that this is the first translation of the      teous, but also very merciful, had           faith, and, consequently, of knowl-
work into English.                             according to His infinite wisdom,            edge; for it is beyond the ability of
        TheChristiunFuithisBeza'scon-          eternally established a way to turn          anyone to believe that which he is
cise explanation of the entire body of         all the evils to His great glory: to the     ignorant of" (Beza's "Preface," p. iv).
Christian doctrine. Following the              greater manifestation of His infinite        In this conviction, Beza and the Refor-
order of the Apostles' Creed, he treats        goodness (Rom.  3:21-25),  towards           mation were right. Where knowl-
                                               those whom He has chosen eternally
of the Trinity and eternal providence;                                                      edge is - the knowledge taught in
                                               so as. to be glorified in their salvation
God the Father and creation; Jesus                                                          this book - there, and there only, is
                                               (Rom.  8:29;  9:23).  And, on the other
Christ the Son and redemption; the                                                          the Kingdom of God.
                                               side, He has turned the sin of man to
Holy Spirit and salvation; and the             the manifestation of His sovereign                The book can be ordered from
church. A concluding chapter gives             power and His wrath, by the just             Evangelical Press, 12 Wooler Street,
the Reformer's view of the "Last               condemnation of thevessels of wrath          Darlington, Co. Durham, DLl lRQ,
                                                                                            England. `0





        We start this installment of the     have, then you will be interested'to           membership to attend. First, a good
"News" with a few Young People's             note that the Young People's Society           hearty appetite and second a willing-
Activities.                                  of the Trinity PRC in Houston, TX              ness to donate to this year'sY.P. Con-
        If over the years you have ac-       recently sponsored a chili supper for          vention.
quired a taste for really hot chili as I     their congregation. I can only assume               The young people of the
                                             that a congregation located in the             Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, AB,
                                             heart of Texas, home of some of the            Canada invited their entire congrega-
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant     world's hottest chili peppers, would           tion out for an evening of fun and
Reformed Church of HudsonvilZe, Michi-       enjoyareallygoodandhotchili. Only              fellowship. Planned activities in-
gan.                                         two things were required for Trinity's         cluded basketball and volleyball  fol-

286 /Standard Bearer I March 15,1993


 lowed by an ice cream social. Pro-          speaking to them about the truth of          Mahtani, T. Miersma, and Moore,
 ceeds.again  went for this year's con-      God.                                         Houston called Rev. Jaikishin
vention.                                                                                  Mahtani. Rev. Mahtani has accepted
                                                                                                                          11.
      For several weeks leading up to        Mission' Activities                          the call.                      a1
 Sunday, February 7, members of the                  In a letter dated January22, Rev.
 Young People's Society of the               Ron Hanko, missionary-elect of our           Food For Thought
 Loveland, CO PRC were busy en-              churches to Northern Ireland, writes                  He values not Christ at all who
 couraging the congregation there to         to his calling congregation, the             does not value Christ above all.
 submit requests of favorite  13saIter       Hudsonville, MI PRC, that he and his                                              Aug-us  tine
 numbers to them. Then, after the            family are"`both  excited and appre-                        \                               cl
 evening worship service on February         hensive as more and more of the nec-
 7, they sponsored an All Request            essary preparations are made for our
 Singspiration for everyone's enjoy-         move to Northern Ireland. As each
 ment.                                       step in the preparations takes us
                                             closer, it all begins to seem more real."
 Evangelism Activities                       And later, at the conclusion of the
      The Evangelism Committee of            letter, he writes that "at this point, we
 the Peace PRC, Lansing, IL recently         are planning to be in Michigan around              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
 reported, by way of a newsletter to         March 4 or 5. If the Lord continues to                On February 5, 1993, our par-
 their congregation, on their activities     open the way for us we will see you          ents,
 for the past year. Included in their        then."                                                    MINARD  and CORA
 report was information that, after                                                                      VANDEN TOP,
 many months of dealing with the U.S.        Congregational Activities                    celebrated their 45th wedding anni-
 Postal Service, they finally received a             Miss Agatha Lubbers, long-time       v e r s a r y .                        c..
 bulkmailingpermit. Their intentions         faculty member and administrator of                   We rejoice with them and are
 are to put this permit to immediate         Covenant Christian High School in            thankful to our covenant God for the
 use by mailing five successive letters      Walker, MI, was the featured speaker         godly upbringing, love, and care they
 over a five-month period to five hun-       at a combined society meeting of the         have given us these many years.
 dred people in the Lansing area. These      Adult Bible Societies of our Peace and                "ButthemercyoftheLordisfrom
 letterswilldealwithsomebasictruths          South Holland, IL congregations on           everlasting to everlasting upon them
 of the Reformed faith, and will also        January 26. Miss Lubbers spoke on            that fear him, and his righteousness
 invite the reader to a Peace worship        the topic, "The New Age Movement,"           unto children's children.
 service.                                    a subject she is very familiar with,         8         Jerry and Karen VandenTop
      In another venture, Peace's            having taught (and is presently teach-                                            and family
 Evangelism Committee placed an ad           ing) a course on cults at Covenant.          #         John and Judy Bouma
 entitled "Is the King James Version                 Along with a month's worth,of                                             and family
 Still the Best?" in Christianity Today.     bulletins from Trinity PRC in Hous-          # Duane and Bev Nette .
 Even though this small ad appeared          ton, TX came a note which read in                                                 and family
 only once, Peace received about eighty      part that "In the providence of God,         d         Henry and Marlene VandenTop
requests for their pastor's pamphlet         four families who live at quite a dis-                                            and family
 on the KJV.                                 tance from our church home have              *        Terry and Lisa VanDenTop
      The Evangelism Committee of            been attending services and in order                                              and family
 the Hope PRC in Redlands, CA, with          to facilitate their attendance, begin-       ~9        Brent and Shari Dommissee
 the approval of its consistory, is plan-    ning January 31, the second service                                                   Doon, Iowa    I
 ning a series of three meetings to          will be at 3:00 p.m," So bear that in
 focus on one's calling to do personal       mind if you find yourself headed for
 evangelism. Plans called for a short        Texas and our Trinity congregation                     TEACHER NEEDED
 presentationby their pastor, followed       anytime soon.                                          The Board of Adams St. Chris-
 by discussion. Session One will focus                                                    tian School is accepting applications
 on one's responsibility to be a per-        Ministerial Calls                            for a teaching position in the elemen-
 sonal witness. Session Two will focus               On January 28th the congrega-        tary grades for the 1993-l 994 school
 on knowing the distinctive truths of        tion of our Southwest PRC in                 year. Qualified applicants are encour-
 the gospel of which we are to give          Grandville, MI met and extended a            agedtosubmitaresumetotheschool,
 testimony. And Session Three will           call to Rev. C. Haak to serve them as        attn.:
 focus on practical questions of our         their undershepherd.                                      Education Committee
 approach to people when we are                      From a trio including Revs.                       1150 Adams St. S.E.
                                                                                                    Grand Rapids, Ml 49507.

                                                                                                   March 15,1933 I Standard Seam I287


     BEARER                                                                                                    SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
     P.0. Box603                                                                                               Grandville, Michigan
    Grandville, Ml 49466-0603


      Spring Lecture/Conference                 WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
        on Personal Witnessing                   On March 12,1993,  our beloved                    PUBLIC LECTURE
           Friday, April 2, 1993           parents,
         Saturday, April 3, 1993                 MR. and MRS. ALLEN R.                                     Subject:
                                                          BRUMMEL,                                        "Satanism"
                 Speakers:                 celebrated their 25th wedding anni-
                                           versary.                                                       Speaker:
       Rev. Ronald VanOverloop                  We are grateful to our covenant                   Rev. Charles Terpstra
              Pastor of Bethel             God for our God-fearing parents who              (pastor of South Holland [IL] PRC)
       Protestant Reformed Church          taught us the ways of the Lord. May
                     on                    the Lord continue to bless and keep                              Place:
             "Winning Souls"               them in the coming years as they                       Loveland Protestant
              Friday 7:30                  continue to teach us through their love                  Reformed Church
                              P.M.         and godly example.                                      Loveland, CO 80537
       Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                  "We will show forth thy praise to              telephone: (303) 667-l 347
           Pastor of Kalamazoo            all generation" (Psalm 79:136).
       Protestant Reformed Church         #     Allan and Crysta Brummel                                    Time:
                     on                   % Nathan Brummel                                                7:30  P.M.
     witnessing Under Persecution"        9     Jeff and Jodi Baker                             Friday, March 26, 1993
      1 slide presentation on Romani;     @ Shari Brummel                                        *******
             Friday 8:30                  * Tiffany Brummel
                             P.M.
                                                                    Edgerton. Minnesota       Everyone is cordially  invited
            Rev. Steven Key
            Pastor of Randolph
       Protestant Reformed Church
                     on
     Preparing Yourself to Give an
                 Answer'                        WEDDING'ANNIVERSARY
           Saturday 9:30 A.M.                   On March 15 our parents,
                                                 JONATHAN and MARY
       Question/answer session                         SCHWARZ,
          and open discussion            will celebrate their 40th wedding anni-
          Saturday lo:30 A.M.            versary.
                                                We thank the Lord for both of
                     at                  them, for the good example of a Chris-
            Hope Protestant              tian walk together, and for the love
           Reformed Church               they have always shown to us all.                                NOTICE!!
          1580 Ferndale S.W.                    May God continue to bless them.               All standing and special commit-
       Grand Rapids, Ml 49504            "But the mercy of the Lord is from                ?s of Synod, as well as individuals
                                         everlasting to everlasting upon them              10 wish to address Synod 1993, are
     overnight  accommodations are       that fear him, and his righteousness              Ireby reminded that all material for
                necessary                unto children's children" (Psalm                  ? 1993 Synod of the Protestant Re-
     II (616) 532-8737 or 667-3389.      103:17).                                          `med Churches should be in the
                                         #+ Joanna Straayer                                .nds of the Stated Clerk no later than
         Tapes available from                   Brenda                                     bril 1. Please send material to the
              Ken Elzinga                *      Marvin and Esther Schwarz                  ated Clerk:
             3277 Lombard                       Jennifer, Kayla, Jonathan                         Rev. M. Joostens
         Grandville, Ml 49418            itc    Ray and Joy Schwarz                              2016 Tekonsha S.E.
        Phone (616) 532-8737                                        Loveland, Colorado        Grand Rapids, Ml 49506.

208  /Standard Bearer / March 15,1993


