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                                                 Read: Hodge, The Harbinger,
                               and the Hope of Presbyterianism - page 341


  Vol. 69, No. 15
May          I,1993


(?OfiT&-&-  .`:.  ;  :  :  _" . .                                                                                                    :  -1  :                                                                                    .pE  :.,
                                                                                                                                                                    May  I,  -1993.                                      sl!ANDMD.
    `
     :       :
Meditation - Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma                                                                                                                                                                                             Bwu?ER
            Children of Polished Stone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                                                                     3
                                                                                                                                                              ..~.................... 3 9
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                                     ISSN 0362-4692
             Hocige, The Harbinger, and the Hope of Presbyterianism . . . . . . . . . . . 341.
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           Children of Polished Stone

        Rid me, and deliver tiefrom thehand    garners may be full, affording all           are able to be stepped on or bent
ofstrangechildren, whosemouth speaketh         manner of store: that our sheep may          beneath the elements of nature, only
vanity, and their right hand is a right        bring forth thousands and ten thou-          to spring back in all their vitality.
hand  of falsehood: that our sons may be       sands in our streets: that our oxen          That is quite a beautiful picture of
as plants grown up in their youth; that        may be strong to labor; that there be        covenant youth!
our daughters may be as cornerstones,          no breaking in, nor going out; that               But David, remember, is describ-
polishedafterthesimilitudeofapalace:...        there be no complaining in our streets.      ing godly young people. He is de-
Happy is that people, that is in such a        Happy is that people, that is in such a      scribing what characterizes godly
case: yea, happy is tha tpeople, whose God     case."                                       youth from a spiritual point of view.
is the Lord.                                      But it is the other way that con-         You are not tender in the faith. The
                     Psalm 144:11,12,15        cerns us. That which was first and           heresies and godlessness of this world
                                               foremost in bringing national happi-         cannot easily fool you or snuff out
        King David was able to observe         ness was that the youth of the nation        your spirituallife. You are filled with
the nation of Israel in a unique way.          were characterized by spiritual vim          spiritual life, and that life brings forth
He was able to view her as one does            and vitality! This was to David the          fruit in your lives in the form of good
who stands back and admires the                beauty of Israel: a nation filled with       works, eventhoughyouareyetyormg.
beauty of a forest from a distance.            godly youth!                                 Andwhen this is seenby your parents
Although he could see the individual               And thisis.true  todaynoless than        and grandparents, when this is seen
trees in their own particular beauty,          it was then. The.most  important fac-        by all the church, then the church and
he could also admire Zion as a whole.          tor that contributes today to the hap-       your family in the church. are made
How often he spoke of this mighty              piness of Zion, that is, of the church,      extremely happy.
nation in glowing terms: here was              is the spirituality of its youth. When            Maybe it would do us well to
Zion, the church of the living God! It         the church and its leaders see young         consider exactly how it came to be,
is this beauty of Zion that prompted           people walking in vanity and lies,           that you young people are plants
DavidtowritethewordsofthisPsalm.               then they grieve and are sad, But            grown up in your youth. Since the
        Whatisitthatmadethisnationas           when her young people walk in the            time when you were infants, godly
a whole so happy? No doubt, the root           pathsofrighteousnessandtruth, then           young people, the Lord has worked
and source of Israel's happiness was           the church rejoices and is glad. This        in your hearts by His grace. Before
Jehovah.  "Happyis  thatpeoplewhose            is what David describes for us when          you were even aware of it He placed
God is Jehovah." But with what had             he uses the figures of this passage in       a little seed in your hearts-a seed of
God blessed Israel in their service of         Psalm 144.                                   regeneration. That seed gave to you
Him? What had he given to David                    Take a close look, young person,         a new life. Whereas before that time
and the people over whom he ruled              at how David describes godly young           you were dead spiritually, that work
that made them as happy as they                people.                                      of God saved you and gave you spiri-
were?                                              First of all, he describes you as        tual life.
        There were two ways God dealt          plants grown up in their youth. You              Becauseofthatlifeyouweregiven
with Israel during the reign of David.         are full-grown plants! Young plants,         spiritual eyes and ears. Your eyes and
One was the way of national prosper-           it is true, but fully grown! I know, it's    ears were no longer blinded and deaf
ity. In this David rejoices, "that our         pretty hard to convince parents and          to the Word of God, as they would
                                               ministers of that at times. But that is      have been if God had not worked in
                                               what David says in this Word of God.         -you by His grace.
                                               Our young men and women, despite                 As you developed and grew, so
Rev. Bruinsma is pastorof  First Protes-       their youth, are healthy, thriving, also did that little seed of regenera-
tant Reformed Church in Holland, Michi-        flourishing, and fruitful plants. They       tion. The instruction you received as
gan.                                           are filled with the vigor of life; they      infants in the arms of your parents,

                                                                                                          May1,199ilStandardBearer/339


and as time went on also in church,         the way of struggles and difficulties.       there would be no salvation of our
met with spiritual receptivity. God         He puts these before you in life. But        children. But God is Jehovah, who
was working in your hearts by His           as He does, He never leaves you. He          remains faithful toHis covenantprom-
Spirit in order that all the instruction    is always there guiding you, shaping         ises from one generation to the next.
you received by parents and minis-          and molding you, refining you as                 God saves our young people -
ters and Christian school teachers took     silver andgoldisrefinedbyfire. God           not through the work of parents, but
root in your hearts and souls.              sculpts you by means of these                through the precious work of Jesus
    That seed of regeneration has           struggles, as well as by means of in-        Christ on the cross. You, young
sproutedintoyourconsciousness,and           struction, discipline, sin, friends,         people, are sons and daughters. Not
now you have become full-grown              church, school- all in order that you        only are you the sons and daughters
plants. You have reached a stage of         might take your place in the palace of       of your parents, but, more impor-
spiritualstrength, andin that strength      His church.                                  tantly, you are the sons and daugh-
youbringforthfruit! Inshort, thefear            And having refined and polished          ters of the living God! And you are so
of God is in your hearts! You know          you, God places you in His church as         because you have been adopted ,by
the truth, you speak the truth, and         beautiful pillars -not little stones in      God in the precious blood of Jesus
youwalkthetruth! Thispicturewhich           the back wall where few people can           Christ. Through Christ our sins are
David uses to describe godly young          see you, but pillars where everyone          forgiven us. Through Christ we are
people ought to be a real encourage-        can gaze upon your beauty and                redeemed from the bondage of sin
ment to you. And you ought to know          strength. You, young men and young           and death. Through Christ we are
that this makes the entire church of        women, adorn the church with the             given hearts that are cleansed from
Jesus Christ happy!                         fruits of the Spirit that arein you! You     sin and iniquity. It is in the cross of
    This picture of a full-grown plant      are polished stones in the church of         Christ, then, that the church of Christ,
provides us with a picture of the spiri-    Jesus Christ! Happy is the people that       parents and children alike, make their
tual  strength of youth; the next speaks    is in such a case!                           boast. Neither do godly youth be-
of their spiritual beauty. David writes         The church rejoices in godly             come complacent in their calling as
that godly youth are "cornerstones,         youth. But the church makes her              God's children in the midst of this
polished after the similitude of a pal-     boast in God. We cannot help but             world. They joy in the God of their
ace." Perhaps this figure can be more       behold the hand of Godin the workof          salvation and they `live out of the
easily understood if we would trans-        His church. Happy is the people              holiness of Christ.
late it this way: godly youth are as        whose God is Jehovah. When we look
polished pillars which garnish a pal-       upon young men and women who
ace. The cornerstones of this passage       love and seek the Lord, then we have          If God worked in the hearts
actually refer to the beautiful, well-      to say, "Our God is Jehovah!" Every                      of children
sculptured pillars that surrounded          time we view our godly youth we
the palaces of kings. Much time was         cannot fail to see the covenant faith-             strictly on the basis
spent carving, finishing, and polish-       fulness of Jehovah. God tells parents,            of what we as parents
ing those pillars. All of this was          "Iwillestablishmycovenantbetween               have done, there would be
accomplished by hand, but in time           me and you and your seed after you            no salvation of our children.
the rough-hewn stone out of the side        in their generations."
of themountain was slowly but surely,           Covenant parents believe that
with chisel and hammer, shaped and          promise of God. We believe it, be-               But there is another truth that we
polished into the pillar that eventu-       cause God swears it by His own name:         do well to bear in mind. Though God
ally was set in the palace of the king.     Jehovah, the I Am That I Am, the             saves His church in the line of contin-
As such it adorned that palace. It was      faithful, never-changing God of His          ued generations, not allchildren born
the majesty and beauty of that palace.      people. If God did not swear to us by        into the church and into the sphere of
    Another beautiful picture of godly      that name we might begin to doubt.           thecovenantaresaved. "Theyarenot
youth! God has spent time shaping,          We would not doubt God's abiZity  to         all Israel that are of Israel." For that
molding finishing, and polishing you        save us, but we would doubt His              reasonDavid also speaks these words
young people in your lives. God has         desire to save us. Who would save the        in verse 11: "Rid me, and deliver me
done that. He has accomplished this         children of those who fail so miser-         from the hand of strange children,
by means of the hammer and chisel of        ably to fulfill their calling as parents?    whose mouth speaketh vanity, and
instruction and discipline. And God         How often we as parents ask forgive-         their right hand is a right hand of
shapes and refines children the more        ness of God for our unfaithfulness,          falsehood." When David refers to
by their own struggles and trials in        our failures, our weaknesses, our sins       strange children he is not speaking of
life. Maybe that is something that we       as parents. If God  worked,in  the           the children of a foreign nation. He
ought to think about a little more,         hearts of children strictly on the basis     does not wish in this passage to be
young people. God directs you into          of what we as parents have done,

34O/StanchrdSearerlMayl,l993


delivered from young men and                the hand that normally was one of         bad name. They are as well a bad
women of foreign nations who hap-           truth and justice, was now a hand of      influence. May God rid us of such
pened to be in Israel for one reason or     lies and deceit. These strange chil-      young people!
another. David refers here to those         dren spoke pious-sounding words in            0, it hurts to say such a thing! We
children of Israel who themselves           the ears of parents and ministers. But    love our own flesh and blood! But we
were strangers to God.                      their hearts were far from the Lord.      are talking of the happiness of the
    David was painfully aware in his        When these children spoke, they           church here! The whole church
own personal life of the truth taught       sounded sincere enough, but their         grieves over young people who walk
in Romans 9:7,6: "Neither, because          words were lies, because as soon as       like fools. Their evil deeds cannot be
they are the seed of Abraham, are           their parents' backs were turned, they    hid. The church hears of them. Such
theyallchildren:  butinIsaacshallthy        walked in the way of sin, trampling       young people only cause unrest, grief,
seed be called. That is, They which         underfoot the commands of God. And        and even discord in the church. For
are the children of the flesh, these are    when this is observed, when rumors        Zion's sake, for the peace of Israel,
not the children of God: but the            begin to float around of what is hap-     David says, and we with him, "Rid
children of the promise are counted         pening, then the church is extremely      me, and deliver me from the hand of
for the seed." David calls such chil-       sad and grieved. She is not happy         strange children!"
dren strange because, although they         when her young men and women                  As God cleanses His church of
were within the sphere of the church        walk in the way of sin.                   evil doers, and prospers the way of
and covenant, though they outwardly             How hard it is to say concerning      those young men and women who
were called church and the covenant         these children who are our own flesh      walk in uprightness, the church be-
seed of that church, nevertheless their     and blood, "Rid me, and deliver me        comes as beautiful as a palace sur-
hearts were far from God. They were         from the hand of strange children."       rounded by its pillars of polished
Israel in name only and not in heart!       But David says that, and the church       stone. In our youth will be seen the
    And this revealed itself in their       does too. We know that God doesnot        strength and beauty of the church of
lives too. These young people spoke         take pleasure in wickedness. We           Jesus Christ, a church which reflects
vanity. Their words were not the            know He hates the workers of iniq-        the beauty of her Lord. Then the
same as those found on the lips of a        uity. And because of this we wish to      church proceeds in confidence that
true child of God. They were empty          be delivered from the hand of un-         the Lord preserves her from one gen-
and void of any spiritual understand-       godly youth. Such youth can only          eration to the next. "Happy is that
ing. In fact, the things they said indi-    have an adverse effect on the godly       people, that is in such a case!" 0
cated that they were no different from      youth in the church. They give a bad
the wicked world. Their right hand,         name to those who do not.deserve  a





  Hodge, The Harbinger, and the
            Hope of Presbyterianism

    The Harbing&s a religious maga-             A "harbinger" is someone,, or         The Harbinger intends to be a harbin-
zine published by, the Kingdom Vic-         something, that presages or foreshad-     ger of the coming victory of the king-
tory Group, Inc. in Marietta, Georgia.      ows what is coming. The first robin is    dom of God on earth, including I
The editor is David E. Goodrum.  The        harbinger of spring. President            would think, the victory of Pres-
staff and writers are mostly Presbyte-      Clinton's act in the first days of his    byterian&m.
rian conservatives. They include Ken-       presidency of removing restraints
neth L. Gentry, Jr.; L. Byron Snapp;        against the murder of unborn babies       An Accurate Review
Curtis I. Crenshaw; Kenneth G. Tal-         was a harbinger of hard days ahead            The January, 1993 issue features a
bot; G.I. Williamson; RegBarrow;  Carl      for those who honor the sovereignty       critique of my review of Presbyterian
W. Bogue; and Edwin I'. Elliott, Jr.        and righteousness of God in His law.      theologian A.A. Hodge's book,

                                                                                               May 1,1993/  Standard Bearer I341


Evangelical Theology: A Course of              that the editor of the StandardBearer      Church-Government maintains that
PopuZar   Lecfures. Originally pub-            was quite accurate in most of his          Christ has appointed officers for His
lished as  Popular Lectures on Theo-           observations to the effect that "the       church; that Christ has "instituted
logical Themes, the book was repub-            evangelical theology of A.A. Hodge         government and governors ecclesias-
lished with the new title by the Ban-          is weakand  erroneous in basic areas       tical in the church"; that Scripture
ner of Truth Trust in 1976 and re-             of the Reformed faith  - astonish-
                                               ingly so." Before the reader gasps in      "doth hold out" church assemblies;
printed in 1990.  My review of the             horror and disbelief at such a seem-       and that these officers, this govern-
book appeared in the September 15,             ingly arrogant statement, consider         ment, and these assemblies are those
1992 issue of the Standard  Bearer.            the followingbrief observations from       of Presbyterianism. This is also the
     After some positive comments              Hodge's work (p. 24).                      confessional stand of Reformed
about thebook,myreview stated that                                                        churches in Article 30 of the Belgic
"the evangelical theology of A.A.                Dr. Crick then calls attention to        Confession: "We believe that this
Hodge is weak and erroneous inbasic          Hodge's doctrines of creation and of         true Church must be governed by
areas of the Reformed faith - aston-         the church. Crick misses, however,           that spiritual policy which our Lord
ishingly so." It then went on to docu-       the statement by Hodge concerning            hath taught us in His Word . . . . U
ment this charge. The review men-            church organization and government
tioned Hodge's doctrines of creation;        that is most troublesome. In the con-        "Arminian to the Core"?
predestination; the image of God in          text of the competing claims of the               My  criticism of Hodge's doctrine
man; the covenant; and the church, as        Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Pres-          of the covenants, however, Crick re-
the areas of weakness and error.             byterian Churches that their church          jects:
    The editor of the  Harbinger  tells      polity is that which Christ has or-
us that the critique of my review of         dained, Hodge wrote:                           Another criticism of the editor of the
Hodge was written at the editor's                                                           Standard Bearer  was Hodge's treat-
request:                                       Yet the permanent results of biblical        ment of the covenant of grace as it is
                                               interpretation unite with the history        conditioned upon faith. The editor
  In the September 15,1992issue  of the        of Christ's providential and gracious        states that Hodge's treatment "is
  Standard Bearer magazine (pub-               guidance of the churches in proving          Arminian to the core," and "this is to
  lished by folks in the Protestant Re-        that he (Christ) never intended to           make the covenant of grace in reality
  formed Churches), the Editor,  Mr.           impose upon the Church as a whole            another covenant of works. The work
  David Engelsma, wrote a review of            any particular form of organization.         is now faith." . ..WhenHodgespeaks
  A.A.Hodge'sbook,Evangelical7%e-              Neither he nor his apostles ever went        of faith as a condition, he should be
  ology, in which he pointed out a             beyond the suggestion of general             understood as using that term in the
  number of supposed theological er-           principles and actual inauguration           sense of the personal responsibility
  rors in Hodge's views; expressed in          of a few rudimentary forms. The              of man to believe in the Gospel in
  that book. Dr. Jerry Crick, at my            history of the churches during all           order to be saved . . . the reader will
  request, has written an excellent  ar-'      subsequent ages shows that these             not  find him to be  ti Arminian to the
  title after investigating this issue.        rudimentary forms have been ever             core." (pp. 28,29).
                                               changing in correspondence with the
    The critique by Dr. Crick, recent          changes in their historical condi-             In the interests of accuracy and
graduate of Greenville Presbyterian            tions.... These various denomina-          honesty, the editor of the Harbinger
                                               tional forms of the living Church are
TheologicalSeminary,beginsbyfreely                                                        ought to inform his readers that I did
                                               all one in their essentials, and differ
acknowledging that certain of my criti-                                                   not charge that A.A. Hodge was
                                               onlyintheiraccidents.... Allofthese,
cisms of Hodge's theology  in Evan-            since they exist and are used as in-       Arminian to the core. Although Dr.
gelical  Theology are well-founded:            struments of the Holy Ghost, have in       Crick gets it right in his critique, the
                                               that fact a providential justification     Harbinger splashes on its cover the
  In a September 15, 1992 review of            (pp. 363,364).                             question, "Was A.A. Hodge of Old
  A.A. Hodge's lectures on doctrine,                                                      Princeton Really  `Arrninian to the
  published under  the title, Evangeli-          This  is a denial that Presbyterian      Core?' fl Thisisalso the title of Crick's
  cal Theology  (Banner of TruthTrust,       church government is the govem-              article. I did not write that Hedge.
  1976),   the editor of  the Standard       ment revealed by Christ in Scripture         was Arminian to the core, nor would
  Bearer,  David Engelsma, made cer-         for His Messianic kingdom, the               I write this. What I wrote was this:
  tain assertions which might have           church. The Presbyterian confessions         "The lecture (of A.A. Hodge) on
  served to considerably unsettle many
  of those who have long held the no-        teach differently. The Westminster           `Gods Covenants with Man' is com-
  tion that the Princeton Theology is        Confession of Faith declares that "the       pletely unsatisfactory. It is Arminian
  that to which the seminaries and min-      Lord Jesus, as king and head of his          to the core." "It  is Arminian," not:
  isters of today need to return. In         church, hath therein appointed a gov-        "He  is Arminian." There is an impor-
  order to avoid loquacity by the            ernment in the hand of church offic-         tant difference.
  present writer, let it be understood       ers" (30.1). The Form of Presbyterial            Crick's explanation of my criti-

342lStandanlSearerlMayl,l993


cism of Hodge's doctrine of the cov-          in the whole of my review of Hodge's         them into a new garden, and he in-
enant also leaves something to be             book. I deliberately refrained from          troduced them under the most
desired:                                      quotingapassageinthebookinwhich              favourable circumstances, with one
                                              Hodge forcefully expresses the Prot-         `exception -,he allowed the devil to
  Theunderlyingpresuppositionofthe            estant Reformed objection against             go into the camp. .SVhy he did that I
  editor's criticism here is that there is                                                  do not know; but with that exception
                                              common grace's attributing good
  no such thing as "common" grace, in                                                       the conditions were the most
                                              works to the unregenerate:
  keeping with the supralapsarian  po-                                                      favourable we can conceive of (p.
  sition of the Protestant Reformed                                                         168).
                                                All true morality has its root &d
  Church, theRev. HermanHoelcsema                                                           But this fact of the covenant of works
  being the primary theologian  of that         ground in, and derives its only ad-         does not stand by itself. It is a part of
                                                equate motives from, the doctrines
  denomination. Hoeksema'sposition                                                          a great whole, and if you leave out
                                                of Christianity and from the fellow-
  against common grace is well known                                                        any element of the system you will
                                                ship of God with man which Christ
  by Reformed theologians; therefore                                                        not get an understanding of the cov-
                                                secures. A rebel against supreme
  this position must be seen as the                                                         enant. This covenant of works which
  basis for the editor's criticism of           and fundamental obligation cannot           God introduces . . . is part of that
                                                possibly be righteous in any relation,
  Hodge's treatment (p. 28).                                                                greater system which culminates in
                                                however subordinate. And the only           the covenant of grace.:. (p. 170).
                                                motives which render any action             The covenant of grace is just the hu-
    This is really an unscholarly re-           completely righteous are supreme            man temporal side, which makes hu-
sponse to my objection to Hodge's               love to God, and love to man for            man redemption possible and gives
doctrine of the covenant, unworthy              God's sake; for "whether we eat, or         its benefits freely to us. In the case of
of Dr. Crick who is obviously both a            drink, or whatsoever we do," if we          every one to whom the gospelcomes,
scholar and Reformed. Suppose I                 would claim the meed of the righ-           and to whom it gives salvation, it is
were to respond to his defense of               teous, we must "do all for the glory        done upon the condition of faith.
Hodge's doctrine of a conditional               of God" (pp. 273,274).                      Now, here is a covenant with a con-
covenant this way: "The underlying                                                          dition-whosoeverbelievesshallbe
                                                                                            saved, whosoeverbelievethnotshall
presupposition of the Presbyterian                My rejection of common grace              be damned (p. 172).
theologian's defense of Hodge is that         didnot secretly underlie my criticism
man must do something to effect his           of Hodge's doctrine. of the covenant.           This doctrine of God's covenant,
salvation. This is in keeping with the        Were I as ardent a defender of              not Professor A.A. Hodge himself, I
theonomic position of Christian Re-           (Kuyperian)  common grace as the            called, and call, "Arminian to the
construction, R.J. Rushdoony being            mighty Abraham himself, I would             core." That the very essence of God's
the primary thinker of that move-             still vigorously oppose Hodge's doc-        covenant is its being a conditional
ment. Rushdoony'sposition that obe-           trine of the covenant. It is exactly my     promise, that is, a promise dependent
dience to the law is necessary for            desire that Presbyterians like Dr.          upon man; that God in Paradise was
salvation is well known by Reformed           Crick, even though they may be com-         giving Adam and Evethe best chance
theologians; therefore, this position         mitted to,Kuyper's  theory that God         He could; and that the covenant of
must be seen as the basis for Presby-         blesses the unregenerate in this life       grace, in explicit comparison with the
teriantheologian's defense of Hodge."         with material gifts, will yet critically    conditional covenant of works, is de-
    How would Dr. Crick respond?              examine the doctrine of the covenant        scribed as giving salvation upon the
    Not very happily, I am sure. He           proposed by Hodge.                          condition of faith, are the application
would let me know in no uncertain                 This is what Hodge taught about         of fundamental  Arrninian tenets to
terms that theonomy had nothing to            the covenants in chapter IX of Evan-        the doctrine of the covenant. It is of
do with his defense of Hodge; that I          gelical Theologij.                          the very essence of the Arminian sys-
had misrepresented theonomy; and                                                          tem of salvation, from election to per-
that he was his own man, thank you,             . ..the covenant imposed by a supe-
                                                rior upon an inferior is simply a         severance unto final glory, that it is
not the slavish follower of the pri-            conditional promise. Hence we have        conditional.
mary thinker of the movement, quite             the covenant of works . . . and the           In defending Hodge's conception
capable of thinking for himself. In             covenant of grace (p. 166).               of the covenant, Dr. Crick must not
addition, he would ask me to judge              God offered to man in this gracious       quote from the "Three Forms of
his defense on the merits of the argu-          covenant of works an opportunity of       Unity," as he does, to prove that the
ments that he himself brought up. He            accepting his grace and receiving his     Reformed confessions teach that faith
would be right. Why does he not do              covenant gift  of a confirmed, holy       is the necessary way and means of
to me as he would that I do to him?             character, secured on the condition       salvation and that it is an activity of
    My criticism of Hodge's doctrine            of personal choice. God gave Adam
                                                and Eve the best chance he could,         the one who has faith. No one denies
of the covenant had nothing to do               and he put them surely under abso-        this. But he must find confessional
with common grace. I neither men-               lutelythemostfavourableconditions         basis in these Reformed creeds for the
tioned nor alluded to common grace              that we can conceive of. He brought       notion that this necessary, active faith
                                                                                                     May 1, I.9931  Standard Bearer I343


is d condifion  - an act of the sinnei         ence to faith, salvation is by means of      theological  liberal@m?  How does a
upon which the covenant and prom-              faith, not because of faith.                 Reformed church-go modernist? Ho&
ise of God depend for their realiza-                                                        do& this -happen seemingly over-
tion and fulfillment. He may save              The Main Concern                             night?
himself the trouble of looking. He                 Important as all of this is, this was        A.A. Hodge's republished  Evan-
will find no such teaching.                    not the main concern of my criticism         gelical Theology made everything
        On the contrary, the Canons of         of the theology of A.A. Hodge as             clear.
Dordt, denying that faith is a "prereq-        taught  in Evangelical Theology.  My             With reference to Hodge's toler-
uisite, cause or condition" of election,       concern was Hodge's tolerant atti-           ant attitude toward heresies, I con-
affirm that faith is to be regarded as         tude toward all kinds of errors and          cluded my review  this way:
itself proceeding from God's election          heresies:    evolution; hierarchical
with all the other gifts of salvation (I/      church government; denial of pre-              If this was the theology of old
9). In so many words, the Canons               destination; Arminianism; and even             Princeton in the days of its glory, the
reject the teaching that views "faith . . .    Romanism. A.A. Hodge minimized                 refusal of hundreds of Presbyterian
as a condition of salvation," judging          the significance of basic doctrinal dif-       ministers to condemn fundamental
this the Arminian view of faith (I,            ferences. The inevitable results had           departures from the faith and to take
Rejection of  Errors/3).  When this            to be a lack of sharp, antithetical            astandforthetruthintheearly1900s
                                                                                              becomes understandable. Indeed, it
Reformed creed comes to relate faith           preaching and a neglect of discipline.         is understandable that the Presbyte-
to the salvation of the elect sinner, it       Since he was a professor in the semi-          rian Church apostatized into mod-
presents faith as II the gift of God." It      nary, these results would certainly            ernism. And if this theology is the
denies that the relationship between           soon show up in the pastors whom he            theology of evangelicalismat the end
faith and salvation is that "God be-           trained.                                       ofthe20thcentury-andthesounder
stows the power or ability to believe,             This explained something that              evangelicalism at that  -  evan-
and then expects that man should by            had long puzzled and troubled me.              gelicalismtodayisinnobettershape.
the exercise of his own free will,. con-       How could the Presbyterian Church              Nor is its f&W any brighter.
sent to the terms of salvation, and            in the USA so quickly and thoroughly                                              :
actuallybelieveinChrisV'  (III,IV/14).         fallaway  from the gospel? How could             Let every  Pl'esbyterian  and Re-
The conditional relationship is ruled          the Church of Alexander, theHodges,          formed church that is still standing
out.                                           and Warfield  in the 19th and early          for  the confessional  Refbrmed  faith
        In this as in all else, the Canons     20th centuries become the Church of          take heed.
are only the further explanation of the        the Auburn Affirmation of 1923, tol-             If the Harbinger and its Presbyte-
Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic            erating her ministers' denial of doc-        rian stalwarts are truly a sign of good
Confession. The Reformed faith,                trines that are fundamental to Chris-        things to come for Presbyterianism in
therefore, confesses anunconditional           tianity? How could this Church cast          the United States, they must say no to
salvation. This is of the very essence         out her truest and best son, J.G.            this aspect of the evangelical theology
of the Reformed system of salvation            Machen, with hatred and scorn, be-           of A.A. Hodge. 0
from election to preservation. Salva-          cause he condemned and opposed                                                  - DJE
tion is gracious. With specific refer-





H Clearing the OPC                             rian Church. I, too, am a member of          churchesintheNewJersevPresbvtc
                                               the OK and would like to clear our           which have taken "off&al"  s&n
        I could not let the opportunity        denomination's good name of any              against Mr. Camping's eschatoloiZY-
pass without thanking you for your             false conclusions your readers may           Among the OPC members I know,
rebuttal of Mr. Ernie Springer's letter        have come to concerning pur                  Mr. Camping's view has met with
in your editorial, "1994? - `Maybe             eschatology. I am not aware of any           only chagrin, anger, and disdain.
Wrong'?" (the  Standard Bearer,                other OPC member, jncluding Mr.                  Again, thank you for your fine
March 15, 1993). There is only one             Springer's own pastor, who gives one         rebuttal.
thing1 should like to add. Early in his        iota of credence to Mr. Camping's                           (Mrs.) Susan D. Fletci
letter Mr. Springer mentions that he is        date-setting for our Lord's second                             Haddon Heights,
a member of the Orthodox Presbyte-             advent. There have even been OPC

344lStarhiardEearerlMay1,1993


n Must the Minister Preside?                   monly regarded authorities on church       by reason of their special training and
                                               polity about your question. Our an-        more extended experience.... The
    My question concerns Article 37            swer would be that the minister is to      president merely presides and regu-
of the Church Order of Dordt. This             preside because he is the most quali-      lates as a brother amongst brethren"
article requires that the minister pre-        fied'for this task. The ministers are      (The Church Order Commenta y, 1954
side at consistory meetings. What is           trained in church polity in the semi-      edition, p. 169). We could find noth-
the,reason  for this? Why may not an           nary. They gain more experience in         ingintheDutchauthoritiesthatspeaks
elder preside? Is not this rule contra-        the work of the consistory since they      to this question.
dicted by Acts 6:4?        1                   serve continuously, while the elders           If one understands that the work
    I very much appreciate the SB. It          serve for terms of three years.            of the consistory is part of "prayer
is a magazine with much in-depth                   Monsma and Van Dellen write,           and the ministry of the word," the
teaching helpful for daily life.               "The presidency at Consistory meet-        minister's presiding over consistory
                                 Ham Nyhof     ings the Church Order attributes to        meetings would in no way contradict
                                Holland, MI    the Ministers and not to the Elders.       the rule of Acts 6:4.
                                               This is done not because the office of                      Editorial Committee
Response:                                      Elders is inferior, but because as a
    Very little is written by the com-         rule the Ministers are better qualified





           Concerned Pres.byterians

    Memories of twenty years ago               made direct reference to this twenty-      ence to the decline of the PCA. The
were evoked for many as approxi-               year connection in his speech to those     only hopeful note was that, whereas
mately150people,mostofthemmem-                 assembled. He recalled that it was         on that former occasion those who
bers of the Presbyterian Church in             almost exactly twenty years ago that       gathered had pretty much given up
America, assembled at the Ebenezer             he made a similar address to the Con-,     on effecting any change in the PCUS
Associate Reformed Presbyterian                vocation of Sessions of Churches in        and were resigned to separation from
Church in Charlotte, NC on March               the old Presbyterian Church in the         their mother church, on the occasion
23, for what was billed as "Concerned          United States -a convocation which         of the Charlotte meeting there still
Presbyterian Day." Dr. Morton H.               led directly to the First General As-      remains a feeling that the cause of
Smith, Dean of the Faculty at the              sembly of the PCA (then known as the       Reformed Truth and Presbyterian
Greenville (SC) Presbyterian Theo-             Continuing Presbyterian Church) in         Order is not altogether lost in the
logical Seminary, and former Stated            December, 1973.                            PCA. Few of those assembled likely
Clerk of the PCA General Assembly,                 On that former occasionDr.  Smith      would be of a mind to move toward
                                               spoke to the issue of "HowIs the Gold      separation from the PCA any time
                                               Become Dim" (Lam. 4:l) - a survey          soon.
                                               of the decline of the PCUS. With               The Charlotte meetingwas called
The Rev. E.C. Case is a teaching elder in      heavy heart Dr. Smith announced that       under the auspices of "Concerned
the Presbyterian Church in America             he felt compelled to take the same         Presbyterians"-anotherfeaturecon-
(PCA). He is pastor of two PCA congre-         topic for his address these twenty         tributing to the twenty-year connec-
gations in Mississippi.                        years later, only this time with refer-    tion. One of the principal groups

                                                                                                   May 1,19931  StandardBearer  I345


active in the movement leading to the      rian Church in America to Be True to           not by agencies outside the church or
formationofthePCAwascalled"Con-            Her Declaration." This statement,              erected by the church.
cerned Presbyterians." The present         which summarizes the concerns ad-                    Perhaps themost  significant state-
group has no direct connection with        dressed in the speeches made at the            ment in the whole document (the
the former, but the adoption of this       Charlotte meeting, is in the form of a         "Message to All Churches" - 1973)
name can only be viewed as a con-          memorial to` be placed before the              was this: "We declare that the ulti-
scious attempt to arouse people to         Twenty-first General Assembly which            mate purpose of the Church is to
certain dangers that threaten the doc-     will meet, D.V., in June, in Columbia,         glorify God;" As pointed out by Dr.
trinal and church politicalintegrity of    SC. Ruling and teaching Elders                 Smith in his address, this truth is
the PCA in ways similar to those           present at Charlotte were invited to           affirmed also in other early deliver-
which led to the decline of the PCUS.      sign this memorial.and were encour-            ances of the PCA, so that while there
Many of those involvedin the present       aged to circulate it to obtain other           is strong emphasis on evangelism and
movement are also associated with          signatures prior to the Assembly.              fulfilling the Great Commission, the
the  Presbyterian Advocate, an  inde-          The memorial begins by recalling           end is never merely to "win souls" or
pendent magazine which addresses           the "Message to All Churches of Jesus          organize churches, but rather to glo-
issues within the PCA; and Advocate        Christ Throughout the World," which            rify God - to seek to meet what our
Editor, Dr. David C. Lachmann, was         was adopted by the First General               Shorter Catechism (Q&A 1) asserts is
the moderator of the Charlotte meet-       Assembly of the PCA (by then called            "the chief end of man." This empha-
ing.                                       the National Presbyterian Church).             sis, of course, has profound implica-
        In addition to Dr. Smith, ad-      This message was a testimony, mak-             tions for the whole workof the church,
dresses were heard from Dr. Stanley        ing the case for separation from the           and especially for worship - one of
D. Wells, a Ruling Elder from Phoe-        PCUS and setting forth what kind of            the principal concerns addressed at
nix, AZ, and from Dr. Carl W. Bogue,       Church was being brought into exist-           the Charlotte meeting. As Dr. Bogue
Jr., Pastor of FaithPCA in Akron, OH.      ence. In that "Message," the new               pointed out, only that worship is God-
Dr. Wells, who has served on the           denomination affirmed its commit-              glorifying which is conducted on the
Judicial Business and Christian Edu-       ment to the authority of Scripture as          basis of the regulative principle en-
cation Committees of the PCA Gen-          "the inerrant  Word of God . . . the only      shrinedin the Westminster Standards
eral Assembly, as well as on the Stand-    infallible and all-sufficient rule of faith    on thebasis of the clear teachingof the
ing Judicial Commission of the PCA,        and practice." Moreover, it was'as-            Word of God.
spoke on "Judicial Matters in the          serted (in a quotation lifted from the               The problem in the PCA, and the
PCA." Dr. Bogue's topic was "Wor-          "Address to All Churches" which had            reason for the Charlotte meeting, is
ship." Following these addresses,          been adopted by the First General              that the PCA has come short of her
Ruling Elder George R. Caler, of Faith     Assembly of the Presbyterian Church            initial declarations in all of these ar-
PCA, Akron, OH, and a member of            in the Confederate States of America           eas, and that not slightly or insignifi-
the committee that arranged the Char-      in 1861) that the church "has no right         cantly but in ways that are alarming
lotte meeting, read "A Declaration of      to utter a single syllable upon any            and ultimately destructive of the doc-
Concern and A Call to the Presbyte-        subject" except as the Lord "puts              trinal and church political integrity of
                                           wordsin her mouth.."                           the denomination. Moreover, it is
                                               Astothesystemofdoctrinefound               apparent that the PCA has come short
                                           in the Word of God, the new denomi-            ofthesede+rations,notincidentally,
                                           nation affirmed this to be "the Re-            but as the result of a conscious effort
                                           formed Faith as set forth in the               on-the part of many in the church to
                                           Westminster Confession and Cat-                move the PCA away from the strong
                                           echisms," to which she declared her-           emphasis of those earlier declarations.
                                           self to be "committed without reser-                It would be too great an imposi-
                                           vation." Also'from the 1861 "Ad-               tion upon the reader to get into much
                                           dress" was lifted a section including          detail relative to these matters, but a
                                           the statement, "We are not ashamed             few examples may be in order to
                                           to confess that we are intenselyPres-          demonstrate that the concerns ex-
                                           byterian" -this by way of asserting            pressed at the Charlotte meeting are
                                           the belief. that Presbyterian Church           s u b s t a n t i a l .
                                           Order is biblical Church Order "ac-                 In the area of the inerrancy and
                                           cording to the pattern shown in the            especiallythesufficiencyof Scripture,
                                           mount." There was a particular con-            many of us in the PCA are alarmed at
                                           cern, in connection with this, that the        the willingness of some Presbyteries
                                           work of the church be done by the              to receive and ordain men to the of-
             Rev. Eugene Case              appointed courts of the church and             fice of teaching Elder "who hold to

346IstandardSearerlMayl,l993


the possibility of `new revelation' from    than that, their work has been turned               It remains only for us to make
God through prophecy or other               over, for all intents and purposes, to       some concluding remarks  concem-
means" (Memorial, p. 2, para. A). By        the staffs of these committees who, in       ing the Charlotte, meeting and the
and large, the General Assembly, in         effect, drive the work of the commit-        future of the PCA. -.
handling judicial cases arising out of      tees. The mission committees even                   One would hope, of course, that
thispractice,hassustainedcomplaints         dictate to the Presbyteries as to who is     this meeting will give rise to a move-
against this sort of thing.` How-ever,      and is not an acceptable candidate for       ment which will be productive of an
these decisions affect only the par-        missionary service. The reports these        awakening in the PCA to the dangers
ticular court complained against; and,      committees make to the General As-           .posed by the current drift in the de-
in one case, the same Assembly ren-         sembly are little more than public           nomination. Whether this will, in
dered opposing decisions in cases           relationspromotions,andanyattempt            fact, happen is `problematic.  _
from two different Presbyteries  - a        seriously to debate policy on the floor             Those who seem determined to
confusing situation, to say the least.      of the Assembly is generally greeted         de-emphasize. the distinctives of the
The problem, ,of course, is that As-        with rebuke for being overly zealous         Reformed Faith and Presbyterian
sembly decisions, made by majority          for doctrinal purity, for not being          Order are firmly in control of the
vote, with no debate allowed, and           "open" to the working of the Spirit,         committees and agencies of the PCA
with the possibility that some of the       and with calls to "trust" the commit-        General Assembly. At the present
commissioners present for one vote          tees.                                        time, dissatisfaction on the part of the
may not be present for the other, are           As far as judicial cases are con-        church at large with their direction of
subject to all the problems of popular      cerned, these are now handled, on the        the Assemblyis not overwhelming. If
democracy. One does not have to sit         Assembly level, by a:Standing  Judi-         every ruling and teaching Elder
in many Assembly meetings to real-          cial Commission which, in effect, acts,      present in Charlotte signed the Me-
ize this is no way to run a church.         as a court above all courts in the           moria.l,theywouldstillconstitutebut
    In terms of worship, the PCA is,        church. Several articles in the  Pres-       a small percentage of those eligible to
again, confusion. Unlike the PRC, in        byterian Advocate  have detailed             sit and vote at General Assemblies.
which those visiting in one or another      abuses by this Commission which              Nor is there the sort of dissatisfaction
congregation will find uniformity in        have led to the denial of due process        in the pew that there was 25 or 30
worship, one never knows what one           to various parties in certain cases. Dr.     years ago, when.people  were fed up
may run up on in a PCA church. The          Well's condemnation of this proce-           with out-and-out modernism in the
range runs from strict adherence to         dure was withefing.  As one who has          pulpits and the wild-eyed socialist
the regulative principle (even to the       servedon  the Commission, he pointed         schemes of the bureaucrats in the
singing of Psalms only, unaccom-            out how the SJC has the power, and           denominational headquarters of the
paniedbyinstrumentalmusic) to char-         has in fact exercised that power, to         PCUS. Few in the pew, today, realize
ismatic-style services. A major con         deny justice to aggrieved parties by         the importance of what happens be-
troversy has erupted in recent years        such tactics as changing the issue ad-       yond the,local  congregation.
over theuse  of drama-and dance and         dressed in the case, denying or limit-              In addition to this, there is .the
such things as the substitution of          ing access to the record of the case,        problem that many elders - ruling
movies, etc., for the preaching of the      and limiting debate. He sees it as           and teaching - are not willing to
Word - i.e., entertainment in place         being as corrupt and devilish as any-        ,invest the time and effort necessary to
of worship. Several protests have           thing conceived in the bowels of the         study @issues before the Church,
been entered at General Assembly            Vatican.                                     nor are they willing to take the risk of
meetings where, for several years               We have gone on for much too             -making a stand for the truth. Many
now, commissioners (not to mention          long and have not yet addressed the          who are eligible to attend Assemblies
theHolyGod)havebeenassaultedby              matter of doctrinal fidelity, which is              /                         . .
the placing of more than one kind of        currently being debated in the PCA in                                                ~
"strange fire" upon the altar of wor-       terms of the "strict" or "full" sub-                Few in the pew, today,-
ship services, so-called. Reliable re-      scription versus the "loose" or  "sys-,       _ realize the  ikportance
ports indicate that things are even         tern" subscription view relative to the
wilder in certain of the individual         ordination      vows      t a k e n   b y      `. of what happens beyomf
churches. Dr. Bogue,  in his address,       officebearers in the PCA. For a full         `. the local  congrtigation.   ~-  i
                                                                                                                   ,'
gave a devastating Scriptural rebuke        and excellent treatment of this issue,        I:
to these practices.                         we would commend the booklet by                                                           ._
    Not much more needs to be said,         Dr. Morton Smith,  Subscription to           do not even consider attending. Many
really, about Presbyterian order than       the Westminster Standards in the             of those who do attend gripe and
that it is a dead letter in the PCA. The    Presbyterian Church in America,              complain about the amount of time
committees of the General Assembly          which wasreviewed by the Editor of           taken up by what passes for "debate"
have become virtual boards. Worse           the StandardBearera  few issuesback.         at the Assembly.. Somehow, they do

                                                                                                     Mayl;l993/StandardSearerl347


not think that debating points of doc-         tobeordainedinourPresbyteries.  As              Those who met at Charlotte were
trine and order is doing the work of           the Memorial points out, the problem        specifically warned that we must not
the church. One wonders what they              is not in the area of profession and        allow this movement to degenerate
think ecclesiastical assemblies are            confession so much as in the area of        into a "party caucus" of the sort
supposed to do. They do not want to            practical application. Dr. Smith, for       known to be operating in the PCA,
hear and deal with judicial cases, and         example, was very careful to say, at        comprised of those who think the
yet we call our assemblies "courts."           the outset, that the PCA is not apos-       current course of the denominationis
They are, in their own way, as un-             tate. But it is of no small concern to      just fine. Dr. Smith was particularly
faithful to their calling as any hereti-       many of us that, even if the issue          forceful in denouncing the substitu-
cal officebearer.                              should become one of open and pro-          tion of power politics and political
     Finally, it should be pointed out         fessed opposition to the teaching of        maneuvering in place of submission
that the situation in the PCA has not,         our Standards, it is still exceedingly      to the Scripture and the Constitution
as yet, come anywhere close to where           difficult to stir people to action until    of the church as the voice of God in
we were in 1973 in the ECUS. We                the matter begins to affect them per-       leading us to fidelity in practice as
have not yet reached the point where           sonally, in their local congregations.      well as profession. No reformation of
men are openly tolerated in their de-          We saw this in the PCUS. The conser-        the church has ever been effected by
nial of the inspiration and authority          vatives in the Christian Reformed           adroit political posturing. "Not by
of Scripture, the deity of Christ, and         Churclicouldprobablyrelatethesame           might,norbypower,butbymy spirit,
so forth. No one who answers in the            thing, This sort of "spiritual inertia"     saith the Lord of hosts." This must
negative to the ordination vow re-             does not bode well for those who seek       ever be the watchword of those who
garding the receiving and adopting             to recall the PCA to her foundational       seek the reformation of the church. 0
of the Westminster Standards is likely         principles.





                                               the death for his convictions on this
n A Precursor of Things                        matter. In a recent sermon he warned
                                               hiscongregationthathischurchwould           n A Decision That Satisfies
to Come                                        hold no passive protests. "You will         Neither Side
                                               not find us at a prayer meeting hold-
    The congregation of the LaPorte            ing hands. We need our hands. We                Under this title (cf. September 15,
Church of Christ inFort Collins, Colo-         will be praying but we can pray and         1992 issue) we reported on  .the deci-
rado is having its property confis-            do other things," he said from the          sion concerning women in church
cated by the state because it refuses to       pulpit, on which he hung a wooden           office taken by the 1992 Synod of the
pay a $10,075 fine for violating elec-         plaque with the words "We don't dial        Christian Reformed Church (CRC).
tion laws. In 1988 the church lobbied          911" surrounding a carved gun.              Faced with the question of ratifying
against a proposed Fort Collins gay-               Rev. Peters ought to be reminded        the 1990 synod's decision to open all
rights ordinance without registering           of the admonition of Jesus to Peter,        offices to women and to make the
as a political action committee. The           "Put up again thy sword into his            necessary changes in the Church Or-
pastor of the church, Rev. Pete Peters,        place: for all they that take the sword     der, the CRC synod decided not to
maintained he was exercisinghis free-          shall perish with the sword" (Mat-          ratify change in the Church Order,,
dom of religion in opposing the ordi-          thew 26:52). Rev. Peters ought also be      but to fl . . . encourage the churches to
nance. Said Peters, "Christ did not            reminded of the teaching of Romans          use the gifts of women members to
say, `Go all over the world, but first         13:1-7.                                     the fullest extent possible in their lo-
sign up with Caesar as a political                 Aside from all this, the incident       cal churches, including allowing
action committee.' II Rev. Peters gives        does indicate what is in store for the      women to teach, expound the Word
every indication that he will fight to'        church of Jesus Christ in the last days.    of God and provide pastoral care,
                                               Every institution and everyperson-          under the supervision of the elders."
                                               gays, abortionists, atheists, et al. -          That this decision satisfies nei-
                                               must have their rights protected by         ther those who advocate opening all
Proj Decker is projessor  of Practical The-    law in our society. Everyone, that is,      offices to women nor those who op-
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         except the Christian and the church.        pose having women serve as minis-
nary.                                                         Fort Collins Coloradtian     ters and elders is becoming increas-

348lStandardBearwlNay1,1993


ingly evident. According to the latest      CRC for exemption from the ban on             cision of 1992 has satisfied no one. We
figures there are now 32 churches           women elders. The main ground                 predict that, if not in 1993, the CRC
with 7255 members who have left the         cited by the Church of the Servant is         will sooner or later open all offices to
CRC. These churches are militant            "because through the years a large            women.
opponents of womenin church office.         number of members have joined COS                                         The Outlook
Their numbers areincreasing though          who could not maintain membership                Reformed Believers Press Semite
they represent only about 2.3% of the       in churches where women's gifts were
total membership of the CRC.                not fully utilized in leadership func-
    Meanwhile  Classis Grand Rap-           tions, serious damage would be done           n Personalia
ids East, in which reside several           to our fellowship if the decision of the
churches which have already installed       1990 Synod, which approved women                  Dr. W. Robert Godfrey, who re-
women into the office of elder, is          serving as elders, could not be imple-        cently presented two academic guest
sending three overtures on women in         mented." Church of the Servant be-            lectures on the  Canons  of  Dordtat  the
office to the Synod of 1993. One            gan the practice of installing elders in      Protestant Reformed Seminary, has
overture calls for ratification of          September of 1992 in spite of the 1992        been named as the new president of
women in office by a two-year pro-          synod's decision. Rev. Jack Roeda,            Westminster Theological Seminary
cess  endingin 1994. Anotherrequests        pastor of Church of the Servant, said         (California) by that institution's Board
a local exemption for Church of the         this overture was an alternate plan if        of Trustees. Dr. Godfrey has been
Servant CRC. A third overture, from         Synod 1993 did not ratify women in            Professor of Church History at the
First CRC, asks that Synod 1993 ratify      office.  Classis also approved this           seminary since 1981. He will begin
the 1990 decision opening all offices       overture, though not without several          his duties as president in June of 1993.
to women without waiting for 1994.          amendments and a lengthy discus-              Dr. Godfrey succeeds Robert G.
    The first overture, which came          sion.                                         denDulk,  who has served as presi-
from Sherman Street CRC, proposes               What ought not escape our atten-          dent of Westminster West for the past
that synod change the ch,urch order         tion in all this is the language used by      f i v e   y e a r s .
so that women may serve in all offices      thosewhofavorhavingwomenserve                     Godfrey is a graduate of Stanford
and that this change be ratified by the     in the offices in the church. They            University (A.B., M.A., Ph.D.) and
synod of 1994. This overture passed         speak of "utilizing women's gifts to          Gordon-Conwell Theological Semi-
unanimously with little discussion.         serve in the church." And they speak          nary (M.Div.). He taught church his-
    First CRC's overture attracted          of "leadership functions" and "serv-          toryatWestminsterTheologicalSemi-
considerably more attention. First          ing" the church. We submit that the           nary (Philadelphia) from 1974 to 1981.
CRC asked that classis send an over-        issue in this discussion and debate is        Dr. Godfrey writes extensively and is
ture to synod to "appeal the decision       not the use or non-use of women's             a frequent lecturer at important con-
of Synod 1992, Art. 105, B, 4 to `not       gifts in the church, nor is the issue that    ferenceslike theBanner of TruthCon-
ratify the change ,in Church Order          of serving the church. It is true that        ference, the Pensacola Theological
Article 3' and overtures the Synod of       Christ speaks of the officebearers in         Institute, and the Philadelphia Con-
1993 to ratify the decision of the Synod    terms of their being douloi, slaves, to       ference on Reformed Theology.
of 1990 by changing the Church Or-          Christ and their fellow believers (Mat-           Westminster Theological Semi-
der Article 3 to read: `All confessing      thew  20:20-28).  Women must use              nary in California was established in
members of the church who meet the          their gifts in the service of their fellow    1979. The current enrollment in its
biblical requirements are eligible for      believers in the church. The question         Masters and Doctoral programs is
the office of minister, elder, deacon       is, to whom does Christ give the right,       171 students. 0
and evangelist.' " According toFirst        the authorization, the authority to                               Christian Renewal
CRC's pastor, Rev. Morris Greidanus,        preach, rule, shepherd, and collect                                       The Outlook
the intent of the overture is to have       and dispense the alms? The Church                Reformed Believers Press Service
synod rescind the decision of 1992          Order of Dordt, the forms for the
against ratification and then have          ordination of ministers, missionaries,
synod vote again on the 1990 pro-           elders, deacons, and professors of
posal to open all offices to women.         theology and the Reformed Confes-
After being advised that the overture       sions all say clearly that Christ gives
is proper and legal, by Dr. Henry           that right to qualified male members
DeMoor,  professor of Church Polity         of the church. And they say that
at Calvin Seminary, and after lengthy       because Holy Scripture clearly teaches
discussion, the classis unanimously         this truth.
approved the overture.                          It willbeinterestingindeed to see
    The classis then addressed the          what the CRC synod of 1993 does
request of theChurch  of the Servant        with these overtures. Clearly the de-

                                                                                                    May  1,1993 / Standard Bearer 1349


                                                Order
              The Word of God places great emphasis and value upon good order. We will undoubtedly
         be surprised at the frequency with which this word appears and the implications that it has.
         There are several root words, both in the Hebrew and the Greek, that convey the sense of good
         order. All these words agree in their basic meanings: to set aright, to ordain, to arrange, to set
         in order, to walk orderly.
              The church and her members are to demonstrate orderliness in all their lives, "for God is
         not the author of confusion,,but of peace, as in all church of the saints" (I Cor. 14:33). God hates
         confusion, and is always characterized by orderliness, harmony, and peace. This is the
         outstanding virtue of the covenant life which the Father and the Son live in the Holy Spirit. This
         islikewise true of the eternal decrees that are everbefore the divine mind. The word "ordained"
         (as in Acts 13:48, "...as many as were ordained to eternal life believed") refers to election, and
         comes from one of the words mentioned above, meaning to set in order, arrange. Thus,
         Reformed theologians have good reason to discuss the order of God's eternal decrees, to study
         their arrangement, and to make distinction between mfra- and supra-lapsarianism. This is not
         vain and curious prying, but a fruitful and legitimate labor.
              God revealed His regard for order immediately in creation, by first dividing the light from
         the darkness, then separating the dry land from the seas, and then creating the plants, animals,
         and man (Gen. I). God showed His high regard for order by forming the multitudes of Israel
         into a nation at Sinai and giving them definite'mtiching orders (Num. 10:llff .). All the things
         of the tabernacle were set in order before God (Ex. 40), and the priests who served God there
         did so according to schedule and definite orders (Luke 1%). The better priesthood of Jesus
         Christ is after the order of Melchizedec, having no beginning of days nor end of life (Ps. 110:4;
         Heb. 5, 6, 7).
              God bestows upon His church gracious salvation in Christ in an orderly manner. He does
         not save and gather His churchin a confused, individualistic way, but He does so in the orderly
         way of believing generations; believing generations are grafted into the Tree of Life. And the
         application of salvation to the elect believer follows the order of salvation suggested in Romans
         8:30. The young people learn this order as regeneration, faith, conversion, justification,
         sanctification, preservation, and glorification.
              The church in her worship, labor,. and organic life reflects the good order that is in God,(Tit.
         1:5), showing that they know and love God as dear children. We follow an order of worship
         regulated by the Scriptures. Our assemblies strive to do all things decently and in good order
         (I Cor. 1440) by proceeding according to an adopted Church Order. Our Bible-study societies
         have constitutions for this same purpose. The apostle Paul behaved himself orderly among the
         churches (II Thess.-3:7), for orderliness is essential to the church's unity. He also commanded
         believers to withdraw from every brother that walketh disorderly (I Thess. 3:6,11).
              The life of the child (Jud. 13:12) and family life is to be rightly ordered and arranged. This
         involves keeping to a daily schedule, having regular devotions, requiring respectful obedience
         on the part of the child, being consistent in discipline, and insisting on neatness. Especially are
         we to have our houses in order as we see the day of our death approaching (Is. 38:l). Our
         personal lives, the very steps that we take, are to be ordered according to God's Word (Ps.
         119:113), for "the stepsof agoodmanareorderedby theLord" (Ps. 37:23), andhe that "ordereth
         his conversation aright shall see God's salvation" (Ps. 50:23). 0

         Rev. Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

35O/StandanlBearerlMayl,l993


         RENEWING THE BATTLE. (2)
           Drama, Television, and Movies

                                 "I will set no evil thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside;
                          it shall not cleave to me. N Psalm 101:3
                                 "And have nofellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove
                          them. m Ephesians 5:ll

        Dateline:  Central Command, Hell, 1940s
        Subject: Covert Mass Destruction of Enemy

            In the reddish glow of the command center, surrounded by his,&rkangels,  Satan turns over in his mind his hatredfor
        the Woman and Her Seed. Premeditatinghis destruction ofthe Seed, heasks his minions during their council of war: "What
        more effective weapon to be used against the remnant of Her Seed? What to swallow them up like nothing before, who keep
        the commandments of God? What, to convince the majority of the Lamb's followers to speak of as "not wrong in itself"and
        therefore to have, and then abuse? What more powerful and alluring than ever employed before?"
            "Who will show me what poison can be administered in relative secrecy? A clandestine eflort, this one, slowly to numb
        their senses, poison their minds, dull their Christian, achh!, nerves. Who will show me this? To him will Igive up to the
        half of my kingdom. "                       0
            And ofall the vile but brilliant concepts broughtforth in answer to the appeal of the Master Deceiver, none is accepted
        with moreenthusiasm, none received with moreshouts  of  triumphant joy than thesuggestion: "Television, movies, drama,
        in each home."

        I am convinced that at the judg-           day evening with their friends -. the          tualkilling inpuences.  And what pow-
ment day, we will find out that there              same movies that were shown at the             erful influence it has.
was such a council of war. I am                    movie theater, months before. Oth-                  At a broadcasters' convention re-
convinced too that we will find that               ers let their children watch the televi-       cently, Ted Turner, television mogul,
there was never a tool wielded by the              sion, unsupervised. Freely, children           reportedly told his audience, "Your
devil with such destructive force in               speak of the latest episode of "Mar:           delegates at the United Nations are
the church as the television and video.            ried, With Children." And some na-             not as important as the people in this
        There is evidence the devil's plan         ively think it has to do with family           room (meaning the assembledbroad-
has succeeded. In my hearing re-                   values. Alas, if only they knew.               casters).... We are the ones that deter-
cently, someone lamented, "There are                     Has the devil succeeded in your          mine what the people's attitudes are.
two battles I think we are losing:                 home? Will he?                                 It's in our hands."' No greater influ-
mothers working, and movies." I                                                                   ence has been wielded upon the bil-
had no opportunity at the moment to                               ******   *                      lions of the world by so few people
encourage him not to lose hope and                       IT'S THE CONTENT. More than              than the influence wielded by the
give up the battle. But I can imagine              ever before, our objection to televi-          television and movie industry.
why he feels so. Some parents let                  sion, movies, and videos, is their con-             What is that influence?
their children rent movies for a Fri-              tent. More than.everbefore, the con-                In the great majority of videos, as
                                                   tent of television is poisonous. Al-
                                                   thoughamajorobjectionwewilllodge
                                                   against television is against drama
Rev. Giitters  is pastor of the Protestant         itself as an art-form, we begin by             1  Quotedin"TelevisionorDominion,"
Reformed Church  of  Byron Center, Michi-          showing the corruption of it, as well as       printed sermon of Rev. Steven Schlissel,
gan.                                               the objections to it regarding its spiri-      Still Waters Revival Books, no date.
                                                                                                            May 1,1993 I Standard Bearer / 351


well as television's movies, comedies,       them if they said those things, there's    would "redeem television." Already
soap operas, or other series, God's          still real love portrayed."3  But he's     40 years ago television was cause for
commandments are thrown down and             wrong. Loveisshownbyhonor. God's           great concern. In a pamphlet entitled,
openly mocked. And no wonder.                people do not want to be entertained       "The Movie," the Rev. Richard
Much of the television industry be-          by this. Poisoned.                         Veldman wrote, "What are the themes
lieves as the television mogul said,             Because the fifth commandment          they portray? Horror, crime, sex,
"Christianity is a religion for losers. I    is the basis for home and family life,     carnal love, sin of every kind! What
don't want anybody dying for me."            the Christian home and family are          meets  the eye.7          Passionate em-
Let's consider the content of movies         also squarely under attack-in every        braces...."
for a few minutes to make this plain.        way.                                                "I will set no wicked thingbefore
    The first table of the law is broken         If violence and rebellion are ma-      my eyes."
when God's name is blasphemed with           jor ingredients in the devil's mixture,             An entire article could be written
regularity. I  may  not reference this       sex is the major ingredient he adds to     about the violation of the nirith com-
here. His worship is mocked, as are          the poison. Time and space fail me to      mandment. Deliberately is the lie
His people. One movie, "Alien 3,"            give examples of this, not only of the     told about what life is like. Purport-                 -
portrayed a penal colony in space,           gross sins that we "detest with all our    edly the television  programs  and
peopled by drooling, vicious rapists         hearts," but also the activities and       movies portray real life. Some even "  _
and murderers who say, "We're all            words that "can entice men thereto,"       try to convey real events. But none
Christians." Idolatry of the basest          which we also detest (Heidelberg Cat-      succeedsinportrayinglifeaccurately,
form is flagrant. Actor Shirley Mac          echism,  Lord's Day 41).                   and most twist it beyond recognition.
Claine is not alone when she screams,                                                   Even the world recognizes this, warn-
"I am God." God's people may not                                                        ing its own against the lies propa-
entertain themselves with this.                 In the most subtle ways,                gated in subtle ways. The glamour of
    The second table is more plainly            the devil serves up the lie             war. The happiness of riches. The
violated, provingthe hatred of Godin                                                    pleasure in gain. The normalcy of the _
the hearts of the producers.                             as the truth.                  "unnatural" homosexualrelationship
    Murders are handed to us on sil-                                                    (see Romans 1:26,27).  The goodness
ver platters for our entertainment.                                                     of fornication. The benefit of revolu-
Gross, graphic, violent murders are              A recent newspaper article was         tion. The humor of drunkenness. The               -
part of many movies. The Christian           entitled, "Movies, TV, flood teens with    goodness of hedonism. In the most
critics are quick to expose this. But        sex," an apt metaphor, read in the         subtle ways, the devil serves up the
what doesn't get the sting of their          light of Revelation  1215.  A letter       lie as the truth.
criticism are the other forms of mur-        from the American Family Associa-                   More difficult to detect in the
der: dishonor and hatred of the neigh-       tion sent to me last week had such         toxin is the large dose of violation of
bor, desire for revenge, envy, and           open references to the explicit sexual     the eighth commandment. I mean by
anger. (The youngpeople have memo-           content of prime-time programs that        this not that we are taught to steal in
rized this from Lord's Day 40 in their       Ifearedmychildrenmightseeit. One           the gross, open sense (but is that miss-
Heidelberg Catechism  classes.)              popular prime-time program had two         ing?). I mean rather the more subtle
    In abookwhose title doesn't indi-        men and a woman discussing their           sin of stealing, which the tenth com-
cate very well its worth, Phil Phillips      joys in masturbation. Others have
documents well the murderous ram-            homosexual themes, or refer to sexual
page on which television has gone in         experimentation with animals  - on
the past decades, especially in the          prime time. The soap-operas would
cartoons2                                    be bankrupt if sex were cut out. The       2 Saturday Morning  hkind  Control                          .
                                                                                        (OliverNelson, 1991) isabookwellworth -.
    `Anotheritemnotoftenmentioned            talkshows of morning and afternoons        reading, not merely for its expose of the
by fundamentalist Christians is the          pump up their ratings regularly with       anti-Christian content  of Saturday mom-
plain violation of thefiflh command-         sex. "Meats for the belly, and the         ing television, but also for its analysis of..
ment - dishonor of authority. Al-            belly for meats." And in America the       the ruinous  effects  of most television,.
most all the situation comedies have         bodyisforfomication. Wearebackin           "Sesame Street" included, on the minds
the children and adults showing no           Corinth.                                   and souls of children. This I will deal "
real "honor, love and fidelity to . . .          Dramatizingsexisnota20thcen-           with, in part, in the next article.
father and mother and all in author-         tury innovation. "By the third cen-
ity...." In a recent TV                                                                 3        February 27-March  5,1993,  page 16.
                            Guide that we    tury A.D., . . . the Roman stage had
purchased for this research, one re-         become so thoroughly corrupt (sexual       4        Albert M. Wolters, Creation Re-
viewer made this plain when he said          intercourse was a regular part of the      gained: A, Biblical Basis for a Reforma-
about the Simpsons, "Even though             program)...."4 Norwilliteverchange,        tional Worldviezu,  Eerdmans, 1985, page
you have to tell your kids you'd kill        in spite of the vain hopes of those who    94. .


mandment shows belongs to the                  presses horror that the most violent          will ask himself, "Before the face of
eighth. It is that "kleptomania of the         (like graphicmurder scenes) andsexu-          God,mayIentertainmyselfwiththese
heart" that the Reformed creed de-             ally explicit (like a vicious rape) clips     `legitimate' programs and watch, at
scribes as "all covetousness, all abuse        of movies which will be shown later           the same time, the materialism and
and waste of his gifts," and the sin           in the evening are shown in the ads           sex in the breaks?"
which the Scripture warns against in           between the early evening news and
I Timothy 6, belonging to those who            game shows.5 Deborah Norville says                             *X-Z-****
"will (to) be rich," "supposing that           of her son, "I don't want him watch-              We are sorely tempted to say, "If
gain is godliness" (w. 5,9).                   ing commercials."6                            you are serious about a holy life, you
     In no place is this more plain than              But sex says it all. Nude bathers      will not own a television. If you love
in the commercialbreaks of almost all          sell soap. Underwear clad men sell            God, you will get rid of your set."
programming. Advertisements pro-               briefs. Bikini clad women sell vaca-          Even though we will not say that
mote, indeed, live off, the violation of       tions and beer. Sex will sell every-          because of its insufferable legalism,
the eighth commandment.                        thing from cars to cameras, tooth-            there is room in every Christian heart
                                               paste to tobacco. (And what irony:            for that sympathy, because every
     ADVERTISEMENTS.  Some                     the government has determined to-             Christian sees the corruption in al-
would defend their regular use of the          bacco to be too harmful to its citizens       most every use of the medium. How
television by saying, "We watch only           to allow promotion of it on television        difficult to find anything profitable.
sports, game shows, innocent pro-              anymore.)                                     "Why look?" is the question many
grams like the police and emergency                   Every Christian who loves holi-        would ask. It's not unlike a father
dramatizations . . . . II Aside from the       ness ought to be horrified at what            rooting about in a toxic waste dump
glorification of violence and danger           jumps out at him from the screen to           to find food for his family, knowing
on the police shows, as well as the            sell every imaginable product. He             that there is something good there,
materialism that liesbehind the game                                                         when his cupboards at home are full.
shows, what of the advertisements                                                            why?
sandwiched in between the program-             5      TV Guide, Feb 27-Mar  5,1993,  page        Before God, how would you an-
m i n g ?                                      25.                                           swer?
   Even Jane  Pauley  (of television                                                             "Without holiness no man shall
fame and "Dateline" infamy) ex-                6      TV Guide,  page 28.                    see the Lord." ~3




                               The Sp,lit of 1953

    If there be therefore any consolation      the churches. Actually there was one          was good reason why some had been
in Chrisf, if any comfort of love, if any      more opportunity left to register ob-         so insistent on that preamble which
fellowship of the Spirit, ifany bowels and     jections to it. Protests could properly       was added:
mercies,                                       be  brought to the next meeting of
    Fu&Vyemyjoy, thatyebelikeminded,           synod (which option was extended to               Declaration of principles, to be
having the same love, being of  one accord,    the 1953 synod when the 295ZActs of             used only by the Mission Committee
of one mind.                                   Synod did not appear in time for such           and the Missionaries for the organi-
                      Philippians  2:1,2       protests to be properly prepared).              zation of prospective churches on
                                               And meanwhile open discussion and               the basis of Scripture and the Confes-
                                                                                               sionsasthesehavealwaysbeenmain-
    The adoption of. the  Declaration          disagreement ovei the DecZaration               tained in the Protestant Reformed
of Principles by the synod of 1951 in          and its content freely took place.              Churches and as these are now fnr-
no way resolved  the tensions within           Should elements of Liberated theol-             ther explained in regard to certain
                                               ogy be accepted in our churches, or             principles.
                                               not? The debate went on; and, through
Rev. Woudenberg  is pastor of the Protes-      it all, it became perfectly evident that      There were those who clearly had no
tant Reformed Church- of Kalamazoo,            our churches were no longer a har-            intention of abiding by those prin-
Michigan.                                      moniouslyunitedwhole.  Infact,  there         ciples; and they had no desire to ex-

                                                                                                       May 1,1993 / Standard Bearer 1353


pose themselves to the possibility of        the fact that our very identity as          defend DeWolf and his statements
being judged by them.                        churches had been built on a defense        were everywhere.
         *  *  *  *  *  *  *                 of the principles of particular grace,          After all, it was noted, he had not
    In fact, the difficulties were al-       there were those who were beginning         concluded his sermon without ob-
ready working before the synod of            to chafe under it, and to call for some-    serving that "faith is the gift of God
1951 ever met. On the fifteenth of           thing different. They seemed con-           which He sovereignly bestows upon
April, the Sunday after Classis East         vinced that it was fully within their       hiselect." Wasn't that enough? Didn't
declared itself in favor of the adop-        right, and in accord with our tradi-        it prove that he was in the end Re-
tion of the Declaration, in a service at     tion, to defend contrary views of doc-      formed? The statement had been
First Church in Grand Rapids, the            trine as long as within their minds         clearly designed, of course, to protect
Rev. Hubert DeWolf preached a ser-           they were, often rather quickly, in         hisReformedidentity;andwithmany
mon in which he first intimated that         harmony with Scripture and the con-         it was enough.
there were those in the congregation         f e s s i o n s .                               In turn, it was argued that the
who were guilty of dead orthodoxy,               Underlying this all, however, was       word "promise" which he had used
or in his words, of "wearing Protes-         another unmentioned but very real           can be used more generically. It could
tant Reformed on their coat lapel";          factor, a struggle for power. Through-      be taken to mean nothing more than
and he followed it up with this re-          out our history the denomination had        that what followed was assured to be
mark, "God promises every one of             been dominated by the presence of           true and reliable, with nothing gra-
you that if you believe, you will be         HermanHoeksema.  Although he had            cious implied. Thus when the biblical
saved." This was, of course, a typical       no personal desire to control, it was       statement,"Ifyoubelieve,youwillbe
Liberated scenario. Here was the             true that when he spoke people lis-         saved," is promised to all men, it need
minister of a Reformed congregation,         tened. His mental and theological           mean nothing more than that the
gathered with the members of his             abilities, as well as his debative pow-     Gospel should be proclaimed as true
congregation, a gathering of covenant        ers, and the strength of his personal-      for all to hear; and who could argue
people, both accusing them of dead           ity, were such that what he suggested       with that? All of this ignored, of
orthodoxy and promising them sal-            was almost always followed. He pro-         course, the Liberated context and
vation  on the condition of faith. It was    vided to the churches a kind of father      framework withmwhich  his sermon
as though he was letting it be known         image which was not easily denied.          had been made.
that, regardless of what the classis         For years this had been recognized              So the battle raged on, with end-
had decided concerning the Declara-          and accepted, by some graciously,           less efforts to prove DeWolf's state-
tion, he had no intention of abiding         and by others grudgingly, but in al-        ment and intent to be quite innocent.
within its doctrinal framework.              most every instance without bad feel-           But underneath it all was that
    As might be expected, DeWolf's           ings. But now this was changing.            power struggle: were they going to
remarks didnot go unchallenged. The          Some were clearly becoming impa-            continue to follow Hoeksema or not?
following evening the consistory re-         tient. These were men who had stud-         It was clear that the consistory of First
ceived a number of protests which            ied under him, and had grown up             Church, as well as the congregation
were to preoccupy it for some time,          under his guidance; but they were           and the denomination, was divided.
and which left them with a grievous          moving on into mid-life. They con-          There was a close numerical balance
dilemma.                                     sidered themselves to have devel-           between those who followed
    On the one .hand, there was a            oped their own abilities and experi-        Hoeksema and those who were ready
deep longing to avoid a bruisingbattle,      ence to the point where they were           to try DeWolf. For more than a year
and a collapse of denominational life        worthy of being followed too. And           they vied back and forth, until finally,
as we had come to know and love it.          more, once they had tasted a few            in August of 1952, at a time whenboth
Through the years we had built up a          moments of recognition by some of           Rev. Hoeksema and Rev. Hanko were
small but stable form of church life,7 to    the prominent scholars in the Nether-       away on vacation, a decision was put
which most were deeply committed.            lands, who at the same time showed          through to drop the matter.
Our people were in a large part stud&        ratherlittleregardforRev.Hoeksema               Upon their return, Hoeksema and
ous and well informed; they knew             and his views, it seemed -perfectly         Hanko may have winced; but they
their Reformed doctrine, and were            evident that their time to exertleader-     decided to let the matter rest, in the
unusually conscious of what was go-          ship had come. The age old problem          hope that tension had now subsided
ing on in the church world about             of passing power from one genera-           and peace would return. But this
them. It seemed impossible that we           tion to the next was'upon us; and, `as      hope was not long to last. Within a
could be so deeply ruptured with             is so often the case, we were faltering.    few ,weeks,  at the very beginning of
dissent and conflict that all  ,of this          Particularly in First Church, in        the next month, DeWolf preached
wouldbe lost. Something, it seemed,          many ways the mother congregation           two striking sermons. The first was
had to be done to avoid it.                  of the denomination, this was so; and       one that highlighted the distinctives
    But it was happening. In spite of        the arguments swirled. Efforts to           of the Reformed faith. Hopes of re-

3!54/StandardBwer/May1,1993


stored unity soared. But the next           ceived and placed in the hands of a           Thus it was decided to distribute to
week all was dashed. Rev. DeWolf            committee of three ministers and two          DeWolf and his followers copies of an
preached again, and in the middle of        elders for study, with advice to be           apology prepared for them to con-
his sermon made the stinging remark,        given to a continued session of classis       sider and sign. The following Sun-
"Some may call it a means, and some         at the end of May. The committee met          day, during the course of the evening
may call it a condition, but I say, the     and worked through the material at            service, Rev. DeWolf read the follow-
act of conversion is a prerequisite to      length; but in the end its advice was         ing statement:
enteringinto the kingdom of heaven."        divided.
These were words made to cut; for, all          The three ministers took the ap-            As far as those statements are con-
through the debate over conditional         proach of carefully redefining                  cerned, I am ready to say that I am
theology, of which most were now            DeWolf's  statements so as to leave in        sorry that they were not clear and
quite weary, Rev. Hoeksema had              each a very innocent possible mean-             therefore left room for awronginter-
made the point that, while the word         ing;butDeWolf  himself scuttled their           pretation. I would like to explain
                                                                                            t+at by the first statement I had no
"condition" can have a proper use,          efforts by announcing that what they            intention at all to teach that God
within the context of our day it almost     made of his statement wasn't at all             promises salvation to all men and
always is not well used because it so       ivhat he had meant. The result was              that it depends on man's own will
readily implies that one thing is a         that classis turned to the minority             whether or not he will be saved. I
prerequisite to the other; and that is      report, and adopted the decision:               have never taught this and could not
what makes it wrong. And now                                                                have intended to teach this by that
DeWolf, bypassing the word "condi-            Classis  advises the Consistory of First      statement. By the second statement I
tion," was taking that very term "pre-        Church                                        did not mean to teach that a natural
requisite," and affirming his allegiance        a. To demand that Rev. DeWolf               man must convert himself while he
                                                                                            is 
to it. The results were.quick  to come.       make a public apology for having                     in the power of darkness, outside
                                                                                            of the Kingdom of God. -Also, this is
     After the service that night Rev.        made the two statements in ques-              contrary to anything that I have ever
Hoeksema and Rev. Ophoff refused              tion.
                                                b.  That the Consistory also pub-           preached. If therefore, I have of-
to shake hands with Rev. DeWolf;              licly apolc@.ze  for having supported         fended anyone by not stating clearly
and the following evening their pro-          the Rev: DeWolf with respect to the.          what I meant and thus giving occa-
tests were laid on the consistory's           two statements in question.         ~         sionformisinterpretation,Iamsorry.
table. And, this time, matters were             Classis  further advises the Consis-
not allowed to linger. By the end of          tory of First Church                        This was intended, no doubt, to be
October a decisionwas adopted which             a. That in case the Rev. DeWolf           received as his apology, although in
read:                                         should refuse to apologize; which           reality it did little more than express
                                              our God graciously forbid, the Con-         his regret for havingbeen misunder-
  Motion made that this consistory            sistory  proceed to suspendhim from         stood.
  maintains the sermon of Rev. H.             office of the ministry of the Word              The following night again the
  DeWolf delivered Sunday evening,            and the Sacraments, according to the        consistory met, this time chaired by
  September 14,1952,  is partially he-        pertinent articles of the D.K.O.            Rev. Hoeksema. All twenty-four el-
  reticalandnotReformedasexpressed              b. That in case any elder or elders       ders were present. Little difficulty
  in grounds presented in the protest         should refuse to submit to the pro-         was anticipated, since those who had
  of Rev. H. Hoeksema, and this Co&           posed action as stipulated under 3b,
  sistorycondemns thesermonassuch.            which God graciously forbid, such           been declared guilty were now party
                                              elders or elder be disciplined accord-      in the case and no longer eligible to
                                              ing to the articles of the D.KO. per-
But the divisionwithin the consistory                                                     vote on the matter. Rev. DeWolf
                                              taining thereto.
was close, and efforts to proceed with                                                    appeared, and again presented the
suspension faltered, particularly                                                         statement he had made from the pul-
                                            And thenit went further. It appointed
when the neighboring consistory did                                                       pit the night before. But the consis-
                                            a committee to deliver its instruc-
not clearly cooperate. Several at-                                                        tory was clearly not satisfied; and a
                                            tions, and to see that they were fol-
tempts were made-butstalled; until,                                                       motion followed that he be required
                                            lowed.
at a consistory meeting in the middle                                                     to retract and apologize for what he
                                                It was the evening of June 1 when
of February, from which again Rev.                                                        had said. When, however, the vote
                                            the committee came to, First Church
Hoeksema was absent, a motion was                                                         was called for, the DeWolf support-
                                            consistory. A motion was passed to
put through to drop the matter. But                                                       erscasttheirvotesalongwiththerest;
                                            accept the advice of the class+, giving
this time it did not work. Hoeksema                                                       and the clerk of the consistory (a sup-
                                            Rev. DeWolf and his supporting el-
and Ophoff appealed theirprotests to                                                      porter of DeWolf) recorded an eleven
                                            ders two weeks to consider and do
classis.                                                                                  to eleven vote (later'a twelfth elder
                                            what was required. This should have
    Classis East met in those days in                                                     insisted he had voted in favor of the
                                            settled the matter; but it didn't.
April, and to that meeting the pro-                                                       motion as well, but that his vote had
                                                Two weeks passed, and by June
tests were presented. They were re-                                                       not been recorded). Rev. Hoeksema
                                            15 no apologies were forthcoming.
                                                                                                       May 1 ,I993 I Standard Bearer 1355


announced the motion passed-the              DeWolf and his followers had no in-              sides until the matter was settled; but
vote of DeWolf's  supporters being           tention of honoring their suspension,            this was denied, and that fall the-use
illegal. But others adamantly insisted       and were determined to interject                 of the buildingwas denied even to the
it had failed, so that the meetingbroke      themselves into the following Sun-               Theological School, which had met
down in confusion. Finally, Rev.             day service. This left Rev. Hoeksema             there all through the years.
Hoeksema got up and left, telling            and Rev. Hanko with their support-                   That fall both factions appeared
them that he could have no part of           ing elders before a dilemma; and they            at classis. DeWolf and his men were
such disorder and rebellion.                 decided that, rather than risk the dis-          denied recognition; and theyleftwith
    Thefollowingnightanothermeet-            ruption of public worship, they would            three other churches to form a classis
ing was called without the supporters        call for the service of the church to be         of their own. In March a continued
of DeWolf; and suspension was en-            held in the auditorium of Grand Rap-             meeting of synod was scheduled to
acted in accord with the advice of           ids Christian High School. This they             meet; but that too was divided, with
classis. The two factions never met          did, whileDeWolf and his supporters              factions meeting in two different
together again.                              met in the First Church building. Ef-            places. The "Split" in the Protestant
    During the course of that week,          forts were made to negotiate a com-              Reformed Churches had taken place.
however, it also became evident that         bined use of the building by both                                                     0



      The Power of the Preaching
                                                             (1)

    There are many who do not rec-           God's love and desire, but upon the              the Word of God. In the preaching,
ognize the power of the preaching.           will of the man who hears. In the                GodHimselfspeaks.  Whenthewords
They see the preaciung  as merely an         preachingGodmayadmonish,plead,                   of the preacher go forth from his
offer of salvation by God to the lost        and even beg the sinner to accept His            mouth, the Word of God also goes
sinner, an offer which the lost sinner       offer, but, if the sinner refuses, God           forth. InIPeter 1:25 we read, "But the
can accept or reject. They say that          can do nothing.                                  word of the Lord endureth for ever.
God loves everyone, and that He                   Such a conception of the preach-            And this is the word which by the
therefore sincerely desires the salva-       ing is totally contrary to the teaching          gospel is preached unto you." The
tion of everyone. He expresses His           of Holy Scripture. The Scriptures                gospel which is preached is the eter-
love and desire by making His gener-         make it clear that the preaching is              nal Word of God which proceeds out
ous offer in the preaching.                  nothing less than an almighty power.             of His mouth.
    Thus the preaching is merely the             In Romans 1:16 we read, "For I                   Is God's Word powerless? Is it
presentation of certain information.         am not ashamed of the gospel of                  only the giving out of certain infor-
It is information about man and his          Christ: for it is the power of God . . . . II    mation? Does it express a helpless
need of salvation, information about         Hereitisthegospelwhichissaidtobe                 love and desire of God which must
God and His loving offer, and infor-         thepowerofGod. ButinICorinthians                 bow before the will of man?
mation about the need of man to ac-          1:18 we read, "For the preaching of                  No, God's Word is the almighty
cept that offer. `It is important infor-     the cross is to them that perish fool-           power of God.
mation, but only information. It is not      ishness; but unto us which are saved                 Isaiah 55:10,11  makes that very
power.                                       it is the power of God." Here it is the          clear: "For as the rain cometh  down,
    That idea of the preaching makes         preaching, not just the gospel, which            and the snow from heaven, and
the preaching so powerless that the          is said to be the power of God.                  returneth not thither, but watereth
ultimate result (whether or not a man            In these passages the word                   the earth, and maketh it bring forth
repents and believes) is not depen-          "power"istheGreekwordfromwhich                   and bud, that it may give seed to the
dent upon the preaching or upon              we get our English word "dynamite."              sower, andbread to the eater: So shall
                                             The preaching is the dynamite of God,            mywordbe that goethforth out of my
                                             a highly explosive power.                        mouth: it shall not return unto me
Rev. Houck  is pastor of Peace Protestant
Reformed Church in Lynwood,  lllinois.           That is because true preaching is            void,butitshallaccomplishthatwhich

3!%/StandardBearerlMay1,1993


 I please, and it shall prosper in the            reprobate wicked it is also a power          salvation and the power of God unto
 thing whereto I sent it." Just as the            unto damnation. For the reprobate, it        damnation.
 rain and snow which come down                    is a power which causes them to re-                   What is the nature of that power?
 from heaven do not return empty-                 main in their sins so that they do not       Wherein does the power of preaching
 handedbutbringforthfruit(seedand                 come to faith and repentance. It is a        lie?
 bread), so God's Word does not re-               power that causes them to continuein                  Negatively, it does not lie in the
 turn void. It brings forth the fruit             their hatred and rebellion against God.      extemalword,thesoundwhichcomes
 which God desires. It accomplishes               It causes their unbelief, hatred, and        from the preacher's mouth. Many
 the eternal will of God. Since the               rebellion to become more and more            believe that whatever power the
 preaching is the Word of God, it is the          manifested. The more they are under          preachinghas,itisfoundinthewords
 power of God which always brings                 the preaching, the more aggravated           themselves. The more eloquent, rea-
 about the sovereign will of God.                 they become.                                 soned, and persuasive the words, the
      That means that, for God's cho-                 This is the teaching of Holy Scrip-      more power the preaching will have.
 sen people, the power of the preach-             ture. In II Corinthians 2:15, 16 we          Thus all the emphasis is put upon the
 ing is the power of God unto salva-              read, "For we are unto God a sweet           outward presentation. The preacher
 tion. It is not an offer of salvation.           savour of Christ, in them that are           who can present the information in
 Nor is it merely a presentation of the           saved, andin them that perish: To the        the best manner is the best preacher.
. plan of salvation. For God's chosen             one we are the savour of death unto                   Closelyconnectedwiththatisthe
 people, it is the power that actually            death; and to the other the savour of        assumption that man is able to re-
 brings them to salvation.                        life unto life. And who is sufficient for    ceive that information and make a
      By the power of the preaching               these things?" Here the apostle is not       proper decision on that basis. The
 God's elect are drawn out of darkness            talking of himself and others as mere        external words of the preaching have
 into God's marvelous light. By the               men, but as preachers of the gospel.         to be presented well, so that man will
 power of the preaching they become               Preachers of the gospel are a sweet          see that what is preached is true, and
 new creatures in Christ. By the power            savour of Christ. As they preach,            upon the basis of that information
 of the preaching they turn from their            they have a sweet smell about them.          choose to accept God's offer of salva-
 hatred and rebellion against God and             ThatsweetsmellisthearomaofChrist.            tion.
 come to faith and repentance. All that           That sweet smell is not only a smell of               That, however, cannot be true. I
 belongs to conscious salvation comes             life unto life in them that are saved,       do not mean to undervalue the im-
 to the electby means of the preaching.           but it is a smell of death unto death in     portance of preaching in a good man-
 The preaching is the spiritual food              them that perish. It is an aroma which       ner, but that is not where the power
 that feeds their souls.                          brings death and damnation to the            lies.
      Notice Romans 196 again: "It is             reprobate wicked.                                     Is it not true that a preacher may
 the power of God unto salvation." I                  I Peter 28 says that Christ is, "...a    preach a very persuasive sermon, but
 Corinthians  1:X3 says, "...unto us              stone of stumbling, and a rock of            while some believe as a result of it,
 which are saved it (preaching) is the            offence, even to them which stumble          others do not? Is it not also true that
 power of God." In I Corinthians 1:21             at the word, being disobedient: where        a preacher may have a poor delivery,
 we read, ". ..it pleased God by the              unto also they were appointed."              and while some are not moved by it,
 foolishness of preaching to save them            Christ, as He is present in the preach-      others are? Regardless of the manner
 that believe."                                   ingof the gospel andbringsHis  Word          in which the external word is pre-
      The Heidelberg Catechism                    through the minister, is a rock upon         sented, there is this twofold effect.
 teaches the same thing. In Question              which those who were appointed unto                   Scripture teaches that it is not the
 and Answer 65 we read, "Since then               disobedience stumble and fall into           external word that is the power of the
 we are made partakers of Christ and              hell.                                        preaching. We read in I Corinthians
 all his benefits by faith only, whence               This is also the teaching of the         1:17, "For Christ sent me . . . to preach
 doth this faith proceed? From the                Reformed faith. In the Heidelberg            thegospel: notwithwisdomofwords,
 Holy Ghost, who works faith in our               Catechism, Question and Answer 83,           lest the cross of Christ shouldbemade
 hearts by the preaching of the gos-              we read, What are the keys of the            of none effect." Christ sent the apostle
 pel . . . . II In the Canons, Head 5, Article    kingdom of heaven? The preaching             Paul to preach the gospel, but not
 14, we read, "And as it hath pleased             of the holy gospel, and Christian dis-       with wisdom of words. If all a
 God, by the preaching of the gospel,             cipline...; by these two, the kingdom        preacher has is wisdom of words, the
 to begin this work of grace in us, so he         of heaven is opened to believers, and        preaching is of none effect. It has no
 preserves, continues, and perfects it            shut against unbelievers."                   power.
 by the hearing and reading of his                    Eventhoughitisnotpopular,itis                     In I Corinthians 2:14 we read,
 Word . ..."                                      the truth. The preaching is the power        "And I, brethren, when I came to you,
     However, the preaching is not                of God which works in two direc-             came not with excellency of speech or
 only a power unto salvation, for the             tions. It is the power of God unto           of wisdom.... And I was with you in

                                                                                                             May 1,1993/ StandardSearerl357


weakness, and in fear, and in much           receive it. The natural man not only        God heareth God's words: ye there-
trembling. And my speech and my              cannot accept any kind of offer which       fore hear them not, because ye are not
preaching was not with enticing              God is supposed to make in the              of God." .The natural man does not
words of man's wisdom . . . . N The          preaching, he cannot even spiritually       understand Christ's speech because
apostle Paul did not come, in his            understand it.                              he cannot spiritually hear that Word
preaching, with excellency of speech             TheproofisfoundinICorinthians           of truth. Only those who are of God
and wisdom. He came in weakness,             214, "But the natural man receiveth         can spiritually hear. If a person is to
fear, and trembling. His preaching           not the things of the Spirit of God: for    hear spiritually and understand the
was not with enticing words. There is        they are foolishness unto  him: nei-        preaching of the gospel, he must be
no power in all of that.                     ther can he know them, because they         regenerated, so that he has a new
    Further, the natural man is not          are spiritually discerned."                 heart, mind, and will which are made
able spiritually to receive and under-           Notice also the words of Jesus in       alive to the things of God. Apart from
standpersuasivepreaching. Hisheart,          John 8:43,47: "Why do ye not under-         that, all the good preaching in the
mind, and will are enslaved to sin. He       stand my speech? even because ye            world will not save a single soul.
is totally depraved, so that, no matter      cannot hear my word. . . . He that is of    (to be continued) 0
how good the preaching, he cannot




The Presbyterian Conflict, by Edwin          when the crunch finally comes'in the        Christian doctrines as the inspiration
H. Rian. Philadelphia: The Commit-           denomination, the modernists disci-         of Scripture, the virgin birth, and the
tee for the Historian of the Orthodox        pline the orthodox for their church         vicarious atonement of the cross. An
Presbyterian Church, 1992. 242 pp.           political sins, hiding from the people      article in a recent issue of the liberal
(paper). [Reviewed by the Editor.]           the real issue, which is doctrinal.         Union Seminary Quarterly Review
                                             Fourth, the worst enemies of the cause      (Vol. 45, No. 3-4, 1991), "Princeton
    From this exceptionally valuable         of Christ are not the outright modem-       and Union: The Dialogue of Mural-
history of the conflict between faith        ists, the Harry Emerson Fosdicks, but       ism," bears out that the-issue of toler-
and unbelief in the Presbyterian             the "moderates" - those ministers           ance was central to the struggle: "...
Church in the USA in the early 19OOs,        and elders who personally believe the       the `Auburn Affirmation,' the plea
there is much to be learned.                 basic truths but who will not take a        for toleration in the Presbyterian
    The book tells the story of the          stand, the C. E. Macartneys. They are       Church that so exercised J. Gresham
struggle between theological mod-            responsible for handing the church          Machen  and the conservative party"
ernism and genuine Christianity that         over to the forces of Arminianism and       ( p .   1 6 3 ) .
resulted in the formation of West-           modernism. Fifth, when reformation              It was not, however, a matter of
minsterTheologicalSeminaryandthe             comes, the faithful are a mere hand-        the tolerance of the modernists ver-
Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The            ful, a remnant. The issues were fun-        sus the intolerance of the orthodox.
champion of orthodoxy was J.                 damental doctrines of the Christian         Rather, the modernists were intoler-
Gresham Machen. The Presbyterian             faith, including the inspiration of the     ant of the intolerant insistence on
Conflict  gives the history of that con-     Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, and      sound doctrine on the part of the
troversy of which Machen's  Christi-         the substitutionary atonement. But          orthodox.
anity and Liberalism gives the doc-          only 34 ministers, 17 ruling elders,            Adding to the worth of the book
trinal issues.                               and 79 laymen went out of the huge          is the "Appendix" containing several
    What can be learned for the life of      PCUSA to form what is now the OK.           significant documents from the his-
Reformed and Presbyterian churches           Although others joined later, the OPC       tory. These include "The Auburn
today? Much in many ways. Among              has always been small. Sixth, the little    Affirmation"; the report of the "Com-
the lessons taught by this church his-       church newly reformed is immedi-            mittee for Reorganization of Princeton
tory are the following. First, the apos-     ately wracked with internal dissen-         Theological Seminary"; and the
tasy of a church is due in large part to     sion. Rev. Carl McIntire,  e.g., funda-     "Resolution of Executive Committee
the sinful failure of the orthodox -         mentalist rather than Reformed, soon        for Establishment of Westminster
the "conservatives" - over a long            went his own ecclesiastical way,            Theological Seminary."
period of time to discipline heretics.           Attheheartoftheconflictwasthe               This is required and fascinating
Second, the doctrines that are first         question of tolerance. The infamous         reading for Reformed and Presbyte-
challenged in a departing church are         Auburn Affirmation, signed by 1300          rian people. If we do not learn from
the distinctively Calvinistic doctrines,:    Presbyterian ministers, pleaded for         this history, we will have to repeat it,
primarily, predestination. Third,            tolerance of the denial of such basic                                             cl


Evangelism Activities                        brought this very worthwhile confer-        that they will be wearing uniforms to
  The Reformed Witness Commit-               ence to a close. If you are interestedin    school. They were not very excited
tee of the Hope PRC in Walker, MI            hearing more, tapes are available from      about that . . . but their mother thought
recently sponsored a two-day com-            Ken Elzinga, 3277 Lombard,                  it was wonderful.
bined SpringLecture/Conference  on           Grandville,  Ml 49418. Phone (616)
Personal Witnessing. This confer-            532-8737.                                   Congregational Activities
ence took place on the 2nd and 3rd of            The Reformed Witness Commit-                The congregation of the Trinity
April in Hope Church's auditorium.           tee of our Doon and Hull, IA PRCs,          PRC in Houston, TX is eagerly pre-
        On Friday evening Rev. R.            alongwith the First PRC of Edgerton,        paring for the arrival of Rev. Mahtani
VanOverloop, pastor of Bethel PRC            MN, sponsored a lecture on March 26         and his family from Singapore. Part
in Elk Grove Village, IL, spoke on           at the First CRC in Edgerton. Rev. M.       of their preparation involves the re-
"WinningSouls."  Rev. VanOverloop            DeVries,  pastor' of First PRC in           pair and remodeling of their parson-
based his remarks on Proverbs 11:30.         Edgerton, spoke on the timely topic,,       age. It is also noted that this work is
Using that text for a base, he empha-        "The Marks of the True Church." If          proceeding well- with the help also
sized that we do not have the power          you would like to: receives a.`cassette     of some members of our northern PR
to persuade, but that winning souls          tape of this lecture, write to Edgerton     churches who spend part of the win-
involves,  rather, our walk in righ-         PRC, P.O. Box 403, Edgerton, MN             ter season in Houston.
teousness. God uses us and our godly         56128.                                          The Hope Choral Society of the
conversation to influence others                 The Church Extension Commit-            Hope PRC in Walker, MI presented
around us.                                   tee of the Loveland, CO PRC also            their annual spring concert on March
        Rev. VanOverloop's  lecture was      sponsored a lecture recently. Rev. C.       21. This was followed one weeklater
followed by a slide presentation pre-        Terpstra, pastor of the South HoI;          by a concert given by the Faith Choral
sented by Rev. B. Woudenberg, pas-           land, IL PRC, was the featured              Society of the Faith PRC in Jenison,
tor of the Kalamazoo, MI PRC, on             speaker. He spoke on "Satanism." If         MI. These two concerts dealt with the
0 Witnessing Under Persecution."             any of our readers would like a cas-        theme of our Lord's suffering and
These slides dealt with the Hungar-          sette tape of this message, simply          death.
ian Reformed Churches in Romania             send$3.00alongwithyourrequestto:
and their history under the rule of          Loveland PRC, 705 E. 57th St.,              Young People's Activities
communism.          Rev. Woudenberg          Loveland, CO 80538.                             On Saturday, March 13, the young
showed slides taken on two trips to                                                      people of the west-Michigan area got
Romania. One could not help but be           MisSion Activities                          together with parents and other sup-
amazed that, even under a commu-                 Justa'coupleofnotesaboutLarne,          porters to make apple pies. On that
nist state which had no place for the        Northern Ireland for this issue. As         Saturday, in the gym of Heritage Chris-
church, the church still continued.          most of our readers know, the Hanko         tian School in Hudsonville, MI, these
On Saturday morning the conference           family arrived safely in Northern Ire-      young people made 1,700 pies. In the
was concluded with a lecture given           land on March 17. A family of 10 with       process, they set their own personal
by Rev. S. Key, pastor of the Randolph,      30 pieces of luggage! The shipping          best-record by making 1,300 of these
WI PRC, on the subject "Preparing            container with the rest of the Hankos'      pies before 1:00 P.M. These pies were
Yourself to Give an Answer."                 possessions arrived one week later.         then taken to different area churches
        Rev. Key stressed the truth found        Rev. VanBaren preached both.            where people who ordered them
inIPeter3:15,thatwemustalwaysbe              services the first Sunday the Hankos        could pick them up at certain desig-
ready to give an answer. Rev. Key            were there and conducted the cat-           nated times. This event has been held
gave very clear and concrete instruc-        echism classes and Bible study. Since       for two years now and it seems to get
tion on just what giving an answer is        then Rev. Hanko has gradually taken         better and better. Even the pies taste
all about, and what an awesome re-           over; Rev. and Mrs. VanBaren left           better - or should I say, they tasted
sponsibility we have as Christians.          Saturday, April 3 for England, leav-        better. We still have a couple in the
        A question and answer period         ing the Hankos on their own. It also        freezer, but not for long. Q
                                             looks like the Hanko children will be
                                             starting school April 26, when the last     Food for Thought
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in the Protestant    term of the school year begins. (The            Thosewholooktobehappymust,
Reformed Church ofHudsonville,Michi-         school year goes through June.) The         first look to be holy.
gun.                                         Hanko children have also discovered                                    Richard Sibbes

                                                                                                   May I,1993 I Standard Bearer I359


&G!!D                                                                                                                                 SECOND CLASS
    BHM                                                                                                                               Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                      Grandville, Michigan
   P.O. Box 603
   Grandville,   MI 49468-0603




                         N O T I C E ! !                                                                                       NOTICE!!
                                                                                                                     Randolph Protestant Reformed
     Do you know of the other Protestant Re-                                                                     Church is celebrating its 50th anniver-
formed magazine? Many of you have subscrip-                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                              sary this year. A commemorative
tions to other Reformed publications, but what do               On May 27, 1993, our parents,                    program and picnic are being planned
you know about the Beacon L/g/r&P In the late                   PROF. and MRS. HERMAN                      '     for the weekend of September 17-l 9,
1930s an organization was started in the Chicago                               HANKO,                            1993. More details available later.
area by young people of the Protestant Reformed            will celebrate, the Lord willing, their
Churches, This organization was called the Fed-                                                                  Former members and all friends of
eration of Protestant Reformed Young People's              40th wedding anniversary.                             Randolph Protestant Reformed
Societies, The purpose was to unite and provide                 We are thankful to our God for                   Church are invited to join us for this
spiritualediicationforthemembersandtopromote               giving us godly parents, who brought                  special occasion.
and maintain the doctrinal standards of the PRC.           us up in the fear of His holy name. We
One of the means proposed tofulfill theirobjectives        pray that God will continue to bless                            TEACHER NEEDED!
was the publication of a paper targeting the young         and keep them in all their ways. '                        The Board of Protestant Reformed
people. In 1941, the first issue of the Beacon                  "Lord, thou hast been our dwelling               Special Education is seeking appli-
Lights was published. This was followed by four            place in all generations" (Psalm 90:l).
more, and was met with so great a response that                                                                  cants for a teaching position in the
                                                           0    Ron and Nancy Hanko
Rev. C. Hanko,thefirsteditor-in-chief, proclaimed,                                                               self-contained classroom at Heritage
                                                           0    Neal and Jeanne Hanko
The Beacon L Ighfs is here to stay!"                       0  Kenand   Mary Hanko                                Christian School. Interested individu-
     Through World War II, the Beacon Lights               0    Steve and Bev Hanko                              als should contact Greg VanOverloop
was a source of comfort for 400 or more service-           0    Carlyle and Marcia Miersma                       (616) 669-0665.
men, and it remained in our churches through the           8  T i m   Henko
trials in 1953. Though the magazine has seen               0    Daniel and Sharon Kleyn                                    CALL TO SYNOD!!
manychanges,itisstillverymuchthesame.  Many                8 Karen Hanko                                             Synod 1992 appointed  Hud-
changes in technology have taken place, but the                   20 grandchildren
                                                                                       &and Rapids, Michigan     sonville (Ml) Protestant Reformed
magazine is printed still on a 40.year-old  printing
press. We have had 16 different editors, from                                                                    Church the calling church for the 1993
                                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
ministers, to teachers, to other lay people. Our                                                                 Synod.
currentissuescontainmanyofthesametopicsand                      The Lord willing on May 1,1993,                      The Cansistory hereby notifies
articles as werefound in the first issue-editorials,       our parents and grandparents,                         our churches that the 1993 Synod of
current events, Bible outlines, and book reviews.                  MR. and MRS. ROBERT                           the Protestant Reformed Churches in
Other topics no longer apply, such as Military                         BIANKESPOOR,                              Americawill convene, the Lord willing,
Mailbag. Oursubscriptionstotalabout93Qand the              celebrate their 25th wedding anniver-                 on Tuesday, June 8,1993 at 9:00 A.M.
magazine is sent to young people in at least seven         sary. We are thankful to our heavenly                 in the Hudsonville (Ml) Protestant Re-
different  countries.                                      Father for giving us God-fearing par-                 formed Church.
      Currently, we are in our 52nd volume. A new          ents. We thank the Lord for the years
editor and several new staff members have re-                                                                        The Pre-Synodical Service will be
                                                           they have shared, and for the con-
cently been appointed. We have adopted a new                                                                     held on Monday evening, June 7, at
                                                           stant love, the covenant instruction,
format for the magazine, we are exploring new                                                                    7:30 PM. Rev. G. VanBaren, presi-
ideas, and we share a renewed commitment to this           and the guidance they have given us                   dent of the 1992 Synod, will preach
causeofthe Kingdomof Christ. Webelievethatthe              through the years. May the Lord                       the sermon. Synodical delegates are
Beacon  Lig/& has served to spread the Word of             continueto bless them and keep them                   requested to meet with the Consistoty
God and to strengthen Reformed believers in the            in His care in the years ahead. "But                  before the service.
midst of the world, and that by God's grace it will        the mercy of the Lord is from everlast-                   Delegates in need of lodging
continue to do so.                                         ing to everlasting upon them that fear                should contact Mr. Henry Boer, 7872
      Some of you have received a complimentary            him, and his righteousness unto
issue of the Beacon Lights. If you have not, and                                                                 Cardinal Dr., Jenison, Ml 49428.
                                                           children's children" (Psalm 103:17).
are interested in receiving this magazine, please                                                                Phone: (616) 669-9433.
                                                           8    Paul and Cheryl DeRoon
send your requests to Beacon Lights, P.O. Box                                                                                               Consistory of
                                                                  Dolan, Dayna
375, Jenison, Ml 49426.                                    8    Brenda, Rachel, Sharla, Kathie,                      Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
                          For the Beacon Lights  staff,    Timothy, Daniel                                                                        Church
                                      Steve Lofferman                                           Qeorge,  Iowa                         Henry Boer, Clerk.

36O/Standa&earerlMayl,lgg3


