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                                                     See "The Songs of Zion" - page 402


Vol. 6Y, No. 17
June, 2993


CONTENTS:                                                                                     .'                        -                       i                       ' June,                                                                          1993                                 IHt                          .~
                                                  >                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 STANDARD                                                    i
`Meditation  -  Rev. Cornelius  Hank0                                                                               ,!                                                           `,
             The Foretaste of Eternal Joy . ..m . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . a* . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s.. 387                                                                      BWER
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                     /
             Aloof from the Alliance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389                           ISSN 0362-4692
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    391
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker .,,,, :.,: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       f . . . . . . . . .          394           Semi-monthly, except mmthiy during June,July,  end August.
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Georgti  C: Lubbers                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  4949. Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 46416. Second Cl=
             The  Proper  Spiritual Conduct of Christian Women (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ;; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              " 395                Postage raid at Giandville, Michigan.
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Portmsster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
              Called To Be a Separate People. . . ..i.*.... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*....*.......* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . . . . . a. . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . .397                                                                     P.O. mx 603;Grandvills,  MI 46466-0603.
Church and State - Mr. James Linfing                                                                                      '                                                                                                                                                        EDlTORfAL  C&MlllEE
              Current Issues In Church and State  La& . ...* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * ,,.,..,,.,..,, .* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .,.400                                                                                Editor. Prof. David J. Engelsma
Special Feature - Rev. R.B. Laming                                                                                        i                                                                                                                                                        Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
             The Songs of Zion . ..a . . . . . . . . ...**.. . . . . . . . . ..A . . . . . . . ..*....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..* . . . . . . 402                                                ManaQinQ Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . .*... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * ,.,,, ""..f . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i . . . . . . 405                 DEPARTMENT EDITORS
News From Our Churches  - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .406                                                                                 Rev'Ronald  Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker. Rev. Arie
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   denHartog. Rev. Barry Gritters,  Mr. Fred Hanko, Prof. Herman
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Hanko, Rev. John Hsys, Rev. Steven Key, Rev: Kenneth
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Poole, Rev. Jason Kmtaring, Rev. Dale Kulper, Mr. James
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Lanting, Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  JamesSlopsema.  Rev. Charlesierpstra,  Rev. GlseVanBaren,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Rev. RonaldVsnCverfwp, Mr. Eenjamln  Wlgger,  Rev. Bernard
             ThesongbookusedbytheProtestantReformedChurchesintheirpublicworshipis
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             ThePsuZter.                          Woudenberg.
All of us know that this bookis a metrical version of the Psalms, representing the Commitment of the                                                                                                                                                                               EDITORIAL OFFiCE               CHURCH NEWS EDfTOR
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386 /Standard Bearer I June, 1993


        The Foretaste of. Eternal Joy

                                               Hislightwesee thelight (Psalm36:9).         needs, far more than we can ask or
       Rejoice in the Lord alwai: and again    "For this God is our God for ever and       think. He watches over us, cares for
I say, Rejoice.                                ever: he will be our guide even unto        us, and even uses us for the ingather-
                          Philippians  44      death" (Psalm 48:14).                       ing of His church and the coming of
                                                   We have reason to rejoice in all        His kingdom. He entrusts to us His
       Rejoice!                                the works of God's hands, for "the          holy, infallibly inspired Word, His
        God's people are a happy, a heavens declare the glory of God:.                     own Self-revelation, wherein He re-
blessed people.                                and the firmament shewethhis handi-         veals to-us the secrets of His heart, His
       Have you noticed how often              work. Day unto day uttereth speech,         eternal thoughts, plans, and prom-
Scripture speaks of the joy, the happi-'       and night unto night shewethknowl-          ises, for the purpose of uniting us
ness, and the blessedness of the people        .edge" (Psalm 19:1,2).                      with Himself in heavenly perfection
of God? Have you taken note of the.                We rejoice in our Lord Jesus            and fellowship. By faith we embrace
many times we are `encouraged,.                Christ, of whom the prophet of,old          Him as the God of our salvation in
urged, and even admonished to re-              `declared, "Rejoice greatly, 0 daugh-       Jesus Christ, in whom is all the full-
joice? Or have you considered how              ter of Zion;  *shout,  0 daughter of        ness of blessedness.
often the church of Jesus Christ has           Jerusalem: behold, thy king cometh              And, as if this were a small thing,
spontaneouslybrokenforthintosing-              unto thee: he is just, and having           He has planned, has merited, and
ing?                                           salvation, lowly, and riding upon an        now isgreparing  for us a Home with
       Think of Psalm 95:1, fi 0 come, let     ass, and upon the colt the foal of an       Him in glory, where we shall eter-
us sing unto the Lord: let us make a           ass" (Zech. 9:9).                           nally sing the song of Moses and the
joyful noise unto the rock of our sal-             `His birth was announced by the         Lamb.
vation."                                       angel who said to the shepherds, "Fear               *  *  *  *  *  Y  *
       Or again, "Make a joyful noise          not, for, behold, I bring you good              Rejoice always!
unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the.        tidings of great joy, which shall be to         This joy is unique, for it is not a
Lord with gladness, come into his              all people" (Luke.2:lO).  He now has a      momentary experience, soon to be
presence with singing" (Psalm lOo':l,          name above all names. Every knee            lost in the.routine or turmoil of our
2).                                            must bow and every tongue must              daily existence.
       We have good reason to rejoice,         confess that He is Lord, to the glory of        Earthly joys at best are only for
for "Great is the Lord, and greatly to         the Father (Phil. 2:9-11).                  the moment. We often plan for them
be praised in the city of our God, in              We rejoice as church of Jesus           some time in advance, only to dis-
the mountain of his holiness" (Psalm           Christ in the midst of this present         cover that the anticipation was better
4&l). He is the living God, who lives          world. `~Glorious  things are spoken        than the reality. For these joys belong
His own blessed life in intimate cov-          of thee, 0 city of God" (Psalm 823).        to the passing things of this world.
enant fellowship as three Persons in.          "How amiable are thy tabernacles, 0             Still worse, hidden sorrows,
one divine essence. He delights e&r--          Lord of hosts! Blessed are they that        griefs, and disappointments interfere
nally in all His virtues and all His' dwell in thy house: they will be still               with a full enjoyment of the happy
mighty works. He is the Light, in              praising thee" (Psalm 84:1,4).              occasion. Natural man never experi-
whom is no darkness whatever. In                   God's people are very special in        ences true, pure joy.
                                               the eyes of God. "Ye are a chosen              The joy of which Scripture speaks
                                               generation, a royal priesthood, an holy     is unhampered, complete, all com-
                                               nation, a peculiar people; that ye          prehensive, eternal. Even the sor-
                                               should shew forth the praises of him        rows of this present time cannot frus-
                                               who hath called you.out  of darkness        trate it. It is true that many are the
                       "
Rev. Hanko  is a minister emeritus in the      into his marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9).    afflictions of the righteous; yet the
Protestant Reformed Churches.                      Our God supplies all our daily          apostle Peter speaks of smiling

                                                                                                    June, 1993 I Standard Bearer I387


     through our tears. Referring to the          earthly ministry the joy of doing His             displeasing to the Lord. Nor are we to
     inheritance that awaits us in the heav-      Father's will. As the Man of Sorrows              take all His bounties and blessings for
     ens he says, Wherein ye greatly re:          He was burdened with the guilt of                 granted, as if they were coming to us
     joice, though now for a season, if need      our sin that brought Him to the cross,            with much more.
     be, ye are in heaviness through maniL        yet He always had the assurance that                  Besides that, only a joyful heart is
     fold temptations" (I Peter  1:6).            He was well pleasing to God.                      truly thankful and joins the assembly
          James in his epistle tells us, "My               Is it not remarkable that even in        of the saints in a wholehearted song of
     brethren, count it all joy, when ye fall     the hour of utter darkness on                     praise. So often we offend God when
     into divers temptations; knowing that        Golgotha, when all the billows of di-             we thank him with a cold, formal
     the trying of your faith worketh pa,         vine wrath continued to sweep over                thanks, or sing with the lips, while
     tience"  (James 1:2,3).                      Him, causing Him to suffer indescrib-             our hearts are not in it.
         Jesus adds to that, "Blessed are         able anguish of hellish torments,                     Let us sing a new song to Jehovah
     ye, when men revile you, and perset          Psalm22stillranginHissou1,causing                 for the wonders He has wrought!
     cute you, and shall say all manner of        Him to reach out to God with the                  Give Him the thanks and praise due
     evil against you falsely, for my sake.       bitter cry, "My God, My God, why                  to Him!
     Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for          hast thou forsaken me?"                                      Y  *  *  *  *  *  *
     great is your reward in heaven: for so                This Christ is now the Lord of               Rejoice always!
     persecuted they the prophets which           glory who blesses us with every spiri-                The guilt of sin may make all
     were before you" (Matt. 5:11,12).            tualblessing for time and eternity. He            prayer impossible and may close the
          That makes it possible for the          hasuniteduswithHimbythebondof                     heavens to you. But he who confesses
     believers to sing psalms in the night;       faith, so that we can confess, "I belong          and forsakes his sin finds mercy. How
     We are reminded of Paul and Silas            to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ."              blest is he whose trespass hath freely
     sitting with feet and arms cramped in        We can say triumphantly with the                  been forgiven, whose sin is wholly
     stocks, the bloody, raw wounds of            apostle Paul, "I am crucified with                covered before the sight of heaven.
     their backs pressed against the cold         Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I,               Daily burdens may weigh so
     stone wall, singingpsalms of praise to       but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20).             heavily upon you that you cannot go
     God in the long hours of the night. j                 "The Lord my Shepherd holds              on. The way is too steep, too dark, to
          We as children of God are able,         me within His tender care, and with               threatening to carry on. Depression
     and therefore are encouraged, to  re-        His flock He folds me, no want shall              may have its grip on you. The night
     joice always!                                find me there. In pastures green He               maybe so dark that there seems to be
                +  *  Y  $  *  Ft  *              leads me, with plenty I am blest; by              no dawn; it may seem virtually im-
          Rejoice in the Lord!                    quiet streams He leads me and makes               possible to face the day.
          There is no true joy apart from         me safely rest" (Psalter No. 55).                     Or you may be suffering from
     Him.                                                  Christ creates in us a spiritual joy     constant and- severe pain. You are
         Joy! Who does not seekit?  We are        that the world cannot know, for this              never without it. Sorrow, disappoint-
     told to have a good day, or a good           joy belongs to the things that the eye            ment, or even the loss of a dear one
     weekend. We are surrounded with a,           cannot see, the ear cannot hear, and              may,flood  your soul with grief.
     superficial mirth that cannot satisfy.:      never entered into the heart of man.                  You may experience signs of ap-
          Many seek their happiness in en?                 It is the beginning, the foretaste of    proaching death, telling you to set
     tertainments, sports, or hard-rock           our eternal joy. For Christ is Lord               your house in order for the end of the
     music. Many others only add to their         indeed! He is the source of our lives,            way is near. The last dark stretch of
     misery by trying to drown their cares        the power that sustains our lives, the            the valley of the shadow of death
     in wild orgies, immoral living,              purpose and goal of our lives. "For to            looms up before you.
     drunken debauchery,, or drugs. Al            me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"             Are you tempted by the devil, the
     world that is at enmity with God             (Phil. 1:21).                                     world, or your own sinful flesh to a
     knows no peace, no contentment, and                   We rejoice in the Lord with a joy        point almost beyond endurance?
     certainly no true happiness.                 unspeakable and full of glory (I Peter                Whatever the situation may be,
          True happiness is only from and,        1:8).                                             and that without exception, our Lord
     only in the Lord.                                         + *  Y  *  +  *  *                   says: Rejoice!
          Our God lives a life of perfect joy.        .Rejoice! Again I say: Rejoice!                   You ask, "Rejoice because I have
     He rejoices in His glorious divine,                   This is not merely Paul who              such a bitter struggle?" No, not be-
     perfection, and He delights in the:          speaks. God Himself is addressing                 cause of your grief, but because you
     intimate blessedness of covenant fel-,       His people in His infallible Word.                have a deep-seated joy that far ex-
     lowship as Father, Son, and Holy,                     God says this to you! Do you             ceeds any present suffering and that
     Spirit.                                      listen and hear Him speak? He is very             sustains you even to the end.
         Christ, the great Servant of Jeho-'      insistent that His people rejoice, for a              Count it all joy, for you know that
     vah, experienced throughout His'             dissatisfied and grumbling spirit is              all things come to us from God's Fa-

I    388  /Standard Bearer I June, 1993


therly hand. With Job you can say,          ceedingly, for He is preparing you for     this assurance our God adds: Again
"The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken         your place in glory (I Peter 1:7). His     I say: Rejoice!
away; blessed be the name of the            grace is sufficient for you; for His           Sing to the Lord, sing His praise,
Lord" (Job 1:21).                           strength is made perfect through                    all ye people,
    God tries you sorely, but He tries      weakness (II Cor. 12:9). You have              New be your song as new honors
in love. He casts you into the refiner's    every reason to rejoice through your                Ye PaYi
fire to give you endurance for trials       tears and to be exceeding glad, for            Sing of His majesty, bless Him
still to come (James 1:2-4). He has         great is your reward in heaven (Matt.               forever,
promised that He will never leave nor       5:12; II Cor. 4:17).                           Show His salvation from day to
forsake you (Heb. 13:5). Rejoice ex-            Realizing how sorely we need                    day!  o





                Aloof from the Alliance

    The Alliance' of Reformed               to bring Reformed and Presbyterian         contact with "other denominations"
Churches (ARC) is an organization           denominations together in a united         (cf. "Constitution of the Committee
made up of Christian Reformed con-          Reformed church. This ecumenical           for Contact with Other Churches,"
gregations unhappy with the Chris-          function of ARC has become promi-          V.). The Alliance represents no de-
tian Reformed Church (CRC) and of           nent. The leaders of the organization      nomination. It is not a synod or a
independent churches that have se-          have as a main purpose the forming         general assembly. It is not the proper
ceded from the CRC. It began in 1984        of a new church federation across          object of PR contact according to the
as a "Consistorial Conference" of CR        denominational lines.                      constitution itself of the  PR commit-
consistories that objected to develop-          The Protestant Reformed                tee for contact.
ments in the CRC and wanted to plot         Churches (PRC) receive invitation to           At least half the churches in the
strategy in opposing these develop-         sendofficialrepresentatives to ARC's       Alliance are congregations that are
ments. In 1990 the group changed its        annual meeting.                            still member churches of the CRC. By
name to "Christian Reformed Alli-               The PRC ought to remain aloof          sending representatives through their
ance" (CRA).                                from the Alliance. They ought to           synodical committee for contact, the
    CRA became ARC in 1991. This            remain aloof by synodical decision.        PRC are initiating contact that is to
last change of name was due to the              There are church political rea-        manifest the unity and catholicity of
fact that by 1991 a number of member        sons for staying aloof. The Alliance is    the church with individual congrega-
churches had left the CRC and were,         not an ecclesiastical organization. It     tions apart from the denomination to
therefore, no longer CR. Also, the          is not a church assembly recognized        which these congregations belong.
leaders of the organization increas-        by the Church Order of Dordt in Ar-        This is disorderly.
ingly were of a mind to make it a           ticle 29. Yet it is doing work that            Inseekingtheunityofthechurch,
means to unitevarious Reformed and          belongs to the church, specifically to     the PRC may have official contact
Presbyterian churches.                      the synod as the gathering of the          with other denominations and with
    The Alliance serves several pur-        churches of a denomination: the work       individual congregations that find
poses. First, it works at getting con-      of supervising missions, discipline,       themselves outside a denominational
gregations and people to leave the          and ministerial candidates and the         bond.
CRC. Second, it intends to provide          work of ecumenicity. The PRC must              Thesechurchpoliticalreasonsare
some direction, help, cooperation,          not countenance this.                      important. They have to do with the
fellowship, and structure to the inde-          Through theircommitteeforcon-          PRC's observing good order and de-
pendent churches that have left the         tact with other churches, the PRC          cency in the church of Christ (I Cor.
CRC. Although it is not a synod, it         seek to manifest the unity and catho-      14:40; Art. 1 of the Church Order of
tries to act like one. Third, it desires    licity of the church on earth through      Dordt).

                                                                                                  June, 1993  I Standard Bearer I399


          There is an ethical reason why the             the PRC leave the impression that            unitedchurchenvisionedbythelead-
     PRC must stay aloof from the Allii                  they approve the Alliance, what it           ers.
     ante. ThePRCmustnotinvolvethem;                     stands for, what it has done, and what               But the Alliance and its leader-
     selves in any way with the past;                    it is doing. One of the leaders of the       ship are thoroughly Christian Re-
     present, or future activities of the                Alliance drew this conclusion from           formed. Half the churches are mem-
     Alliance in carrying on its struggle                the presence of official observers from      bers of the CRC; the other half, al-
     with the CRC.                                       the PRC at the meeting of the Alliance       though recently seceded from the
          There is an orderly way of deal-               last November. In a speech to the            denomination, are, it must be thought,
     ing with heresy and unholiness in a                 meeting that was reported in Chris-          Christian Reformed in theology. Be-
     Reformed denomination of churches;                  tian Renewal,  December 21, 1992,            tween the PRC and the CRC stand the
     This is the way of sound preaching;                 this minister said:                          doctrine of common grace adopted
     faithful discipline; and, as particui                                                            by the CRC in 1924 and the church
     larly regards the unrighteous  deci:                  We feel we made a clear trumpet            political actions of the CRC in depos-
     sions of major assemblies, protest and                sound. We feel because we made             ing officebearers for opposing this
     appeal according to Article 31 of the                 that clear trumpet sound we have           doctrine. There can and will be no
     Church Order of Dordt.There are                       brothers here today with us from           ecumenical relations between the PRC
     also methods of dealing with errors                   Canadian Reformed, Protestant Re-
                                                           formed and OK churches saying,             and the CRC, or between the PRC and
     thatarerevolutionaryandschismatic:                    brothers, you stand for what we be-        independent CR congregations, that
     At least one leading church in the                    lieve and we think we would like to        ignore the doctrine of common grace.
     Alliance, while still within the CRC,                 become a part of you. . . .(p. 5)                  The stand of the Alliance against
     publicly rejected Article 31's way of                                                            women in office does not suddenly
     protest and appeal, publicly  re;                       Theministerwasmistaken. Send-            signal basic agreement between the
     nounced  synodical authority, and                   ing observers did not indicate ap-           Alliance churches and the PRC. The
     publicly agitated against synodical                 proval of the Alliance on the part of        controversy of the PRC with the CRC,
     decisions. At least one leader in the               the PRC, muchless a desire tobecome          forced upon the PRC by the CRC,
     Alliance, while still a member in the               part of the Alliance. Article 35 of the      does not have to do with women in
     CRC, resorted to tactics against fel{               "Acts of Synod" of the PRC, 1992             office, or with theistic evolution, or
     low officebearers that were utterly                 clearly shows that the motivation of         even with a human, fallible Bible. The
     reprehensible.                                      the synod of South Holland was sim-          controversy of the PRC with the CRC
          Was not the Alliance itself or&i:              ply the desire to seek the unity of the      by the present time extends to all
     nally an illegitimate method of resist!             church. Besides, synod supposed that         these errors, and more. But the con-
     ing the apostasy of the CRC? Is it not              the delegation from the PRC would            troversy of the PRC with the CRC at
     presently an illegitimate method for                have the opportunity to address the          its heart concerns sovereign, particu-
     those congregations and officebearers               Alliance concerning the issues that          lar grace and the antithesis.
     who retain still their membership in                divide the CRC and the PRC and that                  Where CR churches and
     the CRC? Where do the Church Or-                    are responsible for the falling away of      officebearers attempt church union
     der of Dordt and the Reformed con-,                 the CRC from the Reformed faith in           while ignoring these doctrines, there
     fessions authorize the banding to{                  large part. The PRC have always been         the PRC must stand aloof.
     gether of congregations in an nalli<                willing to discuss the issues. Never-                If the PRC ought to remain aloof
     ante" in order to fight the denomina-               theless, the PRC should reckon with          from the Alliance, they ought also to
     tiontowhichtheybelongandinwhich                     the fact that their participation in the     remain aloof from the Alliance's fl Con-
     they persist in remaining? Where,                   Alliance exposes them to the percep-         fessional Conferences for Reformed
     does the Reformed doctrine of the!                  tion that they approve this organiza-        Unity." These are conferences cre-
     church approve the idea and practice;               tion, ifit does not make them respon-        ated by a self-appointed committee
     of the "ecclesiola in ecclesia II ("the little,:    sible for the Alliance itself and all its    and authorized by the Alliance that
     purechurchinthe apostateinstitute")!                actions.                                     are supposed to draw up new confes-
     as the right response to the doctrinal                  The PRC ought to remain aloof            sions on evolutionism, egalitarianism,
     and moral decline of one's denomina-:               from the Alliance also for a doctrinal       and ecclesiology.
     tion?                                               reason. The leaders of the Alliance                  New confessions on these issues
          The PRC, like their members per-'              have ecumenicity as a main purpose           are unnecessary. The "Three Forms
     sonally, are forbidden by the apostle:              of the organization. The Alliance has        of Unity" adequately set forth the
     of Christ to make themselves "par-i                 become a provisional instrument to           truths of creation; God-ordained au-
     taker of other men's. sins" (I Tim.:                achieve a united Reformed church.            thority in family, church, labor, and
     5:22).. They must remain aloof from:                Invitation to the PRC to be repre-           government; and the church. What
     the Alliance.                                       sented at the Alliance offers the PRC        the cause of the Reformed faith at the
          By involving themselves with the!              the opportunity to become part of the        end of the20th century needs are men
     Alliance through official delegation:                                                            and churches that will uphold and

~    390 /Standard Bearer I June, 1993


defend the confessions.                    of the Alliance that "anchors" these        It is a difficult, disappointing busi-
    Also, the entire enterprise is         conferences for Reformed unity are          ness. Only those who love the truth
unecclesiastical, "unchurchly." The        not able to be bound together by the        see it through. Even then, they are
idea and the topics originated with a      Spirit of Christ in synodical federa-       merely the means. Establishing the
self-appointed committee, not with         tion, which is the expression of Re-        Reformed churchis  the workof Christ.
the churches. Realizing this, the com-     formed unity. No Reformed unity                 Ifyoumust,inobediencetoChrist
mittee requested that the project be       here! But these churches and these          re-form the church. Form it as a truly
"anchored" in the Alliance. But the        men are going to accomplish Re-             Reformed denomination of churches
Alliance is as unecclesiastical as the     formed unity for the rest of us!            that are one in the doctrine of the
committee. Where is the church in all          May the PRC stand aloof.                "Three Forms of Unity" and one in
this? And the workis the drawing up            In its invitation to the PRC the        the institution and government of the
of the church's creeds! Fact is, the       Alliance asks for counsel.                  Church Order of Dordt. It must be
churches are deliberately bypassed.            I offer mine on this vital, precious    synodical according to the Church
For there are Reformed and Presbyte-       matter of Reformed unity to the             Order of Dordt. It must not be an
rian churches that might have called       churches that secede from the CRC.          association of independent congre-
such conferences.                              Join a denomination of Reformed         gations according to the Cambridge
    The agenda is arbitrary. Why not       churches that shows the marks of the        Platform.
a conference on the antithesis? Why        true church as stated in Article 29 of          Then, Christ havingblessed your
not a conference on the scandal of         the Belgic Confession. This is your         work, seek the existing Reformed and
divorce and remarriage in Reformed         calling as regards seeking Reformed         Presbyterian churches in contact and
churches, an evil that strikes at the      unity according to Article 28 of the        conference in order to discuss and
very heart of the covenant and cov-        Belgic Confession: "All men are in          settle issues of difference on the basis
enantal life?                              duty bound to join and unite them-          of Scripture as set forth in the Re-
    There is something strange about       selves with it (the true church-DJE),       formed confessions. In this way, you
the project. The aim is "Reformed          maintaining the unity of the Church."       may hope that true unity will mani-
Unity." This is the name of the com-           Ifyoucannotdothis,becauseyou            fest itself in church union.
mittee and of the conferences. But         find serious doctrinal error in every           You may be sure that the PRC are
thosewhoundertaketheprojectthem-           denomination, form the church anew          ready to help in this work and that
selves lack this very thing. Some are      on the basis of the Reformed creeds.        they will be willing to have contact.
members of the CRC, while others           But know from the outset that the               They will not stand aloof. 0
have seceded from the CRC. No              establishing of a Reformed denomi-                                            --DE
Reformed unity here! The churches          nation of churches is not child's play.




n A Favorite Publication                   Belgic Confession to aid us in our          the means of salvation is in no way to
    This letter is long overdue. For       midweek study of the confession. As         be equated with faith as the conliition
quite a while I have been planning to      well, there are several booklets put        for salvation.
write to express how much I appreci-       out by diff erent Evangelism Commit-            As an ex-Presbyterian Church in
ate the articles in the StandardBearer.    tees of the PRC that are in our litera-     America pastor, I was reminded by
It has quickly become one of my fa-        ture rackin the foyer. The last item of     the excellent article, "Concemedl'res-
vorite publications. Whereas I re-         information is the decision of our          byterians," by Pastor E.C. Case, of
ceive certain publications and put         consistory to take up offerings from        some of the concerns I had while in
them in a pile until1 have time to skim    time to time for the PR Seminary's          the PCA. The Lord used the very
through them, I eagerly read the SB        building program.                           issues raised in the article along with
upon receiving it.                             I read with interest the recent         other denominational issues to make
    The readers of the  SB will be         "Presbyterian" editionof the SB (May        me willing to leave the PCA for the
interested to find out that our church,    1,1993). I read the Harbinger issue of      OCRC.
Grand Valley Orthodox Christian            January, 1993, referred to in the edito-        I, along with many others, am
Reformed Church in Grand Rapids,           rial of May 1, and agree with the           greatly encouraged by the stand the
uses Professor Herman Hoeksema's           editor of the SB that Dr. Crick con-        PRC take on the inspiration and infal-
Triple Knowledge as the textbook in        fuses the responsibility of man to be-      libility of the Bible, sovereign and
one of our catechism classes. We also      lieve with faith as a condition to sal-     particular grace, and the calling of
have been using with great profit Pro-     vation that must be fulfilled by man.       Christians to antithetical living. May
fessor Hoeksema's outlines on the          God-given faith exercised by man as         our gracious covenant God continue

                                                                                                June, 1993 I Standard Bearer I391


r

     to use you as a clear, consistent, and                      study of the issue by the Protestant              The Reformation and our Cat-
     strong voice for the Reformed faith:                        Reformed Churches.                           echism teach so2a Scriptura.  The Cat-
     With warmest regards in Christ our                                                           - Ed.       echism is derived from Scripture,
     Lord.       -                                                                                            defends Scriptures, and points to
                        Bruce C. Davis, Pastoi                   n Regularly Explaining the                   Scripture as our only rule in life. Not
       Grand Valley Orthodox Christian                           Heidelberg Catechism                         the other way around. It is my under-
                           Reformed Church                                                                    standing that the men who wrote the
                           Grand Rapids, ML'                         With all due respect to your bet-        Catechism, as Art. 68 states is its pur-
                                                                 ter wisdom and experience, it seems          pose, simply wanted to insure that
     n Material on Rebaptism                      I              to me that you have missed the point         the teachings of Scripture compre-
                                                                 of Mr. Flikkema's questionin the April
         Would you be so kind as to for-                                                                      hended in the Heidelberg Catechism
                                                                 15th issue of our Standard Bearer.
     ward a copy of the research carried                                                                      would not be ignored by ministers
                                                                     The questioner asked, "Is the se-
     out by the Synod of the Protestant                                                                       who might, due to human weakness,
                                                                 lecting of a text or passage of Scrip-
     Reformed Churches dealing with the,                                                                      personal preferences or other reasons,
                                                                 ture as the basis for the sermon a
     question of rebaptism, to be found in                                                                    leave some of these truths unex-
                                                                 proper or better method than basing
     the 1988 "Acts of Synod and Yearbook                                                                     plained.
                                                                 the sermon on the Lord's Day itself?"
     of the Protestant Reformed Churches!                                                                                                 Ken DeJong
                                                                     Your answer at first seemed to
     in America" as mentioned in the cur-'                                                                                               Lansing, IL
                                                                 say no, for you write, II... ministers in
     rent issue of the  Standard Bearei                                                                       Response:
                                                                 the Protestant Reformed Churches
     (April 1,1993)?                                                                                               The point of Mr. Flikkema'sques-
                                                                 have no choice..." and that `I... they
         With thanks to the Editorial Corn-:                                                                  tion is, ought the sermon be based on
                                                                 must preach on the Heidelberg Cat-
     mittee for the soundness of that reply,                                                                  a text of Scripture or ought the ser-
                                                                 echism." But then you also write, "It
     to the question raised.                                                                                  mon be based on the Lord's Day it-
                                                                 is customary in the Protestant Re-
                                (Rev.) A. Strike                                                              self? Our answer is this: the sermon
                                                                 formed Churches for the minister to
                                Gwent, Wales,                                                                 must be based on the Lord's Day
                                                                 introduce the sermon by quoting one
                            United Kingdom;                                                                   itself.
                                                                 or a few texts/passages of scripture
     Response:                                                                                                     Thismeansthatthepreachermust
                                                                 and saying: `On the basis of this (or
         Thematerialyourequestisonthe;                                                                        not simply read the Lord's Day and
                                                                 these) and many other passages of
     way.                         -Ed.                 :                                                      then proceed to expound a text or
                                                                 Scripture is based the instruction of        passage of Scripture. He must ex-
                                                                 Lord's Day I.' ti
     n Baptism by Rome                                 :                                                      plain the sum of doctrine containedin
                                                                     Is this "customary" practice not         theLord'sDayitself.  Throughout the
         ImustsaythatIstronglydisagreei                          as proper and is it not as good?             sermon the preacher must make plain
     with the article on "Rebaptism" (cf.1                           To quote Art. 68 of our Church           to the congregation how the particu-
     "The Reader Asks" in the April 1,1993  j                    Order does not answer the question.          lar doctrine set forth in the Lord's
     issue of the Standard Bearer). I am a \                     The use or non-use of a biblical text is     Day is an accurate summary of what
     former Roman Catholic, a former:                            not the concern of Art. 68. The pur-         Holy Scripture teaches. But, we em-
     Baptist, and now Reformed Episco-'                          pose of Art. 68 is to insure that the        phasize again, the catechism sermon
     palian.                                                     Reformed churches faithfully explain         must not be based on a particular text
         No, I do not measure the worth of                       the Christian doctrines  compre-             or passage of Scripture; it must be
     the sacrament by the one who minis- :                       hendedin the Heidelberg Catechism,           based on the Lord's Day itself. To
     ters it. But when the church (if you '                      which doctrines are derived from             base the catechism sermon on a text
     can call it this) is not even Christian,                    Scripture. For example, ministers            or passage of Scripture is improper.
     then I have to reject it altogether.                   j    must, as Art. 68 states, "... on Sunday      To base the sermon on the Lord's Day
         Roman Catholicism is not even I                         explain briefly the sum of Christian         itself is not merely the best, it is the
     Christianity! How could anyone who                          doctrine comprehended in the Hei-            only proper method of preaching the
     has been born again by the Spirit of:                       delberg Catechism so that as much as         Heidelberg Catechism. This is the re-
     God want to hold to a baptism such as                       possible the explanation shall be an-        quirement of Article  68  of The  Church
     baptism by Rome?                                            nually completed, according to the           Order  of  the Protestant Reformed
         And who cares what Calvin said, :                       catechism itself, for that purpose."         Churches.
     if Calvin is wrong?                                         However, this can be done with or                 That the above is the correct un-
                               Michael  Parenti                  without using a Bible text or passage.       derstanding of Article 68 is obvious
                              Amityville, NY                     Thus, the question remains, "Is the          from the following commentary on
                                                                 selecting of a text or passage of Scrip-     this Article:
     Response:                                                   ture as the basis for the sermon a
         Even though your mind is made                           proper or better method than basing            Sometimes it has been objected that
     up, we are sending you a copy of the                        the sermon on the Lord'sDay itself?"            Catechism  preaching is the setting

     392 /Standard Bearer I  June, 1993


aside of the Word of God. It is claimed      and the very meager interest in the                  varioustextstakentogether,forScrip-
to be preaching of man's Word. This          regular development of dogmatical                    ture is not a handbook of systematic
presentation is utterly false for every      truths, Synod emphasizes the time-                   theology.      When the minister
Lord's Day division of the  Catechism        honored custom of catechism preach-                  preaches from the Catechism he must
is the summary of several Bible pas-         ing, and the Classes are urged to give               carefully show that these doctrines
sages. Virtually therefore, the Minis-       proper attention to this matter, that                are the truth of the Word of God.2
ter who preaches on a certain Lord's         the regular consideration of the cat-
Day division of the  Catechism  is           echism may be observed."'                              Rev. Herman Hoeksema (taught
preaching on several passages of                                                                Homileticsinourseminary1924-1964)
God's Word. It  may  be said in this            We sincerely hope and pray that                 and his son, Prof. Homer C. Hoeksema
connection that  Catechism  sermons        a future synod of the Protestant Re-                 (taught Homiletics in our seminary
should be so constructed that the          formed Churches never finds it nec-
congregation sees very clearly that                                                             1965-1981),  both felt very strongly
                                           essary to issue such an admonition to
the truths embodied in the Cafechism                                                            about this issue. They wrote:
are indeed but reproductions of            our churches!
God's own Word. When we preach                  Prof. H. Hanko, in his explana-                     In view of the fact that increas-
a Catechism sermon, we are preach-         tion of Article 68 of The Church Order,                ingly this practice is neglected in
ing the Word of God just as well as if     writes:                                                many churches, and in view of the
we preach on a certain text or pas-                                                               fact that many ministers try in vari-
sage taken directly from the Bible.             The article requires a brief expla-               ous ways to evade this duty, it is not
Only, in case of catechism preaching,        nation of the sum of Christian doc-                  amiss that we stress that the minister
one expounds and applies the Word            trine as comprehended in the Heidel-                 must preach on the  Heidelberg  Caf-
of God according to a summary of             bergcatechism....  The purpose of this               echism itself, and must in his preach-
that Word adopted by all the Churches        requirement is chiefly that there may                ing expound the Catechism. He must
and agreed to by all the members of our      be a regular and systematic exposi-                  not preach on a text from Scripture
Churches.... Should a text from the          tion of the truths of Scripture. It is               and merely refer to the Catechism in
Bible be chosen and quoted together          easy for a minister to choose only                   the course of his sermon. He must
with the Lord's Day division of the          practical texts or to choose texts with              not merely preach on the truth on
Catechism  as text for the sermon? No.       certain doctrines while other doc-                   which the  Catechism  touchesin  apar-
This practice may lead some people           trines are avoided. Preaching from                   titular Lord's Day. But he must
to think that a catechism sermon is          the  Catechism  will ensure the preach-              preach on the  Catechism  itself. He
really not a sermon on the Word of           ing of all the doctrines of Scripture.               must read the Lord's Day as he reads
God. This erroneous conception               This is necessary in order that the                  his text before the sermon, and then
shouldnotbeencouragedintheleast.             congregationmaygrowintheknowl-                       he must proceed to preach a sermon
Furthermore, no Lord's Day divi-             edge of the truth of God's Word.                     on that Lord's Day. Anything less
sion of the  Catechism  is based on a        Sound doctrine is the heart of the                   than this cannot properly be called
single Bible passage. If a Minister          faith by which the believer knows                    Catechism preaching.... The minister
desires to quote the Biblical founda-        God Whom to know is life eternal.                    must not forget to leave the impres-
tion for any given Lord's Day divi-          And, indeed, his practical life in the               sion with the congregation that even
sion, then he shall have to quote a          world will only be right and good                    in catechism preaching he adminis-
good many passages.... We have               when it is rooted in the knowledge  of               ters the Word of God. This is not the
heard of some instances in which the         thetruth.  TheCatechismisadmirably                   place to argue the question whether
Minister would read a text taken di-         suited to accomplish this purpose. It                Heidelberg Catechism  preaching is in-
rectly from the Bible, but he would          treats doctrine systematicallyinclud-                deed ministry of the Word. Here we
omit announcing and reading the              ing in it all the fundamentals of the                proceed on the assumption that it is
Lord'sDaydivision. Thisisofcourse            Christian faith. And it treats this                  undoubtedly ministry of the Word.
all wrong. We suppose that this was          doctrine from the experiential view-                 Butwemakethepointthatthisought
done to satisfy some who objected to         point.                                               to be explicit in the preaching. It is a
catechism preaching. But we gain                Some have objected that catechism                 good custom, therefore, that at the
nothinginthelongrunbyyieldingto              preaching is not Scriptural preach-                  beginning of the sermon the minister
mistaken notions. Rather let us labor        ing. But this objection is without                   quotes a few pertinent texts and
to remove such mistaken notions.             basis.  Catechismpreachingispreach-                  points the congregation to them as
This cannot be done effectively and          ing on the doctrines found in Scrip-                 the basis of the instruction contained
fairlybypreachingcamouflagedcat-             ture. These doctrines are based upon                 intheparticularLord'sDayonwhich
echism sermons. In such a case it is                                                              he is preaching. And while it is not
better to face the issue squarely than                                                            always equally possible to be explicit
to dilly-dally.... Already in 1902 our                                                            on this in the course of one's sermon,
synod (Christian Reformed Synod,           1   I d z e r d   VanDellen   a n d   M a r t i n      the minister should certainly let his
Ed. Comm.) found it necessary to           Monsma,  The Church Order Commen-
admonish the Churches  as  follows:        tary: A Brief Explanation  of  the Church
"With a view to dangers from with-         Order of the Christian Reformed Church               2  HermanHanko,Noteson   theChurc&
out that threaten sound doctrine, and      (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing                  Order  (Grandville,  MI: Protestant Re-
in consideration of the great need of,     House,  1954),  pp. 277-280.                         formed Seminary, 1973),  p. 129.

                                                                                                         June,  1993  I  Standard Bearer  I393


  sermon as much as possible be con-             Again, let it be emphasized, the         3    Herman Hoeksema and Homer C.
  trolled by the Scriptures. We may          minister must base his catechism ser-        Hoeksema,  Homiletics  (Grandville,  MI:
  remark, too, that frequently it is ap-     mons not on texts or passages of Scrip-      ProtestantReformedSeminary,l975),pp.
  propriateaswellasenrichingtomake  I        ture, but on the Catechism itself. This      42-43.
  roomin  the sermon for a brief expla- j
  nation of this or that related passage     is still being taught in our Protesttint
  of Scripture.3                             Reformed Seminary.  0
                                                               Editorial Committee .I



a  MARCHSUNDAY                               "We proclaim our rights together as a        pulpits and pews to gays and lesbi-
                                             couple," declared hundreds .of -  _
                                                                                 gays-    ans. This will happen in spite of the
     Religious legitimacy was an un-,        and-lesbians at IIthe Wedding." The          clear teachings of Holy ScriEture  con-
dercurrent of the March on Washing-i         non-sectarianceremonywasintended             cerning this terrible sin, the worst and
ton for Lesbian, Gay, and Bi(sexua1).        as both an affirmation of love and a         lowest manifestation of the reprobate
Equal Rights and Liberation. More;           protest against state-and local laws         mind (cf. Genesis 19; Romans 1:18-32;
than 300,000 (much less than the 1.11        which prohibit homosexual mar-               f.,Corinthians  6 : 9 - 1 0 ) .
million many predicted) homosexual           riages. Participants; whoRaid$iO for                               Christian News
rights advocates flooded the nation's' a certificate commemorating the                               National & In ttwta tional
capitalon theweekendofApriI23-25.'           event, were asked to bring tokens of                               Religion Report
     About eighty Catholics, Jews, and       affection for use in the service. Troy
Protestants, according to news' Perry, founder and moderator of the                       n SCRIPTURE TWISTING!
sources, attended a workshop on Fri-         UFMCC, performed. the ceremony
day where they were taught how to j          near the Internal Revenue Service                 That's precisely what it takes to
use Bible passages to defend the ho- ;       headquarters. Heralded were a les-           make the Bible condone homosexual-
mosexual life-style. The United Fel-         bian couple who have been together           ity. This was driven home to me
lowship of Metropolitan Community            for 33 years, and two gay men cel-           when I read Albert Wolters' critique
Churches (UFMCC), a largely homo-            ebrating 50 years as a couple. Perry         of Dr. Hendrick Hart's proposed ex-
sexual denomination, also distributed        said he wanted "to show Middle               egesis of Romans 1:18-32.  Wolters'
a pamphlet called "Homosexuality:            America and the world that our rela-         article, entitled "Hart's Exegetical
Our Story Too." It detailed how to           tionships are as long as those in the        Proposal on Romans 1," together
read the Bible through "new eyes" of         heterosexual community, even with            with a response by Hart entitled "Re-
liberation theology. The tract, writ-        all the cultural pressures against us."      ply to Wolters," appeared in the April
ten by Los Angeles UFMCC Pastor                  MarchSundaybeganwithamom-                1993 issue of the Calvin Theological
Nancy Wilson, discusses the stories          ing worship and communion service            ,JoumaI  (Cg), published by the fac-
of Jonathan andDavid, Philip and the         at the Lincoln Memorial, where the           ulty of Calvin Theological Seminary.
Ethiopian eunuch, Ruth and Naomi,            UFMCC's  Donald Eastman echoed               Wolters is Professor of Religion and
Peter and Cornelius, and Jesus' rela-        the words of Martin Luther Ring:             Theology at Redeemer College in
tionship with Lazarus, Mary, and             "We, too, are a people with a dream."        Ancaster, Ontario, and Hart is Senior
Martha.                                      Several thousand participants sang           MemberinPhiIosophyat  theInstitute
    Presumablythehomosexualscon-             gay and lesbian anthems. The se+             for Christian Studies in Toronto,
sider Jesus and these saints to have         vice, which included United Church           Ontario. Hart's proposed exegesis
been homosexuals. This assumption            of Christ (the only mainline denomi-         appeared in the July - August 1992
of the homosexuals, if it were not so        nation to endorse the march) and             issue of The Other Side.
serious and so terribly blasphemous,         Universalist m,inisters, was full of bib-         According to Wolters, "Hart's
would be simply ludicrous.                   lic$l references to justice. A banner        basic suggestion is that Romans l:l&-
    A ceremony called "the Wed-              read, "If Jesus were here, he'd march        32, with its picture of God's wrath
ding" took place on Saturday. This           too." Severalgroups within themain-          against all manner of human sinful-
consisted of an exchange of commit-          line churches endorsed the march,            ness, does not represent Paul's own
ment, adoration, and fidelity vows.          althoughtheirdenomiruuionsdidnot.            view but rather a traditional Jewish
                                                 We predict thatitwillnotbevery           position with which Paul himself dis-
                                             long before gays and lesbians are            agrees. It is as though this whole
                                             granted their "rights" in our country.       passage had been printed between
Proj Decker is professor ofPractical The-    Neitherwillitbelongbeforethemain-            quotation marks, with the heading:
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-       line churches and many other de-             `The JewishView,' and were followed
nary.                                        nominations as well will open their          by a section headed `Paul's Own
394 /Standard Bearer I June, 1993


View.' The consequence of such an             faithful to the Bible and (2) that we      does not in any way condemn
interpretation would be that verses           need to listen respectfully to the sin-    homosexualism.
18-32, specifically the ones dealing          cere testimony of God-fearing ho-              There is not a shred of evidence in
with homosexuality, cannot be read            mosexuals about their faithful efforts     Scripture itself that would even sug-
as having biblical authority, since the       at UnderstandingtheBible  obediently       gest that Hart's proposal is correct.
apostle himself disagrees with the            in relation to their attempt at leading    Besides, Romans 1 is not the only
sentiments which they express" (Cq,           moral lives" (CT/; p. 174).                passage in Scripture that condemns
pp. 166-167).                                     Note well that with Hart it appar-     homosexualism.
    Hart concludes, `his reply to             ently is not a question of what the         L Dr. Hart, occupies a position of
Wolters, "I hope that .in .the` discus-       Bible says in Romans 1:18-32. It's'a       influence and leadership as a profes- l
sion of homosexuality. we shall not           question of who saidit. Is it the Word     sor at the Institute for Christian Stud-
have to learn all over again twothings        of God through the inspired apostle        ies. He is also licensed to exhort (or is
we finally did learn in the debate            Paul or is it a Jewish tradition which     it "expound"?) in the churches of
about the role of womenin the church:         Paul quotes and with which he dis-         Classis Toronto ~of the Christian Re-
(1) that this is not simply a matter of       agrees. Hart proposes that it's the        formed Church.
those who are and those who are not           latter. If that be the case, Romans 1                  Calvin Theological  ]oumal





  The Proper Spiritual Conduct
                 of Christian  Woken  .(3) _,
                                                         Lesson 7


    Notwithstanding  she shall be saved,      the angels concerning the victory of        deemed  .saint would have entered
if they confinue in faith, and love and       theor$begottenSonwillbereal&ed.            `into heaven as these who have over-
holiness with sobriety.                       It willbereal&edwhen  the Seed of the      come by the blood of the Lamb (Rev.
                           I Timothy  2:15    Woman shall have crushed forever           12:ll).
                                              the head of Satan and-his angels! In            Truly, Eve's was a very great
    With this article we will finish our      that hope Eve lived and died. Then         transgression in the Fall of the entire
exposition of this second chapter of-1        shall all the elect saints be gathered     human race. But she is saved by
T i m o t h y .                               together in the New Jerusalem.             grace, sovereign grace!
   Paulbegins  this-lettertoTimothy,              Inverse 15 we read of this "hope"          There is a true rock-bottomness
not on a morbid and sour note, but            of Eve and of all her godly daughters.     to the,term "nevertheless she shall be
with a refreshing and uplifting spiri-            Fallen mankind, particularly           saved." Was it not Jehovah God who
tual tone. In the very introduction           fallen women, shall be saved - also        uttered the promissory Gospel news
Paul adds, ti . ..by the commandment          the fallen, childless woman who was        in Genesis 3:15? The I am that I am
of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus             formed from the rib of Adam. She           spoke this word. This is the very
Christ, which is our hope. II The hope        who fell into the "great transgres-        warp and woof of all the Law tind the
of God's people is that the greatProm-        sion" shall be saved in the hope of        Prophets (see Heidelberg Catechism,
ise made to Eve in the presence of all        bringing forth many, many children.        Question 19). Notice carefully the
                                              These children are all the multitude       verbs in Question and Answer 19:
                                              who are elsewhere called the children      "From the holy Gospel which God
                                              of Abraham, and who shall be heirs         h i m s e l f
                                              according to the promise (Gal. 3:24-            1. first revealed in Paradise;
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emerit# injhe      29). If Eve had not given birth to             2. and afterwards  published  by the
Protestant Reformed Churches.                 "sons and daughters," not one re-          patriarchs and prophets,

                                                                                                    June, 1993 / Standard Bearer I395


          3.andrepresentedbysacrificesand           of the new man. Here is true joy in         things to these aged womenbyspeak-
     other ceremonies of the law;             I     God. It is ever more and more to hate       ing "sound doctrine." That is exactly
          4. and lastly, hasfuZfi2led  it by His    and flee from sin.                          what Timothy must teach the women
     only begotten Son."                      I         Eve as well as Adam had true joy        in Ephesus (I Tim. 2:9-15).  They must
          In this beautiful confession we           in Jehovah-God as the One who re-           be soundly and basically taught what
     observe a rather long period of time           veal&he Holy Gospel, as the Gospel          law-teaching cannot do. The women
     - some 1640 yearsfrom Creation to              of the glory of the blessed God.            must be taught how "to continue in
     the Flood. It was aworld in which the          Whereas the Son of God is the great         faith, love, holiness with sobriety."
     twofold seed became very definitely            Seed of the woman, who will bring                Eve had to learn this spiritual
     manifest in the Son of God and the             the perfect sacrifice for all the spiri-    sobriety as she bears and gives train-
     daughters of men. We see here the              tual sons and daughters of Eve, all of      ing to Cain, Abel, and later to Seth as
     Toledoth,  the generations of Adam -           the faith, love, and holiness is cen-       well as to the many, many children
     from Seth to Noah, from Noah to                teredin "the childbearing" from which       spoken of in Genesis  5:4,5. It is really
     Abraham, from Abraham to David                 this Son would be born from the vir-        without question thatboth Adam and
     theking,fromDavidtotheBabylonian               gin Mary. Mary, like the converted          his wife, Eve, became very old. These
     Captivity, and from the Captivity to           Eve, never aspired to. be ordained a        post-creation parents must have
     Christ. In this line there is theSeed  of      minister, or preacher of the Word in        brought forth many children. And
     the woman, and the seed of the ser-            the church. Did not Sarah call Abra-        Eve must have had plenty of opportu-
     pent. Here we see the tears of believ?         ham, the father of multitudes, her          nity to teach these children sobriety in
     ingmothers, do we not? Here we see             Adonai (I Pet. 3:4-6)?                      the fear of God: that the daughters
     that Eve is saved in childbearing. This                 *  +  *  * * *  *                  love their husbands, love their chil-
     is the manifestation of the twofold                We must consider now theprepo-          dren, love their parents. Eve learned
     Israel. Here we see that salvation is          sitionalphrase "with sobriety." It is a     to love truly and obey her husband in
     not of him that willeth, nor of him that       very interesting term. When we              the deep way of sin and grace. I can
     runneth, but of God who showeth                search both the Old and the New             only think of her as being very, very
     mercy.                                   `,    Testament Scriptures we should no-          grateful to Jehovah for His keeping
               *  *  *  *  *  *  *                  tice that the terms "sober," "sobri-        both creation and recreation together.
          Paul writes in verse 15 that salva-       ety," etc. do not ever appear in the        It was not a new relationship, but a
     tion of Eve is certain both in the old         Old Testament. We will notice pres-         renewed relationship. It was the
     and the new dispensations. It is for           ently that the biblical virtue of spiri-    mystery of marriage, of Christ and
     those "who continue in faith,  love:           tual "sobriety" comes from the Greek        His church.
     and holiness."                                 word  sophron  = sound-minded. This              What a beautiful practical spiri-
         Yes, Paul adds: "continue . ..with         may occur in a natural sense. We read       tual teaching. Here is pure doctrine:
     sobriety."                                     inMark5:15,  U . ..sittingclothed andin     Theology, Anthropology,  Chris-
          The attentive reader will notice          his right mind." In his mind and            tology,  Soteriology, and Eschatology
     that there is not an iota of hope for          actions he was no longer a captive of       in simplest terms and revealing the
     childbearing women who seeksalva-              the demons called "Legion." He spoke        length and breadth, the height and
     tion by works of law. Ever the end of          and acted soberly. He thought and           depth of the love of Christ, which
     the law is, was, and shaZZ  be by "faith)      acted soberly. He used sound judg-          passes all human knowledge.
     love and holiness" (see I Tim. 1:5). He        ment. When Paul stands in judgment                      *  rc *  *  * *  *
     that walks in love for God and his             before the noble Festus to defendhim-            Some suggestions for more thor-
     neighbor keeps the law. Only these             self against the slanderous accusa-         ough reflection.
     bear children unto salvation.                  tions of the Jews, and most ably cites           1. Is it permissible to teach that
         This "childbearing" proceeds               his calling from Christ andhis experi-      the Holy Spirit Himself chose the
     from a true faith. But it is also a            ences in the Gospel ministry, Festus        Greek language, which all the world
     childbearing in a living hope. Paul            exclaims with aloud voice: "Thou art        could speak, to teach the implication
     writes in I Corinthians 13:13, "And            beside thyself; much learning doth          of the Old Testament teaching con-
     now abideth faith, hope, and love; but         make thee mad." Then Paulanswers,           cerning spiritual "discretion"? We
     the greatest of these is love!" Without        "I am not `mad' most noble Fe&s,            know that, particularly in the Prov-
     the love of God shed abroad in our             but speak words of truth and sober-         erbs of Solomon, the necessity for the
I    hearts, faith is not living. But where
I                                                   ness. m (Compare Romans 12:3; Titus         Wisdom of spiritual discretion is
     "love" is, there is a keeping of God's         2:6; I Peter 4:7.) We should notice that    taught and reiterated. (See Proverbs
     commandments which reveals itself              in Titus 2:4 this term in the verbal        1:2-6. Also read carefully Proverbs
     in good works. And these "good                 form (sophonz'zein) means to make so-       1:2Off.)
     works" are the "holiness" of a life of         ber, to bring to their right mind, to           2. May we maintain that the
     constant sanctification-the putting            love their husbands, to love their chil-    Holy Spirit chose the Greek term
     off of the old man and the putting on          dren. Therefore Titus must speak the        sophrosune   to express the practical

     396 /Standard Bearer  /June, 1993


idea of the Wisdom concept of the            term "childbearing" mean only "giv-         thy3:lff.seemtofollowlogicallyfrom
Old Testament? (See II Timothy 4:15-         ing birth" or does this include the         the teaching of the first two chapters?
17. See also II Peter 1:19-21.)              teaching of her daughters and grand-        Is there something climactic in the
     3. Whatwasthegreatroleofthe             daughters? (See Titus 2:1-9.)               verses 14-16? Think it over! Cl
aged women in the church? Does the               4. Does the teaching in I Timo-





                                       .&&(j  To  Be

                           a Separate People

     God's people are called to be a         today. Every principle of morality is       knowledge of the Word of God real-
separate and holy people. It is impos-       cast aside. So-called Christian values      izes what an evil age we live in and
sible to be truly holy unless we sepa-       and principles in our nominally Chris-      how near we are therefore to the end.
rate ourselves from the ungodly              tian nation are scorned. Anyone who         It is hard for us to imagine that wick-
world. Never has this calling been           advocates such principles today will        edness can grow any worse than it is
more urgent than it is today. Godrs          be not only ridiculed but often even        in our day and in our land. How long
judgment of the world was given al-          violently hated and opposed. There          will the Lord yet forbear with the
ready in Genesis 6:5: "And God saw           is very little possibility for anyone       wickedness of manin the earth? When
that the wickedness of man was great         who holds strongly to any Christian         will He come in His holy wrath and
in the earth, and that every imagina-        principles in our land to hold any sort     perfect justice for the final judgment
tion of the thoughts of his heart was        of public office. Such a person will be     of the world?
only evil continually." This is not the      branded an extremist, a radical, and a          The evil world today has mighty
judgment of some extremist cult              bigot.                                      instruments to promote and advance
leader but of the living God who has             The Bible tells us that, as history     its evil philosophy and life-style. The
revealed Himself in the Scriptures.          progresses, the world will grow worse       modem-day mass media is an as-
His judgment is perfect, holy, just,         and worse. It tells us that in the last     tounding thing. Recently the L.A.
and true. God's judgment is the rea-         days "perilous times will come." The        Times newspaper had a lengthy ar-
son for our calling to be separate from      world in which we-live will not get         ticle on the influence of television on
this world.                                  better. "But evil men and seducers          our modem-day world. The state-
     For more than six thousand years        shall wax worse and worse, deceiv-          -ment was made in that article that no
the world has developed and pro-             ingandbeingdeceived" (IITim.3:13).          single invention in the history of man
gressed in wickedness. It is today               There are still many in the mod-        has ever made such a dramatic change
more openly and blatantly wicked             em-day church who insist that there         in the world as has television. Besides
than ever before. Even in the last few       is muchin this world that is good and       television there is the tremendous
years the wickedness of man in the           honorable, much that is praisewor-          .power of the advertising media, sat-
earth has increased to an astounding         thy, much that is worthy of imitation.      ellite communication, computers,
degree. The law of God is defiantly          There are still those who look for a        camcorders, videos, fax machines,
and flagrantly violated in the world         better world here on earth. But how         electronic mail, and who knows what
                                             contrary this is to all the teaching of     next. All these inventions, wonderful
                                             God's Word. There is no such hope           in themselves, are used by the devil
                                             for this ungodly world to get better. It    and the wicked world to promote its
                                             is certain that, .as the end of time        evil philosophy and life-style. It is
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Protes-    approaches, ungodliness will in-            impossible to escape the influence of
tant Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-      crease. The god-fearing man who has         all of this. The world is becoming
fornia.                                      the discernment of the times and good       more and more united in evil and in
                                                                                                  Junk, 1993 I Standard Bearer I397


its ungodliness and its opposition to       I homophobic,  and unloving. It is blas-      God's sovereign election according
the truth of God.                           : phemously suggested that if the Lord        to which He has chosen His people to
  At the very time when it is so            i Jesus were here on earth today, He          bea "chosengeneration, aroyalpriest-
tremendously urgent to stand stead-         / would allow feminists and sodomites         hood, an holy nation, a peculiar
fast on the Word and commandments           ! to have a leadership rolein  the church.    people" (I Pet. 2:9).
of God, the modern-day church is            j This is supposed to be the "love of             We will not truly understand our
more and more compromising with             i Christ." The supreme manifestation          calling to be separate unless we un-
the world. Rather than condemning           i of love and the highest principle of        derstand that by the wonderful sov-
the world and separating from it, she       ! religion, according to modem-day            ereign grace of God alone we have
isinsteadaccommodatingandadapt-             ' philosophy, is appreciating everyone        been chosen above all the peoples of
ing herself to the world. She insists on    for what he is and allowing everyone          the world to be His special people.
having a name in the world. She even        I to do what is right in his own eyes, no     We must understand this not in
joins the world in its evil purposes        matter how wicked he may be ac-               wicked pride, imagining that we our-
and in its aim to build a humanistic        ; cording to the Word of God.                 selves are better than the world, for
society from which the name of God                Today as never before it is urgent      we are not at all. We must under-
and the Word of God are more and            for the church to preach that there is        stand this in great fear and amaze-
more excluded.                              i an absolute antithesis between the          ment. Who are we that we should be
     Strong stands on morality and on       church and the world. Every truly             called the special people of God, that
truth- and righteousness are being          : God-fearing man must understand             the Sovereign Holy Lord of heaven
abandoned. New morality (or, we             : what this absolute antithesis means         should have called us to be His own?
should say, immorality) is being pro-        forhisdailylifeintheworld.  Weneed               Our Lord Himself in sovereign
posed. .There  is less and less of a        : to read and understand what Paul            love has separated His people from
serious attitude towards sin. Often ' means when in II Corinthians 6 he                   the world. They are not reckoned
the philosophy that because every- 1 wamsus, "Beyenotunequallyyoked                       among the nations. By the power of.
one is doing it, it cannot be so wrong together with unbelievers: for what                His Word He has called them out of
is adopted. Because immorality is so        j fellowship hath righteousness with          darkness into His marvelous light in
prevalent we simply have to tolerate : unrighteousness? and what commun-                  order that they might show forth His
it. We certainly must soften the se-        : ion has light with darkness? and            glorious praises. By the sovereign
vere condemnation of the Word of 1  whatconcordhathChristwithBelial?                      and effectual working of His Holy
God. The Word of God needs to be or what. part hath he that believeth                     Spirit the Lord has formed us as a
reinterpreted to suit the age we live j withaninfidel? And what agreement                 holy nation consecrated unto Him-
in. Much of the Bible, it is said; was. I hath the temple of God with idols?"             self. He has washed us in the blood of
written only for the time and culture ' The antithesis between the church                 His dear Son, Jesus Christ. He has
of the day in which it was written.         and the world, between the believer           destroyed in our hearts the enmity
Instead of following the rule of God's : and the unbeliever, is as absolute as            that there was. against God and has
Word, we need "new light and new             between Christ and Belial.                   given us a new heart to love Him as
understanding" from the philoso-                  In order to understand the urgent       the`Lord  our God. All of this is the
phers, psychologists, and social sci- : need for separation from the world,               theological reason for our separation
entists of the world. Consequently,          God's people need to know who they           from the world. We need to under-
some of the most grossly wicked life- I are and who the world is. The antith-             stand this theology to understand why
styles of immorality (even sodomy)           esis between the world and the true          we must be separate from the world.
are being tolerated as innocent alter- childofGodhasitsbeginninginGod's                       The deepest motive out of which
nate life-styles even in the church.        j election. By nature we are all totally      we must be separate from this un-
                                            i depravedchildrenbom from Adam's             godly world is the love of God in our
                                            race. We all stand under the awful            hearts. There are two very strong
     The antithesis between                  judgment and condemnation of the             passages in Scripture that emphasize
   the church and the world,                ) Holy Lord of heaven and earth, the          this, one in James and the other in the
       between the  belietier'              1 judge of all men. But God in His            epistle of John. "Ye adulterers and
                                            I sovereign grace has chosenHis  people       adulteresses, know ye not that the
        and the unbeliever,                 and separated them from this  un-             friendship of the world is enmity
   is as absolute as between                .' godly world. We did not become             against God? Whosoever therefore
         Christ and Belial. I               ; God's people because we first sepa-         will be a friend of the world is the
                                            rated ourselves from the world. We            enemyofGod" (James4:4).  "Lovenot
                                             are by nature hopelessly part of the         the world, neither the things that are
    Those who condemn such life- ungodly world and worthy to be de-                       in the world. If any man love the
styles are branded as bigots,               : stroyed with it in the last day of judg-    world, the love of the Father is not in
                      .,                     ment. The beginning of separation is         him. For all that is in the world, the

398 /Standard Bearer  / June, 1993


 lust of the flesh, and the lust of the         thetically we need to know the Word           tions or to compromise his life-style.
 eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the     of God thoroughly and be able ta                  We are called to live in the midst
 Father, but is of the world" (I John          judge the worldin every sphere of life         of the world. The church must preach
 2:15,16).                                      in the light of that Word. The church         the gospel of Christ Jesus in this world
     Plainer and more absolute lan-             and God's people are called to con-           until the day that the Lord returns. In
 guage cannot be found. Love for God            demn the world for the glory of God's         order to do that faithfully she must go
 requires separation from the world.            holy name. A failure to do that will          into the "highways and byways of
 The man who tolerates the evil of this         cause the church to bring shame and           this world." She must have the grace
 world and accommodates himself ta              dishonor to the name of the Lord and          of God to do as Paul did, tobecome  all
 it; the man who follows the world in           will give the world occasion to blas-         things to all men. Our Lord humbled
 its philosophy and life-style-such a           pheme.                                        Himself to eat with publicans and
 man hates God in spite of all that he              True separation from the world            sinners. Certainly when the Lord did
 may claim concerning himself. He              can be maintained only if we under-            this He did not fellowship with the
 may in this world be considered to be         stand the spiritual nature of that sepa-
 ever so nice and friendly and such a          ration. The Lord-does not call us ta
 goodperson, hemaybeeversopopu-                physical isolation from the world. Our            Compromise of the Word
 lar, but he is a hater of God.                Lord prayed in His High Priestly
                                               prayer recorded in John 17 concem-                   through worldliness
                                               ing those whom the Father had given              puts out the glorious light
       To live antithetically                  to Him by sovereign election, "I pray                of the Word of God.
         we need to know                       not that thou shouldest take them out
  the Word of God thoroughly                   of the world, but that thou shouldest
                                                                                             sinner in his sin. He did not visit evil
and be able to judge the world                 keep them from evil" (John 17~15).
                                               God Himself has placed us in this             placesorjoinwiththeworld'swicked
      in eve y sphere of life                  world and keeps us in it. We are to           entertainment. He did not even give
    in the light of that Word.                 live in the world's countries and cit-        the pretense of doing such a wicked
                                               ies, we are to work in the world's            thing. Rather, He stooped to the
                                               offices and factories, we are to live         wretched and miserable estate of the
    To love God the Christian must             among the world's people. The re-             sinner to call the sinnerto repentance
condemn the world and separate him-            cluse who lives alone in a self-made          and salvation. He called sinners to
self from it. According to modem               modem-day monastery does not ful-             forsake their sin and to be separate
philosophy the idea of condemning              fill the calling of the Lord. He does         fromtheevilofthisworld. Thechurch
anything or anyone is considered to            not do that even if he spends all his life    must follow the Lord's perfect ex-
be a great evil. We must be tolerant           in reading the Word of God and in             ample. The church must stand for the
and loving of everyone. Everyone               solitary contemplation of its great           cause of the truth of God. and His
has the right to his own opinion and           truth. While living in the world, we          righteousness in the midst of the
his own life-style as long as he does          need to pray earnestly according to           world,not allbyitselfonsomeisland.
not hurt his fellow man in any way.            the example of our Lord, that He will         She must shine as a light in the midst
The latter sounds oh so noble. But in          keep us from evil.                            of the darkness of this world. She
fact, when we do not condemn the                   We may not use the pretense of a          must not compromise God's truth to
world and warn the world about the             calling to be separate from the world         accommodate herself to the world,
judgment of God upon its sin and               to have a callous attitude toward the         for then she denies the gospel and
wickedness, we become partners with            misery and wretchedness of this.              brings shame to the name of the Lord
the world in its great evil and deserv-        world and to live our lives in such a         she is called to represent in the world.
ing of the judgment which awaits it.           way that we are shielded from any             Compromise of the Word through
We are also co-responsible for the j           :ontact with the world. Separation            worldliness puts out the gloriouslight
greatest hurt and evil to our neighbor. i      Yom the world does not mean arro-             3f the Word of God.
Even partners in secret and private ;          ;ant pride which causes a man to                  God's people must go out into the
sin do each other great hurt andbring ,        Iold himself aloof from the world. It         world to reveal the love and mercy of
upon each other the terrible wrath ,           .s evil for us to imagine that because,       2hrist  and testify of His truth. We as
and judgment of God.                           Ne are so much better than the world          Christians  cannot do that by living
    We must condemn the ungodly ;              Ne must have as little to do with the         exclusively  inthe sphere of the church
world, not with a proud, "holier than          Norld as is absolutely possible. But,         md having nothing at all to do with
thou" attitudebut throughsteadfastly           Nhile  bearing testimony in the world,        :he people of this world. In practical
standing upon the unchangeable and j           :he child of God must not fellowship          Nays to our neighbors and to all with
perfect Word of God. To live anti-             Nith the world in its evil.. He must not      Nhom we come in contact in society,
                                               illow the world to change his convic-         it school, and at our work place we

                                                                                                     June,  1993  1 Standard Bearer I 399


must confess the name of our Lord             compromise, in a world of corruption              demands that we separate ourselves
and show forth His truth. But never           and covetousness, because we love                 from them.
must we have fellowship with the              GodandHistruthandrighteousness.                       Thecallingtobeseparateisavery
worldinits sins. Trueloveandmercy             Wemust  steadfastly refuse to go along            difficult one. When the true church
means that we condemn sin and call            with the world's notion that forenter-            condemns the wicked worldandsepa-
men to repentance and righteousness.          tainment anything goes. We must                   rates herself from it, she will inevita-
It means that we call God's people to         continue to refuse to have any part of            bly incur the wrath and h,atred of the
forsake the world and its sinful way          the world's music and dance and                   world. This is very clearly evident in
and to walk in the way that leads to          wicked movies. There is no doubt                  our day. But the comfort of the true
life eternal.                                 about it that some of the grossest                church of God as she lives in separa-
    In every area of our life we must         wickedness of the world is revealed               tion from the world is the. knowledge
be separate from every evil philoso-          in the world's entertainment. As                  that she has the Lord as her God. The
phy of the world andbe conformed to           popular as the world's movie stars                truechurchofJesusChr.istlivingspiri-
the Word of God. In our homes we as           may be in the world, and as glamour-              tually alone in a hostile world has
Christian families are called to live         ous as their life-styles may appear to            communion and fellowship with God
according to the good and wise order          be, they are in all their gross wicked-           who dwells in her midst. This is the
that God has laid down in His Word.           ness an abomination to the Lord. Love             true glory, joy, and hope of the church
In our business we must refuse to             for God and for the glory of His name             of Jesus Christ in the world. 0





             Current Issues in Church
                                      aMI `State Law

                                              is in plain violation                             which he lived did not have a public
n State Aid to                                                          of the free exercise
                                              clause....                                        high school, his parents enrolled him
Parochial              Schools                      Brief of Christian Legal Society,           in a local Roman Catholic high school.
    lf Jimmy had chosen to attend an          Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills (1993)              Local school officials then refused to
equally appropriate private school de-                                                          provide him with an interpreter at
voted to progressive politics, feminism,           The perennial conflict over the              state expense. They informed the
militarism, or Afrocentrism,  the state       use of governmental funds in non-                 Zobrests that an interpreter would be
would have provided a sign Zan&age            public schools was heightened re-                 provided in any public or private
interpreter. Because the values espoused      cently when the U.S. Supreme Court                high school, but not in the parochial,
by his school are religious, however,         heard arguments this spring in the                sectarian school the Zobrests chose.
Jimmyforfeited  thisvaluablebenefit.  This    Zobrest  case. Some court watchers                    TheZobrestfamilypromptlyfiled
                                              are touting the Zobrest appeal as one             suit against the public school offi-
                                              of the most important church-state                cials, alleging that this denial of an
                                              cases in recent decades.                          interpreter mandated under the  fed-
                                                   James Zobrest, a .deaf student in            eralEducationforHandicappedChil-
                                              Tucson, was provided a signlanguage               dren Act was a violation of First
Mr. Lanting, a member                         interpreter for a number of years in              Amendment's free exercise of reli-
                          of South Holland    the local public elementary school                gion clause.
Protestant Reformed Church, is a prac-        setting. Since the school district in                 The federal trial court and appel-
ticing attorney.

400 /Standard Bearer  I June, 1993


late court ruled against the Zobrests,,     in the Wiesman case. A decision in            appellate court affirmed and the ac-
but the U.S. Supreme Court accepted         Zobrest is expected early this fall.'         tivists appealed to the Supreme Court.
jurisdiction. The Court's acceptance                                                          The Supreme Court overruled the
of the appeal led some constitutional       n Abortion Clinic Blockades                   lower courts and held that the d.em-
scholars to surmise that the Court          Are Not a Viqlation of Federal                -onstrators  did'not  conspire to dis-
may overturn or modify the lower,                                                         criminate against women. Justice
court decisions.                            Laws Prohibiting Discrimina-                  Scalia, writing the majority opinion,
    Over a dozen religious organiza-,       tion Against Women                            held that opposition to abortion can-
tions have filed briefs in support of           Randall Terry and other radical           not reasonably be presumed to be
the Zobrests, arguing that James            Chrisfian leaders are beefing up their        invidious discrimination against
Zobrest is entitled to a sign language,     plans to blockadereproductivehealthclin-      wornefi  as a class. In other words, the
interpreter in the Catholichigh school      its. They're devising new ways to harass      clinic did not and could not prove
(or any other parochial or private,         and stalk women  who seek  abortions and      that! the `anti-abortionists' activities
high school) at state expense. But          doctors who serve them. And no wonder.        reflected a "sex-based intent" to de-
numerous Yseparationistn  organiza-         Last month the Supreme Court handed           prive the rights of women as a class,
tions filed opposing briefs, contend-'      down a ruling that gives them free rein       even though only women engaged in
ing that taxpayer money for sectarian,      and threatens toprecipitateanewwaveof         the practice of abortion.
education erodes the supposed "wall         clinic violence.                                 The Court also ruled that the clinic
of separation" between church and                               Ann Cook, director of     could not assert a violation of the
state. TheAmericansUnitedforSepa-                                  Religious Coalition    "rigl$" to an abortion, since current
ration of Church and State, a stridenti                         for Abortion  Righ+.      law onlyprohibit~govemmentaZint&-
anti-Catholic organization, contends:.                                                    ference  with that alleged right, not
in its recent newsletters that the.             Open up the floodgitei . . . here.we' the private  activities of pro-life dem-
Zobrest  case is its "biggest challenge"    come.                                         onstrators. Accordingly, the Court
that may "open the floodgates for               Randall Terry, Operation Rescue           vacated the award for attorney's fees
vouchers and all manner of parochiaid                                                     and costs and ruled that the clinic's
schemes."                                       The quotes above are typical but          injunction suit could not be based on
    The constitutional issue is one of.     nonetheless grossly misleading reac-          federal anti-disc@nination  laws.
balancing the free exercise clause with,    tions to the U.S. Supreme  Court deci-            Operation Rescue, immediately
the establishment clause of the First       sion in Bray v. Alexand&  Women's             touted the Bray decision as a victory,
Amendment. These clauses prohibit:          CZinic handed down earlier this year.         apdabortionist leaders feigned alarm
the government from either estab-i          Although the decision w&s a minor:. ,and issued statements alleging a set-
lishing religion or inhibiting its free' victory for Operation Rescue,  in no             back in the women's rights move-
exercise. The standard for this  bal-'      way did the Supreme Court address             ment.
ante for the last two decades has been      the fundamental legal and ethical is-             A close reading of the Bray deci-
the 1971 Supreme Court decision ini         sues raised by -Opera+n Resee%:..             sioti, hdwiever, reveal5 that both sides
the Lemon case. The so-called three-        activities of trespass and blockading         have grossly exaggerated the impor-
pronged Lemon test holds that for           of abortion clinics.                          tance of this decision. This is because,
govemmental activity to pass cons&,             This is because the Alexandria            although the Court dismissed the in-
tutional  muster it must (1) have a         abortion clinic brought suit against          junction based on sex-based discrimi-
secular legislative purpose; (2)  nei-;     Janet Bray and other anti-abortion            nation, it .nevertheless  remanded the
ther advance nor inhibit religion, and :    activists under an obscure federaiiaw         case to the state court for issuance of
(3) not foster excessive governmental       that prohibits conspiracies which de-         an appropriate injunction based on
entanglement with religion.                 prive "any class of persoris of the           illegal trespass upon private property.
    The brief filed in support of the       equal protection of laws, or of equal         Furthermore, the Court also noted
Zobrests by the Christian Legal So&         privileges . . . under the law." Thus the     that tiespass and intentional obstruc-
ety and other evangelical organiza-         abortion clinic attempted to obtain an        tion of entrances to private property
tions implores the Court to "modify         injunction,. fine, and c.osts again&          are offenses that may be prosecuted
or redefine" the Lemon test, which it.      Operation Rescue, alleging its acti+          under state criminal law or result in
argues has produced "wildly incon-.         ties' constitutqd, a conspiracy to de-        state civil damages. It is clear, there-
sistent results."                           prive the class  of  worn&  of  their         fore, that Operation Rescue has won
    Whether the high court will use         "rights."                                     only a shallow victory, if any at all.
the Zobrest case to jettison the Lemon          The &al court found ir! f&r of            The d$monstrators  will cqntinue to
test remains to be seen. Such similar       the clinic, issued ihe, appropriate in:       face civil and criminal suits for viola-
speculation was dampened last year          junction, and ordered Bray a9.d oth-          tion of state trespass laws, federal
when the Court upheld the ban on,           ers to pay thousands of dollars f&r the       anti-discrimination laws notwith-
prayers in public school graduations        clinic's attorney's fees and costs. The       standing.  ~1

                                                                                                   Julie, 1993 I Standard Bearer I401


                          `The: Songs of Zion,                                                                                            .
           An Appreciation of The Psalter of 1912

     The year was 1912, and the place              There had been a long-felt desire for          1909,byaJointCommitteefromnine
wasPittsburgh.  Intheheartofthecity  I             aversion of the Psalms which would             Churches of the Presbyterian family
famous for steel and beer, a small                 satisfymodemlitemrystandardsand                in Canada and the United  States.3
group of Psalm-singing United Pres-                be recognized as the mutual prop-
byterians held alast committee meet-               erty of the Churches.'                    Amongthqnineparticipatingdenomi-
ing. They sat to put the final touches                                                       nations was the Christian Reformed
on the labor of nearly twenty years, as          The concern for literary standards          Church, spreading its wings in a rare
theywroteaprefacetoanewmetrical  I reflects the great flowering of English                   flight of inter-church activity.
version of the Psalms with music. It             letters in the 19th century, in particu-           Here was the last stand for sing-
was published that year, and has come : lar a golden age for poetry. Some-                   ing the Psalms in worship among
to be known as The Psalter, 1912, or : thing of the same concern prompted                    Presbyterians on this continent.
simply, The  Psalter.  This book of the efforts to produce a revision of the                 Hymns were already in use among
praise has been in use ever since in             King James Version of the Bible. This       three of the nine bodies, but the re-
North America, and its influence has : revision first appeared in England in                 maining six groups were  still com-
spread to many denominations and ; 1881, and its American counterpart,                       mitted to "exclusive Psalmody." The
many other books of Psalms and the American Standard Version, was                            view of Psalm-singing taken by the
hymns. It is likely no exaggeration to ; Published in  the  IIS. in  lgol*  The              Editorial Committee could not be
say that' The Psalter, 1912 has been I similarities between the ASV and the                  clearer:
used longer and more widely than  : texts of The Psalter (such as the wide-
any other book like it in American ; spread use of that ancient and poeti-                        With this brief preface the book is
church history.                               : cal form of the Tetragrammaton, II Je-            sent forth on its sacred mission. It
     The United Presbyterian Church  :           hovah") are by no means coinciden-               presents anew the immortal songs of
in North America launched the initia- : tal. The General Assembly of the                          the Holy Spirit, those matchless'
                                                                                                  hymns of the Bible which have been
tive for The Psalter as early as 1893. United Presbyterian Church had duly                        sung in far-off countries and centu-
By 1895 a Joint Committee drawn authorized and recommended the                                    ries,whichwerechantedbyourLord
from nine denominations was in place             ASV to the churches in 1907.2                    and His disciples, and which with
andbeganits work. A first draft of the i             The ecumenical concern behind                their measured language of religious
new metricaltranslation of the Psalms            The Psalter was translated into an               feeling and devotion will abide until
was presented to the churches in 1905, I interdenominational effort on a scale                    the end.'
and the final revision of the text was ,        that has seldom been equaled or sur-
approved in 1909. Once more the j               passed:                                             The 150 Psalms were distributed
United Presbyterians put their hand '                                                        in  The Psalter as 413 numbered selec-
to the work, and it was their Editorial           The prime distinction of this Psalter      tions. This practice hadbeen adopted
Committee that carried out the final              is its use of the metricalversionof the    as early as 1887 in the last Psalter
revision of the text, made selection of :         Psalms approved September  22nd,           which the UPCNA had produced on
the tunes, and then saw the work j                                                           its own. The division accomplished
through the press. The goal through- :                                                       at least three purposes. First, the
out these lengthy proceedings was                                                            Psalms most frequently used appear
always clear:                              1         "Preface," The Psalter with Respon-     in severalversions, for variety's sake.
                                           siveReadings,UnitedPresbyterianBoard              Second,thelongerPsalmsappearwith
                                                of Publication, Pittsburgh, 1912, p. 3.
                                           I 2       "Preface," The Psalter Hymnal,
Rev. Lanningis minister of the Christian :      United Presbyterian Board of Publication     3      "Preface," The  Psalter with Respon-
Reformed Church in thevillageoflamont,          and Bible School Work, Pittsburgh, 1926,     sive Readings, p. 3.
near Coopersville, Michigan.               p .   4 1 5 .                                     4      Ibid., p. 5.

402  /Standard Bearer /June, 1993


a variety of possible tunes, and where               diverse and representative book pro-        in the Christian Reformed Church
the mood of the text changes, the tune               ducedbyPresbyterianandReformed              today, the dying fires are fed with
changes  as`well; see the treatment of               people in the U.S. The Psalter was          leaves from The Psalter, 2912.
Psalm 27 (Nos. 71-73). Third, sub-                   extensivelyusedinproductionofboth               And the story continues. When
units of the texts could be isolated as              editions of the Orthodox Presbyte-          they left the CRC in the 192Os, the
selectionsby themselves, and selected                rian TrinityHymnaZ(l961,1990),  and         founders of the Protestant Reformed
stanzas regrouped into an additional                 some of its texts even appear in Hymns      Churches took Z%ePsaZterwith  them.
selection, such as "On the Good and                  for the FumiZy of God, published by         With commendable persistence rare
Faithful," No. 7. Musically the com-                 Bill and Gloria Gaither in 1976.            in American annals, they have contin-
mittee spared no effort:                                 More significantly,  The Psalter        ued to use the same book down to the
                                                     found a place for itself in Dutch Re-       present time. The Free Reformed
     Each  tune is set but once. This rule i         formed circles in the U.S. and Canada.      Churches in North America have also
     secures awealthof music, so that this           In 1914 the Synod of the Christian          used The  Psalter  since their begin-
     Psalter contains no less than four              Reformed Church adopted  The                nings in the 1940s. The first copy of
     hundred and thirty-six tunes, inclu- '
     sive of @en&three  alternates.5                 PsaIter for use in its growing number       The Psalter owned by the present
                                                     of "American-speaking" churches,            writer was a gift from two Protestant
       Despite these selling points,                 where it is still remembered by old-        Reformed friends, Pete and Fanny
American Presbyterians by and large                  timers as "the green book." (CRC            Lubbers; and the first time this writer
turned away from Psalm-singing af-                   books of praise have been color-coded       used The Psalter in worship was in
ter 1912. In 1926 the United Presbyte-,              for quickreferenceas "thegreenbook"         the Free Reformed Church of St. Tho-
rians published The Psalter HymnaZ,:                 of 1914, "the red" of 1934, "the blue"      mas, Ontario. The Netherlands Re-
and in 1950, the Ups collaborated                    of 1959/76, and "the grey" of 1987.) It     formed Congregations have used The
withtheReformedChurchinAmerica;                      was not very long before unhappi-           Psalter, presumably since they first
on Songs for Christian Worship. In                   ness was expressed over the "dry"           began to use the English language in
1955, five denominations, including                  ("too dry to be used with satisfac-         their services. It was in an NRC that
four of those that produced  Th$                     tion"3  character of the typically Brit-    the writer's wife learned to sing her
Psalter, 1912,  published  The                       ish/American texts with their con-          "psalters" as a little child. (In these
Hymnbook for the use of their collec-                cise and literal four-strophe stanzas.      churches the numbered selections of
tive membership of 3.5 million                       The contrast was with the Dutch ver-        The Psalter  are referred to as
people.6 The Psalms must jostle for a.               sion of the Genevan Psalter, with its       "psalters" both individually and col-
place among the hymns these days in:                 expansive texts and luxuriant tunes.        lectively. Thus a noted NRC writer
a very unequal contest in most Pres-i                By this period (1930) hymns were            mentions  uour psalter-singing cus-
byterian andReformed  churches. We:                  being introduced into the CRC, and          tom" and church members speak
shall not mention the rise of "Praise                soworkwasbegunonaPs&erHym-                  warmly of theblessingof "singingthe
and Worship" choruses, and the ad-;                  nd patterned after the United Pres-         psalters.")
dition of the overhead projector to the:             byterian book of 1926. The  new  book           These groups all use The PsaIter,
sacramental furniture of the sanctu-i                would include a large selection of          2922, in the edition published by Wm.
                                                     favoriteDutchpsa2mentranslatedinto          B. Eerdmans Co. in Grand Rapids
XY-                                             I
       On the surface it would appear:               English and set to their familiar           since 1927. Both the 1914 and 1927
that the publication of The Psalter!                 Genevan tunes.                              editions included the Doctrinal Stan-
was the last grand campaign in a war                     This  tvas not the end of  The          dards and Liturgy current in the CRC
for Psalmody that was very decisively;               Psalter, 1912 in the CRC, however.          at that time. The 1927 edition also
lost thereafter. Yet in various ways!;               The Psalter Hymnal of 1934 repro-           included the 1914 Church Order of
the high hopes of the Editorial Corn-j               duced a substantial amount of the           the CRC. Sometime after 1934 (was it
mittee have been vindicated. Texts                   earlier book, and almost as much sur-       in 1947?) a Chorale Section was added
from ThePsaZter,  2922liveoninmany                   vived a further revision published as       to make available the English ver-
                                                                                                 sions of the Genevan psalms prepared
books of more recent vintage, includ-,               the "Centennial Edition" of  The
ingTheHymnbookof 1955,stillwidely~                   Psdter Hymnal in 1959. Small re-            for the  1934 Psalter Hymnal.
used, and in some respects the most' mains of The Psalter, 2912 live on                              In recent years, special editions
                                                     even in the latest "revision" of The        have been published by the Protes-
                                                     Psalter Hymnal, `(the grey book" of         tant Reformed Churches (1988) and
                                                     1987. Where Psalm-singing survives          the Netherlands Reformed Congre-
5                                                                                                gations (1991). Musically little has
       ibid., p. 4.
6      "Preface," TheHymnbook,  ed.David.                                                        changed; the NRC edition'adds  18
Hugh Jones, pub. John Ribble,  (PCUS;                                                            selections to the Chorale Section. Both
PCUSA, UPCNA, RCA), Philadelphia,                    7 Acts der Synode  van de Christelijke      editions have re-set the doctrinal and
1955, p. 5.                                          Gereformeerde  Kerk  1930, p. 59.           liturgical sections, and the result has

                                                                                                          June, 1993 / Standard Bearer I403


been a vast improvement in appear-           withno  official standing really needed       No. 212 (Second tune). Though the
ance and legibility. The PR edition          in a liturgical volume? Are the vari-         original edition of Tke Psalter used
added introductions to each of the           ous Church Order documents really             only a few Genevan  tunes, this defect
doctrinal statements, and along with         worthy of inclusion at all? ThePsalter        has been remedied with the inclusion
the printing of the three ancient or         is first of all a working tool and ready      of the Chorale Section. This part of
ecumenicalcreeds (The Apostles', the         reference for public worship. Per-            the volume needs further improve-
Nicene, and the Athanasian) the Creed        haps what is needed is a separate             ment; use shouldbe made of the plain
of Chalcedon appears, though it has          "study edition" of the doctrinal stan-        choralesettingspreparedfortheTh.ird
no `official standing among the Re- .' dards, liturgy, an* church order. Such              Edition of the CRC's -1934 Psalter
formed churches in, general. No              a volume could. be expanded even.             Hymnal.                        . .
changes were made in the Liturgy.            beyond present limits, and would                     The most compelling feature of
The Protestant Reformed Church               certainly be a welcome addition to the        The Psalter is its high degree of vari-
Order is substituted for the 1914 CRC        Reformed bookshelf.                           ety and flexibility. Multiple settings
document.                                        What accounts for  The Psalter's          of particular Psalms make their fre-
     The Netherlands. Reformed edi-          wide .acceptance and extraordinary            quent use an opportunity for the full-
tion of 1991 provides introductions          longevity? For one thing, its high            est exploration of their meaning.
for all the confessional documents,          achievement as a metrical translation         Thereisawiderangeofmusicalstyles,
and these are on average twice as long       of the Psalms. The influence of the           and church musicians shouldbe chal-
as those in the PR edition. A new and        King James and American Standard              lenged to do full justice to the many
much longer Preface stands at the            Versions of the Bible shines through          possibilities for registration and in-
head of the volume. Additions to the         on each page. From the KJV comes a            terpretation of the accompaniment.
Liturgy include a new form for Public        language of devotion that is rich, beau-      Metrical indexing opens the way for
Confession of Faith (p. 130) and a           tiful, and reverent; from the ASV             wiser choice of tune to accompany a
form for Public Confession of Guilt.         comes a clear, consistent style, and an       particular text. One feature of the
The Form for Excommunication is              interest in fresh and more exact pos-         musical notation is worth mention-
enlarged with the text for three pre-        sibilities for translation of the original    ing, namely, the broad lines drawn
liminary announcements to the con-           text.                                         through the staves of music to indi-
gregation. Forms for the consolation             Students of the Psalms will find          cate how eachline should be phrased.
of the sick and the CoIZection  of Chris-    ,many, stimulating suggestions for            Organists, please takenote! Too many
tiun Prayers are' also included, the         translation and interpretation in The         of you play right through, trailing a
former a new translation from the            Psalter. ,Discreetbutappropriateuse           breathless and unedified congrega-
Dutch, and the latter a Christian Re-        of New Testament idiom ("Christ,"             tion in your wake.
formed translation from the same             "Savior," "Churc.h")  adapts the                     All in all, The Psalter is a rich
source, first .published in 1934. The        Psalms for use in the churchunder the         resource for public worship. It offers
Dordt Church Order appears ,in its           Gospel yet.without going to extremes          as much to a church which is just
1619 form, right down to the signa-          in the ,manner  of Isaac Watts. For           beginning to use the Psalms in wor-
tures of the moderumen. Of special           someone not well acquainted with              ship as it does to churches of well-
interest are the "suggested orders"          the devotional and liturgical use of          established Psalm-singers. So it hap-
for Morning and Evening Worship.             the Psalms, the subject headings for          pens that on any Sunday of the year,
Withthesevariousadditions,theNRC             each numbered selection provide an            all across North America, in hun-
edition of The Psalter provides the          instant and often very helpful intro-         dreds of churches, thousands of wor-
English reader with the fullest and          .duction.                                     shipers will bring their praise and
most authentic form of the doctrinal             Musically, ,Tlze Psalter has its          prayers to the Lordusing ThePsaZter,
standardsandliturgyoftheReformed             strengths and weaknesses. There is            2922 in some form, either the whole or
churches as settled and determined           an, amazing wealth of tunes in the            some part of it. The Editorial ,Com-
by the Synod of Dordt:                       book, including many obscure tunes            mittee had some intimation of what
    The present writer is concerned;         that deserve to-be more widely known:         was to come:
however, that with the passage of            e.g., "Rolland," No. 233; "Kimoss,"
time, The Psalter has, like most of us,      No. 315; "Broadman,`! No. 289. Good                In the thought of many this ver&ica-
begun to put on weight and added             usehas been made of familiar hymn                  tion of theDivine hymnal, because of
bulk. ThePsaZteu, 1912 was a volume          tunes such as "Surelia," "Love Di-                 its merit and its undenominational
not quite 7/8ths of an inch thick. The       vine,"-and "Nicea." Not so successful              character,isdestinedtoreceivebroad
present NRC edition nearly doubles           use is made of Christmas carol and                 acceptance and become  histork
this to 1 l/2 inches.- At what point         hymn tunes;- an especially bad ex-
does the added size and weight be-           ample is "Herald Angels," No. 3. An
come a problem? Are introductions,           occasional folktune  appears, such as         8      "Preface," ThePsalterwithRespon-
proof texts, and creedal  documents          the aptly-chosen  ".Auld Lang Syne,"          sive Readings,  p.  4.

404 /Standard Bearer I June, 1993


The history continues, for where The!           well past the middle of the next cen-      dently in the work, much to the glory
Psalter is used today it is firmly en-'         tury. No other psalter or hymnal ever      of His Name and the comfort of His
trenched, though it is more than 80:            produced in the English language has       Psalm-singing folk, who love to sing
years old. If the Lord tarries, the little,     continued so long in use, with the         these "songs of Zion." 0
children learning to sing their first           possible exception of the Scottish
"psalters" today will be singing them           Psalter. The hand of God was evi-





Mormons Answered Verse by Verse,                tory" covers a period of 187 years. It     teaches that Jesus Christ is Jehovah
by David A. Reed and John RIFarkas;.            begins with the birth of Joseph Smith,     (the Lam) of the Old Testament. Mor-
Baker Book House, Grand Rapids,.                Jr. in 1805, offers aninformativesketch    mons  may even properly associate
Michigan, 1992; 154pp.,$6.95  (paper).,         of the development of a false church,      Old Testament verses with New Tes-
[Reviewed by Agatha Lubbers.]                   organized in 1830 by six members,          tament verses to show that Jesus is
                                                that today numbers over eight mil-         Jehovah: Deuteronomy 1:32,33 with
    John R. Farkas, former Mormon' lion adherents.                                         I Corinthians lO:l-4; Isaiah 43:3, 11
Elder and Quorum President, and;                    Chapters 2 and 3 review the doc-       with Luke 2:ll; and Isaiah 48:17 with
David A. Reed, convert from the,                trines and sources of authority held       Romans 3:24. If the discussion goes
Jehovah's Witness cult, have collabo-I          by the Mormons. Those who wish to          only this far, a Christian may assume
rated in producing a brief but accu-.           be conversant and knowledgeable            that his Mormon acquaintance agrees
rate review and analysis of the falla-          aboutMormonismwillbewellserved             with him theologically. But that is not
cious system of thought held by the;            by these chapters because they con-        actually the case. While the Christian
Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-.          tain a review of major terminology         understands Jehovah to be one of the
day Saints, i.e., Mormonism. Con-I              and the three additional "scriptures"      Hebrew names of the triune deity -
ciseness and comprehensiveness are:             ,of the Mormons, (The Book of Mor-         Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - the
major strengths of the book.                    mon, Doctrines and Covenants,  and         Mormon believes quite differently.
    In eight brief chapters the authors         The Pearl of Great Price.)                 The Mormon Bible Dictionary gives
answer the Mormons. The introduc-'                  The title of the book, Mormons         the following explanation:
tion succinctly summarizes the main' Answered Verse by Verse, indicates
events in the history of Mormonism:             the main purpose of the book. This           When one speaks of God, it is gener-
from 1805 to 1991. Writing about the I          main purpose is carried out in the           ally the Father who is referred to;
visits by pairs of young missionaries I         chapters comprising the 90 pages of          that is Elohim. All mankind are his
who arrive by bicycle, Scriptures in/           this 154-page  book. In three chapters       children. The personage known as
hand, at doors across the United States, j      (Chapters 4, 5, and 6) the authors           Jehovahin OldTestament  times, and
the authors state, "No, it is not the;                                                       who is usually identified in the Old
                                                analyze and give verse-by-verse an-          Testament asLorD (incapitalletters),
Book of Mormon that these mission-' swers to Mormons from texts taken                        is the Son, known as Jesus Christ,
aries open to persuade potential con- '         from the Old and New Testament               and who is also a God . . . he being the
verts, at least not at first; rather it is /    Scriptures that are misused by the           eldest of the spirit children of.
the Bible that furnishes dozens of j            Mormons. In Chapter 4 an analysis is         Elohim.... The Holy Ghost is also a
citations the missionaries use  to:             given to texts taken from the Old            God (cf. pp. 45,46).
`prove' all other churches`false and to         Testament. In Chapter 5 the Mormon
reveal their-own organization as the  :         misuse of the New Testament is cri-            Leaders of cults are theoreticians
restoration of Christ's true church.            tiqued. In Chapter 6 the authors ana-      who behave like their father, Satan.
today. It is to refute this misuse of the       lyze and critique quotations taken         They wrest the Scriptures to their
Bible that  Mormons Answered Verse  j           from the Book  of  Mormon.                 own destruction and attempt to inter-
by Verse is written" (pp. 12,13).                   In their analysis of the Mormon        pret pet sections and passages of Scrip-
    BecauseIteachacoursethatstud-:              falsification of Exodus 6:3 ("And I        ture in such a way that these Scrip-
ies the rise and development of cults :         appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac,         tures will seem to support the theo-
in the 19th and 20th centuries I imme- ;        and unto Jacob, by the name of God         ries they have developed and adopted
diately found a use for Chapter 1, the          Almighty, but by my name Jehovah           as truth. They sometimes can do this
six-page "Capsule History of Mor-               was I not known to them") the au-          quite easily if the passage of the Word
monism" which lists and dates the ;             thors write as follows: "Unlike many       of God seems to fit their own theory
significant incidents that comprise  :          pseudo-Christian cults that deny the       or if it seems to be a bit obscure in its
Mormon history. The "Capsule  His-              deity of Christ, the Mormon Church         meaning.

                                                                                                    June, 1993 I Standard Bearer / 405
                                                                .


        I Corinthians 15:29 is the New!      gion." The authors then cite at least             The discussion of Acts 3:20, 21
 Testament text cited by Mormons in          eight places in the Book of Mormon           states that "Christians understand
 anattempttoprovetheveracityofthe:           that teach that only in this life can one    these verses as referring to the
 Mormon theory of baptisms for the,          obtain salvation and that proxy bap-         millennial reign of Christ" (p. 76).
 dead. fl . ..what will they do who are j    tisms which claim to make it possible        The statement implies a premillennial
baptized for the dead, if the dead do        for someone to be brought into the           interpretation of the end times. Be-
 not rise at all? Why then are they;         Mormon fold after death are impos-           cause the establishing of a
baptized for the dead?" Reed and:            sible. The authors say: "... they are        permillennial eschatology is not the
Farkas offer an interpretation of I          left with the problem of reconciling         main purpose of the book, the book
 Corinthians  15:29 that refutes  the;       their church's ordinance of baptism          can be used profitably by the Re-
 Mormon theory of "proxy baptisms  j         for the dead with their own sacred           formed student of the cults.
 and baptisms for the dead." Reed'           scriptures that rule out the practice"           The book is recommended as a
 and Farkas state that if a Mormon is,       (P. 87).                                     significant contribution to the genre
not convinced after seeing the evi- j            Other false teachings of the Mor-        of books on the cults and the occult.
 dence "you may wish to show him an ;        monsare  in similar fashion described,                                             cl
internal contradiction inhis own reli- j     analyzed, and critiqued.




Ministerial Calls                            nary, spoke on the subject, "Watching        church to sing in celebration of the
        The congregation of Southwest        for Christ's Coming."                        resurrection of our Lord. Between
PRC in Grandville, MI has extended a             In today's church world, as never        the service and the singing a lunch
call to Rev. R. Dykstra, presently serv-     before, questions arebeing asked con-        was served in the social hall.
ing as pastor of Doon, IA PRC.               cerning one's membership in a church             From the archives of Loveland,
        Rev. John Heys, one of our           denomination. Are they still relevant        CO PRC comes an item of interest to
denomination'sministersemeriti,was           or even required today? Or may a             our readers. Posted on the wall in the
admitted to the Holland Hospital in          church or an individual ever leave a         foyer of Loveland is a Western Union
Holland, MI for complications                denomination? Or, perhaps even               telegram that was sent to Mr. Fritz
brought on by a severe case of the flu.      more importantly,.how  does one go           Schwarz, June 6,1958,  from the Synod
He had been home for about a week            about selecting a denomination to            of the PR Churches informing
when he was sent back on May 1 with          associatewith? Good questions these          Loveland that they had been received
a severe case of ulcers. This would be       are, questions that need answers.            into the denomination.
a,good time to remind our readers to         They were addressed, along with                  The Choir of Grandville, MI PRC
consider prayerfully the needs of all        many related ones, at a public lecture       presented a Spring Program on the
our ministers, both those with a con-        sponsored by and held at the                 evening of May 2. The music planned
gregation and those who are retired.         Grandville, MI PRC on May 4. At              for presentation pertained to the
A word of thanks would also be ap-           that lecture Grandville's pastor, Rev.       theme of our'Lord's  Passion, Resur-
preciated.                                   Audred Spriensma, spoke on the sub-          rection, and Ascension, and the
        We also extend our congratula-       ject, "Who Needs a Church Denomi-            Christian's response of Praise and
tions to Rev. and  Mrs; Ron  ~ nation?"                                                   Thanksgiving.
Cammenga, of the Loveland, CO                    The Church Extension Commit-                 The Choir of Hope PRC in
PRC, on the occasion of the birth on         tee of Lynden, WA PRC is again spon-         Redlands, CA alsopresenteda Spring
April 17 of a baby girl, Cherith Sue.        soring a Community Bible Class in            concert. They chose for their pro-
                                             Reformed Doctrine this spring. This          gram thecantata, "Rise, Glorious Con-
Congregational Activities                    is Lynden's 5th year of holding such         queror."
        The Peace PRC of .Lynwood, IL '      meetings. The classes were sched-                And the congregation of
sponsored a lecture for April23 in the       uled to be held on four Tuesdays in          Hudsonville, MIPRC heard their choir
auditorium of Illiana Christian High         May in Lynden's church basement.             members present a concert on April
School. Prof. H. Hanko, of our semi-         The topic this year will be, "The End        25. The choir divided their songs into
                                             of All Things" - the doctrine of             groups dealing with the triumphant
                                             eschatology.                                 entry, Christ's suffering and death,
                                                 After the second service on Res-         His resurrection, and our comfort.
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant     urrection Sunday, the congregation
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-       of Immanuel PRC in Lacombe, AB,              Denominational Activities
gan.                                         Canada was invited to remain at                  This year's combined Mr. and

406 /Standard Bearer  I June, 1993


Mrs. Adult Bible Societies Mass Meet-                        of Trinity PRC in Houston, TX has                   ,with plans for that convention, with
ingwas held on April 20 at Hope PRC                          been following the theme of the up-                 committees meeting regularly.  Q
in Walker, MI. Rev. .B. Gritters ad-                         coming Young People's Convention,
dressed the group on the topic, "Chris-                      "Spiritual Youth in a Carnal World." Fooff!For lliougtit
tian Education in Crisis."                                   Studybeganwith"InEntertainment,"                         "Your feelings about the Sabbath
    Also on April 20 the Spring La-                          followed by "At Work" and "In Dat-                  will always be a`test and criterion of your
dies' League Meeting was held at the                         ing."                                               fitness for heaven. Sabbaths are a fore-
Doon, IA PRC. Rev. Dykstra spoke                                 Speaking of this year's Y.P. Con-               taste arid fragment  of  heaven. The man
on "Christian Liberty - Its Place in                         vention, it might interest our readers              who finds them a burden and not a privi-
our Churches."                                               to know that the Lynden, WA young                   lege may be sure that his heart stands in
                                                             people, the host society for next year's            need of a mighty change. "
Young People's Activities                                    convention, are already hard at work                                                 - J.C. Ryle
    The Young People's Bible Study





    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY i
    On June 18, 1993, the Lord will-
ing, our parents and grandparents,:
EDWARD and JENNIE STOUWIl!,                                      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
will celebrate their 45th wedding anni-                          June 1, 1993, marks the 25th
versary. We give much thanks to our                          wedding anniversary of our parents,
covenant God for giving them these                               ART and SARAH DE JONG.
many years together and fortheir lode                        We are thankful to our gracious God'
and covenant instruction to us. "...th;e                                                                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                             for the 25 blessed years they have
fatherto  the children shall make know:n                     shared together.                                       On May 27, 1993, our parents,
thy truth" (Isaiah 38:i 9).                                      The Lord has been gracious to us                     MR. and MRS. MAYNARD
#r  Lenore  Dieck                                            in providing us with God-fearing par-                              VEENSTRA,
      John and Lynnae, Kathy, Mary                           ents who have provided us with their                celebrated their 60th wedding anni-
* Randy and Janice Bode                       I              constant love, care, and guidance                   versary.               .-
* Ed and Mary Stouwie                                        through these many years.                                We are thankful to our heavenly
      Kevin, Rachel, Curtis, Susan:                              It is our prayer that the Lord.will             Father for giving us God-fearing par-
                               Rosalyn                       continue to bless them in the years                 ents who brought us up in the fear of
* Gys and Joanne VanBaren                     i              ahead. "I can do all things through                 His holy name. It is our prayer that the
      Philip, Christy, Michelle, Eric,!                      Christ which strengtheneth me"                      Lord will continue to bless them and
                                      Todd                   (Philippians 4:13).                                 keep them in His care.
%@ Craig and Sharon Derks                     ;              * Arthur Lester                                          "But the mercy of the Lord is from
      Dale, Keith, Jenni, Bryan                    i         r$ Elizabeth Grace                                  everlasting to everlasting upon them
                               Lansing, Illlno!s             s$p Eileen Rachel                                   that fear him! and his righteousness
                                                   I         #r Sarah Lynn                                       unto children's children" (Psalm
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY (                                   r# Suzanne Rose                                     103:7).
    The Choral Society of the                                r# Rebecca Ruth                                     $ Jay Veenstra
Hudsonville Protestant Reformed                              e Rita Renee.                                       %`r. Ira and Mary Veenstra
Church expresses its Christian  sym;-                        %% Grace Danielle                                   $ Arie and Ann Griffioen
pathy to Mrs. Helen Cnossen and                              * Martin Seth'                                      $% Helen Veenstra
family, in the death of her mother,                          * Edna Christine                                    * Gerrit and June VanDenTop
  MRS. CAROLINA tenHAAF.                                :                             South Holland, Illinois    * Gerald and Clara VanDenTop
May they be comforted by the words                                                                               * Hazel Besselsen
of Psalm 116:5, "Precious in the sight                                                                           $ Merle and Kay Veenstra
of the Lord is the death of his saints.!                                                                                30 grandchildren
               Gerry Schut,  President                                                                                  61. great grandchildren
              Lois Dykstra, Secretary                                                                                                         &and Rapids. Mlchlgan

                                                                                                                            June,  1993  I Standard Bearer  I407


                                                                                                                                                               1
                                                     :?  --  ~-
   BHH                               ;  I-                                                                                        Postage Paid at
   P.O. Box603                          :  1                                                                                      Grandville, Michigan
  Grandville, MI 49468-0603                          / --


       CLOSEOUT SPECIAL!                                            BRITISH REFORMED                             WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
                                                                       F E L L O W S H I P                       On May 27, 1993, our parents
                                                        FAMILY HOLIDAY CONFERENCE                            and grandparents,
                                                             Dates: 30 July - 6 August 1994.                       MR. and MRS. ALBERT
                                                        Place:  Scottish College of Textiles,                             KARSEMEYER,
                                                                    Galashiels, Scotland.                    celebrated their 45th wedding anni-
                                                             (34 miles south of Edinburgh; 72                versary. We are thankful to our God
                                                                    miles from Glasgow).                     for the love, guidance, and instruction
                                                             Speakers:  Professors H. Hanko                  which they have given us.' It is our
                                                                 and D. Engelsma, PRC.                       prayer that He will bless them with
                                                               Rev. Sinclair Horne, Scottish                 many more years together.
                                                                    Reformation Society.                         "But the mercy of the Lord is from
                                                        Theme: The Doctrine of Sovereign                     everlasting to everlasting upon them
                                                                            Grace.                           that fear him, and his righteousness
                                                        Acconhodafion:  All rooms single                     unto children's children" (Psalm
                                                              study-bedrooms with washhand                   103:17).
                                                             basins, and bed linen and towels                * Jerry and Pat Schipper
                                                             provided. (One bathroom and two                       Becky, Jason, Jeremy, Emily
                                                                    toilets per ten rooms).                  * Ed and Jeanne Karsemeyer
                                                        Tours:  Edinburgh; Sites associated                        Shawn, Renae, Todd, Ryan,
                                                             with Scottish Covenanters; Bass                                                        Kyle
    Order at clearance price Herman                          Rock: Berwick-on-Tweed; Ettrick.                #r Greg and Elaine Engelsma
Hoeksema's devotional on  ttie mys-                                          cost;                                 Chad, Shannon, Valerie
tery, wonder, and excitement of the I!                         Option (A) Full Board: Adults f155;           $ Al and Carol Karsemeyer
eventsat Bethlehem. Filled withtwenty                   Children 5-12 f78; children under 5 free.                  Clint, Ronda, Kirk, Jessica,A.J.,
skillfully written and thorough chap- .i
                                         *.:                   Option (B) Bed and'8reakfast:  Adults                                               Troy
ters. Yours for $6.50 in the U.S. andI  j               f 94; Children 5-l 2 f 47; children under 5 free.                                Jenlson,  Michigan
$8.50 outside the U.S. All orders                              Option (C) Self catering: Six-bedroom
include shipping. To order, send pay                    family unit with separate kitchen/loungef200.                    CALL TO SYNOD!!
ment to:                                                Note:                                                    Synod 1992 appointed Hudson-
                  RFPA                                         With regard to Options (8) and (C) meals      ville Protestant Reformed Church the
        ,.  c/o Daniel Bush                             can be purchased atthefcllowingrates:  Lunch         calling church for the 1993 Synod.
            P.O. Box 2206                               f5 (children half-price): packed lunch f3.50;            The Consistory hereby notifies
   Grand Rapids, Ml 49501 USA.                         Dinner f7 (children half-price). However, all         our churches that the 1993 Synod of
                                                        such meals must be ordered at the time of            the Protestant Reformed Churches in
                                                        booking.                                             Americawill convene, the Lord willing,
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY.                                      Contact persons (for information              on Tuesday, June 8,1993 at 9:00 A.M.
    The Choral  "Sociefy',`of the                      -or reservations):                                    in the Hudsonville Protestant Re-
Hudsonville Protestant' Reformed                                    M r .   Tony'Horne                       formed Church.
Church extends its Christian sympa-                                    9 Church Road                             The Pre-Synodical Service will be
thy to Miss Judy Lanning and family in:                        Thornbury, Bristol BS12 1 EJ                  held on Monday evening, June 7, at
the death of her mother,                    .i                             England                           7:30 P.M. Rev. G. VanBaren, presi-
                                                I
       MRS. ELSIE LANNING.                                           (Tel. 0454-414517)                      dent of the 1992 Synod, will preach
May the family be comforted in the/                                                                          the sermon. Synodical delegates are
                                                j
words of I Corinthians l-522, "Foias                                   Mr.' Bill Oomkes                      requested to meet with the Consistory
in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall                            6299 Wing Ave. S.E.
                                                /                                                            before the service.
all be made alive."                                              Grand Rapids, Ml 49512                                                Consistory of
                                                !
                Gerry Schut,  President:  '                                   USA                                                   Hudsonville PRC
               Lois Dykstra, Secretary                               (Tel. 616-698-6687)                                     Mr. Henry Boer, Clerk.

400 IStandard Bearer I June, 1993


