                  THE

A Reformed        .BBE!",,,
Semi-Monthljl
Maaazine,





                   Hull, lowa PRC Builds New Church
                                    See Special Article - page 442





Vii 69, No. 19
August, 1993


CONTENTS:                                                      .'                ;                .I'                                                                         August,  1993                                  &DMD
-QMeditition - Rev. Cdrnelius Hanko                                                                                                                                                                                                  HUWF?
             Contentment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..L...............................................................                                                                                       435
  Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
             1994 Reformed Conference in Scotland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*... 437                                                                                             ISSN 0362-4692
 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    438     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
 All Around Us - Prof. Robert  D. Decker ,.,....,.,,,~.,.,,,,,.,,,,..,.........,~...,.~,.~                                                                                                                          440     Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Second Class
 Special Article - Rev. Richard  G. `Moore                                                                                                                                                                                  Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
             Hull's Congregation in New Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..s........... 442                                                                                           Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
 A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                               P.O. Box 603; Grandville, MI 49466.0603.
             Heinrich Bullinger: Covenant Theologian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.s............. 443                                                                                                               EDlTORIAL  COMMIITEE
 The Strength of Youth - Rev. Barrett  L. Grifters                                                                                                                                                                          Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
             Renewing the Battle (4), Drama, Television, and Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446                                                                                                                           Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
 Guest Article - Rev. Ronald L, Cammenga                                                                                                                                                                                    DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
             The Shameful Sin of, Homosexuality (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449                                                                                     Rev. Ronatd Cammenga, Prof. Robert Decker, Rev. Arie
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            denHartog, Rev. Barry Grltters,  Mr. Fred Hanko, Prof. Herman
 A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev,, Dale H. Kuiljer                                                                                                                                                                                Hanko, Rev. John Hays, Rev. Steve? Key, Rev. Kenneth
             Travail . . . . . . . . ..*.............*......................................*..*..........................                                                                                          451     Koote, Rev. Jason Kortertng, Rev. Dale Kuiper,  Mr. James
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Lanttng. Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers. Rev.
 Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Thomas C. Miersma                                                                                                                                                                       JamesSlopsema,Rev.CharlesTerp&ra,Rev.GiseVanBaren.
             The Dqctrine of the Trinity (3) . ..*...*~*.~.~...*.*..................,................~                                                                                                              452     Rev. Ron&l  VanOverloop, Mr. Benjamin Wigger. Rev. Bernard
  Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                 454     Woudenbsrg.
  News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wgger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455                                                                                                           EDITORIAL OFFlCE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            4949 Ivanrest               6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Grandville, MI 49416        Hudsonville, Ml 49426
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            BUSINESS OFFCE              NEW ZEALAND OFflCE
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The Standard Bearer         The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Don Doezema                 c/o Protestant Reformed
            An ancient philosbpher once observed that "the wealth&&man is he who                                                                                                                                            P.O. Box 603                   Church
 is contented with least." Even the world recognizes that there is a direct                                                                                                                                                 Grandville. Ml              8. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                                                                              49466-6503                66 Fraser St.
 correlation between  "contentment" and "happiness" -and that it isn't material                                                                                                                                             PH: (616) 536-1776          Wainuiomata, New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     (616) 6311490
 wealth that makes for either one. But what does? If one cannot find contentment                                                                                                                                            FAX:  (616) 53i -3633
 in things material, in wealth or in health, where does one look for this great                                                                                                                                             EDlTORlAL   POLICY
 treasure? What the world cannot know or appreciate is that contentment is first                                                                                                                                            Every edtof is sotety responsible for the contents of his own
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            articles.  Cmtributionsofgeneral  interestfromourreadersand
 of all a spiritual virtue. It is, too, a g-zyf -but at the same time something which                                                                                                                                       qth3SthS fOf The Resder Asks  department are Welcome.
 must be Zeurned and sought. Paul learned it. For a "lesson" in that learning                                                                                                                                               Contributions w/II be limited to approximately 300 words and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            mustbeneatlywrittenortypewrttten,andmustbesignsd.          Copy
 process,  you'll  want to read Rev. C. Hanko's Meditation, entitled simply,                                                                                                                                                deadlines are We first and ftfteenth of fhe month. All
 "Contentment."                                                                                                                                                                                                             communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            editorial offka.
            New facilities for worship and for church-related activities are surely
 reason for excitement in a congregation. Hull PRC is no exception. We're happy                                                                                                                                             REPRINT POUCY
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Parrnl~tsharebygrsntedtorMereprint~got~tclesInour
 for them, and are glad to be able to share a little of their joy through the article                                                                                                                                       magazinebyotherpubms,prwided:  a)thatsuchreprinted
 and pictures provided to mark this important event in the history of their                                                                                                                                                 artkles are mproduwd infuH;  b) that proper acknowledgment
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            is made: c) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
 church.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    eppeem is sent to our editorial office.
            Several articles in this issue are continuations of very interesting series.                                                                                                                                    SUBSCRIPTlOW  POLICY
 Rev. Gritters, in the fourth article in his series in The Strength of Youth, argues                                                                                                                                        Subscription price: $12.00 per year in the U.S., $15.00
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            elsewhere. Unless a definite request for disomtinuance  is
 persuasively that most of what the movie and television industries produce                                                                                                                                                 recetved, % is assumed that the subscriber  wishes the
 today represents an "Augean stable" which would defy cleaning even by a                                                                                                                                                    subscriptionto~~ue,pndhewillbeUled~rrrenewal.              Hyou
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            haveachangeofaddress,pleasenotifytheBosinessOfficeas
 modem-day Hercules - because the art-form on which they rely is itself                                                                                                                                                     early es possible in order to evokt the inconvenience of
 illegitimate. To  see why, read "Renewing the Battle."                                                                                                                                                                     interrupted delivery. Include your Ztp or Postal Code.
            And from Rev. Cammenga we have the second in his series of hair-raising                                                                                                                                         ADVERTISING POLICY
 articles on homosexuality. He demonstrates conclusively, in this one, that the                                                                                                                                             The StandsrdBearurdoes  not accept oommerctal advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            of my kind. Announcement5 of church and school events,
 "gay" life-style is, for homosexuals themselves, anything but gay, and, with                                                                                                                                               ermlverseries. obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
 respect to the r&t of society, is a medical and fiscal threat of major proportions.                                                                                                                                        placed fore 33.00 fee. These should be sent lo the Busktess
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Officeandshouldbeac.ccmp8nledbytheS3.OOfee.  Deadline
 For the state to grant hbmosexuals preferential treatment, contrary to its own                                                                                                                                             for mnnwW  is at least me month prior to publication
 best interests,  is, therefore beyond comprehension, as is also the church's                                                                                                                                               date.
 toleration of them in spite of the clear testimony of Scripture against them. This                                                                                                                                         BOUND VOLUMES
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            The Business Office will aooept standing orders for bound
 much becomes abundantly clear in this issue, in "The Shameful Sin of Homo-                                                                                                                                                 wpiesofthecurrentvvlume.  Suchordersarefilledasswnas
 sexuality." We look to a future installment, to have such suicidal folly put into                                                                                                                                          possible after cnmpletlon of a volume year.
 its proper biblical perspective.                                                                                                                                                                                           16mm  microfilm, 36mm microfilm  and 106mm microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    D.D.    article copies are availabk through Unhrersky Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            Illterll&llrl.
 434/Sg~~993                                                                                                                                                                                      -=,


                                          Contentment

         Contentment. A spiritual virtue.        worry. The word "worry" we often               of `utter isolation in hell than to let me,
         It is the peace of heart and mind       associate with a dog taking a rat by           along with all His people, perish in
thatremainsunperturbedinthemidst                 the neck and worrying it, shaking it           our sins.
of all the trials and hardship that we           backandforthuntilitsneckisbroken.                  He entrusts to me His holy Word,
may meet on our earthly pilgrimage.              Worry creates a troubled, tempest-             and gives me eyes to see, ears to hear,
It is the assurance that we have every-          tossed soul that can find no rest. Its         andaheart tounderstandthemyster-
thing that can be desired.                       companion, anxiety, can lead to frus-          ies of the kingdom of heaven. He
         The very opposite is covetous-          tration and despair. That is a far cry         makes me a citizen of that kingdom,
ness, which is the greedy desire for             from contentment.                              an heir of eternal life, with a foretaste
things that we do not have, or possi-                    Nor does contentment have any-         of that eternalblessednessinmyheart,
bly for things God has entrusted to              thing in common with cold stoicism.            a peace that passes allunderstanding,
our neighbor.                                    A stoic proudly boasts that, "I have           a joy unspeakable and full of glory.
         Israel was guilty of the sin of         will.power,  I can take it." He refuses            That peace and joy give me con-
covetousness when they craved the                to flinch or cry out in severest trials.       tentment.
onions, the garlic, and the leeks they           He may seem.ever  so strong, yet he                That was Paul's confession. Is it
had enjoyed in the past, and which               trusts in Self. The peace of content-          yours?
were still being enjoyed by the Egyp-            ment he can never know.
tians.                                                   Contentment is a gift, a spiritual               *******
         Scripture calls this sin the root of    gift, attained only by a living faith in
all evil. All other sins - slander,              the God of our salvation.                          Contentment implies a certain
stealing, adultery, murder, and so                       It is the knowledge that God is        need. It is in connection with his own
many more-find their source in this              God, the Creator of heaven and earth,          daily need that Paulmade this confes-
evil.                                            the Almighty Sustainer, who upholds            sion. In fact, the apostle wrote the
         Think of the greed that creates         and governs all things by His sover-           epistle to the Philippians toward the
jealousies, discontent, grumblings,              eign power, who supplies us with all           close of his life, while he was a pris-
and complaints about the many trials             things necessary for time and eter-            oner at Rome, where he would die a
o f   l i f e .                                  nity.                                          martyr's death.
         A grasping, avaricious person is                More than that, it is the assurance        The church at Philippi had sent
never satisfied, but always craves               that this God is my God now and                him a gift, for which he was sincerely
more. Even the rich fool of the par-             forever. He loves me with an eternal           grateful. He explains, however, that
able, who boasts of "my fields," "my             love in sovereign mercy. Why me,               it is not as if he suffered lack. Nor did
graiQ"  "my barns," in which he ex-              and not the thousands upon thou-               he hold it against them that they had
pects to find contentment for many               sands who perish in their sins? I'll           not sent a gift for some time, for he
years, still talks of more grain and             never know, except that I do know              realized that their circumstances had
b i g g e r   b a r n s .                        that it is His sovereign good pleasure         prevented them. But he is especially
         Contentment is the opposite of all      that fills me with humble self surren-         grateful for the expression of their
that, but it is the opposite of more             der.                                           love and concern for him. That means
besides. It is the direct opposite of                    This God is the God of my salva-       even more to him than the gift.
                                                 tion in Jesus Christ. He did not spare             Indeed, the apostle always had a
                                                 His only begotten Son, but gave Him            need to one degree or another. Yet he
                                                 over unto the accursed death of hell to        had learned, in whatsoever state he
                                                 save me from my sins. I stand amazed           might find himself, to be content.
Rev. Ha&o is a minister emeritus in the          at the thought that God would rather               We also have need. In fact, we
Protestant Reformed Churches.                    give His Son unto the horrible death           always have many needs, such as

                                                                                                          August, 19931  StandardBearerl435


food, clothing,. shelter, companion-         spite of the fact that God had always       this, because it sounds so much like
ship, a place in our families, a place in    before delivered him, that his soul         an idle boast. Yet boasting was`far
the church, labor for our hands, medi-       cried out, "I shall now perish one day      from the mind of the apostle. Qn the
cine for our ailments, and many, many        by the hand of Saul."                       contrary, he was filled with deepest
more.                                            Yet, even though the saints of old      humility. He might have gone on to
    In these affluent times our carnal       did not always experience theblessed        say, "I have the best of teachers, none
inclination would be to add many             gift of contentment, they did die "be-       other than the Spirit of our Lord Jesus
luxuries to that list, as necessities to     ing full of days." This can only mean       Christ, who. delivers me from my
make our life complete. But our Lord         that they were satisfied, sated. They        sinful self. I was taught under the
has taught us to sum up all our needs        had everything that God had prom-           most trying circumstances; my train-
in a few words: Bread for today. That        ised, everything that their hearts could    ing was in the way of trials and afflic-
teaches us to be satisfied with the          desire, and were ready to lay down          tions, which some might refer to as
merenecessities, and at the same time        their weary heads to die in perfect         `the school of hard knocks.' I was not
to let God determine those necessi-          contentment.                                the most willing student, but my In-
ties. We learn to say, "Thy will be              That sameDavid who at one time          structor never failed me."
done." WeplaceourselvesinFather's            feared he might perish without at-               Blessed gift! Have you learned it?
care, for He knows best. That is the         taining the crown could later testify:      Do you seek it?
basis for true contentment.                  "The Lord is my light and my salva-              You may say, "But Paul never
                                             tion; whom shall I fear? the Lord is        suffered what I suffer; he never faced
         $  *  *  *  *  *  *                 the strength of my life; of whom shall      what Imust face." Were you unjustly
                                             I be afraid? . . . Though an host should    cast into prison? Were you beaten
    The apostle speaks of being con-         encamp against me, my heart shall           five times over with forty stripes?
tent "in whatsoever state I am."             not fear: though war should rise            Were you in peril of your life over and
    Contentment is a spiritual atti-         against me, in this will I be confident"    over again? Or did you suffer any of
tude, but it is more than that. It is the    (Ps. 27:1,3).                               those trials t&t Paul writes about in II
ability to stand unmoved, unshaken               Even Paul, that faithful servant of     Corinthians 12?
in every crisis that we meet along           God, did not always experience that              When we lay our cross next to the
life's way, to persevere with a peace        blessed peace. There was the time           crosses of others and find out what
of heart and mind that exceeds our           also in his life, of which he does not      each cross implies, we wouldnot  trade
fondest imagination.                         hesitate to tell us, when his thorn         our cross for any other, but take ours
    Adam and Eve possessed that              made life bitter. The messenger of          up again quite willingly.
gift before the fall, but lost it when       Satan buffeted him. He could carry               We do so the more willingly, be-
they were confronted with the temp-          on only with great difficulty. He had       cause we know that the path we tread,
tation of the devil. Covetousness            prayed the Lord to take it away. On         as difficult as it may seem, is the path
took over and led them into sin. They        three different occasions he had            that God has planned from all eter-
fell through the lust of the eyes (the       prayed. The outcome was that he             nity to be the one and only way that
fruit of the forbidden tree looked so        kept the thorn, but, even better, he        can bring us to glory. It is our way,
appealing), the lust of the flesh (the       received grace to bear it.                  because it is God's way for us. And
craving to taste the forbidden fruit),           He could say: I am content, con-        He knows best.
and the pride of life (I'll decide for       tent in whatsoever state I am. The               Along with all the other wonder-
myself whether it is right or wrong).        apostle reached a point in his life that    ful gifts of grace 7 rebirth, daily
    The old patriarch Jacob did not          he was sure that nothing, absolutely        conversion, faith, assurance of our
always possess that blessed experi-          nothing, could shake his faith, could       righteousness before God, growing
ence. There was a time when he               deprive him of the peace that passes        in grace, perseverance throughout all
trustedin the arm of flesh, thinking he      all understanding, the assurance that,      the trials of life -God also gives that
had to help God to attain the covenant       come what may, all is well. It was in       amazing gift, which He alone can
blessing. And then there was that            that personal confidence that he wrote      bestow in the human heart; the gift of
difficult time when Joseph was gone,         in hi-s victor's song, Romans 8, "Nay,      contentment!
SimeonhadbeenleftbehindinEgypt,              but m all these things we are more               Blessed gift!  ' Attained only
and the brothers wanted to take Ben-         than conquerors through him that            through godliness and prayer.
jamin from him, that caused him to           loved us."                                       We look back upon our way and
complain in bitterness: "All these                                                       we say: "I have fainted, unless I had
things are against me."                              *  *  *  *  *  *  *                 believed to see the goodness of the
    David had a similar experience.                                                      Lord in the land of the living. Wait on
Even after he was anointed to be king            "I have learned, in whatsoever          the Lord: be of good courage, and he
over Israel there was a moment, as he        state I am, therewith to be content."       shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I
wearied of fleeing from Saul, and in             You and I might hesitate to say         say, on the Lord" (P.s. 27:13,14.) 0


       1994 Refornied Conference
                                           in Scotland

    Have you always wanted to visit        to make this "holiday" pleasant and        seeing in the lovely glens of Ulster.
the British Isles?                         profitable.                                The Covenant Reformed Fellowship
    Would you like to worship with             Details concerning lodging and         and Missionary Ron Hanko and his
the Protestant Reformed mission in         cost were given in the advertisements      family will welcome these visitors
Northern Ireland?                          of the conference that appeared in the     and will help in arranging their lodg-
    Does a week-long conference ap-        June 1 and July 1,1993  issues of the      ing.
peal to you that is a happy mix of         StancIard Bearer. Topics of the six                For information or reservations,
good fellowship with Reformed and          speeches by the American speakers          write or call one of the following:
Presbyterian Christians of all ages        have now been determined. The                            Mr. Tony Home
from several nations; of guided tours      theme of the conference is "Sovereign                     9 Church Road
to places in Scotland of beauty and        Grace." The speeches developing this                        Thombury
historical significance; and of solid      theme will be "Sovereign Grace and                     Bristol  BS12  1EJ
Reformed instruction?                      Predestination"; "Sovereign Grace                            England
    Then ,you will be interested in        and the Cross"; "SovereignGrace  and                (Telephone: 0454-414517)
attending the "Family Holiday Con-         the Preaching of the Gospel"; "Sover-
ference" scheduled for July  30-Au-        eign Grace and the Development of                        Mr. Bill Oomkes
gust 6, 1994 near Edinburgh, Scot-         Sin"; "Sovereign Grace and the Work                    6299 Wing Ave. S.E.
land, the Lord willing. The confer-        of Salvation"; and "Sovereign Grace                 Grand Rapids, MI 49512
ence is sponsored by the British Re-       and the Earthly Circumstances of                               USA
formed Fellowship, an organization         Life."                                              (Telephone: 616-698-6697)
devoted to the promotion of the Re-            In addition, the Rev. Sinclair
formed faith in the British Isles. The     Horne, leading figure in the Scottish              If enough people from North
group is closely allied with the Cov-      Reformation Society and one of the         America desire this, it may well be
enant Reformed Fellowship of North-        most knowledgeable men regarding           possible to arrange a charter flight to
em Ireland, the mission of the Protes-     the history of the Scottish "Covenant-     Edinburgh from the Midwest. This
tant Reformed Churches.                    ers," will address the conference on       would reduce the cost of airfare. Those
    The British Reformed Fellowship        this history. Rev. Home will also          who are interested in a charter should
has scheduled this conference a year       conduct a tour of the outstanding          get in touch with Mr. Bill Oomkes
in advance so that members of the          sites of Covenanter history in and         soon.
Protestant Reformed Churches in            around Edinburgh. This will be a                   Although the conference is billed
NorthAmericaandothershaveplenty            fascinating and informative educa-         as a family conference, it is equally
of time to arrange an overseas vaca-       tion in the history of Scottish            suited to the single person. A number
tion. Although the main purpose of         Presbyterianism.                           of singles attended the conference in
the conference is to attract persons           The distance from the place of the     Northern Ireland last year and were
from the British Isles to the teaching     conference to Northern Ireland is not      blessed. Our older young people
of Reformed truth, the Fellowship          far. Public transportation is available    would find the conference reward-
hopes that large numbers of foreign        -train and ferry. Some will certainly      ing.
visitors will come. It extends a hearty    desire  tovisit the Protestant Reformed            See you in Edinburgh! Q
invitation particularly to the mem-        mission in Ballymena, Northern Ire-                                            - DJE
bers of the Protestant Reformed            land in connection with the confer-
Churches and promises to do allit can      ence, as well as to do some sight-

                                                                                                 August, 1993/StandardSearer/437-


 n Involved with the Alliance                 mean. The Alliance needs the input          that line? Human tendency is, once
         Gladly'1 react to your editorial,    from the PRC here. Should unity be          one belongs to a new denomination
 "Aloof from the Alliance" (Standard          foundedonlyonaconfessionalbasis?            never to give up on it. Seeking unity
Bearer,  June, 1993).                         Is it fair tolabel a secessionbecause of    after the establishment of a new de-
         It amazes me that the Protestant     confessional differences a schism?          nomination is closing the barn doors
Reformed Churches (PRC) want to               Should denominations which have             after the horse is gone.
stay aloof from the Alliance of Re-           the same confessions but differences             You assume that the indepen-
formed Churches (ARC). The PRC                in theology be labeled schismatic? Do       dents are still Christian Reformed in
have so much to say to the Alliance.          theological differences justify a sepa-     theology. But having experienced the
Permit me to put the following notes          rate existence?                             results of hierarchy, for example, the
to your editorial.                                A sign of our times is that when        independents are weary of all the
         The orderly-way of dealing with      one attends worship services in a           features of the CRC now. It would be
heresy and unholiness in a Reformed           mainline denomination, one will find        appropriate if the PRC wouldinstruct
denomination has been tried. For the          only a few elderly women present.           the newcomers with 69 years of expe-
longest time the "Concerned Mem-              Would not the PRC also fight this           rience.
bers" have maintained that Howard             phenomenonwithtoothandnail? Are                 Your editorial catches me by sur-
VanTill should be disciplined; up to          not theCanadianReformedChurches             prise and brings out many points I
the present no such procedure has             also dreading if that ever should hap-      had never thought of and had never
been executed. For the longest time           pen to them? Is it then proper to           been aware of. Just for that reason
the feminist leanings of Calvin Semi-         remain divided, when we fight for the       alone your editorial should be sent to
nary have been condemned, but still           same cause? Both the PRC and the            the Alliance as a form of counsel. My
it is training women for the ministry.        Canadian Reformed Churches have             request is that although you cannot
As a matter of fact, the Orthodox             sent delegates to the Alliance to seek      recognize the Alliance as a proper
Christian Reformed Churches                   unity as Jesus Christ Himself com-          ecclesiastical body according to the
(OCRC) split off in 1980 already for          manded. That was their duty and             Church Order of Dordt, you will not
the same reasons, if1 am correct. The         they faithfully obeyed.                     stand aloof andwillcounsel this body,
"Concerned Members" try to reform                 Recently the independent                even treating it, if needs be, as you
the church from within, just as the           churches in the Alliance met by them-       would treat a secular institution.
reformers tried to reform the Roman           selves to discuss federation. At that           Praise God for the PRC and the
Catholic Churchin the 1500s. Butjust          meeting I contended that the forma-         Standard Bearer with such a strong
as the reformers had to turn their            tion of a new denomination should           savour! But may also the grace be
back to the church then, so many are          not be started unless proven to be          found to nurture babes and to love
giving up now on the Christian Re-            necessary. There are so many ortho-         others who also love the truth!
formed Church (CRC).                          doxchurches. .There  is the OCRC, the                                   J.L. Reckman
    The independence movement has             Free Reformed, the Canadian Re-                          Aylmer, Ontario, Canada
not been a goal of its own. It became         formed, certain Presbyterian
expedient to leave the CRC, but there         churches, and the PRC. It must be           Response:
are too many other factors which play         proven that individuals or congrega-            Your concerns are understand-
also their roles. The independence            tions in the independent movement           able, especially since you were a rela-
movement came about because time              cannot in good conscience join any of       tive newcomer to the CRC and learned
was neededto  thinkthese things over,         these denominations. I am sure that         of the PRC only recently.
while at the same time fleeing apos-          you would contend that the PRC is a             The PRC have always been will-
tasy.                                         veryworthy denomination and that a          ing to nurture babes in the faith and to
    One of the issues is that unity is        new denomination certainly would            help those who love the truth. This is
equatedin the CRCwithloyalty  to the          be inferior to your own. If new de-         their calling. But this by no means
denominational hierarchy. I am sure           nominations would continue to be            settles the question, whether they
that the PRC as well as-the Canadian          added to this list, would not we end        ought to have official contact with the
Reformed Churches have a strong               up with a pope in each home? And            ARC as an expression of their "sacred
aversion to hierarchy. The  "Con              what then if we happen to meet each         duty to manifest the true unity and
cemed  Members" are blamed for be-            other assembled before the throne of        catholicit-y of the Church on earth"
ing schismatic. That is why we are            God? Clearly there is a fine line be-       ("Constitution of the Committee for
tryingtograspwhatunityandschism               tween unity and schism. Where is            Contact with Other Churches").


    .Nurturing  and instructing others       heading in that direction but this is               Do you seriously question
ifi the Reformed faith is not the exer-      not the official current position-of the:    whether the CRC has approved theis-,
cise of contact but the labor of mis-        CRC. ,To say so is to,be  reckless With      tic  eiroiution and  wh&&r  slje  has:
sions. Historically, the PRC have            one's percepti&..                            been opening up the offices of minis-
adopted and practiced the policy that            I leave you with this thought: If        ter and ruling elder to women?
instructing Christian Reformed               the, PRC are a gem with scarcely a                  The CRC approved theistic evo-
people and groups in the errors of           blemish, they should not have to af-         lution in her own college by decision
common grace and in the truths of            firm themselves by dragging down             of the synod of 1991 (cf. "Report 28:
sovereign, particular grace belongs to       others.                                      Committee on Creation and Science,"
the work of missions. The PRC have                                     Harold Aardema     in "Agenda for Synod 1991," pp. 367-
stated as much in the preamble of                                           Doon, IA      433 and "Acts of Synod 1991," pp.
their "Constitution of the Mission                                                        762-768,773-777).
Committee":                                  Response                                            The synod of 1990 permitted
                                                 Not so!                                  "churches to use their discretion in
  We believe that . . . missionary activ-        I neither boasted of the PRC nor         utilizing the gifts of women members
  ity includes the work of church ex-        demeaned other churches. To do the           in all the offices of the church" ("Acts
  tension, and church reformation, as        former.would be sin against humility:        of Synod 1990,"Articles 92-96, pp.
  well as the task of carrying out the       "What hast thou that thou hast not           654-659).  The synod of 1992 allowed
  Gospel to the unchurched and hea-
  then. However, we are convinced            received?" (I Cor.  4:7). To do the          "women to teach, expound the Word
  that our present duty lies primarily       latter would be sin. against charity:        of God, and provide pastoral care,
  in the field of church extension and       "Charitysufferethlong, andiskind . . .       under the supervision of the elders"
  church reformation.                        doth not behave itself unseemly,             in the local churches ("Acts of Synod
                                             seeketh not her own, is not easily           1992," Article 105, p. 700). The recent
    The leadership of the ARC is not         provoked, thinketh no evil" (I Cor.          synod of 1993 "gave churches and
interested in receiving such instruc-        13:4,5).                                     councils `the option to nominate, elect,
tion. Its purpose is the union of exist-         I simply demonstrated that the           call, and ordain qualified wqmen to
ing Reformed churches in some kind           doctrine of common grace adopted             the offices of elder, minister, andevan-
of organizationbyway of setting aside        by the CRC in 1924 is a fundamental          gelist"' (The Banner, June 29,1993,  p.
such doctrinal issues as that of com-        cause of the developments in the CRC         6).
mon grace versus particular grace as         that now disturb that Church and                    The facts are not disputable.
non-confessional, unessential, and           that distress many of her members.                  The question is, "Why?"
irrelevant to the Reformed church at         My motivation, as the editorial stated,                                         - Ed.
the end of the 20th century.                 was "a concern of love (for) . . . that
    You will be happy to learn that          Churchwhoseonly daughterweare."
the PR Synod of Hudsonville, 1993            To do this is obedience to the apostle
authorized sending official observers        of Christ: "speakingthetruthinlove"          n Request from Romania
to future meetings of the ARC.               (Eph. 415).                                         WeareamonthlyCluistianmaga-
                                   - Ed.         Whether the CRC and her mem-             zine from Romania and we are inter-
                                             bers hear or forbear, it is profitable to    ested to have a free copy of your
n Reckless Perceptions                       the PRC and their members to be              special issue on "The Doctrine of Cre-
    My Protestant Reformed neigh-            reminded that the truth of sovereign,        ation.#
bor brought me the May 15 issue of           particular grace  - a doctrine essen-               Thank you!
the Standard Bearer and pointed out          tial to creedal Calvinism - is their                              Mihai Such, Editor
your editorial, "The Date is 1924," as       God-given strength in the great apos-                                    Crestinul Azi
recommended reading for a turncoat           tasy of these last days. I affirmed the                           Bucharest, Romania
PR now these many years Christian            trtith, not ourselves.
Reformed.                                        As for your puzzling challenge of        Response:
    Your "facts" in paragraph one            my analysis of the present division in              We are sending you the issue of
arein error. You-said, speaking of the       the CRC ("Your `facts'... are in er-         the Standard Bearer that you request.
CRC loss of membership in recent             ror"), I only stated what those who          We are also giving you a subscription
years: "Most have left because of the        leave the CRC themselves give as the         to the SB for a year.
Church's opening the offices of min-         reason for their separation. They                   We would like to hear about you,
ister and ruling elder to women and          themselves explain: "because of the          your magazine, and the condition and
the Church's approval of theistic evo-       Church's opening the offices of min-         spiritual warfare of the church in
lution."                                     ister and ruling elder to women and          Romania.  0
    It may appear to you that we are         the Church's approval of theistic evo-                                          - Ed.
                                             lution." Ask them.

                                                                                                     August,1993/StandardBearer/439


                                                and they owned the building." Bazen        which had been studying the matter
 H Troubles among                               disputed this statement saying,            for four months and ruled that "an
 the Netherlands Reforked                       "That's not true according to our at-      officebearer who is.declared  an inno-
 Congregations                                  torney, who says under Michigan law        cent party in a biblical divorce situa-
      A special synod of the lO,OOO-            the buildings belong to the local con-     tion by means of adultery may not be
 member Netherlands Reformed Con-               gregation." VerHeulen, in addition         disciplined" and "stressed that this
 gregations (NRC) has deposed the              to serving as denominational attor-         case was now closed and is not to be
 consistory and pastor (Dr. Joel R.            ney, is a member of First NRC.              surfaced again." However, the issue
 Beeke) of the denomination's second                At this point the synodical del-       has continued to cause unrest. The
 largest church, the 1300-memberFirst          egates were escorted out of the church      special synod dealt with a Classis
 NRC of Grand Rapids. The two-day              and reconvened at Covell Avenue             East request "that the matter of di-
 special synod met on June 30 and July         NRC, the denomination's other  con-         vorced officebearers be further dis-
 1 in the sanctuary of the First NRC on        gregationinGrandRapids.  Thesynod           cussed in light of God's Word since
 Crescent Street inGrandRapids.  The           adjournedlaterthat afternoon. Synod         difficulties are expressed regarding
synod was called at the suggestion of          president den Hoed declined com-            this" and a Classis Midwest request
the NRC's lOO,OOO-member sister de-            ment on the actions that synod had          that synod "address and respond in a
nomination in the Netherlands, the             taken on the ground that the matter         clear decisive way the clear and much
Gereformeerde Gemeenten. In  Janu-             had not yet been completed.                 needed answer to the issues of: (a)
arytheD,utchsynodsent  aletterwarn-                 Later that evening, First NRC          officebearers who have been divorced
ing the American synod that "We                sponsored an informational meeting          and are now in active officebearingin
cannot expect a blessing when we do            restricted to its own church mem-           the NRC, (b) those who have been
not conduct ourselves in all things            bers. The congregation voted by a           divorced and remarried and are now
according to the Reformed Church               191-53 margin, with five blank bal-         in active officebearing in the NRC."
Order, which is founded upon the               lots, to "continue the present consis-          On Wednesday, the synod voted
Holy Scriptures. To act contrary to            tory and reject the synod's deposi-         down an appeal from First NRC
Church Order will only cause turmoil           tion." The 77% vote in favor of reject-     against the procedure used by a syn-
and confusion to become all the                ing the synod's decision, which, fol-       odical investigation committee to
greater."                                      lowing customary NRC practice,              gather evidence for a reconvened
     During the lunch period follow-           counted only male professing mem-           December 1992 synod. The synodical
ing the deposition, the vice-president         bers, amounts to a de facto split in the    officers then met in closed session
and clerk of First NRC, Elders James           American synod. First NRC pastor,           and at the strong urging of the Dutch
B&en and Gary Kwekel, and denomi-              Dr. Joel Beeke,  told the meeting that      fraternal delegates recommended that
national attorney, Robert VerHeulen,           the consistory intends to ask the           a new study committee be appointed.
asked synod president, Rev. J. den             Gereformeerde Gemeentenif they can          The Dutch delegates said they knew
Hoed to have the synod meet else-              remain in fellowship with the Dutch         of no Reformed denomination in the
where for its afternoon session. Ac-           synod.                                      Netherlands which prohibited inno-
cording to Bazen, "Rev. den Hoed                   The deposition was precipitated         cently divorced spouses from remar-
said the building belonged to the de-          by the question of whether First NRC        ryingandthatofficebearerscouldnot
nomination, we were no longer the              would agree in advance to accept a          be disciplined for actions which would
consistory because they deposed us,            synod decision on the controversial         be permitted for laymen.
                                               question of whether officebearers may          By Thursday morning, synodical
                                               retain their positions if declared to be    sentiment had moved toward imme-
                                               the innocent partyin a divorce caused       diate resolution rather than appoint-
                                               by the biblical ground of adultery.         ing another study committee. Dr.
                                               Dr. Beeke was divorced on biblical          Beeke then read a letter from his con-
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-    grounds after accepting a call to First     jistory  stating that they would obey
01oSy in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         NRC in 1986. In 1988, the NRC synod         scripture and the Church Order.
n a r y .                                      accepted the report of a committee          men accused of promoting schism


     by reading the letter, Beeke  reiterated    m  PCA General Assembly                      tive Reformed community. NAP ARC
I    that his church's obedience would be        Rebukes CRC for "Departure                   sent a communication to both the
     to Scripture and the Church Order.                                                       1991 and the 1992 synods of the CRC
I                                                from the Scriptures"
     When pressed on whether First NRC                                                        urging it "to reverse the action of the
                                                    The highest ecclesiastical court of
     would agree to obey the decision of                                                      1990 synod leading to opening of the
     synod, Beeke responded that he could        the second largest conservative Re-          offices of minister and ruling elder to
     not speak on behalf of his consistory       formed denomination in North                 women, as contrary to the Scripture
     but would be willing to hold a special      Americavoted on June 9 to rebuke the         and the Reformed standards." In
     consistory meeting and return *with         Christian Reformed Church (CRC)              1991 the PCA General Assembly sent
     an answer. The First NRC consistory         by "calling the CRC to repentance            a communication to the 1992 CRC
     - all but one of whose 19 members           over its departure from the Scrip-           synod declaring that "it is then, with
     were present at the synod - met for         tures in its doctrine and practice."         respect and humility and gratitude
     a half hour and returned with the           The resolution also instructs Presby-        toward you, and with deep concern
     answer that they would withdraw             terian Church in America (PCA) del-          for the retention and propagation of
     theirietterbecauseithadbeenmisun-           egates to the NorthAmericanPresby-           the Reformed faith that we entreat
     derstood but reiterated their obedi-        terian and Reformed Council                  you to reverse the 1990 action open-
     ence to Scripture and the Church Or-        (NAPARC), the major denomina-                ing the offices of minister and ruling
     der.                                        tional fellowship of conservative Re-        elder to women. We believe this to be
             Following the consistory's re-      formed denominations in the United           contrary to the clear teaching of Scrip-
     sponse, the synod voted by a 15-4           States and Canada, "to express con-          ture (I Tim. 2,3) and the B,elgic Con-
     margin to depose Dr. Beeke  and his         cern and to communicate our desire           fession (Art. 30)."
     consistory because they would not           to see the CRC correct these errors              It is highly unlikely that the CRC
     affirmin advance of synod'svote that        and repent of these sins."                   will reverse its latest decision to open
     they would comply with synod no                 Formed in 1973 as a secession            all offices in the church to women.
     matter what synod decided. Synod            from the former Presbyterian Church          How this will affect the CRC's posii
     demanded a yes or no answer and             in the United States, a southern de-         tion as a member of NAPARC  is un-
     would not accept the response, "We          nomination which merged into the             certain. Will NAPARC  go beyond
     will follow Scripture and the Church        mainline Presbyterian Church (USA)           expressing concern and asking the
     Order."                                     in 1983, the PCA currently numbers           CRC to correct these errors? Will
             Not only is the synod divided,      242,000 members in 1,226 congrega-           NAPARC  expel the CRC, one of its
     but the First NRC is also divided.          tions. Its dramatic growth rates over        founding members?  0
     Members of the congregation received        the last few years have made the PCA                                Christian Renewal
     a letter dated July 2 informing them        one of the fastest growing denomina-            Reformed Believers Press Service
     that 0 the remaining officebearers, El-     tions in the United States.
      der J. Fluit, Deacon Dan Breuker and           The PCA action is the strongest
     Deacon Henry Rosendall, have been           official objection to date from a frater-
     recognized by synod as the official         nal body and the first to declare that
     consistory of the continuing First          the CRC has sinned and must repent.
     Netherlands Reformed Congrega-              The resolution cites eight grounds for
     tion." This letter also states that "be-    its adoption, three related to women
     cause we are willing to submit to the       in office, two to homosexuality, and
     authority of synod and had no part in       one to theistic evolution. Two con-
                                                 cluding grounds note that "32
     the statement read or the actions` at                                                           REMEMBER!
      synod, we have been informed that          churches containing over 7,250 mem-                  Introductory
     we are not welcome at Crescent              bers have withdrawn from the CRC
      Street." The minority group report-        because of its unfaithfulness to God's          subscriptions to the
      edly held a worship service under the      Word in these and other issues," and              Standard Bearer
      leadership of Rev. A.M. den Boer at        that "the CRC has deposed and ha-
      Grand Rapids Baptist Academy on            rassed faithful ministers of the gos-                    are still
      Sunday, July 4.                            pel, who have spoken out on these                           half
             Future developments will be in-     issues, in some cases banning them                        price!!
      teresting. Will the split spread to        from preaching in CRC congregations,
      other NRC'congregations  in the U.S.       whileleaving other ministers in peace
      and Canada? Which side will the            who favor these innovations."
                                                     The PCA's action is not the first
      Dutch denomination support?
         Reformed Believers Press Service        official objection to trends in the CRC
                                                 from other members of the conserva-

                                                                                                       August, 7993/StandardBearerl447


          . Hull's Congregation  '
                                .in New Church
    The Lord has blessed our Hull,          of our calling to thankfulness .and        property the committee came to the
Iowa Protestant Reformed Church in          obedience at this time, will give you a    council with their recommendation.
a very special way, by the gift of a new    littletasteofthegratitudeandjoythat        The council adopted the committee's
church building in which to worship.        we experienced at the time of our          recommendation, and on September
At the time of this writing we have         dedication of the new building. We         lo,1990  the congregation also over-
already worshiped in our new build-         had a dedication worship service for       whelmingly approved it. On that
ing for two Sundays. We were over-          our congregation on Wednesday the          same evening a building committee
whelmed by the sense of complete            26th of May, and a dedication pro-         for the new church was appointed.
unworthiness on our part to have            gram to which the sister churches of           Because the goal of beginning
such wonderful facilities in which to       Doon and Edgerton  were invited, as        constructionin 1995 was moved up to
worship. God however. has been              well as the community  of Hull, on         1992, the building committee set to
pleased to be with us and to cause us       Friday the 28th of May. On this same       work at once looking at various
to grow, also numerically, so that it       Friday there was also an open house        churches in the area to gather ideas of
became necessary to construct a new         at which approximately 600 adultvisi-      what they would like to see in the new
building. Then He has also in abun-         tors were in attendance.                   church. They.worked then with an
dance given us the means to have this                                                  architectandbyMayof1991  theyhad
place in which to worship. Our new          History of the Planning and                blueprints and cost figures ready to
building is constructed to accommo-         Building of the Hull PRC                   present to the council. Between this
date 465 people on the main floor and            On July 5,1988  a committee was       time and the end of the year many
another 110 people in the balcony.          appointed to study and present the         critical decisions were made. The
The building includes a fellowship          future needs of our place of worship.      first decision dealt with trying to
hall that will be able to satisfy our       The three options to consider were         down-size or cut back on the plan
needs, as well as other rooms and a         these: build new, modify and re-           without giving up the quality or in-
pastor's study. We are thankful, and        model the old church, or look into         tegrity of the building. Basically, how-
we are fully persuaded of the calling       starting a new church in Rock Valley.      ever, the plan remained unchanged.
that we have to continue to serve our       This committee came backto  the coun-      A few "extras" were deleted to help
God faithfully in' the new building,        cil in October, 1988 with the recom-       bring the cost down to a point where
holding fast the Word of truth.             mendation to build a new church by         it was feasible for the congregation.
   The following two writings, one          the year 1995. &February of 1989 the           Toward the end of the year (De-
by the building committee chairman,         building committee of the church was       cember, 1991) we held a drive which
in which he summarizes the history          instructed to look into purchasing         fell just short of our goal to collect
of the construction of the building,        property for a new building. After         approximately two-thirds of the
and one by our pastor, reminding us         looking at a few different pieces of       money in cash and pledges to begin
                                                                                       the project. After some deliberation,
                                                                                       the council decided to try again to
                                                                                       reach our goal in January, 1992. By
                                                                                       the 20th of the month our goal was
                                                                                       met, and in April work on our new
                                                                                       ,church  began. After that, we were
                                                                                       able to watch as the foundations were
                                                                                       laid, the walls and.roof  went up, and
                                                                                       more recently the interior was fin-
                                                                                       ished.
                                                                                           Now we are able to worship God
                                   Fellowship Hall                                     in a new church that meets the needs


                      ..::


of the congregation. We thank God
for His faithfulness to us and for pro-
viding the, means to build this new
house `of worship. May the Lord
continue to dwell in us and with us as
we now inhabit our new church home.
                         Alvin Bylsma;
  New Church Building Committee
                             Chairman

Message  from Rev. R. Moore
    Except the Lord build the house, they
labour in vain that build it: except the
Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh
but in vain,
                           Psalm 127:l
                                                                                   Sanctua y
Dear Congregation:
    Asweenterthenewchurchbuild-                  It is necessary that we see that it is    here. It isnecessary therefore, as we
ing that God has granted to us for           God that has given us this new build-         begin to worship in our new church
worship, it is necessary that we re-         ing in which we might worship Him.            building, that we continue to acknowl-
member the above words of the psalm-         This is so because it is He that main-        edge that He is the God who builds
ist. We have labored to build a new          tains His church. He has given us the         the house and guards the city. This
church building. This has meant that         truth of His Word, and by His Word            means that we must continue to bow
many hours were spent in prepara-            He has faithfully gathered His church         before His Word in all that we do.
tion for the building, by various com-       here. He it is who has given to us the        May it rule our hearts and lives. Then
mittees and the council, by many of          hunger and the thirst for the truth,          by God'sgraceourlaborwillnothave
our members that were called upon            and has led us to live here serving           been in vain, nor shall it be in vain.
to help with some aspect of the con-         Him in that which we do. He it is that        But we will know the great blessings
struction, etc. Further, in order to         has placed in our hearts the faith to         of our God in Christ. For as we read
finance the building there is much           trust in His care. And He it is that has      in Psalm 126:1, "They that trust in the
labor that is required on the part of        provided so abundantly for ourneeds           Lord shall be as mount Zion, which.
the members of our congregation to           that we also have been able to build          cannot be removed, but abideth for
pay for this project. But were we to         this church building.                         ever."
assume an attitude of "look what we              He it is also that will provide us                                      Your Pastor,
have done," then it is all done in vain.     the grace to continue to serve Him                                  Rev. Richard Moore





                           Heinrich  Bullinger:
                   Covena,nt Theologian

                                             Introduction                                  of the fact that this truth goes back to
                                                 The truth of God's covenant is            the .time of the Reformat&n. Prior to
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-      part of our precious Reformed heri-           the Reformation this truth was un-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-         tage as Protestant Reformed                   -known; it -has its roots and origin in
tant Reformed Semina y.                      Churches. We are not always aware             the Reformation in Switzerland, par-

                                                                                                     August, 7  9931  Standard Bearer/443


titularly in the work of Zwingli and           the monks from the New Testament           visited those who were struck down
Bullinger. It is to the latter that we call    and from Philip Melanchthon's Loci         by the plague that several times vis-
attention in this article.                     Communes.'                                 ited Zurich, and brought comfort and
                                                   Sent to Zurich, where Zwingli          strength to the dying.
Early Life                                     preached, Bullinger spent five months          Although he lived on a verymea-
    Heinrich Bullinger was born on             listening to Zwingli, perfecting his       ger salary, his charity was known
July 18, 1504, the youngest of five            Greek and beginning his studies in         throughout the country. He freely
sons, to aparishpriestinBremgarten,            Hebrew. It was here that he became         distributed money, food, clothing. He
Switzerland near Zurich. Bullinger's           more thoroughly acquainted with            refused any gifts, but gave anything
father, though a priest, was married           Reformation distinctives. The result       beyond his salary to hospitals and
-in keeping with the loose enforce-            was that, when he returned to the          institutions of mercy. He nearly al-
ment of vows of celibacy which Rome            cloister school in Cappel, he per-         ways had in his home strangers and
required of all its clerics. Although          suaded the abbot and all the monks to      exiles for whom he provided shelter
not much is known of Bullinger's par-          accept the teachings of the Reforma-       and food.' He secured a pension for
ents, Bullinger's father, when a very          tion.                                      Zwingli's widow, took her under his
old man, came to believe and confess               In 1529 Bullinger was called to be     roof, and assumed responsibility for
the doctrines of the Reformation,              minister in the church at Bremgarten,      the education of Zwingli's two chil-
probably under the influence of his            where he succeeded his father as pas-      dren. His Christian love and charity
gifted son.                                    tor. Here he preached until the battle     brought him the respect and devotion
    Bullinger began his formal edu-            of Cappel, when Zwingli was killed         of all his parishioners.
cationin the school of The Brethren of         and the Reformation in Switzerland             Bullinger was deeply committed
the Common Life in Cleves. His fa-             was brought to a temporary stand-          to Christian education. He served as
ther gave him no money, believing              still. In these years at Bremgarten he     superintendent of the schools in
that poverty was necessary for his             developed his skills as a preacher and     Zurich. He was instrumental in the
son to develop good habits in life.            pastor, and served the congregation        staffing of the Seminary with able
Bullinger, like Luther, was required           well. But when Zwingli was killed in       theologians. He actively participated
to sing to earn money to support               1531, Bullinger was forced to leave        in the regulation of. the schools ac-
himself.                                       his congregation. His absence from         cording to the Word of God.
    During these studies Bullinger             the pulpit, however, was brief, for he         Bullinger was a devoted family
wanted to enter a Carthusian  monas-           was soon called to be Zwingli's suc-       man. In 1529 he married Ann
tery;butwasdissuadedbyhisbrother.              cessor in the prestigious congrega-        Adlischweiter, a former nun from
Instead, in 1519 he went to Cologne,           tion of Zurich. Here he remained till      Zurich, and with her had several chil-
Germany where he earned a BA in                the end of his life. Here, in the early    dren. His biographers speak of the
1520. At Cologne Bullinger studied             years of his ministry, he preached six     fact that his home was a happy place,
the scholastic theologians of the              or seven times a week; later, only on      in spite of the fact that almost always
Middle Ages, but soon became so                Friday and on the Lord's day.              strangers were lodging with them.
disgusted with them that he turned to                                                     He romped with his children and
the church fathers, particularly               His Work                                   grandchildren and was deeply con-
Chrysostom and Augustine. The one                  The death of Zwingli seemed to         scious of his covenant calling to teach
point which impressed him in the               be a deathblow to the Reformation in       them the ways of the Lord. When his
writings of these church fathers was           Switzerland, but God provided for          parents couldno longer care for them-
their copious use of Scripture. Spurred        the churches there a man who could         selves, Bullinger and his wife cared
onby their apparent determination to           keep a steady hand on the tiller.          for them in their own home.
ground all their doctrine in God's                 Bullinger was a devoted pastor,
Word, Bullinger turned to a study of           not only as a powerful preacher, but       Theologian
the Scriptures. It was this study of           also as a faithful shepherd who vis-           After Zwingli's death, Bullinger
Scripture which enabled Bullinger to           ited his sheep day and night, opened       became the theologian of the Swiss
read the writings of Martin Luther             his house to all who needed help,          churches.2
with pleasure, as they were then be-           exposed himself to dangers when he             The Swiss Reformation, outside
ing circulated throughout Germany.                                                        Geneva, produced two remarkable
    After earning his master's degree                                                     and beautiful confessions: The First
in 1522, Bullinger returned to his be-                                                    and the Second Helvetic  Confessions.
loved Switzerland. Although already
influenced by Reformation thought,             l Philip Melanchthon was Luther's
he accepted a call by Wolfgung Riipli,         co-reformer, and the bookreferred to
abbot of a monastery in Cappel, to             was the first systematic theology of       2 This is, of course, other than Calvin,
teachin the cloister school. He taught         the Reformation.                           who labored in Geneva.


The First Helvetic Confession was the      Geneva sought the advice of the other       great patience and submission to the
work of Bullinger, along with several      Swiss theologians. Although in gen-         will of God. Though often lonely and
other theologians:        Megander,        eral these theologians agreed with          heartsick, he continued his labors until
Grynaeus, Myconius, and Leo Judd.          Calvin in his doctrine of predestina-       death overtook him.
The Second Helvetic Confession was         tion (Bolsec denied sovereignpredes-            Bullinger died on September 17,
Bullinger's personal work, written as      tination), with the exception of Farel,     1575 after suffering intensely from
a personal confession of faith, and        they cautioned Geneva to proceed            calculus, a disease which was prob-
adopted by the Swiss Churches in           with care and questioned Calvin's           ably what we would now call kidney
1566.3                                     strong statements on God's predesti-        and bladder stones, for which there
    When controversy rose in Swit-         nation of sin and sovereign, uncondi-       was no cure in the 16th century. His
zerland over the doctrine of the Lord's    tional reprobation. Bullinger was           youngest daughter, Dorthea, cared
Supper, Bullinger not only defended        among them.4 When Calvin drew up            for him in his last years. When near
the Reformed view against                  his Consensus Genevensis5,  Bullinger       death, he assembled the pastors of
Lutheranism, but also worked with          refused to sign it.                         Zurich about him and exhorted them
John Calvin to bring uniformity                Of great value to us is a contro-       to purity of life, unity among the
among the Swiss. The result of their       versy which Bullinger carried on in         brethren,andfaithfulnessindoctrine.
cooperative effort was the Consensus       his debates with the Anabaptists.           He warned them against temptation,
Trigurims, an important Reforma-           Against them he wrote no fewer than         assured them of his love, thanked
tion document on the doctrine of the       six books. In his defense of the bibli-     them for their kindness towards him,
Lord's Supper.                             cal position on the doctrine of infant      and closed with a prayer of thanks-
    Bullinger's influence extended         baptism, Bullinger developed his            giving.
throughout Europe, even though he          ideas of God's covenant of grace. It is         After shaking hands with all of
never traveled beyond Switzerland.         in these writings that we have the first    them, with tears (as Paul did with the
When exiles from England sought            development of this doctrine which          elders at Ephesus), he died reciting
refuge in Zurich during the reign of       has meant so much to the cause of the       Psalms 51,16, and 42, the Apostles'
Bloody Mary, Bullinger took them           truth. All subsequent covenant theo-        Creed, and the Lord's Prayer. His
into his home and taught them more         logians, in both Reformed and Pres-         son-in-law preached the funeral ser-
carefully the truths of Scripture.         byterian circles, owe a great debt to       mon.
Through an astonishing correspon-          Heinrich Bullinger.                             Bullinger was the man chosen by
dence Bullinger exerted influence on                                                   God to maintain the Swiss Reforma-
theologians everywhere. He corre-          Bullinger's Death                           tion after the death of Zwingli. He
sponded with Swiss, German, and                Bullinger's last days were filled       was equipped by God with extraordi-
English theologians; hewrote  tokings,     with suffering. The great burden of         nary spiritual gifts for this task. He
princes, and queens. When he died,         the work undermined his health. In          was a man of patience, firm faith,
the English mourned his passing as a       1562 he wrote to a friend: "I almost        courage, moderation, and endurance
calamity, and repeatedly expressed         sink under the load of business and         who "proved that the Reformation
their great debt to this preacher of       care, and feel so tired that I would ask    was a work of God" when, through
Zurich.                                    the Lord to give me rest if it were not     Bullinger's work, it survived the ca-
    In one controversy, however, he        against his will." In 1564 and 1565 he      tastrophe at Cappel.
showed a weakness. When Calvin in          nearly died from the plague, which              To him we, who love the truth of
Geneva was struggling with the her-        took from him his wife, three daugh-        God's covenant, owe a great debt
esies of Bolsec, the Consistory of         ters, and a brother-in-law. In all his      under God.  Q
                                           sufferings he bore his burdens with

                                                                                                       Reminder
3 Our readers can profit from reading                                                          to College Students:
these confessions. They are not very       4 The interesting correspondence can
easy to obtain. Schaff  has them in his    be read in "The Register of the Com-          Send us your new address
"Creeds of Christendom," but they          pany of Pastors in Geneva in the Time         as soon as you know it for
are in Latin and German, The First         of Calvin," edited by Philip Hughes.
Helvetic Confession can be found in                                                               the coming year.
"Reformed Confessions of the 16th          5 Later published under the title, "A               We will send your
Century," edited by Arthur C.              Treatise on the Eternal Predestina-           Standard Bearer to you at
Cochrane. The Second can be found          tion of God." This is included in               college, free of charge!
in "Creeds of the Churches," edited        "Calvin's Calvinism," published by
by John H. Leith.                          the RFPA.

                                                                                                  August, 1993  J Standard Bearer J445


                                Renew.ing t.he &Me (4)
                                            Drama, Television, and Movies

                                                                                                       "Ye shall know them by theirfruits. Do men
                                                                                           gathergrapes of thorns, orfigs of thistles? Even so,
                                                                                           every good tree bringeth  forth good fruit; but a
                                                                                           corrupt tree bringethforth evil fruit. N
                                                                                                                                                                                               Matthew 7:16,17

                                                      _.
                                                      _.               ::                                                                                                                                             ::
                                                                                                                             ..                                                                   __                        _.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            _.'
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  '

                     Iti
                     Iti Greizk
                             Greizk mythology,
                                    mythology, &g@s;
                                                             &gt$s; King 
                                                                                                       of 
                                                                                       King of EI&
                                                                                                           EE& &.&$a
                                                                                                                           &.&$a &~nt&&
                                                                                                                                                                    g&$&&d of$;00b
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                        of$;00b oxen.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        oxen. Buifdr
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                But.   $0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          fdr   years 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 $0             &
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        years   
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                &  ime
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       oni  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 had cleaned
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               had cleaned
        `out the-stalls of these 
        `out the-stalls of                       bxen:
                                            these               -A mammoth; 
                                                 bxen:                                                        almbst
                                                                 -A mammoth; almbst impossib~e~task
                                                                                                                                                                                          faced 
                                                                                                                                         impossib~e~taskfaced any 
                                                                                                                                                                                                         any whc
                                                                                                                                                                                                                            whc &ould,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        put 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            &ould,put foYth
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             foYth the 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        the ejfcrf.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            ejfcrf.
                     Then Hercules, Greek hero, 
                     Then Hercules, Greek hero, had
                                                                             had'@
                                                                                          '@  redeem 
                                                                                             redeem himselffor
                                                                                                                     himselffor  t$e
                                                                                                                                                                   t$e murder cfhis
                                                                                                                                                                               murder cfhis  children-in&e
                                                                                                                                                                                                            children-in&e   of his episodes 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        of his episodes of divine madness.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                of divine madness.
                To expiate his crime, he was assigned twelve monumental (thus, 
                To expiate his crime, he was assigned twelve monumental (thus, "Herculean 
                                                                                                                                                                                      "Herculean "1"1 tasks.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                tasks. One of 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           One  them
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        of them was to clean outAugeas
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   was to clean outAugeas ` `
                stalls.
                stalls. By a
                            By a`superhtlsnan:efjcr~~~Hercu2es:di;jeited
                                 `superhtlsnan:efjcr~~~Hercules:di;jeited  &
                                                                                                                                               & watejs
                                                                                                                                                               watejs  of the Alpheus
                                                                                                                                                                                      of the Alpheus  and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   and Pt&eus,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Pt&eus,  rivqs
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          rivqs through 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       the
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       through  '
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       the staRs,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               'stal!s, and
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         and
                accomplished 
                accomplished the.work.
                                   the.work.                   ::            ~1~1            ..' '         ' '             ii                 ::                   ::                                                  ,<,<
                     Since then,- tasks ofriddingof carruption
                     Since then,- tasks ofriddingof carruption  andfilth
                                                                                                                       andfilth  that 
                                                                                                                                                                               seem
                                                                                                                                                              that seem'hopelessly 
                                                                                                                                                                                       '                                       d$iculf,
                                                                                                                                                                                               hopelessly d$iculf,`as
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              `as well as distasteful, are referred to
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        well as distasteful, are referred to
        as 
        as  `?leaning
                   `?leaning    theaugean
                                   theaugean    sta@le.~"-
                                                              sta@le.~"-    ii   ::   ::                           -<-<`I`I   II                      (,(,                                               ::   I;.-
                                                                                                                                                                                                             I;.-   ;.;.   :;T,-
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            :;T,-   > >  :.:.   ii                       __ 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         __            ((        __
        .,.,                                   ,.'
                                               ,.  . .
                                                 ' . .                       ~-:~-:` .
                                                                                `            
                                                                                  .  ::                                            --
                                    )-)-                                                         I,I,   ,(,(                                  (( . 
                                                                                                                                               .  `-`-   -- . 
                                                                                                                                                                          .  ((((       `,<
                                                                                                                                                                                        `,<                   ~ ~                           _._
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            _._                          :.:.
                                                                                                                                                                                       `.`.                                                      .~.~  ' ' ::  `_`_                         `._,
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            `._,                       22 .
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        .


                Movies, drama, and television are,                                                                  The answer is "No."                                                                                                                        a criticism of drama is not an indict-
     by any estimation, an Augean stable.                                                                           And if some superhuman work                                                                                                                ment of fiction, as though novels in
     Even worldly, unbelieving critics                                                                 could or would do it, the oxen of                                                                                                                      themselves are to be rejected because
     agree that 95% of movies are devoid                                                               drama will only produce more filth.                                                                                                                     of their fiction. Although a novel may
     of any social value (notwithstanding                                                                           There is a reason why, down                                                                                                               be read in an unchristian way, or may
     the claim of some -reformed Chris-                                                                through history, this art-form has been                                                                                                                be unchristian in its content, no per-
     tians that even the worst'of them have                                                            the source of such vile things; Drama                                                                                                                   son is acting the part of another per-
     redeeming value). Most television                                                                 itself is not a legitimate `art-form.                                                                                                                   son.
     programs and movies are thoroughly                                                                Drama itself is not pleasing to God.                                                                                                                              This is a questioning of drama.
     antichristianincontent. This  hasbeen                                                                 Thisarticleisa"herculean"  effort                                                                                                                            By drama is meant an actor's or
     the burden of the first three articleson                                                          to demonstrate that this is so.                                                                                                                         an actress' playing the part of another
     "Renewing the Battle."                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    person's life or part of his life. Movies
                The logical question is, Can the                                                                                                      .+*******                                                                                                and most television are drama.
     Augean stable of dramatic presenta-                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 And because drama is not a pur-
     tions be cleaned? Is there a new                                                                               Please be reminded that we are                                                                                                             suit -for a Christian to be engaged in
     Hercules that candivert some river of                                                             not questioning pictures that move,                                                                                                                     personally, it is not something by
     God's grace to flush this medium of                                                               as though documentaries, home vid-                                                                                                                      which he may be entertained, in-
     its foul-smelling filth?                                                                          eos, and travelogues are improper.                                                                                                                      structed, or edified.
                                                                                                       Please be reminded that a great objec-                                                                                                                            I am well aware that this is a
                                                                                                       tion to movies and drama is their                                                                                                                       challenge to a multi-billion dollar in-
                                                                                                       awful content, and that some pro-
     Rev. Gritters is pastor.of the Protestant                                                                                                                                                                                                                 stitution and industry. I am also
                                                                                                       grams with drama are not explicitly
     Reformed Church of ByronCenter,Michi-                                                                                                                                                                                                                     aware that it is a challenge to a way of
                                                                                                       evil. In addition, please be aware that
     gun.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      life for some of God's people. Some of


I


us were members of the college thes-          called him to develop that person and           -. There is no action that is not one
pians, maybe youthful "Governor               personality that he. is, acting out the       or the other.
Bradfords~ in the grade-school pre-           lifeofanotherseemsinconsistentwith              To act  out'. the sinful deeds of
sentationof thePilgrimlanding.  Many          that calling. Is the child of God to try      anotheris sin itself. As Nineveh will
of our readers were probably reared           to take on the personality of another?        rise up in judgment against Israel,
on "Lassie," "The Lone Ranger," or            He should not pretend that he is some-        unbelieving Muslims (who also have
more recently, "Little House on the           one else. He is to be an imitator of          the works of the law written on their
Prairie."                                     God (Ephesians5:l)  and of the apostles       hearts) %ill judge the foolishness of
        I am aware that this isnot a popu-    (Philippians 3:17). He is not called to       our "Christian" society and of the
lar theme.                                    pretend to be them, but to model his          churches that promote acting sinful
        Why, then, this questioning of        life after theirs.                            deeds. In an article in the Straits
drama?                                                                                      Times,  Singapore's Islamic leader re-
        Because I love the church. And I           NINTH COMMANDMENT.                       sponded to a staged play in which
see what happens to the church which          Some also find that acting something          Muslim actresses played Catholic
recommends drama as a legitimate              or someone that you are not is objec-         nuns and made the sign of the cross.
pursuit.                                      tionable. Is acting lying?        Oprah       "Theatre practitioners must remem-
                                              Winfry' recognized this, until she si-        ber that what the Quran (i.e., "Koran"
                                              lenced the voice of her conscience. At        BLG) deems sinful in daily life, is still
        . ..because drama is not              the beginning of her career in acting,        a sin committed by the actor if per-
        a pursuit for a Christian             thinking of her Christian upbringing,         formed on stage."3
  to be engaged in personally,                she said, "How can1 act and be truth-             We Christians should know that
                                              ful at the same time? Isn't that a            better than an unbeliever.
 it is not something by which                 contradiction?"2 Oprah is not our au-             May a Christian young lady play
        he may be entertained,                thority. But does not her witness             the treacherous, ruthless, murdering,
         instructed, or edified.              show that "the works of the law (are)         Lady Macbeth, who urges her irreso- '
                                              writtenintheirhearts, theirconscience         lute husband to murder KingDuncan?
                                              also bearing witness, and their               Or the suicide Juliet? What plays,
        And I am aware of Ezekiel 33:1-       thoughts the mean while accusing or           other than Shakespeare, will schools
11. "If...he blow the trumpet, and            else excusing one another" (Romans            teach the children to act? Andif there
warn the people; Then whosoever               2:15)?                                        are others, what can be acted without
heareth the sound of the trumpet, and             Is acting violation of the ninth          acting sin?
takethnotwarningiftheswordcome,               commandment? "Thou shalt not bear                 May a young Christian man play
and take him away, his blood shall be         false witness" is explained by the            one of the drunken, naked, Israelites
uponhisownhead.... Butifthewatch-             Heidelberg Catechism, 0 . ..that I avoid      dancing around the golden calf while
man see the sword come, and blow              all sorts of lies and deceit, as the          Moses sits atop the,mount, or even
not the trumpet, and the people be not        proper works of the devil . . . . U The       the angry Moses casting down the
warned; if the sword come, and take           intent may not be deceit; what of the         tablets of stone? Maya Christian play
any person from among them, he is             action?                                       Judas, the betrayer of the Lord? Or
taken away in his iniquity; but his                                                         Peter in his denial of Christ? He may
bloodwillIrequire  at the watchman's              THE ROOT. But there can be no             not. Which means, does it not, that
hand." I pray God will use this warn-         question marks behind what is most            biblical plays cannot be something a
ing.                                          objectionable. Acting out either the          child of God wants to engage in?
                                              hoZy life or the sinful deeds of others is        Just a few months ago our church
                 ****s-e*                     sinful and must violate the sanctified        received an invitation from a local
                                              conscience of every Christian.                Christian High School to announce in
        Our objections are biblical and       Whether the persons whose lives are           our church bulletin that the musical,
appeal to the spiritual senses, the re-       acted out were real or fictitious,            Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
newed heart, of God's people. With            whether it is done for entertainment          Dreamcoat,  would relate "the famil-
your God-given, sanctified con-               or education, acting out either holi-         iar story of Joseph in a refreshing way
science, consider with me. the follow-        ness or sin,is not proper.                    with humorous scenes and contem-
ing.                                                                                        porarymusic." Altogether aside from
                                                                                            the unbelievable attempt to inject
        IMPERSONATION.  To some,              1. Oprah is a nationaliy famous               humor into this biblical story, may a
impersonation is objectionable. Be-           actress and talk-show host.                   Christian young woman play the
cause God has made each of us a
distinct person and personality, and          2. Reader's Digest,  February, 1989,
                                              page 104.                                     3. February  19,1993.

                                                                                                    August, 1993 I Standard Bearer I447


temptress of Joseph when he gets to            For edification in spiritual things?      like, "Well, Barry, I guess we have a
Egypt, asking him to lie with her? To      Calvin College recently invited our           little different theology and philoso-
play the story, someone must. For          church to observe their SacredDance           phy, don't we?" "Indeed," I thought,
education. Christians may not; nor         Class present a sacred dance of "The          "your theology, which is no.longer
may they be "taught" by someone            Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids." I            Reformed, allows you to make an
who does.                                  am gladit was not my daughter play-           image of God." After explaining how
    Andif one argues that hecanplay        ing the foolish virgins . . . or the wise.    "uplifted" he was, he pleaded, "But
something more innocent, probably              This spring, a local Reformed             does not the end justify the means?"
"neutral," he understands neither the      church invited us to witness their            "No,Pastor,it  doesnot." AsIwalked
gravity nor the subtlety of sin (to say    Easter presentation of Leonardo da            home with the mail, I thought Irecog-
nothing of original sin). "All that is     Vinci's "Living Dramatization of the          nized that thinking from something
not of faith is sin."                      Last Supper." In that play (I saw a           recent. "Yes, I've got it. Doctor
    The other alternative is to act out    videotape of it), members of the              Kevorkian. The suicide doctor. Of
holy lives of God's people. But for a      church played the disciples of Christ.        course, `The end justifies the means.'n
person to act out the hdy life of an-      One at a time, they rose and said, "I         The end does not justify the means.
other is dreadful. To pray, repent of      am Peter...," "I am Philip...," each          Not for education; not for edification.
sin, love your wife, or any other call-    time relating their feelings about Jesus.         If this is drama at its "best," and
ing of God, is too serious to pretend,     Yes, one said, "I am Judas...." An-           acting sin is drama at its worst, what
aside from any good motive.                other played Christ. Although N Jesus"        other kind of drama is there?
                                           said not a word, the pastor gestured              Brother Christian, Sister Chris-
                                           towards him as "Our Master." As I             tian, you have prayed for sanctifica-
      Acting out either the                watched, I could not help but think           tion. Youhaveprayedtobekeptfrom
holy life or the sinjkl deeds of           that the children would refer to the          sin, led away from temptation. Your
          others is sinful                 "one" in the middle as "Jesus."4              desire is to stay as far away from sin
                                               This was a "moving" presenta-             as possible. But when you know that
         and must violate                  tion, appealing to the flesh. We are          drama brings you into direct associa-
   the sanctified conscience               tempted to say that it was done rever-        tion with it, why will you practice it?
         of eve y Christian.               ently. But they acted the parts. Pre-             And if it is illegitimate to engage
                                           tended they were disciples of Jesus.          in sinful drama yourself, why will
                                           Pretended grief in Christ's death. Pre-       you be entertained by it on television,
    For entertainment, it is blasphe-      tended anger that someone would               at the movies, or on the stage? "He
mous.                                      betray Christ. And pretended to look          that worketh deceit shall not dwell in
    Usually, if parents wanted to let      like ("be") Jesus Christ, God the Son         my house: he that telleth lies shall not
their children watch a "good" pro-         in the flesh. It is no more possible to       tarry in my sight" (Psalm 101:7).
gram on television that included act-      do this reverently than it would have             Fellow Christian, you have
ing, "Little House on the Prairie" was     been possible reverently to show a            prayed for a heart warm with affec-
the one. You may have seen Michael         pornographic film. God is offended,           tion toward Him. You have prom-
Landon on that program leading his         highly, by such behavior.                     ised to prove what is that good and
family in prayer to our God. Michael           When I met the pastor of the              acceptable and perfect will of God.
Landon. The same Michael Landon            church at the Post Office a few days              Let us repent of our foolishness,
who, on the next channel, was "play-       after the presentation, I asked him if        "have no fellowship with the
ing" an angel on "Highway to               someone really "played" Jesus. Know-          unfruitful works of darkness," and
Heaven. N Michael Landon, praying          ing my thoughts, he said something            "abstain from all appearance of evil."
with our children. For entertainment.                                                        Whatsoever things are true, what-
    May you? I cannot answer in the                                                      soever things are honest, just, pure,
affirmative.                                                                             lovely, and of good report, if there be
    To act someone else's holy life for    4. In addition to our warning about           any virtue, if there be any praise,
education  is no different. A Christian    the drama of it, this was an official         think on these things. "Those things,
may not pretend he is praying, may         worship service in which commun-              which ye have both learned, and re-
not pretend he is loving a wife (prob-     ion was served. The play took the             ceived, and heard, and seeninme, do:
ably it's not even his wife), may not      place of the preaching. And the Re-           and the God of peace shall be with
pretend sorrow for sin, joy in Christ,     formed confession in the back of the          you."  0
all the while thinking not about prayer    songbook  of that church says, "We
but about how the audience receives        must not pretend to be wiser than                 Next time: What has the church
his performance. Holiness is too seri-     God, who will have his people taught,         in the past thought about drama and
ous to be acted.                           not by dumb images, but by the lively         acting?
                                           preaching of his word."


                     ---           -.-     -..     .,     ..I_.
                             ."
                              .
   .     .     ._                                  3,

                              -





                              The Shameful Sin
                     of  Homosexuqjity (II)

Some Statistics                                    drug abuse all occur disproportion-        having (homo) sexual relations with
    The statistics relating to homo-               ately among homosexuals. The real-         their victims." Fully one-third of all
sexuality are shocking. Not only do                ity is that the homosexuals often can-     child molestations are committed by
the statisticsbringout the seriousness             not live with themselves, cannot go        homosexuals. In fact, child molesta-
of this perversion, but plain for all to           on bearing the heavy burden of the         tion is a part of the lifestyle of many
see is the judgment of God associated              guilt of their sin and the shame that      homosexuals.
with this sin. Even from a human                   they have brought on themselves.               Well documented are all of the
point of view, there is every reason to                   The greatest fear of the homo-      diseases associated with the homo-
be appalled at the consequences of                 sexual is death. Statistics indicate       sexual lifestyle. Although homosexu-
homosexuality. If only from a medi-                that homosexuals who do not have           als represent only a tiny fraction of
cal standpoint, everything ought to                AIDS have a median life expectancy         the population, less than 3%, they
be done to rid our society of this                 of 42 years. If they contract AIDS, the    account for 71% of AIDS cases, 50% of
menacing evil.                                     life expectancy is 39 years. Lesbians      syphilis cases, and 51% of throat gon-
         That the homosexuals prefer to            have a median age of death of 45. This     orrhea. Nearly three-fourths of all
be referred to as "gays" is surely one             is the kind of lifestyle that many want    gay men have had hepatitis B.
of the great ironies of our day. The               to reward with special protection.         Amebiasis, shigellosis, and giardiasis
word "gay" means "happy, joyful,                   Thehomosexuallifestylecouldbetter          are so common among homosexuals
carefree." The truth is that the homo-             be termed a death-style. More than         that doctors call these diseases the
sexual is anything but gay. The con-               one hundred thousand people have           "Gay Bowel Syndrome." All of these
sequences of his sin, as well as the               now died of AIDS. This year alone as       diseases are directly connected to
shame and guilt that the homosexual                many will die as have died in all the      homosexual sexual activity.
feels on account of his sin - them-                previous years put together. More              Smoking is considered harmful
selves consequences of the sin-make                young men have now lost their lives        because of the diseases associatedwith
for constant misery and preclude any               to AIDS than have died in the entire       it. Because of these healthrisks, smok-
real earthly happiness. In the homo-               Vietnam War. God's Word is ful-            ers are discriminatedagainst by higher
sexuals' own publications, in the writ-            filled, "The years of the wicked shall     insurance premiums and high ciga-
ings of psychiatrists who treat them,              be shortened" (Prov. 10:27).               rette prices. These same policies en-
according to the testimony of minis-                      Many homosexuals die violent        courage non-smokers to stay non-
ters who try to help them, there is                deaths. They are 100 times more apt        smokers. The health risks associated
constant repetition of the loneliness,             tobe murdered and25 times more apt         with homosexuality suggest that their
the fear, and the despair that are asso-           to commit suicide than the rest of the     activities are considerably more dan-
ciated with the homosexual lifestyle.              population. Violent crimes are also        gerous than smoking.
Most homosexuals are anything but                  associated with homosexuals. The               The frightening thing is that, be-
IYY-                                               six leading serial killers in the U.S.     cause of the promiscuity of homo-
         The statistics bear this out. De-         are: Donald Harvey (37 victims),           sexuals, all these diseases are spread-
pression, suicide, alcoholism, and                 John Wayne Gacy (23victims),  Patrick      ing rapidly and, in some cases, reach-
                                                   Kearny (32 victims), Bruce Davis (28       ing epidemic proportions. A 1982
                                                   victims), Corli-Henley-Brooks (27vic-      U.S. Centers for Disease Control put
                                                   tims), and Juan Corona (25 victims).       the number of sexual partners for
Rev. Cammenga  is pastor of the Protes-            The New York Times has quoted de-          typical homosexuals interviewed at
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,                  tectives as saying that' all were "...     500. AIDS sufferers individually stud-
Colorado:.                                         motivated by a sense of shame after        ied: 1,100. In a Kinsey Institute sur-
                                                                                                      August, 19931  Standard Bearer I449


vey, 43% of white male homosexuals           The leading spokesmen defending this        call for toleration of homosexuals? Is
estimated 500 or more; 75% 100 or            position of the study committee were        it at least possible that the,Bible is
more; 28% over 1,000. 79% said over          Rev. Clarence Boomsma  and Calvin           ambiguous and contradictory in its
half of their partners were total strang-    Seminary professor, Dr. Mel Hugen.          teaching on homosexuality?  7
ers. "Monogamy" is virtually un-                 In the last year, the CRC has been          Unlike muchcontemporarywrit-
known among homosexuals. Ram-                confronted with an admitted homo-           ing on homosexuality, the Bible's
pant promiscuity breaks down the             sexualminister,Rev.  JimLucas.  Lucas       teaching is clear. In both the Old and
immune system because of exposure            says that he is celibate, but refuses to    New Testaments, God's Word teaches
to so many bacterial cultures from           express his views on whether the Bible      plainly that homosexual practice as
different partners.                          allows homosexual marriages. Lucas          well as homosexual desire are sinful
    There are financial consequences         has been permitted to retain his min-       in God's sight, even shamefully so. In
of homosexuality. Besides the loss of        isterial credentials and many have          the most explicit language, Scripture
millions of lives, unrestricted homo-        risen to his defense.                       condemns homosexuality and the
sexual activity results in billions of           More recently, a prominent Chris-       impenitent homosexual. And theBible
dollars in health care costs and the         tian Reformed professor of philoso-         warns that homosexuality is.`not to be
loss of trillions of dollars in the gross    phy has taken up the cause of the           tolerated but punished; the homo-
national product. Los Angeles alone          homosexuals. Dr. Hendrik Hart, a            sexualnottobeacceptedbutrejected.
spent over 11 billion dollars in health      professor of philosophy at the de-              God's condemnation of homo-
care for 1992, most of this for AIDS         nominationally-supported "Institute         sexualityintheOldTestamentisp1ai.n.
related cases. More will be spent on         for Christian Studies," in Toronto,         The account of God's dealing with
AIDS this year than on any other             Canada who is licensed to exhort in         Sodom and Gomorrah recorded in
single health problem. The skyrock-          Classis Toronto, publicly defended          Genesis 19 stands as a monument to
eting costs of the health problems           his position in an article in The Other     all of history respecting God's atti-
associated with homosexuality, espe-         Side  magazine. In his article, "Ro-        tude toward homosexuality. The
cially AIDS research and care,               mans Revisited: How I Came to See           Word of God to the children of Israel
threaten tobankrupt America's health         Paul's References to Homosexuality          .in Leviticus l&22  is, "Thou shalt not
care system.                                 in a Radically New Light," Hart takes       lie with mankind, as with woman-
                                             the position that "what is said about       kind: it is abomination." In Leviticus
Churches' Acceptance                         same sex behavior in Romans 1 is not        20:13 God spells out the judgment
of Homosexuality                             intended by Paul to invoke in us a          that was to be carried out against
    Not only are the homosexuals             condemnationof homosexuality." He           those who committed this abomina-
pushing for the recognition of their         goes on to say that "... we need not        tion: "If a man also lie with mankind,
lifestyle by society, but they are also      read the Bible as calling for the very      as he lieth with a woman, both of
pushing for the approval of the              same attitudes called for in biblical       them have committed an abomina-
church. Many churches have suc-              times." After studying Romans  1:18-        tion: they shall surely be put to death;
cumbed to the pressure of the homo-          32, Hart has come to the conclusion         their blood shall be upon them." The
sexuals. Practicing homosexuals are          "... that this section might present not    punishment for homosexuals in Is-
admitted as members and are even             Paul's own proclamation of God's            rael was the death penalty. Still today
permitted to occupy the special of-          condemnation of sin, but the Jewish         that penalty ought to be enforced.
fices. Neither is this confined to the       tradition's understanding of the con-       Rather than to tolerate and approve
mainline, liberal churches. In many          sequences of sin-the wrath of God.          homosexuality, the churches ought to
Reformed and Presbyterian churches           Paul, in contrast to the view expressed     excommunicate the impenitent ho-
there is a vocal lobby on behalf of the      in Romans 1:18-32, would see sin as         mosexual and the state ought to put
homosexuals. Already in the 1980s            needing a different approach, one           him to death. In I Rings 14:24, in-
the GKN voted to allow practicing            based in the justice of God which is        cluded in the list of the sins that
homosexuals to be full communicant           mercy." With a straight face and            Rehoboam the son of Solomon was
members and to hold all offices, in-         apparently in all seriousness, he ex-       guilty of is his toleration of the
cluding pastor.                              pects us to believe this new insight        sodomites (homosexuals): "And there
    Typical of the churches who have         into Romans 1 that up until now has         were sodomites in the land: and they
gone in the direction of increased           been hid to the church.                     did according to all the abominations
acceptance of homosexuals is the                                                         of the nations which the Lord cast out
Christian Reformed Church. In 1973           What Says the Scripture?                    before the children of Israel."
the CRC declared that  "homo-                    But what do the Scriptures really           This condemnation of homosexu-
sexualism,N that is, explicit sexual         teach regrading homosexuality? Is           ality continues in the New Testament.
practice, is sinful, but orientation to      the increasing acceptance of homo-          In I Corinthians 6:9 the apostle writes,
homosexuality is not sinfulbecause it        sexualsby the churches due to the fact      "Know ye not that the unrighteous
does not arise from conscious choice.        that the Scriptures condone or at least     shall not inherit the kingdom of God?


Be not deceived: neither fornicators,     file themselves with mankind (homo-          to fornication, and going after strange
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor ef-    sexuals)...." In II Peter 2:6 the apostle    flesh (Homosexuality), are set for an
feminate (homosexuals), nor abusers       Peter makes reference to the history         example, suffering the vengeance of
of themselves with mankind." The          of Genesis 19: "And turning the cities       eternal fire."
same apostle writes in I Timothy 1:9,     of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes                 One of the most extensive treat-
10, "Knowing this, that the law is not    condemned them with an overthrow,            ments in the Bible of the sin of homo-
made for a righteous man, but for the     making them an ensample unto those           sexuality is that of the apostle Paul in
lawless and disobedient, for the un-      that after should live ungodly." In          Romans 1. Because of the importance
godly and for sinners, for unholy and     Jude 7 we read, "Even as Sodom and           of the instruction of this passage, we
profane, for murderers of fathers and     Gomorrah, and the cities about them          wiII give separate treatment to it in
murderers of mothers, for manslayers,     inlike manner, giving themselves over        the next article. 0
for whoremongers, for them that de-




                                                    Travail
            To travail is to experience birth pangs; it is to bring forth a child by way of deep,
        excruciating pain. All other physical pains are evidence of disease, decay, and death; birth
        pangs are the only,pains that are a sign of life. "A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow,
        because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more
        the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world" (John 16:X). The word "travail" is often
        found in context with the words sorrow, pain, grief, pangs, and vexation. It was part of God's
        curse on the woman that pain would attend her bringing forth of children (Gen. 3:16). Some
        mothers die bringing forth children; for example, when Rachel travailed and had hard labor,
        she died (Gen. 35:16-N). Birth pangs are characterized by two things as the time of deliverance
        approaches: they increase in frequency and they grow in intensity.
            Scripture uses travail in several figurative senses. In a very beautiful way the church of the
        Old Testament, spiritually considered, is the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26). When Paul writes this,
        he has Zn mind Isaiah 54:l: "Sing, 0 barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing
        and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate
        than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." The church of the old dispensation
        underwent sore travail in bringing forth Christ and all that are His. This same mother-church
        is seen by John in vision as a great wonder, ". . . a woman clothed with the sun . . . and she being
        with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered" (Rev. 12:1,2). Despite the
        opposition of a great red dragon who would devour her child as soon as it was born, "she
        brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was
        caught up unto God and to His throne" (Rev. 12:4,5).
            The Apostle Paul, when combating the influence of false teachers upon those with whom
        he formerly labored, likens this difficult labor to painful birth: "My little children, of whom I
        travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you..." (Gal. 4:19). His motivation for working
        day and night, laboring and travailing, is that "he would not be chargeable unto any of you"
        (I Thess. 2:9); now would he eat any man's bread for the same reason (II Thess. 3%). The
        difficulty of preaching the full counsel of God in the face of apostasy and worldliness is not less
        today; it can only be compared to labor and travail. But whenthe fruit of the gospelis that Christ
        is formed in a man or woman, that travail, also, is forgotten!
           "- Finally, the Holy Spirit of inspiration likens the signs of the coming of Christ and the end
        of the world to travail. After Jesus has mentioned false Christs, wars and rumors of wars, ethnic

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

                                                                                              August,1993/StandardSearer/451


        uprisings, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes, He summarizes by saying, "Allthese are the.
        beginning of sorrows" (Matt. 24:8). Literally the Greek states, "All these are the beginning of
        travail or birth pains.N Terrible, terrible things are happening in the church, in the nations, and,
        in nature. As time speeds to the end, these signs occur with greater frequency and intensity.
        And the comfort that these words of Jesus give us is not only that we know that He rules
        through these things, but also that these painful signs are sure signs of life and health! They
        end with the birth of the new heavens and earth wherein righteousness dwelleth! And so we
        read in Romans 8:22-23 of the whole creation which "groaneth and travaileth in pain together
        until now" and the church groans with the creation, "waiting for the adoption, to wit, the
        redemption of our body." The cursed creation will not be annihilated by fire, but fire will be
        the catalyst that changes this creation into the heavenly creation. As a womb convulsed with
        pain, the whole creation brings forth the heavenly state where God's tabernacle is with men.
        As II the sufferings of this present time are not worthy tobe comparedwith the glory which shall
        be revealed in us" (Rom. 8:18), so also when we are delivered from the bondage of corruption
        into the glorious liberty of the children of God, we will remember no more the travail that God
        used to bring us to Himself in the covenant of grace made perfect. 0





  The Doctrine of the Trinity (3)

    Thus far in our consideration of       all of God's works are Triune, but in        a way that all are partakers of the
the Trinity we have seen that while        such a way as to reveal the persons of       same divine glory and nature. They
God is one, yet He reveals Himself to      the Trinity to us as to their "particular    are one God, co-eternal and co-essen-
us as a plurality of persons. God          offices and operations" toward us            tial, in which none is behind or before
speaks to us as the "I am that I am"       (Belgic Confession of  Faith, Article        another as to the divine glory. That
(Ex. 3:14), and yet within Himself He      W                                            divine order reveals itself in all of
speaks in the plural, "Let us make                                                      God's works, whether creation, re-
man in our image..." (Gen.  1:26).         The Distinct Relation of the Three           demption, or sanctification. Allthings
Moreover, we have seen that God            Persons Revealed in the Language             are ofthe Father, by the Son, the Word,
reveals Himself as three, Father, Son,     of Scripture                                 and in the Spirit or Breath of God.
and Holy Ghost, by His works of                 How we develop this doctrine               This language is the language of
creation, redemption, and sanctifica-      from the language of the Scriptures is       Scripture. Jesus Christ "... of God is
tion. By the threefold character of His    therefore important. God by His rev-         -madeuntouswisdom,andrighteous-
works outside Himself, God reveals         elation of Himself to us by His works        ness, and sanctification and redemp-
Himself in such a way that we are          points us to that which He is in Him-        tion" (I Cor. 1:30). God is the "Father
directed to His own life and glory         self. The Word of God in careful,            of lights, with whom is no variable-
inside Himself as the Triune God (L.D.     consistent language distinguishes the        ness, neither shadow of turning"
VIII). These works are not ascribed to     Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost          (James 1:17). God is the Creator, the
one person apart from the others, for      andTheir  relation to each other and to      God of our salvation, the Father of
                                           us. This revelation of God by His            whom are all things. The Son is He by
                                           works also sets before us that there is      whom are all things. "All things were
Rev. Miersma is pastor of First Protes-    in God a certain divine order: the           made by him," that is by the Word
tant Reformed Church in Edmonton,          Father is first, the Son second, and the     which was God (Johnl:l-3;  Col. 1:17),
Alberta, Canada.                           Holy Ghost third in order, yet in such       and "by him" all things are reconciled

4!52/-sgm1993


to God (Col. 1:20). The Holy Spirit as          Christ. Thus, when we pray, "Our              HimselfasFather,Son,andHolyGhost
the Lord and giver of life, both natu-          Father which art in heaven..." we are         is a matter of mere names in relation
ral and spirituallife, is He who is in us       not addressing the first person of the        to us, having no internal reality.
and we in Him. We possess all things            Trinity only, but the Triune God, for             The modern attempt to redefine
in the Spirit, in the sphere of His             we draw near in the Spirit and by             God and our relation to Him in femi-
power and work and gracious influ-              Jesus Christ the Son, our Mediator,           nist terms is a warmed-over version
ence. Thus "ye arenot in the flesh but          unto God Triune as our Father. Yet it         of this same error. Calling God "Our
in the Spirit" (Rom. 8:9). Even the             is by this revelation of Himself outside      Mother" or praying "Our Mother
very prepositions which Scripture               Himself in relation to us that God also       which art in heaven" involves not
uses together with the names of God             makes known to us His own distinct            simply a change in our perception of
and the revelation of God by His                internal life and relations insideHim-        God and our relation to God as He is
work direct us both to the truth of the         self as the Triune God, distinguished         outside Himself. It involves a funda-
Trinity in God Himself and to the               in three personsin a certain order and        mental rewrite of the whole doctrine
relation of the three persons.                  with certain distinctpersonalproper-          of the Trinity, of God as He is inside
    The `early church and our Re-               ties.                                         Himself. It treats God's names as
formed fathers, when they returned                       What one says therefore about        mere labels and not as that by which
to the Word and reformed the church,            God, about the persons of the Trinity         He has revealed Himself to us. God is
sought carefully to express the doc-            and their relations out&de of God in          not She, a goddess, neither is God
trine of the Trinity in the language            His works, and the divine order of            internally Mother, but Father. Jesus
and terms of Scripture so as to confess         those persons, determines also one's          ChrististheSonofGod,notthedaugh-
that which Scripture has said and               confession of God as He is insideHim-         ter. He is the "Only Begotten of the
revealed without transgressing these            self. To tamper with the language of          Father" (John 1:14). The Father speaks
limits. They sought to confess both             Scripture in this respect, or to fail to      His Wordin eternity andbegets a Son
the unity of God and His distinct               confess it faithfully or completely, is       by eternal generation of the Father,
Triune life; They did so by confession          to tamper ultimately with God Him-            the brightness of His glory and the
both of God's revelation in relation to         self, for we know Him only by His             express image of His person (John
us outside Himself and as that revela-          revelation of Himself to us. It is thus       l:l-3; Heb. l:l-3). The Sonis notbom
tion reveals Him to us also as He is            that the early church struggled to            out of the womb of a divine Mother.
inside Himself. They did so that we             give a faithful account of all that Scrip-    The attempt to rewrite the language
mightrightlybelieveandconfessHim                ture said of God and was led to con-          of Scripture at this point involves an
as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in the          fess the doctrine of the Trinity as we        arrogance which presumes to be wiser
manner and in that order in which               now hold it. Errors and mistakes              than God, to stand above the Word,
God has spoken to us. It is in har-             were made as the church sought to             by whom God has spoken, even His
mony with this revelation of God that           understand the Scriptures.                    own dear Son, and to question the
we confess fl . . . the Father is the cause,                                                  very Holy Spirit of God.
origin and beginning of all things vis-         Corrupting the Language of Scrip-                 This pernicious blasphemy is not
ible and invisible; the Son is the word,        ture Involves Corrupting the Truth            far from us. It has taken deep root in
wisdom, and image of the Father; the            of God                                        the Reformed churches in the Nether-
Holy Ghost is the eternal power and                      These errors invariably involve      lands and is. making strong strides in
might, proceeding from the Father               either a failure to take seriously the        North America. The only mother
and the Son" (Belgic Confession of              language of Scripture or a corruption         goddess the Scriptures know of, by
Faith, Article VIII).                           of its meaning and significance. An           whatever name, is Ashtoreth. To be
                                                example of this is that which would           saved one must faithfullybelieveand
The Importance of This Scriptural               treat the names of God, Father, Son,          confess the truth of the Trinity as
Language                                        and Holy Ghost, as mere labels de-            Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
    We cannot reduce this Scriptural            noting but one` person. To reduce             (Athanasian Creed). Those who
language to mere labels with no real            God to one person, with three names           would introduce goddess worship in
distinctions, as if the Father is the           associated with different works, is to        doctrine or in address to God are
name of God as Creator, the Son                 destroy the truth of God. This error          idolaters who walk in unbelief, and,
merely a different name of God as               manifested itself in the early church.        except they repent, they shall perish.
Savior and Redeemer, and the Holy               It is called Patripassionism. It taught       They are not Christians. The Chris-
Ghost as yet another name for God in            essentially one person of God - that          tian has indeed a mother as well as
some aspect of His work. The Triune             the Father is the Son distinguished in        God His Father, but she is not God.
Godin relationship to us reveals Him-           name only, and therefore that in real-        She is the Israel of God, the church
self indeed as our God and Father in            ity the Father died on the cross under        who is the wife of Jehovah, the bride
Jesus Christ by His works, particu-             the name Son. Underlying this error           of Christ, and God's beloved. 0
larly by the grace of our adoption in           is the idea that God's revelation of

                                                                                                     August,  1993lStandardBearerl453


                                                                                             of the state. God gives ~the means of
                                                                                             grace only to the. instituted,church.
                                                                                             Civil government, for all that it is a
TheFirstBlastoftheTrumpetAgainst              pareduntomaninbearingofauthor-                 servant of God, administers-no grace
the, Monstrous Regiment of Wbmen,             ity. For their sight in civil regiment is      in its maintenance of outward order
by JohnKnox. Dallas, Texas: Presby-           but blindness; their strength, weak-           in society.
terianHeritage  Publications, 1993.95         ness; their counsel, foolishness; and              Worse is Knox' advocacy of sedi-
pages. $5.95 (paper). [Reviewed by            judgment, frenzy, ifit be rightly con-         tion against the authority of the fe-
the Editor.]                                  sidered.. . . Nature, I say, does paint
                                              them forth to be weak, frail, impa-            male ruler. Appealing to Jehoiada's
                                               tient, feeble, and foolish; and experi-       killing of queen Athaliah, Knox called
    This is the John Knox, and this is         ence has declared them to be incon-           on both estates and people to do the
his notorious condemnation of                  stant, variable, cruel, lacking the spirit    same to their female rulers:
women's governing (UregimenV)  in              of counsel and regiment (p. 20).
society. Writtenin 1558 from Geneva,                                                           The same is the duty as well of the
the "blast" was aimed at two Roman           This was presented as the testimony               estates as of the people that have
Catholic queens, Mary Tudor of En-           of "nature."                                      been blinded. Fist, they ought to
gland ("Bloody Mary") and Mary of                Second, Knox appealed to those                remove from honour and authority
Guise in Scotland. But it soon struck        passages of Scripture that enjoin sub-            that monster in nature: so I call a
Protestant Elizabeth I of England,                                                             woman clad in the habit of a man,
                                             mission to their husbands upon aII                yea, a woman against nature reign-
permanently.alienating  her from the         wives and that forbid women to rule              ing above man. Secondarily, if any
Calvinistic Reformation; The book            in the instituted church. Knox men-               presume to defend that impiety, they
embarrassed John Calvin, who tried           tions Genesis 3:16; I Corinthians 1434,           ought not to fear first to pronounce,
to placate Elizabeth by dedicating the       35; and I Timothy 2:llff., offering               andtbenaftertoexecuteagainstthem
second edition of his Isaiah commen-         exegesis of these passages that re-               the sentence of death (p. 83).
tary to her: "To her serene highness,        quires all women to be in subjection
not less illustrious by her own virtues      to all men. Because all men are the             The advertisement of a future, "sec-
thanby the splendor of royalty, Eliza-       head of all women, a kingdom with a             pnd blast" of this trumpet (which
beth, Queen of England." Calvin's            woman ruler is a monstrosity since it           Knox never uttered) promised to in-
effort was unsuccessful.                     is headless.                                    struct the people further in their right
    Knox damned all rule by women                Knox' error was twofold. He                 and duty not to obey tyrants, idola-
in society, particularly in the political    applied to all women in relation to alI         ters, and "notorious transgressors,"
realm, as monstrous. The opening             men what Scripture applies to wives             but to "depose and punish" them (pp.
line of the body of the workcarries the      in relation to their own husbands.              89,90). No wonder that Queen Eliza-
message:                                     Then he extended to the sphere of               beth looked askance at the Calvinistic
                                             society what the Bible limits to the            Reformation in her realm. No won-
  Tq promote a woman to bear rule,           home and to the church institute.               der that John Calvin, who forbade
  superiority, dominion, or empire               There was a reason why Knox                 rebellion against even the most god-
  above any realm, nation, or city, is       extended the exclusion of women's               less, cruelest tyrant as revolt against
  repugnant to nature; contumely (in-                                                        theauthorityofGodHimseIf(asisthe
  sult) to God, a thing most contrary to     rule. from the church to the state.             teachingof Romans 13:lff.) distanced
  his revealed will and approved ordi-       Knox viewed the state as an "admin-
  nance; and final.ly,.it is the subver-     istration of God's grace":                      himself from this writing of Knox.
  sion of good order, of all equity and                                                          James Atkinson has written that
  justice (p. 19)                              The administration of the grace of            The First Blast of the Trumpet "per-
                                               God is denied to ail (every) woman.           manently damaged his (Knox') ca-
    The basis was, first, Knox' low            By the administration of God's grace,         reer and effectiveness as a reformer"
view of the abilities of women in gen-         is understood not only the preaching          (The Great Light, Eerdmans, 1968, p.
eral:                                          of the word and administration of             226).
                                               the sacraments, by the which the
                                               grace of God is presented and ordi-               Making available in modem En-
  For who can deny but it is repugnant         narily distributed unto man, but              glish anything that Knox wrote is a
  to nature, that the blind shall be ap-                                            also
                                               the administration of civil justice, by       worthy endeavor. But the publica-
  pointed to lead and conduct such as          the which virtue ought to be main-            tion of this work will be of no help to
  do see? That the weak, the sick, and         tained, and vices punished (pp. 38,           Reformed Christians in their struggle
  impotent persons shall nourish and           39).                                          against the movement to have women
  keep  the whole and strong? And                                                            ordained as officebearers in the church
  fi.nalIy, that the foolish, mad, and
  frenetic shall govern the discreet, and    With other of his contemporaries,               and to have wives "liberated" from
  give counsel to such as be sober of        Knox failed to distinguishsharplythe            the `authority of their husbands at
  .rnindT  And suchbe all women, com-        calling of the church from the calling          home.  c]


Young Peoples' Activities                     sor what hasbecome an annual Waffle          Guard at Camp Grayling, M& His
    The month of August for the               and Pancake Breakfast, Car Wash,             dutiesas Chaplainincluded conduct-
young people of our congregations             and Plant Sale, an event which no            ing preaching services and doing
means it is time for another young            doubt had something for everyone.            counseling work with the troops.
people's convention. This year's con-'        Proceeds, of course, went for the con-
vention is being held the first weekin        vention and the Christian school.            Evangelism Activities
August on the campus of Dordt Cd-                     But not all the young people's           Rev. R. Cammenga, along with
iege in Sioux Center, IA.                     activities areintended to raise money        two elders from the Loveland, CO
    The young people's societies of           for conventions. Recently the young          PRC, recently met with seven fami-
the Doon and Hull, Iowa PRCs, along           people of the Pella, IA PRC donated          lies and three individuals from the
with the First PRC of Edgerton, MN,           money to pay for a new church sign           Alamosa/MonteVistaareawhohave
this year's host societies, have chosen       and landscaping around the church.           expressed a desire for our churches to
for their theme, "Spiritual Youth in a                And, finally, just a note about      begin a work in the San Luis Valley.
Carnal World," based on Ephesians             next year's convention. That conven-         This area is in south-central Colo-
5:8-21.                                       tion, sponsored by the Lynden, WA            rado. After this visit, Loveland's con-
    Now,asmanyoftheregularread-               PRC's young people, will be'held at          sistory decided to begin preaching
ers of this "news" column know, the           Western Washington University in             services there on June 20. Services
young people's societies of the PR            Bellingham, WA, a city south of              will be held at the St. Stephen the
churches spend much of their fund-            Lynden, right on the coast. We can           Martyr Episcopal Church, 729 Third
raising time raising money to pay for         also report that Lynden's young              Ave., Monte Vista. Plans call for a
annual conventions. Young people              people are alreadybusyraisingmoney           morning and an afternoon service.
and raising money for conve, $ons             with various projects, including. a
seem to go together. That' B
                               s go d, for    rummage/garage sale held at the              benokinational Activities
conventions are certainlyworthwhile.          Lynden fairgrounds  in  June.                    The PR Sunday School Board re-
        Let me just mention here a couple                                                  centlyinvitedallsunday  Schoolteach-
of activities that caught my attention        Ministerial Activities                       ers and parents to come and hear Mrs.
recently, fund-raisers that were just a               Rev. J. Slopsema, presently serv-    GertrudeHoeksemaspeakon"Teach-
little out of the ordinary.                   ing as pastor of the Hope PRC in             ingthe Bible in the Home: not Supple-
        First, everyone in the congrega-      Walker, MI declined the call he re-          mental, but Fundamental."
tion of the Hudsonville, MI PRC was           ceived to serve as pastor of the South-          This meeting was designed to
invited to a Senior Y.P. sponsored            west PRC of Grandville, MI.                  encourage and support teachers and
"Beast Feast" dinner at Hudsonville                   We are also happy to report that     parentsintheimportantworkofteach-
church. Those who dared could en-             Rev. G. Lubbers, one of our churches'        ing and nurturing our covenant chil-
joy a meal comprised 0f.a wide vari-          emeritus ministers, continues to make        dren.
ety of excellent home-cooked wild             a good recovery after being involved
game. Selectionincludedperch,wall-            in an.auto accident last year. This          Foodfor  Z&w@:
eye, elk, deer, and even wild boar.           recovery has enabled Rev. Lubbers to             "If this worldwithits fadingplea-
For those not so bold, there were also        preach four times this summer at the         sures is so much admired, what must
domestic dishes available, such as            Christian Rest Home in Grand Rap-            heaven be, which God prises."
domestic pig or casseroles. Profits           ids.                                            -William  Tiptaft  (1803-1864)  0
were used for the convention, and                     Since this year's Synod decided
also to cover expenses for a white-           that the Mission Committee and First
water rafting trip planned for late           PRC in Grand Rapids be instructed to
June.                                         discontinue calling a missionary to
        The young people from the con-        Jamaica, and to close the field there,                      NOTICE!!!
gregations of SouthHolland  and Peace         Rev. W. Bekkering  who had just re-               The new Secretary of the Foreign
(Lynwood) in Illinois, along with the         cently received a call to serve as mis-      Mission Committee is:
Ladies' Auxiliary of South Holland            sionary there, will no longer consider                 Rev. Russ Dykstra
Christian School, got together to spon-       that call.                                                P.O. Box 163
                                                      Rev. A. Spriensma, pastor of the              Doon, IA 51235-0163
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in the Protestant     Grandville, MIPRC, spent two weeks                       (712) 726-3382
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-        in June as Chaplain with the 46th                 All material concerning Foreign
gan.                                          Infantry Brigade, Michigan National           Missions should now be sent to him.

                                                                                                    August,  19931  StandardSearerl455


&C!!!D
   BBER                                                                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                                   Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                   Grandville, Michigan
   P. 0, Box 603
   Grandville, MI 49468-0603



                                                                                                                           OFFICEBEARERS' CONFERENCE
                                                                                                                                        Classis West            `_
                                                                                                                                   Meeting in Lynden, WA
        WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                               IN MEMORIAM                                                 August 31,1993
     Their 12'children  and mates, 59 grand-                  On June 13, 1993 it pleased our heav-
children, and 14 great grandchildren express             enly Father to call our beloved father and                                         Theme:
their thankfulness to the God and Father of              grandfather,                                                      Reformed Missions and Evangelism
Jesus Christ for the married life of                                     DICK KOOIENGA,
     DEWEY and  DENA ENGELSMA                            to his heavenly home at the age of 90 years.                                 Keynote Address:
on their 55th wedding anniversary (July 30).                  "The eternal God is thy refuge and under-                                  Acts 13:1-4
     In covenant faithfulness and mercy, we              neathare  the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy                     "Missionaries Sent Out From Antioch
are blessed through their fearing the LORD,              33:27)                                                                      Rev. Russ  Dyksfra
and they see their children's children and                         Children:
peace upon the church (Psalm 128).                       0 Robert and Joan Miedema                                                        Sectionals:
     We are "mindful always of His covenant:             0 Earl and Lois Dykstra                                                    "Missionary-at-large"
the word which he commanded to a thousand                g, Roger and Lucille Kooienga                                             ' Rev. Richard  Moore
generations" (I Chronicles 16:i 5):                      @ Arnold and Donna Dykstra
                                        Hope, wiw, MI    0 Donald and Judith  Sall                                        "Active Congregational Involvement"
                                                         0 Donald and Mary Kooienga                                                Rev. Ron VanOverloop
      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                             eg Stanley and Bette Dykstra
     The Adult Bible Study Society of South-                       35 grandchildren                                               "The Macedonian Call
east Protestant Reformed Church expresses                          86 great grandchildren                                              Rev. Carl liaak
Christian sympathy to our members, Mr. and                         1 great great grandchild
Mrs. James Swart, in the recent death of Mr.                                                    Hope,   Walker,  MI           "Preparing to Give an Answer"
Swart's sister,                                                                                                                          (I Peter 3:15)
       MRS. MARIAN ONDERSMA.                                       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                              Rev. Steve Key
May they find comfort in the words of Isaiah                  The Martha Ladies' Society of the Hull
15111,  "Therefore the redeemed of the Lord              Protestant Reformed Church expresses its                                "A Critique of the Modern
shall return, and come with singing unto Zion;           sincereChristiansympathytoLoisVanMaanen                                Church-Growth Evangelism"
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head:            and family in the death of her brother,                                    Rev. Charles Terpstra
they shall obtain gladnessand joy; andsorrow                             JIM SANDBULTE.
and mourning shall flee away."                                "And the peace of God, which passeth                       "Distinguishing Between Essentials and
                   Rev. Dale Kuiper, President           all understanding, shall keep your hearts and                     Non-Essentials on the Mission Field
              Mrs. Christine Batts, Secretary            minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7).
                                                                         Rev. Richard Moore, President                             Rev. Wayne Bekkering
      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                    Hildred Hoekstra, Secretary
     The Ladies' Aid Society of First Protes-                                                                                             NOTICE!!
tant Reformed Church of Grand Rapids ex-                           RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                   Classis  East will meet in regular session
press their Christian sympathy to Adrian                      The Martha Ladies' Aid Society of the                    on Wednesday, September 8, 1993 at the
Griff ioen and family in the death of their wife         Hull Protestant Reformed Church express our                   First Protestant Reformed Church, Grand
and mother                                               heartfelt sympathy to Betty Kooiker and fam-                  Rapids, Michigan.
       MRS. HARRIET GRIFFIOEN.                           ily, in the death of her mother,                                                Jon J. Huisken,  Sfafed Clerk
May the family find comfort with our Lord's               MRS. ALBERT (MARIE) VAN ROEKEL.
words: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I                    "And we know that all things work to-                                       NOTICE!!
give you: not as the world giveth, I give unto           getherfor good to them that love God, to them                      Classis West of the Protestant Reformed
you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let         who are the called according to His purpose"                  Churches will meet in Lynden, Washington,
it be afraid" (John 1527).                               (Romans 8:28).                                                on Wednesday, September 1, 1993, at 8:30
                      Jean Dykstra, President                            Rev. Richard Moore, President
                         Lena Baar, Secretary                                   Hildred Hoekstra, Secretary            A.M.,  the Lord willing.
                                                                                                                                 Rev. R. VanOverloop,  Stated Clerk


