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                                       See "The Ugly Bolsec" - p. 77



November 15,1993


                                                                                               November 15, 1993                                                                  &DMD
 Meditation F Rev. Cornelius Hanko                                                                                                                                                 BE4ER
        A Fitting Thanksgiving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..................... 75
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma-
        The "Ugly" Bolsec ..~~.........~.~~~..............................~~..~~...~........,.......~~ 77                                              ISSN 0362-4692
 Letters . . . . . . . . . ..i......................................................*...................................                      79       Semi-monthly, except mcmthly  during June, July, and August.
 All Around Us --.Prof Robert  D. Decker  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82      Published by tha Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
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 Guest Article i Mr. W. Jofiathan  McAuley                                                                                                             Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
        Cpvenant Reformed Fellowship                                                                                                                   Postmastw: Sand address changes to the Standard Bearer,
        Our Ancient Heritage . . . . . . . . . . ..~~........................................~.~...~...........                               84       P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49466-0603.
 Day of Shadows - Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                                                    ~EDITORIAL COMMRTEE
        Our Dependence Upon God's Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..i...*....m...................... 87                                              Editor. Prof. David J. Engalsma
                                                                                                                                                       Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Dackar
 Search the. Scriptures - Rev. George C. Lubbers                                                                                                       Managing  Editor: Mr. Don Doazema
        The Spiritual Requiiements of a Deacon in God's Church ..,.........  89                                                                        DEPARTMENT EDlTORS
 Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                 Rev. Wilbur Bruinama,  Rev. Ronald Cammanga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                       Decker, Rev. Aria danHartog, Rev. Barry Grlttars,  Rev. Carl
        When qplni,ons. Vary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..`...........~........................ 91              Haak, Rev. ComaliusHanko,  Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
 Netis From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...* 94                                     Hey% Rbv. Steven Kay, Rev. Dale Kulp-ar,  Mr. James Lanting,
                                                                                                                                                       Rev. George Lubber%  Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. Thomas
                                                                                                                                                       Miersma,  Rev.  Audmd  Spriensma,  Rev.  Charfea   Tsrpatra.
                                                                                                                                                       Rev. GiseVanBamn,  Rev. Ronald\ianOverloop,  Mr. Benjamin
                                                                                                                                                       Wigger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.

                                                                                                                                                       EDlTORlAL  OFFlCE            CHURCH NEWS  EDKOR
        For the PRC in Canada, observance of the annual day of thanksgiving is past                                                                    The Standard Bearer           Mr. Ben Wigger
 (October 11). For the PRC in the United States, it is still future (November 25).                                                                     4949 lvanmst                 6697  4OmAve.
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 In both cases, whether as reflection or anticipation, the meditation by Rev.                                                                          BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW  ZEALAND  OFFlCE
                                                                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
 Cornelius Hanko is timely, "A Fitting Thanksgiving." Indeed, it is appropriate                                                                        Don Do-azama                 do B. VanHark
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 at all seasons for all our readers in any nation.                                                                                                     Grandvilla, MI               Wainuiomata. Naw Zealand
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 what has always been the dominant theme in the author's exposition of Old                                                                             EDITORIAL POLICY
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history. Ulsterman McAuley  calls the PRCfo view their mission in Northern                                                                             data.
Ireland as nothing less than this: "to lift up the `Ancient Standard' of gospel                                                                        BOUND VOLUMES
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?4/Standard  BeareklNovenker  15,1993
                             :


                  A Fitting -Thanksgiving

       What shall Irender unto the Lordfor    to bless us with every spiritual bless-    of my way to perform a few deeds of
all his benefits toward me? Iwill take-the    ing for time and eternity. He bestows      kindness, I have also rendered unto
cup of salvation, and call upon the name      on us our new life, and gives us faith,    the Lord His due.
of the Lord.,                                 conversion,- and forgiveness of our            That Pharisaic ,attitude is con-
                       Psalm 116:12,13.       sins. He justifies and sanctifies us       demned throughout Scripture as an
                                              through His Word and by His                abomination to my God. He abhors
       The psalmist speaks of Jehovah         indwelling Spirit.                         all vain oblations.
and of "all his benefits toward me."              We have all these benefits, and            This is also contrary to the intent
       He calls to mind the numerous          many more. For God is our Father           of this entire Psalm. Consider for a
gifts that God bestows upon him. He           whose almighty Hand sustains us            moment the fact that this Psalm is
spreads them out, as it were, before          every moment. He gives us our life         strongly Messianic. It describes to us
himself to pay special attention to           and breath and being. And He also          the sufferings of Christ, even unto the
each one, but also to realize how many        directs us by His all-wise providence      torments of hell, and the glory that
benefits he has received.                     in the way that we should go. He           followed. And as to our personal
       Shall we do that a moment? That        knows far better than we what is good      experience, it speaks of our only com-
is, shall we try to call to mind as many      for us and what is necessary to pre-       fort in life and death for body and
as possible of God's bountiful bless-         pare us to glory. Therefore He chas-       soul, as it refers to knowing our mis-
ings that He so freely bestows upon           tises us in love, and He leads us          ery, how we are delivered from that
us?                                           through dark and difficult ways, but       misery, and how we must show true
       To mention a few: God gives us         He never leaves nor forsakes us. His       gratitude to God for that deliverance.
.our daily bread, our clothing, our           faithfulness is renewed every morn-            It is particularly from the aspect
shelter, our homes and families. How          ing and His grace sustains us all the      of thanksgiving that the Psalmist cries
readily we take these things for              day long.                                  out: "What shall I render unto the
granted, and yet how much they re-                Innumerable  .benefits,  untold        Lord ? N
ally mean to us!                              kindnesses. The figure in the text is          He is Jehovah, the I AM, the self-
       We have our place in God's             that of a mother who with great con-       sufficient God of infinite perfections.
church, among our fellow believers            cern hovers over her child. Godwith-           Can you or I add to infinity? Can
and friends. We enjoy the faithful            holds no good thing from those who         I add a drop of water to a bucket that
preaching of the "sincere milk of the         fear Him.                                  is already filled to the brim? Can I
Word," the sacraments, and the com-                   *  *  *  *  *  +  *                increase the light of the sun by hold-
munion of saints. We have our own                 "What shall I render unto the          ing a lit candle aloft? Can a beggar
-spiritual blessings, rooted in God's         Lord for all his benefits toward me?"      add significantly to the riches of a
eternal love, according to which He           A perplexing question!                     millionaire by giving him a penny?
chose us unto Himself as His children             No, the question creates no prob-      Can you or I add to Him who is the
and heirs of salvation. Jesus Christ,         lem when I raise it in sinful pride. My    overflowing Fountain of life?
God's only begotten Son, laid down            pride often prevents me from accept-            "The earth and the fulness with
His life to redeem us from our sins           ing gifts, even from friends. I prefer     which it is stored, the world and its
and merit for us eternal-life with Him        to maintain a strictly formal relation-    dwellers belong to the Lord; for He on
in glory. He is gone into the heavens         ship, so that when someone does me         the seas its foundations has laid, and
                                              a favor I immediately feel obliged to      firm on the waters its pillars has
                                              return one. A gift requires a return       stayed." God is our Creator, our Pro-
                                              gift of equal value. I must keep the       vider, the God of our salvation, from
                                              balance sheet clear.                       whom all blessings flow.
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the          Thus, if I live properly, pay my           To put it differently: "What shall
Protestant Reformed Churches.                 obligations to the church, and go out      1 render unto the Lord?"

                                                                                              November 15,1993/Standard  Bearer175


    I am a mere speck of dust, less            word, Christ is all my salvation!             holiness. Christ is glorified with the
than. a drop of the bucket and less                  Salvation is the sum total of all       glory prepared, for Him before .the
than a particle of dust in the balance.        God's benefits! How shall I ever              foundation of the world. We are
I must confess: "All that I am I owe to        begin to express all that this implies?       glorified in Him, and He is glorified
Thee." seven all my possessions are                  Think of our God in as far as we        in us as members of His body, joint
but entrusted to me as asteward over           can grasp a little of His infinite and        heirs of salvation.
them. At best I am an unprofitable             glorious perfections. He is the Holy              We are made partakers `of the
servant whose duty it is                                     One, who dwells in'eter-        divine nature, sons and daughters to
to surrender my all to                                       nity, far beyond all that is    dwell in God's house, to be adorned
God. How could I ever                    Can I               creature,andyetissovery         with His grace, in order to live in
begin to repay Him for                  increase             near us. His presence           intimatecovenantfellowshipwithour
all His benefits?                       the light            surrounds us, His eye sees      God and to tell His praises forever.
    Addtothatmydaily                                         us, His ear hears us, His            As I take the cup of salvation, the
transgressions of God's                of the sun            almightyhandupholdsus           full measure of that blessedness, I lift
holy law, my debt of sin           by holding                and directs every step we       it up in praise to His matchless Name!
that I could never pay             a lit candle              take. He is Righteous-          Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and forget
even if I were to possess               aloft?...            ness, Truth, Grace, Love.       .not all His benefits.
all the gold and silver of                                                                            *`*  *  *  *  *  *
                                 Can you or I                He is, in one word, the
the world. I cannot                                          eternal I AM, Jehovah               Doing so, I will "call upon the
atone. No animal can               add to Him                who changes not, the ever       name of the Lord"!
atone for me. No angel                 who is the            blessed, adorable GOD!              I will continually approach the
can stand in my place in         ove flowing                       He lives His own          Fountain of living water as an. empty
judgment. But what is          Fountain  of life?            perfect, glorious life of       vessel to receive outof His fullness
impossible for me, or for                                    intimate covenant fellow-       grace for grace, one gift of grace upon
any other creature, my L                                J    ship as triune God, Fa-         another unto all eternity!
God Himself  accom-                                          ther, Son, and Holy Spirit.
                                                             __                                  There is a weatherworn tomb-
plished for me by the death of His             He is eternally complete and blessed          stone of an early Dutch immigrant
only begotten Son on the cross.                in Himself. He has no need of men's           inscribed with the words: HIS LIFE
    I am saved by grace, all human             hands to be worshiped by them, yet            WAS CHRIST. HIS' DESIRE WAS
merit excluded. What, then, shall I            He has sovereignly willed to reveal           CHRIST. Whoever he was, `he must
render unto the Lord for all His ben-          Himself in His Son Jesus Christ by            have realized that Christ was the rea-
efits toward me?                               taking us into His covenant, into His         son for his life, the source of his life,
    "I will take the cup of salvation!"        heart, and into His lifer to dwell with       the strength of his life, the goal and
A proper thanks.                               Him forever.                                  purpose of his life. Likely h&life was
    A cup in the Scriptures always                   Jesus, God's only begotten and          devoted to the service of his Lord,
expresses a certain full amount. Some-         dearly beloved Son, who is the exact          and his chief desire was to be `with
times Scripture speaks of the cup of           image of God's person and the bright-         Christ in his glory.
wrath, which is the full measure of the        ness of His glory, was made like unto             He must have confessed with the
wrath of God against the ungodly,              us, that we may be made like unto             apostle Paul, "For `to .me to live `is
yes, against you and me as we are by           Him. Fe is our Head, we are mem-              Christ, and to die is gain."
nature. It was this cup of wrath, the          bers of His body, bei.ngchoseninHim               That implies a life of prayer, con-
full measure of all the just wrath of          from all eternity. We were one with           tinually drawing from the Word of
God against all the sins of all those          Him when He lay in the manger, and            life in the Scriptures.
given to Him of the Father, that caused        as He suffered on earth. When He                  AsPaulexpressesit,"Weall,with
Jesus to cry out in bitter agony in            died we died in Him; when He arose            open face beholding in a' glass the
Gethsemane, "0 my Father, if it be             we arose in Him. "God, who is rich in         glory of the Lord, are changed into
possible, let this cup pass from me:           mercy, for His great love wherewith           the same image from glory to glory,
nevertheless not as I will, but as thou        He loved us, even when we were                even by the Spirit of the Lord."
wilt."                                         dead in sins,`hath quickened us to-               We lift up our hearts, our hands,
    As we so well know, it was im-             gether with Christ, (by grace are ye          and our voices, and we ask for more,
possible for us to be saved unless He          saved;). and hath raised us up to-            more of Christ's riches of s.alvation,
drank that cup of wrath in unspeak-            gether, and made us sit. together in          more of His fellowship, m,ore of His
able anguish of hellish torments.              heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph.        blessings, more of Himself.
Willingly He took our sin and guilt           2:4-Q.                                             A child can never please his
upon Himself, whereby He not only                 And now by His Spirit in our               mother more than when hecomes  to
saved us from sin, death, and hell, but       hearts we are conformed unto Him in            her with his every need in complete
merited for us eternal life. In one           true knowledge, righteousness, and             confidence that he will never be re-

76Btandard  Bearer/November 15,1993


   fused. We come to God with all our         when we shall no more see in a glass          His grace to praise His Name ever
   needs,inutterdependenceuponHim             darkly, but shall see Him face to face,       more fully, world without end.
   and in childlike trust that He with-       `and know as we are known.                        Eternitywill  not be long enough
   holds no good thing from us. We do             Then we shall behold the beauty           to know, fully appreciate, and tell the
   that in the confidence that all things     of the Lord, eat of the hidden Manna          praises of all the majesty and glory of
   are ours, and we are Christ's, and         and drink from the Rock, which is             our God. I will call upon His NAME
   Christ is Gods.                            Christ. We shall grow in the riches of        forever and ever. Amen. Cl
       We do that in foretaste of the Day





                            The "ugly" Bolsec

       Calvin College professor Philip        will.    Thus Bolsec denied the               of Calvin that Bolsec later wrote in
   C. Holtrop has just given us a histori-    Reformation's gospel of salvation by          order to destroy the Reformer and his
   cal and theological study of the con-      sovereign grace. Calvin saw Bolsec's          work.
   troversy between John Calvin and           basic error to be that "he boasts that            Holtrop insists that Calvin's op-
   Jerome Bolsec over predestination:         grace is offered equally to all, and that     position to Bolsec was mainly politi-
   The study is contained in two vol-         its efficacy depends on-the free choice       cal and personal. Calvin was deter-
   umes entitled, The Bokec Contro-           of each" (vol. 2, p. 602).                    mined to maintain his rule in Geneva
   tiersy on Predestination from 15Sl-            Holtrop, lays out the doctrinal is-       in troublous times. In the spirit of
   2555  (Lewistown,  New York: The           sues in the controversy in volume 1,          William Bouwsma's John CaZvin, A
   Edwin Mellen  Press, 1993). The cost       pp.47-164,andthroughoutvolume2.               Sixteenth Century Portrait,  Holtrop
   of the two volumes, that run to more           A valuable feature of the work is         accounts for Calvin's resistance to
   than  .l,OOO pages, is $199.90.            its inclusion of the correspondence           Bolsec's public attack on predestina-
       The issue was Calvin's teaching        between Bolsec and the ministers of           tion by appeal to Calvin's "neurotic
   ,of Godls eternal, double predestina-      Geneva and of the advice submitted            tendencies."
" tion, election and reprobation. Bolsec      by the Reformed theologians in other              This judgment is purely subjec-
   rejected predestination as an eternal      parts of  .Switzerland,  notably              tive. In this way, every defense of the
   decree..  Although he raised his objec-    Bullinger. Bullinger was a weak reed          faith canbe  discredited. Why should
   tion specifically against reprobation,     to Calvin, refusing to support him in         not Calvin and the Genevanministers
   Bolsec likewise opposed election `as       the controversy because of ,his own           be taken seriously in their confession
   an eternal decree. Election for Bolsec     serious weakness regarding predes-            that they regarded eternal election as
   was an act of God in time. According       tination.                                     "the foundation of the faith" and,
   to Bolsec, God,@ves grace to all hu-           Volume 2, is a dPetailed  account of      therefore, in their claim that they op-
  mans so that all are able to believe in     the proceedings at Bolsec's lengthy           posed Bolsec for attacking the foun-
   Christ. To those `who avail them-          trial before the  Genevan  magistrates        dation?
   selves of this universal, or common,       on charges of heresy and disturbance.             Regardless of Calvin's psychol-
gracebybelievinginChrist,Godgives             The outcome of the trial was that the         ogy and alleged hidden agenda (and
   special grace which results in their       magistrates condemned the ,heretic            Holtrop does not  prove  from the
   election. Those who harden them-           and banished him from Geneva for              sources that Calvinwas determined
   selves against the overtures of God in     l i f e .                                     to.killBolsec), the one important ques-
   *His.' common grace, are rejected by           The, author does. not adopt the           tion about the Bolsec controversy is
   God. This temporal rejection is rep-       role of objective historian in this study.    this: Is Calvin's doctrine of predesti-
  robation (vol. 1, pp. 72-74):               Holtrop commits himself to a defense          nation trke, indeed, the truth?          _
       Calvin and the ministers of            of Bolsec and to the exposure of an               Holtrop denies that it is. He sides
   GenevacondemnedBolsec'sdoctrine            "ugly" Calvin. He carries his defense         with Bolsec doctrinally. Not only is
   as the denialthat faith depends upon       of Bolsec to such an extreme that he          there no eternal decree of reproba-
   election and as the affirmation of free    excuses the slanderous "biography"            tion, but also biblical election is an act
                                                                                                 November 15,1993/~afd  Bmmi77


of Godin time, an act that is "wrapped         predestinarian theology: "Reformed             and that the minority in 1924 -
up" with the sinner's activity of be-          scholasticism rooted in Calvin, and            headed by Herman Hoeksema and
lieving. Holtrop does not make clear           was consolidated in Geneva largely             Henry Danhof - sounded remark-
whether election  follows upon  the            through the efforts of TheodoreBeza"           ably like the Genevanpastorsin 1551.
sinner's believing or is inexplicably          (vol. 2, p. 830). Holtrop, however,            Hoeksema andDan.hof were expelled
                                                                                              from the CRC and began the Protes-
simultaneous with  the sinner's believ-        opposes this "scholastic" theology             tant Reformed Church (~012,  p. 474).
ing. In either case, election is not an        both in Calvin himself and in the
eternal decree that ordains unto faith         succeedingtradition,includingDordt                  A few pages later, Holtrop ex-
.and upon which faith depends.                 (see vol. 2, pp. 867-876).                   pands on his assertion that Bolsec's
     Holtrop's refrain, in this connec-            Of special interest to the Protes-       doctrine of universal grace is foundin
tion, that biblical election is "in Christ"    tant Reformed Churches in America            the Christian Reformed teaching of
does nothing to prove that election is         is Holtrop's frank admission that the        common grace in the preaching of the
in time. Certainly election is "in             Bolsec controversy was replayed in           gospel:
Christ." This is taught in Ephesians           the  common grace controversy in the
1:4: "According as he hath chosen us           Christian Reformed Church in the               Again  - perhaps more than in any
in him...." But this election in Christ        early 1900s. The theology of Jerome            .other denomination - the issues of
was decreed "before the foundation             Bolsec reappeared in the Christian             +he universality or particularity of
of the world," that is, in eternity. God       Reformed doctrine of a common grace            God's love and grace are hotly de-
chose His people in Christ in eternity.        of God in the "well-meant offer of the         bated in the Christian Reformed
The issue is not whether election is in        gospel." The Protestant Reformed               Church, even after the decisions of
etemityorinChrist,butwhetherelec-              doctrine of particular grace in the            1924.... Already in 1928 H. Kuiper
tion in Christ is an eternal decree or a       preaching continues the tradition of           wroteathesisentitledGalvinonCom-
temporal act.                                  Calvin, Beza, Dordt,  ,and West-               mon Grace; C. VanTiIwrote  his Com-
                                                                                              mon Grace in 1947; A. C. DeJong
    Bolsec and Holtrop maintain that           minster.                                       wrote a thesis (under Berkouwer) on
election is an act of God in time.                                                            The Well-meant Gospel  Offer
    Nor is Holtrop's analysis correct            If anyone ever started his                                   (1954)....  In 1962-63, H.
when he presents the conflict between            research with a bias to-                                - Dekker of Calvin Theo-
Calvin and Bolsec as a somewhat ab-              ward Calvin, it was I. But                                   logical Seminary wrote
stract difference of conception con-             nowIrecognizethatsome                Although                a series of explosive ar-
cerning the relation of eternity and             predestinarian commu-                belatedly               ticles in the RJ under
time. Calvin was concerned to con-               nities - like the Protes-          and by obscure            the general heading
fess the salvation of the sinner as the          tant Reformed Church,                                        "God So Loved - All
                                                 which split from the
gracious act of God that has its source                                               footnote,               Men!".... Otherschimed
                                                 Christian Reformed in                                        in - notably H. Stob . . .
and foundation, not in the faith of the          1924  - have more basis            the Protestant            and A. C. DeJong....
sinner but in the sovereign, free de-            in Calvin than I had pre-            Reformed                Opposing views were
cree of election. This does not make             viously envisioned. That             Churches                expressed in the Torch
God a tyrant, but rather reveals Him             doesnotmaketheirthink-             are now openly            and Trumpet- a right-
as glorious in His grace.                        ing more palatable to              recognized as             wingReformedscholas-
    To defend Bolsec by pointing to              mine - but it does                                           tic journal . . . as well as
his willingness to  ascribe the "initia-         quaIifymyfidelitytoJohn             representing             in the equally scholastic
                                                 Calvin (vol. 1, p. 10).
tive" in salvation to God  does not                                                 and continuing            Protestant Reformed
succeed. For according to Bolsec,                                                                             StairdardBeakr.  These
                                                   Withreference to the             the doctrine of           issues were never re-
God  makes this "initiative" toward            distinction between                  Calvin, Beza,             solved-anymorethan
all humans. God's grace is universal           "common grace" and                    Dordt, and               they were in the Bolsec
and ineffectual. The ultimate expla-           "special  grace," Holtrop                                      controversy.... In all
nation, then, why some are saved by                                                  Westminster.
                                               writes:                                                        these documents, there
universal grace must be the will of the                                        L                         L were astounding paral-
sinner himself. This glorifies man.                                                                           lels to the Bolsec con-
                                                 This distinction was
    In the face of a strong sentiment                                                                         flict - but again, the
                                                 given official status in the Dutch-
in  scholarly circles, and despite his                                                        name of Jerome was never men-
                                                 American wing of Reformed theol-             tioned. The writings of Daane, Boer,
own early suspicions, that Beza,                 ogy at the Christian Reformed synod         .and Punt represent the latest phase
Dordt, and Westminster radically                 of 1924. While the "common graces -          of this debate (vol. 2, p. 482).
changed Calvin's theology, Holtrop               majority there were not "Bolsecians"
acknowledges that Beza, Dordt, and              - at least not consciously - we                    It is indicative of the sorry state of
Westminster were true to Calvin's                cannot deny that main motives in the       the Reformed churches today that
own theology. Beza only system-                  Bolsec controversy were playing in
                                                 the Christian Reformed community,          Holtrop is undoubtedly right when
atized and further developed Calvin's

78hStandard  Bearer/November 15,1993


he observes that, although Calvin and         formed faith. Thus is it ever. When         Calvin's doctrine of predestination is
Beza'stheologyofprede&inationwon              bleeding truth is asked, "What are          beautiful. It is the `doctrine of Holy
out in the Bolsec controversy,                these wounds?," he answers, "Those          Scripture in Romans 9, John 10, John
                                              with which I was wounded in the             17, and innumerable other places. It
  most Reformed thinking on predes-           house of my friends."                       is the, doctrine that ascribes all the
  tinationtodayismoreinlinewiththe                 Although belatedly and by ob-          glory of salvation to the electing God
  positions of . . . Bolsec, at that time.    scure footnote, the Protestant Re-          alone  and that makes it impossible to
  Except for pockets in the Reformed          formed Churches are now openlyrec-
  world, Genevan  decretalism  has not                                                    ascribe any gloryto any other. This,
  survived in the twentieth century           ognized as representing and continu-        this above all, is beautiful. Truth is
  (vol. 2, p. 671).                           ingthe doctrine of Calvin,Beza, Dordt;      beautiful. Beautiful also is the one
                                              and Westminster. In their rejection of      who brings the truth.
     Ostensibly, it is the person of          universal grace in the preaching (the           As for Jerome Bolsec, even though
Calvin that is under attack in the            "well-meant offer") andin their insis-      he published a false and slanderous
circles of Reformed scholarship to-           tence that predestination controls          "biography" of Calvin with the delib-
day. In reality, the assault - now            preaching, promise, and covenant,           erate purpose of defamation, and even
open and massive  - is directed               the PRC are the true Calvinists. This,      though he fell away'again  to the Ro-
against the doctrine of God's eternal,        from those Reformed themselves who          man Catholic Church, it is not so
sovereign  predestination. With the           repudiate Calvin's doctrine as erro-        much his person we detest as it is his
overthrow of predestination, the en-          neous.                                      doctrine. The doctrine that denies the
tire confessional system of Reformed              Regardless how we are viewed,           very source and foundation of grace
truth ascribing the salvation of the          we raise our voice, not so much in          and that affirms that man cooperates
sinner to the sovereign, particular,          defense of Calvin's person (his honor,      with God in salvation is ugly.
effectual grace of God in Jesus Christ        after all, is secure with God in whom           Therefore, we assent to the judg-
collapses.                                    he believed) as in defense of Calvin's      ment upon heretic Bolsec by the Re-
    The few in the Reformed commu-            doctrine of predestination. However         formed Church of Christ in Genevain
nity who might still care are fairly          "ugly" Calvin now may be made out           1551.
warned by Holtrop's study that the            to be (and the last word is the justify-        Ugly Bolsec. Q
Reformed theological leadership is            ing Word of God clothing him with                                          - DJE
writing "Finished" to the creedal Re-         the robe of Christ's righteousness),





n Resource for Edification                    articles concerning homosexuality           all over this United States could see
    I wish to thank each and every            and the current state of drama. Both        that sovereignty demonstrated lo-
individual who contributes in the             series put forth exactly how these          cally. Who would be so bold as to
writing editing, and publishing of            areas shouldbe viewed. You showed           deny that the reversal of the convic-
the  Standard Bearer.  My only regret         no fear in expressing precisely what        tion of the home schoolers (I prefer
is that it comes to my home but once          these situations are about, and how         the term parental schoolers), Mr. and
a month during the summer months              totally ungodly they truly are.             Mrs. Mark DeJonge,  who have been
- lean times for me!                              I always look forward to your           persecutedbythestateforeightyears,
    Because  the Standard Bearer has          magazine. I read each one cover-to-         was not the result of the sovereignty
been such a testimony for the truth           cover immediately when it arrives,          and providence of God? This senti-
and such an irreplaceable resource            and re-read them all several times          ment was expressed at the victory
for spiritual edification in my own           over. I can then hardly wait for the        banquet by many individuals. Even
life, I am writing to subscribe for a         next issue to arrive!                       the attorneys who handled the case
dear brother and sister in the Lord,                                   Marge  Beltrami    admitted that they did not have much
whom I pray will be equally blessed                                     Portland, OR      hope for the reversal and declared
by the Lord by its use as I have been.                                                    that it couldbe no other than the hand
                  C. Douglas Robson,  Jr.     n A Victory for Christian                   of providence that moved the four
                       Friendsville, TN       Education?                                  judges of the Michigan Supreme Court
                                                  The sovereignty of God! What a          to reverse the conviction, however
n Pleased                                     basic and comforting doctrine it is.        minimal that may appear to some
    I am writing to tell you how                  It was with a sense of comfort,         individuals.
pleased I was to see your excellent           consolation, and awe the Christians             The Standard Bearer  has always

                                                                                              November 15,1993JStandanYE3eare~9


echoed the Protestant Reformed              port for it in the Bible than I do for        is totally inaccurate. We represent
Churches by emphasizing the sover-          some Christian schools as they exist          over 3,000 home school families (about
eignty of God. Imagine, then, our           today.                                        6,000 parents) inMichigan  who share
consternation and bewilderment to               In conclusion, permit me to state         these same "bizarre" religious con-
read an article in the Standard Bearer      an opinion. The way events are shap-          victions.
of September 1, 1993, authored by           ingup on the political and social scene               Thirdly, this victory in the
Mr. James Lanting, in which this sov-       true Christians are going to face some        DeJonge and Bennett cases is not
ereignty was minimized, in fact, was        hard times. Especially Reformed               "shallow" asassertedbyMr.  Lanting.
not even mentioned. Highlighted in          Christians should be united in facing         Not only do these decisions exempt
this article were words like "lose,"        persecution.                                  nearly 10,000 families throughout
"limited," "shallow victories," "ac-            One last thought: the Christian           Michigan who share the same basic
complished little if anything," and         community should be rejoicing at the          religious convictions as theDeJonges,
"dubious precedential value." Con-          outcome of the DeJonge case as their          but, as asserted by the Michigan At-
cluding this article is the statement,      "perseverance of the saints" has not          torney General's office, it also ex-
"But since MarkDeJonge's  unusual if        only resulted in their victory but a          empts all Christian schools, includ-
not bizarre notions are shared by few       victory for Christian education in            ing Reformed Christian schools, from
if any home (parental) schoolers (in-       general, even if it was "minimal" in          the teacher certification requirement.
deed the appellate court noted that         the eyes of Mr. Lanting.                      Any Christian school who objects on
DeJonge's own wife and pastor did                            Howard E. VanManen           religious grounds to being required
not share these beliefs), it appears                             Grand Rapids, MI         to use certified teachers is exempt
that the DeJonge religious exemption                                                      simply by making a statement that
can be claimed by few parents. Ac-              Since 1985, I have served as lead         that is their belief. The Christian
cordingly, as a parental religious free-    counsel in  PeopZe  V.  Bennett  and          schools throughout Michigan have
dom decision, the DeJonge case may          People v. DeJonge. Both cases in-             heralded the DeJonge case as the ma-
be of limited significance." This state-    volved home schoolers who were con-           jor victory they had been seeking in
ment is only an opinion of the author       sidered by the courts as having not           the early '80s and had lost.
and has no basis whatsoever as far as       complied with the teacher certifica-                  As far as the Bennett case being a
providence is concerned. In fact, part      tionrequirement which was imposed             "shallow" victory, that is simply un-
of the statement is untrue, for             on all Michigan teachers.                     true. This case upheld the previously
DeJonge's wife and pastor did share             In the September $1993, edition           ignored statutory due process right
the same belief. And as for few, if any,    of the Standard Bearer, author James          for any private school, whether in the
home schoolers sharing these "bizarre       Lanting improperly described the re-          home or other building, to be entitled
notions," Mr. Lanting has not given         sults of these cases. My purpose  is to       to a due process hearing before they
anyfoundationforhis"bizarre"state-          explain the actual significance of these      can be determined not to be in com-
ment in a Christian public magazine.        decisions.                                    pliance with the law. Since the State
     In the second place (I quote Mr.           First of all, the decision in the         does not have the budget to hold
Lanting), "MarkDeJonge had appar-           DeJonge case was not a split court, but       thousands of due process hearings
ently testified at trial that it was his    it was a clear-cut majority of four           throughout the state, such hearings
sincerely held religious belief that it     ruling that teacher certification was         will not be held. In Benneti,  the Su-
was sinful for anyone other than par-       unconstitutional, since it was not es-        preme Court said that no home school
ents to teach their children." Al-          sential to use a certified teacher in         or private school can be prosecuted,
though this statement is modified           order for children to be educated, nor        therefore, unless they have theirstatu-
somewhat later in the article the seed      was it the least restrictive means of         tory required due process hearing.
of untruth is planted in the quoted         fulfilling the State's interest that chil-    Essentially this means for all private
statement. It is specious andmislead-       `dren be educated. Four of the judges         and home schools without religious
ing and is uncharacteristic of such a       concurred on this reasoning, making           convictions that they, too, will be al-
prestigious periodical.                     it a definite and significant majority        lowed to operate without certified
    I suggest that Mr. Lanting per-         opinion.                                      teachers since they cannot be pros-
sonally interview Mr. and Mrs.                  Secondly, the teacher certifica-          ecuted without a due process hear-
DeJonge as to their beliefs and as to       tion requirement was dealt a tremen-          ing.
the statements that are not entirely        dous blow since close to 95% of all                   In addition to benefiting home
true to which I have referred in this       Michigan home schodlers  are religious        schoolsandChristianschoolsinMichi-
article.                                    and share the same convictions as the         gan, the DeJonge case is one of the
    I do not comprehend why some            DeJonges. For Mr. Lanting to claim            most significant and articulate cases
individuals are so violently opposed        that the DeJonges' religious beliefs          in protecting religious freedom that
to home (parental) schooling. Exam-         making them opposed to the teacher            any court has ruled in the last 30
ining the situation, I find more sup-       certification requirement are "bizarre"       years. The opinion could have easily

8OlStandard  Bearer/November 15,1993


been written by James Madison him-               tian parents who seek to avoid state                           Attorney Klicka rather glibly de-
self.                                            interference in their children's educa-              clares this automatically exempts ev-
         Our boasting should not be in           tion?                                                 ery Christian school and parent from
ourselves but in the Lord, but let's at                 Of course, the Bennetts' truancy               teacher certification laws. In con-
least give the Lord credit and recog-            convictions were overturned on the                    trast, I tied to argue in my article that
nize the bountiful victories and bless-          technical grounds that the state ne-                  this exemption is rather narrow and
ings that He has granted us in these             glected to hold a "due process hear-                  perhaps useless for most home
cases.                                           ing" prior to prosecuting them. But                   schoolers.
                 Christopher  1. Klicka, Esq.    what will now prevent the state from                           Why? Because the exemption
                             Home School         conducting such a half-day hearing,                    applies only to parents whose re2igion
               Legal Defense Association         determining the Bennets  are not cer-               forbids the use of certified teachers. But
                   Paeonian Springs, VA          tified teachers, and then prosecuting                 how many Christians think it a sin to
                                                 them again?                                           hire a certified teacher? The De Jonges
                                                        Mr. Klicka, a Virginia attorney,               apparently think so. Attorney Klicka
RESPONSE:                                        speculates that since Michigan pre-                    argued in an appellate brief as fol-
         I am well aware, as I was before I      sumably does not have the money to                    lows:
wrote my September 1,1993 article,               hold such due process hearings, home
that the Home School Legal Defense               schoolers and private schools who                            It would be a  violation of the
Association (HSLDA) has touted                   disobey the teacher certification law                        DeJonges' religious beliefs to del-
Benneff and De]onge  as monumental               upheld in  Bennett  will happily escape                      egate the education of their children
constitutional opinions. For example,            prosecution.                                                 to their pastor, his wife, Michael
inarecentnewsletter, AttorneyRlicka                     But is Attorney Klicka advising                       McHugh, or anyone else. God re-
                                                                                                              quires them to teach their ozun chil-
boasts that the  DeJonge  decision is            his association members to disobey                           dren. To the DeJonges  delegation of
uone of the most significant religious           the law simply because the state can't                       their children's education to anyone
freedom cases in the last 20 years."             budget the money to conduct the pre-                         else would be a sin. * * + The "sin of
("Home School Court Report," July/               requisite hearings? Ignore theBennetf                        certification" is secondary to the "sin
August 1993, p. 5.) Now in his letter            decision, says Klicka, because Michi-                        of delegation." * * * Using or hiring
above, Klicka claims it is one of the            gan will not have the resources to                           a certified  teacher is not an option for
most significant religious cases by              prosecute everyone. But does this                            eitherparentbecausethentheycould
any court "in the last 30 years." Ap-            make Bennetf a landmark constitu-                            not personally teach their children.
parently the significance of the                 tional law victory? I think not.                                         (Klicka Supplemental Brief,
                                                                                                                                          Jan. 1991, p. 9)
DeJonge  case is growing exponen-                       The same day the Michigan Su-
tially by the month. (The HSLDA is a             preme court upheld the teacher certi-                          It is this notion - that it is a sin to
not-for-profit corporation operated              fication law in Bennett, the court in                 hire a Christian school teacher in loco
by five lawyers who solicit and collect          DeJonge  also allowed for a religious                  parentis - that I find "unusual, if not
in excess of $3.5 million in annual              exemption for parents "whosere2igiou.s                bizarre." What the DeJonge's  neces-
dues from some 35,000 home school                convictions prohibit the use of certified              sarily believe, then, is that I, for ex-
member families who receive theirbi-             instructors. m
monthly newsletter and legal assis-
tance in return for $100 annual dues.)                                                 _.
         In my September 1 article, how-           "...we have not found and defenda ss have not presented 
                                                                                                              have not presented any 
                                                                                                                                          any case that
                                                                                                                                                  case that
ever, I tried to give a more objective             finds- the- existence of ,a. Fourteentl 1mendment
                                                                                                     1mendment  fundamental 
                                                                                                                             fundamental right
                                                                                                                                                   right of
                                                                                                                                                         of
appraisal of these two Michigan Su-                parents to direct their children's.~~ ular
                                                                                                     ular education free' 
                                                                                                                 education free of reasonable
                                                                                                                                        ' of reasonable
preme court decisions. Bennett was a               regulation. Weconclude that parent; 77 tiothavesuchaconstitutionalright
                                                                                                              tiothavesuchaconstitutionalright
clear defeat for the HSLDA. Reject-                requiring a strict scrutiny standar                        On the contrary; the state may
                                                                                                              On the contrary; the state may
ing their argument, the court held                reasonably regulate education, inch ng
                                                                                                     ng  the.imRosition
                                                                                                               the.imRosition  of teacher certifi-
                                                                                                                                       of teacher certifi-
that parents do not have a Fourteenth              cationand curricula requirements  `c home-school programs, in order to
                                                                                                     home-school programs, in order to
Amendment fundamental right to                     advance-the legitimate interest qf $i ipulsory
                                                                                                     ipulsory  education."
                                                                                                                     education."
direct their children's education free                        .-    People v. Berm&  Mic
                                                                                     `_  _.'         gan Supreme Court (May 
                                                                                                     gan Supreme Court (May 25,1993)
                                                                                                                                                  25,1993)
from state regulation. Consequently,                                           _'        . . .       ,','
the court held that the "state may                 ".We hold mat the teachercertificati              requirement is an unconstitutional
                                                                                                     requirement is an unconstitutional
reasonablyregulateeducation,includ-                violation of the Free Exercise Clause :: the First Amendment as applied to
                                                                                                      the First Amendment as applied to
ing the imposition of teacher certifi-             families whose religious conviction jrohibit
                                                                                                     jrohibit  the use of certified instruc-
                                                                                                                    the use of certified instruc-
cation and curricula requirements on               tom; Such families; therefore, are e: n$t
                                                                                                     n$t from the dictates of the teacher
                                                                                                                from the dictates of the teacher
home-school programs" (see quotein                 certification requirement.`<  :  -  :
box opposite). By what stretch of the             `,                People v. DeJonge,. Mi( g"n
                                                                                                     g"n Supreme` 
                                                                                                                Supreme Court (May 
                                                                                                                            ` Court (May 25,1993)
                                                                                                                                                  25,1993)
imaginationis thisavictoryforChris-                        :                         `<'  ( . . i    .:
                                                                                                     .:                         ..
                                                                                                                    <<     . .
                                                                                                                           . .              ii

                                                                                                                 November 15,1993/standard harerl'81


ample, sin each day I send my five              peared to go further, in that he be-        stand why in the past two decades
 children to local Christian day schools        lieves it a sin to submit to state au-      thousands of parents across our coun-
in the Chicagoland area (for surely             thority and a sin to  employ certified      try, with no Christian schools locally
this biblical "sin of delegation" can-          teachers. Judging from his pastor's         available, had to resort to  home-
not apply exclusively to theDeJonges).          testimony,  Mr. DeJonge's belief is         schooling to avoid the immorality,
        I'm not sure what "seed of un-          personal rather than religious.
                                                   179 Mich.  App. 225 at 235 (1989)        secular humanism, andevenviolence
truth" Mr. VanManen accuses-me of                                                           of the public schools. This is the
planting with respect to Mark                     Interestingly enough, Attorney            original raison d'etre  of the home school
DeJonge's views. I did interview the          Klicka, himself an ardent home                movement and would suffer no op-
DeJonges a number of years ago. I             schooler  and PCA member, informed            position from me.
have perused hundreds of pages of             me that he personally believes and                What I  am  opposed to, however,
appellate briefs, appellate opinions,         promotes this "sin of delegation" no-         is Klicka's and DeJonges' (yes, bi-
andnewsarticlesontheDeJongecase.              tion, although he insists it is a sin only    zarre) belief that the Bible teaches us
In addition, I most recently inter-           for those who consider it to be so.           it is a sin to send our children to a
viewed their attorney, Mr. Klicka, by         Klicka also insists that he has nothing       sound Christian day school employ-
telephone regarding their beliefs and         against Christian day schools, except         ing qualified teachers. (And to blunt
the supreme court opinion.                    that the Holy Spirit has testified in his     this notion by insisting it is a sin for
        Regarding the apparent dispar-        heart that it would be a sin to send his      some Christians but not others is even
ity between Mark's belief and that of         children to one at this time. Attorney        more bewildering.) What I am also
his wife and pastor, the appellate court      Klicka also admitted upon my in-              opposed to is the immodest and self-
wrote:                                        quiry that he knew of no Reformed or          serving exaggeration of the Bennett
                                                                                            and DeJonge  decisions by the attor-
  Pastor Byker testified his church           evangelical scholar or authority that         neys and staff who promote member-
  [Grand Valley Orthodox Christian            taught or even referenced this "sin of        ship in the so-called Home School
  Reformed Church] did not oppose             delegation," except for Klicka's own
  certification and did al.low delega-        book (which he offered to send me for         Legal Defense Association. Court
  tion of the parents' education re-          $12.95).                                      victories for Christians call for "re-
  sponsibility. Mr. McHugh did not                Finally, Mr. VanManen is unfair           joicing" as VanManen and Klicka
  say the [Christian Liberty] academy         in intimating I am among those "vio-          suggest. But the Bennetiand  DeJonge
  opposed certification, merely that it       lently opposed" to all home schools.          cases regrettably merit little such re-
  disfavored it.... Mrs. DeJonge con-         To make the record clear (although            joicing.
  curredwithbothBykerandM&Iugh.                                                                                  -James  Laming
  But Mr. DeJonge's objections ap-            this perhaps goes beyond the scope of
                                              my article), I confess I readily under-




n The Exodus Continues                        Rapids, by a vote of 85 to 35, decided        Meulen said that decision was a ma-
    Two more secessions from the              to cease affiliation with the CRC. The        jor factor in his congregation's decid-
Christian Reformed Church (CRC)               new church, which calls itself                ing to leave the CRC. "The Manual of
have recently occurred, bringing the          Eastmanville ReformedBible  Church,           Christian Reformed Church  Govem-
number of independent congregations           thus becomes the thirteenth indepen-          ment says `it is unsettling and divisive
to 38, with7800 total members. These          dent congregationin the KLake Michi-          for the same issues to be raised in the
figures do not include the Korean             gan Regional Conference," which is            church without weighty grounds,"'
churches which have recently seceded          composed of churches in Michigan,             VanderMeulen noted. "We were
and which are in the process of form-         Illinois, and Wisconsin. The second           unsettled because we contend that
ing a new denomination. Both                  seceding church, Cape Coral CRC,              their grounds conflict with Scripture
churches voted to secede on Septem-           organized fifteen years ago by Dutch          and do not prove that women may
ber 8. The Eastmanville CRC located           "sunbirds" VacationinginFlorida,  has         serve in the offices of minister and
in a rural area just west of Grand            94 members and is so far the only             elder."
                                              independent church in the south.                  However, VanderMeulen empha-
                                                  The Rev. DerrickVanderMeulen,             sized that the decision to secede was
                                              pastor of the Eastmanville church,            not based only on women in office.
                                              served as a delegate to the CRC synod         "We brought this to the congregation
Proj Decker is professor of Practical The-    of 1993 and strongly protested the            as a symptom, not the only reason,"
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-        synodical decision to reopenthe ques-         said VanderMeulen. The official
wry.                                          tion of women in office. Vander               ground cited by the congregation for
82lStandard Bearer/November 15,1993


its decision to leave the CRC was that      ner as claiming that only five or six of    H Respected Pastor Leaves
the CRC "has departed from the au-          the "dozens of congregations" are           CRC
thority and necessity of the Word of        leaving. Five Korean congregations,             Dr. Peter Y. DeJong, who taught
God alone as its standard for doctrine      with a combinedmembership of 2,200,         Practical Theology at Calvin Theo-
and life which has resulted in teach-       have left the CRC. On September 13          logical Seminary from 1964 to 1970,
ings, policies, and practices which are     these five, together with an indepen-       has left the CRC. In early August, the
in contradiction to the clear teaching      dent Presbyterian church, met at            council of First Sioux Center CRC
of God's Word."  VanderMeulen               Bethel Korean Presbyterian Church           published a notice in its bulletin that
stressed the importance of the word         (formerly West Bethel CRC) to form          it had, with regret, "dismissed"
"alone" in the ground. "The CRC still       the Presbytery of Los Angeles of the        DeJong's membership and that of his
opens the Bible and reads it, but it is     Korean Reformed Presbyterian                wife Joanne to the Lynwood CRC
no longer Scripture alone, it is Scrip-     Churchin America. Theindependent            (Independent) in Illinois.  Classis
ture plus something else they go by,"       church, with its membership of 1,300,       Dakota, at its September 21 meeting
he said.                                    brings the total membership of the          in Platte, South Dakota, granted Dr.
    The Florida church left the CRC         new Presbytery (equivalent to our           DeJong honorable release from the
for similar reasons. It cited .as its       classis) to 3,500.                          ministry of the Word and Sacraments
grounds that the CRC "has departed              And, this apparently is not the         in the CRC.
from the authority and necessity of         end. The Presbytery of Northern Los             A son of the late Dr. Y. P. De Jong,
the Word of God alone as its standard       Angeles was formed on October 4.            who for many years served the large
for doctrine, faith, and life, which has    Valley Korean CRC (775 members)             Grandville Ave. CRC in Grand Rap-
resulted in teachings, policies, and        acted as the organizing church. Ac-         ids, Dr. DeJong's spiritual roots lie
practices among the Churches and            cording to Dr. John E. Kim of Los           deep in the CRC. In addition to teach-
Agencies of the Christian Reformed          Angeles Korean Church, five other           ing at Calvin Seminary, Dr. DeJong
Denomination which are in contra-           Korean churches currently stillin  the      was pastor of severalchurches, among
diction to the clear teaching of the        CRC are committed to joining this           these were the large congregations of
Word of God." The motion to secede          presbytery. One independent con-            Alpine Ave., Oakdale Park, and Alger
waspassedunanimouslyby the Coun-            gregation, the 800-member Samsung           Park in Grand Rapids; First Pella and
cil and by over 81 percent of the con-      Church, also joined at the October          First Sioux Center in Iowa; and First
gregation. The new name of the Cape         meeting. Two other presbyteries will        HamiltoninOntario.  Dr. DeJongalso
Coral church is "Trinity Reformed           be formed in the near future (I write       taught some courses at Mid-America
Church of Cape Coral (Independent)."        this on October 14). The first will be      Reformed Seminary in the 1980s. He
Among the members of the new                the Presbytery of San Francisco, led        is the author of several books, among
church is the retired minister, Rev.        by East Bay Korean CRC (414 mem-            them the fine commentary on the Bel-
Edward Heerema, a son-in-law of the         bers). The secondwillbe apresbytery         gic Confession entitled, The Church's
late CRC stalwart minister and pro-         encompassing Korean churches out-           Witness to the World.
fessor, R. B. Kuiper;  Said Heerema,        side of California. Rev. Seung Jai              The fact that this gifted preacher/
"We're not leaving with rancor or           Kang, of the Korean CRC in                  theologian should find it necessary at
hostility, we're just leaving because       Kalamazoo, Ml, is responsible for this      the age of 77 to leave the CRC ought
the church has left us." Pointing out       presbytery. Following the organiza-         to give God's people in the CRC seri-
that most of the church's members           tion of the presbyteries, the denomi-       ous pause. It would have been much
have deep roots in the CRC and were         nationwillholditsfirstGeneralSynod          easier for Dr. and Mrs. DeJong to
marked by an intense loyalty to the         on October 18 in Los Angeles.               have remained quietly in the CRC.
CRC, Heerema said, II they feel they're          As of this writing there are six       Dr. DeJong's son, James, is president
not leaving the Christian Reformed          congregations already out of the CRC,       of Calvin Seminary, and his brother,
Church they knew, but a Christian           and these churches have a totalmem-         Alexander C., is a retired CRC minis-
Reformed Church that's very differ-         bership of 2,973. This represents 54%       ter living in Illinois.
ent from what they knew."                   of the 5,483 total membership of the           Reformed Believers Press Service
   Reformed Believers Press Service         Korean CRC churches in Southern
                                            California. That's a significant num-       n Westminster Professor Leaves
n Significant Number of                     ber, we think. And that number, if Dr.      CRC
Koreans Leave CRC                           Kim's report is correct, will increase.         The Rev. H. David Schuringa has
                                                                         The Banner
     Significant, we say, because the                                                   declared his intention to leave the
                                                                  Christian Observer
Rev. Leonard Hofman would have us                                                       CRC. Dr. Schuringa teaches Practical
                                                                  Christian Renewal
think otherwise. Hofman, General                                                        Theology at Westminster Theological
                                                Reformed Believers Press Service
Secretary of the CRC, is quoted in the                                                  Seminary in Escondido, California.
September 27,1993  issue of The Ban-                                                    Schuringa is co-pastor of the Well-

                                                                                             November 15,1993/Standard  Beareri


springChristianFellowship(65mem-           Schuringa also says the new church           membership of Wellspring Fellow-
bers), which has joined the Alliance of    "is seeking to recover the historic          ship is from.unchurched  or non-Re-
Reformed Churches, an alliance of          Reformed balance between doctrine            formed backgrounds. Dr. Schuringa,
mostly CRC seceders and a few con-         and experience, to recover and nur-          prior to his teaching at Westminster,
servative CRC congregations.               ture Biblical faith which touches the        pastored  the Beverly Christian Re-
     Accordingto Schuringa, the Well-      heart as well as the head." "The             formed Church in Wyoming MI, a
spring Fellowship "sings psalms, fol-      church has not found it necessary to         majority of which seceded from the
lows the historic order of worship,        compromise theological terminology           CRC about a year ago under the lead-
permits no choirs or special music,        or to'soften' the gospeland Reformed         ership of its pastor, Rev. Arthur
and preaches the Heidelberg Cat-           distinctivesin order to reach the lost,"     Besteman.  0
echism in the second service."             Schuringa declared. A majority of the           Reformed Believers Press Semite





            Covenant Reformed Fellowship
                     Our Ancient Hedtage m

     The Covenant Reformed Fellow-             Our island home also hasits place        and writers assure us that our church
ship here in Northern Ireland have         in church history. It is our part in that    history is in fact the oldest that is
been greatly blessed by our God over       history that we would like to share          known.
the past few years. We now enjoy           with our brothers and sisters in the             We know from ancient writings
regularlivepreachingof the gospelin        United States who have done so much          thatmanyancientpeopleweretumed
our worship services, our children         for us.                                      from the Druids II to the adoration of
receivefullcatechisminstruction,and            The point of beginning of our            God" (The Annals of the Four Mas-
we ourselves enjoy continuous study        "churchhistory"isnotatallclear.  We          ters). We also know from other. ac-
in our Father's precious Word. All         do know that Ireland first heard the         counts of church history that an
this is so because the God who loves       gospelataveryearlyperiodinchurch             Irishman, Coelestius, was the com-
His people from before the founda-         history. Some eminent authorities            panion of the controversial Pelagius.
tion of the world has provided us          have concluded that the Scoto-Irish          It seems evident, therefore,. that at a
with a missionary pastor through the       church is the oldest of all the Protes-      very early period there was a strong
Protestant Reformed Churches, in the       tant churches represented in modem           ChristianmovementinIreland,  which
person of Rev. Ron Hanko. Since our        Christendom. Although it is often            resulted in the organization of a
first coming in contact with the PRC       held that the Waldenses were themost         church. Itis arguedby BishopUssher
we have learned much concerning            ancient among existing representa-           that II this comparatively pure form of
the history both of that deno&iation       tives of the faith in Ireland, it`is also    Christianity survived in the country,
and of the continental Reformed            asserted by many acute and trust-            running as it were underground, like
churches from which the denomina-          worthy investigators that our island         some of our Irish streams, even when
tion has come. This has caused us to       had a representation of the church           Romish corruption was most ram-
thank our God that He has not turned       which is much older. Many in the             pant" (Ussher,  Discourseon  thelie&
His back on this island of Ireland, but    world today believe the Irish to be a        gionAncientlyProfessed by theIrish).
has kept safe a remnant of His own         people who are behind other nations          It would seem from historical record
people (Rom. 11:5).                        in both religious and material               that, althoughwe cannotbe certain of
                                           progress, a people who therefore owe         the date of its beginning, we can be
                                           all that they have, that is worth hav-       sure that 1,500 years ago a part of the
                                           ing, to the crumbs that fell from their      church of Jesus Christ could be found
Mr. McAuley is a member of the Cov-        neighbours' tables. In answer to that        in these same hills of County Antrim
enant Reformed Fellowship in Northern      assertion we will say simply that many       where we now live and worship. We
Ireland.                                   of the more important Celtic scholars        can lookback  to a day when God sent

84lStandard  Bearer/November 15,1993


another of His servants from across              scribed his call thus: "I saw, indeed,      simple illustration of that doctrine,
the sea to bring the gospel of His               in the bosom of the night, a man,           using the three-leaved "Shamrock,"
saving grace to the people of this               coming as it were from Ireland, with        is famous among Christians the world
island. We can picture in our minds              innumerable letters containing the          over. Indeed the Shamrock is now
a youngman  sitting among the heather            `Voice of the Irish.' While I was read-     known to be the "Badge of the Irish."
seeking to protect himself from the              ing aloud, I myself thought indeed in           We have looked at the religious
wind and rain for which this group of            my mind that I heard the voice of           state of Ireland 1,500 years ago, but
islands is so well known.                        those who were by the Western Sea.          what a change has taken place in the
    Although he was only a youth,                And they cried out thus, as if with one     intervening years. As we look at the
Patrick's heart had al-                     1                  voice, `We intreat  thee,     island of Ireland today we see a land
ready felt bitter pangs of                                     holy youth, that thou         covered, for the most part, with a
grief and disappoint-          . ..we can be sure              come and henceforth           darkness of superstition as bad as
ment. It must have                       that                  walk among us.' I was         anythingtobefoundatthetimeofthe
caused great anguish for        1,500 years ago                deeply moved in heart         Druids. Whence came this great dark-
him as he remembered                                           and could read no fur-        ness? What happened after the days
playing amidst the roll-              a part                   ther, and so I awoke."        of Patrick?
inghills of Britain, when,            of the                   God caused Patrick to             It seems that, from the time that
without warning, his                church of                  be obedient to that call,     God first placed Patrick upon the
world had crashed about           Jesus Christ                 and, in A.D. 432, he re-      stage of Ireland's church history, up
him. A ,band of. roving         could be found                 turned to Erin's Isle.        to A.D. 1171, the lamp of gospel truth
Irishmen, bent on plun-                                        There he preached as a        burned to some degree within this
der and pillage, had in-             in these                  missionary pastor, pro-       Emerald Isle. There were, it seems,
vaded the shores of his          same hills of                 claiming the Gospel of        many Romish cor?uptions  that crept
native land, and, laying        County Antrim                  Jesus Christ for close to     into Irish Christianity; but there con-
hands on Patrick, car-              where we                   30 years. Through his         tinued to be opposition to the ex-
ried him away captive               now live                   preaching and testi-          travagant claims of the Pope. At that
to their island home.                                          mony God. worked re-          time difficulties arose among the rul-
Ignorant of God's plan           and worship.                  generation, conversion,       ing High Kings of Ireland. Henry II,
for his life, Patrick sat L                                    and salvation in the          Roman Catholic King of England,
among the hills, tasked,                                       hearts of many of our         looked across to Ireland. A mixture
like the "prodigal son," with feeding            ancient fathers.                            of hatred for the people and greed for
the swine. Day and nighthis thoughts,                In the years that followed, many        dominion stirred in his wicked heart.
no doubt, would wander to his home               of these converts took leave of their       Henry made application to Pope
across the sea.                                  homeland to bear the good news of           Adrian IV for leave to invade the
    The years of Patrick's life slip by,         the gospel to many parts of Europe.         island's shores and to subject its
but, somewhere among those years,                Columba (or Columbkille) is one ex-         simple people to the authority of the
in the providence of God, he hears the           ample of that missionary spirit. If         Roman See. Adrian, like his prede-
commarid of the gospel. The Holy                 Ireland is to be grateful to Scotland       cessors, and as history in the rest of
$&it, who had worked regeneration                for Patrick, then surely Scotland must      Europe shows, was more than anx-
in his heart, provided him with faith            thank Ireland for Columba, "The             ious to extend his ecclesiastical au-
to believe and to obey that call. Even-          Apostle of the Northern Picts." The         thority. He granted Henry his re-
tually he escaped from his Irish cap-            converts from Ireland, heedless of the.     quest with the following reminder:
tors and made his way back to his                dangers that surrounded them, in-
native home where he was united                  vaded the realms of darkness, and             There is indeed no doubt but that
with his faniily. He found, however,             brought the light of gospel truth to          Ireland, and all the islands on which
that he could not be content. Memo-              many in the British Isles, as well as in      theSunofRighteous.ness  hathshone,
ries haunted him all the while, and he           Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and              and which have received the doc-
was carried back in thought to the               France. The dawn of light and truth           trine of the Christian Faith, do be-
                                                                                               long to the jurisdiction of St. Peter
land of his captivity. He thought of             had in God's mercy broken over Ire-           and the Holy Roman Church, as your
the people who inhabited its shores,             land. These hills and valleys that we         Excellency also doth acknowledge:
of their idolatrous practices under the          now live among echoed to the praise           and therefore we are the more solici-
Druid priests, of their pagan rites,             of our Mighty Triune God.                     toustopropagatetherighteousplan-
and of the small number who repre-                   No historical account of Patrick          tation  of faith in this land. For, then,
sehted Christ's church on earth, atid            andhistimeswouldbecompletewith-               our dear son in Christ,  have signified
his heart was drawn to them in love.             out stating the fact that Patrick was a       to us your desire to enter into this
The call of God came ringing down                great believer in the importance of the       island of Ireland, in order to reduce
the corridor of his soul. Patrick de-            doctrine of the Trinity. Patrick's            the people to obedience under the

                                                                                                  November 15, I993lStandartl  Bearer/85


  laws and to extirpate the plants of          misunderstandings of that period.                      resentative body of true Protestants
   vice, and that you are willing to pay       Themostcivilizedpeopleontheearth                       in the island. Despite the persecu-
  from each house a yearly pension of          did not feel called upon to observe its                tions under Mary in 1558, they sur-
  one penny to St. Peter. We, there-           promises towards a people it did not
  fore, favourably assenting to your           consider to be its equal. Indeed, in                   vived until Protestantism was estab-
  petition, do hold it good and accept-        order to satisfy its hatreds, it kept the              lished once more in England.
  able that, for extending the borders         Irish in a state of near slavery while                     Ireland was in a wretched state
  of the Church, restraining the               expressingunboundedastonishment                        during most of the reign of Elizabeth.
  progress of vice, for the correction of      at their backwardness and defects.                     Civil war disturbed and desolated
  manners, the planting of virtue, and                                                                the kingdom, as one Irish King after
  the increase of religion, you enter            Is it surprising that the Irish have                 another rebelled against the English
  this island, and execute therein what-     no love for the English?                                 throne. Before Elizabeth died, how-
  ever shall pertain to the honour of            Now we see a sad contrast. In the                    ever, the rebellions had been put down
  God and the welfare of the `land.
  (Note: Adrian IV was the only En-          early days of Ireland's Christianity,                    and Ireland settled to some little peace.
  glishman to be a Pope. His real name       we see a land noted for holiness and                     The year  1607  saw the beginnings of
  was Nicholas Breakspear.)                  learning, of saints and                                                Irish Presbyterianism,
                                             scholars and for mis-                               I             I which up until recently
     In A.D. 1171 the armies of King         sionary efforts in other             . ..use of force                  has been the Reformed
Henry landed at Waterford on the             lands. From the twelfth                rather than                     Church in this island,
southeastern shores of the island with       century on, Ireland be-                                                and the church where we
                                                                                 the "`preaching
the express purpose of conquering            came known only for its                                                in the CRF find our own
Ireland, not only for the English            superstition, fables, ig-            of the Word"                      history. The history of
throne, but also and more impor-             norance, andbarbarism.                   not only                      the time between 1607
tantly for the "Church of Rome."             From 1171 until the Ref-            failed to make                     and 1921 is a complicated
Rome later boasted in the words of           ormation the island re-                   Ireland                      one but it is one that
Pope Honorious III, "The English en-         mained in a.very poor                                                 teaches us a lesson. The
                                                                                    Protestant,
tered Ireland by the mandate of the          state. The English au-                                                 lessonis this, that the use
Apostolic See, and subjugated it to          thority was limited to                 but has left                    of force rather than the
the obedience of the Roman Church."          an area known as the                      Ireland                      "preachingof the Word"
This subjugation was completed at            "Pale," a small area                  in a state of                   not only failed to make
the Synod of Cashel in 1172, when it         around the City of                        trouble                     Ireland Protestant, but
was determined "that all things relat-       Dublin. Rev. Hamilton,                                                has left Ireland in a state
                                                                                   from which
ing to the religion for the future in all    in his  History  of                                                    of trouble from which
parts of Ireland be regulated accord-        Presbyterianism,  states            she may never                     she may never recover.
ing to the Church of England" (then          that "the people were                    recover.                          Persecutions and
under the jurisdiction of the Church         oppressed rather than                                                 troubles continued dur-
of Rome).                                    governed, and they                             I                      ingthe17thandlBthcen-
    At that point the Irish church lost      groaned besides under the exactions                      turies,withbloodyfightingandgrow-
itsnationalindependenceandbecame             and the vices of the Romish bishops                      ing discontent. In A.D. 1800 the Brit-
subservient to the church of Rome.           and priests, who now, under the fos-                     ish government enacted an "Act of
That was indeed a tragic day for Ire-        tering wing of England, rode rough.-                     Union," bringing Ireland into the
land. Rev. A.E. Hughes, in his book,         shod over them."                                         United Kingdom. During the 16th,
Lift Up a Standard, is right to declare,         The Reformation in England led                       17th, and 18th centuries Britain had
"No Englishman should read the story         also to the Irish Parliament throwing                    sought to "plant" Ireland with "Prot-
of the twelfth century without shame         off the authority of the Pope and de-                    estant" settlers, mostly Presbyterians
and humiliation." The landing of             claring the King as supreme head on                      from Scotland and Methodists from
King Henry II upon Irish soil ushered        earth of the Church of Ireland. This                     England and Wales. It was the fact
in an era of English domination which        declaration, however, was in word                        that these people needed protection
remains at the root of the island's          only, and'no real attempt was made                       that brought about the Act of Union.
troubled recent history. This, accord-       to win the people over to Protestant-                    It should be noted that, during the
ing to one authority, was                    ism. This same Church of Ireland                         years 1600 to 1921, Roman Catholics
                                             today stands on the fence between a                      and dissenters (mostly Presbyterian
  the beginning of the real drama with       liberal form of Protestantism and full                   and Methodist) suffered under
  which the fate of Ireland was to be        unity with Rome. It is hardly any                        England's rule. Finally, in the year
 = identified. Only the ineradicable de-     wonder that the Reformation made                         1921, Ireland was offered "homerule"
  fiance of the Irish and a feeling of       little progress when the preaching of                    (the right of self-government). In
  racial superiority on the part of the      the gospel and of true doctrine was                      order, however, to effect a settlement
  English can explain the hatreds and        neglected. There was however a rep-                      between the Roman Catholic Irish

88lStandard  BearerlNovember  15,1993


and the Anglo-Protestant  Irish (who        (one and a half million), 55% of whom       der heaven.
had no desire to sever their connec-        identify themselves as Protestant.              As each individual member of
tion with the British throne), Ireland      (This group includes almost every-          the church of Christ cannot exist inde-
was "partitioned," and a dividing           one outside of Roman Catholics. Only        pendent of the full body of the church,
"border" erected between the pre-           a tiny minority are Christians.) The        so the church in each land and nation
dominantly Protestant area in the           Republic of Ireland, on the other hand,     depends on the parts in other lands
north, commonly known as Ulster,            comprises five-sixths of the total area     and nations to support and keep it
andthepredominantly RomanCatho-             of land, but contains only two-thirds       alive. The Protestant Reformed
lit region in the south, which gave         of the total population (three million),    Churches of America have, by God's
itself the name "Republic of Ireland"       95% of whom adhere to the Roman             guidance, been called to lift up the
or "Eire." This remains the state of        Catholic faith.                             "Ancient Standard" of gospel truth
the island today, with Ulster in a state        Any missionary to Ireland must          among the people of this island (Is.
of near civil war. The battle is be-        quickly learn this history in order to      6230).
tween Republicans (those who seek           understand the people here. God has             Our hope is that with this back-
full Irish unity) and Loyalists (those      always had His own elect people in          ground, you will continue to pray for
loyal to the British crown). Behind all     Ireland since the days of Patrick.          us. We covet those prayers. And, we
this lies an ancient battle between         Today Christ still has a part of His        promise that, with the help and in the
Protestantism and Roman Catholi-            church in Ireland. It is our prayer         will of our heavenly Father, we will
cism.                                       that, despite the troubles here, God in     do all we can to see that Standard held
    Ulster, or Northern Ireland, com-       His mercy will continue to gather His       high in Ballymena, in Ulster, in Ire-
prises today some one-sixth of the          people from among this divided na-          land, and in all the United Kingdom.
total area of the island, but contains      tion, just as He also calls His church                                           cl
over one-third of the total population      from among all the other nations un-





                             Our Dependence
                          Upon God's Grace

    Willthepouringofice-coldwater               In the day of shadows - the Old         sidering what Jacob said and did after
on your head warm you up and im-            Testament dispensation - we have            this sin of murdering Shechem and
prove your physicallot? Can running         presented to us in Genesis 34 the sin of    Hamor.
up a hill bring you to someone who          adultery committed upon Jacob's                 In Genesis 34:30 we read that
behind you is running down that hill?       daughter Dinah by Shechem, the son          Jacob said to his sons, "Ye have
Can we break one of the ten com-            of Hamor the Hivite. Also presented         troubled me to make me stink among
mandments of God's holy law in or-          in this chapter is the sinful act of        the inhabitants of the land, among the
der to keep one of the other corn-.         Simeon and Levi, the sons of Jacob.         Canaanites and the Perizzites:  and I
mandments?                                  They slew Shechem and his father,           beingfewinnumber, theyshallgather
                                            Hamor. And we find these two sons           themselves against me, and slay me;
                                            of Jacob saying to their father, in re-     and I shall be destroyed, I and my
                                            gard to Shechem, "Should he deal            house."
                                            with our sister as with an harlot?"             It is true that Abraham and his
                                                They did accuse Shechem of              seed had not yet been given by God
                                            breaking God's law. However, they           the two tables of the law, which con-
                                            also broke God's law. Shechem com-          tained the ten commandments. That
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the     mitted adultery; but they committed         Law of God upon two tables of stone
Protestant Reform&-l Churches.              murder. And we even do well con-            came in the day when the Israelites

                                                                                            November 15,199Wtandatd Bearer/57


     I    were at Rlount Sinai, on their way to         by some that she was about 14 or 15         Canaan, and reiterated a relatively
          thepromisedland. But these two sons           years old. Nowhere in Scripture do          short time ago, was this: "And thou
          of Jacob, namely Simeon and Levi,             we read that through that sin of            saidst, I will surely do thee good, and
          did know that adultery was a sin.             Shechem she brought forth a child.          make thy seed as the sand of the sea,
          They said that Shechem had commit-                An awesome truth presented here         which cannot be numbered for multi-
          ted a sin upon their sister. It was an        is a shadow of sin that is today com-       tude" (Gen. 32:12).
          act which they considered so evil that        mitted by church members. There is              It is God's grace, not Jacob's re-
          they went and killed Shechem and his          no evidence that Dinah hated                sponse to that sin of his sons, that
          father. In their eyes this dealing with       Shechem and called what he did to           ought to comfort and encourage us.
          their sister as an harlot called for them     her a sin. There is also in this account    In Genesis 35:l we read that "God
          to kill him who committed that sin,           no evidence of Simeon and Levi, her         said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel,
          and likewise to kill his father who           brothers, hating the fact of their mur-     and dwell there." And let us go back
          defended him in that sin, and who             der committed by killing Shechem            to Genesis 28:13-19.  Yes, God, the
          tried to get Dinah married to Shechem.        and his father. Nowhere, after the          Almighty One, who defends His
              Now, in the first place, we do not        violation of the sixth and seventh          people and keeps every letter in euery
          read that Dinah cried and ran to her          Commandments, murder and adul-              word of His promise to His elect, will
I         father and brothers to let them know          tery, do we find remorse for those          send His Son to realize the kingdom
          what Shechem had done. We do read             sins which were committed.                  of heaven for every elect child. In this
          that she "went out to see the daugh-              Let us by all means take note also      passage in Genesis 28, God promised
          ters of that land." She did not go to         of Jacob's reaction to what Simeon          Jacob that He would keep him in all
          entice the unbelieving young men of           and Levi did. He, too, had only "a          the places whither he would go, and
          that land. And although she did not           small beginning of obedience." He           bring him back to the land of Canaan,
          go looking for that sin, we do read -         did consider the murder which               so that his seed "shallbe as the dust of
          according to the Hebrew word- that            Simeon and Levi committed to be a           the earth," so that he would spread
          Shechem"lovedthedamselandspake                sinful act. And in Hebrews  11:21           abroad to the west, to the east, to the
          kindly unto the heart of the damsel."         Jacob is presented as abelieving child      north, and to the south. God prom-
          We also read in verse 2 of our transla-       of God. We read there: "By faith            ised to keep him in all the places
          tion that he, namely Shechem, defiled         Jacob, when he was a-dying, blessed         where he went. This was the manifes-
          her. The Hebrew word presented as             both the sons of Joseph; and wor-           tation of God's grace to him. What
          defiled means that he humbled her.            shipped, leaning upon the top of his        Jacob now told his sons stood there-
          Likewise, the word defiled which we           staff." But let us go back to what he       fore in total opposition to what God
          findin verse 5 means that he made her         said to Simeon and Levi after their         had told him.
          unclean. It can be presented thus:            murderous act. He said, "Ye have                What a manifestation of God's
          "And Jacob heard that he, Shechem,            troubled me to make me stink among          grace is revealed when Jacob's sons
          had made unclean his daughter                 the inhabitants of the land, among the      and daughter, in spite of themselves
          Dinah."                                       Canaanites and the Perizzites: and I        and their grievous sins, did.by God's
              What we also find in this record-         beingfewinnumber,theyshallgather            almighty arm get the whole land as a
          ing of that sin is that Dinah in no way       themselves together against me, and         picture of what we all will get when
          wept because of that sin, nor hated           slay me; and I shall be destroyed, I        Christ returns.
          Shechem for treating her so sinfully.         and my house." Jacob warned them                Jacob was wrong, but God was
          She did not plead with her father to ' that because he was few in number-                 right. Jacob tells his sons that they
          keep Shechem from taking her as his           having only twelve sons and one             were in terrible danger, and that they
          wife. We have reason to believe that          daughter - and could not protect            have brought themselves to destruc-
          she eagerly looked forward to this            himself and' his children, they stood       tion by the Canaanites and Perizzites.
          desire of Shechem to receive her as his       in danger of being executed by the          But our God had promised that Jacob
          wife. We find not .one word of com-           Canaanites and Perizzites.                  and his sons would inherit the land
          plaining on her part about Shechem's              Jacob did not call the attention of     which He promised. He, Jacob (not
          sin, and about his father's desire that       his sons to their act of hatred toward      Esau),wouldinhisseedgetthatprom-
          she become the wife of his son.              God, manifested in their murder of           ised land.
              Strikingly enough we do find that         Shechem and his father. He called               Of what is all this a shadow?
          Dinah's name means "Judged" or                attention to what effect their murder           By God's grace, here was a
          "Avenged." But that name was given            of Shechem and Hamor would have             shadow of what He does for us today.
          to her when she was born, not later           on himself. He presented himself            Let us take hold of the awesome truth
          because of the sin committed upon             with his sons and daughter as now in        which our God gives us by presenting
          her. And in Scripture there is no evi-        danger of being executed by the             this event that took place in Jacob's
          dence that she was angry because of           Canaanites and Perizzites. However,         life. Scripture fromGenesis 1 through
          what Shechem did to her. Itisclaimed          God's promise to him when he left           Revelation22constantlyholdsbefore

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us the truth that                             life which deals with what Shechem          grace we are saved. We do not save
       His saints shall not fail,             did to his daughter, and also with          ourselves. By His grace God saves us
       But over the earth                     what his sons did in response. Let us       by giving us faith, in the way of caus-
       Their power shall prevail;             read what our God says to us through        ing us to be born again. Take hold of
       All kingdoms and nations               the apostle Paul in Ephesians 28-10.        the truth that, as God says here, it is
       Shall yield to their sway.             We are saved by grace, not by our           through  faith, not because a spiritually
       To God give the glory                  works. Our act of faith is God's gift to    dead man can believe. God tells us
       And praise Him for aye.                us. It is not somethingwe decide to do      we are saved "not of works." And we
                                              and are able to do by our minds and         are warned that if we boast of a work
    We find those words in stanza 4           strength. Our God through Paul tells        which we do in our own power, we
of our Psalter's blessed truth in num-        us to believe - and in His grace            reveal that we are not God's work-
ber 407, based on Psalm 149.                  causes us to believe and sing - that        manship, created in Christ unto, not
    Our God'sname is Jehovah, which           we are not saved through our works.         because of, our own good works.
means I AM, and teaches us that He            We do not accept Christ and let Him              God does not depend upon us.
does not change, and that He gives us         come into our hearts. Can a dead man        We depend upon Him, and every bit
all that He has promised. Although            ask for or take into himself what is        of salvation is His gift to us. As we
we deserve not one blessing, He is            round about him? And did not our            read in Acts 17~28,  in God we live and
faithful to His promises, and has             God - listen to Him, not to earthly         move, and have our being. We live
throughHis Son earned for us a bless-         preachers  - tell Adam that his first       physically because God causes our
edness that is much higher than that          sin would cause him to die spiritu-         hearts to beat for us. We live spiritu-
which the highest angels enjoy.               ally? And did he not die spiritually        ally because He gives us a spiritual
    Let us look carefully at what hap-        that day and try to hide from God,          heart and causes it to beat. We have
pened in the day of shadows and is            ratherthanrunuptoHima.ndconfess             spiritual life as His gift to us, even as,
presented to us so often both in the          his sin?                                    our physical life is His gift until He
Old Testament and in the New Testa-               By all means take hold of that          pleases to stop it for our souls to enter
ment. Look at this incident in Jacob's        Word of God in Ephesians 2:8-10. By         glory.  0





       The Spiritual Requirements
    of a Deacon in God's Church
                                                          Lesson 9

                                                  We ought to notice that the re-         seven times Yservant.n InPhilippians
    Likewise must the deacons be grave,       quirements for a deacon are not of a        1:l:  fl . . . to all the saints in Christ Jesus
not double-tongued, not given to much         lower order than those for the teach-       which are at Philippi, with the bishojz
wine, not greedy offilthy lucre; holding      ingandrulingelders.Allarecalledby           and  deacons....  " In our terminology
the mystey of the faith in a pure con-        God, all must be fit instruments to         the bishops are the teaching and til-
science. And  let these also first be         conduct themselves properly in the          ing elders. We have this same diiii-
proved;then  let them use the office of a     church of the living God (see I Tim.        sion evidenced in I Timothy 3:2,8:-m
deacon, being found blameless.                220ff.).                                    Romans 15:8 Paul says of Jesus Ch%t
                       I Timothy 3%10             The term "deacon" means a ser-          that He was a minister of the circum-
                                              vant. It ought to be observed that the      cision for the truth of God, to confirm
                                              Greek term diakonos OCCLES some 30          the promises made unto the fathers.
                                              times in the New Testament. In the               There is something touchingly
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the    KJV it is translated three times "dea-      beautifulabouttheEnglishterm"min-
Protestant Reformed Churches.                 con," twenty times "minister," and          ister." The Latin word for minister

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means a doer of little things. It is            However, let us notice the text in        waiting until He gives directions for
therefore to be willing to be the least.    this matter of a deacon holding a             the proper  spirit&l qualifications of
A minister is willing to be a servant of    good conscience. There are two great          the deacons does not imply that the
Christ. The teaching and the ruling         sins that beset the deacon in office,         spiritual Canon of faith is not also
elders both are ministers of Christ.        sins which would defile his conscience.       binding upon the wives of both min-
Jesus claims this name for Himself              The first requisite is that he be a       isters and elders. Both are under the
while in the state of humiliation on        man who is "grave." He must be as             royal law of liberty, even as both are
earth. In Matthew 23:11 we read,            walking in the very presence of God,          under the end of the commandment,
"But he that is greatest among you          of Christ, and of the holy                                       which is love (charity)
shallbeyourservant(minister)." Yes,         angels. He must be                                               out of a pure heart, and
deacon, minister, servant! Read John        "honorable." His entire                No man                     of a good conscience,
13:12-17.  All the disciples of Jesus       walk and demeanor                   who aspires                   and of faith unfeigned (I
understood this spiritual lesson save       must command "re-                                                Tim. 1:5, 6).
Judas Iscariot. He was a thief.             spect." It is the respect           to the office                     In the second place,
      Yes, "in like manner" all must        that one has for an hon-              of  bishop                  are not these wives to be
have the spiritual-psychological quali-     est man who strives to                  is a fit                 the wife of one man,
fication. And this qualification must       keep his conscience                  candidate                   their own husbands,
be manifest in each officebearer in the     good and pure. He has a              if his wife                 even as the church is to
house of God.                               quiet confidence in God,                                         Christ (Eph. 5:32)? Are
      In the second place, a deacon is      and will believe the best          is like a drag                not all the women in
one who serves in God's  temple.~           of the members of the              on the wheel.                 God's church united
Constantly a deacon must take the           militant church. Hence, L                                   J    with their own husband
shoes from off his feet as did Moses        he flees all and every sin                                       even as the church is to
(Ex. 31-36). He must constantly be as       for Gods sake. He will speak the              Christ? Pray, how could a man rule
one who has a "pure conscience."            truth in love. He is not  double-             his own house well if his wife were
      The. text suggests two things: 1)     tongued. And when men examine his             like the proverbial contentious
He must be holding the mystery of           walk and life, they find him sound in         woman (Prov. 21:9)?  Is not also the
the faith in a pure conscience, and he      faith and upright in walk. For he will        minister's wife called by the Lord to
must`be one who so ministers (uses)         be found to be the "husband of one            be a crown to her husband, so to live
the office'of a deacon that he acquires     wife" who herselfis found tobe  "faith-       that she brings honor to him in the
(subjectively) great boldness in the        ful in all things." She has the good          ministry of the Word (ITim. 2:11-13)?
faith which is in Christ Jesus. 2) He       reputation of being a "virtuous               How would children who were law-
must more and more be able to say: I        woman" (Prov. 30:19,20).  She is no           less and riotous honor their father
have served Christ. (Compare Acts           weeping, clinging vine, but in every          when their mother did not behave
23:l; 2416;  Rom. 9:l; 13:5. See Young's    way supports her husband in the rul-          herself "faithful in everything"?
Concordmce,  p. 198.) Such "having a        ing of her children. She must be, in the            ln verses 15,16 we read, "But if I
pure conscience" means obedience to         highest sense of the term, a virtuous         tarry long that thou mayest know
the.law of God asfulfilled by Christ        helpmeet. No man who aspires to the           how thou oughtest to behave thyself
on the cross. It is in the blood of         office of bishop is a fit candidate if his    in the house of God, which is the
Christ, as the eternal Son of God, that     wifeislikeadragonthewheel. Hence              church of the living God, the pillar
we were "purged from dead works to          she too, for the Lord's sake, is to be        and ground of the truth. And without
serve the living God" (Heb. 9:13-15).       "grave," sober. She toomusthaveher            controversy (confessedly) great is the
We now may serve God with a free            head on straight.                             mystery of godliness: God was mani-
and good conscience, as those who               The question is often asked: -Why         fest in the flesh . . . . II
shall be judged, not as those who are       did Paul speak of the proper qualifi-               There is a mystery of godliness
u%er the curse of the Law, but as           cations of the wives of deacons, and          which should be known and revered
Ch&tians,  who war against sin and          not of the spiritual-psychological            by every saint of God. Paul often
Sat& in this life, and who afterwards       qualities of the wives of teaching and        speaks of "godliness" in the two let-
$ reign with Christ eternally over          ruling elders? Pages and books have           ters to Timothy and in his epistle to
all%ings. (Confer Heidelberg Cat-           been written about this matter. It            Titus. (Cf. I Timothy2,3,4, and 6.) In
e' ?sm, L.D. XII, 31, 32.) Now it is'
 d                                          seems to me that this insertion con-          each case godliness is far more than,
trus that a "deacon" must have a pure       cerning the wives of deacons and not          and also essentially different from,
and undefiled conscience in his work        of those of the bishops should not be         mere mores of men; it is exalted far
of ministering to the saints (Acts 6:1-     too perplexing a matter for a believ-         above the morality of unbelievers who
4), but this is true of every saint in      ing student of theBible.  Please attend       are at bottom legalists, who affirm
Christ Jesus. (See Philippians 1:l;         to the following:                             that the house of the living God, the
Matthew 5:13-16.)                               In the first place the Holy Spirit's      ground of truth, is man's affirmation

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of truth. The house of God is not                   The great confession written in I        cation and redemption, that, accord-
merely a place where man dwells                 Timothy 3:6 consists of six evangeli-        ing as it is written, "He that glorieth,
with God, a place where we invite               cal truths. The church confesses these       let him glory in the LORD." He was
God to join us. It is essentially differ-       as the pillar and ground of the truth.       justified in the Spirit both in the wise
ent! It is God with us. It is expressed         Let us notice the following:                 and prudent as well as in the babes to
in the name of the virgin's son. The                1.  Godnzunifestintheflesh. This         whom the Spirit revealed  Him.
name of that son is Immanuel, God               great mystery is revealed in all of the              3. Yes, He was seen of angels.
with us. His name is Jesus, for He will         Scriptures. We will not refute the tex-      He was seen of angels to whom the
surely save His elect people from their         tual critics who deny that text which        Word made flesh revealed Himself,
sins. And when this Immanuel comes              reads "God" and tenaciously main-            both in His humiliation and in His
to dwell by His Spirit in our hearts,           tain that we must read that the "mys-        glorification. He was seen by all the
He makes His abode in us. Then we               tery" was revealed in flesh. Both are        angels of God, who were sent by
are the temple of the living God. We            true, but why quibble about this read-       God's command: "Worship him, all
are His dwelling-place in the Spirit            ing when we have John l:l-14. There          ye angels" (Heb.  1:3-6; Luke 2:9-14).
(Eph. 210-22).  Such is the mystery of          we read explicitly in verse 14: "And                 4. He was "preached" among
godliness. We are saved by grace                the Word (Logos) was made flesh, and         (to) the Gentiles. This too is a histori-
throughfaith,andingraftedinChrist.              dwelt among us, (and we beheld his           cal gospel-truth, promised of old to
Then we are made godly. The Spirit              glory, the glory as of the only begot-       Abraham and fulfilled after Pente-
of God works in our hearts both to              ten of the Father,) full of grace and        cost (Gal. 2:7,8; Acts 10~34;  Rom. 10:9-
will and to do. Such willingness to do          truth."                                      15).
is the mystery of God toward us and                 2. As He dwelt among us He                       5. He was "believed on in the
our godliness towardHim (Phil. 2:12-            was God-with us, "justified in the           world."         (See Romans  15%12;
1 5 ) .                                         Spirit." He was the "wisdom" justi-          Colossians 1:6,23.)
     Now this mystery of godliness is           fied by wisdom's children (Matt.                     6. He was "received up into
great. No one ever argues this point            11:19).  He was such wisdom of God           glory." (See John 17:1-5,19-24;  Acts
when he has tasted the love of God to           to usward. He was made to us wis-            1:2-12; Philippians 26-11.)  Q
him!                                            dom and righteousness and sanctifi-





                      When Opinions Vary

Iron sharpenkth iron; soa mansharpeneth         titles in the  Stundurd  Bearer,  and                To begin with, it was rather soon
the countenance  of  hisfriend.                 didn't agree with them. In the con-          into our conversation that Mr. Janssen
                         Proverbs 27~17         versation which followed he ex-              brought out the frequently expressed
                                                pressed deep regret that his church          accusation that it was the Dedaration
     The other day I received a tele-           and ours had never succeeded in de-          of Principles  which caused the break-
phone call from a member of the Ca-             veloping any kind of a working rela-         down in the original relationship me
nadian Reformed Churches, a Mr.                 tionship through the years. It is a          had; and perhaps in a sense this wJq
Roelof Janssen of  Inheritance Publica-         regret which I share. But at the same        so. At least, it was certainly the oc
tions inNeerlandia.  His call had to do         time I believe our conversation              sion for that relationship being
with other .matters;  but, once they            brought out some of the reasons why          cially terminated. But that was s%;
were taken care of, he quickly in-              this is so; and these I would like to try    ply on the surface. The fact was, $sz
formed me that he had read my ar-               to bring out. I hope that Mr. Janssen        tied to show in my articles, all eff oi s
                                                does not mind my trying to recon-                                                     8
                                                                                             of rapprochement had pretty we
                                                struct an unrecorded conversation;           ceased well before that. Before the
                                                and, ifin any way I misrepresent him,        Declaration was ever drafted there
                                                                                             was already a Liberated minister, a
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor                       I ask that he please let me know, and
                              of the Protes-    I will do what I can to set the record       Rev. Hettinga from the Netherlands,
tant Reformed ChuLch  of Kalamazoo,             straight.                                    going about Canada seeking to line
Michigan.

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up people to organize into separate          for us? Of course they are. They must        creeds word for word in the `way. he
Liberated congregations, including           be, if we church politically are to.be       doestheWordofGod.  Butinasmuch
some people who had already joined           Reformed.                                    as they contain truths the Scriptures
ourchurches. This,particularlywithin              The term "binding," after all,          express -and the Scriptures are per-
the mind frame of Liberated thinking,        comes directly from the Church Or-           spicuous to us - they hold a deriva-
certainly had distinct and serious           der of Dordrecht, Article 31:' '             tive authority among those who out
implications.                                                                             of common commitment and faith
     I sought to bring this out in our            If anyone complain that he has          hold to them. From them they are
conversation by asking Mr. Janssen,            been wronged by the  decision of a         reminded and taught in the, broa,d
as he was accusing us of "binding the          minor assembly, he shall have the          teachings of the Bible; by them the
consciences" of people, why it was             right to appeal to a major ecclesiasti-    truths they hold are defended; and
that in my Lynden days, when I used            cal assembly, and whatever may be          through them they are repeatedly re-
to visit with a number of Liberated            agreed upon by a majority vote shall
                                               be considered settled and binding,         turned to the Scriptures. The creeds
peopleandmaintainedaratherwarm                 unless it be proved to conflict with       are nothing in themselves; but in con-
friendship with them, the one thing            the Word of God or with the articles       junction with the  ,Sc.ripturesthey
they seemed unwilling and unable to            of the church order, as long as they       stand as servants, ambassadors ., of
do was as much as to visit one of our          are not changed by a general synod.        truth, by which the church,.& pro-
worship services. As one of them put                                                      tected and built up.,`They have a re.al
it, "I would love to go, if only it had a    Clearly we are told that the decisions       authority  derived from the .Word of
different name." It was as though            of ecclesiastical bodies are "settled        God, and greater than that which
someone somewhere had decided for            and binding." But why, and what              ecclesiastical decisions ever possess.
them that attendance at our services         does this mean?                                  Nevertheless, ecclesiastical deci-
was not to be allowed. Mr. Janssen               To begin with, it certainly does         sions do have an authority too, a
explained that in their understanding        not mean that such ecclesiastical deci-      "binding" that is real.
of the Articles 28 and 29 of the Belgic      sions have the kind of authority which           In order to understand this, par-
Confession, there canbe only one true        is hadbyscripture.  Beinginspiredby          ticularly as it obtains within the Prot-
church in one place. Thus, if there is       God (2 Tim. 3:16), and forming, as it        estant Reformed Churches, it is per-
a true church in a community, any            does, the foundation upon which the          haps best. to go back to a sermon
other which is not in a relationship         church of God is built (Eph. 2:20), the      which Rev. Hoeksema preached in
with that church, or recognized by it,       Bible has an authority which is com-         1940 concerning the counsel at Jerusa-
must be false, and must be treated as        plete and final in itself. Luther's-ex-      lem,.as stated in Acts. 1528, "For it
such.                                        clamation, "One must let the Word            seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and
     That may be what they believe;          stand," was at the heart of the great        to us..." in which he said:.
but they have to understand what             Reformation, and it holds still. With-                                                    .-
that means. They accuse us of "bind-         out it one is neither Protestant nor           This gathering, which  was held about
ing the consciences" of people. But          Reformed. It is as the apostles saidin         theyearA.D.50, has sometimesbeen-
when they impose judgments like the          Acts 5:29, "We ought to obey God               called the first synod. But this is
above on their own churches, then            rather than men." The authority of            hardly correct. For, first of. all, we
their accusation against us has a hol-       Scripture is direct and final in a way       may remark that there can hardly ' .
low ring. Even more - and apart              that ecclesiastical decisions never arei       have been room for a synodical  gath;
                                                                                            ering as long as the apostles still
from their interpretation of Articles            And, for that matter, in away that        lived. They were directly guided by
28,and29,whichIfindprettystrained            the creeds never are. The creeds have         the Spirit. They had authority over
- once they have proclaimed us a             an authority, but it is not like that         all the churches. And the apostolic
"false church," how much room is left        which the Scriptures possess, al-              authority was final. As long as the
for open and free conversation? Con-         though it derives from it. The creeds          apostles lived, therefore, there was
versing parties don't have to agree;         contain the fruits of the work of the         neither need of, nor occasion for,.a
but they do have torespect each other,       Spirit within the church as through           synod. Nor was the constituency of
or there is very little possibility of       the ages children of God,have studied         that gathering such that it could be
mutual profit. And when they make            the Bible and from it elicited truths         called a synod. `The latter is always, a
                                                                                          representative gathering. Its mem-
the judgments they have, without ever        which God has made known to man.              bers are delegated and receive their
having tried to hear us out, their de-       These were in due time formulated            commission from the churches that
sire to talk again has also a rather         with the greatest of care, and set forth      delegate them. But the meeting at `.
hollow ring.                                 in confessions or creeds as. expres-         : Jerusalem. was constituted -of the.
    But let's take this matter of "bind-     sions of the faithin  which the churches     . . apostles, and others of the church at
ing." Is the Declaration of Principles       are commonly agreed. And from that           Jerusalem,  tog&er  .with Paul and
that? Or, even more basically, are the       their authority derives. It is not `final     Barnabas, who. had been sent by the I
doctrines expressed in it "binding"          andinfallible; one doesn't exegete the        church of Antioch and who  repre-

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  ,  sente,d more particularly the church     God, and they are to be dealt with            Liberated Church (which had been
 " among ihe Gentile'~.  Hence, we may                            .
                                              only on the basis of the principles           strangely silent for more than a year
   more properly chtiacterize  this gath-     which the Scriptures provide. Thus            in making contact with our churches
 ' `ering as a convent under the direct
   @dance of the apostles....                 their decisions have authority, an            as mandated by their synod in 1948)
                                              authority based not on the assembly           took them into their confidence as
This sermon was important, intro-             itself, but on that of the Scriptures         though they did speak for our
ducing as it did a significant juncture       upon which their decisions are made.          churches, with the result that, from
in our history as churches, the begin-        The authority is real, but not a direct       what was said, Prof. Holwerda drew
ning of, our first synod (and thus a          authority such as the Scriptures pos-         the conclusion that the Protestant
sermon which ought to be repub-               sess, nor even that of the creeds which       Reformed Churches had no estab-
lished and restudied regularly [SF            have been elicited through years of           lished covenant view, that this was
vol. 40, pp. 412-4173).  It set the course    study by the broad body of the Re-            simply a matter of individual opin-
and put forth the principles by which         formed faith. It is an authority like         ion, and that many of our men were
our ecclesiastical functions have been        that with which the Church Order              inclined to the Liberatedview as well.
governed ever since. On the prin;             delineates its own limitation in its          This simply was not so.
ciples expressed in it our first synod        closing article:                                   In actuality the Protestant Re-
was organized; and in its own way it                                                        formed Churches had always held a
provides the presuppositions, the               These  artides, relating to the lawful      distinct view of the covenant from
common "binding" principles, on                 order of the church, have been so           their very origin as churches. In fact,
                                                draftedandadoptedbycommoncon-
which we committed `ourselves to                                                            it may well be argued that our cov-
                                                se&, that they (if the profit of the
stand.                                          `chtiches  demand otherwise) may            enant view was even more basic to
   The sermon began with a wam-                 and ought to be altered, augmented          our churches than was the rejection of
ing- a warning against undue pre-               and diminished (Article 86).                Common Grace. It preceded it, hav-
sumption on the part of ecclesiastical                                                      ing been presented already by Rev.
gatherings. They must understand              The authority of the church order,            Danhof in a lecture given in 1918; and
that they are not something in them-          and of the decisions made under it, is        thereafter all of our doctrinal posi-
selves. Already their existence is not        that of a "common consent." By rea-           tions - including our rejection of
direct but derivative. They are not           son of a common commitment to the             Common Grace-were developed in
instituted as such in Scripture, but          faith, various,parts  of the church of        close harmony with, and on the basis
receive their authority from the only         God come together in these assem-             of it. In no sense was it simply the
continuing body, the body of elders           blies to assist, strengthen, and correct      presupposed regeneration view of
given to teach and rule the church            each other in the faith. There is noth-       AbrahamKuyper (as some to this day
through the use of God's Word. This           ingdirectly  inspired about the man-          continue simplistically to claim), nor
responsibility belongs in the first place     ner in which they work; it is simply a        was it the secessionist view of a gen-
to the local church, but it also includes     matter of "common consent" under              eral covenantal promise (which
a need to seek and work for the well-         the word, by which also they agree to         strained certain basic principles of
being of the church of God generally.         abide, to be bound - "unless it be            the Reformed faith), nor was it devel-
And assembling with others of the             proved to conflict with the Word of           oped simply in opposition to these. It
same calling is a natural and proper          God or with the articles of the church        was in itself a positive approach to the
way in which this is to be done. This         order, as long as they are not changed        covenant of grace which brought into
is their institution-not direct, but in       by a general synod." And in case this         harmony and held together all of the
derivation from what is set forth, by         latter be so, the Church Order itself         basic tenets of Reformed truth. For us
the Word of God.                              provides the means by which such              it was important enough to warrant
    And so is the authority of their          proof can be given, and correction            the acceptance of our ejection from
decisions. It too is not direct, an           made.                                         our mother church.
authority coming forth from the as-               This, accordingly, is the nature of           Now apparently the Reverends
semblies as such, but .derivative, re-        the authority, or the "binding," of the       DeJong and Kok did not understand
ceived from the Scriptures in which           DecZurution  ofPrinciples  m'the  Protes-     this. Or, what is perhaps more likely,
they work, as Article 30 of the Church        tant Reformed Churches.                       knowing the sensitivity of the Liber-
Order, expresses it: "ecclesiastical              The fact is that in 1959  our synod       ated theologians on covenant con-
matters only shall be transacted and          was confronted with a problem, one            cepts, they thought it best to present
thatinanecclesiasticalmanner.~' What          that arose.in  a large part from the visit    it as though this were not so. After all,
this clearly indicates is that only such      made by the Reverends  K.ok and               they could argue, no specific decision
matters are to be dealt with in these         DeJongto  theNetherlands.  Although           had ever been made adopting the
assemblies as are properly placed in          they were in no position to speak for         Danhof /Hoeksema  covenant view;
the hands of the kldersby the Word of         our churches, the committee of the            and there were indeed some of our
                                      i                                                     men who were ready to look at some-

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thing else. But underneath they cer-        explaining that we did have our con-         they thought right, as long as they
tainly knew better. After all, would        cerns for particular grace, and that         understood what was to be preached
anyone imagine that after 1944 one          they could expect to hear things which       and taught within our churches, and
might go about the Liberated churches       might well jar with certain Liberated        which could not be agitated against,
proclaiming the virtues of Kuyperian        concepts. We wanted to be kind, and          thus causing division and schism
presupposed regeneration, and that          we didn't want to presume that these         within the church. After all, convic-
this wouldbe accepted? Or could one         differences couldn't be worked out           tiondoesn'tcomebyimposition,only
e$pect that after 1924 one would be         between us; but we also had to be            by studyin the Word under the bless-
a&wed in the Protestant Reformed            honest as to what they would hear in         ing of the Spirit - which was what
$&urches  to preach the doctrine of         our preaching.                               our covenant view was all about. We
C$mmon Grace, concerning which                  And then came Prof. Holwerda's           were simply laying out in open view
ng specific decision had ever been          letter, telling them in effect that it       the principles which by "common
$&en either? History in the end has         wasn't so. That left us with a prob-         consent" had been established and
&lessons;  and Kok and DeJong cer-          lem. Some understood full well the           were accepted among us; and which
ta&ly knew that one would not be            depth of our commitment to our cov-          anyone joining our churches could
allowed openly to teach the Liberated       enant view, while others were saying,        expect to hear taught and preached.
view of the covenant in the Protestant      also now of our own men, that we had         This had always been understood and
Reformed Churches. But they said            no such view at all, which wasn't true.      said, except that now necessity re-
what they did; and, whatever it was,        This simply couldn't be allowed to go        quired that it be drawn up and duly
it led Prof. Holwerda to the conclu-        on. For good reason, therefore, and          adopted so that all might understand
sion that such a thing was quite pos-       properly so, those who were in charge        what by "common consent" had al-
sible, and that he could therefore ad-      of the church-extension efforts of our       ways been "binding" within every
vise those joining'our  churches to do      churchesbrought the matter to synod.         Protestant Reformed Church -just
just that. But it wasn't so; and now        It was a simple matter of honesty to         as in any ecclesiastical decision is in
something  hadto be done about it.          those with whom we were working,             any Reformed church.
        Before the Holwerda letter we       as well as to those who were develop-            But, in the end, it wasnotthis'that
had tried to go slowly and carefully.       ing mistaken ideas within our own            caused the breakdown of relation-
To Dr. Schilder already, and through        churches. There was no desire or             ships between the Liberated and the
him to his colleagues in the Nether-        intent to thwart discussion; in fact, an     Protestant Reformed Churches. It
lands, we had tried to explain that         honest and open discussion of the            went back much earlier, and. much
there were things that had to be dealt      diverse covenant views was some-             farther than that.
with. But now they rushed ahead             thing we had wanted all along. Nor               But this must wait. And, mean-
with a decision to seek sister-church       was it an effort on our part to force       while, if there are any who feel that
relations without including any pro-        people to believe what they didn't          what I have said.is not quite correct,
visions to work out these doctrinal         want. The Liberated people with             we would appreciate hearing from
differences. Meanwhile also, when           whom we worked were repeatedly              you.  cl
working with the actual immigrants          assured that they might believe what
in Canada, we put great effort into




Denominational Activities                   Elk Grove Village, IL addressed those       zine is one of about 2,500 that are sent
                                            gathered there on the very informa-         out each month to a total of 21 differ-
        On the evening of September 21      tive and timely subject of "The Suffer-     ent countries; that presently no Stan-
the annual Fall League Meeting of the       ing of the Church in Connection with        dard Bearers  are being sent anywhere
Mr. & Mrs. and Adult Bible Societies        Aids."                                      in South America; and that there are
of West Michigan was held at the                The Reformed Free Publishing            only five states in the United States to
Hudsonville, MI PRC. Rev. R. Van            Association of our churches, publish-       which no copies of the SB are being
Overloop, pastor of the Bethel PRC in       ers of this very magazine, met for          sent.
                                            their annual meeting on the evening              The Men's and Ladies' Society of
                                            of September 30 at the Hudsonville,         the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI
                                            MI PRC to hear Rev. G. VanBaren             served as this year's  host for the an-
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant    speak on the subject, "The Standard         nual Eastern Men's and Ladies'
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-      Burr." You might also be interested         League Meeting on September 28.
gan.                                        to know that your copy of this maga-        Rev. W. Bruinsma spoke.on the topic,

94lStandard  Bearer /November 15,1553


"The New Age Movement and Enter-                A program was held on October          up of single, post-confession young
tainment."                                  8 in Hull, IA PRC commemorating            people, as well as young married
    The Ladies' Society of the Hull,        their pastor's (Rev. R. Moore's) 25        couples.
IA PRC hosted their area Fall League        years in the ministry.
Meeting on October 15. Rev. Moore               And we want to send our con-           School Activities
addressed the ladies on "The New            gratulations also to Rev. and Mrs.                One more anniversary should be
International Version of the Bible."        M. Dick, of the Immanuel PRC of            noted for this issue -the 25th anni-
    This fall and winter, the Lord          Lacombe, AB, Canada, who were              versary of Covenant Christian High
willing,,Prof.  D. Engelsma will teach      blessed, on August 31, with the birth      SchoolinGrandRapids,MI.  Thed@
a class in the study of the doctrine of     of their first daughter, Elisabeth Ann.    long event was held on September%.
the last things, or Eschatology. Plans          The Consistory of the Loveland,        Activities included a golf  out&g,
originally called for classes to be held    CO PRC planned a farewell program          three-on-threebasketball  tournam@Xt,
on alternate Wednesdays at the semi-        for Rev. and Mrs. R. Cammenga and          a homerun  derby, and assorted&e-
nary; but, because of overwhelming          their family on September 10th. Ex-        tivities for children. This was all t&d
response, classes after the first week      actly two weeks later the congrega-        together that evening by a short p$o-
were held in the larger Fellowship          tion of the Southwest PRC in               gram. Rev. C. Terpstra, a Covenant
Room of the Faith PRC in Jenison, MI.       Grandville, MI (the Cammengas' new         graduate, was the featured speaker.
                                            home), hosted a welcome reception                 The PR School Society in
                                            for the family. A short program and        Randolph, WI met in mid-September
Congregational Highlights                   refreshments were provided. At that        and authorized the Board to hire an
    The Randolph, WI PRC celebrated         welcome program Rev. Cammenga              architect (a necessary step in order to
their 50th anniversary almost two           called his wife to the platform to in-     gain state approval for the remodel-
months ago. But let me say a couple         troduce her, and to thank her publicly     ing project and building of class-
of things about it yet in this issue.       for all her work in packing and get-       rooms) and toproceedwith the project
First, Randolph did an outstanding          ting them moved. After presenting          barring any unforeseen and unusual
job on their 50th anniversary booklet       his wife a bouquet of flowers, Rev.        expenses.
entitled,  50 Years  of  God's Faithful-    Cammenga introduced each of his
ness. It includes 35 pages of the his-      children - all ten! The first Sunday       Ministerial Calls
tory of Randolph PRC, with repeated         after Rev. Cammenga's installation at             The congregation of Loveland,
reminders of God's blessing and faith-      Southwest, he preached on "The Im-         CO PRC extended a call to Rev. W.
fulness. And secondly, we note that         portance of Preaching" and "PrayFor        Bruinsma, presently serving in First
their commemoration of God's faith-         Me."                                       PRC, Holland, MI to become their
fulness extended also to both wor-              Rev. W. Bruinsma, with the ap-         next pastor. With Rev. Bruinsma on
ship services on Sunday, when their         proval of his consistory, has started      the trio were the Revs. Dykstra and
pastor,Rev. S.Key,preachedonIsaiah          another society at First PRC in Hol-       Gritters.  0
13:21 ("Formed for God's Praise")           land, MI. This society will be made
andHebrews2:1-4("GivingtheMore
Earnest Heed").
    While on the subject of anniver-                                    Church Etiquette
                                                                                         L
saries, congratulations should alsobe
extended to the Byron Center, MI                We read the following item that        told our physician, who happens to
PRC, which marked ten years of ex-          should be of interest also in our          be our neighbor and stepped into our
istence on October 10. This event was       churches which often suffer from a         home, that we had been coughing for
commemoratedbyasermonentitled,              lack of proper church manners. We          several weeks and. nothing we had
"God's Great Faithfulness," based on        quote:                                     tried for relief would stop it. He
Lamentations 3:22-23. Therealsowas              "This is the time of the year when     asked: `What do you raise? We
a short program after the evening           much coughing is a disturbing factor       answered: `Nothing.' He replied,
service.                                    in public worship. How strange that        `Then stop coughing. That membrane
                                            so few of us use our handkerchiefs to      is irritated and every time you cough
                                            muffle our barks. We do not seem to
            Food-for 2ibght:                                                           you make it worse.'We stopped then
                                            realize that every time we emit a loud     and there, with an occasional lapse,
                                            explosion those who sit near us lose       and the inclination to cough was prac-
    Many Christians call God their          the sound of the words spoken at that      tically gone in a day. This may not be
    Father, and act as orphans.             moment. They may be the key words          applicable to all who cough in church
              The  Standard Bearer,         in the sentence. In most cases the         but we are persuaded that it does
                      April  1,1963.        cough is not necessary; we cough           apply to many." Any unnecessary
                                            because others do. The other day we        noise in church and during services

                                                                                              November 15,1553/Standd  Bearer%


                                                                                                                 SECOND CUSS
                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                 Grandvile, Michigan
        P. 0. Box 603
        Grandville, MI 49468-0603


should be avoided. Putting on our
 : "
wraps during any part of the services                                      Joy andPeace  in !%eCieUing
d`r while singing the doxology should
b& `taboo. If one is late for services                                                      It can bring with it nothing
s$ch a one should not look around for             Sometimes a light surprises                   But he will bear us thro';
a$eat while the minister is reading                    The Christian while he sings;        Who gives the lilies clothing
Scripture. Wait quietly until the read-           It is the Lord who rises                      Will clothe his people too:
ing is finished. If you don't, you                     With healing in his wings:           Beneath the spreading heavens,
disturb others who are following the
reading of the Word of God. If there              When comforts are declining,                  No creature but is fed;
is a disturbance such as the crying of                 He grants the soul again             And he who feeds the ravens
ababyinchurch,don'tlookaroundto                    A season of clear shining                    Will give his children bread.
see whose baby it is and who or what                   To cheer it after rain.
is the cause of the disturbance. First                                                      Though vine, nor fig tree nei-
you embarrass the mother of such a                In holy contemplation,                          ther,
baby, secondly you are missing part                    We sweetly then pursue                  Their wonted fruit should
of the service yourself, and thirdly               The theme of God's salvation,                  bear,
you disturb the minister who likes to                  And find it ever new:                Tho' all the fields should wither,
have the people looking at him and                 Set free from present sorrow,
not looking in all directions of the                                                           Nor flocks, nor herds, be
auditorium. And above all don't sleep                  We cheerfully can say,                     there:
during the service, for then youmight             E'en let th' unknown tomorrow             Yet God the same abiding,
as well stay home and go to bed,                       Bring with it what it may.              His praise shall tune my
seeing you get nothing out of the                                                                 voice;
services and you are a constant source                                                      For while in him confiding,
of irritation to others.                                                                        I cannot but rejoice.
                         The  Standard Bearer                                                                    William Cozupfzr
                           Volume 22, no. 12


        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
         The Sr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of
the Southwest Protestant Reformed
Church expresses its sincerest sym-
pathy to its fellow members, Mr. and               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
Mrs. Al DeYoung and Mr. and Mrs.                     The Adult Bible Study Society of
Phil Kraima, in the death of their fa-           Southeast Protestant Reformed                RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
ther,                                            Church expresses Christian sympa-              The church family of Byron Cen-
            MR. TED ENGELSMA.                    thy to members Mrs. Martha Velting,        ter Protestant Reformed Church ex-
May our gracious heavenly Father                 Mr. and Mrs. Richard Kamminga, and         presses their heartfelt Christian sym-
comfort them by His most holy Word,              Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Kamminga in           pathy to Mr. and Mrs. Duane Gunnink
"The Lord is nigh unto all them that call        the passing to her heavenly home of        and family in the death of his mother,
upon him, to all that call upon him in           their mother,                                    HENRlElTA GUNNINK.
truth. He will fulfill the desire of them             MRS. MARY KAMMINGA.                       May they be comforted with the
that fear him: he also will hear their           May they be comforted by the words         knowledge of the words of Psalm
cry,andwillsavethem"(Psalm  145:18,              of Philippians 1:21, "For to me to live    116:15,  "precious in the sight of the
19).                                             is Christ, and to die is gain."            Lord is the death of his saints."
                          Rog Key, President                 Rev. D. Kuiper, President                      Ruth Elzinga, Secretary
                Roderick Kreuzer, Vice-All           Miss Audrey Reitsma, Secretary                        Adult Bible Study Society

96IStandard  Bearer/November 15,1993


