                        -- ------.--                                                       I





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                   i        I                                                                   -

                                                                 See "Spirit of Sonship" - p. 363

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Vol. 70, No. 16
May 15`1994


                                                                                                                                                                                               TFlE
     CONTENTS:                                                                                                         May  15,  1994                                                        Sjf'j,f'j,D)'
I                                                                                                                                                         I                                   Bc4RER
     Meditation - Herman Hoeksema
             Spirit of Sonship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.......................................... 363
     Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                         ISSN 0362-4692
             The Nose of the Camel (5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*...........*.................***..... 365                                    Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
     All Around Us - Prof. Robert  D. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367               Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
     Special Articles                                                                                                                                            4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Second Class
                                                                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
       Essentials and Non-essentials                                                                                                                             Poatmutar: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                     in Missions - Rev. Wayne Bekkering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369                          P.O. Box 663, Grandville, MI 494666663.
             A Critique                                                                                                                                          EDtTORlAL  COMMR-TEE
                     of Modern Church-Growth (2) - Rev. Charles J. Terpstra . . . . . . 370                                                                      Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
     Contribution - Rev. Rodney G. Miersma                                                                                                                       Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                 Managing Editor: Mr. Con Doezema
             No Creed but Christ? . . . ..*..........................................*.................*..                                          372          DEPARTMENT EDITORS
     A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                Rev. Wilbur Sruinsma. Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
             Peter Datheen: Father of Reformed Liturgy (1)                                                                                                       Decker, Rev. Arie dsnHartog, Rev. Berry Grttters,  Rev. Cad
                                                                                                                                                                 Haak, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
                     The Reformation in the Netherlands . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..**.................** 375                                                 Heys, Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Date Kulper, Mr. James Larding,
     Guest Article - Mr. Don R. Doezema                                                                                                                          Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MarySeth Lubbers, Rev. Thomas
                                                                                                                                                                 Miersma, Rev. Audrsd Spriensma, Rev. Charles Terpstra.
             Domestic Mission Committee Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*..s............ 377                                          Rev. GlseVanSaren,  Rev. RonaldVanGverlwp,  Mr. Senjamln
     Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..............I..........................  380    Wiggsrr  Rev. Bernard Woudsnberg.
     News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wgger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382                                             EDtTORtAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wlgger
                                                                                                                                                                 4949 Ivanrest                6 6 9 7            4tlthAve.
                                                                                                                                                                 Grandville, MI 49416         Hudsonville, Ml 49426
                                                                                                                                                                 BUSINESS OFFtCE              NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer' The Stahdard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                         1       Don Coezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
                                                                                                                                                                 P.O. Box 603                 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                 Grandville, MI               Wainuiomata. New Zealand
                                                                                                                                                                   49466.9633                 NORTHERN IRELAND OFFtCE
                                                                                                                                                                 PH: (616) 631-1499           c/o Mr. Jonathan McAulsy
                                                                                                                                                                          (616) 636-l 776     164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
             On Sunday, May 22, the Reformed churches that stand in the                                                                                          FAX:  (616) 631-3633         Baltymena, Co. Antrim ST42 3EL
                                                                                                                                                                                              Norlhem Ireland
     tradition of Dordt will commemorate Christ's sending of His Spirit to                                                                                       EDR'ORIAL POLtCY
                                                                                                                                                                 Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
     the church. Article 67 of the original church order of Dordt calls the                                                                                      articles. Contributions of general interestfrom our readers and
     churches to "observe . . . Pentecost."                                                                                                                      questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                                                                                                 Contributions will b-s limited to approximately 266 words end
       - A good way for the preacher to lead the congregation in this                                                                                            mustbensatlywrittenortypswrktan,andmustbesign~. Copy
                                                                                                                                                                 deadllnes are the first and  ftfteenth  of the month. All
     observance is to preach a sermon on the historical event in the m.orning                                                                                    communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
     service and a sermon on some aspect of the Spirit's work or benefit in the                                                                                  editorial office.                                         .'
     evening service.                                                                                                                                            REPRINT POLtCY
                                                                                                                                                                 Permissicnisherebygrantedforthereprlntihg'ofarticlesinour
             This event in the ministry of our Lord is worthy of such special                                                                                    magazinebyotherpublications,provideck  ajthatsuchrepdnted
     observance.                                                                                                                                                 articles are reproduced In full; b) that proper acknowfedgment
                                                                                                                                                                 is made: c) that a copy of the pariodlcal in which such reprint
             The threats to the faith from the modern charismatic movement                                                                                       appears is sent to cur ediiorial offtce.
     make sound instruction of the people of God concerning the Spirit and                                                                                       SUBSCRIPTION POMCY
                                                                                                                                                                 Subscription price: $12.66 par year in the U.S., $15.69
     His work urgent.                                                                                                                                            elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance Is
         -. Several articles in this issue of the StundardBeavertreat of the Spirit.                                                                             received, It is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                 subscrtptiontowntlnue,andhewillbebllladforrenawal. lfyou
     The meditation views Him as the Spirit of adoption who works in us the                                                                                      haveachangeofaddress,pleasenottfytheEusinsssOttlcsas
                                                                                                                                                                 earty as possible In order to avoid the inconvenience of
     assurance of our being children of God. The contribution by Rev.                                                                                            interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
     Rodney Miersma ascribes to the Spirit, as Spirit of truth, the production                                                                                   ADVERTISING POLICY
     of the churches' creeds. The secretary of the Domestic Mission Commit-                                                                                      The SfandarciBearerdoes  not accept commercial advertislng
                                                                                                                                                                 of any kind. Announcements of church and school evsnts,
     tee of the Protestant Reformed Churches reports on mission labors and                                                                                       anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
     plans that depend upon the Spirit as the one by whom the Son of God                                                                                         placed for a 63.60 fae. These should be sent to the Business
                                                                                                                                                                 Offtce and should be accompanied by the S3.Wfee.  Deadline
     gathers His church. The second segment of Rev. Charles Terpstra's                                                                                           for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
                                                                                                                                                                 date.
     critique of the modern church-growth movement subjects the "signs                                                                                           SOUND VOLUMES
     and wonders" aspect of the movement to criticism.                                                                                                           The Business Offtce  will accept standing orders for bound
       . x .The saints today, as always, must "try the spirits" (I John 4:l).                                                                                    coptesofthecurrantvdume. Suchordersarefilledasswnas
                                                                                                                                                                 possiMd efter complaticn of a volume year.
             The Spirit of God confesses Jesus Christ.
                                                                                                                                               - DJE             16mm mlcrofiim,  35mm microfilm and 166mm  microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                 article copies ere available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                 International.
     362lStandard  Bearer /May 15,1994


                            -,Spirit of Sonship

      For ye have not received the spirit of    bring us to God. He is no more with                Abba, Pater!
  bondage again to fear; but ye have re-        us. For He was raised from the dead.               In the original there is a repetition
  ceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby we     And He is exalted into the highest             of the same word, first in the
  cy,Abba,Fathq.  TheSpirit  itselfbeareth      glory, at the right hand of the Majesty        Chaldean, then in the Greek, both
  witness with our spirit, that we are the      in heaven, Lord of life and of death!          wordsmeaningsimply"Father;" The
  children of God.                              ThitherHemustdrawus.Formthence                 double phrase was probably a stand-
                      R o m a n s   8:15,16     He must reach out for us. For we               ingexpressionthathadgraduallybeen
              .                                 cannot reach out for Him. And He               adopted in that form by the early
      Blessed Spirit!                           did come, in the Spirit, to abide with         church. In the New Testament we
      It is through Him, the ParakIeet,         us forever, and to impart unto us              find that it is used by our Lord in the
  the Comforter, whom the Lord had              Himself in all the riches of His grace!        hour of His great agony in
  promised to send from the Father,                    So, through the Spirit He lives in      Gethsemane; in the sixth verse of
  and whom He poured forth into His             us.                                            Galatians 4, where it is said that God
  church on the day of the firstfruits,                Through the same Spirit we live         sent forth the Spirit of His Son into
  that we become heirs and partakers of         by His grace.                                  our hearts, and that it is He that cries,
  all the blessings of salvation!                      And, living by His grace, we do         Abba, Father; and here in the fifteenth
   `. He it is that imparts unto us the         mortify the deeds of the body, real&           verse of Romans 8, where believers
  fullness of Christ and all His benefits!      ing that we are debtors, not to the            are said to make this outcry under the
      Apart from Him we are children            flesh to live after the flesh, but to the      impulse of the Spirit of adoption.'
  of wrath, and lie in the midst of death,      Spirit to live after Him.                      Perhaps it was the fact that the Lord
  incapable of laying hold on the Christ               Mortifying the deeds of the body,       expressed Himself with this phrase in
  of God, the.bi&ings"  of forgiveness,         we know that we are the sons of God,           the hour of His suffering, coupled
eternal righteousness, the adoption             &i&en that are led by the Spirit of            with the circumstance that the early.
  unto children, freedom from all con;          God in the way of His good com-                church consisted of converts from
  dempation,  the everlasting love of           mandments.                                     Jews and Gentiles, that led toits adop-
  God,: eternallife  and glory.~  `For how             For the Spirit whom the church          tion as a standing expression, per-
  could we' possibly reach out for the          received on the glad day of Pentecost          haps even as aliturgicalformula used
  Ch&t and *His: fullness? He must              is the Spirit of the living Lord. He is        by the church.
  come to us. And in the. Spirit He             not a spirit of bondage again to fear,             Abba, Father!
  returned! He was with us for a little         but He is the Spirit of adoption,                  It is the strong and clear expres-
 while, in our death and in our misery.         whereby we cry, Abba, Father!                  sion of our sonship in relation to Go.d,
 While He was with us still;He tookall                 Thus, Spirit controlled, and Spirit     both in virtue of His gracious adop-
 our sicknesses and pains upon Him-             led, we receive the testimony through          tion, and by reason of our being born
 self, assumed the full burden of all           that same Spirit that we are the sons of       of Him.
 our sins and iniquities, and carried           God!                                               For we are, first of all, children by
 them all to the-accursed tree, there to               Blessed Spirit of the Lord!             adoption. By nature we are not chil-
 become obedient unto death, and to                        *  *  *  *  $  *  +
                                                 ~.                                            dren of God but children of wrath.
 descqndintolowest  hell, that Hemight                 Abba, Father!                           Because of our sin we are born as
                                                       In this outcry of faith, of love, of    exiles from God's home, wandering
                                                hope and longing, the church that is           about in darkness and under con-
                                     :          led by the Spirit expresses spontane-          demnation. We have no right to be
                                                ously her assurance of sonship. In it          called God's sons, no rightto dwellin
 This meditation by Herman Hoeksema,            they give testimony of their being             His house; no right to the enjoyment
 appeared in the SB 50 years ago,- June         conscious that they are the children of        of His blessed favor and of the plea-
 1,1944.                                        God.                                           sures that are at His right hand for

                                                                                                          May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer1353


evermore. But in pure grace He                      The apostle does not speak here           For through Him alone may tire
adopted us, bestowed on us the legal        of a possibility. He does not state a        carry this assurance of our sonship in
right to be called His sons, to be the      general doctrine: believers cry, Abba,       our hearts.
objects of Hislove  and favor, to dwell     Father! He does not put it in the form            It is not we that of ourselves cry,
in His fellowship, and to become heirs      of an admonition or exhortation. The         Abba, Father!
of the eternal inheritance in His heav-     matter is definite and personal: we,             How could we? Or what comfort
enly tabernacle. He forgives all our        the apostles, all believers, the whole       and blessedness would there be in
transgressions, and clothes us with         church of Christ .in. the world, cry,        this outcry of assurance and longing,
an eternalrighteousness through Jesus       Abba, Father!                                were it of ourselves? Are we, per-
Christ our Lord, all of pure grace,                 Is it true?                          haps, not deceiving ourselves in so
without any merit on our part.                      Dare we follow the apostle and       crying to God? Will He hear us and
    And the consciousness of this           adopt his bold statement in applica-         receiveus,andwillHe respond to our
adoption as children of God, of our         tion to ourselves?                           outcry? Do we, perhaps, too  auda-
full redemption, of the forgiveness, of        0, let us not forget, as we try to        ciouslyappropriate to ourselves what
sins, of our perfect righteousness be-      answer this question, that it is a cy        does not.belong  to us? Are we claim-
fore God, of His free and sovereign         that leaves our lips, that is pressed        ing a right which God does not seal?
everlasting love to us we express in        from our hearts, when we say, Abba,              Only when the outcry is divinely
this outcry: Abba, Father!                  Father!                                      wrought, only when it is but the ex-
    But there is more.                              To be sure, this means that the      pression of what God Himself impels
    For it is not only by adoption that     testimony concerning our  sonship is         us to cry, can there be the true assur-
we become children of God. In fact, it      expressed with fervency. It is strong,       ance of sonship in our hearts when we
would be impossible to lay hold on          powerful, clear. But it also implies         cry, Abba, Father!
this blessed adoption, or even to long      that it is made from the depths, by              And so it is.
for it .and to rejoice in its possession    those who, while they are conscious              For we have received the Spirit!
and assurance, if God did not, also         of their nearness to God, are yet far off        And the Spirit we have received
bestow upon `us and work within us          at the same time; as those who, while        is the real Author of this outcry, not
the wonder of grace whereby we are          they are assured of their sonship, yet       we ourselves. He it is that always
born of Him, His image is restored          look upon that sonship as something          cries, Abba, Father! He does so as the
within us, and we become sons of            that must still be realized, and the         Spirit of the Son in the adorable and
God in spiritual reality. But He real-      realization of which seems to lie in the     blessed Trinity. For in that Spirit the
izes the adoption in our hearts by          distant future; or as those who, while       Father eternally faces the Son saying:
making us partakers of His nature.          they are sons, yet are not sons; who,        My beloved Son; and the Son is'eter-
By nature we are not only devoid of         while they are righteous, yet are full       nally facing the Father, saying: Abba,
the right to be called children of God      of sin; who, while they live, yet lie in     Father. He does so as the Spirit. of
and to dwell in His house, but we are       the midst of death; who, while they          Christ in Christ Himself. For it is in
also enemies of God, minding the            are heirs of all things, are in posses-      that Spirit that He cried to the Father
things of the flesh, loving the dark-       sion of nothing. From the depths, out        in the days of His flesh and humilia-
ness rather than the light. We care not     of the midst of death, believers raise       tion; and it is in that same Spirit that
to dwell in God's house. Far from           their cry: Abba, Father!                     the Holy Child Jesus, now in the state
Him we wander and seek the good                  It is an outcry of the assurance of     of His exceeding glory, constantly
foolishly. But He reaches out into our      our adoption, and of the conscious-          turns to His God, crying, Abba, Father!
hearts, removes the darkness, roots         ness of our being children of God, but       It is in that same Spirit, the Spirit of
out the enmity, enlightens the mind,        then, it is still a c y!                     God as the Spirit of Christ poured
changes the refractory will, instills            A groan of hope!                        forth into the church, that believers in
into our hearts a new life, the life.of          A cry of longing for the perfect        this world lift up their hearts to the
the risen Lord, assures us of His love,     day!                                         God of their salvation in Christ Jesus
and causes us to love Him, to love His          For as yet we have but a small           their Lord, crying, Abba, Father!
precepts, to love the brethren, to long     beginning of the new obedience!                  For He is the Spirit of adoption!
for His fellowship, and to seek to be           Yet, the beginning is a principle.           He is not a spirit of bondage again
pleasing to Him.                                And by virtue of that principle          to fear.
    It is also the consciousness of this    we do sing with thepsalmist: As the              Such `a spirit controls those that
real, spiritual sonship, of this love to    hart panteth after .waterbrooks, so          are outside of the sphere and influ-
God and to one another, of this long-       longs our soul for Thee!                     ence of this Spirit. It is the spirit ofthe
ingfor His favor and fellowship, that           For Thee, the living God!                sinner that, instead of being filled
is expressed in the cry: Abba, Father!          Abba, Father!                            with the true reverence ~of love that
    We cry!                                             + *  $  *  *  +  `+              acknowledges that God is God and
    It is a matter of fact!                     Blessed Spirit of adoption!              that causes us to prostrate-ourselves

364Bandard  Bearer May 15,1994


before Him in true humility, proudly             fidence and joy that we are thesons of                          He it is that ingrafts us into Christ,
brings to Him the sacrifices of the              God. We can speak of our adoption                           and makes us partakers of His death
wicked, claiming the right to be ac-             from before the foundation of the                           and resurrection.
cepted of God on the basis of his own            world. For God adopted us to be His                             He it is that pours out the love of
goodness, his religiousness, his own             sons in His everlasting good plea-                          God into our hearts.
works, and thus becoming abomi-                  sure, when He chose us in Christ. We                            He bestows upon us all the ben-
nable in the sight of the Most High,             can speak of the objective realization                      efits of Christ.
and receiving the testimony of his               of our adoption through the death                               He makes us children of God!
condemnation and rejection in his                and resurrection of our Lord Jesus                              Blessed gift of the Spirit!
conscience.                                      Christ from the dead, for He was                                     *  *  *  *  *  *  *
    That is the spirit of bondage, that          delivered for our transgressions, and                           Sons of God!                                .
wouldworkfor Godasawageearner,                   raised for'our justification. The eter-                         Blessed assurance!
being a stranger to the freedom of               nal adoption of all the elect was objec-                        Blessed, because the assurance is
s o n s .                                        tively realized when Christ died for                        not of us, but is the response. to the
    And that is the spirit that always           our sins, and when God raised Him                           testimony of the same Spirit of adop-
fills with a slavish fear those that are         from the dead. And we may speak of                          tion, witnessing with our spirit that
possessedbyit;fortheyneverreceive                our adoption through faithbefore our                        we are the children of God!
the assurance of forgiveness andrigh-            own consciousness when we pros-                                 For the Spirit abides with us. And
teousness, essential to all confidence           trate ourselves in dust and ashes be-                       dwelling within us, He testifies con-
and joy.                                         fore the face of God with the prayer of                     stantly with our spirit concerning our
    But such is not the Spirit we have           the publican  in our hearts and upon                        sonship in relation to God. Not, in-
received.                                        our lips, and receive the testimony                         deed, as if there were two indepen-
    He is the Spirit of adoption, and,           that our sins are forgiven and that we                      dent testimonies, ours and His, coin-
therefore, the Spirit of true and per-           areclothedwitheverlastingrighteous-                         cidingwith each other, but so that the
fect liberty, the Spirit of forgiveness          ness; that God loved us and gave His                        Spirit of adoption, through the Word
and,iighteousness, the Spirit of the             Son for us; and that He raised Him                          of Christ in the Scriptures, works
love of God, in which there is neither           from the dead unto our personal jus-                        within us the personal assurance of
bondage nor fear.                                tification.                                                 our adoption and sonship, and thus
    He is the Spirit of adoption in the                            It isin the last sense that the Spirit    becomes the ground of the witness of
sense that He serves the cause of our            of Christ poured out into the church is                     our own spirit!
adoption, so that He realizes our adop-          the Spirit of adoption, whereby we                              Thus we are assured of our
tion unto' children of God unto us,              cry,`Abba,  Father!                                         sonship by God's own testimony!
and causes us to possess it, and to be.                            He it is that brings us to a,true             And we have confidence to cry:
assured of it, and to rejoice in it, and         knowledge and consciousness of our                          Abba, Father! 0
to live in the consciousness and con-            sin and guilt before the face of God.                                                                       ;.
  `7;                                                   _I
                                                   ,                                                                                 ,     `
                                                                                                                                           .     .     .           _

  l~aM&j~ii
         d     _     .g                          '  :  `
                                                              I





                The Nose of the  CzOnel (5)

                                            I                                                                                                                           I

    This series of editorials gives a            in the Netherlands allowing partici-                        government,  Gerefomeerd   Kerknicht,
warning. TheapprovalbyaReformed                  pation by women at the congrega-                            Dr. Bouwman  demonstrated that the
church of women voting at the con-               tional meeting as voting members.                           election of officebearers at the con-
gregational meeting permits the nose                               In support of this warning, the           gregational meeting is `<an exercise of
of the camel of feminism to enter the            previous editorial began quoting the                        church-rule." ,He went on.to show
ecclesiastical tent. The occasion for            esteemed Dutch Reformed theolo-                             from  1. Corinthians  11:1-16;' I
thewaming is the recent decision by              gian, Dr. H. Bouwman. In his au-                            Corinthians 14:34,35,  and I Timothy
the"`liberated"  Reformed Churches               thoritative'work on Reformed church                         211, 12 that the apostle of Christ

                                                                                                                      May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer/365


forbids women to rule in the church.            that only the men occupy the pulpit              ~ served thepeoplewithhercounselin
     We pick up the quotation of Dr.            as teacher in the gatherings of the                 a time of confusion, and encouraged
Bouivman where, having finished his             congregation. This thought is  con-                 Barak to fight, who himself lacked
: explanation of I Corinthians llA-16,          firmedinITimothy2:11,12:  "Letthe                   thegodlyinspirationbefore  thecom-
`he turns to I Corinthians 14 and I             woman learn in silence with all sub-                bat with Israel's enemies; but also in
Timothy 2. The quotation is taken               jection. But I suffer not a woman to                these cases the pious women came
                                                teach, nor to usurp authority over
from volume 1 of                                                                                    forward as the help of the men. So
                            Gereformeerd        the man, but to be in silence." The                 Scripture has taught us; SW also the
Kerkrecht, pages 386-394. The transla-          public teaching in church by the                    Christian church has grasped the
tion of this untranslated workis mine.          womanisincompatiblewith  theobe-                    thought of Scripture. Therefore,
                                                dience which she owes to the man.                   when the mission-group became a
     Starting from this principle, it isto      Paul gives two reasons why the                      fully instituted church, and the free
  be understood that Paul is not will-          woman may not occupy the pulpit as                  Word died out, the.ininishy  of the
   ing that the woman step forward in           teacher,andmustcontentherselfwith                   Word was bound to the bearers of
   the congregation as, teacher. Origi-         hearing and being silent. The first is              the office; and only the man, called to
   nally, the congregationcame together         that Adam was first created and then                this officeby the congregation, might
   in private homes, in the houses of           Eve. Eve was added to Adam as a                     occupy `the pulpit as teacher. The
   influential members of the congre-           help, in order to be his support and                woman performed ministries of help
 gation (Acts 246; 1222;  Rom. l&3-             his completion, and to be mother of                 in the apostolic age (Acts 1212;  Rom.
   15), where anyone who wished could           the human race. And, therefore, the                 16:2; Phil. 42, 3; I Tim. 5:9), espe-
   come forward and bring the Word.             woman would act in contradiction to                 cially in the area of mercy, but of `an
   Also gifted women, who supposed              her destiny, or purpose, if she were                exercise of a church-office, Scripture
  themselves to be sealed by the Holy           to occupy the pulpit publicly as a                  never speaks.
  Spirit, let their testimony be heard.         teacher. And. in the                                                 Undoubtedly, Scrip-
  This gave occasion to disorder; and,          second place, she may                       I                   ture would have given an
  therefore, Paul warned the women              not preach, because the                                         indication, if it was the
  to know their place rightly; and, fi-         woman was first in the                Only if                   intention that also the
  nally, he forbade their coming for-           transgression;  and she             the place                   woman must participate
  ward to teach in the assembly of the          became the first tempt-                                         in the election of office-
  congregation.                                 ress. Therefore, the fe-         of the woman                  bearers. But from the fact
     He says in I Corinthians 14:34,35:         male Christian accepts                and her                   that Scripture `expressly
  "Let your women keep silence in the           even more willingly the           relationship                  forbids that the woman
  churches: for it is not permitted unto        subjection to her hus-                                          may teach in the worship
  them to speak; but they are com-              band, which is already             to the man                   services or may partici-
  manded to be under obedience, as              grounded in the cre-             is overlooked                 patein  the discussionand
  also saith the law; And if they will          ation-order.                     can it be said                 from the fact that Stip-
  learn any thing, let them ask their             Now if Scripture so                                           tureiswhollysilentabout
  hu&ands  at home: for it is a shame           decisively condemns            tha.t the exercise               any participation'of  the
  fbr women to speak in the church."            the  woman's coming               of .the right                women in the electiomof
  Although Paul is not willing to sup-          forward in the congre-              of voting                  officebearers, we are able
  press the prophetic gifts, he empha-          gation' to teach, to par-                                      with more.right  to con-
  sizes that the woman, neither in              ticipate in the discus-          in the church                elude that. the women
  Corinth nor in other congregations,           sion, and to ask ques-                niust be                 maynotparticipateinthe
  maycomeforwardtobringtheWord,                 tions, on the ground of             bestowed                   election of officebearers
  whether that be as a teacher or as a          thecreation-order, how                                         than that this should be
  participant in the discussion. She            could it ever then be           on the woman.                  permitted her.
  may not even take the floor under the         supposed to be in har-                                               This is even more
  pretext of raising questions and re-          mony with Scripture                                            compelling, because par-
  ceiving insight in these matters. If          that the woman partici-                                        ticipation in the election
  she desires instruction, she has her          patein the elect&of officebearers at                of officebearers is not a matter of
  natural teacher in her husband. This          a congregational meeting?                           advising the consistory, but cooper-
  regulation, that the women must keep            The taskof  the woman, then, is not               ating in the rule of the church. This
  silent in the congregation, is not            tostandintheforefrontofthefiercely                  is denied by many, e.g., Dr. H.
  `merely a persqnal opinion of the             agitated sea of mankind, to give di-                Bavincliand  Rev. C. Lindeboom, but
  apostle; but he is conscious that he is       rection in the difficult storm of life,'            incorrectly. According to  the  man-
  `guided in his writing by the Spirit of       but to develop her powers and gifts                 ner of electing officebearers that is
  God; and therefore  thpse in Corinth          in the background. Her destiny lies                 followed at present, the consistory
 whq claim to be prophetic and spiri-           in her being a help, a mother. In                   presents a number of capable and
  tual men can prove this no better           : extraordinary times, a gifted woman                 qualified peTsons  to the. congrcga;
  thanbyrecognizingthtittheapostle's            can sometimes be called to inspire                  tion; and-those who are chosen by
regulations are God's command-                  the people as prophetess and, when                  thecongregationaretheninstalledin
  ments (see I Cor. 14~37 - DJE).               the men sleep and are unfaithful, to                office by the consistory, *agreeably
    Therefore, Paul lays down this rule,        giveleadership. Thisis howDeborah                   to the form," unless preponderant

366lStandard  Bearer /May  15,1994


   objections are brought against those          the man is overlooked can it be said        congregational meeting touches the
   who are chosen. The congregation,             that the exercise of the right of voting    headship  of the husband directly.
   thus, cooperates in the rule of the           in the church must be bestowed on           Now Mrs. VanDerSmithsma  stands
   church, at the election of office-bear-       the woman.                                  up in the official, public gathering of
   ers; and this is exactly what is not            Practically speaking, the question
   permitted to the woman.                       of the women's right to vote in the         the congregation to debate with her
       The argument that the members of          church is of very little importance in      own husband. Her husband may
   the congregation only exercise the            the Reformed churches, because al-          well be Elder VanDer  Smithsma  or
   right of voting by virtue of the office       most not a single woman desires the         Pastor VanDer  Smithsma. Having
   of believer, and that, therefore, the         exercise of the right to vote in the        refuted her husband's position on
   woman is deprived of her rights, if           church.                                     some issue, she will sit down to cancel
   the consistory addresses itself in the          The rule ought to remain in the           out her husband's vote for a nominee
   election of officebearers only to the         Reformed churches that only.male            for office by her own contrary vote.
   men, has weight only if it is firmly          members are fit to cooperate in elec-           As a matter of principle, it is as
   established according to the Word of          tion to the offices in the church.
   God that the right of voting belongs                                                      objectionable to the Reformedchurch
   to believers as such. But then it               Thus far, Dr. H. Bouwman.                 andtheReformedbelieverthatwomen
   would also follow from this that the            Bouwman's remark at the end,              vote at the congregational meeting as
   woman must occupy an equal place            that the question of the woman's vot-         it is that women become preachers
   in the church in every respect. And         ing is of little' importance because          and elders. Practically, of course, it is
   then one would come into conflict                                                         easier to accept women voting at the
   with the Holy Scripture which in-           Reformed women have no desire to              congregational meeting. The congre-
   deed gives to the woman, just as to         vote, first makes one smile and then          gational meeting is relatively infre-
   theman,fellowshipintheLordChrist            makes one weep. This could have               quent andobscureincomparisonwith
   ,and in all His riches and gifts but        been written in the Reformed
   with this, however, does not award          churches worldwide in 1928. What              a woman in the pulpit and in corn-
   her the right of teaching and ruling.       has happened to God's church in the           parison  with women in the elders'
   And just as the right to vote in the        past 65 years?                                bench every Sunday. But the prin-
   public, political realm does not fol-           But Bouwman's explanation is              ciple is the same: Women rule in the
   low from a natural right, but is a                                                        church in defiance of the authority of
   positive right, a right that is granted,    the Reformed view of the congrega-            Jesus Christ as expressed in Holy
   so also the right of voting in the          tional meeting: The congregational            Scripture.
   congregation does not follow from           meeting is government. It &ves the                For this reason; we are called to
   the office of believer to all without       Reformed stand on women voting at             resist the nose of the camel.
   distinction.                                the congregational meeting: Women
       Something else is the case with the     voting is forbidden.                              The reason is not that we dislike
   so-called approbation, with the right           Women voting at the congrega-             the certain prospect of sharing our
   of approval. of the acts of the             tional meeting is the nose of the camel       tent with the whole camel, although
   consistory, or with the right to bring      of feminism in the church tent.               we do dislike this prospect intensely.
   objectionstoanomination. Thisright,             It is the first beginnings of female          But the nose itself of this camel in
   that belongs to all members of the                                                        the tent of the Reformed church is
   church, including those who are not         rule in the church in disobedience to         rebellion against the Lordship of
   confessing members, is a kind of            theprohibitionofsuchrulebyChrist's            Christ over His church.
   exercise of discipline, a competence        apostle in I Corinthians 14 and in I
   to make a stand for the honor and the       Timothy 2 and 3.                                  The nose stays out. c1
   right of Christ. Only if the place of           Participation by women at the                                              - DJE
   the woman and her relationship to
L ,,  .,?  .p'-`..".  i  r:  :y`:'  ,I  *                                                                                        .
$&&&~&jr&  .'  ;  -.,  6                                                                             pm%?  R&w  l&&k&
     :  I::`,                :'


                                               n SERIOUS REPERCUSSIONS                       of decline in membership. According
                                                   This is what is being felt by the         to the Yearbook the CRC now num-
                                               Christian Reformed Church in North            bers 300,320 members. In 1992 the
                                               America (CRC), largely as a result of         CRC reported 316,415 members, and
                                               her recent decisions concerning               one year later the church had 311,202
                                               women in office and the creation ac-          members. The total loss over two
Prof. Decker is professor of P&t ical The-     count of theBible. The 1994Yearbook           years, therefore, is 16,095 members.
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         of the CRC indicates that the CRC has         A little over twenty-five percent of
nary.                                          suffered its second consecutive year          these lost members are in .Korean
                                                                                                       May 15,1994/standatd  Bear&57


churches (sixchurches, reporting2934       tion with regard to the Christian Re-        The fact that this overture passed
members) and two Vietnamese con-           formed Church . . . such documenta-          without audible dissent promptedits
gregations (about 550-600 members).        tion to include such matters as the          sponsor, the Rev. Ronald Rowe, pas-
Most of the decline, however, is in the    view of Scripture; the toleration of         tor of First Reformed Presbyterian
"Anglo" churches. The 1994 total-          beliefs in evolution and homosexual-         Church, Beaumont, Texas, to say,
members figure is the lowest since         ity, and the treatment of brethren           "Even though the main point of the
1983 when the CRC reported 299,685         who have stood against these mod-            resolution was trying to get the IRC to
members. What this means is that           emisttrends." Atits January28meet-           do what they are supposed to do,
about ten years of numerical growth        ing the South Texas Presbytery               some of the vote was due to people
has been lost by the secessions of the     (equivalent to our classis) adopted an       not liking what the CRC is doing."
past two to three years.                   overture to be sent to the 1994 Gen-         The Rev. Eric Perrin, chairman of
  What accounts for this loss of           era1  Assembly alleging that the             IRC, said the overture was unneces-
members? The 1994Yearbooksaysin            Interchurch Relations Committee,             sary. Perrin promised that a full re-
its preface, "It appears that there are    "did not accomplish the task outlined        port on these matters from the IRC
three particularly disturbing matters      by this order." The overture says,           will be presented to the General As-
that bring about a negative response                                                    sembly which is scheduled to meet
from some CRC members: homosexu-             WHEREAS, the General Assembly              next June.
ality, the question of the admission of      in 1992 ordered the Interchurch Re-            Assuming the CRC does not
women to all offices of the church,          lations Committee (IRC) "to prepare        change its position on these matters,
and referring to God with feminine           documentation with regard to the           will the eventual outcome be that the
pronouns. Homosexuality touched              Christian Reformed Church for pre-         PCA breaks fraternal relations with
off the departure of some Korean con-        sentation to the 21st General Assem-
                                             bly, such documentation to include         that denomination? That remains to
gregations even though synod spoke           such matters as the view of Scrip-         -be seen.
forthrightly and clearly on this matter      ture, the toleration of beliefs in evo-                       Christian Renewal
twenty years ago." The yearbookalso          lution and homosexuality; and                 Reformed Believers Press Service
criticized the news media for contrib-       WHEREAS, the IRC did not accom-
uting to the decline. "The news me-          plish the task outlined by this order;     n EVANGELICALS  EMBRACE
dia contribute to uncertainty among          and                                        ROME!
our people and to a skewed public            WHEREAS,  the2lst General Assem-               For centuries, Roman Catholics
image of the CRC.... They frequently         bly renewed the same call for an           and evangelicals considered each
base their reports on news releases          investigation of the CRC by the IRC
                                             and in other ways indicated the            other anathema. In the recent past
circulated by persons presently or           Assemblys  intention with regard to        these joined hands in the political
formerly connected with the CRC who          this sister denomination; and              realm to advocate common positions
appear to have their own agendas,            WHEREAS, some of the sins and              on such issues as abortion and school
which distort their reporting of the         errors. mentioned in the overture          choice. Many, however, still regarded
truth." The editor `of the yearbook          adopted by the Assembly include.-          each other with distrust.          :
may say what he will, but the fact is        such things .as the ordination of.             On March29 a group of evangeli-
that the CRC's decisions re women in         women to the office of elder and           calleaders,amongtheml%tRobertson
church office and creation/ science are      allowing other women to exercise           and Charles Colson,- and conserva-
the explanation for the decline in           the pastoral office (albeit without
                                             ordination), the refusal to exercise       tive Catholics asked their fellow'be-
membership. Those who have se-               discipline on an ordained minister         lievers to cross a theological frontier
ceded repeatedly claim, and rightly          who is a professed homosexual, the         and accept each other as Christians.
so, that the Bible and the Confessions       refusal to exercise discipline on              Addressing a major source of ten-
are no longer the standard by which          Calvin College faculty who teach           sion between Catholics and
issues are judged and evaluated in           evolution; and                             evangelicalsintheUnitedStates,East-
the CRC.                                     WHEREAS, such apparent lack of             ern Europe, and South America, the
    Serious repercussions are also           compliance with the will of the Gen-       coalition specifically called for an end
being felt in the area of interchurch        eralAssemblyshouldnotbeallowed;            to aggressive proselytizing of each
relations. The 242,000-member  Eres-         NOW THEREFORE BE IT RE-
                                             SOLVED, that South Texas                   other's flocks.
byterian Church in.America (PCA),            Presbyteryherebyoverturesthe22nd               "As evangelicals and Catholics,
whichhasafraternalrelationshipwith           General Assembly to instruct the           we dare not by needless and loveless
the CRC, is unhappy with develop-           Interchurch Relations Committee to          conflict between ourselves give aid
ments in that church. In both 1992         respond in a timely and thorough             and comfort to the enemies of the
and 1993 the General Assembly               way to these concerns that have been        cross of Christ," said the signers of
(equivalent to our synod) of the PCA        raisedand to be more circumspect in         "Evangel&&s and Catholics Together:
instructed its Interchurch Relations        carrying out the clear will of the          The Christian Mission in the Third
Committee N to prepare documenta-            General Assembly in the future.            Millennium."

368lStandard  Bearer Flay 15,1994


    The consultation was started in        evangelicals and Catholics, confess           know that what they call their "com-
1992 by Colson, the Watergate figure       our sins against the unity that Christ        mon faith" with Rome includes the
who founded Prison Fellowship min-         intends for all his disciples," the state-    accursed idolatry of the popish mass
istry, and the Rev. Richard Neuhaus,       ment says.                                    (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. SO)? Of
a Roman Catholic priest and director           In effect the statement is saying         course they know this. One can only
of the Institute on Religion and Public    that the Reformers of the 16th century        conclude, then, that they do not care.
Life in New York.                          (Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli, et. al.)      On this and many other points the
    What is different about the joint      committed a great sin "against the            evangelical faith and the Romish faith
statement is that it recognizes the        unity that Christ intends for all his         are totally inimical.  0
groups'commonfaith. "We together,          disciples!" Do not these evangelicals                       The Grand Rapids Press




 Essentials and Non-essentials
                                           in Missions

    The mission field is a very diffi-     confidence to the missionary. The             tated by his own conscience and ac-
cult place on which to work because        missionary must have the confidence           cording to his Christian liberty.
the missionary may encounter people        that the gospel of Christ crucified is            The matter of the believer's con-
from many different backgrounds and        the work of God's sovereign grace             science is a difficult area to deal with
with many different theological pre-       which the Holy Spirit applies to the          because there is a subjective element
suppositions and views.                    heart of the elect sinner when and            involved. The area of the "essentials"
    The missionary must be as open         where it pleases Him.                         is less subjective. One may say that
and undefensive as possible. That is           The essentials are the heart and          the Bible objectively says, "Thou shalt
not easy because people may throw          core issues of the faith about which          not commit adultery." There is not
all sorts of questions at him, which       there can be little difference of under-      much room for differing practice for
may cause him to feel threatened,          standingorinterpretation. TheWord             believers. In the area of the non-
vulnerable, and insecure.                  of God and the Reformed Confes-               essentials the conscience of the be-
    Themissionarymustbeverysure            sions embody the essentials of the            liever plays a large part in determin-
of the foundation upon which he            truth.                                        ing his direction and practice.
stands, so that if someone asks a ques-        The missionary must know that                 The conscience of the believer is
tion for which he has no immediate         the believer's life and walk will bear        not, however, autonomous, but must
answer he will not panic. No one is        certain discernible marks, "marks of          be subject to the will of the Lord Jesus
going to think of the question this        Christians: namely, by faith; and when        Christ. Christ makes His will known
week that will bring Christianity          they have received Jesus Christ the           to His people mainly through His
crashing down. The missionary must         only Savior, they avoid sin, follow           infallible Word, but the believer's
simply say to the questioner, "I don't     after righteousness, love the true God        conscientious understanding of the
have the answer to that one right          and their neighbor, neither turn aside        willofChristforhimisalsoshapedby
now, but I'll be glad to dig it up for     to the right or left, and crucify the         many other factors under the provi-
you."                                      flesh with the works thereof" (Belgic         dence of God. Such factors as one's
    The essentials of the Reformed         Confession, Art. 29). These marks             rearing as a child, the instruction one
faith are important to understand and      may be seen wherever Christ has His           has received, the culture in which one
to hold because they comprise the          people, regardless of where in all the        was reared, and the traditions that
message of the preaching of the gos-       world they may live.                          have been handed down to him. As
pel, and they give the strength of             The non-essentials of the Re-             those factors just mentioned can dif-
                                           formed faith are the areas of the sanc-       fer widely, so can the believer's con-
                                           tified life in which the believer makes       scientious perception or understand-
                                           moral choices and judgments for him-          ing of what, for him, is acceptable to
Rev. Bekkeringispastorof theprotestant     self on the basis of his knowledge and        Christ.
Reformed Church of Pella, Iowa.            understanding of God's truth as dic-              God's Word in Romans 14 shows
                                                                                                    May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer1369


us that two believers for whom Christ        the Word of the God who says, "I am         Spirit by urging or requiring external
died can and do come to positions            able to make him stand."                    conformity to an unwritten code of
that are diametrically opposed.to  each          How does this apply to the mis-         conduct or practice that exists in the
other. For one believes that he may          sion field where the missionary en-         mind of each of us as to how others
eat all things; the other, who is weak,      counters widely varying views and           ought to act. To yield to that tempta-
eats only herbs (v. 2). Again, verse 5       practices? First, he must stand in the      tion may shift the focus of the
says that one man esteems or consid-         strength of the power of the gospel to      missionary's work away from Christ
ers one day above another; the other         change men's hearts, minds, and con-        to himself.
man esteems every day alike. God's           sciences. The missionary must pa-                The missionary must be careful
command to both is clear in verses 3-        tiently deal with those whose con-          to guard himself against the tempta-
6: "Don' tjudge or despise eachother!"       sciences are yet not as sensitive as        tion to give a quick or thoughtless
God upholds each believer, as he lives       they should be to the precepts of the       rebuke when he observes someone
unto the Lord. Who then may judge            gospel,anddealequallypatientlywith          doing or saying somethingwith which
or despise him? Love and respect for         those whose consciences are overly          he disagrees. He must take time to
each other as believers is the rule in.      sensitive to the precepts of the gospel.    think through what happened and
the realm of the non-essentials. A               The missionary must learn that          perhaps come backto the matter later.
man may never understand how an-             the fundamental, life-changing work         He must avoid the mistakenidea that
other Christian can do things that he        of the Holy Spirit takes time, and          if we do not condemn a certain atti-
cannot do with a clear conscience and        cannot be rushed. The temptation is         tude or deed, we will be condoning it.
yet be a Christian, but he must trust        to try to help along the work of the                                            cl





                                      A Criti ue of
            Modern                                               Yl
                                             Churc -Growth (2)

II. ITS MESSAGE                              the Spirit, the proponents of this type     and others with him openly boast of
         When one examines the message       of evangelism and church growth el-         the fact that unbelievers have been
of the modern church growth move-            evate special signs above the preach-       converted through signs and won-
ment, he soon finds some disturbing          ing of the gospel, and in fact displace     ders without having heard the gospel
things. While they claim that they do'       the gospel with the miraculous. As          and therefore without any knowledge
not undermine or alter and compro-           John Armstrong remarks following            of Christ crucified and raised.2
mise the gospel message, the fact is         his reading of John Wimber's book,               What is this but a denial of Ro-
that in the interests of reaching the        Power Evangelism,  "One of the sig-         mans  1:16 and  10:14-17,  and I
masses and enticing them to believe          nificant things Inoticed...was his fail-    Corinthians.l:18,23,24!  What is this
and join the church they do under-           ure to offer any definitions of the         but a denial of the truth set forth in
mine and alter and compromise the            evangel (i.e., the gospel message).         Lord's Day 7 of the Heidelberg Cat-
gospel message.                              Center stage are healings, words of         echism concerning faith, that a "cer-
         This is evident from those who      knowledge, phenomena of the Spirit's        tain knowledge" belongs to the es-
advance "power evangelism" through           presence - all things Wimber be-            sence of saving faith and therefore of
signs and wonders. Apart now from            lieves will bring people to faith. One      true conversion! When Jesus andHis
the error of believing the continued         searches in vain for exposition of the      apostles went out for the gathering of
exercise of these temporary gifts of         content of the gospel itself." l Wimber     the lost, they preached the gospel,
                                                                                         and the signs that followed were-de-

Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant
Reformed Church ofsouth Holland, Illi-
nois.                                        1. Power  Religion,  ed.Horton, 80-81.      2.  Ibid., 82.

370lStandard  Bearer /May 15,lW


signed to confirm the message, not             watered down milk, "how to" mes-               what biblical and Reformed evange-
detract from it or replace it. The             sages, helpful hints for successful liv-       lism is. True missions and evange-
miracles never stood by themselves             ing.                                           lism never shrinks from proclaiming
and were never intended to be the                      Lest you think we are exaggerat-       the whole gospel and the whole coun-
sole means unto conversion. It was             ing, we quote from one prominent               se1 of God revealed in Scripture, re-
faithin Christ through the Word which          spokesman, Doug Murren, who in his             gardless of what men think of it or
was taught and practiced.                      book, The Baby Boomerang: Catch-               how they will respond to it (cf.
    Others have pointed out that               ing Baby Boomers as They Return to             Jer.l:8,17;  Mat. 28:20; Acts 20:17-27;  2
when and where the gospel is pro-              Church,  writes such things as:                Tim.4:2).  It never caters to the hearers
claimed by the signs and wonders                                                              but submits to the sovereign God to
movement it is an Arminian gospel,                . ..People in our culture are truly bro-    whom this message belongs. It is
declaring the natural ability of man              kenanddeeplywounded.  Theyneed              never compromising, but brings all
and the inability of God to save unless           desperatelytobehealedandputback             that God commands. The true mis-
man wills, and a Pentecostal gospel,              together. But the process of healing,       sionary and evangelist preaches sin
proclaiming the need for the "second              I believe, is different for every era
                                                  and every generation, including this        as well as grace, hell as well as heaven,
blessing" (baptism) of the Spirit in              one. Yes, different times do require        the wrath of God as well as the love of
order for a cofiversion  to be authen-            different messages.                         God, the duties of discipleship as well
tic.3 What is this but a denial of the            Thoughunchurched [baby] boomers             as the blessings of salvation. This is
biblical truths of man's inherent and             may privately acknowledge they are          what Jesus and the apostles preached;
radical depravity and total inability             flawed - and maybe even sinful -            that is what Augustine and the early
to come to Christ, and of God's abso-             they are hardly going to sit in a pub-      church fathers preached; that is what
lute sovereignty in the salvation of              lic place and  Ii&en  to themselves         the Reformers preached; and that is
the sinner (cf. Rom. 3:10-18;  Eph.2:1-           being described as worms, wretches,         what we must preach. We are stew-
3,8-10; Rom. 9:16; Phi1.2:12,13)!  What           fallen creatures and other totally de-
                                                  praved types....                            ards of the mysteries of God, and it is
is this but a denial of the nature of                                  I'm convinced that
                                                  they need to hear even negative mes-        our sole duty to be faithful, not popu-
God's saving work in the sinner and               sages presented in positive terms. It       lar (I Cor.4:1,2).
of the very nature of the life of the true        is the grid through which we filter             It is this message of the gospel
Christian (cf. Rom. 7; 2 Cor.l:21,  22;           things. So if we can't be positive -        whichis the power of Godunto salva-
Eph.l:13,1`4;  Co1.2:10)!                         even when talking about negative            tion. As Douglas Webster points out
    If the message of                                           topics - boomers will         so well,
Bpower  evangelismn is                                          probably not listen. We
a compromised and                                               have to be careful, there-        NobodyintheNewTestamentever
corrupted one, so also          True missions . . .             fore, about the tone we         heard a casual, laid-back, easygoing
                                                                take in OUT services....
is that of "market evan-           never caters                                                 gospel. The gospel they heard from
                                                                Limit  your preaching to
gelism." This branch of           to the hearers                                                Jesus and the apostles was a blend of
                                                                roughly 20 minutes, be-
the church growth                                                                               compassion and conviction,  deliv-
                                   but submits                  causeboomers don't have
movement tells us that                                                                          eredwithlife-and-deathseriousness.
                                                                too much time to spare.         Holy intensity provoked thought,
the "old message" of            to the sovereign                And don't forget to keep        generated hostility and compelled
human sin and salva-                    God                     your messages light and         commitment. Popular  rejection was
tion by grace is no                  to whom                    informal, liberally sprin-      predictable, but the power of their
longer relevant; the               this message                 kling them with humor           passionfortruthprevailed. Thethou-
church needs a new                                              and personal anecdotes.'
                                      belongs.                                                  sands who had eaten miraculous
message. The. gospel                                                                            breadandthrilled with the prospects
must be tailored to fit L                                             It ought to be evi-
                                                           J                                    of a popular messiah dwindled down
the audience, not the                                           dent to the discerning          to only a few, but the few who re-
other way around. The church's mes-                             Christian that this is not      mained would end up turning the
                                                                                                world  upside-down.5   0
sage must be "user-friendly," i.e., de-
signed for the easy consumption and
use of the audience. Anything offen-
sive and hard and deep must be re-
moved. The gospel must be made                 4. The first two quotes are from John F.
palatable to all. Not strong doctrine,         MacArthur,.Jr.`s  Ashamed of the Gospel:
meat, must be set before them, but             When the Church Becomes Like the World
                                               (Wheaton: Crossway,  1993), 120,132. The
                                               last quote is from Douglas D. Webster,
                                               Selling Jesus: What's Wrong With Mar-
                                               keting fhe Church (Downers Grove, IL:
3. Ibid., 81-83.                               Intervarsity, 1992),  83.                      5. Webster,  Selling Jesus, 108-109.

                                                                                                          May 15,1994/Standard  Bearetl371


                      No Creed but Christ?

                                                 In dealing here with this subject         The third name associated with
Whosoever therefore shall confess me be-     (setting forth the idea of the creed,     the idea of a creed is, of course, the
fore men, him will leonfess also beforemy    presenting the arguments against the      name creed itself. This word is de-
Father which is in heaven.                   creeds, and demonstrating the value       rived from the Latin credere, which
                         Matthew lo:32       and importance of creeds), this writer    means "to believe." The word creed
                                             is indebted to Herman Hoeksema,           expresses that its content is the object
     Today there are, as in the past         whosenoteson thissubjectweregiven         of the faith of the church. The Heidel-
there have been, those who oppose            and taught in the seminary of our         bergCatechismisacreedthecontents
the use of creeds in the church of Jesus     churches.                                 of which we believe. It is, therefore,
Christ. Their familiar cry is, "No               There are three names associated      the object of our faith.
creedbut  Christ." It is their claim that    with the idea of a creed, which, when         In combining the idea of the three
creeds are but the workof  men, while        defined, give us the meaning of the       words just given we can arrive at a
the Scriptures are God's infallible          word creed. The first name is symbol.     definition of creed. A creed is a state-
Word. Therefore, according to them,          A symbol is really a sign. For ex-        ment by a church or a group of
one should turn from creeds to the           ample, a flag or a banner is a sign by    churches containing a declaration of
use of the Bible alone, for it is in the     which one nation is everywhere dis-       what such a church or group of
Bible that Jesus Christ is revealed to       tinguished from other nations. Wit-       churches believes to be the truth of
us. Thus,there is no need for a creed.       ness the many different flags at the      the Word of God as it is developed
It is even argued that creeds are det-       Olympic games, each representing a        organically in the church and as it is
rimental to the church. Many argu-           different country. Thus, a symbolis a     officially adopted by the church. This
ments are set forth in defense of this       sign representing the faith of the        definition covers different kinds of
position; In the course of this article      church in general over against all the    creeds. There are creeds that express
we will look at some of these argu-          world, or of a particular church over     the whole of Christian doctrine, such
ments and try to answer them.                against all other churches. In the        as theBelgic  or the Westminster Con-
    We believe that the church of            seminary the course in which one          fession of Faith.  .The Canons of
Christ has always been a  creedal            studies the creeds is in fact called      Dordrecht are an example of a creed
church. That can be seen in the his-         Symbols.                                  that expresses only a part of the Chris-
tory of the church prior to the .Refor-          The second name is confession.        tian doctrine, their purpose being to
mation in the sixteenth century, and         Literally it means "to speak with" or     combat the error of Arminianism by
certainly it is seen in the church im-       "to say the same thing as." By this       pointing out the error and setting
mediately after the Reformation. In          word the church indicates that she        forth the positive truth over against
light of this we believe that creeds are     expresses her faith in unison with one    that error. The above confessions or
indispensable for the church of today.       another and with her head, Jesus          creeds are examples of longer creeds,
By maintaining the creeds the church         Christ. Individual members in a           but there are short creeds as well,
of today faithfully preserves the heri-      church are members of that particu-       suchas the Apostolic Creed. Another
tage of the truth as passed on to herby      lar church because they say the same      type of creed is termed minor or lesser,
the church of the past, particularly         thing as the other members do. The        such as the forms for the administra-
the church of the Reformation.               church in turn joins a federation of      tion of baptism and the Lord's Sup-
                                             churches or a denomination because        p e r .
                                             the church says the same thing as do          As to the origin of creeds, we can
                                             the others. And each,church not only      say in general that the church has
                                             says the same thing as the others, but    never been without a confession, for
Rev. Miersma is pastor of the Protestant     the same thing as Christ, the same        it is simply impossible for the church
Reformed Church  of  New Zealand.            thing as the Holy Scriptures.             not to confess the truth. What the

372kStandard  Bearer /May 15,1994


church says and lives is her perpetual      express what Scripture already ex-          the means, the way, by which we go to
confession. In fact, a church without       presses. As a result, to be bound by        theWordofGod.  IntheWordwefind
a confessionis acontradictionin terms.      creeds is to be bound by the Scrip-         our hiding place, our rest, our peace,
Even to say "No creed but Christ" is        tures. This implies several things. In      the joy of salvation. But going via the
initself  a creed, for they                              the first place, theper-       creeds, we recognize the work of the
believe they need no                                     manent criterionis Scrip-      Spirit of truth, the unity of God's
creed. A church with-                                    ture, with nothing ever
                                    Because                                             Word, the one faith of the church of all
out belief ceases to be a                                coming in the place of         ages.
church, for it is spiritu-       creeds state            Scripture. Secondly, the            What we have just written can be
ally impossible to be             what God               creeds are never placed        demonstrated in the history of the
neutral concerning                  Himself              on a par with Scripture,       church. While Christ was yet on earth,
Christ, and practically           has @oken              but are always subject to      one of the first confessions was heard.
impossible as well. To                                   Scripture. Further, the
                               through Christ,                                          In Matthew 16~16 Peter is recorded as
confess Christ is a com-                                 church must live. out of       confessing, Thou art the Christ, the Son
mand of Christ to the            they possess            the Scriptures as guided       of the living Goh. Later, in Acts 8~37,
church. (Cf.Matt. 10~32,         an authority            by the creeds. Thus, the       Philip hears the Ethiopian eunuch
33; 1696-U;  Rom. 10:9,            which is              authority of the creeds is     confess, I believe that]esus Christ is the
10).                            not their own,           the authority of Scripture.    Son of God. In the early church there
        Moving from the                                  Creeds are not infallible,
                               but Scripture's.                                         was the Apostles' Creed, with which
general to the particu-                                  but they are an expres-        we are all familiar. Added to this are
lar we see that the truth L                              sion of what the church        what are called the ecumenical creeds,
of the Word of God is                                    believes the Scriptures to     such as the Nicene, Chalcedonian,
reflected in the consciousness of the       say. And because creeds state what          and Athanasian. Then there is the
church organically. This is accom-          God Himself has spoken through              period following the sixteenth cen-
plished, not in any individual apart        Christ, they possess an authority           tury Reformation. As the Reforma-
from the whole of the church, but in        whichisnot theirown,but  Scripture's.       tion spread from country to country,
the church as organism. This opera-             This is why the Reformed ap-            each area formulated its own creedin
tion is the work of the Holy Spirit         proach to Scripture has always been a       harmony with time and circum-
through the Word, all of which is in        creedal  approach. A non-creedal            stances. Our own Three Forms of
harmony with the promise of Christ          church (if that is even a possibility)      Unity are among them.
to the church. Before Christ's death        goes directly to Scripture. This is              However, there have alwaysbeen
on the cross He comforted the dis-          always the approach of the heretic,         those who have raised various argu-
ciples in promising that He would           who appeals to isolated passages of         ments against the creeds. It is argued
return, and that He would do so in          Scripture in support of his own pet         that creeds supersede the Bible as a
such a way that He would be with            doctrines. But this is a method which       standard of faith. TheBible is the only
them forever. This coming was in the        is contrary to the Reformed faith.`The      infallible rule of faith and practice. It
Spirit of truth, by which Spirit Christ     creedal approach to Scripture looks         is so complete that it needs no human
Himself would be with them forever.         at the Scriptures as a unity. And, as       addition, and so easily understood
The same Spirit that gave us the Scrip-     Christ has promised, the Spirit of truth    that it requires no human explana-
tures also lives in the hearts of God's     leads the church into the truth. Know-      tion. In response to the above argu-
people and causes them to appropri-         ing this, one does not isolate certain      ment, we can posit that no Protestant
ate and understand the truth. That          texts, taking them out of their own         ever professed his creed to have an
truth, then, becomes definitely for-        context and out of the context of the       authority equal to or greater than the
mulated in the mind of the church.          whole of Scripture. By taking texts         authority of the Scriptures. Such ob-
Often this takes place when the truth       out of context, one can prove any-          jections are raised generally in igno-
is attacked or when the church is           thing, no matter how absurd. Basi-          rance of Scripture and its doctrine.
persecuted, forcing the church to de-       cally it is a question of what is taught    We too believe in the sufficiency of
fine sharply the truth over against         from Genesis 1 through Revelation           the Scriptures, but the above argu-
error. Then, when the time is ripe,         22, because Scripture is its own inter-     ment carries no weight when used in
                                                                                                             _  -.
that formulation is set forth officially    preter. Treating Scripture as a unity,      _ opposition to creeds. It is a denial of
by the church in a brief statement          the church discovers the current teach-     the historic-organic development of
called a symbol, confession, or creed.      ing of the Word of God, and sets it         the church in the world, and of the
        The authority of a creed so set     forth in her creeds. The creeds, then,      continuous guidance of the Holy Spirit
forth is none other than the Word of        lead us into an understanding of the        in that historical organism of the body
God, the Holy Scriptures. This means        unity of the truth as found in Scrip-       of Christ. It is a sin to set aside the
that the authority of creeds is not         ture as a whole. Therefore, the creeds      fruit of this guidance of the Holy
inherent, but derivative. They only         are not superior to Scripture, but are      Spirit in the past. The church has the

                                                                                                  May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer1373


calling to confess her faithin the midst          cussion; but creeds limit discussion          spiritually irresponsible to turn our
of the world. Her creed or confession             and do not give free rein to discussion       backs upon the truth, and to seek out
is a summary of what she believes the             of truth. In response, we can point out       new inventions which deny the creedal
Scriptures teach. Scripture is not a              that the fault of lethargy lies not in the    heritage which our God has given us.
system of truth, nor a compendium of              creed, but in the members of the              Ever it is our calling to develop the
faith,butitis thedivinelygivensource              church, who no longer are living their        truth. But we do that on the basis of
from which the church derives both:               confessions, but regard their creeds          the confessions. Development is truly
the system and the compendium.                    as so many papers in the archives. A          possible only when we have both feet
     A second argument is that creeds             belief that the creeds are too narrow is      firmly planted in our creedal heri-
force and bind the conscience. One                based on an erroneous conception of           tage.
may say, What right has any church,               the organic development of the truth.                 To this can be added the fact that
or body of churches, to impose acreed-            What creeds do is narrow the discus-          creeds are the testimony of the fulfill-
on me, or dictate to me what I shall              sion to the Scriptures, which are the         ment of the promise of Christ to be
believe?" In reply, we can certainly              fountain of all truth. The church de-         with us always, even unto the end of
agree that the Word of God is the only            velops in one age on the basis of the         the world. In this truth as given by the
power that is binding upon the con-               work in the past. There is organic            Spirit, Christ Himself abides with us.
science and heart of man. But it is               continuity from Pentecost to today.           Therefore, the creeds must be in the
equally true that the                                           The church of today             hearts and on the lips of the people of
members of a church or                                          stands on the shoulders         God as a living confession. Con-
group of churches have                                          of the church in the past.      sciously, explicitly, and continuously
the right to agree and                  . . . creeds                   Having seen what         they must be brought to the attention
declare how they un-                  do not create             creeds are, and having          of God's people. Thus, they are
derstand the Scrip-                    divisions                looked at and answered          preached from our pulpits and are
tures. Ifoneagreeswith               or distiktions,            objections to the creeds,       taught in the catechism rooms; they
them he is free to join,                                        we must yet state posi-         form the theological basis for our
and if he disagrees he is                  but                  tively the value and im-        schools in the instruction of our cov-
free either not to join,             merely express             portance of creeds. We          enant children; and they are studied
or to leave if he is al-                existing                begin by declaring that         in our homes so that both parents and
ready a member. No-                   distinctions.             they are the means by           children know them, love them, and
body is forcing his con-                                        which the church as a           are thankful for them. In summary,
science.                                                    J whole can express her they must be a living part of all the life
    Itisalsoallegedthat                                         faith over against all the      of the people of God in all their call-
creeds promote discord and strife,                world, or by which a denomination of          ing.
create divisions. Just look at all the            churches can express her faith over                   It is not difficult to see, then, that,
different denominations, each one                 against all other churches. To be             creeds are also a strong defense of the
separated from the other by a wall of             faithful to her calling, the church does      truth against heresy. Many if not
separation, the creed. These must be              this over against the world of unbelief       most of the creeds were written in
broken down in order for there to be              and over against the apostate church.         defense of the truth against heresy of
unity. In refutation, we notice that                    Creeds are also a means to unite        one kind or another. A heretic hates
creeds do not create divisions or dis-            us with the church of the past. The           creeds because he must take them
tinctions, but merely express existing            umty of the whole church is a unity of        down point by point in order to getat
distinctions. Does one really believe             the truth asit isin Christ Jesus. As this     the precious truth.
that the removal of creeds actually               same truth is confessed throughout                    Our creeds serve to preserve the
would make possible the worshiping                all time, it is this truth whichbinds the     unity of the saints among ourselves,
together of the Reformed with the                 church of all ages together into the          not just with the church of the past.
Arminian, or with the Roman Catho-                one body of our Lord Jesus Christ.            But not only do creeds serve to unite
lic? The removal of creeds to the                 For the child of God there is great           us with the church of the past and
point that all could agree would so               comfort in this; for the truth may be         among ourselves in the present. They
water down the truth that there would             despised and rejected and the com-            are also an excellent means to trans-
be virtually nothing left of it.                  pany of the faithful grow smaller, but        mit the heritage of the truth to the
    A fourth objection to creeds is               theconfessionsassureusthatwestand             generations that follow.
that they impede the development of               in a noble company of mighty war-                     From what we have just seen, it
the truth. It is said that oneis tempted          riors and faithful men and women              certainly will do neither us nor our
to rest on a creed, and to say that it is         such as the Augustines, the Calvin&           fellow saints any good to be critical of
the last word, with no need for fur-              the Luthers, etc.                             the creeds. Instead of being critical of
ther development. In order to have                      In addition, creeds serve as a ba-      them it is time to go back to them and
development, one must have free dis-              sis for further development. It is            study them in the light of the Word of

374lStandard  Bearer /May 15,1994


God. In them is expressed the eternal       lead the church into an ever deeper            tend for the faith which was once
truth of the Scriptures, the glory which    understanding of the mysteries of the          delivered unto the saints," the faith as
no man will ever fully comprehend.          kingdomofGodastaughtintheWord.                 set forth so eloquently in our confes-
A faithful, prayerful study of the          May God grant us in these latter days          sions.  0
creeds in the light of the Word will        the grace always to "earnestly con-





             Peter Datheen: Father of                                                                                                   -1.
                     Reformed Liturgy (1)
      "       The Reformation in the Netherlands

Introduction                                indelible stamp on the liturgy of the          which Charles V ruled, a kingdom
    In this and subsequent articles         Reformed Churches, a stamp which               including Spain, Germany, the Low-
we intend to write sketches about           remains to this day.                           lands, and Italy. This Charles V was
certain leaders in the Reformation              That he was a fugitive and exile           the same Charles before whom Luther
which God brought to the Nether-            was so much his life that one biogra-          made his stirring defense at Worms.
lands. This is of particular concern to     pher, 8. J. W. DeGraaff,  has given his            The Lowlands were much more
many of our readers who trace their         book on Datheen, with an obvious               independent than other parts of
ancestry to the Netherlands and find        allusion to Psalm42, the title: "Hunted        Charles' domain. They had been,
in the workof God in the Netherlands        As A Hart" (AZs Een Hert Gejaeght).            from the time when the people were
their own spiritual roots.                  Unfortunately, the book is in Dutch.           still barbarian, a freedom loving
    While there are several impor-          (The old spelling of the last word in          people who fought tenaciously for
tant men whom we wish to discuss,           the title is due to the fact that the title    their personal rights and were ready
our first articles will deal with Peter     is taken from the Dutchversification           to make huge sacrifices to protect
Datheen. I have given these articles        ofPsalm42ascomposedbyDatheen.)                 themselves from outside interference.
the title: "Peter Datheen: Father of            But Datheen's work was done                Theywerecomposed of 17provinces,
Reformed Liturgy." This does not            within the context of the early years of       each of which was ruled by a prince,
mean that Peter Datheen made con-           the Reformation in the Netherlands,            but the whole constituting a rather
tributions to the Reformation in the        and it is impossible to understand his         loose federation.
Netherlands only in the area of lit-        work without understanding the suf-                They were also extremely pros-
urgy,forhewasaleadingfigureinthe            feringof the saints in the early years of      perous and poured much money into
work of God in the Lowlands, some           the work of Reformation. We shall,             Charles' coffers. Industry, trade, com-
say the most influential of all from an     therefore, first, describe that early          merce, shipping, agriculture all flour-
ecclesiastical point of view. He was        Reformation.                                   ished. Europe's goods passed through
surely one of the earliest preachers of                                                    the Lowlands on their way to the sea
the Reformed faith. He was bold and         Early Years                                    and to foreign ports. Ships daily
brave in the face of persecution. He            The area in which is now the               docked in the harbors and unloaded
was a fugitive from persecution al-         country of the Netherlands was part            their-treasures from distant countries.
most more times than one would care         of a larger area called "The Low-                  All these things were facts which
to count. But, above all, he placed an      lands" at the time of the Reformation.         Charles kept in mind when he pretty
                                            The Lowlands comprised approxi-                much allowed the Lowlanders a great
                                            mately what is now the Netherlands,            deal of autonomy and self rule.
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church Hisi     Belgium, Luxembourg, and part of                   Many  `#Erotestant"  influences
toy adNew  Testament in the Protes-         northern France. It was technically a          were present in the Lowlands long
fant Reformed Sejnina y.                    part of the Holy Roman Empire over             before the Reformation started. Fugi-

                                                                                                    May 15,1994/Standatd  Bearer/375


     tive Waldensians had found a home              Martin Bucer, Capito, and Calvin. It         the truth written in blood. How much
     there; Lollards (followers of John             was not longbefore Calvinism swept           the more ought we not to treasure it.
     Wycliffein England) had come across            all other influences aside.  Anabap-                Although Charles V issued an
     the channel from time to time to es-           tism, Lutheranism, and much of mys-          order in 1521 that all heresy should be
     cape persecution in their homeland;            ticism gave way before the rapid             extinguished in the Lowlands, the
     some of the better mystics, such as the        spread of what was to become in              persecution did not begin until 1523,
     Brethren of the Common Life, had               these Lowlands the Reformed faith.           when two Augustinian monks were
     settled at the mouth of the Rhine                      God used many different means        burned at the stake in Brussels for
     River, which emptied into the North            to promote the Reformed faith. In            Lutheran tendencies. While the fire
     Sea near the province of Zeeland; the          1561 Guido de B&s published that             was burning, the two recited together
     Latin Vulgate had been translated              magnificent creed, the Confession of         the Apostles' Creed and sang the Te
     into the vernacular so that many               Faith, in the Lowlands, a confession         Deum Laudamus  (We Praise Thee, 0
     people, possessed a Bible in their own         quickly adopted by the Churches. In          God). Their suffering moved Luther
     tongue.                                        1563 the Heidelberg Catechism was            to write a hymn, one stanza of which
         Earliest Reformation influences            written, and, within a couple of years       is:
     were Lutheran. Lutheran teachings              of its publication, was translated into
     had been widely circulated, and                Dutch. The Convention of  Wezel                Quiet their ashes will not lie:
     Lutheran writings were openly                  began the work which was later to              But scattered far and near,
     peddled and sold in the markets of             become our Church Order. The first             Stream, dungeon, bolt, and grave
     the cities. Some of the provincial             Synod met in Emden in 1571, and the                 defy,
     rulers adopted Lutheran teachings              second Synod in Dordrecht in 1578.             Their foeman's  shame and fear.
     and urged Their people                                            But the Reformed            Those whom alive the  tyrant's
                                                                                                        wrongs
     to become Lutheran. In                                        faith was not established       To  silence could subdue,
     1522, five years after the                                    without untold suff ering.      He must, when dead, let sing the
     Reformation began,              O u r   f a t h e r s                                              songs
     Luther9  Bible was                       sealed               Persecution in the              Which in all languages and tongues,
     printed and a Dutch                    their faith            Lowlands                        Resound the wide world through.
     translation of it pre-               with their lives             The persecution of
     pared.                                                                                             Persecution remained somewhat
                                          and gave to us           our forebears in the Low-
         Some less than fa-                                                                      sporadic, however, and so, Charles,
                                                                   lands was some of the
     vorable influences were                a heritage                                           expressing a deep regret that he had
                                                                   worst persecution the
     also present.  Zwing-                  of the truth                                         not burned Luther at Worms, ordered
                                                                   church had ever experi-
     lianism could be found,                  written                                            that the dreaded Inquisition be used
                                                                   enced. While it is utterly
     especially in East                      in blood.                                           as an instrument of persecutionin the
                                                                   impossible to determine
     Friesland, and the                                                                          Lowlands. That awful Inquisition,
                                                                   accurately how many
     Anabaptists, perse- L                                                                       which used the foulest means,
                                                                   people of God were
     cuted elsewhere in Eu-                                                                      trampled under foot every principle
                                                                   killed, the conservative
     rope, settled in the Lowlands and                                                           of justice, made use of most exquisite
                                                    estimatesrunashighas100,000,while
     found a place to escape persecution.                                                        tortures, and was answerable to no
                                                    others claim that as many as 200,000
     Many of these were the more radical                                                         one, became the instrument for the
                                                    were killed. From 1523 to 1573, a
     Anabaptists,whorebelledagainstcon-                                                          suppression of heresy. Within
                                                    period of only 50 years, more Protes-
     stituted authority, attempted to set                                                        Charles' lifetime, not many less than
                                                    tants were killed than in all the years
.    up their own kingdom, and caused                                                            50,000 were  killed.
                                                    when the Roman Empire engaged in
     true Protestantism no end of grief, for                                                            But the worst was yet to come.
                                                    persecution.  FromNero's first perse-
     the Roman Catholics were delighted                                                                 Charles, weary of ruling, plagued
                                                    cutions in the middle of the first cen-
     to lump Anabaptists with other Re-                                                          by gout, and perhaps burdened in
                                                    tury to the reign of Constantine the
     formers.                                                                                    conscience, retired to a monkery, and
                                                    Great, when persecution ceased in            the rule passed to his son, the cruel
                                                    312 (a period of over 250 years), fewer
     The Spread Of Calvinism                                                                     Philip II. Under Margaret of Parma,
                                                    of God's people suffered martyrdom
         Calvinism actually came rather                                                          who was made regent in the Low-
                                                    at the hands of a pagan world power
     late to the Lowlands. Around 1535 it                                                        lands, Philip attempted ruthlessly to
                                                    than in the Lowlands when God's
     first appearedin theFrench-speaking                                                         exterminate all heresy from that part
                                                    people were butchered by the Roman
     Walloon provinces and gradually                                                             of his domain by ordering that no
                                                    Catholic Church. AndRome  has never
     spread northward. Its spread was                                                            books by Protestant authors be
                                                    expressed one single word of regret!
     aided by converted Anabaptists who                                                          printed, sold, or read; that no images
                                                    Our fathers sealed their faith with
     had been instructed in Strassburg by                                                        in Roman Catholic Churches be de-
                                                    their lives and gave to us a heritage of     stroyed; that no meetings of Protes-

     376lStandard  BearerlMay  15,1994


tantsbeheld; thatnoreadingof Scrip-             and courageous Protestants made            Protestantism.
ture take place anywhere; that no-              good confessions to the assembled              The persecution became all but
discussion of disputed points of doc-           crowds while the fires were burning        unbearable: towns were emptied, fac-
trine be allowed. And, violators who            their flesh, the Inquisition ordered       tories were idle, market places were
recanted and confessed their disobe-            that their tongues be screwed with         without buyers or sellers, homes were
dience to Rome were to be killed                metal screws to their jaw bones and        dark- almost all life came to a stop.
anyway: men were to be beheaded,                the whole cauterized with a hot iron           Under these conditions, the
women buried alive. If Protestants              so that the swelling made it impos-        princes of the Lowlands and the
refused to recant, they .were to be             sible for them to speak.                   burghers of various cities joined to-
burned alive. All their property was                The stories of the courage and         gether in a pledge to withstand and
to be confiscated, and large rewards            steadfastness of God's people under        resist all tyranny. It became known as
from the proceeds of the property               the exquisite tortures of apostate         the Compromise of 1566. It was the
were to be given to informers.                  Rome bring tears to the eyes. One can      beginning of national and political
        It was a time,of terrible cruelty       read of them in Wylie's extremely          resistance to Spanish rule. 0
and suffering. Because many ,noble              worthwhile work,  The History of
                   i
;7-`~@~l@~n An~lGk3
 '.           :
        _'


   Domestic Missian Committee
                                                      Report  .`.'  ,'  -

Northern Ireland                                Ireland, things are going well for the     group.") And theHankos  have found
        Reflecting on his first year as mis-    H a n k o s .                              very gratifying the support from back
sionary in. Northern Ireland, Rev.                  That must have come as a great         home., Noteworthy in that regard
RonaldHankonoted  that ti things have           relief to them. For there would have       was, Hudsonville's decisi,on to send,
gone sqwell that it is difficult at times       been, by way of anticipation, not only     at their congregation's own expense,
to see anything negative.".                     excitement for what lay ahead, but         a committee of two elders to North-
        What.  was Rev. Ha&o talking            also certain apprehensions. What           em Ireland, to encourage the Hankos
about? About his work as-mission-               about schooling? How would they            and to assess; personally, the work
ary, surely - for he .wrote the above           get along with the members of the          being done there. And they came
in connection with his observation              CRF? What about the IRA? Would             bearing.gifts  -one for each member
that the Word had been eagerly re-              they ever get used to driving on the       of the Hanko family, "in appreciation
ceived, and that the Lord had opened            wrong side of the road, and get accus-     for, theil' labors in N. Ireland." Tan-
many doors for him and for the Cov-             tomed to hearing Irish English?            gible evidence, that was, of the con-
enant Reformed Fellowship (CRF).                    In every respect the Hankos have       tinued care and concern for the mis-
But we think he intended more. In               been able to "see the gracious hand of     sionary and his family, on the part of
fact, from the monthly reports which            God" in their life. The warmth of the      the congregation which had called
Rev. Hanko submitted  conscien-                 welcome extended to them by the            and sent them.
tiouslythroughout the year, we would            CRF on their arrival turned out to be          The work to which Rev. Hanko
dare say that he intended the state-            a good barometer of the affection          was called was in part to minister to
ment to be all-inclusive. In every as-          shown them consistently thereafter.        the CRFitself. But hardly was that all.
pect of their life and workin Northern          The children have settled well-into        And a perusal of..Rev. Hanko's
                                                the school situation and have made a       monthly reports gives clear jndica-
                                                good adjustment to life inanother          tion that he has taken. his other re-
                                                country. (In fact, according to .their     sponsibilities seriously.. A bi-weekly
                                                father, they "have been a great help in    newsl,etter,  much of it written by Rev.
Mr. Don Doezema .is secrhy  of the              the work, witnessing to others, and        Hanko, is sent now to more than 400
Domestic Mission Committee.                     being in general an asset to the           addresses in the UK. Bi-monthly ar-
                                                                                                    May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer1377


titles were prepared for two Ulster         faithfully attend all of the special         cilities for worship in Ballymena is
newspapers. Special meetings, at the        meetings  - even when those meet-            not easy, for a little group; so, this
rate of about one per month, were           ings are held in Portadown,  a town          remains a somewhat troublesome
held in various places in Northern          about 60 miles distant from                  aspect of the work of the CRF.
Ireland. Rev. Hanko spoke also at           Ballymena. "Their entire life," ac-                  Overall, however, we echo Rev.
several conferences in England, and,        cording to the two elders who visited        Hanko's sentiments that things are
while he was there, he would conduct        the CRF last fall, "seems to be the          going well. The Mission ,Committee
Sunday services as well. At one point       Fellowshipanditsmembers.  Theydo             is very pleased with Hudsonville's
last fall, a weekof  "Gospel Meetings"      not appear to be wealthy, nor are they       oversight of the field and with the
in Ballymena was followed by a con-         poor, just average families who are          work of their missionary during the
ference sponsored by the British Re-        dedicated to bringing up. their chil-        past year. Further, as we said in our
formed Fellowship in Morley, En-            dren in the fear of the Lord. Family         report to Synod, "the relationship
gland. Looking back, Rev. Hanko             and the church are their whole life."        among the four parties involved (the
counted 14 times that he preached or        The elders found additional evidence         CRF, the missionary, the calling
gave a speech in that 15-day  period.       of that in their visiting a couple of        church, and the Mission Committee)
He returned home, he said, exhausted        catechism classes. They were much            has been marked by harmony. and
. . . but looking forward to the next       impressed by how well the students           cordiality beyond that for which we
conference in Belfast the following         knew theirlessons when they came to          would have dared hope. This part of
week - a conference, incidentally,          class. It was obvious that there had         our labors has therefore been a great
which was not very well attended,           been diligent preparation in the             pleasure, and we thank the Lord for
probablypartlybecausealargebomb             homes. Hardly surprising, is it, that        it."
had exploded in the city the evening        Rev. Hanko is so full of enthusiasm                  (The British Reformed Fellow-
before, and parts of the city were still    about the work!                              ship, incidentally, is sponsoring an-
closed off at the time of the confer-           The Covenant Reformed Fellow-            other "Family Holiday Conference"
ence.                                       ship is small, numbering only 14             this summer in Scotland, with Profs.
    There are also, of course, cat-         adults, three young people, and 13           Engelsma and Hanko being again the
echismclasses to teach, Bible Study to      children (not counting the Hanko             speakers. All of you who are plan-
lead, chapel speeches to give at alocal     tribe). Regular and irregular visitors,      ning to attend do well to try to per-
Christian school, and sermons to pre-       however, can swell that number to            suade your friends to do the same.)
pare-tosaynothingofRev.Hanko's              the point where there can be as many
familyresponsibilities. (Justthetrans-      as 50 in attendance at a worship ser-        Jamaica
porting of his children to and from         vice. And that's stretching the capac-               The work of our churches in Ja-
various schools every day can take          ity of their little rented meeting place.    maica began before any of the current
precious hours out of the workweek.)        If there is one important "negative" in      members of the Mission Committee
But, so far from complaining, Rev.          the work of the CRF, it is probably          had ever served on`a synodical  com-
Hanko views the very busyness of his        this, that their efforts to find a better    mittee. We can well imagine, how-
life as evidence of the Lord's prosper-     place in which to worship have thus          ever, that there must have been a
ing his work in Northern Ireland.           far come to nothing. Last September          good deal of excitement that a door of
    A good part of the reason for his       they made an offer to buy the Salva-         opportunity was  o$ening for the
ability to cope, Rev. Hanko is quick to     tion Army Hall in Ballymena and              churches in a foreign country, with a
say, is that the members of the CRF         wereoptimistic that "before toolong"         people of a different race and culture.
are actively involved in the work.          they would have a building of their          It soon became apparent, however,
One man has taken charge of taping          own. (They even had assurance from           that Jamaica was an ambitious under-
sermons, another of the book store,         theirbankthatthey could obtain a 7%          taking, for a small denomination of
while still another attends to the fi-      loan!) The Salvation Army however            churches whose mission labors had
nances, and someone else takes care         ran into a snag in their own plans to        before been pretty much limited to
of the distribution of the Standard         purchase another facility, so they had       the U.S. and Canada. We had to learn
Bearer and Beacon Lights, while an-         to put the negotiations to sell their        as it were by trial and error -.and,of
otherdistributestapesandpamphlets.          building on hold. Convinced that             the latter there were probably not a
And that's just a beginning. Work           they need a different meeting place,         few. One thing we did learn was that
which can be done by others in the          both because it is inadequate for their      no real progress could be made in the
group is doneby others. The members         current use and because it is an im-         work without `a missionary in the
of the CRF insist on that - so that the     pediment to external growth, the CRF         field. And then that one missionary
missionary can devote his time to           is looking into several other possibili-     was simply not enough. In recogni-
writing and teaching and preaching.         ties, while maintaining periodic con-        tion of that, Synod authorized the
Rev. Hanko notes too, with apprecia-        tact also with the Salvation Army.           calling church to call two missionar-
tion, that the members of the CRF           Finding suitable, and affordable, fa-        ies. To First Church's great dismay,

376lStandard  Bearer /May 15,1994


however, it became apparent, in the          elders of the church of Ephesus, re-       delegation to Alamosa, the consistory
years following the return of Rev.           minding them of his labors among           of Loveland decided to respond to
Bruinsma, that getting even one mis-         them, warning them of the dangers          the call for help by arranging preach-
sionary to labor in the field was prov-      that they would face in the future, and    ing services there as soon as possible,
ing.to be impossible. It is of course the    commending them to the care of the         supplying the group for at least two
Lord who calls His servants, through         Lord. Rev. Joostens' message was           Sundays per month for an initial pe-
His church, to labor where He pleases        received well. And in every instance,      riod of six months, to give the
inHis vineyard. Synod 1993 therefore         they "parted with tears."                  consistory sufficient time to evaluate
concluded that God Himself, in His               Thus ended a long chapter in the       the work. Loveland decided, too, to
wise providence, hadnot "enabled us          work of the Mission Committee. First       communicate at once with the Mis-
to work the vast and difficult field in      Church ,of Grand Rapids, we think,         sion Committee, in order to make the
Jamaica as this kind of field requires."     deserves the gratitude of the churches     work from the very outset a coopera-
Synod then instructed the calling            for their conscientious labors, on be-     tive endeavor. They realized also
church and the Mission Committee to          half of the denomination. Those most       that, though they intended to involve
fl do whatever is necessary to close the     closely connected with the work un-        their own congregation in the sup-
field in an orderly and brotherlyman-        derstand well that it was a privilege      port of the work, they needed some
ner."                                        to be involved in it. To labor for and     financial assistance in order to con-
    That was the sad task of the two         among the dear saints of God in Ja-        duct the work they had in mind.
bodies this past year. First Church          maica was a delightful experience and          It did seem to the Mission Com-
wrestledlongand hard with the ques-          spiritually rewarding. At the same         mittee thatioveland wouldbe better
tionofhowbesttoimplementSynod's              time, the work did demand a great          advised to begin more slowly - by,
instruction. They decided at length,         deal of time and energy, was often         forexample,holdingmid-weekmeet-
in consultation with the Mission Com-        frustrating . . . and has now ended in     ings for the purpose of Bible Study, or
mittee, to send Rev. Joostens (pastor        sad disappointment. For that labor         to give instruction in various points
of First Church) and Rev. Gritters           we sincerely thank the calling church,     of Reformed doctrine. Loveland was
(member of the Mission Committee)            its pastor, and its Jamaica Mission        however convinced that the circum-
to visit Jamaica for a ten-day period,       Committee.                                 stances called for more. They saw an
in order 1) to visit each congregation                                                  "open door" in Alamosa, and rea-
to explain the decisions of Synod and        San Luis Valley                            soned that, since the preachingis what
to encourage the saints in their faith;          The Mission Committee mean-            makes us distinctive and is the chief
2) to ask for a meeting of the Jamaica       while began to cooperate with              means of grace, it ought to be started
Classis in order to provide spiritual        Loveland PRC in an exciting work in        as soon as possible.
encouragement for the leaders of the         southern Colorado. Back in May of              Content to let the localconsistory
various congregations; and 3) to re-         last year Loveland followed up some        take the lead in such activity, the
view all legal documents with the            written correspondence with various        Mission Committee agreed to assist
officers ofthe ,Classis,  and update         individuals in the San Luis Valley by      in the work as outlined by Loveland.
them if necessary.                           sending their. pastor, then Rev. Ro-       And, after having read the reports of
    From the report of the emissaries        nald Cammenga, along with a couple         those who have labored there (minis-
we conclude:that  they carried out           of elders, to meet with a group of         ters both from  Classis West and
their mandate well. They met with as         people in Alamosa, one of the two          Classis East, including several mem-
many individuals as possible; but the        main towns in the valley. Of the five      bers of the Mission Committee), we
majority of time was spent with the          families (and two individuals) repre-      are fully persuaded that things are
pastors, in order to encourage them          sented at that meeting, most were          going well. In addition to making all
to continue the work of the ministry         members of another Reformed church         the arrangements for a preaching
in their churches. The emissaries tes-       in the area but were dissatisfied with     schedule, Loveland has seen to it that,
tified that it was "a most difficult task    recent developments in it  - espe-         on a regular basis, a member of the
to convey the  .decision of our              cially, they said, the many changes        Council is in attendance at the wor-
churches." With respect both to lead-        that had been introduced into the          ship service in Alamosa. This interest
ers,and  parishioners, individuals and       worship services by those who were         and involvement on the part of
groups, the response was great dis-          determinedtobe"progressive."  Some         Loveland is much appreciated by the
couragement. They simply cannot              of them had been listening to sermon       group -as is also the preaching. The
imagine continued existence without          tapes sent them by Loveland, and the       people there speak often of the great
the help of the Protestant Reformed          older members of the group noted           difference between what they had
Churches in America.        :,               with appreciation that that kind of        been receiving in their former
    Rev. Joostens preached -from             preaching was like what they used to       churches and what they are receiving
church to church from A.cts 20, the          hear. And all wanted to hear more.         from the ministers of the PRC. One of
passage in which Paul speaks to the              On the basis of the report of their    the elderly ladies, in fact, asked a

                                                                                                 May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer1379


visitor from our churches, "Are you,       rations for a lecture, and the students     sionary will labor in the SanLuis
after having heard this kind of preach-    themselves benefited from the expe-         Valley until the will of the Lord is.
ingallyourlife, as touchedandmoved         rience. Rev. Terpstra was moved to          accomplished there, but be available
as we are when we hear it?" Ah, yes        write, "I believe that there is a proper    also for short periods of time to inves-
- as an elder- from Loveland put it,       place for this kind of practical assis-     tigate other areas of interest as they
"We have so much to be thankful            tance in our mission work and hope          arise. And when mission work in this
for!"                                      that their contribution begins a new        particular area is terminated (either
    The group, according to one of         tradition for the use of our college        because. a church is organized or. the
the ministers who preached for them,       students' spring break.")                   work is .unfruitful) the missionary
is "aninterestingmixture of relatively         Already last fall the members of        will move elsewhere, still under the
new converts to the Reformed faith,        the "core group" voted unanimously          oversight of Loveland's consistory.
andthose  establishedin the Reformed       to have as their ultimate goal that they         This is different from our recent
faith." Taken together, he continued,      be established as a Protestant Re-          practice of calling a man only to an
they have both enthusiasm and sta-         .formedChurch.  Theywished to have          officially declared field. But, at the
bility. Another of our ministers noted     that goal as a matter of record, so that    same. time, the calling of a home-
that he saw in the core group evi-         they would be better able to tell visi-     missionary for the work as we have
dence of a solid base for a future         tors to their worship services who          envisioned it, has abundant and solid
congregation. He was impressed, he         and what they are. They understand          precedent in the history of missions in
said, "by the potential officebearer       well, however, that, given their cur-       our churches. Surely, as it seems to
material, by the great appreciation        rent numbers, much work must be             us, it will help the Mission Committee
for the preaching and reading ser-         done before -they would be able to          to fulfill its mandate to find fields'and
mons of the PRC, by the earnestness        realize that goal. They therefore fol-      recommend them to the churches.
of their faith, and by their               lowed that decision with a formal           And it will alleviate the problems
teachability."                             request that the work in the San Luis       attendant upon declaring an area a
     (We would be remiss were we not       Valley "gain official mission status by     field too soon . . . or too late; or declar-
to mention that, during their spring       the PRC."                                   ing an area a field and being unable to
vacation this year, three members of                                                   secure a man to work it; or having to
our churches who attend Dordt Col-         Home-missionary                             "prove" viability before a man can be
lege traveled to the San Luis Valley to        Though the work of Loveland in          sent to an area to discoverbyworking
be of assistance, if they could, in the    Alamosa is being done as best it can        in it whether or not it is "viable"; or,
work. This was motivated, appar-           be done at present, a labor of this sort    after working a declared field for a
ently, by the fact that a number of        demands the presence of a mission-          time, and seeing little growth, having
Dordt students regularly take advan-       ary, to live with the members of the        to decide when and on what grounds
tage of spring break to go to missions     group - to minister to their needs          it can be "closed."           :
of their own denomination to help in       and to help them work the field. The             TheMissionCommitteeisexcited
various ways. So, with the approval        Mission Committee has advised that          about this one. As is also. Loveland,
of Loveland Consistory, and to the         that kind of provision be made by           and the brothers and sisters w:ith
delight of Rev. Terpstra, the three        Synod 1994for the San Luis Valley -         whom we are laboring in the San,Luis,
(Julie Bekkering, Jennifer Buys, and       howbeit, not by "declaring it a field."     Valley. We look, of course, to Synod .
Gary Eriks) traveled by car to Colo-       We have decided, rather, toaskSynod         for instruction in this matter - and
rado to help out on our "field." Mem-      to approve Loveland PRC as the call-        surely also to the Kingof  the church to
bers of the mission group enjoyed          ing church for a home-missionary,           incline the heart of a man to accept a
their presence, Rev. Terpstra was able     whose labors would begin in the San         call to serve, in whatever way Synod
to make very good use of their help in     L u i s   V a l l e y .                     under the guidance of the Spirit deems
[among other things] making prepa-             The idea here is that such a mis-       wise, as missionary on the homefront.


                                                                                       .

Divorce and Remarriage: Biblical               This is a careful, thorough treat-      page section of biblical exposition is a
Principles and Pastoral Practice, by       ment of Scripture's teaching on mar-        200-page section devoted to instruc-
Andrew Cornes. Grand Rapids:               riage, divorce, and remarriage. Al-         tion of officebearers and congrega-
WilliamB.EerdmansI?ublishingCom-           though concentrating on marriage,           tion concerning pastoral practice.
pany, 1993. 528 pp. $24.99 (paper).        the book does justice to the single life         Anglican minister Andrew
[Reviewed by the Editor.]                  as a blessed, preferable way of life for    `Comes demonstrates that it is the
                                           some Christians. Following the 300-         doctrine -of Christ and Paul, that is,

3WStandard  Bearer /May  15,1994


the New Testament, that divorce is              joined a man and his wife together           author stuck. He rightly condemns
permitted only in the case of the sexual         (9). Hehascreatedamarriage"yoke"            "a service of blessing" for a remar-
infidelity of. one's mate and that re-           (9) or unity (8) or bond (I Cor. 7~39).     riage, that is, a ceremony in which the
marriage is always forbidden as long             Since, even after divorce, to marry         pastor or church blesses the remar-
as one's husband or wife is still living.        someone else is to commit adultery          riage that has just been performed by
                                                 (11, 12), clearly this marriage bond
Taking sharp issue with virtually all            still remains, even after legal divorce.    a civil magistrate since the church
of Protestant thinking today, Cornes             Therefore full divorce-in the sense         refused to be involved. But Cornes is
contends that the Bible forbids the              of the "dissolution" or elimination~of      forced to approve the church's subse-
remarriage also of the so-called inno-           the marriage bond - is not some-            quent prayer on behalf of this remar-
cent party.                                      thing which any legal process is ca-        riage:
                                                 pable of achieving. Only death dis-
  This book is convinced that in Mat-            solves the bond (Rom. 7:3; I Cor.             Can it be right later on to pray for the
  thew 19:9 - as in Mark lO:lO-12,               239) (p. 193).                                healing  of a second marriage that has
  Luke 16:18,  and Matthew 5:27-32  -                                                          run into difficulties or for the contin-
  .Christ prohibits remarriage even in             The reason why the churches and             ued growth of a happy remarriage?
  the case of divorce for adultery . ..(p.     their theologians, ministers, andmar-           We saw in chapter 10 that the new
  3 0 5 ) .                                    riage counsellors  permit remarriage            couple have entered into a marriage
                  `_                           is that they do not know the reality of         covenant. They should not have done
        The one text that might possibly       marriage: "People today do not un-              so, but they have; and that covenant
be understood to allow for the remar-          derstand the New Testament posi-                is now binding on them. They can-
riage of the "innocent party" is Mat-                                                          not repudiate it at will; they should
                                               tion on divorce and remarriage be-              not repudiate it, even if they subse-
thew 19:9. Cornesrejects this popular          cause they have never understood                quently realize it was a mistake (cf.
interpretation and convincingly                what, according to the Bible, happens           Eccles.  54-7).  Therefore it is entirely
shows that Jesus in fact is teaching           at marriage" (p. 288).                          right that Christians should pray for
that "it is always wrong to remarry in             The one area of weakness in this            a second marriage that has run into
the lifetime of your divorced partner"         powerful, courageouspresentationis              difficulties to be sustained. But it
(p. 220). Especially. the surprise'of the      Comes' tolerance of those who are               cannot be right at the very beginning
disci$es at Jesus' teaching and Jesus!         already divorced and remarried as               of the marriage for the Church to
response to this surprise (w. 1Off.)           members of the church, especially if            give its seal of approval (which is
lead Cornes to the conclusion that                                                             how it is inevitably seen) by offering
                                               they  remarried in ignorance of the             a service of blessing. This must be
Matthew 19:9 teaches that "a man               biblical teaching. This tolerance is            withheld (pp. 483,484).
may divorce his wife for marital un-           cautious and unenthusiastic, even
faithfulness, but anyone who divorces          grudging. It demands repentance for               Like the section of biblical exposi-
his wife and marries another woinan            the sin of adultery in every case. It         tion, the section on pastoral practice
- for whatever reason - com,mits               seems to call for stripping remarried         is outstanding, with the exception
adultery!' (p. 236).            :              officebearers of their office. But there      just noted. Cornes pleads for educa-
  : -,The basisfor  this view of divorce       is' this tolerance.                           tion of the members of the church in
and remarriage, is the biblical truth                                                        the truths of singleness, marriage,
about martiage.' Marriage is `an un-             Repentance will not mean breaking           divorce, and remarriage. He calls for
breakablebondbetween one man and                 up a remarriage that hasalreadybeen         a "caring" that sympathetically helps
one woman formed by God Himself.                 ,entered into, but it will mean recog-      thpsein marital distress and that dares
Death alone as the dissolving act of             nizmg  that this second marriage -          to  discipline those who sinfully di-
God breaks the bond. Divorce in the              however much it is, rightly, a cause        vorce and who remarry. Reconcilia-
sense of the dissolving .of the mar-             of praise to God - should not have          tion  must be the church's aim, al-
riage is, therefore, not only forbid-            been embarked upon, and attempt-
                                               mg to be reconciled  - to ask, to             though this involves strenuous effort.
den, but also impossible. Accord-'               receive and to give forgiveness  -          In a culture dominated by the think-
ingly, every subsequent remarriage is            with one's first partner (p. 412).          ing and behavior of the world, the
adultery.                                                                                    church must see her calling to be that
                                                    Comes ignores the truth that on          she  "bear(s) witness to God's stan-
   Jesus' teaching (in Mark lO:l-12 -          his own (biblical) view those who are         dards, to Christ's teaching" (p. 465).
   DJE) also means that ,divorce - at          remarried after divorce are involved               This is a splendid, timely, and
   least in the sense in whichthe  Phari-      in an ongoing adulterous relation-
   sees thought of it-is not only wrong                                                      rare book. Above all, it is a book that
   (?).but  is impossible.. Again,.it is of    ship. He also fails to note that genuine      is  uncompromisingly faithful to Scrip-
   course perfectly.possible  to secure a      repentance invariably consists of tum-        ture in a matter -marriage-that is
   divorce that is valid from the,legal        ing from the sin that is repented of.         simply crucial to the life of the Chris-
   pointofview. Butitisnotpossibleto           His tolerance of (repentant) remar-           tian and to the existence of the church.
  `undo what God has done, God has             ried persons in the church runs the           It is the best book that I have read on
  >'
                                                                                                        May 15,1994/Standard  Bearer/351


the subject, and I have read many.              de-emphasized and even abandoned.           Scripturereading: theregulativeprin-
        Published by Eerdmans (to their         This is not only being done in circles      ciple, modem translations, annotated
credit), it will have to be acknowl-            where contemporary forms of wor-            Bibles,red-letterBibles,etc. Inbroadly
edged by evangelicals  who have long            ship are being used, but also in more       addressing himself to whatever de-
since abandoned the biblical prin-              solid and staid churches which hold         tracts from thereadingof God's Word,
ciples that the book advocates and              to traditional forms to worship God.        he takes on charismatics and the prac-
who approve the same easy unfaith-              He contends for the fact that Scrip-        tice of putting unbelievers into office
fulness on the part of married persons          ture reading has always been consid-        in the church.
toGodandtoeachotherthatthebook                  ered an essential aspect of worship             -Addingto  the value of the bookis
condemns. What will these evan-                 and that its demise or de-emphasis is       an appendix which gives the debate
gelicals say about it? 1                        contrary to the Word of God. He             which was carried on at the
                                                points out that Scripture requires it       Westminster Assembly concerning
                                                and that the Reformed and Presbyte-         Scripture reading inthe worship ser-
Many Verses!, by Ernest Springer.               rian tradition insist upon it, even to      vices.
Audubon, NJ: Old Paths Publica-                 the point that commonly two entire              -The bookis an excellent reminder
tions, 1993, i-ii, 73pp. $4.95 (paper).         chapters were read in the worship           that, after all, sometimes the reading
[Reviewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.]               service. Whatever the motives of the        of God's Word is the best part of the"
                                                minister maybe, and sometimes these         worship service.
        The subtitle of this little book in-    motives are-only to free up more time           I cannot resist the temptation to
forms us of its main contents: "The             for the sermon, the reading of` the         add that ministers ought to read the
importance of reading the Scriptures            Scriptures is crucial in Reformed           Word of God fluently, without mis-
in Reformed worship."                           worship.                                    takes, and with proper emphasis -
        The author is concerned, and                In dealing with the subject, Mr.        something which requires careful
rightly so, that Scripture reading as a         Springer takes the opportunity to dis-      preparation.  c]
part of worship is increasingly being           cuss other matters connected with
                                                                                                                          .             .:,     i
                                                                                                                       ,;y  I>  .>..,"  ..,.

                                                                                                 hjk  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

                                                                                                                :

Minister Activities                             the list of pastors with longest years          The popularity of this particular
        Subsequent to the writing of our        of continuous service in one congre-        retreat is starting to be seen, in that
last news column, both of our vacant            gation. Only Rev. B. Woudenberg             there were more participants this year
churches (the newly-organized                   has served a church longer, having          than in the past. In fact, some first-
Georgetown PRC in Bauer, MI and                 been in our Kalamazoo, MI PRC for           time participants from Michigan have
the Hudsonville,`MI PRC) met in con-            over. 17 years. These two are still out-    even confided that,, they intendto
gregational meetings to call a pastor.          distanced, however, by Profs. R.            move out to Loveland permanently
Both these congregations have ex-               Decker and H. Hanko, who have               when they. get a little old,er ,(Maybe
tended calls to Rev. C. Haak, pres-             served our churches in common in.           we should not encourage. our sons
ently serving as pastor of the Lynden,          our seminary for 21 and 29 yea&             and daughters tbgo next year.) ,_
WA PRC.                                         respectively.                                   The Council of our Hull, IA I?&
        In a matter somewhat related to                                                     recently informed their congregation
the above, Rev. G. VanBaren has cho-            Congregational Activities                   that the Orthodox Presbyterian
sen Sunday, May 8th, as his farewell                This year marked the 4th annual         Church, also of Hull, IA, will not be
to the Hudsonville congregation,                Young Adult Spring Retreat, spon-           able to keep their commitment to
which he has served for over 16 years.          sored again by our Loveland, CO             purchase their oldchurch. However,
Plans call for the VanBarens  to arrive         PRC. As in past years, the young            Hull's Council did give them permis-
in Loveland, CO sometime in early               adults met at the Covenant Heights          sion to continuerentingit through the
June, D.V.                                      Conference Center in beautiful Estes        month of June.
        You might also be interested to         Park, CO. Revs. R. Cammenga and.C.              At the request `of many in the
know that Rev. VanBaren, with his 16            Terpstra were the featured speakers.        congregation of our Byron Center, MI
years at Hudsonville, was second on             again this year. `They developed the        PRC, their .program committee once
                                                theme of "Christian Liberty."               again sponsored. a Request Night on
                                                    Scheduled around these speeches         April 17.: Byron's congregation was
                                                and discussion groups were all the          encouraged to sign up if they felt they
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Profesfanf        usual retreat activities, and some not      had a special talent, or if they knew
Reformed Church of Hudsonville,Michi-           so usual, like going, snowshoeing'in        someone who did.
gun.                                            the Rocky Mountain National Park                The Council of our Lynden, WA

382lStandard  Bearer /Iday 15,iQW


PRC recently formed a committee to                preach for them. Rev. A. denHartog,           Young People's Convention in
organize their efforts of help to the             pastor of the Hope PRC in Redlands,           Lynden, WA will be allowed to use
Sovereign Grace Reformed Church of                CA, was scheduled to preach there at          the grounds of Covenant Christian
Spokane, WA. Evidently as part of                 the end of April.                             School for camping. The charge is to
this effort, Rev. Robert Hargrove,                                                              `be a freewill donation to the school.
pastor of this church, visited our con-           Denominational Activities                     Covenant will make available the use
gregationinlynden.  Lynden's.Coun-                    Our own PR Seminary sponsored             of showers and bathrooms in their
cil arranged for Rev. Hargrove to                 a series of lectures by Dr. John H.           new school building. Electrical use
speak to the congregation on his and              Gerstner, Professor Emeritus of Pitts-        will also be allowed, but on a minimal
his church's history and background.              burgh Theological Seminary, on  Rri-          basis. Interested? Call Mr. Monte
He planned to meet with the Council               day, Apri122, at the Southwest PRC in         Stap at 206-354-7063 with questions
later that night, and he agreed to                Grandville, MI. At 10:00  A.M.  Dr.           or to make reservations. 0
speak at a chapel at Covenant Chris-              Gerstner spoke on the topic, ti An Ex-
tian School the following day. In an              amination of the Well-meant Offer of          Foodfor %iou#it
effort to help this small congregation            the Gospel"; and at 2:00 P.M. he spoke                True conversion is a lifelongpro-
become better grounded in the Re-                 on "The State of Presbyterianism To-          cess. Consequently there is only one
formed faith and to move in the direc-            day." A discussion period followed            relevant question: In which direction
tion of closer fellowship with our                each lecture.                                 are you traveling: to Christ, or away
denominationin thetruthof the Word                    We can also let the word out that         from Him?
of God, Lynden has also arranged for              families coming with campers, RVs,                                 - Abraham Kuyper
other of $our churches' pastors to                tents, or the like to this summer's




                                                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
                                                      The Consistory of the Hudsonville
                                                  Protestant Reformed Church express
                                                  their sympathy to Deacon Mark
                                                  Engelsma and his family in the death
     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                          of his father,
    On May 30,1994,                                    MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA,                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
hh. and MRS. TOM SPRIENSMA,                       whom the Lord took unto himself on                    The Ladies' Aid "Ruth" of Hope
God wilting, will celebrate their 45th            April 4, 1994.                                Church, Walker, Michigan wishes to
wedding'anniversary. We, their chil-                  May they find comfort in the words        express its sincere Christian sympa-
dren and grandchildren, "wish to ex-              of- Psalm 116:i 5: "Precious in the           thy to Mrs. Dena Engelsma and family
press our love`and gratitude for their            sight of the Lord is the death of his         in the death of her husband, father,
cotien$nt nurture, and-for their faith-           saints."                                      and grandfather and to  Johanna
fulness to'thetruth once delivered to                   Pastor G. VanBaren, President           Bomers, Eilene Terpstra, Dorothy
t h e   s a i n t s .                                               Henry Boer, Secretary       Engelsma, and Josie Koole in the
     "The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord                                                          death of their brother and brother-in-
is thy shade upon thy right hand....                                                            law,
The Lord shall preserve thy going out               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA.
and thy coming in from this time forth,              The Men's Society of the Hope                      May they be comforted by the
even for evermore" (Psalm 21:5, 8).               Protestant Reformed Church, Walker,           promises of God's Word and sus-
0 Ike and Jeanne Spriensma                        mourns the loss of a faithful member,         tained by His grace. "Behold, God is
0 Peter and Dorothy VanDer Schaaf                      MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA,                      my salvation; I will trust and not be
$ Rev. Audred and Alva Spriensma                  who was taken to his eternal home.            afraid: for the Lord, Jehovah is my
0. Howard and Eileen Pastoor                      We express our sincere Christian sym-         strength and my song; he also is be-
0 Randy and Sue Spriensma                         pathyto hiswife,  Mrs. DenaEngelsma,          come my salvation" (Isaiah 12:2).
0 Phil and Helen VanDer Wall                      and family. May they find comfort in                          Tom DeVries,  President
    28 grandchildren  `.                          the words expressed in Isaiah 25:8,                    Delores Kuiper, Vice-Secretary
                         Qrandvllle,  Michigan    "He will swallow up death in victory;
                                                  and the.Lord  God will wipe away tears
                                                  from off all faces."
                                                              Peter Petroelje,  President
                                                                    John ,Kuiper,  Secretary

                                                                                                             May 15,1994/Standard  Bearen'


                   FE
           g)Yj@yNDmD
              ~$g&EJ?j                                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                  Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                  Grandville, Michigan
              P. 0. Box 603
             @ydyille, MI 49468-0603
,          `..        `
                       _-
      I                                                                                                                                               I
      RF$QLlJiiOtf                 OF3YMPATHY                                                                         ANNIVERSARY
           I . . The faculty, staff,.and  student body                                                          Southeast Protestant Reformed
      &the-Protestant Reformed Seminary,                                                                   Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan will
      and the Theologi&al  School Commit-                          CALL TO SYNOD!!                         celebrate its
      tet+ extend their sympathy to ,Prof.                     Synod 1993 appointed Faith Prot-                    50th ANNIVERSARY
      David 31 Engelsma and his family in                 estant Reformed Church, Jenison, Ml              on June lO,il, 12, 1,994.
      the$?ath  of Prof. Engelsma's father,               the calling church for the 1994 Synod.                Former members and friends are
                   .-`L: : DEWEY ENGELSMA.                    The Consistory hereby notifies                invited to join us. The theme for this
              r"And I heard a voice from heaven           our churches that the 1994 Synod of              commemoration is: ,,-"God's  Great
      saying unto me, "Write,  Blessed are                the Protestant Reformed Churches in               Faithfulness."
      the dead which die in the Lord from                 Americawill convene, the Lord willing,
      henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that             on Tuesday, June 7,1994 at 9:00 A.M.
      they may rest from their labours; and               in the Faith Protestant Reformed
      their works do follow them" (Revela-                Church, Jenison, Ml.
      tion 14:13).                                            The Pre-Synodical Service will be
                    Prof. Robert D. Decker, Rector        held on Monday evening, June 6, at
                                                          7:30 P.M. Rev. Slopsema, president of
             RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       the 1993 Synod, will preach the ser-
                   The Staff of the StandardBearer        mon.  Synodical delegates are re-
      extends its sympathy to the Editor-in- quested to meet with the Consistory
      Chief, Prof. David J. Engelsma, and                 before the service.                                      TEACHERNEEDED
      his family in the death of Prof.                        Delegates in need of lodging                      Covenant Christian High School
      Engelsma's father,                                  should contact Mr. Andrew Brummel,               is seeking applicants for a Choir Di-
                     D E W E Y   E N G E L S M A .        240  Suncrest Ct., Grandville, Ml                rector. Applicantsforthis position are
              ."The Lord redeemeth the soul of            49416. Phone: (616) 667-l 376.                   asked to call Agatha Lubbers at the
      his servants: and none of them that                                          Consistory of           school: 453-5048 or home: 458-
      trust in him shall be desolate" (Psalm                Faith Protestant Reformed Church               2057, or write the school at
      34:22).                                                       Andrew A. Brummel, Clerk.                       1401 Ferndale S.W.
             Prof. Robert D. Decker, Secretary j                                                      I          Grand Rapids, Ml 49504.

                                                          from The First Epistle of Clement
                                                                   to the Corinthians
                                                          us esteem those who have the rule                Let your children be partakers of
                      Let usreflect how near He is,       over us; let us honour the agedamong             .true `Christian training; let them
              and that none of the thoughts or            us; let us train up the young men in leam,of  how great avail humility
              reasonings in which we engage               the fear of God; let us direct our wives         is with God - how much the
              are hid from Him. It is right,              to that which is good. Let them ex-              spirit of pure affection can pre-
              therefore, that we should not leave         hibit the lovely habit of purity [in alI         vail with Him - how excellent
              the post which His will has as-             their conduct]; let them show forth              and great. His fear is, and how it
              signed us. Let us rather. offend            the sincere disposition of meekness;             saves all those who walk in it
              those men who are foolish, and              let them make manifest the command               with a pure mind. For He is a
              inconsiderate, and lifted up, and           which they have of their tongue, by              Searcher of the thoughts and de-
              who glory in the pride of their             their manner of speaking; let them               sires [of the heart]: His breath is
              speech, than [offend] God. Let us           display their love, not by preferring            in us; and when He pleases, He
              reverence the Lord Jesus Christ,            one to another, but by showing eqral             will take it away.
              whose blood was given for us; let           affection'to all that piously fear God.                                A.D. ca 95-100


      3WStandard  Bearer #day  1!5,1994


