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A Reformed
      "                                  BBER
Semi-Monthly
M a a a z i n e
                                                                            .,
                                               ..:-
                                               ,,,/           I    . ,,
                                               I,..    .-:                 2:
                                                                      i    -





                                                                                           PRC Synod 1994


                                         I/                                      ..,,,,
Vol. 70, Nor-
Jzlly, 1994


                                                                                                                                                                                     - .-
CONTENTS:                                                                                                               July,  1994
 L                                                                                                                                                  I
Meditation - Rev. James D. Slopsema
       The Church: Pillar and Ground of the Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..m*. 409
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
       PRC Synod of Faith, Jenison, 1994 . . . . . ..I....................................... 411                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
Letters            ,,......,,..,,.,,,...,,...,,,......,,,.,.II.............~................................~......                      414             Semi-monthly, except monthfy during June, July, and August.
Synodical Delegates at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*...............................................                         415             Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                         4940 lvenrest  Ave., Grendvllle, MI 46416. Second Class
Seminary Graduation Address - Prof. Robert D. Decker'                                                                                                    Postage P&l at Qrandvllle, Michigan.
       Farewell, Brothers .,.,.,.........,.,.........................~.....................~~........                                    416             Postmssten Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHattog                                                                                                                        P.O. Box 66% Qrandville, MI 464666663.
       Be Ye Angry and Sin Not (2) ,,.....~..........I.,........,.......,.,...........,......                                            418             EPtTORtAL  COMMtlTEE
Special Article - Rev. Char/es Terpstra                                                                                                                  Editor. Prof. David J. Engalsma
                                                                                                                                                         Becretery: Prof. Robart D. Decker
       A Critique of Modern Church-GroWth Evangelism (3) . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . .., 420                                                         Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                             DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
       Peter Datheen: Father of Reformed Liturgy (2)                                                                                                     Rev. Wilbur Brulnsma. Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                         Decker, Rev. Ade denHartog, Rev. Barry Qritters,  Rev. Cari
          The Reformation in the Netherlands ..,......,...`........,............,...... 423                                                              Ha& Rev. Cornelius Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                                                              Hey& Rev. Steven Key, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Laming,
                                                                                                                                                         Rev. George l~~bbers, Mm. MeryBeth Lubbers. Rev. Thomas
       Ministers Attending Classis .*......,..,.......,..........,..........,..........,....*.                                           425             Miemma, Rev. Audmd Spriensma, Rev. Charles Terpstra,
Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.................................................*.........        427             Rev. Qiw VanBaren, Rev. RonaldVanDvertoop.  Mr. Benjamin
                                                                                                                                                         Wlgger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428
                                                                                                                                                         EDtTORtAL  OFFtCE          CHURCH NEWS EDfTOR
                                                                                                              ~                         *,,+"                                       Mr. Ben Wigger
      &I  Th!is  /SSiLKg   "o,                                                                                ._.               ,        *., u,s. -.:    The Standard Bearer
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grave men. The grave men conduct the business of the solemn assembly in a formal,                                                                        P.O. Box 663               66 Fraser St.
dignified, orderly way.                                                                                                                                  Grandville, MI             Wainuicmata, New Zealand
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       This is as it should be.                                                                                                                          WI: (616) 631-1466         c/o Mr. Jmathsn hfcAuley
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Synods are church assemblies treating "ecclesiastical matters," according to Articles 29                                                                                            Northern Ireland
and30oftheChurchOrderofDordt. Thechurchof  theGodwhoseperfectionisholiness                                                                               EDtTORtAL  POLtcY
                                                                                                                                                         Every editor is sol&y responsible for ths contents of his own
has her own "ecclesiastical manner," and to this manner belong solemnity and                                                                             artides.  ConMbutlonsdgweralinterestfromwrmadsmaml
                                                                               orderliness.                                                              qwstions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
                                                                                         Gravity, however, is not the                                    Ccntrlbuttons wiif  be limlad to appmximatefy 366 words and
                                                                                                                                                         mustbe~~~enottypammsn,andmustbesigned.  Copy
                                                                               same as pomposity and an oozing pi-                                       deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                               ety. The apostle does not require the                                     communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
                                                                               bishop to be a stuffed-shirt.                                             edltorlal ofnoa.
                                                                                         Nor is the synod without its                                    REPRINT POLtCY
                                                                               lighter moments - the witticism,`the                                      Permissionisherebygrantedtw~reprintingofarticlesinour
                                                                                                                                                         ~azinabyotherpublkations,pmvided:e)tha~mprinted
                                                                               funny misstatement, the self-depreca-                                     artkles are mproduced ln fug; b) that proper acknowledgment
                                                                               tion, a playful give-and-take. Now                                        is made; 0) that a copy of the pedodical k, which such reprint
                                                                               and then there is even the sound of                                       eppears IS sent to our edmlal ofnw.
                                                                               laughter.                                                                 SUBScAlPlfON  POLtcY
                                                                                         But it is the times-in-between-                                 Subsoriptfon  prlw: $12.66 per year In the U.S., $15.00
                                                                                                                                                         etsewtmre. Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
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                                                                               -that become opportunities for con-                                       ar~ptiontocarthrw,andhewillbebilledforrenewal.  ffyou
                                                                               versation, banter, humor, a joke or                                       ~wa~eofaddress,pleasenomyMeBusi~saOfliceas
                                                                                                                                                         early as possibfe in order to avoid the inconvenience of
                                                                               two. These too make up the fellowship                                     kmrrupted dellvery. Indude your 73~ or Postal Code.
                                                                               of brothers and co-workers when, on                                       ADVBRTISINQ POLtcY
                                                                               the rare occasion, they canbe together.                                   The StandardBeemrdoes  not accept commercial advertising
                                                                                         You will not find this behavior                                 d my kind. Anwuncements of church and school events,
                                                                               and these words in the "Acts of Synod                                     snntversades,  obituaries, and sympathy rasofutions will be
                                                                                                                                                         plawdfora33.00fee. Theseahoutdbewnttothe  Business
                                                                               of the Protestant Reformed Churches                                       Dfflceandahouldbeaccompaniedbythe33.M)fee. Deadline
                                                                               1994."                                                                    for annmmcements  is at least cne month prior to publicatlcn
                                                                                         But these things also in their                                  date.
                                                                               own way made our synod what it was.                                       BOUND VOLUMEB
                                                                                         And it was good.                                                The Buslwas Dffloe will accept standlng orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                         copiesofthecurrsntvotume. Suchordersarefilledassoonas
                                                                                                                                      -DE                pmslble  after compWan da volume yaw.
                Rev. Richard Moore and                                                                                                                   16mm microfilm.  35mm mkrofilm snd 166mm microfiche, and
                             "The Tie"                                                                                                                   artfde  coplee are  avallabte through  Unlvemky  Mlcrofflma
                                                                                                                                                         Intarnatlonat.
410IStandard  Bearer/July, 1994


                   The Church: Pillar and
                           Ground of the Truth

    . . . the house of God,. which is the                This means, first, that He is the    upon a sure foundation, the roof is
church of the living God, the pillar and        true God.                                     upheld securely.
ground of the truth.                                     Timothy labored in Ephesus, a            By calling the church the pillar
                          I Timothy 3:15b       city given over to idolatry. The idol         and ground of the truth, the holy
                                                gods of Ephesus were not. They had            Scriptures indicate that the church
    This epistle was written by Paul            norealbeing. Theyexistedonlyinthe             serves to uphold the truth. Even as a
to Timothy, whom Paul had installed             superstitiousminds of the Ephesians.          roof is securely upheld by the pillar
as minister in the church of Ephesus.                    Over against these idols is the      and foundation, so is the truth se-
    Inchapters2and3Paulsetsdown                 true God, who has life and being. The         curely upheld by the church of the
certain regulations for the life and            life God lives is a covenant life. God        living God.
workings of the church. Directions              is triune. He is three persons living in          The church upholds the truth as
are given for the public worship of the         the one divine Being. As such He              pillar and ground in a number of
church. Qualifications for elders and           enjoys  .an eternal life of friendship        ways.
deacons are also given.                         and fellowship within Himself. He is              First, she does this by proclaim-
    Paul concludes this section by              the living God.                               ing the truth. God has given the truth
indicating that he hopes to come to                      That God is the living God means     to the church and charged her to pro-
Timothy more quickly than first an-             also that He is the source of life. As        claim it to the nations. This she has
ticipated. Yet, he says, he may be              Creator of the heavens and the earth,         done down through the ages. In this
delayed. So he writes all these things          He is the source of all physicallife. As      way she has served as pillar and
in order that Timothy might know                Savior He is the source of a higher,          ground of the truth.
how he is to-behave himself in the              spiritual life. God has eternally cho-            Secondly, the churchupholds the
house of God, which is the church of            sen to Himself a people, with whom            truth by defending the truth over
the living God, the pillar and ground           He will share His own divine cov-             against the lie of the devil. Through-
of the truth.                                   enant life. He accomplishes this              out history the truth has been at-
    The church of the living God is             through His Son Jesus Christ, who             tacked repeatedly. It is the calling of
the pillar and ground of the truth.             rescues His people from their sins,           the church, to which God has given
    What an amazing reality!                    reconciles them to God, transforms            the truth, to defend the truth over
    Let the 1994 Synod do its workin            them into the very image of God, and          against every heresy out of hell. When
the realization of this reality.                thus draws them into the wonderful            the church is faithful to her calling,
    And let the 1994 Synod take deci-           life of God's friendship and fellow-          she serves thus as pillar and ground
sions that promote andnothinder the             ship.                                         of the truth.
Protestant Reformed Churches in                          When Paul speaks to Timothy of           Thirdly, the church upholds the
their glorious capacity as pillar and           the truth, he has in mind this truth          truth by developing it. The truth
ground of the truth,                                                                          concerning the living God as revealed
         *  *  *  +  *  *  *                    concerning the living God;
                                                         This truth is revealed dimly in      in Holy Writ is an infinite deep. The
    The church of the living God is             creation. This truth is revealed more         more we study it the more we realize
the pillar and ground of the truth.             clearly and fully in Holy Scripture.          there are depths of the truth that we
    Notice that God, here, is identi-           The church serves as the pillar and           have not yet begun to plumb. It is the
fied as the living God.                         ground of this truth.                         task of the church to mine from the
                                                         Pillar and ground call to mind a     Scriptures'the infinite riches of the
Rev. Slopsema is pastor of Hope Protes-         building or a temple. In such a struc-        truth so that there is a continual de-
tant Reformed Church in Walker,                 ture there are pillars. These pillars         velopment in the understanding of it.
Michigan. This meditation is an abbrevi-        rest                                          As she does this she serves as pillar
ated version                                             on  a foundation, translated here
                 of the pre-synodical sermon    as "ground." Because the pillars rest         and ground of the truth.
preached June 6,2994.
                                                                                                             July, 1994lStandard  Bearer141 1


     Finally, the church upholds the         calling live as the saints of God. In       as pillar and ground of the truth.
truth by preserving it for future gen-       them and with them alone does God               Thankfully there is at Synod this
erations. She does this by expressing        live. Hence, the church is the house of     year no doctrinal controversy that
in her creeds the truth she has come to      God.                                        threatens the churches. Neverthe-
develop. She also does this by teach-             That the church is the pillar and      less, decisions-will be taken concem-
ing the truth to each new generation.        ground of the truth implies that God        ing our mission work, the training of
When she does this, the church serves        gave the truth to the church for her to     men for the gospel ministry in our
as pillar and ground of the truth.           uphold. God did not give the truth to       Seminary, official ties with other
          * *  *  *  *  *  *                 the state, to some business organiza-       churches and denominations, open-
     The church is the ground and            tion, to the United Nations, or the         ing our pulpits to those outside our
pillar of the truth exactly because she      United Way. He gave it to the church        churches while still protecting the
is the church of the living God and          to uphold.                                  integrity of those pulpits, etc. These
thus the house of God.                            He did this because the truth has      decisions will affect very much our
     The word "church" in the origi-         been realized in the church. The heart      ability as churches to serve as pillar
nal means "called out." The church           of the truth is that God establishes His    and ground of the truth.
therefore is the gathering of those          covenant with His people in Jesus               InallitsworkanddecisionsSynod
called out, or simply the called out         Christ. The church is the number of         must seek to promote the. ability of
ones.                                        those who belong to this covenant, in       our churches to serve as pillar and
     The call here is the saving, effica-    whose lives the truth has been real-        ground of the truth.
cious call of God to faith and salva-        ized. It is appropriate that this truth         Many churches have ceased tobe
tion. In a sense, God calls all men          be given only to them to uphold.            pillar and ground of the truth. They
through the preaching to faith and                That the church is the pillar and      no longer uphold the truth but have
salvation in Jesus Christ. In this sense     ground of the truth also implies that       significantly compromised it. Some
many are called but few are chosen.          the truth is securely upheld by the         even champion the lie. To the degree
Forthemostpartthatcallfallsondeaf            church. We have noticed that by             that this is true, they cease to be the
ears. However, when that call comes          speaking of the pillar and ground of        church. For upholding the truth as
to the ear of the elect it is made effec-    the truth, the text emphasizes the idea     pillar and ground belongs to the es-
tive through the irresistible operation      of stability and strength. A roof up-       sence of the church.
of the Holy Spirit, so that the elect        held.by  pillars that rest on a founda-         God forbid that the same happen
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, turn       tion is securely held. By calling the       to the Protestant ReformedChurches.
to Him, and are saved. It is in this         church the pillar and ground of the             Let the Synod then take decisions
latter sense that the call is used here.     truth, the Word of God emphasizes           that serve andnot hinder our churches
The church is the gathering or num-          that the truth is securely upheld by        in their important work of upholding
ber of those effectively called out of       the church.                                 the truth.
the darkness of unbelief into the light           The reason for this is exactly be-         .To that end let the Synod, in all
of faith and salvation in Jesus Christ.      cause she is the church of the living       her decision-making, keep before her
     For that reason the church is also      God. The church is the number of            the truth of God'sWord, as well as the
the house of God.                            those called out by the Word and            established order God has ordained
    The house of God is the place            Spirit, those who taste the covenant        for the churches in her worship andin
where God dwells.                            joys of salvation. For that reason the      her ministry.
    In the OldTestament  God's house         church has the desire to uphold the             Then Synod will be a great bless-
was the tabernacle, and later the            truth. She also has the ability to up-      ing to our churches in her calling to
temple. There God symbolically dwelt         hold the truth. This ability is found in    serveaspillarandgroundofthetruth.
with His people in covenant friend-          the Spirit of truth that has been given                                           D
ship.                                        to her. And by the working of this                           m
    The real house of God, however,          same Spirit the church most definitely
is the church. And the church can be         will uphold the truth.
and is the house of God exactly be-               This is true of no secular institu-
cause she is the church, the number of       tion. The church aloneis, by the grace
those called out. God cannot live in         of God, the pillar and ground of the
covenant fellowship with just any-           t r u t h .
one. He certainly cannot live with the                 +  *  *  *  *  Y  *
ungodly who,dwell  in darkness. He                All this must be kept in mind by
can live only with those whomHe has          the Synod as she does her work.
called out, those who have passed                 Synod will take decisions that
from darkness into the light of salva-       will greatly affect the ability of the
tion, and who in the power of their          Protestant Reformed Churches to act

412lStandard  Bearer/July, 1994


                                                                                                                                       I
1  Emmai                                                                                                                              I
                   .PRC Synod of Faith,
                                  Jenison, 1994
                                           1                                                                                               I
    The 1994 synod of the Protestant            tually on the basis of both the            work in North America. He will
Reformed Churches (PRC) met from                Westminster Standards and the              begin working with a group of five
Tuesday, June 7, through Tuesday,               "Three Forms of Unity." The CRF            families and four individuals in the
June 14. The calling church was Faith,          informed synod that at organization        San Luis Valley in Colorado.
Jenison, MI. Rev. James Slopsema,               the church will express dissent from       Loveland, Colorado will be the call-
president of the previous synod,                the statement of the Westminster           ing church. According to the care-
preached the pre-synodical sermon               Confession on divorce and remar-           fully crafted proposal of the Domes-
                                                                                           tic Mission Committee @MC), the
                                                                                           home missionary will be available to
                                                                                           investigate other possible fields of
                                                                                           labor, while' he is working in Colo-
                                                                                           rado. He is also to be involved in
                                                                                           radio work and writing that promote
                                                                                           the mission labors of the PRC. Mem-
                                                                                           bers of the PRC ought to pray for
                                                                                           God's guidance of the DMC and the
                                                                                           consistory of Loveland in the calling
                                                                                           of a man and for God's direction of a
                                                                                           qualified man to take up this impor-
                                                                                           tant work.
                                                                                               Significant work by the DMC in
                                                                                           radio was approved. *The DMC will
                                                                                           prepare a series of radio broadcasts
on Monday evening on I Timothy                  riage in Chapter 24; Articles 5 and 6.     that introduce the Reformed faith and
3:14, 15, "The Church: Pillar and               The members of the CRF are commit-         the PRC. The purpose of the pro-
Ground of the Truth." The officers of           ted to contribute $10,000 a year to the    gramswillbethediscoveryandprepa-
synod, chosen by the delegates at the           work in Northern Ireland.                  ration of mission fields. These broad-
first session on Tuesday morning,                   In amajor decision, synod autho-       casts will be distinct from those aired
were Rev. Ron Van Overloop, presi-              rized calling a home missionary to         by the Reformed Witness Hour.
dent; Rev. Dale Kuiper, vice-presi-
dent; Rev. Barry Gritters, first clerk;
and Rev. Charles Terpstra, second
clerk.

             Missions

    Most of Wednesday and Thurs-
day of the first week was devoted to
missions. Synod received a report of
a very active and fruitful work being
carried on in Northern Ireland
throughtheenergeticmissionary,Rev.
Ron Hanko. It approved the decision
of the Covenant Reformed Fellow-
ship (CRF) - the mission group in                                               Officers of Synod:
Northern Ireland- to organize even-                               Revs. Terpstra, Grit&s, VanOvwloop,  Kuiper
                                                                                                         July, 1994lStandard  Beareti413


                                                                                             tive of its zeal for missions in obedi-
                                                                                             ence to the command of Christ.

                                                                                                      Theological School

                                                                                                    On Friday, synod gave final ap-
                                                                                             proval to plans for an addition to the
                                                                                             seminary building. The Theological
                                                                                             School Committee (TSC) has obtained
                                                                                             bids and awarded the construction
                                        Pre-advice:                                          contract. Construction will begin
          Elder R. Koole, Rev. Dykstra, Rev. Slopsema, Elder G. Wassink                      soon. Synod recommended that the
                                                                                             TSC appoint a committee of experi-
    As they requested, the Foreign              against this decision. It declared that      enced contractors to oversee the con-
Mission Committee (FMC) was au-                 the actions of synod 1993 were both          struction of the new addition. About
thorized to send another delegation            legal and warranted by the lack of            $320,000 of the cost has already been
to Ghana, Africa in the next eight              fruit after some thirty years of labor in    donated. About $100,000 is still
months in order to investigate                 Jamaica,particularlythelackof sound,          needed. This money is to be raisedby
whether Ghana might be a foreign                strong, Reformed Jamaican churches.          personal notes or by a bank loan.
field for the PRC. Some spoke on                Indeed, judged synod, fi there has been
behalf of directing our foreign work
at present toward Singapore and the
fields that the Evangelical Reformed
Churches of Singapore (ERCS) are
exploring. This would be done in
cooperation with our sister churches
in Singapore.
    Synod spent much of Thursday
considering several appeals against
the decision of 1993 closing the Ja-
maica field. Synod 1993 closed the                                                   Pre-advice:
Jamaica field on the grounds that                          Rev. Moore, Elder B. Wories, Rev. Bruinsma, Elder A. Brummel
  a. . . . All the metho+ which have           no significant progress toward this
  been attempted over the course of                                                          Repayment will be by collections in
                                                goal."
  over thirty years (missionaries, em-                                                       the churches. Synod adopted the
                                                       The budget for denominational
  issaries, conferences) have not re-                                                        TX's proposed policy for seminary
                                               mission work in i995 adopted by
  sultedinstrongindigenouschurches.                                                          internships and approved the intem-
  b. The annual reports over the past           synod is $197,587. If the denomina-          ships of seminarian Douglas Kuiper
  several years give no indication that        tionalsupportof theminister-on-loan           inDoon, Iowa and of seminarian Allen
  the life in the churches of Jamaica has      to the ERCS, who is also involved in          Brummel in Singapore during the
  progressed as a result of all our la-        missions to some extent, is added, the        coming school year. Mr. Nathan
  bors ("Acts," Articles 26,27).               mission budget of the PRC in 1995 is          BrummelofEdgerton,Minnesotawas
                                               $261,367. This is a sizable amount for        admitted into the seminary in the fall
Synod -1994 rejected the appeals               the small denomination and is indica-         of this year. There will be eleven
                                                                                             studentsinseminary this coming year.
                                                                                             According to the rule of a rotating
                                                                                             rectorship, synod appointed Prof.
                                                                                             David Engelsma rector for three years.

                                                                                                            Contact

                                                                                                    On Monday of the second week,
                                                                                             synod tookup matters of contact with
                                                                                             other churches as presented in the
                       Pre-advice: Prof. Hanko, Rev. Terpstra,                               report of the synodical  Committee for
                 Elder G. VanOverloop,  Elder]. Feenstra, Rev. Kuiper                        Contact with Other Churches (CC).

41WStandard Bearer/July, 1994


                                                                                            that the constitution of the CC (in V,
                                                                                            B) restricts the pulpits of the PRC to
                                                                                            ministers of churches with which the
                                                                                            PRC have a sister-church relation-.
                                                                                            ship. Another was that "the preach-
                                                                                            ing of the gospel in our pulpits is the
                                                                                            very heart of the life of our churches
                                                                                            and must be safeguarded by being
                                                                                            limitedto ministers of churches whose
                                                                                            oneness with the PRC has been af-
                       Rev. Koole, Prof. Engelsma, Elder G. Kapfein                         firmedbythesynodinasister-church
                                                                                            relationship."
                                                                                                Closer contact with the Evangeli-
Again, synod authorized the sending              2. Reformed "federative unity" is con-     cal Presbyterian Church of Australia
of an observer to NAPARC,  if the                fessional unity, that is, based upon       (EPC) was encouraged. The PRC
PRC receive an invitation.                       full and explicit agreement to the         trained two young men of the EPC for
    Two significant decisions were               "Three Forms of Unity" (see the Re-        the ministry in that churchin the past
made with regard to the Alliance of              formed "Formula of Subscription").         three years. Synod again offered the
Reformed Churches (ARC). ARC is                  3. Before the PRC could seek any
                                                 federative unity with independent          EPC the use of the seminary without
an association of ChristianReformed              churches which have seceded from           tuition cost and with financial help
churches and of independent                      the CRC, the PRC's conscience be-          from the PRC in the support of its
churches that have recently left the             fore God is bound to discuss those         students. Synod expressed the N deep
Christian Reformed Church. Synod                 issues which caused the CRC to ex-         love of our churches for the EPC . . .
authorized its CC to send observers              pel the PRC from their fellowship.         and the desire of our churches to
to the next meeting of the ARC "pro-             These issues (the doctrine of com-         assist themm  theirbattle for the truth."
vided that the ARC gives our observ-             mon grace as adopted by the CRC in         In the interests of closer contact, synod
ers the time to address the real issues          1924, especially, the "well-meant of-      instructed the CC to address the is-
between the ARC and the PRC." In                 fer") belong to explicit confessional
                                                 unity and could never be ignored by        sues in which we differ with the EPC.
the past, the observers from the PRC             the PRC in any federative unity with       These issues are chiefly the EPC's
have not had the opportunity to do               other churches.                            applicationof the regulative principle
much more than extend greetings to               4. If the ARC is interested in discuss-    of worship to the condemnation of
the ARC. Synod 1994 decided that                 ing these matters, the CC of the PRC       the use of instrumental accompani-
the representatives of the PRC must              stands ready to do so.                     ment of congregational singing.
have the opportunity to set forth to                                                            The CCreported  that the work of
the ARC the issues of the doctrine of              Synod rejected a proposal by the         minister-on-loan to the ERCS, Rev.
common grace adopted by the Chris-             CC that Protestant Reformed pulpits          Jason Kortering, is fruitful under the
tian Reformed Church in 1924.                 be opened to ministers of churches            blessing of God. Through the work of
    In response to the strange ques-           with which the PRC do not have a             Rev. and Mrs. Kortering, the already
tion that the ARC addressed to the             sister-church relationship. One              close ties of the PRC with the ERCS
PRC, "Are they (the PRC) interested            ground for rejecting the proposal was        become even closer. At present, the
in working toward a federative unity
with the independent churches?,"
synod adopted the following answer:

  1. A Reformed denomination is
  boundtothebiblicalprinciplesstipu-
  lated in Articles 30 and 31 of the
  Church Order of Dordt which call
  for the formation of ecclesiastical
  assemblies regulating the work of
  the churches in common and whose
  decisions are regarded as settled and
 binding. IndependentReformedcon-
  gregations which are not committed
  to or fail to see the necessity of the
  truths of Articles 30 and 31 make
  "federative unity" in the Reformed
  sense impossible.                                             1 to T: Rev. VanOverloop,  Compufer, Rev. Gritters,
                                                                    Prof. Hanko, Elder H. Hoeksfra, Prof. Decker

                                                                                                        July, 1994IStandad Beared


 PRC are training a seminarian from                                   chosen by free election of the male                                                         synodical treasurer and Rev. Meindert
 one of the Singapore churches for the                                membership of the organizing group);                                                        Joostens as synodical stated clerk;
 ministry in those churches. The PRC                                                 - adopted the overture of Mr.                                                            - adopted a synodical budget
 are helping in his financial support.                                Don Lotterman that a minister from                                                          for 1995 in the amount of $949,553 -
      In closed session, synod advised                                anotherchurchseekingadmissioninto                                                           almost a million dollars for this little
a sister-church on the discipline of a                                the ministry of the PRC must become                                                         but devoted band of churches. The
 member.                                                              a member of a PRC before he applies                                                         annual budget in 1995 for each family
                                                                      to a classis for such admission;                                                            for synod&l work will be $595, up
                   Varia                                                            - adopted the overture of Rev.                                                $25  from 1994.
                                                                      Wilbur Bruinsma that synod appoint                                                                    At the invitation of the PRC of
      Synod also made the following                                   a standing committee (Catechism                                                             Hull, Iowa, synod will meet next year
 decisions:                                                           Book Committee) for work with the                                                           in Hull.
        - adopted Hudsonville's over-                                 churches' catechism curriculum;                                                                       Let us pray for the blessing of
 ture that a supervising consistory                                                 - adopted Doon's  overture that                                               God upon the decisions of synod, the
 make the nomination for officebearers                                a qualified elder or ex-elder may be                                                        synodical work, and the churches of
in the organizing of a new congrega-                                  chosen as stated clerk of synod;                                                            our fellowship.
tion (formerly, officebearers were                                            - re-elected Mr. Joel Zandstra as                                                                                                      - DJE


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Is Grace in Things?                                              Standards, and these four questions                                                              Gen. 19:24ff.;  Ps. 73:3-20;  Rev. 19:11-
     I so want you to know how much                              came up.                                                                                         21; 20:15).
the Sfandard  Bearer has been a blessing                                     I would also like a renewal form                                                               3.God created the world as an
to me. In this day and age it is hard to                         to renew the subscription to the SB.                                                             expression of His love. But, for whom?
find publications that are scripturally                          God bless you all.                                                                               every human? every human and the
correct. I have found two: the SB and                                                                                   George Rouse                              devils? or only the elect in Jesus
the Banner of Trufh.                                                                                       Daytona Beach, FL                                      Christ? (See Col. 1:13-20;  Rom. 9:6-
     I have been blessed by Rev. G.                                                                                                                               24; I Pet. 2:8.)
Lubbers' articles on I and II Timothy,                         RESPONSE:                                                                                                    4.In the Psalms and elsewhere,
and I'm hoping and praying that you                                          We are sending you the back is-                                                      God testifies that He hates and curses
will please send copies of the previ-                            sues of the SB that you request.                                                                 some humans (see Ps. 5:5, 6; Prov.
ous thirteen, because when I finish                                          To help answer your questions                                                        3:33).
reading the SB, I pass it on.                                    about the theory of common grace,                                                                          Do you really want to identify
     I do have a couple of questions                            we are sending you the pamphlets;                                                                 God'sfavorandblessingwithearthly
I'm hoping you could answer. In                                 "The Curse-Reward of the Wicked                                                                   prosperity? Do you want to conclude
dealing with common grace, which                                Well-doer" by Herman Hoeksema                                                                     then that earthly adversity is divine
I've tried to study, the questions are:                         and "Grace Uncommon" by Rev.                                                                      wrath and curse? Is not the affliction
     1. Why isn't rain, snow, sun, na-                          Barry Gritters. We are also sending a                                                             of the one who is righteous by faith an
ture, etc. part of God's grace?                                 copy of chapter 3 in the second sec-                                                              expression of God's favor andameans
     2. To admit God's sovereign con-                          tion of Herman Hoeksema's The  Prot-                                                               of blessing? Is not even imprison-
trol of these things anddeny that they                         estant Reformed Churches in America                                                                ment this for a truly penitent sinner?
are part of His grace seems a bit in-                           (now out of print).                                                                                    Pay careful attention to Question
consistent.                                                                  To stimulate your study, consider                                                    125 of the Heidelberg Catechism:  "...
     3.Why did God even bother to                              these questions and propositions cor-                                                              nor even Thy gifts can profit us with-
create the world or anything in it, if                         responding to those addressed to us:                                                               out Thy blessing." God's gifts (rain
not as an expression of His love?                                            l.Whyarenotrain,sunshine,and                                                         and sunshine) are one thing; Hisbless-
     4.In the Psalms and elsewhere,                            other elements of nature expressions                                                               ing is quite another. A man can have
God shows His grace and love to all                            of God's wrath (see Gen. 6-8; Deut.                                                                God's gifts - a surfeit of them-but
He created.                                                    28:23,24; Rev. 16)?                                                                                entirely lack God's blessing. In this
    We here have a study group of                                            2.God sovereignly controls all                                                       case, the gifts do him no good. They
thirty people who love the "Three                              things, many of which are expres-                                                                  only damn him into deeper hell. 0
Forms of Unity" and the Westminster                            sions of His hatred and curse (see                                                                                                                    - Ed.

416IStandard  Bearer/July, 1994


SMVODKAL  DELEGATES AT WORK





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                               July, lgs4lSfandard Bearer/417


                             Farewell, Brothers
                                               t                                                                                        I

    A significant event in the life and             Burnie congregation. Following the            You will be doing alI this in Aus-
ministry of the Protestant Reformed                 internships the brothers will sit for     tralia, which is for us here in North
Churches and their seminary occurred                oral examinations by the presbytery       America the "other" side of the world.
in the evening of May 20. That night                with a view to becoming candidates        This means we may not see one an-
the thirty-third Commencement ser-                  for the ministry of the Word and          other again until we meet in glory.
vice of the seminary was held in the                Sacraments in the EPC. May God            GivenallthisIhavechosentobasemy
sanctuary of the Southwest Protes-                  richly bless them and their church.       address on II Corinthians 13:ll: "Fi-
tant Reformed Church in Grandville,                     What follows is the text of the       nally, brethren, farewell Be perfect,
Michigan. Graduating this year were                 commencement address given by the         be of good comfort, be of one mind,
Seminarians Christopher John                        undersigned.                              live in peace; and the God of love and
Connors and David Phillip Higgs of                           *  *  *  Y  *  Y  Y              peace shall be with you."
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church                                                               The text contains the final exhor-
of Australia. After the Rev. Dale H.                    Graduation marks an end. A            tation to the Corinthian church, a
Kuiper, acting President of the Theo-               purpose has been reached, a goal          church beset with many problems
logical School Committee, awarded                   achieved. That goal is the completion     and difficulties. In that church there
the brothers their diplomas, they pre-              of your seminary instruction, which       was party strife, departure from the
sented to the seminary a beautiful                  is a course of study designed to pre-     truth (some even denying the resur-
plaque from the EPC which reads:                    pare you for the ministry of the Word     rection), desecration of the Lord's
                                                    and Sacraments. In three years you        Supper, and ungodly living. Corinth
  SOL1 DE0 GLORIA, The Evangeli-                    have completed the essential parts of     appeared very weak in the faith and
  cal Presbyterian Church of Australia              the seminary curriculum. You have         had to be warned and admonished.
  would like to present this plaque to              studied Reformed Dogmatics, Bibli-        And, now, some even questioned
  express its sincere appreciation to
  the Protestant Reformed Churches                  cal Exegesis, Church History, and         whether Christ was working in the
  for their Christian care and their con-           Practical Theology. You have heard        apostle Paul.
  tribution to the theological training             the lectures, prepared the research           Being prevented from coming to
  of our student pastors, Mr. Chris                 papers, preached the sermons, and         them in person by his work in
  Connors and Mr. David Higgs (1991                 written the examinations.                 Macedonia, the apostle wrote two
  - 1994)                                               And, as is obvious from your          letters to them. Though very sharp in
                                                    grade point averages, you have done       these letters, the apostle patiently led
    The plaque has been hung in the                 very well. We commend you and             them into an understanding of the
seminary building. The Protestant                   congratulate you for this. With you       truth. Paulremindedthem that Christ
Reformed Churches count it a bless-                 we thank God for giving you the           lives in all the saints unless they be
ing to have been used by the Lord to                grace to accomplish all this. Gradua-     reprobates. He called them to exam-
instruct these students.                            tion means this is now finished and       ine themselves whether they were in
    Mr. Connors and Mr. Higgs have                  past.                                     the faith. Paul was thankful that they
returned to Australia. Both are serv-                   But graduation also implies a be-     can do nothing against the truth, but
ing six-month internships in Tasma-                 ginning. That's why we call it "com-      do all for the truth.
ma, Mr. Connors in the Launceston                   mencement." In a matter of days you           Then follows this last exhorta-
congregation and Mr. Higgs in the                   will, D. V., begin a new phase of your    tion. Farewell, brothers. Be perfect,
                                                    preparation for the ministry in the       of good comfort, of one mind, live in
                                                    Evangelical Presbyterian Church of        peace. It is to this Word of God that
                                                    Australia. After six months or so you     I would call your attention this
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical The-         look forward to being ordained and        evening.
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-              beginning your work as minsters of            The text contains a series of im-
nary.                                               the Word in God's church.                 peratives. We must understand how

416lStandard  Bearer/July, 1994


these are related. The main exhorta-         God to the sick or to those burdened        burdened with problems, trials, and
tion is, farewell. This does not mean        with trials, it is that they may be         troubles, always fighting the devil
merely "good-bye." The word means:           perfect. When you bring the comfort         and the hostile world of unbelief, al-
rejoice, be glad, and in that way to         of the Word to them that mourn, it is       ways threatened by heresies and dis-
fare well, i.e., to do or be well, to        that they may be perfect. When you          obedience.
thrive. We do well, we rejoice and           admonish the wayward, it is that they           This is true also of that part of the
fare well, in the way of obeying the         may repent, be forgiven, and strive to      church called the EPC of Australia.               .I
exhortations which follow: by being          be perfect.                                 You will soon find it so. There will be          _'
perfect, of good comfort, of one mind,           That is especially your calling         times in your ministries when you
andlivingin peace. Livingm this way          when you administer the chief means         will grow weary. You will get so                  t
                                                                                                                                           -.
we have the sure promise, "the God           of grace, the preaching of the Word.        discouraged that you will wonder if              -,
of love and peace shall be with us."         This truth has been emphasized re-          you and the church will survive! The
And if the God of love and peace be          peatedly throughout your seminary           Word of God to you is, be of good
with us we shall do well indeed!             training. I repeat it once more to-         comfort. Just preach the Word. God                `
                                                                                                                                                .

    The exhortation is, be perfect! The      night. Without apology! This is the         will use it to gather and preserve His
word "perfect" means: to be sound,           heart of everything you do as a min-        church. God's church shall surely
complete, fit. The idea is that we are       ister. This is your chief task. Lord's      stand. Not even the gates of hell can
to be fit completely for the glory of        day after Lord's day you must come          prevail against her.
heaven, i.e., completely fit to reflect      with nothing more or less than the              Be of one mind! If you are to be
God's great glory. We are fit to reflect     Word of God! Will the sheep in the          perfectandofgoodcomfort, youmust
God's glorywhen we turn away from            Evangelical Presbyterian Church hear        be of one mind. Mind is understand-               . .
sin and are consecrated to the Lord's        the voice of the Good Shepherd, know        ing, thinking, judgment. You must
service.                                     Him, follow Him? They will, but only        have the same understanding of the
    That is Scripture. I Peter  5:lO         by means of the faithful preaching of       truth of Holy Scripture. We find the
teaches that the God of all grace who        the Word.                                   same idea in Philippians 1:27, where
called us unto His eternal glory by              Still `more, you must be their ex-      we,are  exhorted tobe steadfast in one
Christ Jesus, after that we have suf-        ample. If you're going to be faithful       spirit, with one mind striving for the
fered awhile, makes us perfect,              andeffectiveministers youmuststrive         faith of the gospel. Being of onemind,
stablishes, strengthens, settles us. The     for perfection. You must be able to         then, means we must reject the lie in
meaning is that God makes us per-            say to the saints in your congrega-         its multitude of forms as it militates
fect, fit for glory through our suffer-      tions what the apostle said to the          against the truth, and we must main-             .'  I
ing for Christ's sake in the world.          Philippians, "follow us for your ex-        tain the truth of Holy Scripture as
And this is to God's own glory, as           ample." You'll be able to say this only     interpreted by the Reformed Confes-
Peter adds inverse eleven, N . . . to him    if you give yourselves wholly and           sions, which for you and your church
be glory and dominion forever and            with much prayer to the work of the         are the Westminster Standards.
ever, Amen." We find the same idea           ministry.                                       Yours is both a lofty calling and a          `._
inHebrews13:20-21,whereScripture                 Three closely related exhortations      wonderful privilege. Inseminary you
teaches that the God of peace who            follow. "Be of good comfort (con-           have been taught the truth. You have
raised up Jesus, the great shepherd of       soled, encouraged)," the apostle            inyourresearchpapersexploredvari-
the sheep, makes us perfert  (complete)      writes. We might ask, What comfort          ous aspects of the doctrine of Scrip-
in every good work, causing us to do         is there for the church in Corinth?"        ture. You have dug into the history of
his will by working in us that which is      This congregation was ripped apart          that doctrine and its developments.
well pleasing in his sight through           by terrible schism. Unmentionable           You have studied the history of the
Jesus Christ. The purpose is the same,       sins marred and corrupted her fel-          church. You have learned to exegete
the glory of God.                            lowship. There was incest, adultery,        Scripture and to preach. You have                ..:
    This is the Word of God to you           and fornication of the worst sort. False    studied the biblical principles of the
graduates. Your calling as ministers         doctrine was taught. Some rejected          government  of,the  church. You have
of the Word is to exhort the saints to       the resurrection, others profaned the       learned to search the Scriptures for
strive for perfection. They must be          Lord's table. Some even doubted             the answers to life's many problems.
completely fit to reflect God's glory.       Paul's apostleship. Things did not          Tonight as you graduate you are no
God uses means to accomplish this.           1ookverypromisinginCorinth.  There          doubt feeling both a sense of accom-
Those means are the ministry of the          was only a remnant who were marked          plishment and a sense of relief.
Word and the administration of the           by godly sorrow and repentance, and             But, it is not over! You have only
Sacraments. When you teach the               in this the apostle rejoiced.               acquired the tools and the essentials.
Word of God to the children and                  But this is the way it is with the      You have only made a beginning.
youth, it is that they may strive to be      church in every age. The church is          Now yours is the calling and privi-
perfect. When you bring the Word of          always small and struggling, always         lege to spend the rest of your lives in

                                                                                                       July, 1994/Standard  Bearer/419


the study of the Scriptures. Do that!         Scripture says, is love. God is, there-         thee" (Heb. 6:13,14).  God's promise
In this way you will have the same            fore, the source of alllove. There is no        cannot fail.
understanding of the truth and be             other love than the love of God. Love                And, God shall be with you. The
able to lead the church into that same        is the bond of perfectness (Cal, 3:14).         promise is not general, it is not to all.
understanding.                                That is found first in God Himself.             Itistoyou,theelectchurchinCorinth,
     Live in peace is the final impera-       The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live           the church of all ages, and to you who
tive of the text. That is God's peace.        together in the bond of perfectness.            graduate tonight.
Peace is the opposite of strife. It           God commended that love to us in the                 The blessed reality is, you will
means we are in harmony with God.             death of His Son (Rom.  5:8), and               fare well! That is God's Word to His
Nothing stands between us and God.            through the Holy Spirit He shed that            beleaguered church in the world.
God made that peace by sending His            love abroad in our hearts (Rom. 5:5).           Rejoice, be glad, do well, thrive! Do
Son to the cross for us. There God            The fruit of this work of the Spirit is         this in the way of being perfect, striv-
reconciled us to Himself. That which          that we love God and manifest that              ingtobefitcompletelytoreflectGod's
stood between us and God, making              love for God in that we love one                glory. And be perfect in the way of
fellowship with God utterly impos-            another.                                        being of good comfort, of one mind,
sible, viz., our sin, has been removed.               God is also the God of peace of         and living in peace. Thus you live in
     Live in that peace. That is found        which we have already spoken.                   fellowship with God through Jesus
in daily confessing your sins and striv-              The God of love and peace shall         Christ.
ing to live in obedience to the Word.         bewithyou.  "Withyou"-thismeans                      That is God's Word to you gradu-
That is the way to keep the peace             God will never be far from you. He              ates. You stand on the threshold of
among your fellow saints as well.             will be in fellowship with you so that          the ministry. God says, "Fare well,
Always be confessing your faults one          you experience His love and peace.              brothers!" That is not merely my
to another. That is the calling of all the    God will be with you graciously to              wish for you - though I certainly
saints, but especially of the minister.       sustain you in all your life and minis-         wish you well. It is God's Word to
     Be of good comfort, be of one            try, with you in His love and peace to          you. Rest assured, when God says,
mind in the truth,live in peace. In this      preserve you and all of His church to           "Fare well," you will fare well in-
way you will be completely fit for the        everlasting life and glory.                     deed!
service of the Lord in the ministry.                  That is God's sure promise. God              May God bless and keep you and
     The sure promise is that "the God        shaQ be with you. There is no doubt             watch between us as we part! And
of love and peace shall be with you."         about that. Scripture says that God             may you with His blessing enjoy a
     TheGodofloveshallbewithyou.              sware by Himself, saying to father              fruitful ministry in the EPC to God's
Love is an attribute of God. God, the         Abraham, "surelyblessingIwillbless              glory.  0




           Be Ye Angry and Sin Not (2)

                                                       Be ye angry and sin not: Zet not the sun go down upon your wrath.
                                               Ephesians 4:26.
                                                       It is no sin to be angry, but when we are angry it is hard not to sin. Anger is
                                               a tender virtue, and through our ineptitude it is easily corrupted and made
Rev. denHartogis pastorojHopeProtes-           dangerous. He who would be angry without sin must not be angry at anything
                                               except 
tant Reformed Church in Redlands, Cali-                   sin. *
fornia.                                               So much of our anger against our        with the subject of anger. What great
*    The quotations in this paper are         fellow man is evil. According to the            wisdom it contains in this regard and
taken from an article by the Puritan          Bible, most often when we are angry             what powerful advice it gives on how
preacher John Trapp, which was re-            we are actinglike a fool. "Benot hasty          properly to deal with anger. "A soft
printed in the Sword and TroweZ maga-         in thy spirit to be angry, for anger            answer tumeth away wrath: but
zine, volume 4,1993,  published by the        resteth in the bosom of fools" (Eccl.           grievous words stir up anger" (Prov.
Metropolitan Tabernacle in London,            29).                                            15:l). "He that is slow to anger is
England.                                              The book of Proverbs often deals        better than the mighty; and he that
42QlStandard  BearerlJuly,  1994                                                                           ._


ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a      inheritance in the kingdom of God.        not also to reflect this great virtue of
city" (Prov. 16:2). "The discretion of       Our Lord Jesus said, over against the     God by being slow to anger against
aman deferrethhis anger; anditishis          many evil forms of anger which men        our fellow men, even when they sin
glory to pass over a transgression"          justify in themselves: "But I say unto    g r e a t   s i n s a g a i n s t u s .
(Prov. 19:ll). "A man of great wrath         you, that whosoever is angry with his           According to the Word of God it
shall suffer punishment: for if thou         brother without a cause shall be in       is a great virtue and strength in man
deliverhhnyetthoumustdoitagain"              danger of the judgment" (Mat?. 5:22).     to control his anger. He that is slow to
(Prov. 19:19).                                   Much of man's anger is moti-          anger is "better than the mighty; and
    In the New Testament the Word            vated by envy and lust. Of this James     he that ruleth his spirit than he that
of God exhorts us, "Let all                  warns in James 4: "From whence            taketh a city" (Prov.  16:32). Slow
bittemess,and wrath, and anger, and          come wars and fightings among you?        anger allows the child of God to con-
clamour, and evil speaking, be put           Come they not hence,                                    sider his words and ac-
away from you, with all malice: And          even of your lusts, that                                tions carefully, rather
be ye kind one to another, tender-           war in your members:                                    than to explode in un-
hearted, forgiving one another, even                                         We may not
                                             Ye lust, and have not:                                  holy rage. When we con-
as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven       ye kill, and desire to         seek to justi!           sider the weaknesses of
you" (Eph. 4:31,32).                         have, and cannot obtain;          our  anger            ourfellowsaints,andwe
    Sometimes our anger is evil even         ye fight and war, yet ye         by saying              do not immediately re-
when we imagine that we are acting           have not, because ye ask           that we              act against them in an-
in holy zeal. When Dinah had been            not" (James4:1-2).  Such         just have              ger, we often by the grace
defiled by the Shechemites, the sons         anger is devilish. There-                               of God will simply over-
of Jacob imagined that they were jus-        fore James exhorts us a        a hot- tempered          looktheirsinsandweak-
tified in their treachery to kill all the    little later in the chapter       nature....            nesses. "Love covers a
Shechemites and spoil their city. But,       to resist the deviland he                               multitude of .sins."
years later, their father Jacob said by      &ill flee from us. All                                       Anger that stirs up
the inspiration of the Lord concern-         such anger is' overcome through a         strife is evil. There are those who love
ing Simeon and Levi who were lead-           spirit of thankfulness to God forwhat     to stir up strife. These cause great
ers in the treachery against the             He in His great mercy has given to us,    havoc in the church and do great evil
Shechemites: "Simeon and Levi are            and by humbly asking the Lord to          to their brethren. Even when our
brethren; instruments of cruelty are         supply our every need.                    anger is justified we may not have as
in their habitations. 0 my soul, come            Anger can be and must be under        ourobjectthedestructionofourneigh-
not thou into their secret; unto their       the control of our will by the opera-     bor or the creating of havoc in the
assembly, mine honour, be not thou           tion of the grace and Spirit of God in    church.
united: for in their anger they slew a       our hearts. All uncontrolled anger              Anger is the chief motive for tak-
man, and in their selfwiu they digged        leads to great sin. Wemaynot seek to      ing unlawful revenge. God says con-
down a wall. Cursed be their anger,          justify our anger by saying that we       cerning such desire for vengeance,
for it was fierce; and their wrath, for      just have a hot-tempered nature and       "Vengeance is mine, I will repay."
it was cruel: I will divide them in          thereisnothingwecandoaboutit. To          Once again we must look to the Lord
Jacob, andscattertheminIsrael"  (Gen.        say that is really to blame God for       Jesus as our example, "who when he
49:5-7).  When David was filled with         how He has made us. We must be            was reviled, reviled not again; when
anger against Nabal  and was on his          slow to anger. God Himself is our         he suffered, he threatened not; but
way to destroy him and his whole             supreme example in this. Scripture        committed himself to him that judges
house, God sent Abigail to intervene         speaks of thisblessed virtue of God as    righteously" (Pet. 2:23). If there ever
and keep David from avenging him-            an aspect of His great mercy towards      wasonewhowouldbe]ustifiedinHis
self and causing an offense of heart         us. "The Lord is merciful and gra-        anger because of the evil deeds which
which would be a source of grief to          cious, slow to anger, and plenteous in    men committed against Him it was
him later when he would become               mercy." The Lord, the righteous and       Jesus. No one has ever done anything
king.                                        holy God, is slow to anger in regards     so evil to us as wicked men did to
    "Anger must have a good rise             to our great sin and wickedness. If       Jesus. Yet He prayed for His enemies
and a good end, observed Bucer; a            ever there was a just cause for anger     when they were nailing Him to the
good cause and a good outcome."*             on the part of God, surely it would be    cross. We must be imitators of Jesus
Holy anger must arise out of a pure          because of our great sin and wicked-      in meekness, ready to suffer wrong
heart. It must not come out of the           ness against Him. How great is His        for the Lord's sake without becoming
motive of hatred for our brother,            mercytowardsusinthatHeisslowto            angry. The Bible commands us to do
which in fact it often does. He that         anger. Surely we would long ago           good even to our enemies. Leave judg-
hates his brother is a murderer; and         have been destroyed if it were not for    ment and vengeance to the Lord.
you know that no murderer has any            this mercy toward us. Ought we then             There are times when anger is

                                                                                                    July, 1994iStandard  Bearer/421


justified. There are times when truth        must be to bring to repentance and          not. Not even from a psychological
and right demand a response of an-.          save our fellow saints. It takes alot of    point of view does one ever get rid of
ger. Not to be angry at such times is        grace to be angry in such a way that        anger by venting it. Suchventing only
weakness and will give occasion for          the love of God shines through, and         gives a person an attitude of pride
sin on the part of wicked men. There         genuine concern for our brethren is         and self-justification, a holier than
are times when the great wickedness          evident.                                    thou attitude. It will not lead to a
of men must be resisted with holy                We must realize that most of our        feeling of "self-worth" or #self-es-
anger of God. But even then we must          anger with our fellow saints is evil.       teem" as is so often imagined. Vent-
always be sure that our anger is in-         God commands us to put away an-             ing anger without confessing it only
deed holy.                                   ger, wrath, and malice. Instead we          increases the evil of anger and deep-
         There are times when we should      are to "be kind one to another, tender      ens the feeling of anger.
be angry even with our brethren. We          hearted." What abeautiful word that             The way of the Bible is restraint.
shouldbe  angry with them when they          is, fl tenderhearted."                      Controlyouranger! ThewayofGod's
sin and deny the truth of God. We                It is a sin to retain anger in one's    Word is reconciliation. "Let not the
should be angry with them when they          heart toward our fellow saints. "The        sun go down on your anger." What a
hurt one of our fellow saints. We            worst sort of anger is that which,          tremendous piece of advice this is! Be
shouldbe  angry with them when they          though for a time smothered and re-         reconciled to your brother as soon as
cause strife and confusion in the            strained, will suddenly burst out and       possible. Do not stew in your anger in
church. Go,d's people sometimes need         flame up into further fury, as we see       self-righteous indignation and wait
to be admonished in anger. This is not       in&in, whokilledhisbrother."*  Such         until the brother who has offended
an evil. Such anger takes a great deal       sin creates enmity, hatred, and divi-       you comes to you to confess his sin.
of humility on our part. Let us not be       sionbetweenbrethren. Wemustpray             Go to your brother and make every
angry with the sins of our brethren          to God to deliver us even from all          effort to be reconciled. When we
when we are not just as angry about          secret harboring of anger. Marriages        confess our faults one to another and
our own sins. In this anger our chief        are destroyed, homes are broken,            forgive. one.another we hide-a multi-
concern must be love for God and the         friendships are ruined, by such har-        tude of. sin and save our brother's
honor of His name.                           boring of anger. We are not delivered       soul from death. This is God's way to
         God is angry with our sin. He       from this evil by, on a given occasion,     resolve anger against our fellow man.
showed His terrible, holy wrath              suddenly exploding in anger and tell-       This is pleasing to the Lord and will
against our sin at the cross of the Lord     ing someone just exactly what we            have the fruit of peace and unity
Jesus. But in His wrath God remem-           think of him. When we speak in such         among brethren and love in the
beredmercy. He didnot destroy us in          anger to our fellow saints we are           church of Jesus Christ.
His just wrath but saved us in the           always going to do and say things               May the Lord deliver us from all
greatness of His tender mercy and            that are evil, often things even far        forms of sinful anger. He alone is able
lovingkindness.                              more evil than what our fellow saints       by the power of His grace and Holy
         When we have a just cause to be     have done to us.                            Spirit. Such deliverance can alone
angry with our fellow saints, our an-            Modern psychology says that             bring peace with God and peace in
ger must always be tempered with             venting of anger is good therapy. It is     our own hearts and lives as well. 0
mercy. The purpose of our anger




  A Critique of MO                                                                                                    hm
                   Growth Evan

                                             III. ITS METHODS                            in its proclamation, so there are seri-
                                                 Our criticism of the modern             ous errors inits programs. The unewn
Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant    church growth movement also goes            evangelism places all the emphasis
Reformed Church of South HoZZand,  IZZi-     behind the message to get at its meth-      onusingtherightmethodsandmeans
nois.                                        odology. As there are serious errors        to make the church grow. The reason

422lStandard  Bearer/July, 1994


why the church has not been able to                 one  method  of evangelism: namely,           the neighborhood would congregate
reach the lost and get them into the                the faithful explanation and applica-         to watch major sports events, like the '
church, church growth experts tell                  tion of the gospel message. From              World Series or championship box-
us, is that she has not used the right              whichitfollows...thatthetestfor'any           ing matches? While times have
methods. Whereas in the past the                    proposed  strategy, or technique, or          changed, that same concept can still
                                                    style, of evangelistic action must be
church used exclusively the preach-                                                               be used to great impact by the
                                                    this will it in fact serve the word? Is     - Church. Most churches have a large
ingand teaching of the Word, today's                it calculated to be a means of explain-       hall or auditorium which could be
culture and people demand more ef-'                 ing the gospel,truly  and fully and           used for special gatherings built
fective  means. And the church growth               applying it deeply and exactly? To            aroundmajormediaevents-sports,
people claim they know what meth-                   the extent to which it is so calculated,      political  debates,  entertainment spe-
ods to use.                                         it is lawful and right; to the extent to      cials and the like.3
    For those who follow the teach-                 which it tends to overlay and ob-
ings of C. Peter Wagner and John                    scure the realities of the message,                 But as John MacArthur has writ-
Wimber, the method to use is miracu-                and to blunt the edge of their appli-       ten in response, "That entire scenario
lous signs and wonders, the special                 cation, it is ungodly and wrong.'           is built on a set of presuppositions
gifts and manifestations of the Spirit.                                                         that are patently unbiblical. . ..The
                                                      We must apply the same test and
According to these men the church                                                               notion that church meetings should
                                              criticism to the methods of "market
was lethargic and lifeless and needed                                                           be used to tantalize or attract non-
                                              evangelism." This approach to church
a shot in the arm. Her witness in the                                                           Christians is a relatively new devel-
                                              growth involves a number of general
preaching was not attracting the lost;                                                          opment. Nothing like it is found in
                                              and specific tactics in bringing the
she needed something to- get the                                                                Scripture....`4But  that is precisely the
                                              gospel to people and getting them to
world's attention. The so-called third                                                          problem with this pragmatism-it is
                                              come to hear it. One of the general
wave of the Spirit which was sweep-                                                             cut off from theology and from Scrip-
                                              principles is that of pragmatism, i.e.,
ing through third world countries                                                               ture. It is free to roam, and it roams
                                              the idea that whatever works is legiti-
was just what Wagner and Wimber                                                                 freely into error. The method we use
                                              mate to use, and, along with this, that
were looking for. Here was some-                                                                in our evangelism must be drawn
                                              the end justifies the means. One
thing exciting and life-giving; here                                                            from Scripture and be governed by
                                              megachurchpastorrevealedthisview
was something attracting and over-                                                              our theology, not from and by our
                                              when he said, "I must be doing right
powering. And so they began to pray                                                             own whim concerning what works.
                                              or things wouldn't be going so well."2
for and exercise the special signs and                                                                  Anothergeneralmethodinvolved
                                              And so, if it is a picnic in the park
wonders of the Spirit. Since then this                                                          in "market evangelism," is consum-
                                              complete with clowns and jazz music
method of "power evangelism" has                                                                erism. According to this approach
                                              and games that will get the lost to hear
caught fire and spread throughout                                                               the gospel is to be viewed and dealt
                                              the message of salvation, then that is
the U.S. and beyond. It is to them the                                                          with as a market product and the
                                              perfectly legitimate. Or ifit is a public
method of doing evangelism.                                                                     people as so many consumers with
                                              concert of contemporary Christian
    Butisit?AccordingtoScriptureit                                                              specific needs which must be met.
                                              rockmusic that will do it, that is good
is most emphatically not. We have                                                               This is Bama's specialty in the church
                                              and lawful. Or if it is a wrestling
already pointed out that the biblical                                                           growth movement. It is his convic-
                                              matchbetweenchurchemployeesthat
method of evangelism is the preach-                                                             tion that the church must take this
                                              will attract outsiders, then that is
ing and teaching of God's Word                                                                  approach and use this method be-
                                              proper too. Virtually any means, any
(Matt.28:19,20;  Acts 2,3,8, etc.). The                                                         cause we live in a market-driven soci-
                                              avenue, any approach may be used,
signs-and-wonders evangelism re-                                                                ety.      And so, if the world of
                                              saythechurchgrowthpeople. George
jects this method in favor of another.                                                          MacDonalds  and Quaker Oats and
                                              Barna, a popular promoter of this
In doing so it pretends to be wiser                                                             United Airlines is using the latest
                                              pragmatic evangelism, exemplifies
than God, which is wicked and fool-                                                             marketing techniques to sell its prod-
                                              this attitude:
ish. It seeks a power that it is showy                                                          uct and meet the needs of consumers,
and which can be manipulated to get                                                             so must the church do this with the
                                                    Remember how the comer tavern
the attention of and a hold on the                  used to be the place where the men of       gospel. What the church needs to do,
unconverted. This too is evil and
destructive. The Spirit does not work                                                           3. George Barna, The Frog in the Kettle
through special signs and wonders             1. J.I.Packer, Evangelism and the Sov-            (Ventura,  Calif.: Regal,  1990), 94-95.
any longer. His means is the preach-          ereignty Of God (Downers Grove, IL:               Quoted in MacArthur,  Ashamed  of  the
                                              Intervarsity, 1961),  86 (emphasis his).
ing of the gospel. In this respect we                                                           Gospel, 83.
agree with the words of J.I. Packer           2.      Quotedin OS Guinness, Dining With         4. John F. MacArthur, Jr.,  Ashamed  of
where he wrote:                               the Devil, "The Megachurch Movement               the Gospel: When the Church Becomes
                                              Flirts with Modernity" (Grand Rapids:             Like the World,  (Wheaton: Crossway,
    So,in the Iast analysis, there is only    Baker, 1993),  38.                                1993), 83.

                                                                                                               July, lQ94iStandard  Bearer/423


 according to Bama, is determine a               there can be no question that the                  jestic hymns are traded in for shal-
 "target audience," solicit from them            church must make the message of                    low jingles.... And its parishioners,
 their "felt needs," and then put the            salvation in Christ relevant to the                now unashamedly called audiences,
 gospel in an attractive Ipackage" to            world, and thus communicate it to                  have come to expect dazzling testi-
 reach this audience and fulfill their           people in terms they can understand;               monies, happy anecdotes, and fail-
 needs.5                                                                                            proof schemes for successful living
                                                ,there is a proper sense in which we
      Closely related to this consumer-                                                             that will satiate spiritual consump-
                                                 must become all things to all men;                 tion.... Mass marketing almost al-
 ism of the church growth movement               and there is no argument that we may               ways reduces the quality of theprod-
 is its method of what is called                 use modem technology to communi-                   uct. To stand out among other com-
 "contextualization."       Using Paul's         cate the gospel. But Scripture is clear            petingwares,Christianityisreduced
 statement in I Corinthians 9:19-23  as         that "we are not selling a product to a             torelyingonquick,catchy,attractive
 the basis, the new evangelists claim            consumer, but proclaiming a Savior                 packaging?
that the church must constantly be              to a sinner.... Jesus Christ is not a
 accommodating the gospel to the cul-           product or technique, but a person,              JohnMacArthur adds these thoughts,
ture of its time. It must communicate           And he is `not sold in any stores.' He           that       the    modern       i d e a   o f
the gospel message in the context of            cannot be bought. Rather was it we               "contextualization" "has infected the
the world, not only where they are              `who have been bought with a price'              church with the spirit of the age. It has
but also how they are. By this they             - the price of Christ's life."' Years            opened the church's doors wide for
mean that the church must become                ago already Herman Hoeksema also                 worldliness, shallowness, andinsome
like the world, speaking to the lost            sounded the alarm about the evils of             cases a crass, party atmosphere. The
and unchurched on their terms, cater-           "salvationhucksters" who"hawked"                 world now sets the agenda for the
ing to their needs, and fulfilling their        Jesus,offeringhimatthe"cheapprice                church."lO And OS Guinness utters
desires. Not surprisingly, Jesus is             of the sinner's goodwill."* Scripture            the stern warning that when the
held forth as the model Marketer and            is equally clear that the gospel mes-            church uses the tools of modernity,
Contextualist by the modern                     sage is not man-centered but  God-               she must have a long spoon and a
missiologists. Says Barna,                      centered, so that it is not the fulfilling       large hammer; a long spoon because
                                                of man's needs which determines the              he who sups with the devil of moder-
   Jesus Christ was a communications            content of the gospel, but the fulfilling        nity "will find his spoon getting
   specialist. He communicated His              of God'smandate to preachHis  whole              shorter and shorter - until that last
   message in diverse ways, and with            counsel. Scripture teaches that we are           supper in which he is left alone at the
   results that would be a credit to mod-                                                        table, withno spoon at all and with an
   em advertising and marketing agen-           not to change or compromise the gos-             empty plate," to use the words of
   cies. NoticetheLord'sapproach:  He           pel message to meet the needs of                 ChristiansociologistPeterBerger;and
  identifiedHis  target audience, deter-        sinners, but that sinners are to be
   mined their need, and delivered His          changed by the gospel message and                a large hammer because the tools we
  message directly to them. By `ad-             be conformed to the image of God's               use can soon become our idols, and
   dressing the crowdon themountain-            Son.                                             then they must be smashed."
  sides, or the Jews in the temple, He                  In addition to these criticisms, it              What then is our method of evan-
  promoted His product in the most              may also be  mentioned that                      gelism and church growth? It is the
  efficient way possible: by communi-           consumerizing and contextualizing                unashamed proclamation of the un-
  cating with the `hot prospects.`6             the gospel cheapens it, trivializes it,          adulterated gospel of Jesus Christ
                                                                                                 wherever the Lord of the harvest
     What must we make of this                  and ultimately corrupts it. Michael              sends us. That is the Spirit's means of
consumeristic approach to evange-               Horton makes this point in these                 converting sinners and building up
lism and church growth? It too must             words:                                           the saints.
be judged wrong and ruinous when                      In consumer religion, Christianity                            . . . to be continued 0
testedbythetruthof Scripture. There                   becomes trivialized. Its great mys-
is no doubt that the church must go                   teries become cheap slogans. Its ma-
into the world and bring the gospel;


                                                7.      MichaelS.  Horton, MadeinAmeric~
5. Cf. Webster, Selling Jesus: What's           The Shaping Of Modern Evangelicalism             9. Ibid., 70.
Wrong with Marketing the Church,                (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 71-72.
(Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity, 1992),                                                         10. MacArthur, Ashamed of the Gospel,
chaps. 2,4-6, for a fuller treatment of this    8.      Cf. his little booklet, "Jesus Savior    102.
whole idea of marketing the gospel.             and the Evil of Hawking Him", pub-
                                                lished by First PRC of Grand Rapids,             11. Guinness,  Dining With the Devil,
6. Ibid., 36.                                   Mich.                                            30,31.

424lStandard  Bearer/July, lQB4


                                  Peter Datheen:
 Father of Reformed Liturgy (2)
                           The Reformation iii the NeiheVlands


Introduction                                "The blood of the martyrs," Tertulhan        needed, for there was then no force
    While our main interest in these        had said more than a millennium ear-         in Holland that would have dared to
articles is that great preacher and         lier, "is the seed of the church."           attack this multitude. The worship
Reformed liturgist,  Peter Datheen, it          So powerfully did the Reformed           was commenced with the singing of
is crucial, if we are to understand his     faith spread throughout all the Low-         a psalm. First were heard the clear
life, to have before our minds a brief      lands that the people were on the very       soft notes of the females at the centre;
                                                                                         next the men struck in with their
sketch of the history of the Reforma-       verge of overt rebellion. So serious         deeper voices; last of all the martial
tion in the Lowlands, in which coun-        was the situation that even Philip II        forms-in the outer circle joined the
try Datheen lived and worked.               had to take notice; and persecution          symphony, and gave completeness
    We called attention to the fact         eased somewhat.                              and strength to the music. When the
thattheReformedChurchintheNeth-                 One factor in the sturdy faithful-       psalm was ended, prayer was of-
erlands was born out of the womb of         ness of the people was the growing           fered, and the thrilling peals that a
persecution, some of the most terrible      practice of field preaching. "Field          moment before had filled the vault
persecution the church has ever expe-       preachers," with their pulpits               overhead were now exchanged for a
rienced                                                                                  silence yet more thrilling. The min-
            in the entire new dispensa-     strapped to their backs, wandered
tion, and will not experience again                                                      ister,openingtheBible,nextreadout
                                            the land and preached to the people in       as his text the 8th,  9th, and 10th
until the days of Antichrist. Because       everyplacepossible-inemptybuild-             verses of the second chapter of the
the faith of the church was hardened        ings, open fields, market places, deep       Epistle to the Ephesians: "For by grace
and purified in the crucible of perse-      forests. Most of the time the services       are ye saved through faith; and that
cution, that heritage of the faith          were held in secret, with guards             not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
handed down to us in our creeds, our        posted at crucial junctures to give          Not of works lest any man should
liturgy, and our church government          warning in the event Spanish troops          boast. For we are his workmanship,
is all the stronger and ought to be all     were spotted. Sometimes meetings             created in Christ Jesus unto good
the more precious to us. How can we         were discovered and cruelly broken           works, which God hath before or-
express our gratitude to God for this       up. On occasion they were held in            dained that we should wall& them."
                                                                                         Here in a few verses, said the minis-
heritage in any better way than to          peace. A description of one such             ter, was the essence of the whole
remain faithful to it?                      meeting will help us to appreciate           Bible -`the IlrnarrowR of all true
                                            them.                                        theology: - m the gift of God," salva-
Survival of the                                                                          tion; its source, "the grace of God;"
Reformed Church                                 Citizens and strangers now poured        the way in which it is received,
                                              out in one vast stream, and took the       "through faith;" and the fruits or-
    It is difficult to imagine life dur-      road to Overeen (the place where           dained to follow, "good works."
ingsuch horrible times of persecution         services were to be held, HH). Last          It was a hot midsummer day; the
as the church endured in the Low-             of all arrived Peter Gabriel the minis-    `audience was not fewer than 5,000;
lands. But the fact is that, as has been      ter. Two stakes were drivengerpen-         the preacher tias weak and infirm in
true throughout `the ages, God used           dicularly into the ground, and a bar       body, but his spirit was strong, and
persecution to advance His cause.            was laid across, on which the minis-        thelightning-power of his words held
                                              ter might place his Bible, and rest his    his audience captive. The sermon,
                                             arms in speaking. Around this rude          which was commenced soon after
                                             pulpit were gathered&t the women,           noon, did not terminate till past four
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-       then the men, next those who had           o'clock. Then again came prayer.
toy and New Testament in the Protes-         arms, forming an outer ring of de-          The preacher made supplica tion "for
tant Reformed Semina y.                      fence, which however was scarcely           all degrees of men, especially for the

                                                                                                    July, 1994iStandard  Bearer/425


     Government, in such a manner that         heresy, crept back to Spain, a de-           ably an effort to promote the cause of
     there was hardly a dry eye to be          feated man.                                  the truth with the sword, something
     seen." The worship was closed as it
     had been commenced, with the me-                                                       forbidden by Scripture. It resulted in
     lodious thunder of 5,OOOvoicesraised      Free&m  At Last                              freedom for the Lowlands, but also
     in praise.                                    Gradually the oppositionbecame           the establishment of a State Church-
                                               more organized. It really began with         something which proved to be the
           The slight surcease of persecu-     the "Beggars of the Sea," a rough            Achilles' heel of the church in years to
 tion did not last long. Philip's lying        group of sea captains with their crews       come. Yet, as wrong as the use of the
 promises betrayed the people, for,            and boats, who used their maritime           sword may seem to us, we must at
 while promising delegates from the            skills and reckless courage to raid         least have the sympathy to under-
 Lowlands some surcease from perse-            Spanish shipping and harass Spanish         stand that our fellow saints were
 cution, he secretly plotted to increase      land forces. Every Reformed school           driven to distraction as their families
 its intensity; and the iconoclastic riots    boy who has any love for his heritage        were tortured and burned, their
brought persecution with renewed              should read the exploits of these men.       homes confiscated, the brethren mur-
 force. The riots which took place                 Brie1 fell to the "Beggars," and it     dered, their friends, male and female,
 almost throughout the Lowlands as            was with their help that the dreadful        subjected to the cruelest tortures de-
the Reformed people, goaded by per-           siege of Leyden waslifted. Theinhab-         vised by the sadistic and cunning
 secution, took their frustration out on      itants of this walled city, surrounded       mind of men - men of the church!
every evidence of Roman Catholi-              by Spanish troops, were in total de-              Freedom came gradually. Not
cism which they could find churches,          spair. The food was gone, thousands          many major battles were fought; and
 stained-glass windows, images, al-           had already died of starvation, hardly       the ones which were fought usually
tars, decorations. Smashing wreck-            anyone was left with sufficient              ended in the defeat of the Protestants.
ing, destroying, they laid theinteriors       strength to resist any concentrated          Not much of the time was spent in
of many churches in ru-                                       attack on the walls. But     actual military maneuvers and at-
i n s .                                                       the people were deter-       tempts to defeat opposing forces. The
           Philip had his ex-       How  can  we              mined to resist until ev-    chief problem was. that William was
cuse. The cruel Duke of                 express               ery man, woman, and          unable to hold together an army of
Alva was appointed to                                         child within the city was    sufficient strength to have any hope
carry out Philip's ven-             our gratitude             dead.                        of defeating Spanish forces.
geance. Alva asked for                  to God                   The Sea Beggars               Although the Eighty Years' War
troops. The pope sent             for this heritage           were the men whobroke        did not officially end until the Peace
10,000 troops from Italy            iB any better             the dikes, and prayed for    of Westphalia in 1648, a combination
with instructions to de-              way than                a change in weather.         of forces gradually brought peace.
stroy Geneva on the way                                       God sent fierce and rag-     Spain gradually lost heart when all
as a "nest of devils and              to remain               ing storms from the          her efforts to destroy the Reformed
apostates." Alva did not           faithfil to it?            northwest and south-         faith proved futile. And this loss of
obey, but marched in                                   1 west which drove the heart was hastened by the gradual
speed towards the Low-                                        ocean waters over the        weakeningofSpainasamilita.rypower
lands and began to carry out Philip's                         land until the ships were    in Europe. Her navy was gradually
                                                        ._
determination to root Protestantism           able to sail to the very walls of Ley-       destroyed by the might of Holland
from the land.                                den. The Spanish forces were de-             and Britain. Her mighty armada was
           The executioners were busy from    feated and routed; the gates of Ley-         wreckedbyfiercestormsoffthecoasts
dawn till dark. Within three months           den were opened, and the city res-           of Britain, Scotland, and Ireland. Her
1800 men were hanged. That is 600 a           cued. For its courage and steadfast-         armies were nolonger  feared through-
month, 20 a day. They were slaugh-            ness,thecitywaslaterrewardedwith             out Europe.
tered for every conceivable reason,           a university, which school gained in-            In addition to these factors was
one for saying: "We must obey God             ternational renown and became a              also the growing movement of tolera-
rather than man." On February 16,             bulwark of the Reformed faith.               tion in Europe. Religious wars had
1568 a decree was issued which de-                 Armed insurrection now also             destroyed Germany as well as the
clared all the inhabitants, with only a       began to take place under the leader-        Lowlands, and men began to see that
few listed exceptions, condemned to           ship of William of Orange. Religious         if they did not learn to tolerate oppos-
death as heretics. Trials were then no        and political freedom were so insepa-        ing viewpoints, they would follow a
longer necessary. The burning, hang-          rably connected that to strive for the       path which could lead only to conti-
ing, torturing went on unabated -             former was to commit oneself to fight        nental suicide.
until Alva himself, sated with blood,         for the latter. It was the beginning of          And, finally, the Lowlands settled
frustrated in every effort to wipe out        the Eighty Years' War. It was undeni-        the problems by some sort of divi-
                                                                                           sion. Gradually Roman Catholics
&%/Standard Bearer/July, 1994


drifted into the south, where Spain                         ButhardlyhadtheReformedfaith              It was into the turmoil of the
was strongest; and Protestants drifted              been established in peace in the Neth-        struggle of the Reformed Churches in
north, where the Reformed faith was                 erlands, than the country was once            the Netherlands that Peter Datheen
strongest. Two  cotinties   emerged:                again in danger of being tom to pieces        entered. The role he played in the
Belgium, which to this day remains                  by the Arminian controversy.                  founding of the Dutch Reformed
strongly Roman Catholic; and the                            But that is another story, for an-    Churches is the subject of our next
Netherlands, the cradle of the Re-                  other time.                                   article.  0
formed faith.





    Ministers Attending Classis
                                               I                                                                                               I
     "Where in a church there are more              each congregation shallbe the official        there was no General Synod until the
ministers than one, also those not del-             delegate from that congregation to            SynodofDordt,1618-`19.  Inthemean-
egated according to the foregoing article           the classis.                                  time, each classis used its own judg-
shall have the right to attend classis with                                                       ment, with difference of practice from
advisory vote. "                                    The History of Article 42                     classis to classis.
              Church Order,  Article 42.                    The history of Article 42indicates        The Synod of Dordt, 1618-`19,
                                                                                                  decided to grant all the ministers at-
    Article 41 prescribed that every                that there has been difference of opin-       tendingclassis decisivevote: "Inany-
church shall be represented at classis              ion in the Reformed churches and              place where there are more than one
by two delegates, a minister and an                 divergence of practice with respect to        minister they shall all together be
elder: "The classical meetings shall                the status of additional ministers sent       allowed to appear in classis and have
consist of neighboring churches that                by a consistory to the classical meet-        a vote, except in matters that concern
respectively delegate, with proper                  ings. In fact, the rule laid down in          their persons or churches in particu-
credentials, aministerandanelder...."               Article 42 has not always been fol-           lar." The Synodaccommodateditself
    For practical reasons the churches              lowed in the Reformed churches.               to the prevailing practice of the day.
have agreed that each congregation                  Article 42 actually represents a return           The churches of the Secession of
shall be represented at classis by two              to an earlier practice that for some          1834 were critical of this change made
brethren, a minister and an elder, or,              time had been abandoned.                      by Dordf and returned to the earlier
if the church is vacant, by two elders.                     The Synod of Dordt, 1578, had         practice of the churches.
This provides for an equal number of                decided that each congregation should             IntheDutchrevisionoftheChurch
ministers and elders at classis.                    be represented at classis by one min-         Oru'crin1905andintherevisionofthe
    Article 42 addresses itself to the              ister and one elder. Ministers not            Church Order by the Christian Re-
situation of a church that has more                 delegated were granted the privilege          formed Church in 1914, Article 42
than one minister. In this case he                  of advisory vote, as were the elders of       was revised and cast in the form in
(they) maybe sent to classis and shall              the church where classis was meet-            which we have it today. There was a
be given advisory vote, that is, the                ing.                                          conscious return to the earlier prac-
right to speakon  the issues before the                     The Synod of Middelburg, 1581,        tice of the Reformed churches. Each
assembly. But they shall not be given               was overtured to grant decisive vote          congregation was to delegate to classis
decisive vote. Only one minister from               at the classical meetings to all of the
                                                    ministers who attended. The Synod             one minister and one elder, and they
                                                    rejected this overture. The practice          alone were to have decisive vote.
                                                    remained unchanged - one minis-
                                                    ter, one elder.                               Historical Situation
                                                            The Synod of SouthHolland,  1597,         Although Article 42 inits present
                                                    again considered the matter and de-           form is undoubtedly correct in prin-
Rev. Cammenga is. pastor  of Southwest              cided to refer the question to the next       ciple, we must take into account the
Protestant Reformed Church in                       General Synod of the Reformed                 situation in the Netherlands that
Grandville, Michigan                                Churches in the Netherlands. But              caused many to favor decisive vote

                                                                                                                 July, 19@4/Standard  Bearer/427


being given to all ministers attending       shall consist of neighboring                     Herewith let it be stated that one's
classis.                                     churches .,.. N A classis is not made up         right to attend classis  in an advisory
     That situation was the peculiar         of individuals. A classis is not made            capacity applies only in case it is a
situation that each church was made          up of officebearers: ministers and               classis  where "his" church is repre-
up of all the inhabitants of the particu-    elders. But classis is the federation of         sented. If he moves to another clas-
                                                                                              sical district . . . he has no more rights
lar city in which that church was            the churches that make @the classis.             at a classis  in that area than any other
found - one city, one church. The                In the second place, the principle           church member there except that,
size of a church, therefore, was deter-      behind Article 42 is that each congre-           being an officebearer, he may stay
mined by the geographic boundaries           gation is a self-governing manifesta-            and listen to the discussions when
of the city. Although there might be         tion of the body of Christ. As such,             non-officebearers are requested to
many different church buildings in a         each congregation stands on equal                leave because a matter has to be dis-
city,and many different ministers,           footing with every other congrega-               cussed in closed session (with Com-
there was one church in that city and        tion. A larger congregation is not               mon Consent,  p. 212).
one consistory.                              more of a church than a smaller con-
     We are told that in 1769 the            gregation. Every congregation, there-          Open or Closed Sessions
Church of Amsterdam had over                 fore, deserves equalrepresentation at             -In our Protestant Reformed
50,000 members, 11 churchbuildings,          classis.                                       Churches we customarily distinguish
and 30 ministers. And still it was the                                                      between "open session" and "closed
one church of Amsterdam, even                Advisory Vote                                  session."
thoughnumericallyitwasmuchlarger                 Eventhoughdecisivevoteisgiven                  An "open session" is a session of
than a small country church of a few         only to the two delegates sent by each         classis or synod that is open to the
hundred members. Naturally, it was           consistory, Article 42 gives advisory          public. Any member of the church
deemed unfair to these large congre-         vote - the right of the floor-to the           may attend and witness the proceed-
gations, with many more members              other ministers of acongregationwho            ings. However, he may not in any
andseveralministers,thattheyshould           may attend classis: ti . . . also those not    way participate in or interfere with
be represented at classis by only one        delegated according to the foregoing           the proceedings.
minister and one elder.                      article (i.e., Article 41) shall have the          "Closed session" restricts the
                                             right to attend classis with advisory          meeting to delegates and presently
The Principle of Article 42                  vote."                                         serving officebearers. All  non-
     There can be no question that the           Hereaconcessionismadetothose               officebearers are excused from' the
revision of Dordt, 1618-`19,  was a          larger congregations who do have               meeting. Closed session is declared
mistake. It conflictedwith the  Church       more than one minister. Yet this is            whenpersonalmatters are discussed,
Order itself. It was a contradiction of      more than merely a concession. This            when advice is sought in discipline
Article 41 which clearly stated that         is practical wisdom for a classis, for in      cases, or for other reasons classis or
each congregation shall be repre-            the multitude of counselors there is           synod deem it necessary to observe a
sentedby one minister and one elder.         safety.                                        certain degree of confidentiality.
It was a contradiction of Article 84:            Who are included in those who                  Besides open and closed session,
"No church shall in any way lord it          may be given advisory vote under               some Reformed churches implement
over other churches, no minister over        Article 42? Other ministers than the           from time to time "restricted ses-
other ministers, no elder or deacon          one delegated by the consistory in             sions." A restricted session is limited
over other elders or deacons." Obvi-         congregations where there is more              to delegates only. Even non-delegated
ously a large church, with several           than one minister. Retired ministers           officebearers who would be permit-
minister delegates at classis, was in a      and missionaries of a congregation,            ted to stay in closed session must
position to lord it over the smaller         as well as professors of theology,             leave. Certain Reformed churches
churches represented by only one             would also be included.                        resort to restricted session, for ex-
minister.                                        No formal decision ought to be             ample, when discussing appoint-
     Not only does the present revi-         taken by a classis to grant the right of       ments to the denominational semi-
sion of Article 42 correct this discrep-     advisory vote to other ministers from          nary.
ancy, but it is established on solid         a congregation attending the sessions              Generally the rule ought to be
biblical and church political prin-          of classis. Article 42 gives them this         followed in the broader assemblies
ciples.                                      right. A  classis cannot give them             that if at all possible matters ought to
     First,the principle on which Ar-        what they already have.                        be treated in open session. This pre-
ticle 42 rests is that our classes are           W.W.J. VanOene  offers this judg-          vents all suspicion and distrust of
composed of  churches. Churches are          ment with respect to the granting of           decisions made behind closed doors.
represented at classis. Article 41 ex-       advisory vote:                                 And this promotes denominational
presses this: "The classical meetings                                                       consciousness of the activities of the
                                                                                            broader assemblies. 0

428lStandard  Bearer /July, 19S4


The Inquisitor's Secreta y, by W. J. D.          ery time. the small drop of water          paring to preach, and aboat preach-
vanDijck.  Tr. Cornelius Lambregste.             came down on his head with a ter-          ing itself. He also analyzes Calvin's
Sioux Center, IA: Netherlands Re-                rible impact (p. 139).                     ownpreachingastomethod,content,
formed Book and Publishing, 1993.                                                           and style.
155 pp. N. p. (cloth). [Reviewed by                .Harm's long-lost son is the secre-          The value of the workis enhanced
the Editor.]                                   tary of the persecuting inquisitor.          by lengthy quotations from Calvin's
                                               Raised in the Roman Catholic reli-           sermons, some of which are not avail-
                                               gion, the son has been taught to hate        able in English.
        Reformed parents are always on         the Protestant "heresy." Will the son            Parker is incisive and very help-
the lookout for good reading for their         help his father? Will he heed his            ful in his analysis of the various as-
children, particularly good fiction.           father's preaching in prisoti and be         pects of Calvin's preaching. Regard-
What we desire are books that give a           converted?                                   ing Calvin's manner of admonishing
Reformed view of life, are instructive,            At points, the bookis,  as theDutch      his congregation, Parker points out:
hold the interest, and are well writ-          would say, "een beetje  over-uyoom  U ("a
ten.                                           little too pious"). Characters converse        There is no threshing himself into a
        It is surprising that there are so     by quoting Bible texts to each other.          fever of impatience or frustration, no
few such books produced by Re-                 But this is not a prevailing spiritual         holier-than-thou rebuking of the
formed writers in English. We Re-              weakness of our age, and our chil-             people, no begging them in terms of
formed have had our Christian                  dren will certainlynotbe hurt by this.         hyperbole to give some physical sign
schools for many years. There are                  This is good reading for older             that the message has been accepted.
manytalented college graduates. But            grade-school children.                         Itis simply oneman, conscious of his
                                                                                              sins, aware how little progress he
good, Reformed fiction for children                Meanwhile, will some of our ca-            makes and how hardit is to be a doer
and young people is rare.                      pable, educated young men and                  of the Word, sympathetically pass-
        For the most pti, we are depen-        young women give some thought to               ingontohispeople(whomheknows
dent upon the translation of books by          the possibility of their writing for our       to have the same sort of problems as
Dutch authors. The Inquisitor's Sec-           children and young people? n                   himself) what God has said to them
reta y is another such book. Written                                                          and to him. We even notice that in
originally in Dutch, it has recently                                                          the examples given above there is
been  translgted. by Cornelius                                                                not one direct imperative in the sec-
Lambregste.                                                                                   ond person. He is content to pass on
                                                                                              the message, to declare how unwill-
        It tells a story about a Protestant                                                   ing "we" are to accept it and how
preacher in the Netherlands during             Calvin'sPreaching,  by T. H. L. Parker.        weak"we" are in general, how slack
the time of the persecution of the             Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/             and rebellious, and then to use the
Reformed church by the Roman                   John Kndx Press, 1992. xiii + 202 pp.          firm but gentle first pers?n  plural
Catholics in the middle of the 16th            $22.99 (paper). [Reviewed by the               imperative, "let USI . . . (p. 119).
century. Harm Hiddesz is captured,             Editor.]
imprisoned in the dark, rat-infested                                                            Sunday after Sunday (and
prison in Amsterdam, and tortured                  There is much to be learned by           throughout the week) Calvin "sim-
by the dreaded "drip."                         both the Reformed preacher and the           ply" explained and applied the Scrip-
                                               congregation about preaching from            tures, Old Testament and NewTesta-
  Then the drip became unbearable. It          the preaching of John Calvin. Calvin         ment, verse after verse, chapter after
 wasnolongerdropsofwaterthatfell               scholar T.H.L. Parker gives us a fine        chapter, book after book as he fol-
  down - they were sledgehammers               study of Calvin's preaching in this          lowed his policy of series-preaching.
 that threatened to split the head of          book. Basing the study largely on            He did this in the conviction that the
 the tortu?ed man. His eyes became             Calvin's series of sermons on I and II       preaching of HoIy Scripture is the
 more and more cloudy. It seemed as            Timothy, the latter half of Job,             Word of God. By such preaching, the
 if he heard alJ kinds of noises, the
 rumbling of wagon wheels, the roll-           Deuteronomy, and Isaiah  30-411              church lives. 0
 ing of thunder. In vain he tried to           Parker shows us what Calvin thought
 collect his thoughts; in vain he tried        about the Word, about the preacher,
 to arrange words into a prayer. Ev-           about the congregation, about pre-

                                                                                                          July, 19WStandard Bearer/429


                                                                                                  Mk  &~~j~l,ml   lM&g@~l?

                                             VanBarens  in order that the parson-       to preach for them the one Sunday
Congregational Activities                    age cupboards could be stocked with        they were there. In mid May, Rev. G.
        Even though our churches' cat-       some groceries. On Sunday, May 22,         Laming,  one of our churches' retired
echism classes have all come to a close      Rev. VanBaren was installed as             ministers, alongwithGen3  Hollernan
for this year, we want to make note of       Loveland's sixth pastor, with Rev. R.      from South Holland's Council and Ed
one last class held at our Doon, IA          Moore, Loveland's moderator, lead-         Stouwie from their Evangelism Com-
PRC. In that class, studentsfromboth         ing the service. That evening Rev.         mittee, traveled to Florence to visit
the Heidelberg Catechism and Essen-          VanBaren preached his inaugural ser-       and preach to the group there.
tials classes met together for a lesson      mon based on II Thessalonians 3:1-3          Our Grandville, MI PRC made a
on the Reformation of 1857, the for-         and entitled "Prayfor the Free Course      special effort to invite friends and
mation of the Christian Reformed             of the Word."                              neighbors to a special worship ser-
Church - a lesson which explained                For its last Adult Bible Society       vice on Sunday evening, May22. The
some of the history of our mother            meeting of the season, the Adult Bible     sermon theme was "The Gift of Con-
church, and consequently some of             Societies of our Peace PRC in              tentment."
our history as well.                         Lynwood, IL, along with the Adult              On Sunday, June 5, at its evening
        On Sunday morning, May 22, the       Bible Society of the SouthHolland, IL      service,the Byron Center, MI PRC
congregation of our Georgetown PRC           PRC, met together to consider the          made a special welcome to those
in Bauer, MI met after the service for       topic of tithing and Christian giving.     friends and neighbors in their com-
a short program with cake and coffee,        Pastors Houck and Terpstra intro-          munity to come and hear a sermon
to bid farewell to Seminarian Allen          duced the subject with pro and con         based on Romans  8:29 and entitled
Brummel, his wife Crysta, and baby           presentations.                             "Foreknowledge: The Basis of Elec-
son Dean, members of Georgetown,                 After discussion for several           tion."
who planned to leave for a six-month         months, the Council of our Hope PRC
internship with Pastors Lau Chin             in Walker, MI has made arrangements        Minister Activities
Kwee and Jason Kortering, and the            to sponsor worship services of a               Rev: C. Haak, pastor of our
First and Covenant Reformed                  daughter group. This group first met       Lynden, WA PRC, declined the two
Churches in Singapore.                       on Sunday, June 5 at the Orthodox          calls he was considering. First he de-
        On May 31, Rev. B. Woudenberg        Christian Reformed Church of Grand         clined the call from our Hudsonville,
left his congregation in Kalamazoo,          Valley, O-11225 8th Ave., Standale,        MI PRC and then, one week later, he
MI for two weeks to visit among the          MI. These services wilI be held for a      declined the call from our
Reformed Churches in Romania. On             trial period of six months. At its be-     Georgetown PRC in Bauer, MI.
the two Sundays Rev. Woudenberg              ginning, this group was made up of             Since then Hudsonville and
was gone he was able to preach at            14 families and 5 individuals. And in      Georgetown have formed new trios.
Szek,  known to be the most tradi-           an effort to make minister supply          Hudsonville's trio consisted of the
tional of the Transylvania villages,         easier, services are scheduled for 1:OO    Revs. Bruinsma, Gritters, and
and the following Sunday in a new            and 7~30 p.m.                              Terpstra. On Sunday, June 5, Hud-
church in Kohalm (Rupea), a congre-              Upon the request of the Second         sonville met and extended a call to
gation recently formed among the             Christian Reformed Church of               Rev. Terpstra. Georgetown's trio was
Diaspora, the Hungarian people who           Randolph, WI, Rev. Key, pastor at          made up of the Revs. Key, Slopsema,
were moved from their historical vil-        Randolph PRC, was able to preach at        and VanOverloop. After their evening
lages into that area by the forces of        their evening worship service. His         service on June 12 they called Rev.
Communism.                                   sermon text for that service was Mark      VanOverloop. 0
        The congregation of our              435-41.
Loveland, CO PRC was able to wel-
come their new pastor, Rev. G.               Evangelism Activities                                  ~oodfor  17iOgfit
VanBaren, his wife Claire,and  daugh-            In mid-April, Pastor C. Terpstra,          "Even on earth the joy of harvest
ter Rachel with a program on May 20.         along with elder Eric Ophoff from          is great, but what infinite joy will
All societies planned special num-           our South Holland, IL congregation,        ensue when the number of the elect is
bers, and a cash gift was given to the       were in Florence, KY to visit a group      accomplished -when the bodies of
                                             of believers from that area and from       the saints are all retrieved from the
                                             southern Ohio who are interested in        grave and Christ celebrates his har-
Mr. Wigger is an eIa'er in the Protestant    our churches. Their visit served as an     vest home."
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-       occasion for an introduction to our                      A. Toplady,  Works, p. 547
gan.                                         churches. Rev. Terpstra was also able

430lStandard  Bearer /July, 1994


  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
    The Mr. and Mrs. Society of South-                                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
west Protestant Reformed Church                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                               On June 19, 1994, our parents
expresses Christian sympathy to                     July15 1994marksthe35thwed-                   and grandparents,
Roger and Marlene Groenendyk in                 ding anniversary of                                     MR. and MRS. GERRIT
the death of her father,                              GUSTAVE and RAMONA                                      BOVERHOF
       MR. NICK KOOIKER.                                      STREYLE.                            celebrated their 35th wedding anni-
    May they find comfort from the              We, their children and grandchildren,             versary. We rejoice with them and
words of I Corinthians 2:9: "But as it          give thanks to God for the many gifts             thank the Lord for their love and guid-
is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear          He has bestowed on usthrough them.                ance. May God continue to bless
heard, neither have entered into the            May our covenant God richly bless                 them and keep them in His care. "But
heart of man, the things which God              them in the coming years.                         the mercy of the Lord is from everlast-
hath prepared for them that love him."               Psalm 128:5, `The Lord shall bless           ing to everlasting upon them that fear
              Don Doezema, President            thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see              him, and his righteousness unto
                Florence Key, Secretary         the good of Jerusalem all the days of             children's children: to such as keep
                                                thy life."                                        his covenant, and to those that re-
    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                         0 John and LeAnn Streyle                          member his commandments to do
    On June 21,1994,                                   Katharina, Adam, Grant, Patrick            them" (Psalm 103:17,  18).
FRED and MARION ONDERSMA,                       0 Mike and Elaine Rau                             g, Gary and Deb Boverhof
celebrated their 55th wedding anni-                    Nathan, Benjamin, Erin                           Michael, Brent, and Joel
versary. We their children, grand                                                                 0 Scott and Joyce Boverhof
                                                                                    Hull, Iowa
children, and great-grand children                                                                Q Dan Boverhof
thank our heavenly Father for their                  WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                          @  Tressa  Boverhof
godly guidance and love.                             On June 6,1994,  our parents and                                        Wyoming, Michigan
    May they continue to experience             grandparents,
the blessing of God.                            CLARENCE and GRACE KUIPER                                 TEACHER NEEDED
    "Salvation  belongeth  unto the             celebrated their 40th wedding anni-                   The Northwest Iowa Protestant
Lord: thy blessing is upon thy people"          versary. We rejoice with them and                 Reformed School in Doon, Iowaneeds
(Psalm 3:8).                                    thank our heavenly Father for their               a teacher for grades K-2 for the 1994-
$ Robert and Kaye Moelker                       love, Christian instruction, and godly            1995 school year. Please contAct
0 Gary and Rose Moelker                         example. We pray that God will con-               Bob Mantel at (712) 726-3478 or
0 Larry and Judy Meulenberg                     tinue to bless them and keep them in              Chester Hunter at (712) 726-3381.
      16 grand children                         His care. "But the mercy of the Lord is           You may also write the school at: Box
      11 great-grand children                   from everlasting to everlasting upon              67, Doon, IA 51235.
                              Grandviile, MI    them that fear him, and his righteous-
                                                ness unto children's children" (Psalm               RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                        103:17).                                              The Staff of the Standard Bearer
    The sixth and ninth grade classes           Q Dave and Lori Kuiper                            extends its heartfelt sympathy to fel-
of Hope Protestant Reformed School                     Jill, Sara, Joe, Michelle                  low writer Benjamin Wigger and his
extend their Christian sympathyto our           0 Dick and Bev Kuiper                             family in the sudden death of Mr.
fellow classmates, Philip and Rocky                    Jeff, Dan, Brent, Jon, Katie               Wigger's brother:
Wigger and their family, in the tragic               Gary and Joyce Noorman                               BERNARD WIGGER.
death of their father,                                 Lisa, Chad, Paul                               May they be comforted by the
     MR. BERNARD WIGGER.                        0 Don and Gail Kuiper                             Word of our sovereign God, "For my
    Maythecomfortofthefamilybein                       Emily, Michael, Andrew                     thoughts are not your thoughts, nei-
this, "Precious in the sight of the Lord        8 Steve and Deb Kuiper                            ther are your ways my ways, saith the
is the death of his saints" (Psalm                     Paula, Mark                                Lord. For as the heavens are higher
116:15).                                        0 Steve and Judy Kamps                            than the earth, so are my ways higher
                            Joe Kuiper,                Stephanie, Luke                            than yourways, and my thoughts than
            Ninth Grade class President              Kevin and Joan Kooima                        your thoughts" (Isaiah 558, 9).
                      Jennifer Rutgers,                                                                         Prof. Robert D. Decker,
                                                                             Grand Rapids, MI
            Ninth Grade class Secretary                                                                                         Secretary

                                                                                                              July, 1994lStandard  Beard431


                                                                                                                                                           SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                                           Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                                           Grandvile,  Michigan
     f.0. Box 603
    Grandville,  MI 49468-0603
&T: i ,T,v :~~~::.-pr'.~`?;:. ;p,, -r -a$..I"; "s4a:;;v~.:;,r'w+  . ...' . .           ,. . .                                                                                             I

    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
       The Council of the Hudsonville                                               On June 18, 1994, our parents,                       On June 26,1994,
Protestant Reformed Church ex-                                                     PERLIN and AGNES SCHUT,                                ROBERT  and KAYE MOELKER
presses sincere Christian sympathy                                              celebrated their 40th wedding anni-                 celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.
to Elder and Mrs. Ben Wigger and Mr.                                            versary.                                            We, their children and grandchildren, wish to
and Mrs. Chuck Ensink in the loss of                                                We are thankful to our God for                  express our love and gratitude for their cov-
their brother,                                                                  giving us godly parents, who brought                enant faithfulness to the truth. May God
         MR. BERNARD WIGGER.                                                    us up in the fear of His holy name.                 continue to keep them in His care and richly
       May they find comfort and joy in                                         May the Lord continue to bless them                 bless them.
the confidence that Bernard.is even                                             and keep them in His care in the years                   "All the paths of the Lord are  mercy and
now in heaven.                                                                  ahead. "But the mercy of the Lord is                truth unto such as keep his covenant and his
        For "all things work together for                                       from everlasting to everlasting upon                testimonies" (Psalm 25:lO).
good to them that love God, to them                                             them that fear him, and his righteous-              0 Henry and Arlene Westhuis
who are called according to his pur-                                            ness unto children's children" (Psalm                      Henry, Katy, Robby, Lindsay
pose" (Romans 8:23).                                                            103:17).                                            0 Russ and Amy Zwak
   Mr. Norwin Brower, Vice-President                                            4 Gerry and Kathy Schut                                    Kelly, Kurt, Kyle, Kamy, Kraig, Kaley
                             Mr. Henry Boer, Clerk                                    Doug, Todd, Kyle                                                             GrandRsplds.MicMBan
                                                                                0 Ron and Barb Schut
    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                            Brad, Shauna, Leah, Joel,                                       N O T I C E ! !
       The Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Society of                                                                            Whitney                Classis East will meet in regular session
Hope Protestant Reformed Church of                                              0 Scott and Jean Anderson                           on Wednesday, September 14,1994  at the
Walker, Ml extends its sympathy to                                                    Melissa, Chad, Jeffrey, Shana                 Hope Protestant Reformed Church,  Walker,
Ken and Pam Engelsma in the death                                               CD Scott and Pam McNitt                             MI. Material for this session must be in the
of Ken's father,                                                                0 Pat Schut                                         hands of the Stated Clerk no later than August
        MR. DEWEY ENGELSMA.                                                                                                         15,1994.
                                                                                                              Jcmlson,  Michigan
       "Surelygoodnessand mercy shall                                                                                                               Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk
follow me all the days of my life: .and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever" (Psalm 23:6).                                                                         NOTICE!!!
                    Rev. Slopsema, President                                        Now available . . .
                    Mary Kalsbeek, Secretary                                        Hyper-Calvinism and the Call of
                                                                                the Gospel (revised edition 1994) by
                         N O T I C E ! !                                        David J. Engelsma. 216 pages, pa-
       Classis West of the Protestant                                           per. New foreword by Dr. John H..
Reformed Churches will meet at the                                              Gerstner.
Hull Protestant Reformed Church in                                                  Book Club members will be sent
Hull, IA, on Wednesday, September                                               this revised edition only on their re-
7, 1994 at 8:30 a.m., the Lord willing.                                         quest. The selling price, for mem-
All material for the Agenda is to be in                                         bers, is $9.15 U.S., $10.15 foreign,
the hands of the Stated Clerk thirty                                            shipping included. For non-members
days before Classis convenes. Those                                             the price is $12.50, shipping included.
delegates in need of lodging or trans-                                          U.S. funds only! Mail all orders with
portation from the Sioux Falls, ,SD                                             payment to:
airport should notify the Clerk of Hull's                                                    Reformed Free
consistoty, using the forms provided                                                   Publishing Association
for this purpose.                                                                            c/o Daniel Bush
                  Rev. Ronald VanOverloop,                                                   P.O. Box 2006
                                               Stated Clerk                           Grand `Rapids, Ml 49501
                                                                                                 U.S.A.

432lStandard  Bearer/July, 1994


