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A Reformed
                      , @!!GW!!ER
Semi-/Won  thly
Magazine

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                                                        -                   -~     -~-      i





                                                 See "Some Other Thoughts on Abortion"-page 435

                                                                                                 /
Vol. 70, No. 19
August,1994


                                                                                                                                                                                        ["~@g=j
     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                          August,  1994                                   -+I H 2,:
,                                                                                                                                                                                 I    El
                                                                                                                                                                                           `.:- 3.                &DMD
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  BE4RER
     Meditation - Rev. John A. Heys
             That Wonderful Gift of Peace with God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433                                                 iSSN 0362-4692
     Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
             Some Other Thoughts on Abortion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435                                         Semi-monthly, excepimonthly during June, July, and August.
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437                                           Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                       4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandvilla, MI 49416. Second Class
     Special Article - Rev, Charles J. Terpstra                                                                                                                                        Postage qp/d at Grandvllle, Michigan.
             A Critique of Modern Church-Growth Evangelism (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438                                                                                   Poatmaatrr: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
     Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                                             P.O. Box 603, Grendville, MI 49466.0603.
              More Than Logic . ..*..................................,....................,................ 440                                                                        EDlTORtAL  COMMlllEE
     Search the Scriptures - Rev, George C. Lubbers                                                                                                                                    Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                       Secretary: Prof.  Robsrt D. Decker
             Worthy of Double Honor . . ..L1........................................................... 442                                                                            Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doszeme
     Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                DEPARTMENT EDITORS
             The First Three Days of Creation (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445                                                Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammanga  Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                       Decker, Rev. Arie denHartog, Rev. Barry Gritters, Rev. Carl
     Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                  Haak, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John
             4. Abounding Lawlessness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .                                Hays, Rev. Steven Kay, Rev. Dale Kuiper, Mr. James Lanting,
                                                                                                                                                                                       Rev. George Lubbers, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev. Thomas
     A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C, Hank0                                                                                                                                      Miemma, Rev. Audred Spriensma. Rev. Charlss Terpstra,
              Peter Datheen:                                                                                                                                                           Rev. GlseVanBaran.  Rev. RonaldVanOvertoop, Mr. Benjamin
                                                                                                                                                                                       Wlgger,  Rsv. Bsrnard Woudenberg.
              Father of Reformed Liturgy (3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451
     Book Review . . . . . . . . . ..a..................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453    EDtTORtAL OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                       The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ban Wigger
     News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wgger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453                                                                   4949 Ivanrest               6697 40th Ave.
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             The July, 1994 issue of the Standard Bearer appeared later than many of our                                                                                                                           Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                                       EDtTDRfAL  POLfCY
     readers expected. The reason was that we waited with the publishing of this                                                                                                       Every editor is solely rasponaibla for the contents of hls Own
     issue until the synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches had finished its                                                                                                        articles. Contributions of general interestfrom  ourreademand
                                                                                                                                                                                       qwstii for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
     sessions about the middle of June. We like to inform the readers of the SB of                                                                                                     ~antrlbutlons  wi# be limited to approximately 360 words and
     the decisions of synod as quickly as possible after synod meets. It is encourag-                                                                                                  mustbeneatlywrin~lortypewritten,andmustbeslgned. COPY
                                                                                                                                                                                       deadlines ere the first end fifteenth of the month. All
     ing to discover that the arrival of the SB is looked for.                                                                                                                         unnmunicatlons  relative to the cantents should be sent to the
             We suggest that the societies and classes that take up again the study of                                                                                                 edll0rid offlca.
     Scripture this fall consider studying the gospel of John. The SB will be                                                                                                          REPRINT POLICY
     publishing a study guide of John by the Rev. Carl Haak. The guide consists of                                                                                                     Permlssttishsrebygrantedforthereprintingofe.rticleslnour
                                                                                                                                                                                       megaz!nebyotherpuMlcatlme,pmvided:  a)thatwchreprfnted
     a helpful outline of the book, chaptei by chapter, and of questions that will                                                                                                     articles are reproduced In full; b) that proper scknowledgment
     stimulate thought and discussion. The first installment will appear in the                                                                                                        is madq o) that a copy of the periodical In which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                                                       efipeare k cant to our edito&l  oftice.
     September 1 issue of the magazine, in time for use at the first meeting of the                                                                                                    SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
     societies and classes for Bible study.                                                                                                                                            Subscription  price: $12.00 per year In  the U.S., 515.00
              Readers sometimes indicate interest in the response to the SB in the wider                                                                                               elsewhere. Unless a definlta request for dlscontinuanw  Is
                                                                                                                                                                                       received, it Is assumed that the subscriber wishes  the
     Reformed sphere. The Trumpet, a monthly that circulates among the Orthodox                                                                                                        Su~ptlontoaxltinue,andhswillbeMlledfw~. tfyW
     Christian Reformed Churches, is reprinting some of Prof. Hanko's articles on                                                                                                      hareachangeotaddra~,pleasenot~theBualnessOffiMss
                                                                                                                                                                                       earfy as poselble In order to avoid the Inconvenience of
     church history. In the April 8,1994  issue of Clarion, magazine of the Canadian                                                                                                   interrupted delvery. lndude  your zip or Posb?l  Code.
     Reformed Churches, the editor reflected on the series of editorials in the SB on                                                                                                  AOVU?llSlNQ POLICY
     women voting at the Reformed congregational meeting ("The Nose of the                                                                                                             The Sfandud&ererdoes not accept commercial advertlslng
     Camel"). A recent article in NederZands  Dagblad,  a daily Christian newspaper                                                                                                    d any khd. Annwnwmenb3 of church end edmol  events,
                                                                                                                                                                                       annlvemarler,  obituaries, end sympathy resolutions will be
     in the Netherlands, commented on the same series of editorials. The article                                                                                                       @aoedforaS3.OOfae.   ThweehoddbawnttofheBudnsrs
     informed its many readers throughout the Netherlands that the "editor of the                                                                                                      OffkxMdahouldbeaccompaniedby~S3.00fse. Deadline
                                                                                                                                                                                       for announcements Is at least one month prio+ to publication
     Standard Bearer, . . . organ of the Protestant Reformed Churches" in. America,                                                                                                    date.
     cdntends that "with the decision to give women the right to vote at congrega-                                                                                                     BOUND VOLUMES
     tional meetings the (`liberated') Reformed Churches in the Netherlands  open                                                                                                      The Budnwe  Offloe will  ac.wpt &ending  orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                                                       `wpieeoftheourmntvdume.  Suchordemarefflledessas
     the door to feminism.... According to him the permission of women elders and                                                                                                      psslble after completion of a volume year.
     preachers in these churches is now merely a question of time."
                                                                                                                                                                    - DJE              16mm miaoftlm.  35mm microfilm and 105mm mluofidm, and
                                                                                                                                                                                       artide  coplea are  availtie through  Unlverslty  Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                       bit-.
     43ZlStandard  Bearer /August, 1994


                      That Wonderful Gift
                         of Peace With God
                                            .,            ,.     ,..
                                                                 _,,     /                                                          I

    One of the richest prophecies in       power of the Highest shall over-              everlasting thanks for that salvation.
Scripture concerning the coming of         shadow thee: therefore also the holy          We are not saved because we believe.
our Savior Jesus Christ is found in        thing which shall be born of thee shall       We believe because God has already
Isaiah 9:6. There we read: "For unto       be called the Son of God."                    begun salvation in us. Even as we are
us a child is.born, unto us a son is              The tremendously important and         not born physically because we de-
given: and the government shall be         comfortingtruthis that this Son, Christ       siredit,anddidsomethingtogetit,so
upon his shoulder: and his name            Jesus, would represent us. He would           we are not born spiritually by our
shallbe called Wonderful, Counselor,       be born in the line of Ring David. We         desire for it. Take hold of and believe
The mighty God, The everlasting Fa-        read in Matthew I:1 these words:              what God presents us in Ephesians
ther, The Prince of Peace." All these      "The book of the generation of Jesus          2~8, namely, "By grace are ye saved
names present tremendously com-            Christ, the son of David, the son of          through faith; and that not of your-
forting truths to which we must hold,      Abraham." Then in verse 16 we read:           selves: it is the gift of God. Not of
and will by God's grace do so.             "And Jacob begat Joseph, the hus-             works, lest any man should boast."
    However, the awesome truth to          band of Mary, of whom was born                When we boast we are being used by
which we must hold is that, although       Jesus, who is called Christ."                 Satanashis tools that arenot savedby
He, as our Savior, was born unto us,              Now, through Isaiah, our God           God's grace.
He was not born because of what we         declares that Christ Jesus is given us.           What a wonderful and comfort-
did, as is the case with every other       The idea is that Christ Jesus is a free       ing truth we have here. Our text not
child born in this world. Christ Jesus     gift of God's grace, unto a distinct,         only reveals to the child of God that
has no earthly father. In the text         divinely chosen group of sinners.             all is well. It means that all of God's
above we find His name called Won-         "Unto us," does not refer to the whole        promises will be fulfilled. And we
derful; and He was born in a wonder-       human race. It refers to those eter-          can be absolutely sure of that because
ful way.                                   nally chosen to be the members of             our God through Isaiah presents
    OurGodwaspleasedtouseMary              Christ's body, which is called His            Christ Jesus as the Ring of kings and
for His birth, and He made her will-       church. Now a body has a unique,              Lord of lords, upon whose shoulder
ing to be used for His birth. But          definite number of members, each              the government rests, so that He has
although this Son came throughMary,        member in a particular place to do a          complete control over Satan and all
no man filled any condition necessary      particular work, as designed by God,          the fallen angels, as well as on all
for a human child to be born. Our          and serving Christ Jesus the Head,            those not chosen in Him. Because the
God informed Mary that Jesus would         and with all the other members. That          government is upon His shoulder we
come by His will, and by His work          body has a definite number of mem-            have thatblessed, comfortingtruthin
through the Holy Spirit. We read that      bers; and it is not designed by men. It       Romans 8:28: "And we know that all
literally in Luke 1:35: "And the angel     is eternally designed by God. We find         thingsworktogetherforgoodtothose
answered and said unto her, The Holy       that so beautifully stated in Isaiah          that love God, to them who are the
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the        43:21. There we read: "This people            called according to his purpose."
                                           have I formed for myself; they shall              We have no reason to complain
                                           show forth my praise."                        and grumble about what happens to
                                                  Besides, that He is the Son" given"    us physically. Since all things work
                                           to us means that we do not get salva-         together for our good, all that hap-
                                           tion because of and by what we do.            pens is sent by Him to bring us to our
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the    We do not earn salvation. It is a gift by     particular place in His kingdom, be-
Protestant Reformed Churches.              God's grace. And to God we owe                ing ruled by Him who is correctly

                                                                                                  August, WSWtandard  Bearer/433


           .



called Wonderful Counselor, the               Through His cross, resurrection, and        Does the truth presented by God
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,           ascension into heaven, He has in the        through Isaiah fill us with spiritual
the Prince of Peace.                          human nature realized peace with            joy and thankfulness? Do we joyfully
        Let us take note of the fact that     God for us. And when He returns at          consider ourselves to be everlastingly
Christ Jesus is here called the Prince        God's appointed time, He will raise         chosen citizens of Christ's kingdom
of Peace. He is that because the gov-         up our deadbodies out of their graves;      of heaven? Do we merely admit that
ernment is upon His shoulder. In              and He will put Satan and all his           before man? Or do we every day
Colossians 1:17,18  we find this com-         wicked helpers into the everlasting         thank God for sending His Son to
forting truth: "And he is before all          torment of hell. He will be Prince of       realize this peace for us and in us?
things, and by him all things consist.        Peace by causing us with body and               In Revelation 13:15-17  we are in-
And he is the head of the body, the           soul to walk in perfect love before         structed and warned by our God that
church, whois thebeginning, thefirst-         God.                                        the day is soon coming when we will
born from the dead; that in all things            Let us also take hold of and re-        not be allowed to buy or sell, because
he might have the preeminence." He            joice more fully in the truth that He       we will refuse to receive a mark of
is the Son of God come into our flesh,        realized for us peace with God, not         that beast, the Antichrist, on our right
and He has a human nature given               simply earning the way for us to be         hand or on our foreheads. Therefore
Him through Mary. He suffered the             treated peacefully by ,God; but He          we must hold on tightly to this truth
punishment which we deserve, be-              will completely, when He returns,           about Jesus Christ being our Prince of
cause of all the sins which we commit-        make us love God and live in perfect        Peace. Him we can truthfully expect
ted.                                          peace with Him. All our pain and            to come and give us, with body as
        Now at Gods right hand He is,         suffering will everlastingly be gone;       well as soul, the peace that He earned
and He is called Wonderful Coun-              but also all our hatred of God and          for us. For in Revelation 227 and 12
selor, the Mighty God, the Everlast-          love of sin will be gone forever. As        we read: "Behold I come quickly."
ing Father, the Prince of Peace. He           PrinceofPeaceHewillmakeuspeace-             As the Prince of Peace He will bring
brings forth wonders which we never           ful members of His body.                    us everlasting peace in heavenly glory.
expected, and do not deserve. And,                Sad to say, that peace with God is          Let us then with our hearts as
by all means, let us keep in mind the         so often brushed aside in the church        well as mouths sing from  Psalter
comforting truth that coming in our           world today. Salvation is presented         #2&l, that glorious truth which is
flesh, and after His resurrection and         merely as'relief  from punishment and       based on Psalm 98~4, namely:
His ascension into heaven to God's            glorification of the body, causing us
right hand, His name is Wonderful             to enjoy what our flesh wants. But the          Come, let us sing before the Lord
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Ever-          awesome and wonderful gift of sal-              New songs of praise with sweet
lasting Father, the Prince of Peace.          vationwhichHerealizedforusis  that                accord.
        His cross and death, but also His     we will be caused, when our bodies              For wonders great by Him are
resurrection and ascension up into            are resurrected, to walk fully, and               done,
heaven, caused Him to become what             every moment to all eternity, in love           His mighty arm has vict'ry won.
Isaiah correctly declared that He             of Godin the new Jerusalem. And, by                                                 0
would be. He is the Prince of Peace. In       the way, that name Jerusalem means
the Hebrew language that word                 "Possession of Peace." The Prince of
"prince" means the`official, the cap-         Peace will bring us into that everlast-
tain, the head who realized peace for         ing peace with God, in a life wherein
us: He is the One who realized peace          He deals peacefully with us.
for us.                                           Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace,
        Hiscross, death, resurrection, and    is coming to make us holy and righ-
ascension up into heaven have made            teous citizens in the kingdom of
Him to be what Isaiah declares that           heaven. If we mainly and merely are
Hewillbe.NowitcanbesaidthatHis                interested in a salvation that is deliv-
name is Wonderful Counselor, the              erance from punishment, we do not
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,           reveal ourselves to be citizens in His
and that therefore He is the Prince of        kingdom.
Peace.                                            The question then is whether we
        This is an important truth for us     can say, without a shadow of doubt,
to hold on to tightly, and keep in our        that Christ Jesus, the Prince of Peace,
souls in this vale of tears. Through          has begun in our souls to cause us to
Isaiah our God told us that He would          love God, and to look forward to the
become the Prince of Peace. He "shall         day when with our bodies we can
be called . . . The Prince of Peace."         walk everlastingly in love of God.

434iStandard  Bearer IAugust,  1994


                 Some Other Thoughts
                                           on Abortion
                                                                                                                                    1
    The Reformed Christian may not          organs of government and by the                 The response of the Reformed
simply fall in with the thinking of the     people is another. The spirit of Anti-      Christian, accordingly, should not
decent heathens or even of all other        christ, who is now about to be re-          only be condemnation of abortion by
Christians on abortion.                     vealed,changesthefundamentallaws            lawful means. But it must also be
    Abortion is murder, the killing of      of God, made known both in Scrip-           heightened watchfulness for the com-
humans, who were originally created         ture and in nature, as God's prophet        ing of Jesus Christ which is near. This
in the image of God, without divine         foretold in Daniel 7~25 and Daniel          watchfulness must include spiritual
warrant. The law of God forbids and         11:36.                                      preparation for the open conflict with
condemns murder (Gen. 9:5, 6; Ex.               The abortion decree-by the Su-          the United States government that is
20:13). Humans begin to exist as            preme Court of the United States was        impending. It is not now a question
persons at conception, as the Word of       appalling. The state took to itself the     whether our government will make
God teaches in Psalm 139:13-16:  "...       sovereign authority of God over life        demands upon the Reformed church
thou hast covered me in my mother's         and death. When the state executes          andupontheReformedChristianthat
womb.... Thine eyes did see my sub-         the murderer or revolutionary, it is        they cannot obey and whether our
stance, yet being unperfect; andin thy      the servant of the sovereign God (Rom.      government will persecute them for
book all my members were written,           13:1-7). When the state sanctions the       obeying God rather than men. The
which in continuance were fashioned,        destruction of the bothersome and           only question is when and how this
when as yet there was none of them."        burdensome, it usurps God's sover-          will take place. The state that claims
Mothers and doctors, therefore, who         eignty. In the language of II Thes-         for itself the sovereignty belonging
kill unborn babies at any stage of the      salonians 2:4, it opposes                                 alone to God, as the
pregnancy are guilty of murder. The         and exalts itself above all                               United States has done
state that legalizes abortion is guilty     that is called God, show-                                 in the decision on abor-
of murder.                                  ing itself that it is God.         Roe v. Wade            tion, must turn on those
    Of these things, there is some          Reformed Christians               was a lurch             citizens who will have
knowledge outside the sphere of Re-         must see on the features             toward               no other god before the
formed Christianity and even outside        of the "nine old men"             the kingdom             one, true God revealed
the sphere of the church altogether.        (now, men and women)                                      in Jesus Christ in Holy
    But the Reformed Christianmust                                            of the beast.
                                            of the Court the visage of                                Scripture.
go further in his or her reflection on      the "man of sin," the L                                      Although the law-
abortion.                                   "beast from the sea."                                     lessness of abortion
    The recent development in West-         This is not so much because these           stems ultimately from rebellious the-
ern civilization (more accurately,          officials of civil government autho-        ology, it makes headway by means of
Westembarbarism)oflegalizingabor-          rized the slaughter of millions of hu-       corrupt ethics. Abortion is the final
tion is a significant development in       mans, even though they were inno-            solution to the problem caused by
the rejection of God, whom Western         cent before the tribunal of the state, as    sexual promiscuity and irresponsi-
nations have clearly knownboth from        it is because the Court seized upon          bility. North America promotes the
creation and from Holy Scripture.          theprerogativesofGodinJesusChrist.           enjoyment of the pleasure of sex out-
Abortion is a striking, appalling in-      Not to the Supreme Court, but to the         side the bond of marriage.. Every
stance of the abounding of lawless-        risen Jesus, His Messiah, has God            aspect of our society encourages for-
ness in the last days forecast by Jesus    given the keys of the grave and death        nication: music, books, television,
in Matthew 24:12. The approval of          (Rev. 1:18). Roe V. Wade was a lurch         movies, advertising, and education.
homosexuality both by the official I'toward the kingdom of the beast.                   The result of fornication is unwanted
                                                                                                 August, 199Wtanda~Y  Beeren'435


babies. The solution? Kill the babies!            betrayinghis office as minister of God,      sures . . . .N (Titus 3:3). Resentment of
    Even where marriage is used,                  charged to punish evildoers and pro-         our own children, when they come, is
there is no recognition of the calling to         tect well-doers.                             heart-abortion. Reformed Christians
have children or of the responsibility                  Wrath falls upon the nation. Ev-       who now vehemently (and rightly)
to receive and rear the fruit of the              ery storm, earthquake, and natural           condemn abortion will soonbe put to
sexual union. Marriage is merely a                disaster; all the social and economic        the test concerning the genuineness
means of sensual self-gratification.              trouble; and, particularly, the increas-     of their abhorrence of the destruction
To get rid of the hindrances, abort!              ing violence are God's punishments           of the unborn. When the pill is mar-
    Reformed Christians may not,                  of the nation for the national sin of        keted in North America that enables
withnarrowedvision, concentrate on                abortion, as for its other transgres-        a woman to destroy the unborn child
the murder of the unborn. Their tes-              sions. In the end, the nation will           soon after conception in the privacy
timony to the world must condemn                  perish, perhaps in a judgment of God         of her bathroom, without any trip to
the unchastity and the dishonoring of             in history, certainly in the Day of          an abortion clinic, the Reformed
marriage that give birth to abortion.             Christ.                                      young woman who has sinned and is
    Indeed, we must see abortion as                     Abortion makes loud to the Re-         sorry, but dreads being found out,
an evidence of the dreadful spiritual             formed ear the call of God in the            and the Reformed couple who have
condition of humanity outside of                  gospel, Come out, my people, and be          convinced themselves that they can-
Christ that the Reformed faith con-               separate, "that ye be not partakers of       not bear the responsibility of yet an-
fesses in the doctrine of total deprav-           her sins, and that ye receive not of her     other child will be tested whether
ity. The world is evil, completely and            plagues" (Rev. l&4). This call the           their hatred of abortion was rootedin
intensely evil. Mothers destroy their             Reformed believer obeys, not by any          the love of God.
own children and scream for the right             physical removal to a remote place or            Grace rescues us from this
to do so. Doctors take life. Justices             to another country, certainly not by         present, evil, aborting, heaven-storm-
decree the righteousness of murder.               any revolutionary behavior, but by           ing, perishing world.
The creature plays Creator.                       living antithetically in the power of            Only grace.
    The depravity of                                            the Holy Spirit. He re-            In its own way, abortion brings
which abortion is a                                             fuses to amuse himself         home to us Reformed Christians the
glaring expression is                                           with the world's pomog-        reality of the grace of God to us and
not a matter of illit-                     The                 raphy; he keeps himself         our children.
eracy, poverty, and so-              &formed be-                from the television pro-           The world butchers its own off-
cial deprivation, but of                liever . . .            grams, movies, and             spring.
sinfulhumannature. It           frees the church               books that entertain by             Reformed believers obediently
is sharedby the unwed                    that is                means of violence; he will     have children in marriage; thankfully
mother-to-be in the                                             not allow the state's          receive them; gladly rear them; and
ghetto and by the dis-                  unable                  schools to teach his chil-     joyfully fellowship with them in the
tinguished, learned                  unequivocally              dren the goodness of           family.
aristocrats on the bench              to condemn                adultery, the lawfulness           The grace of God in the covenant
of the Supreme Court.                  abortion,                of abortion, and the ne-       with believers and their children
    From this world,                 as well as the             cessity of the deifying of     makes the difference.
the Reformed believer                    sexual                 man; he sees to it that his        This is the difference. Either par-
is called to separate                                           thinking on sex, mar-          ents bury their children in the blood
himself by the Word of                unchastity               riage, children, state, jus-    of Christ in baptism, or they choke
God. Abortion is an                   for which                tice, killing, and bearing      them in their own and their mother's
urgent reminder. For                   abortion                 (rather than escaping)         blood in abortion.
there is divine wrath                is the world's            responsibility is formed            We have it so good in the cov-
upon this wickedness.                  panacea.                 exclusively by Holy            enant. The covenant meanslife for us
An impenitent Justice                                           Scripture; and he most         and for our sons and daughters.
Harry Blackmun,  main                                           assuredlyleaveqindeed,             We must be thankful.
framer of the Supreme                                          flees, the church that is           Outside the covenant, it is hor-
Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, lauded           unable unequivocally to condemn              rible: grisly death for unbelievers and
upon his recent retirement as a great             abortion, as well as the sexual              their children.
jurist, will shortly stand in judgment            unchastity for which abortion is the             Well may we pray the petition of
before the Judge of all the earth. The            world's panacea.                             Psalm 7420: "Have respect unto the
sentence will be the everlasting death                  In this separation is nothing of       covenant: for the dark places of the
dueamanwhohasdoneevil,notonly                     pride. "For we ourselves also were           earth are full of the habitations of
in decreeing the death of scores of               sometimes foolish, disobedient, de-          cruelty."  0
millions of boys and girls but also in            ceived, serving divers lusts and plea-                                        - DJE

436/Standard  Bearer/August, 1994


                                                minority responded, "There must al-        light of the teaching of Holy Scripture
 n The Church's Response                       ways be time for serious inquiry into       in Genesis 18 and19, Romans 1:18-32,
 to Homosexuality                              the Word. We must always be open            ICorinthians6:9-lO("effeminate"and
         Again, as it had at three previous    to new insights." Some saw the task         "abusers of themselves with man-
 synods, the Reformed Church in                force's recommendation as a "slip-          kind" refer to homosexuals,
 America (RCA) dealt with this issue           pery slope that will lead to the adop-      sodomites), and I Timothy 1:lO this is
 at its General Synod which met in             tion in the RCA of a secular gay rights     exceedingly sinful activity. It is, in
June at Central College in Pella, Iowa.        agenda." Others regarded the rec-           fact, the most vile manifestation of
Jeff Japinga reports that the RCA did,         ommendation as a means to "bridge           the reprobate mind possible. The
 I, . . . what no other mainline denomi- chasms of misunderstanding and to passage in Romans 1 calls this "vile
 nation has been able to do: find some         share models of ministry with each          affections." How ought the church
 common ground on one of the most              other."                                     respond to this? The church must in
 divisive issues facing the North                  The synod did not adopt the task        the love of God command homosexu-
American church today - the issue              force's recommendation. Instead it          als to repent of and leave this sin. The
of the church's response to homo-              unanimously approved a substitute           church must point such repentant sin-
sexuality." In study papers and state-         which calls "the RCA members and            ners to the cross of Jesus Christ by
ments adopted by the synods of 1978,           churches to a process of repentance         whose blood also this vile sin is
1979, and 1990 the RCA took the po-            for failing to live up to its own pasto-    washed away. Those who after being
sition that while "the practicing ho-          ralstatements on homosexuality, and         admonished refuse to repent of their
mosexuallifestyle is contrary to Scrip-        to a process of prayer, learning, and       homosexuality must be disciplined
ture," the church is "called to minis-         growth in ministry on issues sur-           and excommunicated from the church
ter in love to persons of homosexual           rounding the question of homosexu-          of Christ.
orientation." Obviously this position          ality. Finally, it asks the church's            The same synod refused to seat
did not put the issue to rest in the           Commission on Theology to develop           ten delegates representing Classis
RCA. This year's General Synod was             a study guide and collect models for        Muskegon and Classis North Grand
presented with a recommendation                ministry that will help local congre-       Rapids because these classes had not
from a task force formed to study the          gations grapple with their own calls        fully paid their 1993 assessments.
issue of homosexuality that called             to minister in this area." Moments          Christ Community Church, Spring
upon the localcongregations, classes,          after approving this recommendation         Lake, Michigan (residing in Classis
and synods to "enter into a season of          the delegates sang the doxology.            Muskegon) refused to pay its portion
discovery and discernment guided                   Japinga comments, "The recom-           ofthesynodicalassessmentsintended
by study, prayer, listening, and dis-          mendation still leaves hard work to         for the Church Herald, the RCA's
cussion" using a process outlined in           be done. The theology commission            church magazine; and Seventh Re-
the report.                                    must now prepare study and minis-           formed Church in Grand Rapids re-
     After three hours of debate the           try resources for submission to next        fused to pay across a broad range of
synod's advisory committee voted               year's synod, no small task. And the        denominational assessments, citing
ten to seven to advise synod not to            euphoria of the moment always, in           philosophical and theological differ-
approve the task force's recommen-             such a volatile issue, is tenuous at        ences with the programs involved.
dation. The majority of the advisory           best. But for one shining day, the          The delegates from these classes were
committee tooktheposition that, "the           church came together on an issue that       allowed the privilege of the floor on
time for talking about this issue is           has been deeply divisive.,.. In doing       all issues. Thus, for the first time in
past, we know what we believe, and             that, synod practiced what it would         the long history of the General Synod
we cannot compromise those beliefs.            ultimately preach: "that in discuss-        of the RCA, classis delegates were not
We need simply to act on them." The            ingfaithfully we can understand, and        seated because of non-payment of
                                               in our understanding we can act, ac-        their assessments.
                                               :ording to the will of God."                   Just a brief comment on all this.
                                                  How much discussion does it              4s much asundersigned respects the
Prof. Decker is professor ofPractical The-     :ake? How much study does it take to        zongregation  of Seventh Reformed
ology in the Protestant Reformed Semi-         letermine how the church ought to           Church in Grand Rapids for its con-
nary.                                          *espond to homosexuality? In the            iervative  stance, refusing to pay syn-

                                                                                                   August,  1994lStandard  Beareri


odical assessments is not the way to          sharply contrasting reports from its         fers from exhorting and preaching.
protest denominational wrong do-              advisory committee. The majority             All this took about three days of the
ing. Nor will this free the congrega-         report used biblical grounds to argue        synod's time. Leading women in the
tion from its corporate responsibility        against ratifying the change, while          CRC served notice that they are not
with respect to RCA positions and             the minority report cited past biblical      about to give up on the cause even if
actions. Seventh must protest, and if         studies and pastoral grounds to ar-          it takes years. "We're in for the long
she cannot get the RCA back to its            gue for ratification.                        term," said Joan Flikkema, executive
confessional moorings, she must leave                In related decisions the synod        secretary of the Committee for Women
the denomination.                             passed a motion to "urge all councils        in the CRC.
                      The Church Herald       that have ordained women elders,                   In our opinion it is only a matter
                                              evangelists, or ministers to release         of time before the CRC opens all of-
                                              them from office by June 1,1995, and' fices of the church to women.
H Women in Church Office                      ;..nottoordainanyadditionalwomen                   Meanwhile, yet another church
         This was the most troubling issue    elders, evangelists, or ministers."          voted to leave the denomination. By
at the last synod of the Christian Re-        Synod agreed that 1992's decision is         unanimous vote of its council and
formedChurch(CRC). Byavoteof95                still valid. That decision allows            majority vote of its members the Sec-
to 89 the synod decided not to ratify         women "to teach, expound the Word            ond CRC of Toronto decided to leave
the change in the Church Order of the         of God, and provide pastoral care,           the denomination as of June 15,1994.
CRC that would open all offices of the        under the supervision of the elders."                                              0
church to women. The synod ap-                But the synod also appointed a com-                                      The  Banner
proached the women's issue via two            mittee to clarify how expounding dif-                            Christian Renewal





  A Critique of Modern Church-
                    Growth Evangelism  (4)

IV. THE NATURE                                says, but while they may be distin-          latter we must use marketing tactics.2
OF THE GROWTH                                 guished, they ought not to be sepa-          But this is a false separation and a
         A final area in which the modem      rated.'                                      false way to approach true church
church growth movement is to be                      One of the problems is that in the    growth. Both must and are achieved
examined and critiqued is in the area         teaching and practice of the church          through the one means of biblical
of the nature of growth itself. As            growth movement the two kinds of             principles and preaching.
Guinness points out in his book, the          growth are often confused or sepa-                Another problem is that there is
term is capable of double meaning:.           rated. Bama, for example, states that        an over-emphasis on numerical
qualitative growth, referring to spiri-       there are two different sets of tactics      growth in the new evangelism.
tual depth and character; and quanti-         to be used for spiritual growth and for      Guinness quotes one megachurch
tative growth, referring to size and          numerical growth. For the former we          pastor who said concerning his fast
numbers. The church needs both, he            must use biblical principles; for the        growing church: "I want the biggest
                                                                                           church I can think of.l13 And Webster

                                                                                           2. Douglas D. Webster, SeZZing Jesus:
                                                                                           What's Wrong With Marketing the
                                              1. OS Guinness, Dining With the Devd,        Church @ownersGrove,ILz  Intervarsity,
Rev. Terpstra is pastor of the Protestant     "The Megachurch Movement Flirts with         19!92),  35.
Reformed Church of South Holland, Illi-       Modernity" (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993),
nois.                                         26.                                          3. Ibid., 26.

438lStandard  BearerlAugust,  1994


points out that even though church                 give faith, we shall start to think that     church to grow, both spiritually and
growth leaders warn about getting                  the making of converts depends, in           numerically. Christ said that He
caught up in the "numbers game,"                   the last analysis, not on God, but on        would build His church, and He does
nevertheless they view a ten percent               us, and that the decisive factor is the      that through the means of the Word
annual growth rate as one of the marks             way in which we evangelize. And              preached and taught  (Matt.16:18;
of success.`Further, in their seminars             this line of thought, consistently fol-
                                                 . lowed through, will lead us far              28:19,20).  Acts2:47  states that it is the
and conferences the magical number                 astray.6                                     Lord who adds to the church daily
of one thousand members is held be-                                                             such as should be saved. That takes
fore church pastors as the first step in         I am afraid that Packer's warning has          place through the means of the preach-
attaining to "megachurch" status, and            gone forgotten in today's church               ingand fellowship and worship of the
a lot of pressure is put on pastors and          world. From a certain point of view            church, and that is what we must be
leaders to grow in size and numbers.             this should not come as a surprise, not        busy doing then. In I Corinthians
It should not take us aback then when            only because of the natural pride of           3:6,7 Paul stated that he had planted
we read that for some church growth              man, but also because historically in          and Apollos had watered, but that it
experts "the No. 1 rule of church                this country this theology and these           was God who gave the increase. "So
growth is that a church will never get           "new measures" were advancedlong               then neither is he that planteth any-
bigger than its parking lot." We con-            ago already. It was Charles Finney,            thing neither he that watereth; but
cur with the sentiments of Guinness              the 19th~century  evangelist, who first        God that giveth the increase." That
when he replies, "Its parking lot?               introduced them during the religious           too we must remember.
. ..Above growth in faith? Before                revivals of his time. Rejecting the                     The words of OS Guinness are
growth in the Word and Spirit? God               Calvinism of his day, along with the           appropriate as we conclude this sub-
forbid.... What truly matters after the          "old" way of carrying out evange-              ject:
accumulated wisdom of modernity                  lism, Finney sought to create conver-
has been put to good use is that the             sions through the use of emotional                   If Jesus Christ is the head of the
real character of the church remains to          preaching, the "anxious seat," and                   church and hence the source and
be demonstrated, the real growth of              the "decision altar," since he believed              goal of its entire life, true growth is
the church remains to be seen."5                 salvation was a matter of the sinner's               only possible in obedience to him.
     Criticism must also be leveled at                                                                Conversely, if the church becomes
                                                 free will. As John MacArthur has                     detached from Jesus Christ and his
t h e   c o m m o n c h u r c h   g r o w t h    written, "Finney'sapproach  tominis-                 word, it cannot truly grow however
movement's notion that the growth                try thus foreshadowed and laid the                   active and successful it may seem to
of the church is man-controlled and              foundation for modem pragmatism.                     be.... The authentic movements in
man-achieved. This is evident from               His teaching and methods have col-                   the church are those that are set in
the theology of the movement, which              ored much of American evangelism                     motion by God's decisive authority,
is predominantly Arminian. It teaches            for the past century and a half. He                  especially  the decisive authority of
the sovereignty of man, not the sover-           could rightly be called the father of                grace.8
eignty of God, in salvation; and there-          evangelical pragmatism. The mod-
fore it promotes the ability of man to           em market-driven ministry is simply            May the Lord continue to set us in
control and bring about church                   the culmination of the movement                motion by the power of His grace
growth through human means and                   Finney began."'                                unto the gathering and upbuilding of
methods. Why else would this new                      How then must we perceive and             His church. And may we labor in
evangelism pay such meticulous at-               work toward the growth of the                  obedience to Him by sticking to and
tention to methodology and technol-              church? We must ever keep in mind              laboring in the preaching of the holy
ogy and marketing and all the rest?              the basics of our Reformed faith and           gospel of Jesus Christ, both on the
J.I.Packer warned about this very                practice, that it is God who is sover-         mission field and in the established
thing over thirty years ago:                                                                    congregation. Only in that way can
                                                 eign in the work of salvation and that
                                                 it is God therefore who causes the             we expect His blessing. "Except the
  If we forget that it is God's Preroga-                                                        LORD build the house, they labor in
  tive to give results when the gospel is                                                       vain that build it" (Ps.127~1). 0
  preached, we shall start to think that
  it is our responsibility to secure them.       6. J.I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sov-
  And if we forget that only God can             ereignty of God (Downers Grove, IL:
                                                 Intervarsity,  1961),  27.

                                                 7. John F. MacArthur, Ashamed of the
4.  Ibid., 34.                                   Gospel: When the Church Becomes Like
                                                 the World (Wheaton: Crossway, 1993),           8.       Guinness, Dining With the Devil,
5. Guinness,  Dining Witk the Devil,             159. Cf. also his appendix on this subject,
38-39.                                           227-235.                                       39.

                                                                                                                 August, w94ksndard  Bearer1439


                                                                           an Logic

              _    ..,.,  "_  ly"..l,_  ~  ._,..;.

Verily, .verily, I say unto thee, Except a            Christian faith, and which we now           show mercy on whom I will show
man be born again, he cannot see the                  find set forth in the historic creeds of    mercy" (33:19). In effect, God was
kingdom of God.                                       Christianity. God is a logical God;         saying that He would reveal to Moses
                                     John 3:3         and upon this fact the church of God        as much as Moses was able to receive,
                                                      is built.                                   which in this instance was the fact of
    God is a logical God. He cannot                       But this does not mean that with        election, that God shows mercy to
lie (Numbers 23:19); and therefore He                 nothing more than logic one can ar-         whom He has chosen to do so. With
cannot deny or contradict Himself,                    rive at truth, either from the Bible or     this Moses had to be satisfied, even
which is the foundation for the basic                 anywhere else. It simply is not so, and     though there was much more he might
principle underlying all true logic.                  for a number of reasons.                    wish to know - even as to this day
And because of it, God's revelation to                    First of all, there are limits to       there are many questions about elec-
us, the Bible, can be relied upon and                 what God has seen well to reveal to         tion to which we are given no answers
understood. We can exegeteit, which                   us; He has not told us everything.          either, such as, who are the elect, and
is to say, we can glean from it truths                There is much which God has re-             why God has chosen some and not
which can be received with certainty,                 vealed; but there are also many other       others, or how can sin have come to be
knowing that what God says at one                     things which He has not. The result is      without God being its author. The
point, He will not contradict at an-                  that there are limits beyond which all      fact of these things He has told us; but
other. This provides the basic guide-                 the efforts of man cannot pass. It is       the details He has not made known.
line by which a true interpretation of                not for us to be able to figure out what        This is true in other areas as well.
Scripture can be established, and dis-                God has not said.                           Godis God; and we are but creatures.
tinguished from that which is false.                      We have a striking example of           Godisinfinite,withacompleteknowl-
    Therulegoesineffectlikethis: an                   this with Moses on Mt. Sinai, follow-       edge of all things; while we are crea-
individual passage of Scripture is in-                ing Israel's great sin. Moses was           tures who cannot go beyond the lim-
terpretedby allof the rest of Scripture               struggling with a problem; how              its within which He created us. It is
-whichis tosay,aninterpretationof                     could God both insist that this sin of      something that every good theolo-
a particular passage of the Bible can                 Israel had to be punished (Ex. 32:33),      gian must recognize. We may and
be accepted as true only when it is in                and at the same time promise to send        should deal with what God has re-
harmony with, and seen in the light                   His angel to lead them into the prom-       vealed, but beyond that we should
of, all of the rest of the Scriptures.                ised land  (32:34)? And so it was           not seek to tread. We should deal
This rule is implicit in what Jesus said              finally,afterstrugglingbackandforth         with what is given in an orderly and
in John 10:35,  "The scripture cannot                 with this problem, that Moses ex-           systematic way (I Cor. 1440);  but we
bebroken." Withthisruleinhandthe                      claimed, "Ibeseech thee, show me thy        will never be able to fill in all the gaps,
church of God has been able to elicit                 glory" (3318)  - to which the Lord          and there will always remain ques-
from the Bible those basic doctrines                  replied, "Thou canst not see my face:       tions to which we are given no an-
which form the foundation of the                      for there shall no man see me, and          swers. We must use what God has
                                                      live" (33:20). God would not, and           given, and with that we must stop.
                                                      could not, reveal to Moses everything           There is more. God has made us
                                                      about himself and his will; but this        complex organisms, not just physi-
                                                      much He would do: "I will make all          cally, but also spiritually; and our
                                                      my goodness pass before thee, and I         intellect is only part of that. Man has
Rev. Woudenberg is pastor of the Protes-              will proclaim the name of the Loan          beengivennotjustamindwithwhich
tant  Reformed  Church of Kalamazoo,                  before thee; and will be gracious to        to think, but also a heart to contain his
Michigan.                                             whom I will be gracious, and will           deepest commitments of love, and a

44OlStandard  Bearer/August, 1994


will to choose the way in which he             change this; only one thing can. A           critics would only take time to study
will live. All of these take part in           person may try all the reasoning in          them out -always presupposed the
whatever one comes to understand               the world, and all kinds of rhetorical       gift of faith. He never questioned but
and believe; and, when one rejects             gimmicks as well - such as telling           thatthereasoningofthehumanmind,
God's truths, he does it, not just with        everyone that God loves them, and            apart from the special operation of
his mind, but with his whole being.            really would like to save them, as           the Holy Spirit, can only come to
When one does not believe, it is not           contrary to Scripture as this maybe-         naught. The Spirit of God must first
just a lack of understanding; it is be-        but it will never change a soul. Only        open the mind and heart to receive
cause with the heart one does not              Godcandothat,asEzekiel11:19says,             what God has made known, as Jesus
want it, and with his will he refuses to       "I will give them one heart, and I will      said, "Except a man be born again, he
do what it requires. Man does not              put a new spirit within you; and1 will       cannot see the kingdom of God" (John
understand what God has revealed               take the stony heart out of their flesh,     3:3). Then, and only then, can one's
because he does not want the conclu-           and will give them an heart of flesh."       reason andunderstanding step in as a
sions to which it leads. It is not just the    Without that, no one will ever come to       necessary part of true faith. Faith is a
mind; with his whole being he rejects          the truth.                                   certain knowledge (Heidelberg Cat-
what God has said.                                         *  * *  *  *  *  *               echism, Lord's Day 7); and there can
         tt  *  *  *  *  *  *                      It is this that makes it so ironical     be no knowledge without reason and
     We have a rather interesting re-          that through the years Rev. Hoek-            understanding. That leaves no room
flection on this by Rev. Hoeksema,             sema has so often been accused of            for contradictions, either in reality or
made in a series of sermons on the             Rationalism. In actuality it is hard to      appearance,forthemindcannotgrasp
first chapter of Romans during the             imagineanyonefartherremovedfrom              that which is contradictory. And God
mid-thirties (transcribedby Mr. Mar-           that.                                        in His revelation cannot contradict
tin Swart). It had to do with the gross            But let him answer for himself, as       Himself; for God cannot lie.
sins described at the end of the chap-         he dealt with the subject in a sermon            It was because of this that the
ter, such abhorrent things as sexual           about themen  on theroad toEmmaus            doctrine of election was always so
perversion and homosexuality, to say           from Luke24:25-27  (transcribed from         important to Hoeksema. It was not
nothing of "unrighteousness, fomi-             a tape).                                     merely a matter of filling out his fa-
cation, wickedness, covetousness,                                                           vorite theological paradigm; he un-
maliciousness," etc. Of these he ob-               They were men who wanted to              derstood the limitations of human
served, that they are not just sins in           understand. They were men who              thought full well, and had no desire to
themselves (although they certainly              must understand, not like Rational-        answer questions beyond that which
are that), they are the judgments of             ists, but like believers. A Rationalist    God has made known. It was rather
God. It is not that people, when they            (which we are sometimes accused of         because he, as a pastor, had worked
started down this way of transgres-              beingverymistakenlyandveryfool-
                                                 ishly) is one who wants to follow his      with many souls; and, as an exegete,
sion, intended to become perverts,               reason, who does not want to believe       had delved deeply into God's Word.
homosexuals, and such like. For the              except that which he understands by        To do this was for him a privilege
most part they would have stood                  his own logical reason. Reason, un-        which he relished to the end; but
aghast at the suggestion that this               derstanding, is for him the basis of       always in the awareness that it could
should be their end. It is simply that           what he believes. That was not the         be done only if the Spirit gave the
when they left the Wordof  God-not               case with these men. They were no          ability to perceive. And so was his
wanting"toretainGodintheirknowl-                 Rationalists. The believer is charac-      privilege to teach and expound the
edge" - the result was that "God                 terized by this. He also must under-       Word; but always in the realization
gave them over to a reprobate mind,              stand. We must understand. Of
                                                 course. Butourunderstandingisnot           that it would be received only by
to do those things which are not con-            based on our own logic, on our own         those with whom God had provided
venient" (Rom. 1:28). It is the judg-            reason, but is based on the revelation     hearing ears. Human effort cannot
ment of God which has brought them               of God in Christ Jesus in the Scrip-       bring this to be; only the Spirit of God
(as with much of the society in which            tures. That is the difference. As soon     can, as the Scriptures say, "For by
we now live) to this loathsome end;              as you assume that position you are        grace are ye saved through faith; and
and when still they do not repent, but           always safe. You can talk as much as       that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
with all kinds of rationalized argu-             you want. You can reason as much           God:notofworks,lestanymanshould
ments seek to excuse what they do                as you want. You can want to under-        boast. For we are his workmanship,
and escape the consequences, they                stand as much as you want -if only
                                                yourreasoningandyourunderstand-             created in Christ Jesus unto good
only thrust themselves on toward that            ing is based on the revelation of God      works, which God hath before or-
most terrible consequence of all, eter-         in Holy Writ.                               dained that we should walk in them"
nity in hell.                                                                               (Eph. 28-10).
         *  *  *  *  +  *  *                       Hoeksema's teachings  - if his               This is no Rationalism. SoZiGrutiu;
    Simple reasoning will never                                                             it is pure grace! 0

                                                                                                     August, 19%IBtandani  Bearer/&al


               Worthy of Double Honor
                                                        Lesson  16

                                         7                                                                                               I



     Lettheelders  thatrulewellbecounted       by God to give "double honor." He           elders who do not labor in the Word
worthy of double honor, especially they        willneed toinquire into the scope and       and doctrine are worthy of honor and
who labor in the word and doctrine. For        depth of this required honor. Here          respect. This is our calling because
thescripturesaith, Thoushalt notmuzzle         the Bible itself has something to say       their" office" is sanctified tobe a "good
theox that tread&h out thecorn. And, the       about the implication of the term           work," adapted perfectly for the per-
laborer is worthy of his reward.               "double." In order to stimulate your        fectingof the saints. He that despises
                      I Timothy 5:17,18        interest, dear reader, may I request        the ministers and elders in the church
                                               you to read1 Thessalonians 5:12,13. I       despises Christ in so doing. Now the
     Compare the following Scripture           believe that in these verses is the bot-    text tells us that they who "labor" in
references:     Philippians 229; Acts          tom-line for what is "good and ac-          the Word and doctrine are to be ac-
28:lO;  D e u t e r o n o m y   28:29; I       CeptablebeforeGod."  Suchshouldbe           counted by the membersin the church
Corinthians  9:9; Leviticus  19:13;            the constant conduct of those who           to be worthy of "double" honor. The
Deuteronomy 2414; Matthew l&10.                confess to be new creatures, those          termis also employed for terrible and
     Some observations on the text             who glory in the cross of Christ. Read      righteous judgment. "Reward her
and context:                                   Galatians 614-16.                           even as she rewarded you, and double
     1. It might seem that Paul is di-                                                     unto her double according to her
gressing from the central theme of             The Proper Esteem and Honor                 works: in the cup which she hath
chapters 4 and 5. However, when we             Due to the Elders                           filled fill to her double" (Rev. 18:6). It
look closely at our text here we will          in the Church of God                        was Christ at Calvary who hath so
notice that he is still speaking of how            Paul is here speaking of those          borne the wrath of God that we might
the children of God ought to conduct           men who desired a good work as              receive double for all our sins (cf. Is.
themselves in the house of God. In             being under-shepherds of the sheep          40:2).
the former chapter Paul exhorts Timo-          andofthelambsofJesusinthechurch.                It is on that high and exalted pla-
thy how he ought to conduct himself            Hence, he is not speaking merely of         teau that our text places us when we
toward those of different gender and           elderly men (I Tim. 5:1), but of elders     are enjoined to give doubZe  honor to
age levels. Next, Paul speaks of the           in the sense of office-bearers, as these    those whom we are to count worthy
honor which children and grandchil-            were set before us in chapter 3:1-5.        of double honor! Just read I Thes-
dren should show especially toward                 Paul makes mention of twofold           salonians 5:12,13.  "And we beseech
theirwidowedmother/grandmother.                elders: the ministers of the Word who       you, brethren, to know them which
It is a horrible sin to fail to provide for    preach and teach, and the elders who        labor among you and are over you in
such needy parents. Providing for              rule well in the church. We have            the Lord and admonish you; and to
them is an exercise in godliness.              noticed this when we wrote on chap-         esteem them very highly in love for
    2.In verses 17, 18 the central             ter 3. Elders are men who must be           their work's sake. And be at peace
theme is still the matter of practical         blameless, but are not perfect. The         among yourselves." Well may every
godliness in giving due honor to the           same is true of fathers and mothers. It     Christian family write these words in
"elders" in the church of God. Here            must be affirmed of all ministers and       the palms of their hands. Read also
every member in the church is called           eldersin the church that they have not      Hebrews 13:17. Thinkof it: these are
                                               yet attained to the ethical perfection      they who labor and who "watch for
                                               of the law of Christ (Phil. 3:12).          your souls, as they that must give
                                                   Notwithstanding, every member,          account, that they may do it with joy,
                                               young or old, male or female, is called     and not with grief; for that is unprof-
Rev. Lubbers is a minister emeritus in the     of God to give honor to these "elders"      itable for you." How highly should
Protestant Reformed Churches.                  of Christ. Those whom the text calls        we esteem the ministers and the el-

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ders? As much as we love our own             and labor contributes so very largely        ringone beforeanother, doingnothingby
soul's salvation! How these ministers        for the bread for the table of the Isra-     partiality.
must strive to show themselves ap-           elites as they dwell in the holy land?
provedof God, workmenwhorightly              He is God's chosen and created clean              In this quoted passageTimothyis
divide the word of truth, ever stiv-         animal. He never contributes as a            most solemnly enjoined that he, as
ing to teach sound doctrine which is         male animal to the increase of the           well as all who shall need to conduct
health, joy, and peace to our souls.         number of the herd. Was he not               a hearing and trial in the church, the
         ****+**                             emasculated? His place in the herd is        very house where God dwells with
    The workmen in God's church              no more. But he is faithful year in and      His people, is never to allow any
are worthy of their reward. The re-          year out to pull the plow that tills the     office-bearer in the church to be tried
ward due to faithful workmen is a            soil in preparation to receive the seed      except upon the testimony of two or
rewardwhichispeculiarlyfittingand            that is sown. Then comes the wheat,          three witnesses.
becoming. Ministers, strictly speak-         the corn, the barley. It is grain which           We will need to take a close and
ing, are not paid a salary. The amount       must be trodden by the ox on the             careful look at the text.
of the "salary" is, when all things are      threshing-floor. It was a time of feast-          The first matter to consider is that
equal, a reward. Really it is an "hono-      ing in the land. Yes, the harvest was        the "accusation" is a formal, legal
rarium." Did not Jesus, in Matthew           the Lord's reward to him who sowed           request presented in a "court." In the
lO:lO, speak of His disciples as being       the grain. The farmer was iyorthy  of        New Testament the Greek term
"workmen" who are worthy of their            that reward, was he not? But what            kafeegoria  (see our English word "cat-
food? Truly, these workmen are not           abouttheoxwhopulledtheplow and               egorically," which refers to the logi-
some cheap beggars, but they are             harrow? Does the ox also have a              cal category) nearly always refers to a
preachers of the kingdom of heaven,          reward of God? Yes, his reward is            judicial sense. Compare: Matthew
a kingdom which is not of this earth         that there is fodder for him in a well-      3:3 (Mati. 12:lO; Luke 6:7); Matthew
(John l&36,37). Are these workmen            filled barn. But must the ox not feast       15:3, 4; Matthew  27~12; Luke  23:2;
nottheywhosefeetarebeautifulupon             also while he toils in the heat of the       John 5:45; Acts 22:30; 24~2, 8, 13, 19;
the mountains, saying to poor sinners        summer day? Should he be muzzled,            and Revelation 12:20.
"behold your God" (Is. 52:7)? Must           lest he reach down and munch a bit of             When anyone appears before the
these "workers" in the temple of God         the new harvest in the land? Let us          church judiciary with a weighty accu-
not eat from the altar as did the priests    remember that the word which ob-             sation, but he has no "witness" to
and the Levites in the Old Testament         tained for Jesus' disciples as they la-      corroborate his accusation, he must
(Num. 18:20-31)?  And hear Paul ar-          bored in the harvest of Christ on the        be told categorically that the body-
guing from the Scriptures in I               higher level, obtains equally for the        politic cannot, will not, and may not
Corinthians  9:1-14. Just one brief          brute beast (Deut. 25:4; 24:14). And         even hear his "accusation." For he
quotation is in order: "Even so hath         when the inspired writer asks, "Does         has entered the court of the represen-
the Lord ordained that they which            not the Scripture say?" it is tanta-         tative of God and the Lord Jesus Christ
preach the gospel should live of the         mount to asking., "Does not God say?"        and the elect angels. The place where
gospel" (I Cor. 9:14).                           If the great, high, and lofty God        the accuser stands is holy ground.
    We do well to take note. Let these       says, ever speaks, these words, are          The Greektext indicates that the "Lord
words sink deep into our hearts!             not we ever to have our ears attuned         Jesus Christ, the risen and glorified
    Notice the proof which Paul cites        to these words? Sapienti  Sat (To the        Christ at God's right hand, is thisvery
from the Scriptures. "For it is written      wise, sufficient)!                           God. Here is God manifest in the
(present tense) in the law of Moses,             These appointed brethren who             flesh,receivedupinglory(ITim.3:16;
Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of           labor, who care for our souls as they        Heb. 1:4). He is present with all His
the ox that treadeth out the corn."          who must give account, shall we not          holy angels. Where two or three men
Does God take care also of oxen?             count them worthy of honor far be-           aregatheredtogetherinChrist'sname,
Does the ox also have a reward for his       yond all that we canaskor think? Yes,        He is in the midst of them.
work on the earthly level? Yes, now          read carefully I Thessalonians 512,              Did Paul not have such power in
especially for the servants who labor        13. And be at peace among your-              the church? See I Corinthians  51-5
in His vineyard.                             selves!                                      and also I Timothy 1:20, as well as
    Paul  is reasoning from the lesser                  .******                           Acts 5:1-11.
to the greater, from the lower to the            Against an elder receive not an acm-         Now, what is the maxim here? It
higher. Yes, from the analogy of God's       sation (Gr. kateegorian),  but before two    is that nothing may be transacted by
righteous andkind dealingwith oxen,          or  three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke    those who are appointed of Christ to
to His dealingwith those who labor in        before all, that others also may fear.       judge in an unfair and unrighteous
the Word and doctrine. Look at this              lcharge thee before God, and the Lord    way! Two things must be clearly
lowly ox. Is this not the worthy,            Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that     verified. 1) Is there ground for this
laboring domestic animal whose toil          thou observe these things without prefer-    "accusation" which is brought by the

                                                                                                    August, 1sSalStandard Saarerl443


accuser? 2) Is there fact and truthful-      proof texts!]).                              placing men in offices in the church?
ness in the accusation? A hearing                                                         He did not need to make himself
must be had where the accuser meets          Some Questions and Suggestions               "pure" in this regard, did he? Did this
face to face with the accused "elder."       to consider                                  require a certain vigilance and prayer-
And this matter of factuality  cannot            1. In I Timothy 5:22 we read,            ful watchfulness to hew to the divine
be decided upon the testimony of one         "Lay hands suddenly on no man,               rules? Did you notice the meaning of
man (Deut. 20:15; Num. 35:30; Matt.          neither be partaker of other men's           the verb: to watch, to Iceq, to guard?
18:16; John 8:13-18; John 5:25-38).  If      sins: keep thyself pure." -                  Biblical scholars tell us that the term
Jesus, the eternal Son of God, very              Does the expression, "laying on          ugnos originally, in classic Greek,
God in the flesh, placed Himself un-         of hands," refer to the officialinstalla-    meant: that which awakens religious
der this rule concerning the testimony       tion of men into the office of elder         awe. In civic life the term is a term of
of the demand of "two or three wit-          here? Compare chapter4:14.  See also         honor denoting the blameless dis-
nesses," would He not demand that            Acts 6:6.                                    charge of office. Timothy and all
in His church no accusation should               2. How could Timothyconceiv-             officebearers in the church disgrace
ever be taken seriously when the re-         ably be a "partaker of other men's           themselves if they stoop to the evil
quired "witnesses" are lacking?              sin" if he laid his hands on them to         practice of disregarding the rule to
    And if a trial is to begin in the        install them into office? What is the        lay hands suddenly, thoughtlessly,
Name of the Lord, then it is of para-        strong motivation for the exhorta-           on no man.
mount importance that these wit-             tion, "keep thyself pure"? Does this             4. Is the physical well-being and
nesses have actually seen or heard           mean that Timothy was responsible            health of ministers and elders of great
with their own eyes and ears. In no          before God to see that only those who        importance for the ardent labors of
court may a witness aver what he has         were fit for the office would receive        their respective office, as they are
"heard" others say.            (Read I       this official approval? Was it not very      describedinITimothy3:lff.?  Itseems
Corinthians 15:5-10.)                        important that only those who are            that Timothywasailingoften. He had
    Two things are an absolute must          spoken of in I Timothy 3:2-7 receive         "often infirmities." It seems that he
onthepartofthosewhomusthearthe               the officialapproval of Christ through       rather scrupulously avoided drink-
evidence and form their united judg-         Timothy? Were only such men fit to           ing any wine. He was a teetotaler in
ment: 1) They may not make a sub-            labor in the house of God? (Confer II        effect. Such is the implication of the
jectivepre-judgment. 2) Theymayin            Timothy 2:19-21.)                            Greek term hudropotei.  Paul exhorts
their judgment not have partiality.              3. Is there an important Scrip-          him to use a little medical-tonic for
Back of prejudiced judges is the deep        tural nuance in Paul's using such an         that "preacher-stomach." (For evil
error of respect for persons. They           expression as "keep thyself pure"?           use of wine, which is a mocker, read
must make a righteous judgment               How does an officebearer perform             Proverbs 20~1;  Genesis 9:21; 19:32,33.
(Prov. 21:27-31;  11:l; Ex. 20:16; Lord's    this? DoesPaulnot assume thatTimo-           For good use in God's kingdom see
Day 43, Q. and A. 112. [Notice the           thy had a clean record in regard to          John  23-10.)  0



                                                     Eartli andHeaven

Here bliss is short, imperfect, insecure;                           Here, things, as in a glass, are darkly shown;
But total, absolute, and perfect there.                             There, I shall know as clearly as I am known.
Here, time's a moment, short our happiest state,                    Frail are the fairest flowers which bloom below;
There, infinite duration is our date.                               There, freshest palms on roots immortal grow.
Here, Satan tempts, and troubles e'en the best;                     Here, wants and cares perplex my anxious mind;
There, Satan's power extends not to the blest.                      But spirits there a calm fruition find.
In a weak, simple body, here I dwell;                               The soul on earth is an immortal guest,
But there I drop this frail and sickly shell.                       Condemned to starve at an unreal feast:
Here, my best thoughts are stained with guilt and fear;             A spark, which upwards tends by force;
But love and pardon shall be perfect there.                         A stream, diverted from its parent source;
Here, my best duties are defiled with sin;                          A drop, dissevered from the boundless sea;
There, all is ease without and peace within.                        A moment, parted from eternity;
Here, feeble faith supplies my only light;                          A pilgrim, panting for the rest to come;
There, faith and hope are swallowed up in sight.                    An exile, anxious for his native home.
Here, love of self my fairest works destroys;                                                                  The Standard Bearer
There, love of God shall perfect all my joys.                                                                      March 15,1933

M/Standard Bearer /August,  1994


                                                     Chapter 3
                    The First Three -Da s
                          of Creation (cont.Y
                                            Szg%%
                                            -tliiwmi-
    And God said, Let the wafers under      On the second day the firmament was        forth its resources of diamonds and
the heaven be gathered together unto one    created, not as a solid dome, but as       gold and silver, of iron and copper
place, and let the d y land appear: and     the deep ocean in which all the bodies     and the "blackgold" of petroleum. In
it was so.                                  of heaven, togetherwith the earth, are     his scientific curiosity he may even
    And God called the dy land Earth;       sustained, kept separate, and move.        seek to drill into what he calls the
and the gathering together of the waters        On the third day, the work of          earth's mantle, and he may dream of
called he Seas: and God saw that it was     creation included, first of all, the       reaching the earth's molten core. He
good.                                       completion of that main structure of       may fly upon the face of the firma-
                       Genesis 1:9,10       the universe, particularly the struc-      ment. He may seek for the source of
                                            ture of the earth itself, which was        the winds which constantly blow
God's Creation of the Earth                 designed to be the habitation of man       upon the earth's surface, and he may
and the Seas                                as the image-bearer and covenant           check their currents. He may sail
    When a man builds for himself a         friend of God. Of this we read in          upon the surface of the seas, and use
house (and allman's workis, after all,      Genesis 1:9,10:  "And God said, Let        them for his commerce. He may even
but a very faint reflection of the work     the waters under the heaven be gath-       plow through the depths of the seas to
of his Creator), he raises the main         ered together unto one place, and let      an extent, and he may probe the
structure first. He lays the founda-        the dry land appear: and it was so.        mighty deep. He may reckon with the
tion. He raises the frameworkand the        And God called the dry land Earth;         sweep of its tides, andhe may chart its
walls. He covers the structure with a       and the gathering together of the          shoals and map its pathways. But in
roof. And only when he has com-             waters called he Seas: and God saw         all these things he observes and oper-
pleted that main structure does he          that it was good."                         ates with that which is, which was
direct his attention to the interior de-        In these few.words is depicted         once fixed and finished. And if he
tails of it and proceed to the finishing    for us another of those uniquely di-       would know how and when the earth
and furnishing of those elements that       vine works which defy all human            and its fullness, with its dry land and
made for comfort and service and            comprehension and which could              seas, with all its resources and pow-
beauty.                                     never be discovered and known              ers, with its riches and productivity,
    This comparison may be applied          through human investigation. That          with all its tremendous energies but
to the divine work of creation. In          there are seas weknow;  and that there     also stability, came into existence,
God's work of creation the main struc-      is the day land we can observe. But        there is but one answer. It is the
ture of the universe is first. In the       that the dry land and the seas came        answer of Him who made all these
beginning God created the so-called         into existence and that they constitute    things, the answer of the Creator,
chaos, the raw material of the heav-        the fixed and basic order of the uni-      who formed them allbefore there was
ens and the earth that was without          verse as far as the earth is concerned     even a man to witness them, the an-
form and void. Then He created the          - that is a work of God's almighty         swer of revelation, simple and yet
light, which is so indispensable for all    power. That is a work, once and for        profoundly mysterious: "And God
the further work of creation and for        all wrought, which is beyond man's         said, Let the watersunder the heaven
                                            probing. He may climb the heights of       be gathered together unto one place,
                                            the mountains. He may explore the          and let the dry land appear: and it
                                            continents, and map their surfaces.        was so."
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor       He may investigate and analyze the             With that will compare no elabo-
of  Dogmatics and Old Testament in the      earth's material. He may make use of       rate and cunningly devised theory of
Protestant Reformed Sernina y.              the earth's soil and productivity. He      things that are seen being made of

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 things which do appear, or evolving              the waters of the sea together as an           work of the third day we must re-
 from them in the course of millions of           heap: he layeth up the depth in store-         mind ourselves that we must not think
 years. Elaborate theory upon elabo-              houses." Psalm 90 speaks of the bring-         of the earth merelyinits present state,
 rate theorv will never suffice to ex-            ing forth of the mountains and the             except that prior to the third day its
 plain either the reality                                           formation of the earth,      entire surface was covered with wa-
 of the earth or the work                                           in order to teach us that    ter. We must rather conceive of the
 whichproducedit. And                                               God is before them, even     earth as in its chaotic, unformed state,
 millions of years will                Elaborate theo y             from everlasting to ev-      as it was created in the beginning, as
 never enable man to                         UPon                   erlasting (Ps.  90:2).       the seething energies implied in the
 reachbeyond things that               elaborate theo y             Psalm 104 connects this      creation of light were pent up in it,
 are seen. There is but                will never suffice           wonder-workwithGod's         and as it belonged to what are called
 one "explanation," and                 to explain either           greatness and honor and      the waters below the firmament, but
it, while perfectly rea-                   the reality              majesty: "Who laid the       as yet unordered and unstructured.
 sonable, is as farbeyond                 of the earth              foundationsof the earth,         Although man today actually
 our comprehension as                     or the work               that it should not be re-    knows very little in detail about the
 the Creator is above the              which produced it.           moved for ever. Thou         bowels of the earth, and although he
 creature. That "expla- L                                      J    coveredst it with the        can learn little or nothing by direct
 nation" is God, the in-                                            deep as with a garment:
                                                                        _  -                     observation concerning its deep inte-
 comparable Creator, and His omnipo-              the waters stood above the moun-               rior, we are told that theball,  or sphere,
tent will. He Himself tells us of His             tains. At thy rebuke they fled; at the         called the earthis  a well-ordered struc-
 own work in His own Word. And by                 voice of thy thunder they hasted away.         ture. From its outer surface to its
 faith we understand that the world,              They go up by the mountains; they go           center is said to be a little over 3,900
including the earth and the seas, was             down by the valleys unto the place             miles. Of this, the top 20 to 25 miles
framed by the Word of God.                        which thou hast founded for them.              comprises the crust, or upper layer,
     How frequently Scripture calls               Thou hast set a bound that they may            about which man can learn some-
upon God's people to contemplate                  not pass over; that they turn not again        thing by direct observation. Below
this particular wonder-work of the                to cover the earth" (Ps. 104:5-9).  Psalm      this is the so-called mantle, said to
 Creator.                                         95 teaches us: "In his hand are the            extend to a depth of some 1,800 miles,
     In question after searching ques-            deep places of the earth: the strength         in which, it is claimed, deep-focus
tion we are reminded of this in Job               of the hills is his also. The sea is his,      earthquakes originate. Below this is
38:4ff.:                                          and he made it: and his hands formed           what is called the core, to a depth of
                                                  the dry land. 0 come, let us worship           more than 2,100 miles. We are also
  Where wast  thou when I laid the                and bow down: let us kneel before the          told that the density of the materials
  foundations of the earth? declare, if           Lord our maker." Graphically Prov-             of the earth increases with the depth.
  thou hast understanding. Who hath               erbs 8 speaks of the eternal Wisdom            Moreover, as one bores into the earth's
  laid the measures thereof, if thou              by way of comparison with these                depths, the temperature increases to
  knowest? or who hath stretched the
  line upon it? Whereupon are the                 wonder-works of God's creation:                the point of a claimed 2,500 degrees
  foundationsthereoffastened? orwho               "When there were no depths, I was              Celsius in the core, where, obviously,
  laid the comer stone thereof; When              brought forth; when there were no              all must be in a molten state.
  the morning stars sang together, and            fountains abounding with water.                    But supposing that the above
  all the sons of God shouted for joy?            Before the mountains were settled,             description is generally accurate, we
  Or who shut up the sea with doors,              before the hills was I brought forth:          must remember that, apart from any
  whenitbrakeforth,asifithadissued                While as yet he had not made the               radical changes which may have been
  out of the womb? When I made the                earth, nor the fields, nor the highest         accomplished through the Flood, all
  cloud the garment thereof, and thick            part of the dust of the world . . . when       this became reality on the third day.
  darkness a swaddling band for it,
  Andbrakeupforitmydecreedplace,                  he strengthened the fountains of the           Prior to that creative act of the third
  and set bars and doors, And said,               deep; When he gave to the sea his              day all those elements which now
  Hitherto shalt thou come, but no                decree, that the waters should not             constitute the well-ordered structure
  further: and here shall thy proud               pass his commandment: when he                  of the earth and of the dry land and
  waves be stayed?                                appointed the foundations of the               the seas were in a chaotic, unformed
                                                  earth: Then I was by him..." (Prov.            state. The Almighty Creator oper-
Of the earth and its fullness the psalm-          8:24-30).                                      ated by His Word and Spirit in the
ist in Psalm 24 declares that Jehovah                     Scripture generally, therefore,        bowels of the earth in such a way that
is the possessor, "Forhehath founded              impresses us with the tremendous               theheaviermaterialssuddenlygravi-
it upon the seas, and established it              character of this work of God.                 tated toward the earth's center, while
upon the floods" (w. 1,2). In Psalm                       To gain some degree of insight         the lighter materials rose to the sur-
33 we are reminded: "He gathereth                 into what took place in this creative          face, both the solid materials to form

446lStandard  Bearer /August,  1994


the dry land, and the water, with its        our Lord Jesus Christ, he also hasthe.       ground by means of a mist. This
dissolved materials, to form the seas.       arrogance to assert that the -infinite       would also explain that the  pre-
In part, the crust of the earth was          God could not have wrought this              diluvian unbelievers were such big
raised to form the dry land with its         work by creative fiat.                       fools: for they stood in the midst of
hills and dales, its mountains and                 And how else, pray, would the          the water and said that there would
valleys, its productive soil and fertile     Lord instruct us concerning this             be no flood!
plains, its craggy precipices and gran-      mighty and mysterious work of His,               In whatever way all these details
ite rocks. At the same time, in part,        a work which defies all human imagi-         must be understood, we areinstructed
that crust of the earth was depressed        nation and description, than to tell us,     by Scripture that great changes have
to form great basins into which bil-         as He does, simply and directly, "And        taken place in the earth. It has had a
lions of tons of water were gathered         God said . . . and it was so"?               history. One of those great changes
together into one place.                          Thus it was, and thus we who            took place at the time of the fall and
    All this took place simply and           believe in the Almighty Creator and          the curse. But Scripture also teaches
directly by the Word of God. He              Redeemer accept it.                          us that the earth was stable up to the
spake: "Let the waters under the                  We do so by faith in our Lord           time of the Flood. It is not our pur-
heavenbe  gathered together unto one         Jesus Christ, in whom we are also            pose at this time to enter into detail
place, and let the dry land appear."         taught that this was not God's final         with respect to that universal and
And it was done. He commanded,               work, nor the final realization of His       catastrophic Deluge. We would only
and it stood fast. In one mighty con-        purpose with respect to the earth.           call attention to the fact that Scripture
vulsion, as it were, all the well-or-             For while God indeed saw, as the        teaches us that through the opening
dered structure of our earth, with its       text tells us, that this first earth was     of the windows of heaven and the
dry land and seas, was brought into          good, that is, fit to serve the living       breaking up of the fountains of the
being. "And it was so," the text tells       creatures about to be created, He had        great deep such a tremendous and
us. There stood the earth - not in           in mind some better thing for His            catastrophic judgment was wrought
need of development and evolution            people in Christ Jesus. And also with        that the apostle Peter characterizes
-but ready-made, as the fit habita-          a view to that ultimate purpose the          that Flood as the end of the world, so
tion for the living creatures.               earth as it was first created was good,      thathemakes distinctionbetween the
    What prmy little man, who was            that is, adapted to serve that purpose.      world that now is and the world that
not even present, may say that this                The dry land created on the third      then was. The Flood, however, was
could not be?                                day was to have a history and a final        only a type of the final end. After the
    Indeed, man walks                                      consummation.                  Flood the basic structure of things
onGod'seartheveryday   ~                                       It is not at all impos-    must remain until the day of Christ,
and in all his existence             Hoi0 else             sible, we believe, on the      the day that shall be characterized by
reckons withits  depend-                                   basis of the Scriptural        the complete breakup of the physical
able so-called natural            would  the Lord          data in Genesis and in II      universe. For God has promised,
laws. He traverses the              instruct us            Peter 3, that, in the first    "Yet once more I shake not the earth
seas, and he flies upon             concerning             place, the continents as       only, but also heaven." That will be
the face of the firma-            this mighty and          we know them today             the final end. For that word, "yet once
ment. He even probes                                       were not yet formed on         more," according to Hebrews 1227,
the depths of that earth,           mysterious             the third day. The wa-         signifies "the removingof those things
and discovers its                 work of His,...          ters were gathered into        that are shaken as of things that are
mighty,          pent-up          than to tell us,         one place, and there was       made, that those things which cannot
increated energies. He              as He does,            possibly only one whole        be shaken may remain."
also beholds on a minor               simply               piece of dry land, which           This earth, therefore, is not the
scale that the Lord God                                    was also not as large,         last. With all its relative stability, it is
still through a single             and directly,           seeing that there was no       not destined to endure. The present
convulsive earthquake             `And God said            needasyetforabighome           earth shall pass away, along with the
may cause an entire is-            . . . and it was        for a small family. This       present heavens. In principle, this
landtobeswallowedup                     so"?               would be in harmony            has already been accomplished. Of
by the sea, or may bring                                   with the fact that the         this the very rending of the rocks and
a new island rising out                                    apostle Peter tells us that    the earthquake at the time of our
of the ocean's depths.                                     the earth was "standing        Lord's death testify. Every earth-
But because he does not believe, be-         in the water and out of the water."          quake that ever takes place is but a
cause he does not believe either that        This would also tend to explain the          sign and a reminder that, after all, this
our God will destroy this present            fact that there was neither rain nor         present earth is not stable but shall
earth, and that He can and will make         rainbow before the Flood, and that           pass away, in order to make room for
a new heavens and earth in the day of        the Lord God watered the face of the         the new creation.  0

                                                                                                    August, 1WWtandard Seared447


       4. Abounding Lawlessness


     No one can possibly fail to see the    thing we see today, not only in our        before God, and the earth was filled
lawlessness that pervades our society       own country but also in all the world.     with violence." Luke  17~28-30  com-
from the highest levels of govern-              This characterizing of the last        pares the world of the last days with
ment to the lowliest slum-dwellers in       days as a time of lawlessness is found     the Old Testament city of Sodom at
the great cities. Lawlessness screams       elsewhere in Scripture. Paul empha-        the time God destroyed it with fire
out at us in every news report. It          sized the lawlessness of the last days     and brimstone - a comparison of
shakes the very foundation of the           in II Thessalonians 2, the chapter on      special significance today, when the
state when it is exposed in the lives of    the arising of the Antichrist -a chap-     world shamelessly practices the same
the heads of government. It is the          ter, incidentally, that we will come       vile sin for which Sodom was notori-
reason why none of us dares walk the        back to later on in this series on the     ous and to which it gave its name,
city streets after dark and why many        doctrine of the last things, when we       homosexuality, orsodomy.
tremble behind locked doors and             consider Antichrist and his kingdom.           Lawlessness will abound at the
barredwindowsthroughoutthenight.            In verse 3, Paul called the Antichrist     end, say the Scriptures. Lawlessness
     We see lawlessness, but do we          "that man of sin." The word "sin,"         is a life of disobedience to the law of
understand?                                 here, is the same word that occurs in      God, but disobedience of a special
     Jesus foretold this lawlessness in     Matthew24:12andis  there translated        kind: the deliberate trampling upon
Matthew 24 as one of the signs of His       "iniquity" - the word "lawlessness."       God'slaw. Alawlessmanisnotsome-
coming and the end of the world. In         Verse 7 speaks of a timystery of iniq-     one who is ignorant of the law, or
verses 12 and 13, He said: "And             uity" that has been working in the         even someone who breaks the law
because iniquity shall abound, the          world to produce Antichrist all            whose authority he acknowledges.
love of many shall wax cold. But he         through history and that will finally      But he is a man who holds the law of
that shall endure unto the end, the         be successful. Again, "iniquity" is        God in contempt. He "owns" no law.
same shall be saved." These verses          literally "lawlessness." Verse 8 calls     He has made up his mind to do as he
are part of Jesus' answer to His dis-       the Antichrist "that Wicked (one)."        pleases, to do "his own thing," as the
ciples' question in verse 3: "What          Once more, the word used to describe       modem jargon puts it. The lawless
shall be the sign of thy coming, and of     Antichrist is the word "lawless."          man, or woman, openly practices the
the end of the world?" They are             Antichrist will be spawned by law-         very thing which the law of God for-
connected with verse  11 which speaks       lessness, and he and his world-king-       bids - as normal, acceptablei  right
of the rising of false prophets who         dom will be the epitome of lawless-        behavior!
shall deceive many people. The num-         ness.                                          Such a time is the present day,
ber of the faithful people of God will          The lawlessness of the last days is    and such a society is our society i a
become smaller and smaller at the           also taught when Scripture compares        lawless time and a lawless society.
end. One reason for this will be the        them with the days just before the         The government itself, God's servant
deception of many by false prophets.        FloodinthetimeofNoah.  Jesusmade           to rule bylaw, becomes guilty of law-
Another reason will be the abound-          this comparison in verse 37 of Mat-        lessness. No, I do not now refer to the
ing of iniquity which causes the love       thew 24: "But as the days of Noe           fact that the politicians occupy their
of many to become cold. "Iniquity" is       were, so shall also the coming of the      officesforthesakeoftheirownwealth,
actually the word that means "law-          Son of man be." Genesis 6 describes        theirownfame,andtheirownpower,
lessness." Jesus told His disciples  -      the world in the days of Noah: "the        which is really no new thing under
and us-that a sign of the end would         wickedness of man was great in the         the sun. But I am speaking of the fact
be abounding lawlessness, the very          earth..., the earth also was corrupt       that the state solemnly legalizes the

448lStandard  BearerlAugust,  19D4


murder of unborn childreninits abor-         command, "Thou shalt not eat of the            many will be offendedbecause of per-
tion-statutes, while at the same time        fruit of the tree," and ate of the forbid-     secution;  many will have their love
prohibiting by law the execution of          den fruit. Down through history, sin           wax cold because of iniquity.
murderers. Those concerning whom             has been developing. The root of                   The love that the text speaks of is
God says, "Thou shalt not kill," the         Adam's transgression has been                  the love of a man for God, love for
state murders. Those of whom God             sprouting into a giant tree, producing         Jesus Christ, love for the gospel of the
says, "Punish with death," the state         hrxuriant foliage and finally bearing          Scriptures, love for the church. This
saves alive, and often sets free for         all manner of fruit that is now ripen-         loveis  "blowncold" by iniquity. This
more mayhem and murder among                 ing in the end of the ages in the entire       literally is what Jesus said: "The love
the citizenry. The state is showing its      human race.                                    of many shall be blown cordby abound-
radicallawlessnessintheviewittakes                   Sin's development to the extreme       ing iniquity." He did not say that
of its function in society. The duty of      of abounding lawlessness is neces-             because people's love becomes cold,
government is to punish evildoers            sary for the coming of the end. The            there will be abounding iniquity, but
and protect and reward those who do          end cannot come until there has been           that the iniquity cools off people's
well, and thus to maintain order in          this full development. For the end             love. In the last days, an icy wind
society. We now see the state aban-          will be judgment, final judgment, of           blows through the churches, cooling
doning this, its fundamental task(with       the wicked world, and God in His               the love of many, and that icy wind is
ruinous consequences for the coun-           justice will pour out this judgment            lawlessness. The essence of lawless-
try), and intruding itself into areas of     only when sin is fully manifested as           ness is lack of love for God, or, to put
the life of its citizens where it has no     sin, that is, when the world has filled        it differently, hatred for God. Thelaw
business whatever.                           its cup of iniquity.                           which lawlessness despises is this:
    Lawlessness also characterizes the               But Jesus was concerned about          Love God! So, it is the natural effect
behavior of the people. They despise         the effect of lawlessness on the               of lawlessness to put out the fire of a
authority: children, that of their par-      churches, on those who profess to be           man's love for God.
ents; wives, that of their husbands;         God's people in the world. He had no               This is what is happening in the
employees, that of their employers;          abstract interest in the crime rate, nor       churches today. The iniquity that
citizens, that of their rulers. It is not    was He concerned about the ungodly             abounds in the world is approved
only that they disobey their superiors       world. But He said, "because law-              and practiced in the churches. Many
in practice, but that they deny that         lessness shall abound, the love ofmany         in the churches refuse to honor the
they have any superiors to whom              shall wax coZd. n Now, it is only people       authority of parents, of husbands,
honor and obedience are due!                 in the churches who have love that             and of employers. Many in the
    The institution of marriage is           can wax cold; the unbelieving world            churches openly practice adultery by
overturned. Fornication, which has           never had any love. The effect of              divorcing their own mate and taking
always been practiced, now becomes           abounding iniquity, therefore, is go-          someone else's. Manyin the churches
ordinary, acceptable behavior, a way         ing to be more forsaking of the church         freely make the enjoyment of lust part
of life so that parents and schools          and the church's God by those who              of their lives in their movie atten-
distribute birth-control pills to the        once professed allegiance to her and           dance, in their television viewing, in
girls and condoms to the boys. Put-          to her God.                                    the songs they listen to, and in their
ting away one's wife, or husband, and                There will be many whose love          reading. Their love for God has been
taking someone else's mate is not            waxes cold on account of iniquity.             blown cold.
only legalized, but also is so prevalent     Jesus gives us a radi-                                          But there is another
that it is now taken for granted. Lust       cally different view of                                    way in which this is hap-
is deified and worshiped in the mov-         the state of affairs at                                    peningin the churches to-
ies and television programs, in the          theendfromthatwhich                                        day, on a vast scale. Love
books and magazines, in advertising          looks for the world to            Lawlessness              for God is made to take a
andselling. Sexualfilthiness,  that&to       become better and for            is compatible             back seat to love for
say, is flaunted.                            the size of the church                 with                earthly things: money,
    The tide of lawlessness rolls over       to be swelled through            an outwardly              possessions, earthlycom-
the whole world.                             the conversion of mul-                                     forts, and pleasure.
    Lawlessness abounds today. This          titudes and even whole             decent life.                 We make a mistake
is what Jesus prophesied in Matthew          nations. Not so! The                                       when we thinkof lawless-
24:12:  "And because iniquity shall          world is ever the                                          ness only in terms of mur-
abound, the love of many shall wax           world, going on from
                                             _  _                                                       ders, robberies, riots,
cold." Lawlessness, or iniquity, has         bad to worse, exhausting the re-               adulteries, and totalitarian tyranny.
always been present in the world. It         sources of sin. And the church be-             The essence of lawlessness is love for
rooted itself in the human race when         comes smaller and smaller. Mizny               self or love for some thing instead of,
Adam deliberately set aside God's            will be deceived by false doctrine;            or before, love for God. Lawlessness

                                                                                                     August, 1994lSt~~ Bemo'~9


is compatible with an outwardly de-         with God in sweet communion  has no        made us righteous men and women
cent life. This is what Jesus warned        attraction for them.                       in the midst of a crooked and per-
His disciples about in Matthew 24.              How terrible!                          verse nation. Our calling is to live that
When in verses 37-39 He compared                What a grief to see  *entire           way, by God's grace. We must guard
the last days to the time of Noah, He       churches, where in time past love for      against the influence of iniquity, as
stressed the sheer worldliness of the       God, His truth, and His law once           well as against the danger of false
people: They ate and drank, they            burned, now cold towards God! What         doctrine, for the Devil seeks to de-
married, and they gave in marriage.         a grief to see men who have been           stroy men by the allure of the plea-
They loved the world and its things.        brought up in the fear of God turn         sures of sin just as much as by the
That was god to them. This is the icy       theirbackonHim,althoughtheyhave            deception of heresy.
wind blowing through the churches           been baptized and probably made                Examine yourself! What is your
today, and let no one of us exempt          public confession of their faith. Above    first and great love? Self? Money? A
himself from the threat. Everything         all, what a grief to see the good com-     name and fame? Fun? Earthly ease?
comes first before God and His Ring-        mandments of our heavenly Father           If it is not God and His Christ, you
dom: job, money, recreation, eating         trampledinthemuckofthefilthywill           must repent, seek forgiveness, and be
and drinking, a good time. There are        of men. We weep over the abounding         renewed to take up your struggle
pleasures to be enjoyed in living such      lawlessness. As the Psalm expresses        once more against lawlessness.
a life, of course. This is the appeal of    it: "Because thy statutes are despised,        In this struggle of the believers, it
iniquity.                                   with overwhelming grief I weep."           is vital that we and our children be
    One outstanding evidence of the         And how terrible is the state of those     members of a church that honors the
blowing cold of the love of many by         whose love has been blown cold by          law of God both in the preaching and
the wind of iniquity is the growing         lawlessness. Jesus indicated this when     teaching and in the discipline of el-
desecration of the Sabbath. Professed       He added, "But he that shall endure        ders, and that calls us to obey that
Christians use the Lord's day just as       unto the end, the same shallbe  saved."    law. The church that does this is the
does the ungodly world: to pursue           The implication is that he who does        church that preaches the gospel of
pleasure. It is a day for football games    not endure, but whose love waxes           salvation by God's free and sovereign
and sightseeing. Or, in exact viola-        cold, shall be damned.                     grace alone. The message of God's
tion of the fourth commandment, they            In these words of our Lord con-        great love for us in Jesus Christ is the
work. Attendance at the worship             cerning lawlessness is implied an          message that stirs up love for God in
service becomes infrequent; many            admonition to His disciples. It is not     our hearts, kindles the fire of love for
never make the second service .on           this, that we get busy and try to check    God, maintains that fire, and makes
Sunday. The clamor for shortening           the abounding of lawlessness in the        that fire ever hotter, even in lawless
the length of the sermon and for do-        world and to improve our lawless           times like these.
ing away with preaching as a procla-        society. Rather, we are admonished             In this way the Spirit of Christ
mation of the Word of God, the Scrip-       to stand in antithetical opposition to     preserves us unto the end. Some will
tures, becomes louder and louder.           the lawless world, as people who re-       endure - such is the comfort of the
And what does all this mean but that        gard and keep the law of God, that is,     text. Powerful though the ungodly
many are lovers of pleasures more           as people who love the Lord their          forces are, they will not be able to
than lovers of God, so that worship-        God with all their heart and mind and      separate God's people from the love
ing God, knowing God, and walking           soul and strength and their neighbor       of God. Enduring, we shall be saved.
                                            as themselves. God has graciously                                                Cl





                                     Andbecause iniquity shaMa60und,
                                       the love of many siialilwa~ cold
                                    But lie tht sfiallendure  unto tie end,
                                             tfie same sfiahC6e saved,
                                                                                         Matthew 24:12,13



45Wtandard  BearerlAugu8t,  1994


                                  .
             Peter Datheen: Father of
                     Reformed Liturgy (3)

Introduction                                 was no less than the father of our        fession moved him deeply. He won:
    It is a popular pastime nowadays         liturgical heritage. He was Holland's     dered how his church could possibly
to attempt to find one's roots. No one       greatest Reformer.                        be the agent of such terrible persecu-
can deny that this is indeed interest-           To his life and work we now turn.     tion, and doubts about his church
ing- to learn of one's ancestors, their                                                filled his soul.
struggles and sorrows, their lives and       Ear&v Life                                    Within his own cloister many
callings.                                        Peter Datheen's early life is so      were sympathetic to Reformation
    It is a more profitable pastime for      hidden in obscurity that the date of      teaching, and Datheen learned much
peopleofGodwhorecognizethetruth              his birth is not known, and nothing       Reformationdoctrinefromthosewho
of God's covenant that God saves His         has come down to us of his parents.       shared with him the monastic life.
church in the line of generations, to        He was born sometime during 1531              But the cloister at Ypres was not
trace their spiritual roots. To know         or 1532 in the town of Cassel, in         the only hotbed of heresy - accord-
one's family roots can sometimes be          Flanders, a part of the Lowlands at       ing to Roman persecutors; many such
embarrassing, for often skeletons are        that time, now a part of Belgium.         monasteries hid those who were per-
foundinunexpectedclosets. Toknow             Somehow someone forgot to include         suadedofthebiblicaltruthofLuther's
one's spiritual roots is of great profit,    in the church records both the date of    and Calvin's teachings. As the re-
for these roots are the stories of saints    his birth and the date of his baptism.    ports grew, a systematic search of
and martyrs who have now joined the          The records of that time are extant;      such cloisters was undertaken, and
company of just men made perfect.            Datheen's name is not to be found in      one by one the monasteries which
    The Reformed Churches of the             them.                                     harboredheresyweredismantledand
Netherlands, the spiritual roots of the          At an early age, for an unknown       their inhabitants put to the flames.
majority of the members in the Prot-         reason, he was placed in a Carmelite          At about 18 or 19 years old,
estant Reformed Churches, werebom            monastery in Ypres. This, though a        Datheen fled, the beginning of a long
in fierce persecution. Out of that           seeming tragedy, was part of a re-        lifeofbeingafugitiveforthefaith. He
fierce persecution arose a marvelous         markable plan of God to prepare           went to London where many refu-
creed (our Belgic Confession), a strong      Datheen for his work.                     gees from the Lowlands had gone to
biblical church government which has             Three things happenedin thiscold      escape the fire and sword of the
served the Reformed churches well            monastery.                                Ron&h Church.
for over 400 years, and a beautiful              The Carmelites were a monastic            In London a church had already
liturgy, most of which is still in use       order which specialized in hospitals      been formed by merchants from the
today. The liturgy also was born out         and healing. Perhaps the most ad-         Lowlands who were in London for
ofpersecution. Itiswellthatwhenwe            vanced knowledge of illness and           business purposes. To this church
use it we appreciate this fact. Peter        medicine couldbe  found among these       many joined themselves, among
Datheen played a role in our confes-         monks. Datheen received an educa-         whom was a Polish Reformer, one
sional heritage, a significant part in       tion in medicine ,and healing, some-      who himself was to leave an unmis-
our church government heritage, and          thing which was going to serve him        takable stamp on theDutch Reforma-
                                             well in the distant future.               tion: John ?I Lasco. He had become
                                                 Persecution was raging in the         superintendent of the church.
                                             Netherlands and three converted               Peter Datheen secured work as a
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-      monks were burned near the cloister       printer in London and attended the
tory and New Testament in the Protes-        where Datheen lived. The story of         church of refugees. Edward VI, only
tant Reformed Seminary.                      their martyrdom and their heroic con-     son of Henry VIII, was on the throne,

                                                                                                August, 1994/Standard  Bearer/451


a staunch, though young, Protestant,       hounded from one country to an-             gees. Many went back to the Nether-
who did all he could to promote the        other, they were hunted like wild           lands and perished in the flames of
Reformation in England. The church         dogs. Forced to flee from one place to      the inquisition. Some went to
of refugees flourished and grew as         anotherwithwivesandchildren,leav-           Frankenthal in the Palatinate where
the number of exiles swelled. At one       ing behind all they possessed, they         Frederick III ruled. With these latter
time the church had no fewer than          were truly pilgrims and strangers in        Datheen traveled.
4000 members, the French-speaking          the earth. And it was the false church
people in one group and the Dutch-         which sought their lives! So it will be     Years in the Palatinate
speaking refugees in another.              a few years hence when once again               God gave Datheen good years in
     But it was a church without creed     the same will be true for us.               the Palatinate, years which Datheen
or liturgy, and some of the early work                                                 did not waste. They were his most
in developing a Reformed liturgy was       Ministry in Germany                         productive years as far as his workin
done here in London by a Lasco and             Many refugees from England,             liturgy was concerned. What we owe
Utenhove. Particularly, the Scrip-         France, and the Lowlands were now           to Datheen today is what he accom-
tures were translated into the native      settling in Germany in various Prot-        plished under the benign hand of the
tongue of the refugees, and a rhymed       estant provinces in the hopes of find-      father of the Heidelberg Catechism,
version of the Psalms was prepared.        ing there some surcease from suffer-        Frederick III.
The government required a specific         ing. Frankfurt in Germany was such              Soon after his arrival in the
liturgy, and John a Lasco prepared         aplace. IthadbeenastronglyLutheran          Palatinate he was summoned, because
one along with an order of worship.        city, but Calvin&tic  refugees hadmade      of his reputation, to the court of the
The beginnings of a church order were      it also Reformed. John a Lasco had          prince. There he served as court pas-
also prepared by Martinus  Micronius       gone to Frankfurt earlier thanDatheen       tor. During this time he was en-
who wrote his "Christian Ordi-             andhadbeguntoorganizeaReformed              trusted with various diplomatic re-
nances."                                   Church in that city. Under the leader-      sponsibilities and missions. He con-
    Thecongregationsoonrecognized          shipofaLasco,thecongregationcalled          tinued to minister to the needs of the
that Datheen was a man of unusual          Datheen as its pastor. In September         exiles. He, with four other pastors,
ability and of deep conviction and         of 1555, when Datheen was 23 or 24          engagedinadebatewithfiveLutheran
that he had gifts for the ministry. And    years old, he with his wife and daugh-      ministers under the supervision of
so the leaders of the church prevailed     ter settled into the ministry in Frank-     the Elector.
uponDatheentoquithisjobaspr.inter          furt. The Reformer Micronius in-                These werebusy years, but happy
and give himself over full time to         stalled him into office as pastor of the    ones. He was full of zeal for the cause
study for the ministry of the gospel.      Flemish congregation.                       of the church; he labored hard for the
This also he did, and in these few             Here his one and only daughter          organization of the church; he spent
years of peace and quiet Datheen was       was born, Christiana.                       himself in the cause of the gospel.
prepared for his life's work.                  But this period too did not last            But above all he did marvelous
    During this time he also married       long.                                       work to develop a distinctively Re-
a former nun by the name of Benedicta,         The Lutherans in the city became        formed liturgy for the churches in the
with whom he had one daughter,             alarmed at the growing influence of         Lowlands. Aware that persecution
Christiana.                                Reformed thought. The radical and           was still so severe that a normal life
    But the peace and quiet of life in     fiery Joachim Westphal, with whom           for the church was impossible, he
London was soon over. Edward died          Calvin carried on abitter controversy       believed that God would send a bet-
after only a few years on the throne of    over the doctrine of the Lord's Sup-        ter day. His faithwas expressedinhis
England, and Henry's cruel and thor-       per, incited the Lutheran clergy and        introduction to a Church Order which
oughly Roman Catholic daughter             people against the Reformed congre-         was "for the Netherlands Churches,
came to the throne. She has gone           gation. On April 23,156l  the magis-        if they should, by the grace of God,
down in history as Bloody Mary, for        trates of the city forbad the congrega-     arrive at a public and free exercise of
at her hands persecution against Prot-     tion of refugees to worship according       their religion."
estants in England broke out:              to their convictions. Frederick III             His heart was really in the Low-
    The church in London was scat-         (The Pious) made a special plea to the      lands and with his suffering fellow
tered, and many refugees were now          magistrates for toleration, but none        saints.  0
forced to flee England. But the work       was given. The congregation was
of liturgy and church government           forced to break up if it refused to
went along with the refugees and was       become Lutheran. So it did. Again
transplantedtoFrankfurtinGermany.          the people were forced to flee.
    It is hard for us, who know no             Many returned to England, where
such persecution, to appreciate the        Elizabeth now sat on the throne. Un-
suffering of these saints. Literally       der her rule peace came to the refu-

452lStandard Bearer/August, 1994


Letters to a Yowg Pastor: Letters to           young pastor concerning the minis-             instrumentality, and He has called
Rev. R Harbach by A.  W. Pink.                 try; and repeated expressions of con-          and equipped a few of His servants
Grandville, MI: The Evangelism Com-            cern that Pink`s magazine had rela-            to be teachers (not merely "preach-
mittee of Grandville Protestant Re-            tively few subscribers.                        ersR) - specially gifted by Him to
                                                                                              "open" His Word, and they are "to
formed Church, 1993. 40 pages (pa-                     One piece of advice was that           be highly esteemed for their work's
per). N. p. [Reviewed by the Editor.]          Harbach not "waste time listening to           sake" (I Thess. 5:12,13).
                                               the Wireless or secular reading" (p.
        The Evangelism Committee of the        23).                                             Grandville's Evangelism Com-
Grandville,  MI PRC has published a                    The Bible teacher made the in-       mittee can do abetter job of editing its
40-page  booklet containing letters            triguing assertion that a few servants       publications. The preface has many
written by we&known Bible exposi-              of God are specially gifted to be teach-     grammatical errors. The body of the
tor A. W. Pink to Rev. Robert C.               ers of the Bible in distinction from the     booklet suffers confusion at several
Harbach. Pink wrote the letters dur-           rest of us who are "merely `preach-          places where, apparently, editorial
ing the years 1943-1949.                       ers"`:                                       comment is attempted to be inserted
        The letters contain little explana-                                                 into Pinks letters (see pp. 9,27).  Cl
tion of Scripture; some advice to a              It is God's method to use human



Congregational Activities                      theme,"AsanEagle...sotheLorddid                  Pastor Mahtani, of our Trinity
        We extendourcongratulations to         lead them." A welcome was also               PRC in Houston, TX, was invited to
our Southeast PRC in Grand Rapids,             extended to Rev. J. Slopsema, a sonof        speak at a Sindhi Christian Confer-
MI which celebrated its 50th Anni-             the congregation, who preached in            ence in South Carolina during the
versary Commemoration as an orga-              the afternoon from Proverbs 23:23 on         first weekof  July. His consistory gave
nized congregation on the weekend              the theme, "Buying the Truth."               its approval, and was indeed thank-
of June  10-12.  On Friday evening                     The building plans of our Peace      ful also for this opportunity to bring
JunelO,  there wasaprograminSouth-             PRC in Lynwood, IL suffered a major          the Reformed truth.
east which included a speech by Rev.           setback recently when it was discov-             In a young people's convention
D. Kuiper (Southeast's pastor), spe-           ered that their church ,property had         update from our Lynden, WA PRC,
cialmusicalnumbers, photo displays,            failed a soil perk test. This failed test    this year's host congregation, we learn
and a coffee hour. Saturday the cel-           willmeanatleasttwothingsforPeace.            that there are now ("now" being early
ebration continued withan expanded             First, their building plans will be de-      July) about 300 young people regis-
version of Southeast's annual church           layed considerably, since building           tered at Fairhaven College in
picnic. This year's picnic was held at         permit requirements have not been            Bellingham.
Heritage Christian School in                   met. And second, the congregationis
Hudsonville, MI, the afternoon being           faced with some large additional ex-         Evangelism Activities
filled with activities for all ages, fol-      penditures to make the ground suit-              In a newsletter to their congrega-
lowed by a special program at 4:00,            able for building.                           tion the Extension Committee of our
and dinner at 5:00, with everything,                   In mid-May the congregation of       Lynden, WA PRC reported to their
and I mean everything, provided.               Hope PRC in Redlands, CA was able            congregation that they recently re-
After dinner the celebration concluded         to arrange for Fook Meng, a student          ceived an order for approximately
with a softball game.                          in our seminary, along with his wife,        700 pamphlets from a minister in
        On Sunday a warm welcome was           Lee Choo, to spend a weekend in their        Quebec who also asked about the
extended by Southeast to one of their          congregation before leaving for              possibility of having Lynden's pam-
former pastors, Rev. C. Haak and               Singapore, the Evangelical Reformed          phlets put in the French language.
family, who preached in the morning            Churches of Singapore, and home.                 The Reformed Witness Commit-
from Deuteronomy 32:11-12  on the              Hope arranged to have an informal            tee of our Doon,  Edgerton, and Hull
                                               time of fellowship after church with         PRC's in Iowa and Minnesota have
                                               them, at which time Fook Meng was            completed their fifth year of theDordt
                                               to tell something about his own life         Bible Study held at Dordt College.
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant       and the work of the church in                Theyreporttheyhadaveryfavorable
Reformed Church bf Hudsonville,  Michi-        Singapore.                                   response from students from our own
gan.

                                                                                                     August, W94lStandanl  BeareoN


                                     ,'                     ;._"                                                                SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                                Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                Grandville, Michigan
       P.O.Box603
       Grandville,  MI 49468.0603
: ,-;. 'y?. -,Y*" :`     :  :.                                                                                                                     1

  churches as well as those from other                   Denominational Activities                       Minister Activities
  churches. They spent the first semes-                      On June 21 a workshop was held                  Rev. C. Terpstra declined the call
  ter this past school year studyingvari-                at our Faith PRC in Jenison, MI for all         he had been considering to serve as
  ous issues concerningthe end of time,                  area Sunday School teachers and par-            pastor of our Hudsonville, MI PRC.
  and the second semester studying                       ents of Sunday  schoolers.  Three               Hudsonville's council has since
 various topics dealing with the Chris-                  sectionalswereledbyareaP.R.school               formed a new trio consisting of the
  tian and his daily life. The R.W.C. has                teachers dealing with ideas on pre-             Revs.  Bruinsma, Gritters, and
  approvedthecontinuingofthisstudy                       sentation, motivation, and parental             Slopsema, from which their congre-
 for the upcoming school year, with                      involvement.                                    gation will call on July 24.
 plans to start study this fall with the                     Two students from the Evangeli-                 Rev. Carl Haak received the call
 book of Jonah.                                          cal Presbyterian Church of Australia,           from Loveland PRC to be home mis-
          Our Byron Center, MI PRC re-                   Mr. David Higgs and Mr. Chris                   sionary.
  cently sponsored two Bible study                       Connors, recently completed their
  classesattheirchurch.OneweekProf.                      studies in our churches' seminary, and          ~oodfor 2hzght
 D. Engelsma led a study on "The Free                    after graduation in late May were
  Offer of the Gospel," followed one                                                                         "Make the Sabbath the market-
                                                         able to return home, with plans to
 weeklaterby Rev. B. Gritters leading                                                                    day for thy soul. Sunday is not a day
                                                         takeup  theirlaborsinGod'skingdom
  a study on "The Proper Presentation                                                                    to feast our bodies, but our souls."
                                                         there.
  of the Gospel to Unbelievers."                                                                                                       - Toplady




          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
          On August 22,1994                                              NOTICEI!
            MR. and MRS. GEORGE                              Classis West of the Protestant
                        HOEKSTRA                         Reformed Churches will meet in the                            NOTICE!!
 will celebrate 50 years of marriage.                    Hull Protestant Reformed Church in                  Classis East will meet in regular
 We, their children and grandchildren,                   Hull, IAon Wednesday, September 7,              session on Wednesday, September
 are thankful to God for their love for                  1994 at 8:30                                    14, 1994 at the Hope Protestant Re-
                                                                          A.M., the Lord willing. All
  Him and His truth and for their love for               delegates in need of lodging or trans-          formed Church, Walker, MI.
 us manifested by their nurturing of us                  portation from the airport should notify                                  Jon  J. Huisken,
 in that truth.                                          the clerk of Hull`s consistoty.                                              Stated Clerk
         "The children of thy servants shall                          Rev. Ronald VanOverloop,
 continue, and their seed shall be es-                                                Stated Clerk
 tablished beforethee"(Psalm  102:28).
 $ Pete and Judy Hoekstra
 0 Bill and Karen Pipe                                                   NOTICEIll
 0 Cornie and Edith Brummel                                  The Society for Protestant Re-
 0 George and Myra Hoekstra                              formed Special Education has schol-
 aB Ed and Brenda Hoekstra                               arship money available for perspec-
 0 Jon and Floietta Engelsma                             tive teachers who wish to pursue a                           NOTICE!!!
 e%B Bob and Marylou Vermeer                             degree in Special Education. For                    Seminary Convocation will be
 $ Marlin and Joy Hoekstra                               more information, contact:                      held on September 7,1994, in Hope
 $ Brian and Lois Dykstra                                            Greg VanOverloop                    Protestant Reformed Church, at 8 P.M.
 0 Rich and Pam Hoekstra                                              2775 Sun Valley                    Prof. Hanko will speak A cordial
             44 grandchildren                                        Jenison, Ml 49428                   invitation is extended to all who are
             5 great grandchildren                                 (phone: 616-669-0665).                able to attend.
                                      Hudsonvilb,  MI


 4!WStandard  BearerlAugurt, 1994


