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A Reformed                        B I E R
Semi-Monthly
Magazhe

                                                        PRAYER ON
                                        PREPARING TO GO TO SCHOOL
                                                                                                                by John Calvin
       PsaUm a ls29. wher@~~~&;rau  slhauu 8 yn&m~ maw 6=&n,532 hk c?!ay? @,.T f?&-hg/ A6@3 ~~EvE~~  a~~ora~n~  to l3hy !.uam%





Vol. 70, No. 20y
September  1,1994


                                                                                                                                                                                          - .-
CONTENTS:                                                                                          September I, 1994                                         u  ".,..  ,:-E  -;,  3       IHE
                                                                                                                                                             @)i  s~~~DID
                                                                                                                                                       I    A
                                                                                                                                                                ^~`,@`-                5mER
Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hank0
       The Secret of the Lord .,.......,............,,,,..,..................................*.,. 457
Editorials - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
       Support of the Good Christian School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*........................ 458                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
       The Need for Good Christian Schoolteachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*..... 460                                                   Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                            4849 Ivanrest Ave., Qr.mlville, Ml 49418. Second Class
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I..........................................................................~.                   461         Postage Pald at Qrandville. Michigan.
When Thou Sittest in Thine House - Mrs. MarySeth Lubbers                                                                                                    Pootmutorz  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
       The Reformed Family: Continuing in Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464                                                P.O. Sox 803, Qrandvills, MI 42433-0803.
Day of Shadows - Homer Hoeksema                                                                                                                             EDlTOftlAL  COMMITTEE
       The First Three Days of Creation (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*a... 466                                 Editor: Prof. David  J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                            swretory: Prof. Robert D. Deoker
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Carl J. Haak                                                                                                                   Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
       The Gospel According to John:                                                                                                                        DEPARTMENT EDITORS
               Introduction and Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469    Rev. Wilbur Srulnsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                            Decker, Rev. Arie denHartcg, Rev. Barry Gritten. Rev. Carl
Contribution - Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                                                            Haak, Rev. Cornelius Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev.  John
       Our Salvation's Most Precious Gift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471                 Hey& Rw. Stwen Key, Rev. Dale Kulper, Mr. James Lenting.
                                                                                                                                                            Rev. George Lubbers, Mm. MarySeth Lubbers, Rev. Thomas
Bring the Books - Abraham Kuyper                                                                                                                            Miemma, Rw. Audrad Sprlensma, Rev. Charles Terpstra,
       "She Suffered Many Things of Many Physicians" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472                                                    Rev. QlseVanBaran,  Rev. RonaldVanOverlcop,  Mr. SenJamln
                                                                                                                                                            Wlgger, Rw. Bernard Woudenberg.
Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..I............................................ 474
Report of Classis East - ML Jon J. Huisken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*.                      476         EDtTORtAL OFFtCE             CHURCH NEWS EDlTOR
                                                                                                                                                            Ths  Stsndard Bearer         Mr. Sen Wlgger
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger ,..........,..........*o........ 477                                                                           4849 lvenrest                13587 4ClthAve.
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           As this issue of the Standard Bearer is being read, we are                                                                                       Ewv  editor   [s  solslv  rmmslble  for the contents of his om
preparing the October 1 issue for publication.                                                                                                              qwstlons (or The R&r Asks department are wslcome.
       There will be an October 1,1994 issue of the SB, God wi.IIing.                                                                                       Contributkns  will  be limited to approximately 300 words and
                                                                                                                                                            mustbeneatlymfflenortypemmen,andmustbesgned. Copy
Should God be un%viII.ing,  the explanation of His unwiIIingness                                                                                            dsadlines  are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                            communications mlatlve to the contents should be sent to the
will not be that Christ returned in September, 1994.                                                                                                        dnorial  offiiw.
       This was the foolish, wicked predictionby self-ordained teacher                                                                                      REPRINT WLICY
                                                                                                                                                            PermissionlsherebygrantedforthereprintlngofartlclesInour
of the church, Harold Camping. In a book, 2994?, that appeared                                                                                              maOazlnebyoMerpuMlms,provlded:a)thatwchreprlnted
                                                                                                                                                            art&lea are reproduced In fuH; b) that proper acknowMdgment
late in 1992, Mr. Camping prophesied that Christ wiII return                                                                                                is mde;  c) that a copy of the per)orJksl  In which such reprint
sometime between September 15 and September 27,1994.                                                                                                        appears la sent to cur editorial office.
       My editorial in the January 1,1993 SB brought Mr. Camping's                                                                                          SUlscRlPTloN POLICY
                                                                                                                                                            Subsorlption price: S12.W per year In the U.S., $15.00
book and prophecy to the attention of the readers of our magazine                                                                                           elsewtwe.  Unless a definite request  for discontinuance is
                                                                                                                                                            received, It is aosumed that the subscriber wishes the
(see also the letter and the editorial in the March 15,1993 issue of                                                                                        wbrcrlptiontoconUnus,andhswlllbeMlllclforrens%.  lfyw
                                                                                                                                                            havaaohangeofaddress,pleasenot~MeBudne~Offiwas
the SB). The editorial analyzed the book and criticized the                                                                                                 eady as posalble In order to avoid the Inconvenience of
                                                                                                                                                            interrupted delivery. lndude your Zip or Postal Code.
prophecy. I assured our readers, from the Scriptures, that Christ                                                                                           ADvERTlslNQ POLICY
would not, indeed could not, return in so short a time. I also                                                                                              The StandardEaamrdoes  not accept commercial advertislng
prepared an announcement that would be published in the Octo-                                                                                               09 my kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                                                                                            ennlvomarlos, obituaries, and sympathy rosolutlonr will be
ber 1,1994 issue of the SB. The announcement was given in fuI.I in                                                                                          @wed for * 63.00  fee. Theo.3  should be sent to the Business
                                                                                                                                                            OMcaandahouldbsacccmpankdbythe2300fee.  Deadline
the editorial of January 1,1993.                                                                                                                            for onnounoement8 Is at least one month prior to puMkmticn
                                                                                                                                                            date.
       This announcement wiII appear in the October 1,1994 issue of                                                                                         DOUND VOLUMES
the SB.                                                                                                                                                     The Suslness Office will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                            oopiesofthecurrentvoltsne. Suchordersarefilkdassoonas
       Look for it.                                                                                                                                         possible ofter completion of a volume year.
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456lStandard  Bearer/September  1,1994


                    The Secret of the Lord

                                             think, cannot be engaged in ordinary         elation." God manifests His power
                                             activities, can serve no useful pur-         and Godhead to the wicked, so that
     The secret of the Lord is with them     pose. For him life is meaningless,           they are forever without excuse. They
that fear him; and he will shew them his     empty, vain. He walks in mental              can see God's handiworkin creation,
covenant.                                    darkness.                                    can marvel at the beauty of the starry
                            Psalm 25:14          Yet Jesus is referring to a blind-       heaven, stand amazed at the riches of
                                             ness that is the worst of all, namely,       earth's treasures, and even tremble in
     The secret of the Lord. To this         spiritual blindness. He says: "If the        terror at the destructive power of an
secret pf Jehovah belong the things          light that is in thee be darkness, how       earthquake. But they cannot and will
that no eye has seen or can see. They        great, how horrible is that darkness!"       not say: "God has created, upholds,
are things that no ear has ever heard        It is the darkness of spiritual death.       and governs all things!" That is pos-
or can hear.                                 For this is eternal life: "That they         sible only by faith. And faith requires
     These things exceed the fondest         might know thee the only true God,           revelation. Our God in infinite wis-
imagination of man, whose thoughts           and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast             dom and goodness gives us both!
are of the earthearthy. They belong to       sent" (John 17~3).                               The wonder of salvation is that
the counsel, the eternal plan and pur-           Paul says: "The natural man              the light of God shines upon our re-
pose of God concerning the mysteries         receivethnot the things of the Spirit of     generated hearts and minds, so that
of the kingdom of God - things that          God: for they are foolishness unto           we behold by faith the mysteries of
can be known and understood only             him: neither can he know them, be-           the kingdom of heaven. Only the
by revelation.                               cause they are spiritually discerned"        Holy Spirit, who searches the depths
         $  St  *  *  *  *  *                (I Cor. 294).                                of God, can perform that work of
    Jesus teaches us: "The light of the          Not only is it true that the unbe-       grace in us.
body is the eye:-if therefore thine eye      liever cannot see, but he will not see.          The secret of the Lord is with
be single, thy whole body shall be full      He refuses tobelieve. He wouldmuch           those who fear Him.
of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy      rather engage himself in denying and                   *  + *  *  $ *  *
whole body shall be full of darkness.        ridiculing the very idea of God. We              The secret of the Lord.
If therefore the light that is in thee be    read in Romans 8:7: "Because the.                Strange as it may seem, in the
darkness, how great is that darkness!"       carnal mind is enmity against God:           figurative Hebrew language the root
(Matt. 6:22,23).                             for it is not subject to the law of ,God,    meaning of the word used for "se-
    The Lord is comparing spiritual          neither indeed can be."                      cret" is cushion. The idea is that two
blindness with physical blindness.               "Eyehathnotseen,norearheard,             persons occupy one seat. They sit
When He says that the light of the           neither have entered into the heart of       close together and communicate in
body is the eye, He is referring to          man, the things which God hath pre-          confidential fellowship,
physical sight. When physical sight is       pared for them that love him" (I Cor.            The word "secret," therefore,
lacking, the wholebody is full of dark-      24). We can know the spiritual and           speaks of the intimacy of our cov-
ness. Such blindness is a serious            the heavenly only by revelation.             enant friendship and fellowship with
handicap, for a blind person must                    *  *  *  *  * *  *                   God, like the bond of fellowship that
grope and feel to get about.                     Revelation belongs to the won-           unites husband and wife in marital
    Butmentalblindnessisfarworse.            der of salvation.                            union.
A mentally retarded person cannot                The sun spreads light and heat               TheScripturesremindusthatGod
                                             upon the earth because the earth re-         has established an eternal covenant of
                                             flects that light. So also the child of      friendship and fellowship with us.
                                             God receives and reflects the light of       We have been sovereignly and indi-
                                             revelation through the Spirit within         viduallychosenfrombeforethefoun-
                                             him. Scripture makes the distinction
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in the                                                  dations of the earth, we have been
                                             between "manifestation" and  "rev-
Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                             redeemed by the precious blood of

                                                                                              September 1, i Q!WStandan3  Bearer/457


God's onlybegotten Son, and we have         opens a direct line of communication                 He blesses her, provides for her,
been efficaciously called out of death      through prayer. He urges her: "Seek         and protects her. On the other hand,
into life. Our names are written in the     ye my face"; and He gives her the           she is submissive to Him. She fears
Book of Life, and we are kept by the        confidence to respond: "Thy face,           Him, not in slavish fear, but in her
power of God unto the salvation out         Lord, will I seek!"                         great esteem and respect for Him. He
of death into life. Our names are               The almighty, unchangeable,             is her husband. She is His personal
writtenintheBookofLife,andweare             ever-faithful covenant Jehovah says:        possession. She is His helpmeet; she
kept by the power of God unto the           "I am your God! You are My people,          no longer lives for herself, but only for
salvation that is being prepared in         whom I have chosen from among all           her Husband. She is devoted to Him.
glory, in order that we may live in         the peoples of the earth! I devote all      He is her one and only desire. His
intimatefellowshipwithGodinChrist           My divine perfections to you. All that      glory her chief concern. That is her
Jesus through all eternity.                 is Mine is thine.                           life.
    Christ refers to Himself as the             "When I created this world I had                 We were created, given our place
good Shepherd, who loves His sheep          you in mind. I cause the sun to shine,      in our families, in the church, and in
which are given to Him of the Father,       the clouds to gather, and the rain to       the midst of the world, not for our-
lays down His life for them, calls          fall; I send seed time and harvest,         selves, but for God's sake. We live not
them by name, and draws them to             fruitful and unfruitful years, for you,     unto ourselves, but unto God. It is
Himself. He leads them in green             in My care and concern for you.             our privilege to know Him as our
pastures and beside still waters, and           "Even prosperity and adversity,         God, to put all our trust in Him alone,
in due time gathers them unto Him-          health and sickness, I plan for your        and live in intimate communion of
self in the sheepfold of glory.             welfare. I turn your present trials and     life before Him. As David says: "I
    That intimate relationship is com-      enemies to your advantage. Fear not,        have set the Lord always before me:
pared to the inseparable bond of life       I am with you when you go through           because he is at my right hand, I shall
and fellowship between husband and          rivers and fires. I will never leave you    notbe moved" (Ps. 86:B). Or as Asaph
wife, which holds until death doth          nor forsake you, for I carry out My         confesses: "I am continually with
them part. The bridegroom takes his         wise counsel by taking you to Myself        thee: Thou hast holden me by my
wife to himself and says: "I claim you      in heavenly perfection, where you           right hand, thou shalt guide me with
as my very own!" To which the bride         will dwell with Me in My house for-         thy counsel, and afterward receive
responds: "And you are mine until           ever.!'                                     me to glory" (Ps. 73:23,24).
death doth us part."                                   *  *  *  $  *  *  +                       It is exactly when we love and
    In that intimate communion of               To those who fear Him. The love         serve Him in deep devotion that we
life God bestows on His bride all the       and intimacy between God and His            experience the wonders of His grace,
blessings of salvation. He cares for        people is not that of two equals. Even      the mysteries of our salvation, the
her, provides for her in deep concern,      in our earthly relationships, the hus-      secrets of the Lord.
and blesses her with every spiritual        band is the head of his wife, her pro-               For the secret of the Lord is with
blessing in Christ. He speaks most          vider and protector. So also God in         those who fear Him. 0
intimately with her through His Word        Christ is the Head of His wife, His
and by His Spirit in her heart. He          church.
                                                                                                                                  1

                                   Su port of the
                   Good hristian School
                                           cp

      (These brief remarks weregiven thissummerat theground-breakingceremony
  of the building-addition of Covenant Christian High School in Grand Rapids,           My friends in the covenant of grace,
  Michigan. They apply as well to the support  of  Protestant Reformed Christian                 The most important thing that
  education wherevertheseschoolsarefound. Indeed, theyencouragesupportofgood            the founders and earliest members of
  Christian schools generally. It is fitting thus to mark the beginning of another      the Protestant Reformed Churches
  school year.)                                                                         ever did, after forming the churches

458lStandard  Bearer/September 1,1994


                                                                                         CovenantChristianHighSchoolmore
                                                                                         reason for gladness: the school grows.
                                                                                         At a time when many other Christian
                                                                                         schools suffer decline in enrollment,
                                                                                         because parents thinkchildren a curse
                                                                                         or because they send their children to
                                                                                         the state schools to save money, Cov-
                                                                                         enant grows.
                                                                                              Praise God! This is visible evi-
                                                                                         dence of God's blessing on ourmove-
                                                                                         ment and of the presence with us of
                                                                                         His Spirit.
                                                                                              With the blessing comes calling.
                                                                                              Let this little ceremony of ground-
                          Construction at Covenant Christian                             breaking, which represents covenant
                                                                                         blessing, be the occasion of resolve to
                                                                                         carry out our calling.
themselves, was to establish Protes-               Our fathers and mothers and                Let us dedicate ourselves anew to
tant Reformed Christian Schools.               grandfathers and grandmothers have        covenant, Christian education in our
     Children and young people of the          handed the schools down to us.            schools.
covenant, elected in eternity, re-                 Are we thankful? for the sound,            Let us work together: parents;
deemed in the fullness of time, and            faithful Reformed instruction? for        teachers; boards; every man, woman,
born again as a rule in infancy, can be        well-educated, competent, devoted,        and child in Western Michigan who
taught all the knowledge necessary             trustworthy teachers? for a student       loves the covenant of grace.
for earthly life. They can be taught           body to which we not only dare com-            Let us give liberally. Widows,
this knowledge in the light of Holy            mit our child, but also desire to com-    give your mite. Young people, espe-
Scripture as rightly set forth in the          mit him or her for friendships?           cially graduates of Covenant, drop
Reformed confessions. They can be                  Do we have a sense of our heavy       $10's and $20's  in the collection plate,
taught the truth.                              responsibility?                           not  $1'~. Rich, give thousands, or
    Your children can be taught in                 Speaking personally, my wife and      more. Parents, keep on giving sacri-
such schools.                                  I would be afraid to stand in the         ficially.
    The  church's  children can be             judgment, if we allow to be lost what          T&is is a great cause. It is next in
taught in such schools.                        our fathers and mothers worked and        worth only to the church herself.
    God's children can be taught in            prayed and sacrificed to build: these          God bless our Protestant Re-
such schools.                                  good Christian schools, our Protes-       formed Christian schools!
    The founding fathers and moth-             tant Reformed Christian schools.               God bless Covenant Christian
ers of the Protestant Reformed                     Now God gives us supporters of        High!  n
Churches set up these schools be-
cause God demandedit of themin the
covenant. God requires these schools
when He tells fathers in Ephesians
6:4: "Bring . . . up (your children) in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord."
    We parents promise to maintain
them in our vow at Baptism.
    For we ourselves are incapable of
teaching our children the learning
they need for responsible life before
the face of God in the West at the end
of the 20th century. Therefore, we
band together to do togetherwhat we
cannot do separately. Even the rare
couple who might be able to educate
a child themselves cast their lot in
with the covenant community, out of
love for the common cause.                                              Future hallway  in the making

                                                                                              September 1,1994/Standard  Bearer/459


                       The Need for Good
            Christian Schoolteachers

    To refer specifically to our Prot-          This notion charges the thinking           The first and basic need of good
estant Reformed Christian schools,          of the covenant community in the           Christian education is competent
there is a need for good schoolteach-       past with folly. We have always            teachers.
ers. The fact of this need is evident       thought that Christian education re-           Protestant Reformed parents
from the urgent calls for teachers in       quired the special training of bright      ought to encourage their godly, stu-
the church bulletins and in the Stan-       young people to be teachers by at          dious  sons  and daughters to become
dard Bearer yet at a late date in the       least four years of college after high     schoolteachers.
summerbefore the start of the school-       school. We have thought also that              Preacher and consistory should
year. A new school in Randolph,             Christianeducationrequiredinstruc-         hold this before the young people of
Wisconsin has been established. Ex-         tion of our children by a body of          the congregation. The consistory has
isting schools are growing. More            several teachers who devoted them-         a significant responsibility for the
teachers are required. Besides, there       selves full-time to this work. The         support of the Christian school ac-
is the normal rate of retirement in the     home-schooling movement would              cording to Article 21 of the Church
ranks of the teachers. This calls for       have us believe that one mother with       Order. Seeing to it that there are good
replacements.                               only a high school education herself is    Christian schools in which the par-
    The need is real and urgent.            able to teach all her children all the     ents have their children instructed
    Good Christian schools are a de-        subjects at the same time as she does      includes the consistory's exerting it-
mand of the covenant, nothing less, as      the work of keeping the home.              self to see to it that there are good
Article 21 of the Church Order of               The thousands of dollars that our      schoolteachers.
Dordt stipulates. God requires that         teachers have spent in getting a col-          Good schoolteachers are quali-
the covenant childrenberearedin the         lege education have been wasted!           fied schoolteachers.
truth in the schools, as in the home            The devotion of a staff of teachers        They must be thoroughly trained
and in the church. Essential to this        full-time to the work of teaching has      in their field. No one can teach that of
covenant-task are good teachers,            been an extravagance!                      which he or she is ignorant.
gifted and trained to carry out the             But, of course, the notion of the          They must be gifted with the abil-
difficult workof  Christian education.      home-schooling movement is a mis-          ity to impart knowledge to children,
The heart of the school is the body of      take. Parents are no more capable of       as well as to work with children in the
competent teachers. Recognizing this        teaching their children math and his-      rearing of them.
long ago, the wisdom of the Reformed        tory and literature simply by virtue of        They must be Reformed believ-
tradition formulated the original Ar-       being Christian parents than they are      ers who live and love the covenant of
ticle 21 of the Church Order of Dordt       capable of teaching them auto me-          grace.
as it did. The original formulation did     chanics or dentistry. Nor do the hus-          They must have a wide and deep
not explicitly call for good Christian      band and wife have time for educat-        knowledge of the Reformed faith as
schools, but for good Christian "school-    ing their children. Both have full-        this faith is set forth in the Reformed
masters. fl If the Reformed, covenant       time occupations, the husband out-         creeds and held in the Protestant Re-
community has good Christian                side of the home and the wife as           formed Churches. This is necessary
schoolmasters, it has good Christian        homemaker. The result of this mis-         so that they can apply the Reformed
schools.                                    guided movement, therefore, will be        faith to all aspects of their instruction.
    The reality of this need for good       that the children are badly educated.      The God of the covenant demands
teachersis deniedby  the home-school-       This will have harmful consequences        schools that do not merely give an
ing movement. The movement is               both for the children themselves and       education but that give a Christian
based on the erroneous notion that all      for the church, which should have a        education. This is a Reformed educa-
Christian parents are capable them-         well-educated membership.                  tion.
selves of teaching their children the           Our first and fundamental criti-           In this connection, there is a lack
subjects of the school curriculum sim-      cism of the home-schooling move-           in the training of the Protestant Re-
ply by virtue of being Christian par-       ment is that it cannot educate well. It    formed young people who will be-
ents. Teachers are unnecessary.             lacks teachers.                            come teachers. There is no  instruc-

48OIStandard Bearer/September I,1994


tion in the distinctively Protestant        future teachers are being trained cer-         Has the Federation considered
Reformed principles of Christian edu-       tainly do not concern themselves with      this matter?
cation. I refer to such truths as the       these truths, except to reject them.           Is the Federation doing anything
doctrine of the covenant itself; .the           The natural agency to provide          about this weakness in our teacher-
sovereignty of the Triune God; the          thisimportanttrainingofallourteach-        training?
Lordship of the risen Christ; the spiri-    ers is' the Federation of Protestant           However this may develop, as
tual kingdom of Christ in which par-        Reformed Christian Schools. It can         the new school year begins, bright
ents, teachers, and students alike are      draw on experienced, capable teach-        with promise as regards the covenan-
citizens; particular grace; and the an-     ers to give special courses to would-      tal work of God among His people,
tithesis. Theyoungpeopleknowthese           be teachers in our system. It might        we call our teachers to teach. Give
truths. But they are not taught how         arrange withcertain colleges that these    yourselves to your vital labor with all
these truths apply specifically to the      courses be accredited for the benefit      your heart and energies.
science of Christian education. Exist-      of the students. It could advocate that        On our part, let us honor and
ing Reformed colleges do not show           these courses be required of all who       support our teachers.
how these truths bear on Christian          desire to teach in our schools as part         And, of course, use themby send-
education to the satisfaction of  Prot-     of our effort to have good Christian       ing our children to the schools. 0
estant Reformed Christians. The secu-       schoolteachers.                                                                - DJE
lar, state colleges where some of our


          The Protestant Reformed School System Today                                     Loveland PR Christian School
                                                                                                      705 E. 57th St.
    Adams St. Christian School                   Heritage Christian School                     Loveland, CO 80537
         1150 Adams St. S.E.                           4900 40th Ave.
      Grand Rapids, MI 49507                      Hudsonville, MI 49426                  Northwest Iowa PR Cl-u. School
                                                                                                       P.O. Box 195
  Covenant Christian High School                   Hope Christian School                             Doon,  IA 51235
         1401 Ferndale  S.W.                       1307 E. Brockton Ave.
      Grand Rapids, MI 49504                        Redlands, CA 92374                     Prot. Ref. Special Education
                                                                                                     4900 40th Ave.
     Covenant Christian School                   Hope PR Christian School                     Hudsonville, MI 49426
       9088 Northwood Road                         1545 Wilson Ave. S.E.
         Lynden, WA 98264                         Grand Rapids, MI 49504                  South Holland PR Chr. School
                                                                                              16511 South Park Ave.
       Faith Christian School                     Hull PR Christian School                   South Holland, IL 60473
        Randolph, WI 53956                               218 2nd St.
                                                         P.O. Box T                       Theological School of the PRC
        Free Christian School                          Hull, IA 51239                               4949 Ivanrest  Ave.
        Edgerton, MN 56128                                                                     Grandville, MI 49418





                                            each issue and read it from cover to       sue of women in positions of author-
w Some are Free in Prison                   cover. Every word that is written is       ityin the church. I truly feelinformed
                                            read and appreciated.                      and blessed by the knowledge I have
    I want to write you in continued            The recent articles on "The Nose       received.
appreciation for keeping me on your         of the Camel" have been most inter-            In the last issue,  ;he article,
mailing list and sending me the Stan-       esting and enlightening. I wish to         "Kelong and Net," was superb. Two
dard Bearer free of charge. I want you      thank the author for his articulate        different ways to fish and both suc-
to know that I truly look forward to        presentation on this provocative .is-      cessful. Yes, the glory is always God's!

                                                                                           September 1,1994/Standard  Beam'481


I could cite somethingleamedin each           on the basis of the Confessions." These     been, of equalvalue with those divine
article in this latest issue but I think      statements of faith, major as well as       Scriptures . . . for all men are of them-
you get my point, so I won't. I truly         "Minor or Lesser" Creeds, have come         selves liars, and more vain than van-
enjoy the SB and hope you will con-           into being in the process of the "his-      ity itself."
sider continuing sending it to me.            toric-organic development of the                Besides, way back in 1910 the
     I also want the SB to know the           church in the world."                       Synod of the Gereformeerde Kerken
articles about watching television                Honesty requires however that           in Nederland took note of
have done their job on this humble            from the outset we distinguish be-          the"unbiblica1 teaching" of parts of
servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Any         tween the church as an organism and         Article XXXVI. This was later con-
time temptation gets great enough for         the church as an institution. It is a       firmed by the Synod of 1938! And
me to flip my cellmate's television on,       mistake to think that the church be-        when, e.g., Article XXXIV states,
which is infrequent except to watch           comes visible only in the offices, the      "what circumcision was to the Jews,
the news, these words ring in my              number of Creeds or Confessions, the        baptism is to our children," then any
mind, "Why would I, a servant of the          ordinances, and in a certain form of        observant reader would like to know
most High God, want to watch sinful           church government. "Even if all these       where Scripture warrants the notion
people play the parts of sinners acting       things were absent, the church would        of replacing this aspect of the Cer-
out their sinfulness?" Bang! Off goes         still be visible in the communal life       emonial Law?
the television! I am convicted. The           and profession of the believers, andin          When Guido  deB&s wrote in
time I would normally waste watch-            their joint opposition to the world"        Article VII, "For all men are of them-
ing this sinfulness is now being used         (Louis Berkhof, p. 567).                    selves liars . . . . N he was most probably
to read additional books about the                The overemphasis on the impor-          mindful of his intense hatred of those
Reformation. A wonderful, Re-                 tance of creeds in the article leads to     who reject infant-baptism as shown
formed, Spirit-filled couple recently         such erroneous statements as "the           in Articles XVIII, XXXIV, XXXVI.
sent me two volumes by d'Aubigne,             authority of the creeds is the author-          Yes, we must earnestly contend
The Reformation in England, and in-           ity of Scripture," and "the creeds . . .    for the Faith. The Confessions how-
stead of watching television I am             are the means, the way, by which we         ever do not set forth this "faith" quite
learning about some of theless-known          go to the Word of God." The Roman           as eloquently as Miersma would have
Reformers. It is wonderful, and I owe         Catholic approaches the Wordvia the         us believe.
a big thanks to the SB, and in particu-       priest; have the creeds now become                                      A. vanEchten
lar to the writer of the article, for the     our "priests" to unlock the treasures                            Palmerston-North
extra time I have to devote myself to         of Holy Writ?                                                         New Zealand
the reading of good literature.                   This "historic-organic" develop-
     I just can't say enough good             ment in the church he equates with          RESPONSE:
things about the SB and the growth it         the "development of the truth." Since
has caused in my spiritual life. Thank        when stands the truth in need of de-            In response to the letter of A.
you again and may our wonderful               velopment? Jesus says, "I am . . . the      vanEchten I can only express my
Father continue to pour out His bless-        truth...." Quoting this single text re-     amazement as to how some people
ings on you and your staff. n                 duces me in Miersma's estimate to           come to the conclusions that they do.
                            Peter  J Favre    "the heretic, who appeals to isolated       The writer speaks of "honesty." Yes,
                           Corcoran, CA       passages of Scripture in support of         I think that a good deal of honesty is
                                              his own pet doctrine." It is "a method      needed on the part of Mr. vanEchten.
                                              which is contrary to the Reformed               Honesty requires that one quote
n Importance of the Creeds                    Faith."                                     someone faithfully and in context,
                                                  Miersma acknowledges that in            not in the "cut and paste" manner of
    The article "No Creed But                 writing this article he made use of the     the above letter. For example, when
Christ?" by the Rev. Rodney G.                notes of Herman Hoeksema who                quotingfromLouisBerkhof'sSystem-
Miersma in the May 15,1994, issue of          "taught in the seminary of our              atic Theology, p. 567, concerning the
the  Standard Bearer  cannot go               churches." We wonder if the quotes          distinction between the church as or-
unchallenged.                                 from his article were Miersma's or          ganism and as institute, he should
    Miersma identifies the "Church            Hoeksema's? Although our brother            have included the preceding two sen-
of Jesus Christ" with "particularlythe        makes much of the authority of the          tences. A complete and honest quote
Church of the Reformation," and more          confessions, he most positively con-        would be, "It is a distinction that
specifically with the Protestant  Re-         tradicts the authority of Article VII of    applies to the  visible  church and that
forrned Church. To achieve this lofty         the Belgic Confession of Faith where        directs attention to two different as-
goal he writes, "Ever it is our calling       Guido  deBres states: "Neither may          pects of the church considered as a
to develop the truth. But we do that          we consider any writings of men,            visible body. It is a mistake to think
                                              however holy these men may have             that the church becomes visible only

482lStandard  Bearer/September ,l ,1994


in the offices, in the administration of    flesh of his mother" (Belgic Conf.,         formed brethren, the revelation of
the Word and the sacraments, and in         XVIII). I am thankful for our confes-       God in His Holy Word that we are
a certain form of church government.        sionsastheyindeedsetforththetruth           justifiedbyfaithalone. Webelievethe
Even if all these things were absent,       of the Wordof Godinamost eloquent           baptism in the Holy Spirit, among
the church would still be visible in the    way. And, yes, I will earnestly con-        other things, endues the believer with
communal life and profession of the         tend for the faith, and in doing so I       power to proclaim the gospel effec-
believers, and in their joint opposi-       will find the confessions to be a most      tively by the grace of God and for His
tion to the world." Mr. vanEchten           invaluable tool. 4                          glory. Although ofttimes we failmis-
cuts out the reference to the Word                             -Rev. Rod Miersma        erably in our service to God, we pray,
and sacraments and pastes in his own                                                    along with all true believers, "that
fabrication of "the number of Creeds                                                    Satan's kingdom may be destroyed,
or Confessions, the ordinances,"            n The Pentecostal Baptism                   that the kingdom of grace may be
which substitution contradicts the                                                      advanced, with ourselves and others
quote itself and thus defeats his pur-          I thoroughly enjoyed the excel-         brought into and kept in it, and that
pose in quoting that passage to begin       lent article "A Critique of Modern          the kingdom of glory may come
with.                                       Church-Growth (2)" by Rev. Charles          quickly" (The Westminster Shorter Cut-
    This he has done not only with          Terpstra that appeared in the May 15,       ,echism  in Modern English, Q. 102).
Berkhof, but with the entire article        1994 issue of the Standard Bearer. His          Thank you for your magazine. '
which I wrote. That "the authority of       clear thinking and sensible criticisms      May God continue to bless your la-
the creeds is the authority of Scrip-       of this highly questionable trend in        bors for Him.
ture" is not an erroneous statement         evangelicalism are much needed.                                 (Rev.) James Cimko
by itself and especially not so when            As an Assemblies of God (Pente-                               Oneonta, NY
one reads how that is explained in the      costal) ordained minister, I would
context, and which is really the thread     like to address a slight misconception      RESPONSE:
of truth running through the entire         Rev. Terpstra propagates concerning
article. The authority of the creeds is     Pentecostalism.                                 I thank Pastor Cimko for taking
derivative of the Scriptures which is           He writes, I'... a Pentecostal gos-     the time to write and express his ap-
why the creeds can be and are au-           pel, proclaiming the need for the `sec-     preciation for the Standard Bearer and
thoritative.                                ond blessing' (baptism) of the Spirit       for my article in the May 15th issue, as
    One could go on and answer ev-          in order for a conversion to be authen-     well as to offer some criticism of it.
ery point one by one. But that is not       tic." In classical Pentecostalism, and      The brother points to a misconcep-
necessary. The latter part of the letter    certainly in the Assemblies of God,         tion I have when I state in that article
really tells the story as to where the      this is just simply not true. In no way     that Pentecostalism proclaims the
above correspondent is coming from.         do classic Pentecostals believe that        necessity of the baptism with (or in)
He really has no quarrel with the           the baptism in the Holy Spirit is some-     the Holy Spirit in order for a conver-
creeds themselves, but with the Scrip-      how necessary for conversion to be          sion to be authentic. He claims that
tures. He inveighs against the impor-       authentic, genuine, or real. The State-     this is not the case in "classical
tance and value of the creeds because       ment of Fundamental Truths (our             Pentecostalism" which the Assem-
he does not want the truth of the           creed or confession, if you will) makes     blies of God represent. He shows
Scriptures which the creeds set forth.      this clear in paragraph 5, "The Salva-      from their statement of faith that a
Tobe  "honest," Mr. vanEchten should        tion of Man":                               person can be truly converted and :
say so. He clearly does not want                                                        saved without being baptized in the
infant baptism, and one wonders               Man's only hope of redemption is          spirit.
whether he wants baptism at all, and          through the shed blood of Jesus Christ        After hearing what the brother
would insist on circumcision instead.         the Son of God. Salvation is received     has to say on this and doing some
Circumcision was indeed part of the           through repentance toward God and         further reading, it is clear to me that
ceremonial law, and he would like to          faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.       the statement I made was incorrect.
know the Scriptural warrant for re-           By the washing of regeneration and        And I thank the brother for clarifying
placing circumcision with baptism. I          renewing of the Holy Ghost, being         this for me and perhaps for others.
think that "any observant reader"            justified by grace through faith,  man         However, I still have a couple of
knows the answer to that one.                 becomes an heir of God, according to
                                              the hope of eternal life (Luke 24:47;     serious concerns which I would like
    I am thankful for Guido deBr6s            John 33; Rom. 1093-15;  Eph. 2%;          to raise with the brother in this con-
and men which God has raised up               Titus2:ll; 3:5-7). (Emphasis added.)      nection. First, it must be stated that
like him. I am thankful that I can                                                      by its teaching that the baptism of the
stand on his shoulders rather than on           We Pentecostals heartily affirm,        Spirit is a blessing and experience
the shoulders of the Anabaptists who        along with our evangelical and Re-          distinct from and usually subsequent
"deny that Christ assumed human                                                         to salvation (conversion),  Pen-

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                                                         ,


  tecostalism has made a fundamental            Pentecostal" position is not that of         far greater than the "normal" Chris-
  departure from the historic Reformed-         "classic Christianity" and that he           tian experience, indeed that it is the
  Protestant faith concerning salvation         would embrace a true Reformed po-            highest blessing one could receive,
  and the Christian life. The baptism in        sition on the nature of salvation and        would not Pentecostal church mem-
  the Spirit is an essential aspect of true     the Christian life.                          bers conclude that they are not truly
  conversion which every elect sinner               Secondly, I wonder whether in            saved unless they have this blessing?
  partakes of. I do not have to demon-          actual practice in Pentecostal circles       My concern is that in the minds of
  strate this in this response, since it has    (though perhaps not in their doctrinal       sincere Christians there is real lack of
  been done by many others in various           statements) the impression is left with      assurance of salvation because of this
_ books. (Our editor has also written an        their church members that in order           view. Perhaps Pastor Cimko has faced
  excellent critique of Pentecostal  teach-     for them to reveal a true conversion         this in his work and would care to
  ingandsetforththehistoricReformed             they must also be baptized in the            comment on it.
  viewinhis booklet "Try the Spirits: A         Spirit. My reason for saying this is             Again, I thank the brother for
  Reformed Look at Pentecostalism."             chiefly that in Pentecostal circles it is    writing and pray that he will receive
  We are sending Pastor Cimko a copy            the baptism in the Spirit which gets all     this response in the spirit in which it
  of this.) No doubt Pastor Cimko has           the attention and which members are          is given, that of genuine Christian
  seen the arguments. I do wish that he         exhorted to attain. With the teaching        love and concern. Q
  would be convinced that the "classic          being promoted that this baptism is                     - (Rev.) Charles 1. Terpstra





                        The Reformed Family:
                   Continuing in Learning
                                           (for children and young people)

                                                                                                                                         1

  "But continue thou in the things which        font later turn their backs on what          of soup, Esau sold his birthright. He
  thou hast learned...."                        they have learned. The tears of par-         rejected God to His face.
                            II Timothy 3:14     ents drop continually for the children           At the time of the Great Flood,
                                                who have despised their spiritual            `only eight souls - out of millions of
      Paul is writing to Timothy.               birthright.                                  people - treasured their spiritual
      Preachers are admonishing pa-                 Already in the first pages of Gen-       heritage, continuing in the things they
  rishioners.                                   esis we read of two brothers, Cain           had learned.
      Parents are talking to their chil-        and Abel. Cain was raised in the same            Many more examples from the
  dren.                                         home as his brother Abel. Adam and           Bible's record could be given. There
      Pupils are being encouraged by            Eve taught both boys about the won-          is the history of Eli's two sons, pro-
  teachers.                                     der of creation, their own fall into sin,    fane men whose responsibility for
      "But continue thou in the things          and the promise of Jesus the Savior.         caring for the holy things of the taber-
  which thou hast learned . . . . N             But Cain despised his instruction.           nacle had to be turned over to the
      Not all children do, you know.                Esau, as a boy, was trained with         little lad Samuel. And then, later,
  Many infants carried to the baptism           his twin brother Jacob in all the ways       Samuel's own two sons carelessly
                                                of Jehovah. You can be sure that Isaac       tossed aside the things which they
                                                and Rebekah told both their boys the         had learned.
  Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in the      thrilling stories of God's power and             Hundreds of Hebrew boys were
  Protestant Reformed Church of South           of His faithfulness to His people. You       taken into captivity in Babylon, but
  Holland, Illinois.                            know the story well, how, for a bowl         theBiblerecords  the faithfulness only

  464lStandard  Bearer/September 1,1994


of Daniel and his three friends in this      whichallhislaterleamingwasbased.             lious spirit contradicts your spiffy
wicked land. Only these four chil-           And, evidently, it was a solid founda-       clothes and nice appearance.
dren, far from the eyes of their par-        tion. During those impressionable                Jehovah deemed obedience of
ents and teachers, refused the king's        early years, the groundwork was laid         such importance that He also attached
meat and wine, continuing in the             for the future structure of Timothy's        a reward to it. Children respond well
things which they had learned. And           Christian character. Timothy was             to rewards. Rewards often spur chil-
when Daniel's three friends refused          taught to embrace and love all the           dren to do their very best. Teachers
to bow to King Nebuchadnezzar's              truth of Scripture as revealed from          use stickers on charts, special privi-
golden image, where were all these           GodHimself.  Timothy's                                     leges, and inexpensive
other Hebrew boys? Well, they had            mother was the teacher-                                    gifts for tasks completed
their knees bent low to the ground in        builder, but God was the        All the ugliness           well in school. Parents
obeisance to the unholy image.               Architect of all those          of a big mouth             also use rewards to en-
    So, the warning and the encour-          things that Timothy was                                    courage their children to
agement to continue in the things            taught. Nor did Paul tell             ora                  meet goals. So, too, does
which you have learned is always             Timothy to change one           rebellious spirit          the Lord. His reward
urgent, ever necessary. TheBible tells       blockin that foundation.          contradicts              for faithful children, in
us that when Christ comes again, only        Everything that his                   your                 fact, was the first com-
a few souls will be found who have           mother and grand-                spiffy clothes            mandment with prom-
remained faithful to the learning            mother taught him that                                     ise: Honor your father
which they received. This is sobering        was in harmony with                 and nice               and mother that you
news. The days of Noah are swiftly           God's Word was a basis            appearance.              maylivelongintheland.
coming upon us again. "Neverthe-             for his learning. He had                              J    Children who continue
less when the Son of man cometh,             to continue building                                       to the very end in the
shall he find faith on the earth?" Christ    upon that early instruction.               things which they have learned will
asks (Luke 18:B). Who will continue              Timothy'searlyinstructionmust          inherit heaven.
in the things which they havelearned?        have been similar to yours. Timothy              Above all, Timothy learned to go
    Paul is talking to his spiritual son,    had learned to pray and to speak the       to God again and again to askforgive-
Timothy. In some places Paul even            truth in love. His "yes" meant "yes,"      ness. There was no way Timothy
calls Timothy his child, although            and his "no" meant "no." He didn't           could keep the law of God perfectly,
Timothy was already a young or-              have to add "cross my heart" or "I           so he learned to lean hard on God.
dained minister. Timothy is Paul's           promise on a stack of Bibles." He had      That is exactly what you have learned
son in Christ. And that is what you          learned to use godly language and          as well. Do you go to God in prayer?
boys and girls are, too. You are Paul's      speech which is becoming to the name       Do you set aside time for personal
sons and daughters in Christ. That is        of Jesus. He worked to keep his              devotions and the regular reading of
why this Scripture lesson is also for        thoughts and gestures pure and clean.        God's Word? Knowing God's Word,
you. And what does Paul desire that          He kept the Sabbath Day holy, and            especially at an early age, is the chief
Timothy (and you) continuein? What           respected his neighbor and his             foundationoffaith. ReadingtheScrip-
are these things of which Timothy has        neighbor's property. He didn't have        ture as young boys and girls is a
learned and been assured ? If we are         tobethreatenedwitharattancanefor           powerful incentive to faithfulness.
learning wicked things, does Paul            vandalism. HechoseChristianfriends         John Calvin says that this long estab-
want us to continue in learning that?        and shunned evil companions. He            lished habit - reading the Scripture
    I think you already know that            honored his parents and all those in       -can make a man better prepared to
you must never continue in things in         authority over him. This meant that        meet any kind of deception (lie). He
which you have been wrongly in-              he was obedient to his parents, which      urges children to drink deeply of the
structed. Rather, the apostle Paul is        was probably not always easy for           sacred writings, and he observes that
telling young Timothy to continue in         young Timothy, since his father was        those who acquire knowledge of the
all thathe knows to be true as told him      not even a Christian. Nevertheless,        Scriptures in their youth should count
from the Holy Scriptures. Continu-           he was obedient.                           it a special blessing of God.
ingimpliespreviousinstruction. You               Obedience is the pearl of great              A new school year is beginning; a
must stand firm in all that you have         price for children and young people.       new catechism seasonis starting. Are
learnedfromyourparents,ministers,            You may be dressed in the finest           you resolved to be diligent? Are you
and school teachers from earliest            clothes, your hair shampooed and           serious about spiritual matters? Do
childhoodinaccordancewiththeHoly             silky, but if you slam your bedroom        you want to be truly wise? Then,
Bible.                                       door or stamp your foot in defiance of     abide in the things which you have
    The learning which Timothy re-           your mother and father, suddenly           learned. Your parents, ministers, and
ceived from his mother and grand-            there is nothing lovely about you. All     school teachers are required to see to
mother was the foundation upon               the ugliness of a big mouth or a rebel-    it that you are properly instructed,

                                                                                              September 1,1994lStandard  Bearer/465


but you, yourself, are responsible for     lished the truth that he had learned              parents, ministers, and school teach-
learning it. In II Timothy 1:5, Paul       the Holy Scriptures thoroughly from               ers willingly and eagerly. Soak it up
praises Timothy - not his mother or        these two devout women. This will                 like a sponge.
grandmother -for the faith in which        be the indicator for you, too -living                 "But continue thou in the things
he had been reared from childhood.         what you have learned.                            which thou hast learned . . . . N
The way in which Timothy lived his              Receive the instruction of your                  Not all children do, you know.
life and followed after Christ estab-                                                        By grace, you will. IJ





                                                         Chapter 3
                     The First Three Da s
                           of Creation (cont.Y

God's Creation of Plant-life               been created as their earthly lord and            rather believe anything than believe
(Gen. 1111-13)                             king, to have dominion over them                  God. Do not overlook the fact that
    In one of his typically homely         and rule over them in God's Name.                 evolution offers no explanation of the
comments, Martin Luther observes                To the work of the third day be-             first origin of this life. How did inor-
concerning the second phase of the         longs the creation of the plants, de-             ganic matter develop into the living
creative work of the third day: "On        scribed for us by God Himself in                  plant, or even produce the germ of it?
the third day, He filled our kitchens      Genesis 191-13:  "And God said, Let               Under what demonstrable influence
and cellars." This is undoubtedly          the earth bring forth grass, the herb             did this take place? And how did the
true. But we would add to this: on the     yielding seed after his kind: and God             so-called lower forms of the plant
third day God acted as the divine          saw that it was good. And the evening             develop into the higher and complex
interior decorator. He not only pre-       and the morning were the third day."              forms? By what demonstrable pro-
pared for man, the chief inhabitant             Notice, first of all, that by the            cess did this take place? And whence
for whom all the world is designed, a      Word of God the earth brings forth                were these natural causes, and what
well-stocked kitchen; but He who is        the grass, the herbs, and the trees.              brought about the peculiar concur-
inHimselftheimplicationofallbeauty         This is plainly told us in the text. The          rence of natural causes that was nec-
furnished for man a beautiful living       text informs us: "And God said, Let               essary for the evolution of plant life?
room, or parlor, in which all things       the earth bring forth . . . . II Then it tells    Do all these processes take place un-
are designed to serve Him, in order        us: "And the earth brought forth..."              der any known conditions at the
that he may serve his God.                 in harmony with that Word of God.                 present time? To all these questions
    For we must remember that it is             We must remember, in this con-               evolution offers mere words.
with a view to man, the chief inhabit-     nection, that this has nothing to do                  Rather, through the Spirit and
ant, that all the earth is adapted. All    with any form of evolution. Quite the             Word of God the earth was caused to
the creatures the Lord creates init are    contrary is true. Evolution implies               bring forth the entire realm of plant-
related to man, point to him, and are      that somehow the earth generated                  life. GodbyHisalmightywillsospoke
designed to serve him, in order that       and contained the germs of every                  His Word and so operated by His
he may serve his God. It is this latter    creature, and that by a concurrence of            Spirit within the earth, brooding and
truth that leads blind unbelievers to      entirely natural causes these germs               engendering that form of life which is
the conclusion that man evolved from       brought forth and developed into                  characteristic of the plant, that He
these creatures, rather than having        some low form of the plant, and that              called forth from the earth the organ-
                                           from this lower form the higher and               ism of the plant, separating species
                                           more developed and complex forms                  from species and kind from kind,
The late Homer Hoeksema was professor      appear under various influences from              giving to every kind its form and
of Dogmatics and Old Testament in the      without and from within. All this                 shape and purpose, andits ownpecu-
Protestant Reformed Seminary.              simply shows that unbelief would                  liar nature and name. The result of

466jStandard  Bearer/September 1,1994


this creative work of God was not a           noted that God created various spe-           wonderful guesses and to what are
gradual evolution, nor even that all          cies of plants. The Scripturesmention         indeed unbelievable hypotheses, all
kinds of seeds began to sprout forth          here the three large families of plants,      because it does not believe in God.
and to grow, but that at the end of the       namely: the green grass, the herbs            God is not in all the thoughts of the
third day the earth was richly and            and small plants, and the fruit trees.        natural man. With his natural mind,
beautifullydecoratedwithfull-grown            These are the three large families of         with the light that is in him but which
and productive grass and herbs and            plants. And these families include all        is darkness, the natural man enters
trees of all kinds. God said, "Let the        the different fixed species: these spe-       creation; and he proposes fool-theo-
earth bring forth." And He Himself            cies were also created on the third           ries, and calls them science.
informs us, "And it was so." There            day. We are told that the various                  To faith, on the other hand, this
was no necessity of waiting for years         herbs and trees bring forth seed after        grand variety of plant-life is clear
before the vegetation created was             theirkind. Thisvery definitelyplaces          proof of the riches of God. When man
ready toblossom andbear  fruit. While         the various representatives of the            makes things, his ingenuity is soon
it is certainly true that the earth was a     plant-world in fixed and closed spe-          exhausted. But when God creates, He
medium in the creation of the plants          cies and separates them from one              produces manifold variety. Not one
now native to it, those plants were the       another. In fact, it is almost as though      thing looks like the others. God is
product of God's omnipotent will, by          the Scriptures wanted to forestall the        great in power; and He is infinite in
which the plants came into existence          unbelieving claims of future evolu-           His riches of wisdom!
before their seed, and their fruit was        tionists, so clearly it pictures to us the         We must also consider in this
produced in full development with-            creation of the fixed species.                connection the purpose of this cre-
out gradually growing and develop-                Evolutionism, of course, cannot           ative work.
ing under the influence of sunshine           believe this. In fact, it must be puzzled          In the first place, we must empha-
and rain. Such, briefly, is the creative      at the great and almost endless vari-         size that this purpose is God's own
work of the third day.                        ety of plants. To be sure, if one rules       glory2 Also of the world of plants it is
    Next, we may face the question:           out the creative workof the third day,        true that they serve the purpose of the
what did God create on the third day?         this is indeed puzzling. How is it that       revelation of His glory directly. God
    First of all, we may note that God        from the same earth, under essen-             is good and rich and beautiful. In all
created plant-life.                           tially the same conditions, grows the         the manifold variety and the riches of
    The plant is the first and lowest         mighty redwood and the tenderblade            beauty that is manifest in the plant-
form of life. Although the Scriptures         of grass, the majestic cedar and the          life which God created there is dis-
do not call the plant here in Genesis a       delicate rose, the towering oak and           played the riches of His glory. God
living creature, or living soul, never-       the lily of the field? The evolutionist       saw them, that they were good. This
theless, when elsewhere the Scrip-            wants to assert that all                                     means tha\t God glorifies
tures speak of the plant and the seed         these different forms                                        Himself in the work of
as dying, it is implying that the plant       and varieties of plant-                                      His own hand. Though
is a form of life. But it is the lowest       life developed from a                   That                 theplantshavenospeech,
form. The plant has no soul. It has no        few, or perhaps one,              natural mind               nor give forth any sound,
breath of life; it has no consciousness,      original species. Truly,            will resort              it is true of them also that
no memory, no hearing, no sight. It is,       he carries the foolish-                                      they declare the glory of
                                                                                to all kinds of
therefore, quite different from the           ness of unbelief to its                                      God and show forth His
animal, and from man. The plant also          climax here. And he is              wonderful                handiwork.
has no freedom. Of all the living             altogether without                g u e s s e s                  In the second place,
beings which God created, the plant           proof even from his sci-        and to what are              that purpose of God's
is in the most direct sense earthy. It is     ence. But when you ask                indeed                 glory is attained in con-
literally bound to the earth. It is           for proof of such an un-           unbelievable              nection with the world of
brought forth out of the earth, but so        believable claim, he will                                    plant-life     indirectly
that it is rooted in the earth. It does       show you that certain              hypotheses,               through man. It was, re-
not move. And yet the plant lives. It         minor changes take                 all because            member, with a view to
uses the elements of air, of light, of        place sometimes and                 it does not              man that the plants were
heat, and of the earth's substance,           under certain condi-              believe in God.            created. For man was
and of water; and it transforms these         tions, and that, too, in                                     made after the image of
into its own body, assimilates them.          certain varieties within                                  God. As such, he was
Moreover, the plant reproduces it-            certain species.                                             able to see these works of
self; it multiplies after its own kind, as        To us, however, this is proof of          God's hand. He could understand
the text also makes plain. It grows           the foolishness of the natural mind,          them. Hecouldread the Word of God
organically from its own seed.                that is enmity against God. That              in them and know their names. In all
    In the second place, it is to be          natural mind will resort to all kinds of      the rich variety of form and color and

                                                                                                 September 1,1994/Standard  Bearer/467


      life he could behold the beauty of the            third place, the plants serve to beau-     the spiritual, the earthy of the heav-
      Lord. He could express this, to the               tify the home of man. The Lord does        e n l y .
      glory of the Creator of all.                      not simply provide man with what is             This also explains the fact that
          This was marred through sin. Sin              strictly necessary. In flower and fern     manyoftheparablesare derivedfrom
      broughtseparationbetweenmanand                    and shrub, in lily and rose and violet,    the world of plants. It was not thus,
      his God, and also between man and                 the Lord provides beauty for man's         that they were not parables, but that
      the creation round about him. Be-                 home.                                      Jesus simply used them as figures.
      cause of sin, the wrath of God is                     All this, of course, was changed       But it is thus, that the things concern-
      revealed from heaven. Hence, we are               through sin. Man's calling was to          ing the kingdom happen in parables,
      no more able to read the thoughts of              care for his servants, to dress and to     according to God's purpose. These
      God in all things; and we no more                 keep them, to be their husbandman.         parables and figures were created.
      know the real names of things. It is              He was to guard them against the                Thus, in the light of the Scrip-
      only in and through our Lord Jesus                inroads of Satan and of sin, to the end    tures, the world of plants speaks to us
      Christ that we are able to exclaim in             that in and with all these things he       of things spiritual and eternal.
      wonderment over the marvelous                     might serve his God. But he fell away           In general, the plant points us to
      works of God and to extol the praises             from God and refused to serve Him.         heaven. It loudly proclaims: "Seek
      of Him who made all these things.                 He did not keep the earth against the      not the things below. I rise and stand
          But as we remarked earlier, the               inroads of the devil. And today the        awhile and disappear, rooted as I am
      purpose of this creative work is to be            curse is on all things, and the whole      in the earth. All the things of the earth
      found in the fact that God was finish-            creation groaneth and travaileth, be-      pass away. The grass withers. The
      ing a habitation for man. In the plant-           ing made subject to vanity. Hence,         flower fades. The tree dies." More-
      world God prepares a habitation for               there is disharmony in the very world      over, the plant points heavenward, as
      man. In this respect, the plant-world             of plants. There is the thorn and the      if to preach: "There, above, is the
      serves to bring the earth nearer to               thistle. There is the weed, choking the    better and abiding light."
      man. Imagine, if you can, that the                good seed. There is the parasite,               In particular, we may mention
      entire world of vegetation was not.               sucking the life of the plant. More-       just a few Scriptural instances of this
      There wouldbe absolutely no point of              over, there is disharmony between          truth. The seed, falling into the soil, is
      contact between man and the earth.                the plant and man. Man does not            an image of the seed of the Word of
      In fact, on the bare earth man could              know the plant anymore. He com-            God,fallingintotheregeneratedheart,
      not possibly live.                                mercializes it and enslaves it to his      sprouting and bearing fruit and good
          This is true from a threefold point           greed. The plant opposes man with          works. It is also the image of the seed
      of view. In the fist place, the world of          its weeds and with its deadly poison.      of sin, which bears fruit unto death
      plants must provide man with food.                There is disharmony between the            and hell. That seed is also the image
      This is also according to God's ordi-             plant and the elements of nature.          of the final resurrection, when we
      nance in Genesis 1:29-                                        There is scorching heat        shall receive our glorified bodies,
      30. The fruit tree and                       L                and drenching rain and         sown, as it were, in the grave. The tree
      the herb draw their                It is only in              hail and storm to make         also bears clear and loud testimony in
      strength from the soil.            and through                the plant suffer and die.      its imagery. The tree, as man's ser-
      Under the influence of                                        There is disharmony be-        vant, is an image of man, as God's
      sunshine and rain they            our Lord Jesus              tween the plant and the        servant. As the tree labors and brings
      transform the strength                    Christ              animal, so that trees and      forth good fruit for man, so man must
      of the earth into nour-             that we are               herbs are devastated by        bring forth good fruit unto God. As
      ishing and luscious                able to extol              all sorts of pests.            the tree must be good in order to
      fruit, bread, and wine              the praises                    Nevertheless, we          bringforthgoodfruit,somanmustbe
      and oil, to feed man and                                      must also remember that        goodin order to bring forth that which
      to gladden his heart and                  of Him              the natural is the image       is pleasing to God. Or again, Christ is
      to make his face to shine.          who made                  of the spiritual. It was       the vine, and His people are the
      They stand as with out-         all these things.             created as such accord-        branches, organically connected with
      stretched arm, as man's L                                     ing to God's immutable         Him by faith, in order to bear fruit
      servants, offering him                                        purpose, which purpose
                                                                     -.  -                   __    unto life eternal.
      the fruit of their life and labor. In the         was not to finish and to unite all              All of these things stand con-
      second place, the world of vegetation             things in Adam, but to unite them in       nected with the creation of plant-life
      serves to make of this earth a habit-             Christ Jesus our Lord. To that pur-        on the third day, even as that creation
      able place, a home. It covers the earth           pose all things are adapted. Creation      was adapted from the beginning to
 :    for him with a velvety carpet of grass            points forward to redemption. Also         God's purpose in Christ Jesus our
      and moss. It provides him shelter and             in the world of plants we have that        Lord.  0
      an attractive place to dwell in. In the           language. The natural is the image of

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                                                                                                          k&ix GWi !8wk 1

                                             The Gospe
                          According to J >hn nn
                                             Introduction and Overview


1. A Comparison of John with
the Other Gospel Narratives                                A comparative chart of the four Gospel Narratives:
        Each one of the four inspired ac-
countsofthelifeandministryof Christ                              Writ-ken by:              Written to:           Written why:
has its own particular emphasis and           Matthew Disciple, Levi former                 The Jews              To show that
theme. The four gospelnarratives are         A.D. 65-70            publican                                   Jesus is the Christ,
not simply four carbon copies, but                                                                            the fulfillment of
each one was written with a particu-                                                                          O.T. promises
lar purpose in mind, and each one               Mark             Son of Mary               The Roman              To show that
stresses a particular truth about the        A.D. 55-60 Co-worker with Paul                Christians        Jesus is the Servant
Person and work of our Lord. To-                                                                              of Jehovah who
gether they give the complete revela-                                                                         does the work of
tion of our Savior and the salvation                                                                          God
He accomplished. "He (God) there-               Luke         "The Beloved Physi- Those who could                  To show the
fore so dictated to the four Evange-         A.D. 65-70              cian"                 read Greek         real humanity of
lists what they shouldwrite that, while                                                                       Christ, "the Son of
each had their own part, the whole                                                                           man"
formed one complete body" (John                 John         "The Disciple whom The general N.T.                  To show the
Calvin).                                       A.D. 90          Jesus Loved"                church           Divinity of Christ,
        In general, we may say that the                                                                       "The Son of God"
Synoptics  (a term meaning "viewed
together," used to refer to Matthew,
Mark, and Luke) are identical in that
they emphasize the deeds of the Lord's       2. The Theme and Purpose                      Christ is presented to our view. That
ministry, while John emphasizes the          of the Book of John.                          which is outstanding in this fourth
Person of our Lord as the Divine Son             John's gospel emphasizes                  gospel is the Divine Sonship of the
ofGodmadeflesh(John1:14).  "...Iam           throughout the essential divinity of          Lord Jesus. In this bookwe are shown
accustomed to say that this gospel is        Christ. It may be called the Gospel of        that the One Who walked the earth
the key to open the door to the under-       the Son of God. John himself states his       for thirty-three years, Who was cruci-
standing of the others. For whoever          purpose for writing, namely, to en-           fied at Calvary, Who rose in triumph
grasps the power of Christ asit is here      courage faith in Jesus Christ as the          from the grave, and Who forty days
graphically portrayed, will afterwards       only begotten Son of God. (See ch.            later departed from these scenes, was
read with advantage what the others          20:30, 31.) This book, along with             none other than the Lord of Glory.
relate about the manifested Re-              John's epistles, supplies abundant            The evidence for this is overwhelm-
deemer" (John Calvin).                       scriptural evidence that Jesus is the         ing, the proofs almost without num-
                                             Second Person of the Trinity, God of          ber, and the effect of contemplating
                                             God, now made flesh for our salva-            them must be to bow our hearts in
                                             tion (John 1:14,18; 3:16,18;  5:18; 8:58;     worship before the great God and our
                                             10:30;   14:11-13;   17:21;  20:28).  "The    Savior Jesus Christ" (Arthur Pink).
Rev. Haak is pastor of the Protestant        theme of John's gospel is the Deity of            Closely connected to this is the
Reformed Church of Lynden,  Washing-         the Savior. Here, as nowhere else in          immediate purpose John had in writ-
ton.                                         Scripture so fully, the Godhead of            ing. John writes against the false

                                                                                               September 1,1994/Standard  Bearer/469


             doctrines which were already begin-         woman, the apostles - chapters 13-           Questions for Discussion
             ning to trouble the early New Testa-        17).                                         and Further Study:
             ment church: Docetismand Arianism.                  C. John gives us the marvelous              1. What do we know about the
             There was the error of denying the          declarations of the Deity of Christ in       author (the human instrument em-
             full humanity of Christ (Docetism:          the "I Am's" (I am the Bread of Life;        ployed by the Spirit), and can we
             that Christ only seemed to be a man,        the Light of the World; the Door; the        show why God chose him to write
             but was not flesh of our flesh. See         Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and          this book?
             John6:51). And there was the error of       the Life; the Way, the Truth, and the               2. Discuss the relationship of
             denying the full Deity of Christ            Life; the True Vine).                        the four Gospel narratives to each
             (Arianism: Christ was God-like, but                 D. John writes in the simplest       other. What is their peculiar charac-
             He was not the same as God and was          vocabulary and most concise sen-             teristic, purpose, and viewpoint?
             a created Son. See John 1:14).              tences. Yet, he sets forth the most                 3. Why is the theme of John's
                                                         profound truths of the Scriptures.           Gospel so important to the church of
             3. The Distinctive Features                         E. The Gospel of John makes          all ages? What confessional state-
             of the Book of John.                        more references to Christ's ministry         ments set forth the truth of the deity
                 A. Of the 1,000 days of Christ's        in Jerusalem and Judea  than do the          of Christ? What are the modem-day
             ministry, John writes of only 20 of         Synoptics. The ministry of Christ is         denials of this truth? How does the
             them. And one-third of the book             explained in relation to His appear-         deity of Christ relate to the doctrine of
             deals with one 24-hour  period (chap-       ances at the Temple for the Passover         the Atonement?
             ters 13-18). John omits the narratives      and the yearly feasts.                              4. Readthroughthebookof John
             of Christ's birth, baptism, transfigu-              F. The biblical doctrines of Cal-    with your eye open for the truths of
             ration, and parables.                       vinism (TULIP) are plainly and re-           sovereign grace. What clear proofs
                 B. John shows us the personal           peatedly set forth in the book of John.      do you find for the truth of Calvin-
 :           and intimate ministry of Jesus to indi-                                                  ism?  0
  .'         viduals (Nicodemus, the Samaritan
      . .
,:a*
. .b"I"
 .  .

.b  `.

   -:

                                                         Farewell to a Pastor and Wife

                                                 God's Word has taught us preachers come and go,
                                                 And yet His Word will always run forth free.
                                                 It's the loss of pastor, but more of dearest friends,
                                                 That's left us sad, with bruised and heavy hearts.

                                                 When we thought our hearts were full to overflowing,
                                                 Our heavenly Father shows we've more to learn.
                                                 Our tears, our sorrows, and our sighs,
                                                 Are but the flames in our Refiner's fire.

                                                 As you go to wear the mantle of His calling,
                                                 Remember us with fondness and affection.
                                                 As friends who bore the yoke and toiled with you,
                                                 All used of God to dress His glorious bride.

                                                 We pray now with the church of all the ages,
                                                 Each tear that He has caused His saints to shed,
                                                 Might come together as a stream within the desert,
                                                 And bring us by and by to peaceful rest.

                                                                    -Anonymous Member of Bethel PRC,
                                                                                    Elk Grove Village, IL




             47OIStandard  Bearer/September 1,1994


1 `J ,-i  i I,  `,                  :
   cGi~~~7)t/~l~&!/iiimj                                                                                 R@M  l&hm  Hqs



                                  Our Salvation's
                            Most `Precious Gift

      That which is preached in some        brush aside into the background, and        His Son and His cross. Remember
churches, is written in some books or       fail to rejoice in and to thank God for,    once again that the unbeliever who
magazines, and is sungin church ser-        is presented in Scripture throughout,       commits suicide because he wants
vices and programs, may be scrip-           from Genesis through Revelation,            deliverance frompainand disappoint-
tural, comforting, and encouraging.         namely, that God blesses us by caus-        ment, rather than being saved from
But the fact is that a very important       ingus to love Him. That is a basic and      the misery or grief, enters instead into
element of our salvation, which is          very important element of our salva-        a far more terrible and everlasting
clearly and repeatedly presented in         tion. Let us take note then of what our     pain in hell! He has in his life turned
Scripture, is very seldom preached in       God Himself taught already the day          away from God, and behaved as
the sermon, and is rarely written in        when Adam and Eve committed their           though he himself is a god.
books or sung in church services or         first and awful sin. What our God .             Take note also of the fact that
programs.                                   said to Satan was: "And I will put          Christ Jesus our Savior taught us in
       Salvation brings us some won-        enmity between thee and the woman,          Matthew 5:5, "Blessed are they which
derful blessings. Thus, for example,        and between thy seed and her seed;          do hunger and thirst after righteous-
in Romans 8 we read of many bless-          and it shall bruise thy head, and thou      ness, for they shall be filled." Now to
ings which God has prepared for us,         shalt bruise his heel."                     hunger after righteousness is to de-
through His Son. Paul in this chapter           Now that God will put enmity            sire to become deeply and spiritually
begins with the comforting truth that       between Satan and Eve means that            right in God's sight. We must not
there is for us no condemnation, for        He is going to begin salvation in her,      merely hunger and thirst after free-
we are free from the law of sin and         and will do that in all His elect. Eve      dom from the punishment for which
 death. The sufferings of this present      will hate Satan, because God will re-       our sin calls. The deepest and most
 time are not worthy to be compared         store in her a love of Himself. When        important element of our salvation is
with the glory that shallbe revealedin      Eve and her elect seed received that        that of being caused and made able to
 us. All things work together for our       gift of love of God, they began to hate     love God, and to serve Him in that
 good, so that in all things we are more    Satan. We cannot love both and serve        love. If we merely want deliverance
 than conquerors. And neither death         b&h. With our old man of sin we will        from punishment, then we actually
 nor life, angels nor principalities or     love Satan and all that which he pre-       do not want the salvation which God
 powers, things present nor things to       sents to us. But according to our new       has prepared for us through His Son
 come shallbe able to separate us from      man in Christ, which He begins in us,       in our flesh.
 the love of God that is upon us, and       we will love God. That is a most                Now, that God will put enmity
 realized by Christ Jesus our Lord.         important element of our salvation.         between Satan and Eve means that
       Take note also of the fact that      That is the fundamental gift of God's       God is going to begin salvation in
 Psalms 145 through 150, the last five      grace unto His people.                      Eve. She will hate Satan, because God
 Psalms, begin with the words, "Praise          Salvation is not merely, or in the      will return His love of Himself to her.
 ye the Lord." These Psalms give us         first place, deliverance from our physi-    And when Eve is by God's grace
 reasons why we can and should praise       cal pain and suffering. Our God will        brought back to that love of God,
 G o d .                                    cause that to happen, so that we can        Satan is going to hate her. It always is
       However, what we must not            walkinlovetowardHim.  Butifallwe            either-or. We love God or we hate
                                            want, and all that interests us, is de-     Him. We love Satan or we hate him.
                                            liverance from physical pain and suf-       By a spiritual love of God we hate
                                            fering, we really do not want the           Satan, because that love comes by the
 Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the    salvation that God promises His elect,      rebirth which God realizes in His
 Protestant Reformed Churches.              and has prepared for them through           grace. We, as the elected seed of the
                                                                                             September 1,1994/Standard  Beareri


reborn Eve, have that blessed, funda-       what happens and hurts physically.         to have love for Him as our God and
mental gift of love from God and for        Trusting in God he will say that all is    Savior.
Him. In that love we will be very           well, and due to a good work of God.           Loving God, we have the evi-
interestedin thankfulness forthat gift          So beautiful was the grace of God,     dence of His love of us. That love,
of love from God, and for Him.              when he caused David to be sorry for       which He eternally had of us, made it
     The questionis, then, whether we       his adultery and murder, as pointed        possible by His Son's cross to save us
believe that God is good, and that we       out inIISamuel11.  Our Godnot only         from the punishment which we de-
want to serve Him in love, and do not       made David sorry for his sins, but         serve, and made us to be His children
simply want escape from punishment          also moved him to write in Psalm           who love Him.
which God sends upon those who              139:14, "I will praise thee; for I am          Salvation is God's gracious gift.
hate Him. It reveals that He does love      fearfully and wonderfully made:            And we must not brush aside that
us, and has begun salvation in us.          marvellous are thy works; and that         wonderful element of our salvation.
Can we every day ask ourselves,             my soul knoweth right well."               Let us then hold constantly before our
"What does God want me to do?"                  Yes, we need Christ as our Sav-        hearts and minds the spiritual gift of
Can we withDavid say what our God           ior, so that we may have our sins          love of God. In the measure that we
wrote through him in Psalm 27:4?            forgiven, and their punishment ban-        do love God, we have the undeniable
There we have that awesome state-           ished. But these sins are forgiven by      evidence of God's love for us.
ment: "One thing have I desired of          Christ's cross, so that wemaybecome            Enjoying that gift of God's grace,
the Lord, that will I seek after; that I    lovers of God. The undeniable evi-         whereby He causes us to love Him,
may dwell in the house of the Lord all      dence of this is that God sent His Son     we sing what we find in our Psalter
the days of my life, to behold the          through His cross, resurrection, and       number 397, the first stanza, which is
beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in       ascension up into heaven as our Sav-       based on Psalm  145. There we find
his temple." And what about what            ior, and brings us there as members of     this grateful and comforting song:
we find in Psalm 34:8? There we read        His body. AII this is the workof God's
this statement: "0 taste and see that       grace, and is realized in us because of        0 Lord, Thou art my God and
the Lord is good: blessed is the man        His eternal decision to cause us to              J-g,
that trusteth in him." He who be-           love Him. He saved us so that we               And I will ever bless Thy name;
lieves that God is good will love Him       might and would love Him and serve             I will extol Thee every day,
and trust in Him, and make no com-          Him with body and soul. And, as                And evermore Thy praise pro-
plaint for what He caused to take           pointed out a moment ago, He causes              claim.  IJ
place. He will not blame God for            us to have enmity against Satan, and





  "She Suffered Many Things of Many
                                            Physicians "
                                                    Our Physicians



                                            THE physician has in the lives of many     that you should consider, and there-
                                            an all but too large a place, to which     fore puts before us ever and again
Taken from In the Shadow  of Death,         sometimes cleave sad remembrances,         those tragic words from the narrative
byAbrahamKuyper,reprintedin1994             yea, which sometimes gave rise to          of the woman who had an issue of
by Old Paths Publications. Published        bitter conflict of faith.                  blood: "There was a woman, who
with permission.                                And this also Scripture intends,       had an issue of blood twelve years,

472lStandard  Bearer /September 1; 1994


andhadsufferedmanythingsofmany                       All relief and recovery, and this is    passion, but He lets it be ministered
physicians, and had spent all that she       incredibly much, which medical sci-             unto you by imperfect and always
had, and was nothing bettered, but           ence brings us, is pure grace, that             sinful men.
rather grown worse" (Mark  5,25).            comes to us from the compassion of
         Cuttingwords, and which to this     God.                                            THUS the snag for the faith consists in
day find their sad application. There                By our sin we have appointed            this alone, that again and again we
are still those in all lands, who, going     unto ourselves nothing save sickness            separate the Lord our God and His
about with an hidden or incurable            and death.                                      gift, and sometimes place them one
disease, have tried now one and again                And thatw,hichbreaks that power         over against the other.
another physician, ever and again            of sickness and death for a time, or at                 With diseases of known and less
hoping that he would heal them, and          least in part, is a free gift of your God,      serious character, it is trust in the
who every time again were disap-             a balsam which he drops into the                doctor. alone, and there is no calling
pointed. They often suffered, much,          wound, which you yourself inflicted.            upon God. When it assumes more
and underwent all sorts of artificial                                                        serious aspects, and the art of the
treatments and subjected themselves          WE must be governed by men, and                 physician falls short, refuge is sought
to. all sorts of rules of life, and swal-    how loud the complaint about all sorts          in prayer and others are asked to
lowed all sorts of medicine. And yet         of mistakes on the part of the Govern-          intercede.
in the end their case was no different       ment. By men the Gospel must be                         And this antithesis God's child
from that of this woman: much pay,           ministered unto us, and what suffer-            must not maintain.
no betterment, and not infrequently a        ing Christ's church has endured                         That was the sin of King Asa, of
further decline.                             through all ages by reason of the her-          whom it is written so sharply: Yet in
    Herein you should not exagger-           esies        and highnesses            and      his disease he sought not to the Lord,
ate. For over against these sad cases        slovenlinesses of preachers. So must            but to the physicians (II Chron. 16,
there are a thousand others, in which        medical science be applied by men,              12).
the medical profession succeeded, in         by sinful men like our rulers and                       And this must not be. This is
bringing about wonderful recover-            preachers, and is it then to be won-            godless. So doing you slight your
ies. Especially in our times medical         dered at, that they also, who practice          Father Who is in heaven.
science accomplishes great results.          medicine among us fall short in all                     No, His is every medicament,
And healing of diseases, reports of          sorts of ways, and time and again               which He created, and which He al-
which are frequently abroad, fill you        disappoint you?                                 lowed man to discover, and His like-
with amazement.                                      Has not God ordained, that of           wise the art and the science, the dis-
    The fact however remains none            every one hundred men in any calling            cretion and the insight, wherewith
the less true, that also the medical         only very few are excellent,very  many          He has enriched the physician.
science all too frequently proves to be      mediocre, and not a few beneath the                     Medical science is no human, and
a broken reed. And the bitter com-           same? Is not this true of all callings          far less an evil, demoniacal art, but a
plaint and disappointment with re-           and positions? Why then should your             means given of God in His compas-
spect to many physicians, is by no           doctors be an exception to this rule?           sion to man to fight against sickness
means always unfounded.                              And as regards all sorts of sinfd       and death.
    It is true, that the poor, not infre-    practiceswith yourphysicians,surely                     It is therefore a spiritual mistake
quently, are treated more hastily and        they are there. But with your mayors,           to think: "I will call no physician and
carelessly, than the man of money. It        lawyers, preachers, house-mothers               swallow no medicine, but I will pray,
cannot be denied that more than one          and dependents are there no sundry              andwithoutmeansGodcanhealme."
woman died in childbed from an in-           sins of overestimation of self-impor-           For to keep you in life, God the Lord
fection, communicated to her by the          tance, of careless dealings, of selfish         hasnoneedoffood. Soyoumightjust
doctor. It is, alas, so, that many a         motives and so much more?                       as well say: "I will buy no food, and
doctor falls short in a proper investi-          And, if so, why then should your            refrain from nourishment. God can
gation of the real character of the          physicians make an exception to this            keep me in life." And so He can, but
disease, and thereby applies a wrong         general human rule?                             He does not do so, because He Him-
medication. The list of complaints               We grant you, they are no better,           self has ordained it otherwise, and
against doctors might be lengthened          but they are certainly no worse than            has said: "In the sweat of thy face
considerably.                                other people. There can only a few              thou shalt eat bread."
    But he who stands right in his           among them be brilliant, and to all                     And even as God makes bread
faith, raises no objection against medi-     sorts of sins they are subject even as          grow, soHe created that multitude of
cal science, neither does he find fault      you.                                            herbs and drugs, which stop all sorts
with God, for allowing medical sci-              And the fact remains which can-             of disease in your body, and it is He,
ence to render us such imperfect ser-        not be denied: God has given you                Who in that domain also endows His
vice.                                        medical science as a gift of His com-           Aholiabs with knowledge.

                                                                                                     September 1,1994/Standard  Bearer1473


    Only, woe to you, if you use medi-      cause our doctors to be humble be-              the choice of your physician not to go
cal science apart from God, and do          fore God?                                       to work too light-heartedly, yet let
not pray that He bless it to your good,             Is it not almost nothing? Worse         this not shake your faith, neither let it
and do not give thanks, when He has         yet,bysmallnessoffaithandbyunbe-                embitter you.
so blessed it.                              lief on the part of many a child of God             For you know, that the gift of
    And woe likewise to the physi-          on his sick-bed, many a doctor has              God, which you call medical science,
cian, who instead of ministering this       lost all reverence for the faith.               cannot be ministered unto you by
gift of God as a priest of mercy, counts            This can and shall become differ-       angels, and that, since it must be min-
without God, and proudly boasts,            ent.                                            istered to you by men, you find your
that his power and cunningness of his               Also upon medical science before        own human imperfection and sin back
hand has wrought it.                        long the breath of the Christian life           again also in your physicians.
                                            shall go forth. Christ and the physi-               But above all, by calling in a doc-
THE&FOIXE  let the people, that fear        cian shall not always remain sepa-              tor, you do not fall beyond the reach
God, be not too impatient with the          rated.                                          of God's providence.
sometimes brutal unbelief of many                   But even if it comes to this, do not        Whatever the doctor may do, it is
doctors. God's children themselves          think that therefore sin shall be               His hidden will, that becomes evi-
in this matter have all too often set       brought to nought in our doctors, nor           dent, andHis counsel that shall stand.
doctors the pace in unbelief.               that therefore their imperfection shall             No physician, whoever he be, can'
    Forget not, to our physicians, the      be ended.                                       take an ell from the length of anyone's
temptation to fall away from God, is                Even then many a physician will         life or add to it.
very great. Their study is almost           make mistakes. Even then careless-                  And therefore do not embitter
altogether material. The school, in         ness andneglect will occur. Even then           yourheartbysuchtroublousthoughts
which they are trained, has no knowl-       many a patient will not be healed of            and poison not your soul.
edge of God. And, also, a very great        the doctor. And even then many a                    The Lord reigns, and it is He
power is put into their hand.               sick person will die, who, spoken               alone, Who cuts off the thread of our
    AndwhathasthechurchofChrist,            humanly, withbetter treatment might             life and the thread of the life of our
what have believing people done, to         have been spared.                               loved one. 0
                                                    But though this compels you, in

  lL!holLi
  2 i'_ !I   /g@\J&p~



                                            death. Meditations as Kuyper wrote              (Christian) comforters in one's illness;
                                            them are, according to Dr. P. Y. DeJong         the sacredness of caring for the sick;
                                            in his foreword, "pointed, personal,            the surprisinglackof spiritualstrength
In the Shadow of Death: Meditatio ws        practical" exposition and application           often on one's deathbed; making ar-
for thz Sick-Xoom  and at the Deal!hh-      of "one passage (of Scripture) with             rangements concerning property and
Bed, by Abraham Kuyper. AudubcIn,           one central and all-controlling                 burial before death; addressing one's
NJ: Old Paths Publications, repr. 19!34.    thought." In them, Kuyper speaks                children from the deathbed; and the
317 pp. $14.95 (cloth). (Reviewed'bY        "from heart to heart." Topics include           necessity (and possibility) of living in
the Editor)                                 U healingby means"; "sudden death";             full assurance of faith in order to die
                                            "the sick child"; "Satan in our suffer-         in comfort.
    Old Paths Publications has done         ing"; "around our deathbed"; and                    Although the meditations are
us very good service in reprinti:"t?        many more.                                      simple -Kuyper was speaking to his
these meditations on sickness alnd                  The issues addressed are as ur-         belovedordinarypeople-they show
dying, long out of print, by Dutch          gent for us at the end of the 20th              Kuyper's profound understanding of
Reformed theologian AbrahaIrn               century as they were for Kuyper's               spiritual things in the light of the
Kuyper. We need biblical instruction        readership at the end of the 19th cen-          Word of God. This is Kuyper on the
on sickness and death; "meditationIS"       tury (the book was originally pub-              sting of death:
move the soul; and Abraham Kuy~her          lished in 1893). These issues include
was a gifted teacher of the Word of         the necessity of informing one who is             Dying itself is not the worst. That
God.                                        dying of his condition; the utter in-             only comes afterward,  when you have
    The bookconsists of 48 brief medi-      comprehensibility of God's ways in                died, and they lay you out in your
tations  on various aspects of  t:he        the suffering and dying of His people;            death garment, and carry you to
believer's encounterwithsickness and        the  U terrible sin" of suicide; miserable        God's-acre. Dying itself is merely
                                                                                              going through the gate of death; but

474lStandard  Bearer /September 1,1994


  then you arrive in the valley of the         foreword by Dr. Peter Y. DeJong  on                However, thebookis, while indi-
  shadows of death, and then in his            the godly activity of meditating, and          cating that the author holds to the
  fortress; and there dread and terror         a biographical sketch of Abraham               cardinal doctrines of the Christian
  shall take hold of you; with no other        Kuyper by Prof. Herman Hanko.                  faith, thoroughly Arminian. He
  prospect than to wait age upon age,
  until Christ returns upon the clouds,                This is the reading that instructs     writes, e.g., in connection with the
  and then yourself to go into judg-           and nourishes the Reformed soul. H             forgiveness of sins:
  ment, and then with everything de-
  moniac to be driven out into still                                                            If forgiveness is offered but not ac-
  greater terror. Into that horror, of                                                          cepted, the relationship remains un-
  which Jesus said: "There shall be                                                             altered. If, and only if, both parties
  weepingandgnashingof teeth." .  ..If         IBelieve:  UnderstandingandApply-                agree to restore the relationship will
  once that sting, that poisonous sting        ing the Apostles ' Creed, by Alister  E.         forgiveness be achieved. There must
  of death is broken, then death has           McGrath. Zondervan Publishing                    be a decision on our part to accept
  become something altogether differ-                                                           God's forgiveness (136).
  ent. So long as a wasp has her sting,        House, 1991. 152pp., no price given
  you flee from her; but when the sting        (paper). [Reviewed by Prof. Herman                 McGrath always finds social im-
  is removed, you play with the wasp           Hanko.]                                        plications in the teachings of the
  as with a fly. Death without sting,                                                         Apostles' Creed. Without mention-
  without  poisonous sting is a messen-                Although the Heidelberg Cat-           ing the burning controversy between
  ger of God, who comes to fetch you           echism develops the doctrines of our           evolutionists and creationists,
  away; who in the Name of the Lord            comfort from the viewpoint of the              McGrath finds the doctrine of cre-
  divests you of your body; admits             Apostles' Creed, there is a need for a
  you as a liberated soul through the                                                         ation leading us to ecology and envi-
                                               brief commentary on this beautiful
  gate of Eternity, to be nearer to your                                                      ronmental stewardship. Christ's suf-
  God and your Savior, than ever you           summary of the Christian faith which           ferings for us must bring us to allevi-
  were able to be here, and, without           could be used as a study guide for             ate the suffering in the world, etc.
  sorrow and without sin, to tarry in          individuals or Bible-study groups. I               Although I do not know what
  that spiritual separation, till the light    had hoped that this small booklet by           McGrath means, I find disturbing his
  dawns of the eternal morning, and            a noted Anglican theologian would              reference to some doctrines (the for-
  Christ comes upon the clouds, and            serve the purpose. Sad to say it does          giveness of sins, e.g.,)  as  images.
  clothes you with a more glorious             not.
  body, and deluges you witheverlast-                  Thisisnottosaythattherearenot
  ing glory. Death with  his sting is                                                             Forgiveness  of  sins. It is no accident
                                               some nice points which the author
  terrible. Then you are gone. Then in                                                          that the Creed selects this image to
  death there are bands of hell and of         makes. For example, in discussing                summarize the work of Christ. It is
  eternal torment. But if death  has lost      that part of the creed which speaks of           perhaps the most powerful and fa-
  his sting, then at once all terror is        Jesus Christ as "our Lord," McGrath              miliar image used to explain the &g-
  gone. Then there are those who have          talks about Philippians 2:10,11. He              nificance of Christ's deathandresur-
  longed for death, because death alone        writes:                                          rection for believers (135).
  was able to bring them to be eternally
  with their God (pp. 206,207).                  . . . Paul has felt it entirely appropri-        In what sense of the word is the
                                                 ate, in the light of the Resurrection, to    forgiveness of sins an image of the
    This is the book to read in time of          take  great Old Testament prophecy           work of Christ? If it is an image, is it
sickness and dying, whether your own             referring to the Lord God and apply          real? This is a crucial question which
or a loved one's. This is the book to            it to the Lord Jesus.                        involves our very salvation. The Bible
read in preparation for sickness and                   Many other illustrations of this       teaches that Christ's atoning sacrifice
dying. There is comfort. There is also           could be given.... This practice of          tookplaceonCa1varyintheyearA.D.
healthy rebuke:                                  transferring from one Lord (God) to          33 as a historical fact. In that histori-
                                                 another (Jesus) is known to have in-
                                                 furiated Jews at the time. Thus in the       cal fact rests the equally historical fact
  In dying you shall not be merely               second-century dialogue between              that all the sins of all the elect are so
  passive, but in holier sense be active.        Trypho the Jew and Justin Martyr,            completelyforgiventhattheyexistno
  In dying, too,  you  have  a  task,  a         Trypho complains that Christians             longer for time or for eternity. How
  calling,  a sacred duty to fulfill. Your       have "hijacked" passages referring           can that fact be spoken of as an image?
  last piece of work on earth. But a             to God and applied them to Christ.               Finally, it is interesting that
  task, at your account; for which all           There was, of course, no suggestion          McGrath explains the expression,
  your life long you have to prepare             that therewere two "Lords" (in other
 yourself; and of which you shall give                                                        "descended into hell" as meaning,
                                                 words, two Gods) - simply that
  account to the Judge of your heart                                                          "descended to the dead." n
                                                Jesus had to be regarded as having a
  and your thoughts (pp. 223,224).               status equal to that of God, which
                                                 demanded that he be addressed and
    Adding to the book's worth is a             worshiped as God (57).

                                                                                                  September 1,l SWStandard  Bearer1475


Studies in Sou them Presbyterian The-       said of the atonement that it was "full          "nature, N in distinction from its "de-
ology, by Morton H. Smith.                  and sufficient for the guilt of the whole        sign," was in important respects a
Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyte-         world; and is to be freely and sin-              death for the reprobate, indeed for
rian and Reformed Publishing Com-           cerely offered to every creature, inas-          the guilt of the reprobate. The most
pany, 1962; reissued 1987. 367 pp.          much as it leaves no other obstacle to           important respect was that it
$11.95 (paper). (Reviewed by the            the pardon of all men under the Gos-             grounded "an offer of salvation from
Editor)                                     pel, save the enmity and unbelief of             God, who is `serious.' U Since the
                                            those who voluntarily reject it" (p.             "offer of salvation" in the thinking of
    Southern Presbyterian theologian        200).                                            Dabney consists of the divine will, or
Morton H. Smith surveys 300 years of            Dabney's colleague, Benjamin                 desire, that a man be saved and of
the theological thought in the Presby-      Morgan Palmer, attacked Dabney's                 saving grace extended to a man, the
terian church in the South. He exam-        doctrine of the atonement in this re-            death of Christ for the non-elect is the
ines 27 Presbyterian theologians. He        port as taking a "stand for a general            expression of a will in God that the
pays special attention to the giants,       atonement instead of a definite atone-           non-elect be saved and the source of
James Henley Thornwell  and Robert          ment, as the Confession teaches" (p.             a saving grace sincerely directed by
Lewis Dabney.                               199). In his response to this attack,            God toward all the non-elect to whom
    The two doctrines on which Smith        Dabney made his fundamental error                the gospel comes. Not only is this
concentrates in every case are the          even clearer:                                    grievously "unorthodox" as regards
inspiration of Scripture and election,                                                       the Reformed confession of the atone-
although other doctrines also come            I am asked whether I believe that              ment (to say nothing of the Reforrned
up for consideration. Smith demon-            "Christ bore the guilt of his elect            doctrines of the sovereignty of God's
strates that the tradition of the south-      onZy. U I reply, Christ designed by his        will and of the irresistibility of grace),
ern church has always been the con-           sufferings to deliver the elect only           but also it infallibly proves to be fatal
fession of the verbal inspiration and,        from their guilt. In that sense he
                                              "bore"                                         to the Reformed confession of elec-
therefore, inerrancy of Scripture and                    the guilt of the elect only. But
                                              if they wish to make me say that               tion.
the confession of God's eternal, sov-         Christ had no more to do with the                  The "well-meant offer," in the
ereign election of definite persons to        guilt of the non-elect thanof  the fallen      sense of a desire of God that all be
salvation. This has been due in no            angels, I shall not say it. For Christ's       saved and of a grace to all in the
small measure to the strict subscrip-         work has actually procured for them            preaching, necessarily implies uni-
tion to the Westminster Confession            greattemporarybenefits,whichtheir              versal atonement and essentially is
that has prevailed in the southern            guilt would personally have made               the death of confessional Reformed
Presbyterian church.                          them unworthy to enjoy- a suspen-              orthodoxy regarding the "five points
    An especially well thought out,           sion of just doom, social, material
                                              good, common operations of H(oly)              of Calvinism."
compelling, and lively defense of             G(host) and an offer of salv.(ation)               The book is a valuable overview
Scripture's inspiration is that by the        from God, who is "serious" (p. 201).           of Southern Presbyterianism from its
little-known Givens Brown Strickler                                                          beginning in the early 1700s until al-
(pp. 298305)                       i         Smith thinks that "when care-                   most the present, particularly in the
    Although Smith defends it as or-        fully examined, the doctrinal state-             important areas of Scripture and the
thodox, Dabney's doctrine of the death      ment does not appear to have really              decrees. Adding to the `value is an
of Christ was serious departure from        beenintheleastunorthodox"  (p.201).              appendix listing the known publica-
the Confession's doctrine of limited,       Smith is mistaken. Dabney taught                 tions of the theologians treated in the
particular atonement. In a report to        that Christ's death, asregardsits very           book.  0
the general assembly in 1864, Dabney




    Classis East met in regular ses-        ceived. A report from Hudsonville                whose credentials reside in Classis
sion on Wednesday, May 11,1994  at          PRC regarding the organization of                East.
the First PRC of Holland, Michigan.         Georgetown was received.                             Classical appointments were
Each church was represented by two              Prof. R. Decker was appointed to             granted to Georgetown and
delegates. The newly-organized con-         serve as moderator for Georgetown;               Hudsonville. The expenses of classis
gregation of Georgetown PRC was             Rev. Bruinsma was appointed to serve             amounted to $1,103.30.  Classis will
also represented by two delegates.          as moderator for Hudsonville. As a               meet next on September 14, 1994 at
    The business of classis was rou-        matter of policy, Classis East decided           Hope PRC.
tine. Reports from the Stated Clerk         that future moderator appointments                              Respectfully submitted,
and Classical Committee were re-            will be made from those ministers                            Jon 1. Huisken, Stated Clerk
476/Standard  Bearer/September 1,1994


                                                                                          -


Congregational Activities                    reportedly up over 300% the last five             have been full of requests from vari-
        We begin this latest issue of the    years. They are currently looking at a            ous PR schools for teachers of all
"News" with some very encouraging            machine that will duplicate seven                 grades and subjects. The news that
news from our Immanuel PRC in                tapes at a time.                                  there is a great need ought to encour-
Lacombe, AB, Canada.                             Also concerning tapes . . . theEvan-          age those who are interestedin Chris-
        Results of a recent New Church-      gelism Committee of Immanuel PRC                  tian school teaching to pursue their
Building Survey indicate that                in Lacombe recently made an offer to              calling with zeal!"
Immanuel is getting very close to be-        their congregation to good to pass up.
ing financially ready to consider seri-      Until October all tapes of sermons or        Minister Activities
ously the construction of their own          lectures in Immanuel will be free of                  As many of our readers know,
sanctuary. By congregational deci-           charge. In addition, their Evangelism             Rev. Ronald VanOverloop accepted
sion, it was decided that Immanuel           Committee is making available free                the call he had been considering to
would not proceed with construction          of charge any tapes they may have of              serve as the first pastor of the
until $200,000.00  had been collected        different PR ministers. If someone in             Georgetown PRC in Bauer, MI. Rev.
toward their building project. Well,         the congregation has never heard Rev.        VanOverloop will preach his farewell
from survey responses received, it           Herman Hoeksema, or his son, Prof.                at the Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Vil-
now appears quite possible that              H.C. Hoeksema, or Prof. Hanko, or            lage, IL on August 21; and his instal-
Immanuel will reach this $200,000            Prof. Engelsma, or whomever, now is          lation as Georgetown's new pastor is
plateau some time next year. So quite        the time to get a tape of one of these            scheduled for September 1 inour Hud-
possibly construction could begin to-        gospel preachers, or others, and have             sonville, MI PRC. Our Hudsonville
ward the end of next year, D.V. Cer-         a listen.                                    congregation has also assisted
tainly good news for our congrega-               This offer was made in part to           Georgetown by giving them tempo-
tion of Immanuel.                            encourage Immanuel's members to              rary use of their vacant parsonage for
        Since its organization over ten      make better use of their tape library,       Rev. VanOverloop and his family.
years ago, our Byron Center, MI PRC          and to make these tapes available to                  In connection with this parson-
has concluded its fiscal year at the         others as well.                                   age problem, Georgetown also called
end of June. This alsomeans that new             Pastor Mahtani reported to his                a special congregational meeting for
officebearers take office the first of       congregation, the Trinity PRC in                  August 15 to seek approval of the
July. Then, usually soon after this,         Houston, TX, about the Sindhi Chris-              building of a new house to serve as
there is an annual summer consistory         tian Conference in Columbia, SC. Rev.             their parsonage. More about this next
meeting, where the full Council meets        Mahtani was able to bring the Word                time.
for an evening to discuss the overall        of God there twice. He spoke before                   After the evening service on Au-
needs of the congregation, that fo-          40 to 50 people on the sovereignty of             gust 7, the congregation of our Bethel
cuses on the direction that ByronCen-        God, and the central place of Scrip-         PRC met and decided to send out a
ter is taking. This meeting is followed      ture in the Christian's life. This group,    call, "to come over and help us," to
by dinner for the Council and their          which calls themselves S.W.A.M.I.            Rev. C. Haak. With him on the trio
wives.                                       (Sindis With A Mission International)        were the Revs. W. Bruinsma and C.
                                             has also shown a keen interest in            Terpstra.
Evangelism Activities                        holding one of their annual confer-                   Finally, Rev. B. Gritters received
        The Church Extension Commit-         ences in Houston, TX. Let us give            the call to serve as pastor of the
tee of our Lynden, WA PRC decided            thanks for this open door to proclaim        Hudsonville, MI PRC.
recently to purchase a new cassette          the gospel of our Savior to all peoples.
tape duplicator to replace their old
duplicator which has recorded nearly         School Activities                                           FoodfFor  Irioqht
25,000 tapes. Lyndencontinues to see             With all of our Christian Schools
a steady increase in tape requests,          starting about this time, it might be                 "I advise no one to place his child
                                             appropriate to echo comments taken           where the Scriptures are not para-
                                             from a bulletin sent form our Im-            mount. -Every institution in which
                                             manuelPRCinLacombe,  AB,Canada.              men are not unceasingly occupied
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protestant     Perhaps you have even had some of            with the Word of God must become
Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michi-       these same thoughts yourself. "Over          corrupt."
gan.                                         the past several months our bulletins                                    Martin  Lufher  LI

                                                                                                   September 1,1994/Standard  Bearer1477


                                                                                                               SECOND CLASS
  jg~@gFJq                                                                                                        Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                  Grandville, Michigan
  P. 0. Box 603
  Grandville, MI 49468-0603





                   NOTICE!!
    The annual Eastern Men's and
Ladies' League Meeting will be held
on September 27,1994 in our Holland                                                                WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
church. Our speaker, Prof. David                     WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                         On August 26, 1994, our parents
Engelsma, will address us on the sub-             On September 7,1994,  the -Lord            and grandparents,
ject: "The Church in the World." Ev-          willing, our parents,                           MR. and MRS. ROBERT  W. PASTOOR,
eryone is cordially invited to attend.               JOEL and STASIA  SUGG,                  celebrated their 40th wedding anni-
                                              will cel,ebrate 40 years of marriage.          versary. We are thankful to our heav-
     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       We rejoice with them in this time          enly Father for giving us godly par-
    The Adult Bible Society of Faith          of celebration of God's faithfulness           ents. We thank God for the years they
Church would like to express its Chris-       and His care of them. We give praise           have shared and for all the love, the
tian sympathy to Clare and Sandy              and thanksgiving to the Lord for giving        covenant instruction, and the guid-
Tinklenberg and family in the death of        us God-fearing parents and we thank            ance they have given us through the
their son and brother,                        our parents for their love and their           years. We pray that the Lord will
                    KEVIN.                    commitment to rearing us in godli-             continue to bless them and keep them
May they find comfort in our Lord (who        ness. May God continue to bless                in His care.
giveth and who taketh) that they may          them in His tender care.                           "So we thy people and sheep of
yet confess, "Blessed be the name of              "But the lovingkindness of the Lord        thy pasture will give thee thanks for-
the Lord."                                    is from everlasting to everlasting upon        ever: we will shew forth thy praise to
                   Rev. Koole, President      them that fear him, and his righteous-         all generations" (Psalm 79:13).
                   Jan Talsma, Secretary      ness unto children's children" (Psalm          0 Doug and JoAnn Pastoor
                                              103:17).                                             Nicole, Eric, Stacy, Tracy
                   NOTICE!!!                  0 Pepe and Carissa Romero                      aS Jim and Jane Pastoor
       Annual RFPA Meeting                    0 Alan and Cassy Carter                              David, Kevin, Steven
   September 22, 1994, 8:00 P.M.              0 John and Elisa Hickernell                    g, Dan and Lori Pastoor
              Faith PR Church                 4$ John and Terry Sugg                               Brad, Nathan, Bryan, Jonathan
    Three new board memberswill be            g, Paul Sugg                                   0 Larry and Pam VanPutten
elected from a nomination consisting          g, Mark and Christiana Nutter                        Laura, Lisa, Scott
of Vern Casemier, Ed Hoekstra, Harve          #I# Monica Sugg                                Q Steve and Dawn Pastoor
Holstege, Leon Kamps, Sr., Ken                       and their grandchildren                 0 Tom and Brenda Pastoor
Rietema, Sr., and Bob Vermeer.                                               Haum, TBxaEi                                Grad Rspids, Michigan





                        REMINDER TO PARENTS OF COLLEGE STUDENTS:

                                We would like to send our college students, free of charge,
                                              a copy of the Standard Bearer
                                             while they are away from home.

                                    Please let us know your student's college address
                                                     as soon as possible.


478/Standard  Bearer /September 1,1994


