                   THE

A Reformed         BEARER
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                     See "The Good Practice of Two Services..." - p. 37

Vol. 71, No. 2
October 15`1994


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                October  15,  1994                                          $@j  $&Dj
                                                                                                                                                                                    J
                                                                                                                                                                                         `T-9                  Bw?!!
Meditation  - Rev. James L. Slopsema
        Worshiping Jehovah In the Beauty of Holiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27                                                                     ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                 Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
        Reformerd Worship vs. Liturgical YRenewal" . . . ..*......................... 29                                                                                            Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
                                                                                                                                                                                    4949 lvanreat Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Second Class
Special Articles -                                                                                                                                                                  Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
        Let the Earth Keep Silence! - Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31                                                                                    Postmastmr: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
         Preaching in Reformed Worship - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga ,,.. 34                                                                                                            P.O. Box 663, Grandville, MI 494666663.
        Calvin's Liturgy - Prof. Robert D. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36                                                    EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
        The Good Practice of Two Services, One Given to Catechism                                                                                                                   Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                    Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
             Preaching - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper . . ..~..........,....,....,..,..,.....,.,..,....., 37                                                                                 Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezeme
        Worship the Lord in Psalms - Prof. Herman C. Hanko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40                                                                                     DEPARTMENT EDlTORS
        The Lord's Day - Rev. Gise J. VanBaren ,.,,..,,,,,....,,.,,....... . . . . . . . . . . . . 43                                                                               Rev. Wilbur Bruinema,  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                    Decker, Rev. AdedanHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.................... 45    Grittars,  Rev. Cad Haak, Rev. Jason Kortering, Rev. Cornelius
Report of Classis  East - Mr. Jon J. Huisken . ..*...............*....................... 46                                                                                        Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Hey.% Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                    Kulper, Mr. James Laming, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47                                                                   Jaikishln  Mahtanl, Rev. Thomas  Miersma, Rev. Charles
                                                                                                                                                                                    Terpstra, Rev. GiseVanBaren,  Rev. RonaldVanCverloop,  Mr.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Benjamin Wigger. Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.

                                                                                                                                                                                    EDlTORlAL  OFFlCE           CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wagger
                                                                                                                                                                                    4949 Ivanrest               6597 46th Ave.
     it!!9 T/k?& lt'wm ,, ,: ,,                                                                                                                                                     Grandvflle, Ml 49416        Hudsonville, MI 49426
                                                                                                                                                                                    BUSINESS OFFICE             NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer         The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                    Don Doezema                 c/o B. VanHerk
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                                                                                                                                                                                    Grandville, MI              Wainuiomata, New Zeafand
                                                                                                                                                                                                                NORTHERN IRELAND OFFlCE
         This special issue of the                                                                                                                                                     49466.9693
                                                                  Standard  Beaver on worship is part commemo-                                                                      PH: (616) 531-1496          c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
ration, part instruction, and part controversy.                                                                                                                                              (616) 636-1776     164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
                                                                                                                                                                                    FAX:   (816)  531-3633      Ballymena, Co. Antrim BT42 3EL
         We commemorate the 16th century Reformation of the church as a re-                                                                                                                                     Northem Iretend
                                                                                                                                                                                    EDITORIAL POLtCY
forming of worship. Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma reminds us of the distinctive                                                                                                              Every editor is solely responsible for the contents of his own
characteristics of the worship restored particularly by the Reformed branch                                                                                                         articles. Contrtbuti~sofgeneralinterestfromourreadersand
                                                                                                                                                                                    questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
of the Reformation. These characteristics derive directly from the knowl-                                                                                                           Contributions will be limited to approximately 366 words and
edge of God made known in the gospel. Rev. Ron Cammenga demonstrates                                                                                                                mustbeneatlywrittenortypewrttten,andmustbesigned.           Copy
                                                                                                                                                                                    deadlines are the first and ftfteenth of the month. All
that Luther and Calvin agreed that the preaching of this gospel is the heart                                                                                                        communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
of the public worship of the true church. Prof. Robert Decker lays out                                                                                                              edllOriel  office.
Calvin's own liturgy in Geneva. Essentially, this is the liturgy "in use in the                                                                                                     REPRINT POLICY
worship services of the Protestant Reformed Churches."                                                                                                                              Permission is hereby grantedforthe reprinting of articles in our
                                                                                                                                                                                    magazinebyotherpuMi,pmvided:a)thatsuchrepn'nted
         Rev. Dale Kuiper gives instruction as to the practice of holding two                                                                                                       arttctes  are reproduced In full; b) that proper acknowfedgment
worship services each Sabbath, at one of which the Heidelberg Catechism is                                                                                                          is made; c) that a copy of the periodical In which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                                                    appears Is sent to our edltodal office.
preached. Prof. Herman Hanko pleads for the congregation's singing of                                                                                                               SUBSCRIPTlOW  POUCY
Psalms in worship. Rev. Gise VanBaren contends that the day of public                                                                                                               Subscrtption price: $12.66 per year in the U.S., 515.06
worship - the Lord's Day - is "the day which must be kept holy accord-                                                                                                              elsewhere. Unless a deffnite request for discontinuance is
                                                                                                                                                                                    received,  R is assumed that ths subscriber wishes the
ing to the fourth commandment." All of this instruction is timely in view of                                                                                                        subscdptiontocontfnue,andhewillbebilledforrenewal.          lfyou
the demise of the second service, the intrusion into public worship of hymns                                                                                                        havsachangeofaddreee. pleasenotiitheBuslne~Cffiwas
                                                                                                                                                                                    early es possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
and choirs, and the profaning of the Sabbath Day - in Reformed churches.                                                                                                            interrupted delivery. lndude  your Zip or Postal  Code.
         The editorial is a critical examination of the prominent contemporary                                                                                                      ADVERTISING POLICY
movement of "liturgical renewal."                                                                                                                                                   The .%ur&dEearerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
         Running through all the articles is the exhortation to Reformed Chris-                                                                                                     of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
                                                                                                                                                                                    enniwrsartes,  obituades, end sympathy resolutions will be
tians, indeed all Protestant believers, to join in the right, pure public wor-                                                                                                      placed for a $3.00 fee. Them should be wnt to the Business
ship of God in the assembly of a faithful, obedient church. This is the theme                                                                                                       Officsandshwldkteccompanledbythe$3.Wfee.  Deadllne
                                                                                                                                                                                    for announcements is at least one month prior to pubiiition
of Rev. James Slopsema's meditation on Psalm 29:2.                                                                                                                                  date.
         May we ask that especially those who criticize or question the tradi-                                                                                                      BOUND VOLUMES
tional form of worship in the PRC and other Reformed churches consider                                                                                                              The Business Cffice will  accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                                                    copleaofthewrrentvdume.  Suchordersarefilfedassconas
carefully this our apology for our faithfulness to the Spirit's work in the area                                                                                                    posdbte after completion of a volume year.
of liturgies  at the Reformation.                                                                                                                                 - D J E           f6mm  microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 165mm mlcrotiche, end
                                                                                                                                                                                    article copies ere available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                    Intemattonsl.                                                        I
26lStandard  Bearer/October 15,1994


         Worshiping Jehovah in the
              ' Beauty of  Holin,ess

       Give unto the  LORD the  glory due              The occasion for this calling to      cellent, and virtuous belongs to God.
unto his name; worship the LORD in the             worship Jehovah is the glory of His       And this excellence of God is also
beauty of holiness.                                name.                                     displayed in the works of His hand.
                                     Psalm 29:2        First, there is a matter of trans-    It is manifest in His work of cre-
                                                   lation. The KJV speaks of giving          ation. It is more brilliantly displayed
       This beautiful Psalm was penned             unto Jehovah "the glory due unto          in the works of salvation in Jesus
by David.                                          his name." Literally, however, we         Christ. In keeping with His covenant
   The theme is expressed in the                   read of giving unto Jehovah "the          with them, Jehovah sovereignly and
very last verse: "The Lord will give               glory of his name."                       graciously saves His chosen people
strength to his people."                               To the glory of the name of Je-       in Jesus Christ from sin and death
       Interestingly, the opening two              hovah we now call attention.              to enjoy eternal life with Him. In
verses are addressed to the (sons of)                  "Jehovah" is God's covenant           this great covenant work all the glo-
the mighty, who are the angels of                  name. It emphasizes especially that       rious virtues of God are brilliantly
heaven. They are called to worship                 God is faithful to the covenant He        displayed. And that is the glory of
the LORD in the beauty of holiness.                has made with His people.                 the name of Jehovah.
Notice that the name LORD is all in                    The "name of Jehovah" refers              David continues in this Psalm
capital letters. That means that in                not to the proper name "Jehovah"          to describe the glory of Jehovah's
the original we find the name Jeho-                but to God Himself as He reveals          name.
vah. The angels are called upon to                 Himself to be Jehovah, the faithful           In verses 3-9 David calls atten-
worship  Jehovah  in the beauty of ho-             covenant God. Let me explain.             tion to the great might and power
liness. In that worship they are to                Names have meanings. So too do the        of Jehovah. The great power of Je-
give unto Jehovah the glory due unto               proper names God gives Himself. In        hovah is seen in the thunder and
His name.                                          the case of the living God, the names     lightning, which the psalmist calls
       This same calling comes also to             He gives to Himself reveal His true       the voice of Jehovah. Jehovah speaks
us.                                                character. But it is also true that       through the thunder and breaks the
       Since we are created a little               God reveals Himself through the           mighty cedars of Lebanon, the king
lower than the angels, the Bible of-               works of His hand. Hence, in the          of all trees. His thunder shakes the
ten sets the angels before us as ex-               Bible the name of God refers to God       mighty wilderness of Kadesh, the
amples. This is the case, e.g., in the             Himself, as He reveals Himself            most dreaded of all wildernesses.
third petition of the Lord's prayer:               through the works of His hand. And        His voice affects the whole creation,
"Thy will be done on earth as it is in             that brings us to the name of Jeho-       even making the hinds to calve pre-
heaven." This is a prayer that God                 vah, the name of Jehovah God Him-         maturely.
grant us on earth the grace to do                  self as He reveals Himself through            All this clearly indicates that the
His will as perfectly as the angels                the works of His hands to be Jeho-        Lord sits as King forever (v. 10).
do in heaven.                                      vah, the faithful covenant God.               David concludes this Psalm (v.
       Should the angels in heaven be                  The psalmist speaks of the glory      11) by showing how Jehovah uses
called to worship Jehovah in the                   of that name.                             His great power: "The LORD will
beauty of holiness, certainly the                      In verse 3 David identifies God       give strength unto his people; the
same calling falls to us.                          as the God of glory.                      LORD  will bless his people with
               +**  et+  c**  ***                      Now glory is the revelation of        peace."
                                                   excellence and virtue. Whenever you           We must understand these
                                                   see the good qualities of a person or     words in their historical setting. This
Rev. Slopsenza  is pastor of Hope Protes-          thing revealed, you see its glory.        Psalm was occasioned by the threat
tant Reformed Church in Waker,                         In like manner is Jehovah the         of Israel's enemies, who sought to
Michigan.                                          God of glory. All that is good, ex-       overthrow her and destroy the cov-

                                                                                                      October 15,1994/Sfancfard  Bearer/27


enant of Jehovah. God reveals here                not the outward action of bowing               also calls us to worship Him daily
that through His great power He                  but the inner attitude which is ex-             at the family altar by meditating
would strengthen His people Israel                pressed in such bowing. We must                upon His Word in prayer. How im-
under king David's leadership to                 worship Jehovah by holding Him in               portant these aspects of worship are!
overcome her enemies, so that Is-                 highest reverence and respect. In              For then our attention is focused on
rael would continue to enjoy the                  that reverence we are to devote our-           the glory of Jehovah's name as re-
peace of God's covenant.                          selves to serving Him. The reason              vealed in His Word. And the Lord
    All this, of course, only looked              for such worship is obvious - the              uses this to fill us with reverence
ahead to Another in whom the                      glory of His name.                             for and devotion to Him, so that we        I
strength of Jehovah would be dis-                        The character of the worship we         worship Him in all of life's activi-
played in a much greater measure.                 are to render to Jehovah is also ex-           ties. Neglect the true worship of
For David was only a type or pic-                 pressed in the phrase, "Give to Je-            Jehovah at His house or the wor-
ture of Jesus Christ, the great King              hovah the glory of His name."                  ship of His name at the family altar,
that was to come. The promise of                         We have already seen what is            and you will not be able to worship
Jehovah to strengthen His people                  the glory of Jehovah's name. The               Him in your daily life.
was, therefore, really a promise to               name of Jehovah is God Himself as                              ***  ***  ***  ***
raise up the great Christ, and                    He reveals Himself, through the                    Worship Jehovah in the beauty
through Him to strengthen the                     works of salvation in Jesus Christ,            of holiness.
church, that she may overcome for-                to be Jehovah, the faithful covenant               Holiness is, negatively, separa-
ever her spiritual foes to enjoy the              God. In these great works all the              tion from the sin of this world. Posi-
peace of eternal life.                            glory of God is most brilliantly dis-          tively, it is devotion to the living
    This promise has already been                 played.                                        God.
fulfilled in part in that Jesus Christ,                  Our worship of Jehovah consists             The psalmist speaks of the beauty
in the power of His death and res-                in giving to Him the glory of His              of holiness. The word "beauty" has
urrection, strengthens us daily in our            name, i.e., acknowledging the glory            the basic idea of an ornament. An
battle against the powers of dark-                of His name and praising Him for               ornament is something that adorns,
ness, leading us from victory to vic-             it.                                            beautifies. Hence, we read of the
tory. This promise will be completely                    In this way especially do we            "beauty of holiness." This expres-
fulfilled when the King, Jesus, re-               show the reverence and devotion to             sion views holiness as a beautiful or-
turns at the end of the world in the              Jehovah that is expressed in the term          nament that adorns us. This orna-
power of the Father to destroy for-               "worship."                                     ment of holiness was given to us of
ever the powers of darkness and ex-                      It ought to be clear that this wor-     God. He gave it to us and the an-
alt the church into eternal glory.                ship involves more than the worship            gels at our creation. Through the
    This is the glory of the name of              we give to the Lord at His house on            fall we lost it. God has graciously
Jehovah!                                          the Lord's Day. Worship involves               restored it to us in Jesus Christ.
    And this is the occasion for the              the whole of our life. Daily and in                This holiness is the source of all
call to the angels of heaven and to               all our activities we are to stand in          true worship.
us to worship Jehovah.                             awe and reverence before the great                Hence, we are to worship Jeho-
             **Et  ***  ***  ***                  Jehovah. Daily we are to devote our-           vah in the beauty of holiness. That
    The character of the worship we                selves to Him in loving service. And          is, we are to worship Jehovah only
are to render to Jehovah is expressed              whenever we have opportunity, we              in the context or sphere of holiness,
first in the term "worship," which                 are to give to Him the glory of His           so that our worship arises out of the
means to bow the knee.                                    name - in the songs we sing            holiness with which God has
    In the Bible, examples                                    and hear, in the words we          adorned us.
                                                                 speak
abound of bowing the                   O f   i m p o r t a n c e   -                                 No, do not worship Jehovah in
                                                                          But the Lord has
knee to one's fellow                in worship is not the                                        terror and dread fear. And do not
                                                                        also called us to set
man and even to an-                    outward action                                            worship Him in superstition or out
                                                                        aside one day of the
gels. Such action was                     of bowing                                              of mere custom. For then your wor-
an outward display of                                                   week, the weekly Sab-
                                    but the inner attitude                                       ship will only be an outward dis-
                                                                        bath, to worship Him
reverence for and de-                which is expressed                                          play of reverence and devotion.
                                                                        in a special way. We
votion to the service of               in such bowing.                                           Such worship is false.
another.                                                           are to gather together            Worship Jehovah rather in the
     This is the character of                                   with our fellow saints in        beauty of holiness, that you may
                                                             order to bow the knee to Him
the worship we are to render to                                                                  from the heart reverence Him and
Jehovah. We must bow to Him the                    in prayer, to sing His praises, to re-        give to Him the glory of His name.
                                                   ceive the sacraments, and to hear the
knee. Of importance in worship is                                                                                                      0
                                                   preaching of His Word. The Lord

28lSfandard  Bearer/October 15,19Q4


          Reformed Worship Vs.
                    Liturgical "Renewal"
                                                                                                                                     I
    The Protestant Reformed              sweeping the Protestant churches of        development of elaborate ceremony.
Churches (PRC) have not been no-         interest to every denomination.            The service is filled with all kinds of
ticeably affected by the powerful            Three distinct trends can be dis-      symbolical activities, e.g.,  candle-
movement of liturgical Urenewal.N        tinguished. All three ought to be of       lighting, and symbolical objects, e.g.,
The form of their worship services       concern to the church that knows           banners. Much is made of the
-both of them every Sabbath - is         herself to be called by God to be          "church year." It becomes important
basically that of the Reformed tradi-    distinctively Reformed in worship.         that the clergy are dressed in spe-
tion going back to the Synod of          There is the carefully calculated, so-     cial, impressive garb. The sacrament
Dordt at the beginning of the 17th       phisticated form of worship that ca-       of the Lord's Supper takes the cen-
century. John Calvin would recog-        ters to the wishes and feelings of the     tral place in worship. This is the
nize our services of public worship.     people, especially the young, edu-         liturgy of Romanizing ritual. Those
Not only would he recognize them,        cated, wealthy people. This wor-           who would challenge the adjective
but he would also approve them. He       ship is characterized by contempo-         are invited to read Thomas
would urge us to administer the          rary music, dramatic presentations,        Howard's  Evangelical is Not
Lord's Supper more often, and he         and short, positive - at all costs         Enough: Worship of God in Liturgy
would question us about our use of       positive - non-doctrinal sermons           and Sacrament  (Ignatius, 1984).
instrumental accompaniment for the       about practical problems in the            Prominent theonomists are heading
congregation's singing of the Psalms.    people's lives. Leading the way in         in this direction. The magazine, Re-
But he would approve our liturgy.        North America is the Willow Creek          fomed Worship,  promotes this lit-
    Liturgy is the form of the public    Church in Illinois. We may call this       urgy.
worship of the church. It refers to      the "user-friendly" liturgy.                   These are not innocent develop-
what we do at a worship service and          A second trend is the free-wheel-      ments. They are not relatively in-
the order in which we do it. In his      ing, exuberant, disorderly services        significant developments. The true
privately printed notes on "Litur-       of the charismatics. What will take        church of God has fought great wars
gics," Dutch Reformed theologian H.      place and when are up to the un-           over the issue of liturgy. The Refor-
Beuker described liturgy this way:       predictable spirit of the movement,        mation fought the ritualism of Ro-
"Liturgy with the Reformed always        who functions according to no              man Catholic worship. This was
signifies the established forms for      known law. This worship is charac-         necessarily involved in the
the spiritual (public) worship ser-      terized by hand-waving, healing,           Reformation's denial that the
vice...." Every church has a liturgy.    tongues, prophesying by members            church's performance of the ceremo-
It may be elaborate or simple, highly    of the congregation, and, of late, un-     nies of the sacraments bestows grace
structured or open to variation, pre-    controllable laughter. The local As-       and in the Reformation's assertion
dominant or incidental. But there is     sembly of God practices this liturgy.      that the heart of true worship is the
a liturgical aspect to every gather-     Many evangelical and some Re-              teaching of sound doctrine.
ing of believers and their children      formed and Presbyterian churches               Jenny Geddes threw her stool at
for the public praise of the God and     play with this liturgical dynamite.        Archbishop Laud's bishop, thus
Father of Jesus Christ. The question     It advertises itself as the liturgy of     occasioning the struggle of Scottish
is not, "Do we have a liturgy?" but,     "life" in distinction from that of doc-    Presbyterianism first against
"What is our liturgy?"                   trine and order.                           Charles I and then against Charles
   This makes the present move-              The third major strain of liturgi-     II, when, in St. Giles, Laud's bishop
ment of liturgical change that is        cal "renewal" in Protestantism is the      attempted to impose upon the Pres-

                                                                                             October 15,1 QQ4lStandard  Bearer/29


byterians the Anglican form of wor-        estantism has forgotten that worship        And the explanation of a Protestant.
ship. One of the issues at stake was       does not center on the worshiping           church's turning to ritual by Chris-
the Lordship of Jesus Christ over His      congregation but on the worshiped           tian Reformed preachers Idzerd
church.                                    God. The question is not, "What             VanDellen  and Martin Monsma is
    The Dutch Reformed should not          makes us feel good?" but, What is           also true: "As spiritual life begins
forget that the Secession of 1834 in       this great and glorious God worthy          to wane, formalistic and extraordi-
the Netherlands occurred, in part,         of?"  "User-friendly" liturgy is frivo-     nary observances begin to increase.
because of the intrusion into Re-          lous, superficial, and often trivial.       He who serves God in Spirit and
formed worship of sentimental,             The frivolity begins with Pastor                    with devotion will have little
man-centered, Arminian hymns.              Tom, Dick, Harry, or Bill                                need for the unusual, and
The modernist State Church had ar-         flashing his  pearly-                                      for constant  innova-
ranged a "user-friendly" service of        whites and saying,                 Protestantism             tions" (The  Church Or-
worship.                                   "Good morning." Re-              has  forgotten that            der      Commen fury,
    To suppose that differences in         formed worship  be-           worship does not ten ter          Zondervan, 1941, p.
liturgy are unimportant in compari-                                         on the worshiping
                                           gins with God's greet-                                          275).
son with differences in theology is a      ing of His people in                congregation                 The Reformed faith
mistake. It is impossible to separate      Christ, "Grace, mercy,                but on the                condemns these litur-
liturgy from theology. In a provoca-       and peace be granted to           worshiped God.             gies in the interests of
tive article on Reformed liturgy,          you."                                                      maintaining its own
Christian philosopher Nicholas                 Fourth, charismatic                                  characteristic worship.
Wolterstorff points out that Re-           worship is false. The extraordi-                      The  principle of Reformed
formed liturgy differs from Roman          nary operations and gifts of the Holy       worship is that the public service of
Catholic liturgy because of differing      Spirit ended with the office of the         worship is God's presence and fel-.
theological conceptions of both the        apostles. Period.                           lowship  with His people in Christ.
preaching of the Word and the sac-             Fifth, the invented pomp and            The service is covenantal. God is
rament of the Lord's Supper ("The          ceremony of Protestant ritual, like         with us. God is with us, the God
Reformed Liturgy," in Major Themes         that of Rome, is empty and useless.         who  makes Himself known and
in the Reformed Tradition,  Eerd-          God is not honored by it; the con-          gives Himself to us chiefly through
mans, 1992, pp. 273-304).                  gregation is not blessed. The judg-         the preaching of the Word and, in
    The Reformed faith condemns            ment by Southern Presbyterian               connection with this Word, by the
and rejects all three of the leading       James Henley Thornwell upon the             two Christ-ordained (simple) cer-
liturgical trends in Protestantism to-     liturgy of ritual is true:                  emonies of Baptism and the Lord's
day. Against all three liturgies, the                                                  Supper, God is with us, the God
"user-friendly," the lively disorder         The miserable votaries of Rome            who is to be loved, reverenced,
of neo-Pentecostalism, and the ritu-         confound the emotions of mysteri-         praised, and thanked.
alistic, the Reformed faith charges          ous awe produced by the solemni-                  This determines the purpose of
that they are lawless. They have no          ties of a sensual worship with rev-       Reformed worship. It is not to
regard for God's rules in Scripture          erence for God and the impressions        please self-centered, self-seeking,
for His worship. All three strains of        of grace. Doomed to grope among
                                             the beggarly elements of earth, they      self-satisfied Americans. When
liturgical experimentation feel free         regale the eye, the fancy and the         Herman Hoeksema describes the
to introduce whatever seems to the           ear, but the heart withers.  Imagi-       purpose of worship, he even denies
worship committee, the minister, or          nation riots on imposing festivals        that the purpose is "that of saving
the church to enhance worship.               and magnificent processions, sym-         souls." But the purpose, according
    Second, contemporary liturgical          bols and ceremonies, libations and        to Hoeksema, is "the public and
"renewal" in all its forms denigrates        sacrifices; the successive stages of      united service and glorification of
and displaces the Word of God in             worship are like scenes of enchant-       God with thanksgiving and joy in
the worship of the church. The ef-           ment, but the gorgeous splendours
                                             of the liturgy, which famish the          an orderly manner." Only then is
fect of the changes is that the preach-      soul while they delight the sense,        the purpose also, "and in subordi-
ing of the doctrines of Scripture loses      are sad memorials of religion "ly-        nation," the "edification of the
its central, primary place. I know of        ing in state surrounded with the si-      saints" (unpublished notes on  "Li-
no movement of liturgical "renewal"          lent pomp of death." The Holy             turgics," p. 1).
that has as its main purpose to re-          Ghost has been supplanted by                      It is characteristic of Reformed
store or emphasize the preaching of          charms, and physical causes have          worship that the reading and preach-
the Word and, with this, the office          usurped the province of supematu-         ing of the Bible is central and domi-
of the ministry of the Word.                 ral grace  (Collected Writings,  Vol.     nating.
    Third, as regards the people-ori-        3, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974,               The elements of worship - the
ented liturgy in evangelicalism, Prot-       p. 319).                                  how of worship - are decided by

30lSfandard  Bearer/October 15,19Q4


God Himself. The Reformed faith               The Reformed mind has its dif-            ments on my rats, or even Teach
holds the "regulative principle" of       ferences with C. S. Lewis, including          my performing dogs new tricks."
worship. This is not Scottish Pres-       his ideas on liturgy, but it appreci-
byterian. It is Reformed. The Hei-        ates his warning against the liturgi-                This incessant changing of the
delberg Catechism teaches that we         cal tinkering that bedevils Protestant      form of worship is "the Liturgical
may not "worship Him in any other         churches in our day:                        Fidget"  (The Joyful Christian,
way than He has commanded in His                                                      Macmillan, 1977, pp. 80, 81). It is a
Word" (Question 96). This "regula-          (A worship service) . . . "works" best    theological, ecclesiastical, and spiri-
tive. principle" is nothing less than       when, through long familiarity, we        tual affliction.
the rule of the second command-             don't have to think about it.... The               The PRC may resist liturgical
ment of the law. Obedience to this          perfect church service would be the       "renewal." Their liturgy never died.
rule in public worship is not bond-         one we were almost unaware of;            It is not out-of-date.
age, but "true liberty," as Hoeksema        our attention would have been on                   They are called to maintain a Re-
                                            God.  But every novelty prevents
points out: "In the Spirit of Christ,       this. It fixes our attention on the       formed liturgy. They will do this
we have the true liberty, which is          service itself; and thinking about        only if the members know what they
not the same as wantonness, but             worship is a different thing from         have and think into what they are
which means in regard to public             worshipping.... "`Tis mad idolatry        doing in the services of worship.
worship that the form and the prin-         that makes the service greater than       They will do this only if they rever-
ciples of public worship are derived        the god." A still worse thing may         ence the great God whose worth
freely from the Word of God." The           happen. Novelty may fix our at-           they are to extol at church. They
prescribed elements of worship are          tention not even on the service but       will do this only if they submit to
listed in Lord's Day 38 of the Cat-         on the celebrant. You know what I
                                            mean. Try as one may to exclude           the will of God concerning the ac-
echism.                                     it, the question "What on earth is        ceptable manner of His worship.
    It belongs to the Reformed litur-       he up to now?"  wilI intrude. It          They will do this only if the Spirit of
gical mind that it is opposed to            lays one's devotion waste. There          Christ graciously works in them to
change. Are we to suppose that at           is really some excuse for the man         worship the Father "in spirit and in
the end of the 20th century the triune      who said, "I wish theyd remem-            truth" (John 424). 0
God has changed His mind about              ber that the charge to Peter was                                                - DJE
the right worship of Himself?               Feed my sheep; not Try experi-





       Let the Earth Keep Silence!
             The Solemnity of Reformed Worship

    Pressure. Constant pressure.          try of Roman Catholic liturgy, bibli-       spond to their own disposition.
That is what the faithful church al-      cal worship was again restored dur-         Therefore it arises, that they contrive
ways experiences as she attempts to       ing the years of the great church ref-      many things in the worship of God
follow the dictates of God's Word.        ormation of the 1500s. But Satan            which are full of display, but have
The same is true as far as her wor-       did not give up his relentless attack       no solidity." It is of no surprise
ship is concerned. After lying ship-      upon the church and her worship.            therefore that biblical, Reformed
wrecked for centuries in the idola-       What John Calvin observes while             worship has again come under at-
                                          exegeting John 4:24 in his commen-          tack.
                                          tary on the gospel according to John            Wicked, unbelieving man always
                                          reveals a deep insight into the na-         places the church under pressure to
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor of First Prot-    ture of man: "Since men are flesh,          conform her ways to his. "If you
estant Reformed Church in Holland,        we ought not to wonder, if they take        want me as a member of your
Michigan.                                 delight in those things that corre-         church, then you have to make your-

                                                                                                October 15,1994lStandard  Bearer/31


self attractive to me" is what he de-     interested piety, its certitude of the        ciple. Before Calvin appeared on the
mands of the church. And the car-         priority of God's will and inevitable         scene in Geneva, Reformers such a
nal seed within the church would          character of His justice hardening            Zwingli, Bullinger, and Bucer  had
quickly agree with this demand -          into a doctrine of predestination so          already firmly established this prin-
all in the honorable name of church       ruthless that it sees and adores in           ciple of Reformed worship. For ex-
growth. Ignoring the dictates of          all things and events . . . the inscru-       ample, Zwingli, in his work, Com-
God's Word, these badger the              table action of the Divine."' Critics         mentary on the True and False Reli-
church to concoct a new, innovative       may even falsely accuse Reformed              gion, insisted that because of the cor-
liturgy that is more relevant for the     worship of being boring and lacking           ruption of the human nature man
time and culture in which we live.        life. But there is one accusation that        always refuses to acknowledge the
People in our time and culture no         can never be leveled against Re-              supremacy of God, and, as a result,
longer desire instruction in righ-        formed worship, and that is, that it          substitutes a multitude of false reli-
teousness. They do not wish to hear       is not biblical. That one can never           gious practices in his worship. The
about sin; they do not wish to learn      say!                                          true focus of all Christian worship
all kinds of doctrines about God or               The very purpose of all true          therefore must be God.2
Jesus Christ. What they want is a         worship is "to pay homage to, to                     It is our knowledge of God Him-
liturgy that makes them feel good         render honor to, to kiss the hand             self, therefore, which will decide the
about themselves. They want to hear       of" God. This is the literal meaning          characteristics of proper worship.
of their positive qualities as human      of the terms Scripture em-                             What do we believe about
beings, and how they can be of ser-       ploys for worship. This                                   God's sovereignty? "All
vice to humanity. People like atten-      idea is also the heart of      It is our knowledge           nations before him are
tion. They enjoy using their talents      Psalms 95 through 100.           of God Himself               as nothing; and they
too, to praise God. All this ought to     Notice Psalm  95:6,  7:         which will decide             are counted to him less
be reflected in the worship of the        "0 come, let us  wor-           the characteristics           than nothing, and van-
church.                                   ship and bow down:                      of proper             ity. To whom then will
    Pressure, constant pressure, is       let us kneel before the                 worship.             ye liken God? or what
placed upon the church, not only          LORD our maker. For he                                      likeness will ye compare
from outside but especially from in-      is our God; and we are the                               to him?" (Is.  40:17, 18).
side. Eliminate instruction and re-       sheep of his pasture..."; and Psalm           What do we believe about God's
place it with talks that incite people    96:7-9, "Give unto the LORD, 0 ye             power? "When I consider thy heav-
to service. Use every device avail-       kindreds  of the earth, give unto the         ens, the work of thy fingers,the
able to give people a good feeling        LORD glory and strength. Give unto            moon and the stars, which thou hast
about themselves, an emotional high,      the  LORD the glory due his name:             ordained: what is man, that thou
a "breakthrough experience with           bring an offering and come into his           art mindful of him? and the son of
God." Allow people to use their           courts. 0 worship the LORD in the             man, that thou visitest him?" (Ps.
"ministies" to worship God in the         beauty of holiness: fear before him           8:3, 4). What do we believe about
church.                                   all the earth." No person with any            God's wisdom? "0 the depths of
    Pressure! And the result? Many        knowledge of Scripture can deny               the riches both of the wisdom and
Reformed and Presbyterian churches        that worship must be theocentric,             knowledge of God! how unsearch-
have given in to the pressure and         i.e., it must center in God. All at-          able are his judgments, and his ways
have changed their liturgical prac-       tention must be directed to Him as            past finding out!" (Rom.  11:33).
tices, forgetting the very principles     the God who is all glorious in His            What do we believe about the holi-
that saved them from the idolatrous       sovereignty, beautiful in holiness and        ness and justice of our God? "For
worship of the Romish church. How         grace, and unsearchable in wisdom             our God is a consuming fire" (Heb.
the gold has grown dim!                   and might. All honor and glory                12:29).  Will not this knowledge of
    We ought to remind ourselves          must be directed toward him. That             God, then, dictate to you and me
of the very purpose of worship, and       is the very purpose of worship.               what will characterize us when we
therefore of all our liturgical prac-             This principle of Reformed wor-       come before Him to worship? How
tices: to pay homage to  God. Some        ship (soli Dee gloria)  was the main          dare we come before God and rob
criticize this as only the opinion of     emphasis of the Calvinistic Reforma-          Him of His glory and honor? Be-
straight-laced Calvinists. Opponents      tion in Switzerland. It would be fal-         fore the face of God almighty we
of Reformed worship slanderously          lacious, however, to credit Calvin            could not be so bold as to change
describe this principle as Calvinism's    with the founding of such a prin-             our worship to satisfy the cravings
"uncompromising devotion to God's
glory, its one-sided exaggeration of
the creaturely sense, its total rejec-                                                  2 War  Against the Idols,  Carlos M.N.
tion of religious comfort and self-       l Worship, Evelyn Underhill, p. 288.          Eire, pp. 83,84.

32/Standard  Bearer/October 15,1994


of sinful, unbelieving man! We must         simultaneously bring praise, honor,            this chapter that if there were any
bow before the living God!                  and glory to God whom we serve.                early New Testament church that
    That means, first, that the chief           But analyze this once. Is this             enjoyed the innovations of worship
characteristic of proper worship will       really true? If we use these means,            free from the dictates of God's Word
be its solemnity. Solemnity means           is our worship  God-cen-                                it was this one. So filled with
"characterized by quietness and ear-        tered or man-centered?                                      different observances was
nest sobriety." Contrary to all the         Who receives more at-               If we bow before           this congregation that if
clamor that worship is dead unless          tention:     God or                  the living God             one were to pass by
the church fills it with all kinds of       man? We ought to              we will not be quick               on the outside they
showy and loud devices which claim          understand well the                  to db anything               would think the con-
to invoke the presence of the Holy          rule of worship:                      in worship                  gregation was mad
Spirit, the true believer clothes him-      nothing is allowed             unless He Himself                 (v. 23). Because of
self in sobriety and quietness when         into the worship ex-                tells us we ought           this, Paul enjoined this
he comes into the presence of God           cept that which is ap-                  to do it.             congregation in verse
in worship. "But the LORD is in his         pointed by God in Scrip-                                    40, "Let ail things be done
holy temple: let all the earth keep         ture, lest we fall into the same                       decently and in order."
silence before him" (Hab. 2:20). We         empty and vain idol worship as the                   Is that not natural too, in light
come into the presence of the holy,         Roman Catholic Church.                         of whom we worship? If we bow
sovereign, omnipotent God of                    We ought also to remember who             before the living God we will not be
heaven and earth! We come before            it is that we serve. Only then will            quick to do anything in worship un-
Him with fear and trembling and             we heed the injunction of Scripture            less He Himself tells us we ought to
we kiss His hand! We come to pay            in Ecclesiastes 5:1,2, "Keep thy foot          do it. We wait to hear what God
homage to the King of kings and             when thou goest to the house of                will say. And what God commands
Lord of lords. And we do this only          God, and be more ready to hear,                us to do in our worship of Him is
in the way that He prescribes  -            than to give the sacrifice of fools:          very simple `and orderly. What
nothing more and nothing less!              for they consider not that they do            brings glory to God? Congregational
Commenting on the second com-               evil. Be not rash with thy mouth,              singing? Do it. Prayer? Use it. Con-
mandment in his Institutes, Calvin          and let not thine heart be hasty to            fession? Speak it. Christian giving?
writes, "Wherefore, in general, he          utter anything before God: for God             Give freely in worship to God.
(God) calls us entirely away from           is in heaven, and thou upon earth:             Reading and instruction in God's
the carnal frivolous observances            therefore let thy words be few." The          Word? Never neglect it! These are
which our stupid minds are wont to          solemnity required of us in worship           the dictates of God's Word. Simple
devise after forming some gross idea        cannot be stated more clearly or               and orderly. Why do we need any-
of the divine nature, while at the          sharply. Neither does this rob the            thing more? By these God-ordained
same time, he instructs us in the           worship service of its joy and life.          means we give our solemn praise to
worship which is legitimate, namely,        Indeed, this is the very joy and life          God. We honor and adore Him.
spiritual worship of his own ap-            of worship, that we have opportu-                    Such worship makes those in
pointment."                                 nity to give glory and honor to God           whose hearts God works by His
    Many argue that these extra ob-         in the way He has prescribed.                 Spirit and grace happy and joyful.
servances are not carnal or frivolous            In this regard it becomes clear          When they hear the call to prayer,
but indeed given praise and honor           as well that our worship must be              they respond by going up to God's
to God. When a famed soloist or vo-         characterized by simplicity and or-           own house and bowing before Him.
cal group leads the worship in song,        derliness. Again, such a view of              To the believer there is nothing more
they sing praise to God. They and           worship was re-established by the             important than that the God whom
those listening honor God! When             Swiss Reformation. The Lutheran               he loves receives praise and thanks-
the congregation involves itself in li-     Church as well as the Romish                  giving. After all, it was for this pur-
turgical dance, when the service be-        Church failed to worship in this way.         pose that he was chosen, created,
comes open forum for panel discus-          The liturgy of these churches was             and saved. To God be the glory in
sion, when one stands before the con-       detailed and bulky, with emphasis             our worship! 0
gregation to speak in tongues, when         on liturgical ceremony and rites.
God's people have opportunity to            The Swiss Reformers, however,
witness of their own religious expe-        stripped the liturgy of everything
riences, they do all this to bring glory    that the Word of God did not dic-
to God. These modern liturgical             tate. This must be the standing rule
practices, it is contended, allow more      today as well, especially in light of a
congregational participation, making        chapter such as I Corinthians 14.
the worship much more lively, and           One receives the impression from

                                                                                                   OCtObw  15, WWStandard  Bearer//33


                                        Preaching in
                           Reformed Wors.hip
                                                                                                                              I
     The will of God governs the         and sermon delivery. And the              ing the Ordering of Divine Worship
church's worship. According to that      people did not come to worship ser-       in the Congregation" (1523), Luther
will of God, at the heart of worship     vices to hear carefully worked-out        complained of the great and serious
is to be the preaching of the gospel.    expositions of God's Word.                abuses that have crept into divine
The Reformed faith gives the cen-            Rather than being busy in the         worship. "The first," he says, "is that
tral place in worship to the ministry    spread of the gospel, the leaders of      God's Word has been silenced, and
of the Word.                             the church either isolated themselves     only reading (of liturgy, RC) and
     We must worship God aright.         from  God's people in some monas-         singing remain in the churches. This
But the right and proper worship of      tery or were preoccupied in pursu-        is the worst misuse." A little later
God is the worship of God through        ing political ambitions. Rather than      in that same work he writes, "Now
His Word. This is expressed in the       laboring with the Word, clergymen         in order to do away with these mis-
well-known Reformation creed, the        were whiling away their time in idle-     uses, it is necessary to know, first of
Heidelberg Catechism. The first          ness, drunkenness, and debauchery.        all, that the Christian congregation
question and answer of Lord's Day        Rather than hearing the Word of           never should assemble unless God's
35 teach that the Second Command-        God regularly on the Lord's Day,          Word is preached . . . no matter for
ment requires that we worship God        the members of the church were con-       how brief a time this may be. There-
in no other way than He has com-         tenting themselves to attend periodic     fore where God's Word is not
manded in His Word. Then the             Masses or to go off on extended pil-      preached, it is better that one nei-
question is asked, "But may not im-      grimages. In the pre-Reformation          ther sing, nor read, nor even come
ages be tolerated in the churches as     church there was a silence, a deaf-       together." In his work on "The Ger-
books to the laity?" The answer          ening silence, of the hearing of the      man Mass and Order of Service,"
given is: "No: for we must not pre-      preaching of the Word.                    Luther lays down the principle that
tend to be wiser than God, who will          The Reformers changed all that.       "among Christians the whole service
have his people taught, not by dumb      Being, to a man, preachers them-          should center in the Word . . . . II
images, but by the lively preaching      selves, they made it their objective          As on most other issues, Calvin
of his Word:"                            to restore preaching to the church.       was in agreement with his mentor
                                         This was their passion. This was          Luther on the centrality of the
The Reformation's Recovery               their life-calling. This was their        preaching in worship. He writes in
of Preaching                             heartfelt service to God and to His       his Institutes, (IV, III, l), "Further,
    The outstanding achievement of       church.                                   nothing fosters mutual love more fit-
the Reformation of the 16th century          Luther emphasized the central-        tingly than for men to be bound to-
was its restoration to the church of     ity of the preaching in worship in        gether with this bond: one is ap-
the pure preaching of the gospel. By     opposition to the Roman Catholic          pointed pastor to teach the rest, and
the time of the Reformation, preach-     Church which emphasized the im-           those bidden to be pupils receive the
ing had fallen into horrible neglect.    portance of the sacrifice of the Mass.    common teaching from one mouth....
The church did not busy herself in       While Luther did not minimize the         The Lord has therefore bound His
preaching. The clergy did not oc-        importance of holy communion, he          church together with a knot that He
cupy themselves in sermon-making         gave the chief place in worship to        foresaw would be the strongest
                                         the preaching. In his writings, re-       means of keeping unity, while He
                                         peatedly he insists upon it that the      entrusted to men the teaching of sal-
                                         congregation is not even to gather        vation and everlasting life in order
                                         for worship unless the Word is
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest                                               that through their hands it might be
                                         preached.                                 communicated to the rest." Calvin
Protestant Reformed Church in                In a treatise entitled, "Concern-
Grandville, Michigan                                                               goes on, `I... there is nothing more
34/Sfandard  Bearer /October 15,1944


notable or glorious in the church              And thirdly, the preaching of the                Neither are we exempt from dis-
than the ministry of the-gospel, since     Word is central because in worship           satisfaction with the preaching. We
it is the administration of the Spirit     the people of God have fellowship            are often quick to voice complaints
and of righteousness and of eternal        with Him through His Word. That              about the manna with which God
life." And, he contends, "Christ has       is the reality of worship! That is the       feeds us. Sermons are too long! The
so ordered in His church, that if it       miracle of worship - fellowship              preaching is so doctrinal! Why does
(i.e., the pure preaching of the gos-      with God, standing in God's pres-            the preacher always have to be nega-
pel) is removed the whole edifice          ence, before the face of God! But            tive? Why can't our services be
must fall."                                you do not have fellowship                           ' spiced up a little? Worship
                                           with God through an                                          is so dull!
Why the Ipportance of Preaching            image.      He is not           The preaching,                     Have we forgotten
    Why<$s'%he  preaching central to       present to        YOU            nothing else,                 what the preaching is?
the worship of God? Why can there          through ceremonies          is the power by which              Have we forgotten
be no worship of God apart from            and religious rites, as         God saves men.                what worship really is?
the preaching of the Word? Why is          impressive as they may                                     Have we forgotten that
preaching the chief task of church         be. God is present to His                            not our will but God's will is
and minister alike? There are sev-         people and God has fellowship with           determinative for worship?
eral reasons.                              His people through His Word.                         And we suffer. There is the loss
    First of all, the Word is central                                                   of assurance of salvation. Our lives
because we know God through His            A Warning to the Church Today                are joyless and without purpose.
Word. If we are to worship God, we             As was the case in the Roman             There is no peace, no confidence, no
must know Him. And we know Him             Catholic Church prior to the Refor-          good hope for the future. We are
through His Word. We do not know           mation,  so it has become true of            restless, worldly, self-centered.
Him through images; we do not              many Reformed churches today that            There are problems in our marriages.
know Him through involved litur-           the preaching no longer occupies the         There are heartaches with our chil-
gical ceremonies; we do not know           central place in worship. Over the           dren. A price is paid for our con-
Him through frenzied religious ser-        years the time allotted to the preach-       tempt for the preaching of the gos-
vices whose main appeal is to the          ing has been steadily reduced, so that       pel.
emotions.        But we know God           ten or fifteen minutes is standard                   In the 62nd of the 95 Theses that
through His Word, because it is in         fare in most churches today. Sub-            Luther nailed to the chapel door in
His Word that God has chosen to            stitutions have been made for the            Wittenburg on October 31,1517,  he
reveal Himself.                            preaching, substitutions that are sup-       wrote: "The true treasure of the
    The preaching of the Word is           posed to attract the unchurched and          church is the holy gospel of the glory
central to worship, secondly, because      keep the young people in the church.         and grace of God." May that con-
it is the chief means of faith. This is    The second service in many churches          viction be shared by each of us. May
the teaching of Scripture and this         has been abandoned altogether.               we continue to value this treasure
was the position of the Reformers.         Little by little the Reformed churches       as the Reformers valued it. And may
Nothing else in worship, not even          have relinquished their distinctive          we exercise ourselves on behalf of
the sacraments, has the importance         heritage and moved closer and closer         its preservation as they exercised
of the preaching of the Word. The          to Rome.                                     themselves.  0
preaching is unique, because the
preaching is the means both to work
and to preserve faith. Even the sac-                 The  publick  worship  being  begun,  the  people  are
raments derive their importance                wholly  to  attend  upon  it,  forbearing  to  read  any  thing,
from the preaching. They depend
on the preaching and serve only to             except  what  the  minister  is  then  reading  or  citing;  and
reinforce the preaching of the gos-            abstaining  much more from all public whisperings, con-
pel. Paul writes in Romans 10:17, "So          ferences,  salutations,   or  doing  reverence  to  any  person
then faith cometh  by  hearing, and            present,   or  coming  in;  as  also  from  all  gazing  sleeping,
hearing by the Word of God." And               and other indecent behaviour,  which may disturb the rnin-
in I Corinthians 1:18 he says, "For
the preaching of the cross is to them          ister or people,  or hinder themselves or others in the. ser-
that perish foolishness; but unto us         vice  of  God.
which are saved it.(the preaching) is
the power of God." The preaching,                                             Direct0 y for the Publick  Worship of God
nothing else, is the power by which                                                  adopted by the Westminster Assembly
God saves men.

                                                                                                  October 15,?994/5tandard  Bearer/35


                                 Calvin's Liturgy

    John Calvin condemned the              he has given us this sacred food,         the Supper to his Word and, there-
Mass of Roman Catholicism in no            would also teach and prepare us to        fore, it was a perilous matter to sepa-
uncertain terms. "Of all the idols,        receive it with faith and thankful-       rate  them.5 The Council of Geneva,
                                           ness of heart, and in his mercy
he knew none so grotesque as that                                                    much to Calvin's dismay, insisted
                                           make us worthy of such a feast,
in which the priest called down            inasmuch as we are not so of our-         upon a quarterly celebration of Com-
Christ into his hands by `magical          selves. At this time, either psalms       munion. Calvin continued to ex-
mumblings' and offered him anew            should be sung or something               press his dissatisfaction, declaring as
on the sacrificial altar, while the        should be read; and in becoming           late as 1561, "Our custom is defec-
people looked on in `stupid amaze-         order the faithful should partake of      tive."
ment.' "l Calvin proceeded to for-         the most holy banquet, the minis-             As is evident from his statement
mulate his ideas on worship (liturgy)      ters breaking the bread and giving        in the  Instihrtes   of 1536, Calvin's
by  basing them on the clear warrant       the cup. When the supper is fin-          Communion liturgy contained four
                                           ished, there should be an exhorta-
of Scripture and appealing to the in-                                                fundamental elements. These ele-
                                           tion to sincere faith and the wit-
variable custom of the ancient             ness of the same, to love, and to a       ments, the Protestant Reformed
church.2 The Reformer concluded,           manner of life worthy of Christians.      reader will recognize, are retained
"No assembly of the church should          At the last, thanks should be given       intact in our own Form for the Ad-
be held without the Word being             and praises sung to God. When             ministration  of  the Lord's Supper. They
preached, prayers being offered, the       these things are ended the church         are: 1. Rehearsal of the Lord's insti-
Lord's Supper administered, and             should be dismissed in peace.4           tution as the warrant of the sacra-
alms given.n3                                                                        ment. 2. Proclamation of the Lords
    Calvin's earliest efforts at re-          Calvin never deviated from             promises which relate to His ordi-
forming the worship of the church         these ideas, but only expanded on          nance, and supply meaning and re-
appeared in the 1536 edition of his       them in the final edition of the In-       ality to its signs. 3. Excommunica-
Institutes  (Chap. IV):                   stitutes.  Notice, Calvin insisted on      tion of  obdurate sinners. 4. Stress
                                          the frequent celebration of the Lords      upon worthy participation in the sac-
    Now as far as the Lord's Supper       Supper. He wanted it to be cel-            rament and holiness of life.
  is concerned, it could have been ad-    ebrated every Lord's Day. During               With a couple of exceptions,
  ministered most becomingly if it        his first pastorate in Geneva the Re-      only Psalms were sung, and that too
  were offered to the church quite of-    formers (Calvin and Farel) proposed        without instrumental accompani-
  ten, and at least once a week. First    in a document titled, "Articles Con-       ment.     Concerning instruments
  then, it should commence with           cerning the Organization of the
  common prayers, after which a ser-                                                 Calvin believed, fl . . . that they formed
                                          Church and of Worship at Geneva,"
  mon should be delivered. Then,                                                     part of that system of training un-
  the bread and wine having been          that the church would be edified by        der the law to which the church was
  placed on the table, the minister       two means especially, the frequent         subjected in its infancy" and, ti . . .
  should recite the Institution of the    celebration of the Lord`s Supper and       we should not foolishly imitate a
  Supper, after which he should ex-       the exercise of discipline. Because        practice which was intended only for
  pound the promises which are left       of the "frailty of the people," the Re-    God's ancient  people."6  (Under-
  to us in it; at the same time he        formers compromised on a sched-            signed, incidentally, is grateful that
  should excommunicate all those          ule of monthly Communion. Later,           Calvin's view on this matter did
  who are excluded from it by the         in 1541, when Calvin returned to
  Lord's prohibition. Afterward,                                                     not prevail in the Dutch Reformed
                                          Geneva, he attempted to introduce
  prayer should be offered that the                                                  tradition.)
  Lord, with the kindness wherewith       the liturgy he used in Strassburg.             Calvin's order of worship began
                                          Calvin again attempted to introduce        with the minister speaking the ma-
                                          weekly Communion, believing there          jestic words, "Our help is in the
                                          was "nothing more useful to the
Prof Decker is profeSsor of Practical                                                name of the Lord, who made heaven
                                          church than the Lord's Supper."
Theology in the Protestant Reformed                                                  and earth. Amen." This was fol-
                                          God himself, Calvin believed, added
Seminary.                                                                            lowed by a prayer of confession.

36/Standard  Bearer /October 15,1994


This was a brief form prayer read                 which in some congregations was            nearly as many form prayers as did
by the minister while the congrega-               sung by the congregation.                  Calvin, and we do use instrumental
tion knelt.' This was followed by                      Then, the congregation rose to        accompaniment in the singing of the
the minister reading some Scriptural              sing the Apostles' Creed. At this          Psalms. And certainly our churches,
promises of forgiveness, after which              point the congregation was dis-            with Calvin, make every effort to
the absolution was pronounced by                  missed with the benediction of             base our worship on the "clear war-
the minister, "Let each one of you                Aaron, "The Lord bless you and             rant of Scripture," appealing to the
acknowledge himself truly a sinner,               keep you; The Lord make his face to        "invariable custom of the ancient
humbling himself before God, and                  shine upon you, and be gracious to         church."
believe that the heavenly Father de-              you, the Lord lift up his countenance          May God grant us grace to con-
sires to be gracious to him in Jesus              upon you and give you peace," and          tinue in this so that we worship Him
Christ. To all who in this manner                 with a word about alms, "Remem-            who is Spirit, in spirit and in truth
repent and seek Jesus Christ for their            ber Jesus Christ in his little ones."      (John  424).  0
salvation, I declare absolution in the                 In Geneva, on the four Sundays                         Endnotes
name of the Father, the Son, and the              when Communion was celebrated,             r Bard Thompson, Liturgies of the
Holy Spirit.  Amen."B The absolu-                 it occurred after the sermon. When         Western Church,  p. 185.
tion was not used in Geneva. After                the Lord's Supper was finished, and        2 In addition to Thompson's book
the Confession of Sin the congrega-               before the benediction as given            and the pertinent sections of Calvin's
tion rose to sing the Ten Command-                above was pronounced, the congre-          Institutes,  the reader who wishes to
ments as a guide for the grateful obe-            gation sang the Song of Simeon,            pursue this subject further ought to
dience of the forgiven Christian.                 "Lord, now lettest  thou thy servant       read, Coryorate  Worship #z the Re-
     During the singing the minister              depart in peace . . . For mine eyes        formed Tradition,  by James Hastings
left the table for the pulpit. There              have seen thy salvation . . . . II         Nichols. These books are in the
he prepared for the reading of Scrip-                  Calvin's principles of liturgy and    Seminary Library.
ture and preaching by offering a                  the essentials of his order of wor-        3 Institutes of the Christian Religion,
prayer for illumination. This and                 ship remain in use in the worship          IV, xvii, 44.
the prayer of application after the               services of the Protestant Reformed        4 Quoted by Bard Thompson in Lit-
sermon were the only "free" prayers               Churches. There are some differ-           urgies of the Western Church, pp.
in Calvin's liturgy. All the other                ences, viz., we do not kneel to pray,      185-186.
prayers were form prayers. And,                   we do not sing either the Apostles'        5 Thompson, p. 190.
even for these two "free" prayers,                Creed or the Ten Commandments,             6 John Calvin, Commentary on the
Calvin offered the ministers several              we do not sing the Song of Simeon          Psalms, Psalm 144:9 and 149:3.
models. After the prayer of appli-                after Communion, we do not have            ' For a copy of this prayer cf.
cation, the minister offered the con-             an absolution pronounced to the            Nichols, p. 42.
gregational prayer. This prayer con-              congregation, we have some but not         * Quoted by Nichols, p. 43.
cluded with the Lord's Prayer,




  The Good Practice of Two Services,
   One Given to Catechism Preaching
                                             I                                                                                           I

                                                                                                 How striking, that while the
                                                                                             apostles were still living there were
                                                       "Not forsaking the  assembling of     church members  &ho neglected
                                                  ourselves together, as the manner of       some or all of the worship services.
                                                  some is; but exhorting one another; and    The writer to the Hebrews makes
Rev. Kuiper  is pastor of Southeast Prot-         so much the more, as ye see the day        clear that it is the calling not only of
estant Reformed Church in Grand Rap-              approaching.  fl                           the elders but of the membership in
ids, Michigan.                                                              Hebrews lo:25    general to exhort in regard to this

                                                                                                    October 15,1994/Standaro' Beam'37


  spiritual laxity. Urgency is sounded             Pliny to the Emperor Trajan after in-           we learn that Calvin and his fellow
  in the words, "so much the more as               vestigating the Christian church in             pastors prescribed "a service in the
  ye see the day approaching." That                Lythinia, "the Christians assembled             morning,  catechism  for instruction
  is the day of Christ's return! The               on an appointed day (Sunday) at                 of little children at noon, and a sec-
  days -prior to His return are evil               sunrise.... Afterwards (at evening)             ond sermon in the afternoon at three
  days, days of persecution, lawless-              they assembled again to eat ordinary            o'clock."4 Three sermons were to
  ness, false prophets, and apos-                           and innocent food (the                 be preached during the week as well,
  tasy. Only the exposition                                     agape)."' During the               so that five regular ministers and
  and application of the                    Shall God              Middle           Ages    the    three assistant ministers were re-
  Word of God is suffi-                     set a table             preaching of the gos-          quired in the city. The Reformation
  cient to comfort,                of  heavenly benefits             pel waned, and ritual         was not only a return to the doc-
  warn, and correct in              before His people,               and sacerdotalism             trine and liturgy of the apostolic era,
  such fearful days.             call them to that table,            held sway. Often the          but it was a return even in regard to
  And if the church                                                  priests did not preach
                                          and His people                                           the frequency of the church's offi-
  needed to heed these                      not come?               at all for several             cial worship.
  words two thousand                                               months - which may                  Thus from apostolic times
  years ago, how much                                          have been just as well, since       through the time of the Reformation,
  greater the urgency of heeding them              most of them had no theological                 when circumstances were fairly nor-
  today!                                           training and many of them could not             mal, the church gathered in public
       ShaIl God set a table of heav-              read or write. The little preaching             worship twice on the Lord's Day.
  enly benefits before His people, call            that did take place was done by itin-           What accounts for this uniformity
  them  to. that table, and His people             erants who usually spoke out-of-                of  practice? On the one hand there
  not come? Today attendance at                    doors. We do read of Jacob Mene                 are the limitations imposed by the
  many churches is falling off, and at-            of Cologne, late 14OOs, that "it was            saints' ability to concentrate on and
tendance  at the second service in                 Mene's practice to preach a sermon              assimilate the truth of Scripture, and
  many cases can only be called                    from seven to eight in the morning,             the pastor's time to prepare sermons
  shameful. As those who were bid-                 and again after the noon meal."2                adequately and have the necessary
  den to a great banquet in Jesus' par-                    The Reformation of the early six-       energy to preach. These are natural
  able in Luke 14:15ff.  had all kinds of          teenth century saw the church re-               considerations, to be sure, but im-
  excuses for not coming (I have                   turn to a simple style of worship               portant nonetheless. Sermons were
  bought a piece of ground, or five                with an emphasis on biblical preach-            thought necessary in every service
  yoke of oxen, or married a wife), so             ing. Regarding Martin Luther,                   of worship, and rightly so.
  there are all kinds of excuses for ab-           Schaff writes, "He gave the most                Chadwick records that in Torgau,
  sence from church today. It's too hot            prominent place to the sermon,                  Strasbourg, and  Restock  the total
  or too cold. The pews are too hard.              which was another departure from                services in a week could number
  The minister is long-winded or too               previous custom. He arranged three              twelve, and in the year 1640 fifteen
  doctrinal. I  went  this morning. I              services on Sunday, each with a ser-            hundred.          A certain Pastor
  have school work to finish. I'm                  mon: early in the morning, chiefly              Herberger complained, "We preach-
  tired. I want to catch a game or a               for servants; the mass at nine or ten;          ers preach ourselves to death."5  On
  special on television, etc. Do people            and in the afternoon a discourse                the other hand there is the need of
  who limp along on these excuses                  from a text in the Old Testament."3             the people of God to hear the gos-
  know with whom they have to do?                  From the Ecclesiastical Ordinances,             pel, commune with God in prayer,
  And do they understand what takes                a kind of church order for the                  sing His praises, and fellowship with
  place in preaching services? We                  churches of Geneva, written in 1541,            one  another in God's house. If a
  have to do with God, who makes it                                                                city or village had no preacher,
 possible that almost without excep-                                                               members visited other parishes that
  tion we can be in church twice. And              ' History  of  the Christian Church  by         did. Nor was the lack of preachers
  in the preaching of the gospel, not a            Philip  Schaff.         Grand Rapids:           rare. In 1597 in the Arch-deaconry
  mere man is holding forth, but Jesus             Eerdmans, 1963. Vol. I, p. 222.                 of Norfolk there were eighty-eight
  Christ is speaking through His am-                                                               churches that received only four ser-
  bassadors (John 10:16; Rom. lO:l-17;             2 Op. cit., Vol. VI, p. 672.                    mons, and eight churches that never
 - Eph. 4:21). It is our privilege in the
  worship services not merely to hear              3 Op. cit., Vol. VII, p. 488.
  about Christ, but to hear Christ Him-            4 The Register  of  the Company  of  Pastors    s  The Refotwtafion  by Owen Chadwick.
  self speaking to us.                             of Geneva  in the Time of Cabin by Philip       Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1965, p. 420.
       Already in A.D. 109, according              Hughes. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
  to a letter written by the unbeliever            1966. p. 40.                                    6 Op. cit., p. 418.

  38lStandard  BearerlOctober  15,1994


heard a single sermon. "But the ap-         preaching inthe second service. Can          whether the minister preaches twice
petite for sermons was avid.                the death of the morning service be          on the Lord's Day according to the
Chaderton once preached for two             far behind?                                  original form of these questions. But-
hours, and then said that he would               On the whole, our churches are          there is one respect in which the Re-
stop as he was trying their patience;       full in the evening services. The            formed churches in the Netherlands
but there were cries of `For God's          youth are to be commended for com-           and we differ from the church in its
sake, go on! We beg you go on!' So          ing up to God's house twice on the           previous history. Preaching the Hei-
he continued for another hourN On           Lord's Day. But let us not rest on           delberg Catechism is required in one
average the sermon lasted an hour,          our laurels. When there are empty            of the two services.
with the hour-glass on the pulpit           seats, when some do stay away a                  After the Heidelberg Catechism
keeping the preacher in check.              number of times, let us "exhort one          was published in Germany (1563),
    Two services on a Lord's Day            another; and so much the more as             Calvinistic churches in various coun-
fits. It fits the time and energy avail-    we see the day approaching!" And             tries began to preach the Catechism
able for gathering in worship. It fits      if we find ourselves preferring other        in their services. When news of this
the people's needs. And it fits the         houses to the house of God, other            reached the Netherlands in 1574, a
pastor`s time in the study during the       books to the Bible, other tables to          Dutch synod decided to allow the
week, and his energy to proclaim in         the Lord's table, and other activities       practice. It became mandatory for all
a lively manner. Who would dare             to the hour of prayer, let us take           the Reformed churches according to
to introduce an overture to reduce          alarm! Confess the laxity, turn from         Article 61 of the Synod of `s
the number of services from two to          the worldlimindedness, root out the          Gravenhage (1586). With minor re-
one? What principle or practical            spiritual problem that is in us.             visions this article was adopted by
grounds could be offered? Who               Earthly life can get no better, or rise      the Synod of Dordt (1618-19) and is
would dare to put his congregation          any higher, than to be sitting with          found in further-revised form as Ar-
or denomination out of step with the        the saints at the feet of Jesus, our         ticle 68 of our Church Order. Origi-
church of the past two thousand             chief Teacher and Prophet.                   nally, the Catechism was to be
years? Why, then, the discontent in              The practice of conducting two          preached in the afternoon service,
the'churches regarding two services?        preaching services on Sunday                 further evidence that two services
The discontented ought not to look          spread, after the Reformation, from          were required in the churches. But
at the practice, but at the practitio-      Germany and Switzerland to other             many of the people did not appreci-
ners!                                       European countries including the             ate Catechism preaching. Some
    It is hard to pinpoint the reason       Netherlands. Through wars and un-            thought it too doctrinal. Others ob-
for the wretched attendance many            der persecution these services con-          jected .that it was the preaching of
churches suffer in the second ser-          tinued in the Reformed churches in           the word of man. Many began to
vices. Is this the fault of the pulpit      the northern lowlands. Today it is           stay home in the afternoon to regis-
or of the pew? Likely, both are at          reported, sadIy, that many Reformed          ter their objections.
fault. Poor preaching causes the con-       churches in the Netherlands have                 The situation was serious
gregation to wonder why they                only one service, and some have              enough for it to appear on the
troubled themselves to get dressed          closed their doors altogether. But           agenda of the great Synod of Dordt.
and drive to church; their souls are        through various emigrations from             Dordt discovered the reasons for
not being fed. Many stop coming,            the Netherlands to North America,            poor attendance at these services to
and others raise a clamor for some-         the practice of morning and evening          be: ministers failing to hold services
thing, almost anything! In response,        services has survived, and is thriv-         at all in the afternoon, people insist-
and in desperation, worship commit-         ing among us. The Church Order of            ing on working or playing on Sun-
tees arrange for crowd-draw-                        Dordt, and subsequent deci-          day afternoon, the Arminiansobjec$-
ing and crowd-pleasing                                   sions and documents, re-        ing to Catechism preaching(!), and
entertainments.  An                As liturgical           quire this of us. The call    the government failing to maintain
evangelist is hired  pe-      innovations multiply,         letter in use among us       Sunday as the day of rest and,al-
riodically to revive the          the devil laughs          stipulates that the          lowing certain field  labors.7  The
congregation. Musical             and the angels            minister shall preach        Synod maintained the decision of
groups are brought in                   weep.               twice on the Lord's          1586 and stated that ministers who
to please the youth. Films                                Day. The Lord's Supper         failed to preach the Catechism were
are shown and plays are given                         is to be administered every
to hold the attention of those raised       two or three months, preceded by a
on television. As liturgical innova-        preparatory sermon and followed by
tions multiply, the devil laughs and        an applicatory  sermon, implying two         ' The Church Order Commentary  by
the angels weep. Hard to say who            weekly services. The questions for           VanDellen  and Monsma. Grand Rap-
is to blame for the silencing of            church visitation contain the inquiry        ids: Zondervan, 1941. pp. 278-279.

                                                                                                October 15,1994/Standard  Bearer139


to be censured. Ministers were to               "the sum of Christian doctrine  eom-      cabulary that is employed. But,
continue these services even if their           prehended in the Heidelberg Cat-          above all, see that the truth that the
families were the only people in at-            echism." Then all the counsel of God      Catechism sets forth is biblical truth!
tendance. And the church visitors               is preached, and it is preached ac-       Let the preacher show that clearly,
were instructed to take close note of           cording to a standard adopted by          with a proof-text here and there,
this matter  inevery congregation.              the churches and agreed to by the         with a biblical example at the ap-
    We generally preach the Cat-                membership.                               propriate time, that the congregation
echism in the morning service, when                 How the Catechism is to be            is aware, yes, is convinced, that the
minds are fresh and people are most             preached, i.e., what use is to be         Word of God is being preached. For
alert. But some of the old cavils               made of the Scriptures in this re-        when we rightly preach the Cat-
against Catechism preaching can be              gard, we will not treat. Recent ar-       echism, we are preaching the Word
heard in the churches today. Too                ticles on these pages have done so.       of God as surely as when we preach
much doctrine! Have they never                  But that Catechism preaching is not       on a text or passage from  the Bible.
heard that the first great profit of            preaching the Word of God is a                This practice of truly Reformed
having the inspired Scriptures is doc-          charge that must be answered here.        churches does not equate the Bible
trine? The time has indeed come                 First, look at the proof-texts in the     and the Catechism in the area of in-
"when they will not endure sound                margins of the Catechism. Every           fallibility and authority. This prac-
doctrine; but after their own lusts             phrase and teaching is solidly            tice does appreciate the biblical truth
shall heap to themselves teachers,              grounded in the Word of God, and          that the Catechism contains. Are
having itching ears" (II Tim. 4:3). In          many more texts could be adduced.         there errors in the Catechism? That
these days of shallow "Christianity,"           Next, look at the many quotes from        is possible, since it is a document
of ignorance and indifference, of sub-          the Bible to be found in the ques-        written by men. Have you found
jective feelings, of sharing and be-            tions and answers themselves. Then,       one? Show it to your consistory.
ing sincere, the churches need to hear          notice the biblical terminology or vo-    Do not count on it. 0





      Worship the Lord in Psalms
                                           -


Psalm-singing and Reformation                   this characteristic cannot properly be    nied that the people of God pos-
    Whenever God brought reforma-               designated church reformation.            sessed the Spirit, and Paul makes it
tion to the church of Jesus Christ, a               The singing of Psalms character-      clear that one must be filled with
return to Psalm singing was a part              ized the church's worship in its early    the Spirit to sing: "Be filled  with
of it. This ought not to surprise us.           new dispensational history. This is       the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in
It lies in the nature of reformation.           not surprising, for the Psalms were       psalms..." (Eph. 19:18, 19). It is not
    True reformation in the church              God's gift to the church precisely for    even so surprising that the Romish
always has certain distinguishing               singing, and the Psalm bundle was         Church lost the Psalms, for the
characteristics, one of which is a re-          all the church had. Two things are        Psalms, if sung in the church, will
turn to what Jeremiah called "the               important here: the  church  sang; and    keep the church on the path of the
old paths." Reformation is a return             the church sang Psalms.                   truth. The Psalms no longer ex-
to these old paths in doctrine, church              Gradually the Roman Catholic          pressed Romish theology, and so
government, and liturgy. Any                    church drifted away from congre-          songs were invented to express er-
movement in the church which lacks              gational singing and from Psalm           roneous doctrines.
                                                singing.  Congregational  singing was         There is a reciprocal relation be-
                                                replaced by choirs. Again, that such      tween heresy in the church and a
                                                a thing should happen is not sur-         drift from Psalm singing. I am not
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-         prising, for the Roman Catholic           contending that no other factors en-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-            Church denied the priesthood of all       ter when a church loses the truth.
tant Reforged Semina y.                         believers. That is, the church  de-       But surely one factor is the loss of
              .,  A
40lStandard  Bearer /October 15,1994


                                                                              -


Psalm singing. It is a fact that in post-    church or tolerate such innovations         loist to steal her own worship.
reformation times heresy was sung            ought to remember that such inno-                   That the congregation sings is so
into the church. But, as I say, the          vations always have been a part of          crucial because the congregation
relation is reciprocal. A church             departure from the faith.                   worships in the office of believers.
which drifts from the truth finds the                                                    Are only soloists able to worship?
Psalms an inadequate vehicle to ex-          Psalms and Worship                          Are only choirs able to worship?
press her lust for wrong doctrines.                 It is not our purpose to argue in    Cannot God's people worship?
    The Reformation was a return             detail the biblical grounds for con-        Rome denied that God's people were
to the old paths: the old paths of           gregational singing of Psalms. A            themselves the prophets, priests, and
the doctrines of free and sov-                      great deal of literature has been    kings who know the Lord, can speak
ereign grace; the old                                     written on the subject, and    to Him, and can rule in His name.
paths of biblical church               There is              the interested reader       The people of God function in the
government; the old             a reciprocal relation         can study the  argu-       office of believers because they have
paths of worship in                                            ments for himself.
                                   behveen heresy                                        the Spirit. "Be filled with the Spirit
which the congregation              in the church               A few aspects to this    . . . singing and making melody in
sang Psalms. Calvin,               and a driftfrom            question are,  how-        your heart to the Lord" (Eph. 5:18,
almost from the outset             Psalm sinning.             ever, worth our while      19).
of his work in Geneva,                        Y     v       to consider.                         Many powerful arguments have
insisted on congregational                               It is a distinctive and em-     been set forward by others in de-
singing of Psalms. One author goes           phatic teaching of the Scriptures that      fense of exclusive Psalmody. Psalm
so far as to say that congregational         the  congregation worships.  This is        singing is biblical. Psalm singing is
singing was "one of the four foun-           what the most important part of             the heritage of the Reformation.
dations for the reform of the                keeping the Sabbath Day is all about.       Psalm singing is done by the church
church." He goes on to say: "Calvin          The congregation of Jesus Christ            which is determined to remain faith-
placed singing at the heart of his the-      comes together to worship God.              ful  to the Reformation. And saints
ology of the Church. The reason is           They are, on the wings of worship,          in apostatizing churches, eager to re-
not far to seek. To put it with the          transported into God's dwelling             turn to the heritage of the Reforma-
utmost simplicity: The Church is             place in the heavens. In God's pres-        tion and walk again in the old paths,
the place where the Gospel is                ence they worship God. There are            throw out the hymns and return to
preached; Gospel is good news;               different aspects of that worship. In       the Psalms.
good news makes people happy;                some parts of the worship the min-                  The point that needs emphasis
happy people sing."                          ister leads the congregation in its         here is a striking difference between
    So it has been throughout post-          speech to God - as in the public            Psalms and most hymns. It is char-
reformation history. In the decline          prayers. In some parts of worship           acteristic of most (though not all)
of the State Church in the Nether-           the congregation listens attentively        hymns that they are either anthro-
lands, choirs were introduced and            in worship as God speaks to the             pocentric or wrongly Christocentric.
hymns were sung. In De Afscheiding,          saints - as in the preaching. In            That is, they concentrate in man,
led by Henry DeCock  in 1834, the            some parts of the worship the con-          man's experiences, man's impor-
church returned to congregational            gregation itself actively and on its        tance; or they concentrate in a Christ
singing of Psalms. In the years prior        own engages in worship - as hap-            who is a friend in some sloppy
to 1857 the Reformed Church of               pens in the singing. Suddenly the           semtimental way but is far from the
America let choirs do part of the            minister is only a part of the con-         eternal Son of God through whom
singing and all sang hymns. When             gregation. Overwhelmed by the               God reveals Himself.
the Christian Reformed Church be-            wonder of being in God's presence,                  The difference between Psalms
gan, the saints in Holland returned          the congregation joins in speaking          and hymns is a crucial difference be-
to Psalm singing. In the course of           to God - in singing. It is the only         tween apostasy in a church (accom-
time the Christian Reformed Church           opportunity for the congregation so         panied by choirs and hymn singing)
drifted from her Psalm-singing heri-         to speak                                    and reformation in a church (accom-
tage and thought choirs would be                    This must not be taken from her.     panied by congregational Psalm
nice. In 1924 our churches returned          Choirs take it away. Choirs are for         singing.
to congregational singing of Psalms.         show, for entertainment, even for                   The theocentric character of the
In every case it was a part of church        edifying. But this may be done in           Psalms is exactly comparable to the
reformation. And church reforma-             programs. Choirs may not steal              one crucial issue which always ne-
tion always included a return to             from the congregation what is her           cessitates reformation: the issue be-
Psalm singing.                               own. A congregation ought to be             tween sovereign and particular grace
    Those who agitate for the intro-         jealous of this part of her worship         and salvation by human merit and
duction of hymns and choirs in the           and refuse to allow any choir or so-        works.

                                                                                                   October 15,1994lStandard  Bearer141


   It is a striking fact of history that             able argument for exclusive Psalm-            the agony, the pain; but, also the joy,
the times when the truths of sover-                  ody, but it is also a striking descrip-       the aching wonder of fellowship
eign and particular grace were                       tion of what singing ought to be.             with God, the awe of a creation sing-
strongly and consistently maintained                 Some have argued that the singing             ing its doxologies, the quiet serenity
were few and far between; but when                   itself is not important, only the             of a soul brought in from stormy
these times were present, they were                  words sung. One may bellow or                 seas to the quiet calm of the harbor.
times of church reformation. The                     roar, whisper or mutter, as long as               It is God's biography of us - a
reformation of Calvin and Luther -                   he concentrates on the words. Calvin          spiritual biography in which every
over against Rome; the great                               tended to be suspicious of              line brings a response, every word
Synod of Dordt  - in a                                          beautiful singing lest it          an echo, every melody a rush of feel-
death struggle with                    ... the psalms               detract from the               ing. We need the Psalms. Hymns
Arminianism; the               are that unique book                  words.                        have their own experiences of life;
truths of sovereign                                                    The words are  in-
                              in Scripture which gives                                             but they are man's interpretation and
and particular grace                     us God's                     deed the important           so often wrong in all sorts of ways.
in  DeCock  - over                     own biography                  thing. But the sing-         In the Psalms we have God's biog-
against the humanism              of the Christian                    ing is also important.       raphy. Then we understand our life
of the State Church;                        life.                    One can express               as it ought to be understood.
the struggle to defend                                             things in music which               A Reformed church of the Ref-
particular grace over                                        can be expressed in no other          ormation is a church where the con-
against those who were determined                    way. We do not sing too well here             gregation of Jesus Christ sings the
to make it "common."                                 upon earth, for our singing voices            Psalms.  0
    Hymn singing is, all too often,                  are rather poor. But in heaven the
singing silly songs about man or                     singing too will count. And the sing-                That the Psalms in depth of
sloppy songs about Christ. They go                   ing counts now. God has given mar-               ;piritual  process by far  tran-
along with the constant drift in the                 velous gifts in music. The tune, the             ;cend that which afterwards pre-
church towards Pelagianism and its                   harmony, the cadence, the poetry,                sented itself as church song, or
harlot sister, Arminianism. The ro-                  the rhythm, the tempo - all make                 endeavored to place itself above
bust, powerful, weighty, theocentric                 singing what it truly ought to be.               khe Psalms.
Psalms - they belong to the mighty                   When words and music are perfectly                   That the hymns almost no-
battle' in defense of sovereign and                  fitted and when the church sings,                where insinuated themselves
particular grace.                                    then God's truth is expressed in                 into the churches, but they soon
                                                     ways in which only music can do it.              revealed the inclination first to
The Psalms and the Christian                             Finally, the Psalms are so cru-              replace the Psalms, and after-
    The two crucial New Testament                    cially important because the Psalms              wards to put them aside.
passages which enjoin on the con-                    are that unique book in Scripture                    That in the Psalms resounds
gregation of Christ to sing Psalms                   which gives us God's own biogra-                 the abiding, eternal keynote of
in worship (Eph. 5:18, 19 and Col.                   phy of the Christian life. It is all there       the godly mind, while all hymns
3:16) have some interesting things                   - from the hand of God. There                    bear a temporal character,
to say about. these Psalms in con-                   you will find our only comfort in                stamping the one-sided concep-
nection with our singing.                            life and in death, for time and for              tion of the moment in the church
    One of them is that singing is                   eternity, for body and for soul -                of God.
by being filled with the Spirit and                  Whom have I, Lord, in heaven, but                    That the hymn almost every-
by possessing the indwelling of the                  Thee?" There you will find that this             where has led to all kinds of
Word of Christ. Those two expres-                    comfort is ours by way of knowl-                 choir-singing, while the congre-
sions really mean the same thing, for                edge of misery - "Against thee, thee             gation finally fell silent.
we have the Word of Christ by                        only, have I sinned." There you will                 That in the struggle between
means of Christ's Spirit.                            find all the truths of deliverance               hymn and Psalm, the indiffer-
    Christ's Spirit inspired the Word                through Christ from His suffering                ent in the congregation all took
of Christ and caused it to be written                throughout His life to His cross (Ps.            part against the Psalm and for
in the Scriptures. Christ's Spirit puts              22), resurrection (Ps. 16), ascension            the hymn, while the godly more
that Word in our hearts, that same                   (Ps.  68), and exaltation (Ps. 2, 72,            and more chose for the Psalm
inspired Word of the Scriptures, so                  110). There you will find gratitude              and against the hymn.
that it becomes our own confession.                  - gratitude in prayer (Ps. 5) and                               Dr. Abraham Kuyper,
When Christ's Spirit puts Christ's                   gratitude in an obedient walk ac-                           on singing at church, in
Word in our hearts then, and then                    cording to God's law (Ps. 119). It is                              Onre Eeredienst
only, are we able to sing.                           all there - all the sufferings, the tri-                     (Our Public Worship)
    This is's powerful and unassail-                 als, the temptations, the heartaches,

&$Standard  BearerlOctobar  15,19Q4


                                The Lord's Day

    "Day of rest faces test," said the    views of other churches. Fact is that         In reading the two lengthy re-
headline in the Holland Sentinel of       there are two widely divergent            ports of the minority and majority
July 25, 1994. Neither the headline       views on the question -both claim-        committees, it becomes very appar-
nor the accompanying article pre-         ing to represent what is properly Re-     ent that there is a great difference of
sents any surprises. Clearly there is     f o r m e d .                             opinion among the Reformed
a wide divergence of views concern-           The Reformed Ecumenical               churches, and, according to these re-
ing Sunday as a day of rest. Clearly      Synod was requested by the Re-            ports, a difference that has existed
also, rapid changes in views and          formed Churches of Australia to           also through the New Testament age.
practices have taken place in the past    make a study of the "exegetical, doc-     Calvin himself is quoted as support-
five to ten years, especially in those    trinal and pastoral aspects" of the       ing both (conflicting) views.
communities which honored Sunday          fourth commandment. An ap-                    The majority report of the com-
as a special day of rest.                 pointed study committee presented         mittee insists on a loose view of Sun-
    The different views (quoted in        a majority and minority report to the     day. These quote Calvin from the
this paper) of Sunday as a day of         Synod of 1972 (Sydney, Australia).        Institutes II, viii, 34, where he taught
rest varied between those of our          That Synod appointed another com-         that "it really does not matter which
own Rev. W. Bruinsma of First Prot.       mittee with a more specific mandate       day it is, just as long as there is one;
Ref. Church of Holland, and of            to report to the Synod of 1976            but in the preceding paragraph (11,
Yohannes Mengsteab of Zion                (Capetown). That committee like-          viii, 33), he serenely states that the
Lutheran Church. Rev.  W. Bruinsma        wise was divided and presented two        ancients substituted the Sunday for
is quoted as insisting, "The day is       differing reports. The Synod of 1976      the sabbath.
the Lord's day that he sanctified for     carefully evaded the differences              When the Anabaptists accuse
use.... The Sabbath is desecrated -       when it adopted the following:            him of being a Judaist, he writes:
buying and selling, recreation.               "1. That Synod express its            `We do not celebrate it with most
People go to church once, even when       thanks to the Study Committees for        minute formality, as a ceremony . . .
it's offered twice.... The Bible says     their reports and the Free Church of      but we adopt it as a necessary rem-
that in the last days people are go-      Scotland for its communication.           edy for preserving order in the
ing to be lovers of pleasure more             "2. That Synod, recognizing the       Church"' (R.E.S., Acts 1976, p. 216).
than lovers of God . . . . U Yohannes     varying viewpoints on this issue that         The conclusion of this report is,
Mengsteab insisted, however, "It          have existed for many centuries           "Nowhere in the New Testament,
does not matter what day to do wor-       among the Reformed churches, ad-          however, do we find the idea that
ship. We could meet on Friday if          vocate a brotherly forbearance on the     the celebration of the day of the Lord
the congregation wanted to."              part of member churches towards           has come in the place of the celebra-
    What is the "Reformed" view of        each other, free of a judgmental atti-    tion of the sabbath, or that the Sun-
the Lord's Day? The topic seems to        tude, on this issue.                      day and the sabbath are essentially
assume that there is a single "Re-            "3. That Synod take note of the       one. On the contrary, the New Tes-
formed" position in opposition to         Material (the two Study Reports and       tament states that there is now free-
                                          the Communication) and the evalu-         dom in regard to the sabbath, which
                                          ation, and recommend them to mem-         belongs to  the- `Old Testament
                                          ber churches for study and appro-         shadow. The celebration of Sunday,
Rev. VanBaren is pastor of the Protes-    priate action.                            which goes back to the oldest
tant Reformed Church of Loveland,             "4. That Synod adopt the Mes-         church, possesses an essentially dif-
C010rd0.                                  sage to the Churches."                    ferent character than the celebration

                                                                                          October 15, i 994lStandard  Bearer/43


of the sabbath. The necessity of Sun-      with the rest of the Lord's Day in        ter. It becomes a time to enjoy sports
day celebration is not based on the        the light of the guidelines of the Old    on television or even by attending
sabbath commandment, but is asso-          Testament and the example of our          the event itself. At the same time,
ciated with the need for mutual en-        Lord. Christians have liberty  re-        those churches maintaining this view
couragement and admonition in the          garding certain debatable things,         of Sunday find that not enough
church" (p. 233).                          among which are activities which          people attend a second service to
    The report finally states, "That       some Christians deem permissible          make it worthwhile. Even the one
for many centuries the Sunday has          on the Lord's Day and others deem         service in the morning shows  in-
also been a day of leisure time has        not permissible" (p. 208).                creasing problems with attendance.
been a rich blessing. Although it is           Whatever some  "Re-                          If one can "worship" God ev-
not a matter of divine command, our        formed" teachers present,                             ery day of the week and
Sunday rest is, nevertheless, a di-        we must continue to                                     in all that one does, why
vine gift. It may one day be again         maintain that Sunday is              To lose              bother with church
taken away from us (e.g., by an anti-      the New Testament             the Sabbath would            services?
Christian government). Then we             "Sabbath," the "day of          be to lose all for          Faithful observance
would no longer have the duty to           rest," the day which                                        of Sunday as the day
abstain from our daily labor. How-         must be kept holy ac-                which                  of rest, the Lord's
ever, the church must continue to          cording to the fourth           the Reformation            Day, has its spiritual
assemble together on that day" (p.         commandment. The                     stands,              rewards. One is  re-
236).                                      fourth command itself                                    newed for another week
    These, then, who claim to be           ties the Sabbath of creation                          of labor. There is increase
sons of the Reformation insist that        with that mentioned in the com-            in a knowledge of God's Word -
Sunday is a nice time to worship           mandment.                                 and consequently also comfort in
God -but not an essential time. It             The ten commands were writ-           what that Word declares. To lose
is nice to abstain from labor, but it      ten by God's hand in stone. Nine          the Sabbath would be to lose all for
is not essential.                          without question remain fully valid       which the Reformation stands. To
    The minority report supports           for the New Testament age as well         maintain it properly, not legalisti-
that view of Sunday to which we            as the Old. It would be very strange      tally, promotes spirituality and god-
traditionally have held. The report        if the fourth could be part of the        liness.
recommends that, "The RES calls            type and shadow of the Old Testa-               Prof. D. Engelsma, in his pam-
upon its member churches to con-           ment - no longer valid for today.         phlet, "Remembering the Lord's
tinue observing the Lord's Day as a            We must follow the tradition of       Day," begins by stating, "The Dutch
day of rest, worship and celebration,      those Reformed fathers who insisted       have called Sunday, `God's dike.' In
recognizing it as a `creation-redemp-      on maintaining Sunday as Sabbath          the Netherlands, the dike keeps back
tion ordinance' whose festive char-        - a day of rest in which one re-          the threatening seas and, thus, pre-
acter has been shaped by the his-          frains from labor. This position is       serves the Hollanders from watery
torical-redemptive continuities and        becoming ever more difficult to           destruction. So, the Lord's Day
discontinuities of God's way with          maintain since many businesses to-        holds back the raging waves of ma-
his world as revealed in Scripture; a      day insist on Sunday labor. Obser-        terialism, earthlimindedness, and
Day which, looking backward, com-          vance, however, is not merely a           pleasure-madness that threaten to
memorates God's rest as the climax         negative thing. We are positively to      engulf the Church and the Chris-
of a finished creation, the interim re-    worship God with His people in His        tian." Those who would pursue this
demption of God's people at the            house of prayer. We are to contem-        subject more in detail, would do well
Exodus; the transforming power of          plate through the day God's mar-          to read the whole of that pamphlet.
Christ's resurrection, and the out-        velous works - and especially that              The Reformation gave back the
pouring of the Holy Spirit; a Day          work of Calvary. We are to per-           Bible to the church. Proper obser-
which, looking forward, eagerly an-        form works of mercy such as visita-       vance of Sunday gives God's people
ticipates the eternal sabbath rest         tion of the sick and widows.              the opportunity to hear in the
which awaits the people of God                 The consequences of adopting          preaching and through study at
upon a new earth under new heav-           the more liberal position concerning      home what God has to say to His
ens" (p. 205-6).                           the Sunday-sabbath are clearly evi-       people in that Word. Q
    The minority report concludes          dent. Sunday labor is becoming in-
by reminding, "The New Testament,          creasingly popular with "Reformed"
rather than listing rules for the          Christians. The same is true with
Lord's Day, highlights the freedom         respect to Sunday activities: Sunday
we have in Christ. In that freedom         becomes a family day to be spent at
we must decide what is compatible          the beach or some entertainment cen-

bItStandard  Bearer/October Vi,1994


Sermons on Job,  by John Calvin.             it not to pleasure him, neither is he        score against him that he omits any-
Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth               moved of any favor that he beareth           thing that might bring a blush to
Trust, 1993. 751 pp. $49.95 (hard-           towards him: but because he hath             the cheek of the young person -
cover). Calvin's Old Testament               ordained it in his own purpose: he           Gen. 19:31ff.  and 38:lO are left out
Commentaries: Daniel I (Chapters             is not moved by Satan's suit, nor            in toto. The translating in most of
1-6) by John Calvin. Grand Rapids:           persuaded by him to suffer Job to            the volumes is unsatisfactory, not
                                             be punished. He had already so               in the sense of gross incorrectness
William B. Eerdmans Publishing               determined in his own purpose (p.            but in its imprecision. This was, it
Company and Carlisle, Cumbria:               21).                                         may be suspected, often deliberate,
The Paternoster Press, 1993. 300 pp.                                                      in their effort to make Calvin a
$24.99 (paper). Calvin's Old Testa-                                                       good "Evangelical" of the  mid-
                                               Since this is a facsimile edition
ment Commentaries,  by T. H. L.                                                           nineteenth century breed.... The
                                           of the translation by Englishman
Parker.     Louisville, Kentucky:                                                         truth was that the editors were not
                                           Arthur Golding in 1574, the book is
Westminster/ John Knox Press, 1993.                                                       interested in presenting a sound
                                           cast in Elizabethan English and uses
239 pp. $16.99 (paper).  Calvin's                                                         edition of their author but only in
                                           the old English script. In no time,
New Testament Commentaries,  by                                                           supplying commentaries on the
                                           however, the attentive reader figures          Bible that should carry the author-
T. H. L. Parker. Louisville, Ken-          out that "v" is "u,,, N,f is ,$," and a        ity of Calvin's name and therefore
tucky: Westminster/ John Knox              letter that looks for all the world like       be of polemical service (pp. 2,3).
Press, 1993. 257 pp. $16.99 (paper).       "f" is really "s.#
[Reviewed by the Editor.]                      Adding to the value is a good                Calvin's New Testament com-
                                           table of contents (by 16th century           mentaries have recently been
    Several important, profitable          Golding) that shows where in "this           retranslated into English. Now the
books by and about John Calvin have        Booke" the "principall  matters (are)        Old Testament commentaries are be-
recently been published.                   conteyned."                                  ing similarly published in a new En-
    The Banner of Truth has pub-               Calvin's Daniel commentary is            glish translation. The general editor
lished the 159 sermons on Job that         the first of two volumes on Daniel.          of the project is D. F. Wright assisted
Calvin preached in 1554 and 1555.          This volume gives Calvin's lectures          by D. F. Kelly. Consultant editors
The worth of this big book can             on Daniel l-6. A subsequent vol-             are T. H. L. Parker, J. H. Leith, J. I.
hardly be overestimated. It gives          ume will give his lectures on chap-          Packer, and R. S. Wallace.  Contrib-
us the preaching of Calvin as he de-       ters 7-12. This volume is also the           uting editors are R. C. Gamble, D.
livered the sermons. The sermons           firstfruits of the ambitious project by      C. Lachman, A. N. S. Lane, and J.
were taken down by a professional          Rutherford House to provide a new            G. McConville.
scribe hired for this purpose. The         translation in English of all of                 The new translation of Calvin's
book is full of biblical exposition,       Calvin's Old Testament commentar-            Daniel from the original Latin is by
sound doctrine, and exhortation to         ies. The Old Testament commen-               Calvin scholar, T. H. L. Parker. The
a godly life. Pastors wiIl learn some-     taries were last translated into En-         translation is faithful and readable.
thing about good, Reformed preach-         glish in the 19th century under the          Calvin's lectures to his students (and
ing. All Christians will be edified.       auspices of the Calvin Translation           this is what the Daniel commentary
Hear Calvin on Job 1:12, "And the          Society. This is the translation that        is), though helpful to the work of
LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that     was published by Eerdmans in the             the seminarian and the pastor, are
he hath is in thy power; only upon         late 1940s and early 1950s. The com-         clear and instructive to the layman.
himself put not forth thine hand. So       mentary on Daniel published by               Worthwhile simply as Calvin's ex-
Satan went forth from the presence         Eerdmans in 1948 was the transla-            planation of the Holy Scriptures, the
of the LORD":                              tion by one Thomas Myers in 1852.            commentary on Daniel has special
                                           In his outstanding work, Calvin's            importance by virtue of its treating
  Here at the first blush a man might      Old Testament Commentaries,  T. H.           God's Word on the conflict between
:: marvel, why God did so give over        L. Parker is critical of that 19th cen-      the kingdom of antichrist and the
  his servant Job to Satan's pleasure:                                                  church in the last days. Comment-
  is it meet that the Devil should have    tury translation of Calvin's Old Tes-
  such credit with God, that when          tament commentaries:                         ing on the refusal of Daniel's three
  he craveth leave to work us mis-                                                      friends to bow down to Nebuchad-
  chief, God should grant it him. It         The Old Testament volumes are in           nezzar's image as recorded in Daniel
  seemeth that God favoreth him, and         general badly edited. In few in-           3:16-18,  Calvin said:
  that he maketh sport with us in the        stances are the foot-notes at all help-
  mean while as with a tennis ball.          ful; often they are downright silly.         This is a most noteworthy passage.
  But let us mark, that when God             The exceptions shine as rare gems.           For first this reply is to be re-
  granteth Satan this thing, he doth         The editor of Genesis adds to the            marked: when men tempt us to

                                                                                               OCtObW  15,1994/Standard  Bearer/45


  deny God, we must shut our ears         portant  chapters for the Protestant       some stories. We might say that
  and admit no deliberation. For as       pastor are chapter four, "Calvin's         the more improbable a story is, the
  soon as we even `debate whether it      Method and Interpretation," and            better he is pleased. For Calvin's
 is lawful to leave his pure worship                                                 world was one in which God him-
  we begin to injure God severely,        chapter eight, "Prolegomena to Ex-         self was present and active continu-
  whatever our reason may be.             egesis." The latter has an interest-       ously, a world in which, although
  Would that it were welI known to        ing section on Calvin's relation, in       men had wills and could use them,
  all that God's glory is so transcen-    exegeting Scripture, to other inter-       God's will was done, a world in
  dent, so vital, that everything must    preters of Holy Scripture. Calvin          which God continuously and con-
  be put in its' proper place when        the exegete availed himself of the         tinually did miracles, the ordinary
  there is any thought of diminish-       work of others, but also demon-            miracles of the created order or the
  ing or obscuring that glory. But        strated, and insisted on, freedom of       extraordinary miracles transcending
  today the fallacy deceives very         exegesis. He refused, for example,         the created order (pp. 96,97).
  many into thinking it right to weigh
  in the scales, so to say, whether it    to be bound by the interpretation of     Parker illustrates Calvin's attitude
  might be best to swerve from the        Luther. This, he said, would consti-     toward the "improbable" from
  true worship of God for a time          tute slavery for the minister of the     Calvin's explanation of the history
  when some advantage  on the other       Word called by God to work with
  side suggests itself (p. 131).          the Scriptures.                          of the flood, specifically the ark
                                              It is Parker's study of the Old      "how the humans were going even
     The commentary exposes the           Testament commentaries that is the       to survive for three days shut up in
suggestion by the theonomists that        gem. The book is a valuable intro-       a box - `the smell of dung alone'
Calvin was postmillennial as the          duction to the Reformed view of and      he says, `would have stifled all the
merest nonsense. In his explanation       work with Old Testament Scripture.       living creatures in the Ark'. But all
of the dream of the great image in        It treats in some depth and at some      these problems would be looked af-
Daniel 2, Calvin distinguished the        length Calvin's doctrine of the rela-    ter by God" (p. 98).
kingdom of Christ - the little stone      tionship between the Old and New             Coming through in every aspect
- from the other four kingdoms as         Testaments; Calvin's exposition of       of the Reformer's explanation and
heavenly, spiritual, and not visible      the history in the Old Testament         application of the Old Testament is
or external. It is identical with the     Bible; Calvin's view of the law; and     his reception in faith of the Scrip-
church. In the preface to the com-        Calvin's interpretation of prophecy.     tures as the very Word of God:
mentary, Calvin declared that "the            Parker's description of Calvin's
throne and scepter of Christ is the       doctrine of the covenant is intrigu-       The fact is that `for Calvin the Bible,
preaching of the gospel."                 ing (pp. 181ff.). it will sorely dis-      the whole Bible and every nook and
                                                                                     cranny of the Bible, is the Word of
    The book is handsome in ap-           comfit those who have convinced            God as completely as if God him-
pearance featuring Holbein's flatter-     themselves that Calvin taught that         self had spoken the actual words.
ing portrait of Calvin. The com-          the covenant is a conditional agree-       At every point, therefore, we are
pleted set will be impressive.            ment and that the promise of the           confronted by God's will, God's
    Calvin's Old Testament Com-           covenant is to all the natural prog-       mind, and not by human purposes
mentaries and Calvin's New Testa-         eny of Abraham.                            and ideas (p. 66).
ment Commentaries  by T. H. L.                Calvin's attitude of childlike
Parker are companion pieces. In           faith toward the Old Testament, as           God grant His church today
these volumes, the noted Calvin           set forth by Parker (who barely hints    spiritual sons of Calvin in the
scholar - and sympathetic spirit -        at some doubts of his own about this     preaching and teaching of the Old
analyzes Calvin's commentaries on         attitude), is simply delightful. Re-     Testament Bible.
the books of the Bible. The work on       ferring to Calvin's acceptance of all        Calvin's Old Testament Com-
the New Testament commentaries is         the miraculous in the Old Testament,     mentaries  is a treasure.
more technical. It treats of such mat-    Parker writes:                               This entire harvest of books by
ters as the history of the writing and                                             and about John Calvin is a feast for
translating of the New Testament           Improbability causes him no prob-       every student of Calvin and of the
commentaries and the Greek text            lems. He even goes out of his way       Word that he served faithfully and
used by Calvin. The two most im-            to emphasize the improbability of      well in his day. 0



    Classis East met in regular ses-      formed Church, Walker, MI. Each          was welcomed back to Classis East
sion on Wednesday, September 14,          church was represented by two del-       as he has now taken up his duties
1994 at the Hope Protestant  Re-          egates. Rev. Ronald  VanOverloop         as pastor of the Georgetown PRC.

46lStandard Bearer/October 15,1994


The session was chaired by Rev. W.        ber 30 Cammenga (A.M.), Slopsema          churches, giving special attention to
Bruinsma.                                 (P.M.); November 6 - Bruinsma; No-        church extension work. In response
    Most of the business of classis       vember 13 - Spriensma; November           to this request, classis appointed a
was routine. Reports were heard           20  - Joostens; November 27  -            committee of three to study this mat-
from the stated clerk and the Classi-     VanOverloop; December 4  -                ter and report to the January, 1995
cal Committee. Classical appoint-         Gritters; December 11 - Cammenga;         meeting of classis.
ments were granted to Byron Cen-          December 18 - Kuiper; December                T h e   e x p e n s e s   o f   classis
ter. The following schedule was           25 - Bruinsma; January 1 - Koole;         amounted to $991.00.  Classis will
adopted for Byron Center (evening         January 8 - Flikkema; January 15          meet next on January II,1995  at the
service only, unless otherwise des-       - Spriensma.                              Southwest PRC. Cl
ignated): September 25 - Joostens;            The Synod of 1994 requested                         Respectfully submitted,
October 2 - Woudenberg;  October          Classis East to investigate our obli-                                Jon 1. Huisken
9 - VanOverloop; October 16 -             gation to continue to support, at the                                 Stated Clerk
Koole; October 23 --Kuiper;  Octo-        present level, our small, needy




Congregational Activities                 numbers, and a presentation of a gift,    in Walker, Mi, were able to give two
    The membership of the Adult           the congregation was able to say          concerts in the month of September.
Bible Study of our First PRC in Hol-      goodbye to the Gritters individually      They first sang in the auditorium of
land, MI invited their entire congre-     over coffee and cake.                     our Hope Church on Sunday
gation to a week-long camp-out at                                                   evening, September 11; and a couple
Muskegon State Park For those who         School Activities                         of days later they gave a concert at
could not make the camp-out there             Now that all of our Christian         the Kalamazoo, MI PRC. The con-
was a special invitation extended to      schools are in full swing, we ought       cert at Kalamazoo served also to sig-
join the group of campers on the last     to make mention of the fact that by       nal the beginning of Fall society ac-
night for a potluck supper.               God's grace there is one more Chris-      tivities at Kalamazoo.
    Each year the members of First        tian school to add to the list of PR          Seminary Convocation was held
in Holland kick off their society year    covenant schools. We speak of the         this year on the evening of Septem-
by holding an Inspirational Meeting.      Faith Christian School in Randolph,       ber 7 in the Hope PRC in Walker,
Each society takes a turn hosting this    WI. This is their first year of opera-    MI. Prof. Hanko, this year's speaker,
event. This year's meeting was            tion, and even if we were not there       addressed the students, friends, and
sponsored in part by First's Men's        in late August when the doors             supporters of our churches' semi&
and Ladies' Societies. Members from       opened, we all can share in the joy       nary on the topic, "Our Church-Gov-
all of First's societies were invited     and thankfulness of those in              erned Seminary."
to get together for a time of fellow-     Randolph who have done so much                The annual meeting of the RFPA,
ship, and to hear Rev. Peter Breen,       these past years to move this long-       the organization responsible for pub-
one of our denomination's retired         ing from a dream to a reality.            lishing this magazine, was held in
ministers, speak.                             We can only imagine the joy that      the Faith PRC in Jenison, MI on Sep-
    On Sunday evening, September          must have filled the sanctuary of the     tember 22. Rev. C. Hanko spoke on
1.1, the congregation of Byron Cen-       Randolph, WI PRC on August 22             the subject, "Our Heritage and Our
ter, MI PRC heard their pastor, Rev.      when Faith Christian School was of-       Standard Beaver. N All readers of the
Barry Gritters, preach his farewell       ficially dedicated. This dedication/      SE were enthusiastically encouraged
sermon. This service was followed         convocation service was preceded by       to attend.
by a program of thanksgiving from         an open house at the school, and fol-
Byron's congregation for the past         lowed by refreshments provided by         Minister Activities
years of Rev. Gritters' ministry in       Faith's Mothers' Club. Rev. S. Key,           Rev. Carl Haak, pastor of the
their midst. After several special        Randolph's pastor, preached a fit-        Lynden, WA PRC has accepted the
                                          ting sermon the day before entitled,      call he received from the Bethel PRC
                                          "A Consecrated Child," based on I         in Elk Grove Village, near Chicago,
                                          Samuel i:27,28.                           IL. He plans to preach his farewell
                                                                                    sermon at Lynden on October 23.
                                          Denominational Activities                     Rev. B. Gritters and his wife and
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-         The Hope Heralds, an all-male         family were able to move from the
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,      choir primarily from the Hope PRC         parsonage at Byron Center, MI PRC
Michigan.

                                                                                           October 15,199Wtandard  Bearer/47


        =jpE
     gj@gg$gRD)                                                                                                        SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                       Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                       Grandville,  Michigan
       P.O. Box 603
       Grandvile, MI 49468-0603

I
     to their new parsonage at the                     On  Sunday evening, September                      Foodfor ?fiought
     Hudsonville, MI PRC on September               18, the congregation of the Byron               "The believer that knows his
     13. Plans called for Rev. Gritters to          Center, MI PRC extended a call to        own heart will ever bless God for
     be installed as Hudsonville's eighth           Rev. W. Bruinsma to serve as their       election."
     castor  on September 23, with his              pastor. With him on that trio were                                         - J.C. Ryle Cl
     krst sermon as Hudsonville's pas-              the Revs. Dykstra and Slopsema.
     tor coming on September 25th.                                                     ___.IIT                  NOTICE!!
                                                      RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                "Martin Luther:
                                                        The Martha Ladies' Aid Society                       Theologian of
                                                    of the Hull Protestant Reformed                       the Glory of God"
         WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                        Church expresses its sympathy to                    Prof. David Engelsma,
         On September 10, 1994 our par-             Eunice Brummel,  Bernice Van                                  Speaker
                                                                                                           Prof. of Dogmatics and
     ents,                                          Maanen, Florence Brunsting, Mina                   Old Testament Studies in the
      HENRY W. and TRUDY KUIPER,                    Hoekstra, Hillie Hoekstra, Jane                    Protestant Reformed Seminary
     celebrated 40 years of God's faith-            Hoksbergen, and Lois VanMaanen                       Dordt College Chapel
     fulness to them in marriage.                   in the loss of their brother and                      Sioux Center, Iowa
         We are grateful to our heavenly            brother-in-law,
     Father for giving us parents who fear                DONALD HOEKSTRA.                                 November 4,1994
     Him, Thanks be to God for the good             May they find comfort in Romans                              7:30 P.M.
     example, the covenant instruction,             8:28, "We know that all things work                   We invlte you to attend
     the love, and the guidance He has              together for good to them that love                     and bring a friend!!!
     given us through them. We pray                 God, to them who are the called               Sponsored by the Protestant Reformed
     for God's continued blessing on                according to his purpose."                                    Church of
                                                                                                          Hull, Doon,  and Edgerton
     them in their life together and in the                    Rev. R. Moore, President
     midst of God's church.                                   Marie Brummel, Secretary
         "It is of the Lord's mercies that                                                        REFORMATION CONFERENCE
     we are not consumed, because his                                                        Where: Southwest Prot. Ref. Church,
                                                                                                                          in GrandviIIe,  MI
     compassions fail not. They are new                                                      When: Friday and Saturday,
     every morning: great is thy faithful-                                                                               November 4 and 5
     ness" (Lamentations 3:22-23).                    RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                 What:  Four lectures:
     + Henry A. and Betty Kuiper                        The Mr. and Mrs. Society of                  Friday, 8 P.M. -
     + Keith and Wanda Bruinsma                     Southwest Protestant Reformed                 "The Reformation's Emphasis on the
              Brian, Greg, Sheila, Janelle,         Church expresses its Christian sym-           Centrality of Preaching in Worship"
                               Calvin, Micah        pathy to fellow members Roger and                     (Rev. Ron Cammenga)
     0 Barbara Kuiper                               Marlene Groenendyk in the loss of                Saturday, 9:3O A.M. -
     $ Daniel and Deb Kuiper                        their mother and mother-in-law,                "The Reformation's Emphasis on
                                                                                                        Congregational Worship"
     + Henry and Judy Buiter                        MRS. WINIFRED GROENENDYK.                             (Rev. Kenneth Koole)
              Nathan, Alicia, Monica, Ryan              May they find comfort from                   Saturday, 11  A.M.  -
     + Christine Kuiper                             Isaiah  51:ll:     "Therefore the re-          "The Reformation's Emphasis on
     $ David and Karla Zandstra                     deemed of the Lord shall return and                     Spiritual Worship"
              Bart, Rhonda, Krysta, Caleb           come with singing unto Zion and ev-                   (Rev. Ron Cammenga)
     9 Dolores Kuiper                               erlasting joy shall be upon their                Saturday, 1  P.M.  -
     Q Greg and Mary Flint                          head; and they shall obtain glad-              "The Reformation's Emphasis on
              Cassi                                 ness and joy, and sorrow and                             Family Worship"
                                                                                                          (Rev. Kenneth Koole)
                                      Lynden. WA    mourning shall fly away."
                                                               Don Doezema, President             Lunch will be provided at noon on Saturday.
                                                                                                     A cordial invitation is extended to all
                                                                Florence Key, Secretary      readers of the SB in the Grand Rapids area.

     48fStandard  Bearer/October 15,1994


