A   R e f o r m e d
Semi-Month/y
Magazine





                                   PRC Seminary 1994 -
                            faculty, student body, support staff


                       I                                       :    1
vol. 72, No. 3
November 1,1994              -.


CONTENTS:                                                                                               November 7, 7994

Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
       Jehovah's Deep Concern for His People .,.......,........,.......,......,..... 51
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                              ISSN 0362-4692
       Experiential Preparation for the Ministry . . . . . ..*............................... 53
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I.............I.....II.....................................................                     55       Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August,
                                                                                                                                                                 Publl&d bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc..
Feature Article - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                          4949 lvenrest Ave., Grandvllle. MI 49416. Ssmnd Class
       Our Church-Governed Seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~. 56                     Postage Pald et Grandville, Mlchlgan.
Letter from the Seminary  - Prof. David  J. Engelsma                                                                                                             Poabnaotrr: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                 P.O. Box 603, Grandvtlle, MI 49466-0603.
       News from Seminary Hill ,...........................,...............,......*,***....,....                                                        60
Bring the Books - Samuel Miller                                                                                                                                  EDlTORlAL  COMMlllEE
                                                                                                                                                                 Edltoc Prof. Devkt J. Engelsma
       An Able and Faithful Ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61        Secretary: Prof. Robert  D. Decker
Special Article - Rev. Cornelius Hanko                                                                                                                           Managlng EdItor: Mr. Don Doezema
       Our Heritage and the Standard Bearer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.~....~.#.... 63                                            DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                                 Rev. Wilbur Srulnsma, Rev. Ronald Cemmenga, Prof. Robert
Annual Report- Mr. Tom Sod6yl                                                                                                                                    Decker, Rev.Arle denHartog, Rev. Russell Dylmtra,  Rev. Barry
       Secretary's Report to the RFPA - 1994 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65                                  Grlttere,  Rev. Carl Haak, Rev. Jason Korterlng. Rev. Cmnelius
                                                                                                                                                                 Hanko, F'rof. Herman Hanko. Rev. John Hays, Rev. Dale
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67                     Kulper, Mr. James Lantlng, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Bernard Woudenberg                                                                                                            Jalklshln Mehtenl, Rev. Thomas Miersme. Rev. Charles
                                                                                                                                                                 lerpetra, Rev. GlseVanBaren,  Rev. RonaldVanDverlwp. Mr.
       When the Knitting Stopped . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66    Benjemln Wlgger,  Rev. Bernard Woudanberg.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~~ . . . . ~~ . . . .71                                                   EDITORIAL OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer         Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                                                 4949 lvanrest               6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                 Grandville, Ml 49416        Hudsonvllle. Ml 49426
                                                                                                                                                                 BUSINESS OFFICE             NEW ZEtiND  OFFICE
                                                                                                                                                                 The Standard Bearer         The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                 Don Doezeme                 ofo S. VanHark
                                                                                                                                                                 P.O. Box 603                66FraSerSt
       Much of this issue is not the usual fare.                                                                                                                 Grandvllle. Ml              Walnulomate, New Zealand
       Several articles arise  from the resumption of classes at the Protestant                                                                                    494664603                 NORTHERN IRELAND OFflCE
                                                                                                                                                                 PH: (616) 531-1490          c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuby
Reformed Seminary. The text of the convocation address by Prof. Herman                                                                                                    (616) 539.1776     164 Church Rd.. Glenwherry
                                                                                                                                                                 FAX: (616) 531-3033         Bellymena, Co. Anlrlm ST42 3EL
Hanko, "Our Church-Governed Seminary," both demonstrates the necessity                                                                                                                       Northem Ireland
of a denominational theological school and draws from this principle impor-                                                                                      SDlTORlAL  POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                 Every edItor is solely reeponslbb  br the oontents of his own
tant practical implications for the churches, the seminarians, and the profes-                                                                                   &lee.  Contrlbutioneolgenerallntereatmmwrreedenand
sors. The reprint of Presbyterian theologian Samuel Miller's remarks at the                                                                                      queatlons for The Readsr  &ke department em welcome.
                                                                                                                                                                 C-ontrlbutbne will be limited to approximately 300 words and
installation of Prof. Archibald Alexander at Princeton in the good days of                                                                                       mwrtbeneat)ym~enortypdwritten,~dmustbealqned. Copy
1812 ("An Able and Faithful Ministry") supplements the incisive analysis by                                                                                      Cadllnee  are the  Rrst end  fifteenth   ot the month. All
                                                                                                                                                                 oommunkzatlone  relathfe  to the mntents  should be sent to the
Prof. Hanko. Miller told his church that she was "bound . . . (to) furnish a                                                                                     edltorlal omca.
seminary in which the candidates for this office may receive the most appro-                                                                                     REPRINT POLICY
priate and complete instruction which she has it in her power to give."                                                                                          Pam~bnLsherebygrsntedfathereprlntlngofarlicl~Inour
                                                                                                                                                                 ~ebyotherpubl,pmvided:  a)thatstireplntsd
       The editorial is the "chapel speech" given at the opening exercises of the                                                                                artkles  are reproduced in full: b) that proper acknowledgment
seminary. The speech found in Isaiah 6:5-7 a Word of God requiring, and                                                                                          !d mad% c) that a mpy of the pubdkal In Sikh euch reprint
                                                                                                                                                                 appears b seat to our ednorlel office.
giving experiential preparation for the gospel-ministry.
       There is also some "news from seminary hill."                                                                                                             SUBSCRlPnON  POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                 Subecflptlon  pfloa: $12.00 per year In the U.S., $15.00
       Even those `readers of the Standard Bearer who have no special interest                                                                                   elsewhere. Unless a deftnlte requeet for dlscontlnuance la
in the seminary of the PRC can profit from some of these articles, treating as                                                                                   received, it te assumed that the subecrlber  wlshea the
                                                                                                                                                                 subsalp~ntoconUnw,andhewlllbeMlledlarenewal.  Ifyou
they do of the office of the ministry, preparation for it, and the church's                                                                                      haveachengedaddreee,pkawnotltytheBusl~Oftlceaa
calling in the matter.                                                                                                                                           eady as posslbb  In order to avoid the Inconvenience of
                                                                                                                                                                 Interrupted delii. Include your Zip of Postal Code.
       "Our Heritage and the Standard Bearer" is the printed version of Rev.                                                                                     ADvERn6lNGPoLlcY
Cornelius Hanko's address to the annual meeting of the Reformed Free                                                                                             The SGandardsearSrdoes not accept wmmerclal  advertising
PubliShing Association (RFPA), publisher of the SB. The presence of the                                                                                          oi any kind. Announcemenb  ol church and school events,
                                                                                                                                                                 annlwraarlm, obltuarbe,  and sympathy reeolutlons will `be
speaker had its own power upon the audience. An old man, though per-                                                                                             phcedforaSl0.OOfee. Theseehouldbssenttothe6uslnese
fectly lucid in thought and expression, worn with the labors of the churches                                                                                     D6keandahwldbea~mpanbdbytheS1O.IlO~w.  Daadllne
                                                                                                                                                                 fw announwments  b et baet we month prbr to publication
as with age, Rev; Hanko goes back to the very beginnings of the PRC and of                                                                                       date.
the SB. He reminded us who we are, what we stand for, and to what we are                                                                                         SOUND VOLUMES
called in 1994.                                                                                                                                                  lhs Sualnwe Dftiw will acoept etendlng orders k-r bound
       The ,report  of the secretary of the RFPA, Mr. Tom Bodbyl, is encourag-                                                                                   ~pkeofthecunentvolume. Suohordereerefllleda9soonas
                                                                                                                                                                 po.selMe Euler  dompbtkm  o( a Mlume year.
ing as regards the position and.progress  of this Reformed.magazine.
                                                                                                                      _. . . -I.                -DJE             16mm  mkrorilm,  35mm mlaofllm  tii'lO5mm  mlcroflohe.  and
                                                                                                                                                                 artlob   cop@  are  avallebb  t!v+gF  University  Mkmrilms
                                                                                                                                                                 Inlematknal.
50/S@~darcf+wwlPlovember  1,??94,


              Jehovah's -Deep Concern
                           for  Hi& People

     0 my threshing, and the corn of              We are reminded that Babylon            Just as the entire stalk of wheat
my floor: that which 1 have heard of          in the Scriptures is a type of the anti-    grows in the field under rain and
the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, have    Christian world power that always           sunshine until the grain is ripe, so
I declared unto you.                          oppresses the people of God. In             also the elect and the reprobate re-
                            Isaiah 21:lO.     Revelation 14:8 the cry is repeated,        ceive the same treatment in the
                                              but now in regard to the Antichrist,        church under the preaching of the
     At the close of the day the              "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that         Word and the sacraments. The
prophet stands on the mountaintop             great city, because she hath made           straw and the grain ripen together.
of prophecy, looking into the dis-            all nations drink of the wine of her        Both are threshed, the straw to be
t a n t   f u t u r e .                       fornication."                               separated from the wheat, and the
     What he beholds is so over-                  The prophet is overwhelmed by           wheat to be preserved.
whelming, so deeply shocking that             the thought that the sovereign Lord,            Reprobation serves election.
it brings him into great agony. Fear          Jehovah, brings all these sufferings        God says concerning Pharaoh, "Even
takes hold of him, his heart throbs,          upon His cherished possession, yet          for this same purpose have I raised
he is in pain as a woman in travail.          that He is deeply concerned for             thee up, that I might shew my power
     He sees the kingdom of Judah             them, and even eager to deliver them        in thee, and that my name might be
in captivity in Babylon because of            from all their miseries.                    declared throughout all the earth"
their unfaithfulness to the Lord. The             Isaiah hears the Lord cry out,          (Rom. 9:17). Likewise in the proph-
church of God sits at Babel's                 "0 my threshing, and the corn of            ecy of Isaiah the Lord says concern-
streams, unable to sing Zion's songs,         my floor." Then he adds, "That              ing elect Israel, "Since thou wast pre-
while the enemy revels in the trea-           which I have heard of the Lord of           cious in my sight, thou hast been
sures obtained through her con-               hosts, the God of Israel, have I de-        honorable, and I have loved thee:'
quests.                                       clared unto you."                           therefore I will give men for thee,
     Yet he also sees beyond that, for             9+++**4++                              and people for thy life" (Is. 43:4).
the Medes and Persians arise like a               The corn of my floor!                   After Christ's resurrection the
hungry lion to devour Babylon. He                 The figure is of a farmer who           church declares, "For of a truth
hears the shout of the watchman               brings his sheaves of grain to the          against thy holy child Jesus, whom
from the watch tower, "Babylon is             threshing floor, threshes and win-          thou hast anointed, both Herod and
fallen, is fallen, and all the graven         nows them until all the grain is sepa-      Pontius Pilate, with the gentiles and
images of her gods hath he broken             rated from the straw and chaff. The         thy people Israel, were gathered to-
unto the ground."                             straw is then burned, and the grain         gether for to do whatsoever thy
     All of which causes Isaiah to re-        is gathered into the barn.                  hand and thy counsel determined
alize how much the true people of                 We have here a clear picture of         before to be done" (Acts 427).
God must suffer, what great agonies           election and reprobation. God eter-             All history revolves -around  the
they experience before the promised           nally and sovereignly chooses unto          church.' God has eternally chosen
Savior is born.                               Himself a people to be saved by             unto Himself a certain definite num-
                                              grace, to dwell with Him in glory,          ber of elect as members of the body
                                              and equally sovereignly determines          of Jesus Christ. God has also deter-
                                              that the reprobate shall perish in          mined the best means and manner
                                              their sins.                                 whereby His church will be gath-
                                                  Elect and reprobate grow to-
Rev. Hanko is .a, ,-minister  emeritus  in                                                ered and brought into glory. The
                                              gether in the `same environment.
the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                         whole history of sin and grace re-

                                                                                                Nobembsr  1,1994/Stand&d BeaWlS


veals the wisdom of God in purify-         in the lions' den, .and of his three       and restore her to her own land. The
ing and preparing His people for           friends in the fiery furnace.              Lord is just in His dealings with His
glory. The sufferings of this present          ln spite of their weaknesses and       people, yet also amazingly merciful.
time work a far more exceeding             sins, God loves His church with an         And all this because of Jehovah's
weight of glory.                           eternal love in Christ Jesus. He sees      love, compassion, and deep concern
                                           no sin in Israel and no transgression      for His chosen. This is so true, that
     #4*4+++++                             in Jacob, because He has placed His        Isaiah must assure us, "That which
     M 0 my threshing!"                    chosen under the blood of His dear         I have-heard from the Lord of hosts,
     The figure of threshing repre-        Son, the perfect ransom for all their      the God of Israel, I have declared
sents a painful process. The grain         sins.                                      unto you."
along with the straw is beaten thor-           God's judgments upon the earth             The Lord of hosts is sovereign
oughly and seemingly relentlessly,         are shared by the church, but only         Lord over all. The myriads of an-
and winnowed until the straw and           as chastening. He is merciful unto         gels worship Him, even as they are
chaff have been separated and noth-        His chosen possession. He is slow          attentive to His word. He holds the
ing but the pure grain remains.            to anger, plenteous in compassion.         billions upon billions of stars in His
     Nebuchadnezzar, king of               He will not forever chide, nor will        hand and directs their courses
Babylon, boasts of his triumphs over       He keep His anger forever.                 through the heavens. The beasts of
foreign gods, even over the God of             Our God is the living God, long        the field cry to Him for food, while
Israel. He has a monument made,            suffering, not willing that any should     the lowly flower is in His care.
an image of the bust of a man on a         perish, but that all should come to            He is also sovereign Lord over
pedestal which measures sixty cu-          repentance.                                the kings and rulers of the earth. The
bits high and six cubits wide to be            Isaiah declares of the Israel of       proud Nebuchadnezzar was made
worshiped by all his subjects. The         God, "In all their affliction he was       like a beast of the field. The hand-
66 had not yet attained to the 666 of      afflicted, and the angel of his pres-      writing on the wall warned  Bel-
Revelation 13.                             ence saved them: in his love and in        shazzar that his kingdom would be
     Today the world boasts of her         his pity he redeemed them, and he          taken from him. God appoints King
well-nigh almighty power. Has she          bare them, and carried them all the        Cyrus and moves him to restore His
not produced amazing wonders in            days of old" (Is. 6~9).                    people to their own land. The
science, in industry, and in medi-             A parent must often cause his          prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled:
cine? She boasts of omnipresence.          child to suffer, not because he takes      "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all
Has she not traveled to the moon           pleasure in it, but because he loves       the images of her gods h&h he bro-
and the planets, traversed land and        him. A wound must be treated, a            ken to the ground."
sea, sent her voice by satellite to the    sliver must be extracted from under            The Lord of hosts is the Al-
ends of the earth? She boasts of om-       the thumbnail, or whatever. The            mighty of Israel. All the trials and
niscience. Anything she imagines she       child cries and begs him to stop, yet      afflictions that come upon us in this
can do. She claims to be God.              the parent knows how necessary it          present time are sent from the hand
     She boldly defies all of God's        is for the welfare of the child to con-    of the Almighty to sanctify and to
laws. Her dress, her sculptures, her       tinue to hurt him. Or the child may        bless us in preparation for our place
paintings, her music, all declare her      need chastening, which pains the           in His glorious kingdom.
rebellious spirit. Her deliberate de-      parents as much, if not more, than             Nations may rage, and peoples
fense of killing the unborn, of ho-        the child.                                 may imagine vain things, but God
mosexuals, of sexual license even              Our merciful Father sends suf-         has set His Son upon His holy moun-
among teenagers, and her despising         ferings, severe sufferings that cause      tain. Christ, the mighty Conqueror
of holy marriage shows her hatred          us to ask: "Has God forgotten to be        over Satan, sin, hell, death, and the
against the living God. Her mea-           kind? Will He withhold His mer-            grave, is exalted to the highest heav-
sure of iniquity is rapidly filling up.    cies forever?" Yet He assures us, "I       ens with a Name above all names.
    Jesus warns of false prophets          will never leave thee, nor forsake         All power is entrusted to Him to
who deceive many, of heresies, of          thee." His mercies are renewed ev-         carry out the counsel of our God.
betrayals, and of a tribulation such       ery morning, for He turns all things           Our soon coming Lord will ap-
as the world has not known.                to our salvation.                          pear with the clouds. He is coming
Churches closed, saints imprisoned,            The Lord of hosts has spoken it.       with ten thousands of His angels and
no business operation or food on the           The prophet Isaiah is deeply           all His saints to judge the nations
table without the mark of the beast.       moved. It is all too amazing, too          with a righteous judgment for the
Jesus urges us to flee in those days       wonderful for him to fathom its            salvation of His church.
where we can find refuge. If the           riches. A powqrfulnation  will take            The world powers of this day
days were not shortened, nq flesh          God's heritage into-. captivity, .and      already stand condemned by the
would be saved. We think of Daniel         .another  powerful nation will deliver     Word ofthe Lord that stands secure,

52lSt~ndard  Bearer RJovember  1,1994


"Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that              "Be patient therefore, brethren;             The Bride of Christ sighs,
great city, because she hath made            unto the coming of the Lord....              "Come, Lord Jesus; yea, come
all nations drink of the wine of her         Stablish your hearts; for the coming         quickly." Amen.  0
fornication."                                of the Lord draweth nigh" (James
                                             57, 8).
r w

                 Experiential Preparation
                                 .for the Ministry

                                             yet said to you what He said to              for the ministry, as well as an aca-
    (This is the text of the speech given    Isaiah the prophet in verse 9: "Go,          demic, intellectual preparation, by
to faculty and students of the Protes-       and tell this people."                       taking heed to the Word of God in
tant Reformed Seminary on th-e occa-             A certain preparation is neces-          Isaiah 6:5-7.
sion of registration at the beginning of     sary for the call and the task that
the 199411995 school-year.)                  belongs to it. This is the place and             Then said I, Woe is me! for I am
                                             purpose of our seminary.                       undone; because I am a man of un-
    The work of the seminary that                The question is: "What is this             clean lips, and I dwell in the midst
we take up again this morning is pre-        preparation?" More specifically, the           of a people of unclean lips: for
liminary and basic to the call to the        question is:. "Is the preparation in           mine eyes have seen the King, the
ministry of the gospel. You young            the Protestant Reformed Seminary               LORD of hosts.
-men who study for the ministry are          only academic and intellectual, or is            Then flew one of the seraphims
                                             it also spiritual and experiential?"           unto me, having a live .coal in his
                                                                                            hand, which he had taken with the
                                             The charge, or fear, today is that all         tongs from off the altar;
                                             Reformed seminaries give only aca-                And he laid it upon my mouth,
                                             demic and intellectual preparation.            and said, Lo, this hath touched thy
                                             lf this is true, it is a devastating in-       lips; and thine iniquity is taken
                                             dictment of the seminaries. There is           away, and thy sin purged.
                                             reason for this charge, or fear, in ex-
                                             isting seminaries and their gradu-               The passage is the account of the
                                             ates. We may acknowledge that the            preparation of the prophet for the
                                             charge points to a real danger also          LORD'S call of him to his office and
                                             for our seminary.                            for the work that belongs to this of-
                                                 Let us guard against this threat,        fice. It is the account of a necessary
                                             and be reminded of the necessity of          preparation for the call and the of-
                                             a spiritual, experiential preparation        fice.. The chapter describes the call




      Prof. Engelsma adresses . . .

not yet called. You believe your-
selves to have the inward aspect of
the call. But God has not yet called
.you by His church, so that you are
c.ommissioned officially to.bring  His
Word to His people. God has not                                   I
                                                           -...a  I      ..; faculty and studefii body.`

                                                                                                -November% 19SWtarfdard Bearer/53


 of Isaiah to the prophetic office, the    The Reformed minister must have              the way of Isaiah's profound con-
 original call that lay behind his en-     been prepared in this way also.              viction of his misery of sin: "Woe is
 tire prophetic ministry. There is                  This necessary preparation of       me!" etc. (v.5).
 some question about this, since this      the minister consists of the experi-               This was personal. There was
 account of the call is given after the    ence of forgiveness in the way of a          no isolation of himself from the
 record of some of the prophet's la-       heartfelt knowledge of one's misery          people to whom he ministered. He,
 bors in chapters l-5, but mistakenly.     as a foul sinner.                            as wellas the people, was a man of
 Verses 8, 9 leave no doubt that this               The prophet Isaiah was forgiven.    uncleanness, and the filth of the
 is the original and basic call to the     This took place by the symbolical act        people aggravated his own unwor-
 prophetic office that preceded also       and the word of the seraph of the            thiness.
 the labors recorded in chapters l-5:      LORD God. Although the cleansing                   This was experiential. Confes-
 "Whom shall I send, and who will          of sanctification is implied, the act        sion of sin was the lament of a bro-
 go for us? Then said I, Here am I;        of putting the coal to the prophet's         ken heart. It was the Old Testament
 send me. And he said, Go." The            lips and the accompanying word               equivalent of the apostle's groan in
 postponing of the account of the          represent justification. Especially the      Romans 7: "0, wretched man that I
 original call, with which Isaiah's        last part of the angel's word makes          am."
 ministry began, to chapter 6 can be       this clear: "Thy sin is purged." The               The prophet knew his own de-
 satisfactorily explained.                 Hebrew word translated "purged"              pravity. This depravity rendered
     The call is immediately followed      refers to the covering of sin's guilt        him guilty and shameful in the judg-
 by the prophet's mandate in verses        in the act of pardon. That forgive-          ment of the LORD. It was guilt, for it
 9b, 10: "Make the heart of this           ness is applied specifically to the lips     meant "woe," and the woe was noth-
 people fat." The divine purpose           of the prophet, just as in verse 5 his       ing less than being "undone." As
 with the mandate is given in verses       wickedness is concentrated in his            guilty, he was very really exposed
 11-13: "Until the cities be wasted        lips, is indicative of the fact that the     to the wrathful punishment of the
 without inhabitant . . . but yet in it    purpose of God with His people is            LORD. This was his "woe." Apart
 shall be a tenth."                        that they confess and praise Him             from the grace of pardon, the end
     Preceding call and mandate is         with the mouth. Their great sin,             was that he was "undone," that is,
 the prophet's vision of the thrice-       therefore, is a sin of the lips.             perished.
holy LORD of hosts in verses l-4.                   Forgiveness was personal and              Without this living shattering
     In this description of the vision     experiential. It was a living spiri-         knowledge of one's own guilt be-
 of the LORD and of the call of the        tual reality in the prophet's con-           fore God, there is no forgiveness.
 prophet occur the prophet's out-          sciousness. Forgiveness was seared                 If those who would proclaim the
 burst, "Woe is me!" and the seraph's      there. It could never be forgotten,          gospel must know forgiveness, it is
 putting the live coal to the prophet's             God's forgiveness of the prophet    also necessary that they know their
 lips. The outburst expresses the per-     was the application to him of the            misery, that they know experientially
 sonal misery of the prophet; the          sacrifice of the Lamb of God in the          this "woe is me!".
 seraphs placing of a live coal to his     death of Jesus Christ. This comes                  But the knowledge of misery de-
 lips is the deliverance of the prophet    out in the symbolic act: a coal from         pends squarely upon the vision of
 from his misery.                          the altar was laid on his mouth.                  the LORD God: "for mine eyes
     The description of the prophet's      The altar with its fire typi-                        have seen the King the LORD
 personal misery and salvation refers      fied the offering of the                                 of hosts"- (v. 5). Isaiah saw
 to an ,aspect  of the LORD'S prepara-     propitiatory sacrifice.              Shall we             Jehovah God in His glory.
 tion of him for the task to which he               The prophet knew           preach Him,           He saw the triune God.
 will at once be called. It is com-        the cross! He knew the               and never            This is the significance, in
 monly recognized that there is a re-      cross as his own redemp-             have seen            part, of the  "trisagion":
 lationship between Isaiah's vision of     tion! It was not abstract            Him our-             "Holy, holy, holy" (v. 3).
the LORD and his call by the LORD in       to him, or only academic.             selves?            This is indicated by the plu-
that the holiness of Jehovah explains      The cross-of Christ was for                          ral in verse 8: "Who willSgo
 the message and mandate of the            him personally, and it was his                    for us?"
 prophet. But there is also this rela-     life.                                              He saw the triune God as God
 tionship between the vision of the                 This belongs to your preparation    of holiness. This holiness was not
 LORD and the call of the prophet, that    for the ministry. You hope to preach         only His separation from impurity,
 the vision of the LORD prepares the       to others the cross and its pardon.          but also His difference from all cre-
 prophet for his call, prepares him,       You must speak what you  your-               ated reality, His transcendence, His
 obviously, spiritually and experien-      selves believe.                              exaltedness, His Godness. Awe .at
 tially. This preparation is necessary              The preparation_,that consisted     the holiness of God, marked all-..of
 for the prophetic office in everyage.     of forgiveness was accomplished in           Isaiah's  niinis.try.  -More than any

 W~tandar~Ej~arwlflovember  1,1994


other prophet, Isaiah called God "the        never have seen Him ourselves? We          spiritual and experiential. The semi-
Holy One." Delitzsch says that this          see Him in the gospel, by the Spirit,      nary accomplishes this work, in the
was Isaiah's "prophetic signature."          but in a personal, spiritual, experi-      power of the Spirit, by teaching the
    Isaiah's was the vision of Jeho-         ential manner: the way of faith.           doctrine of the triune, holy God as
vah God triune as the Holy One in                Reformed pastors and teachers          made-known in Jesus Christ accord-
Christ. Isaiah  saw Christ! We are           must have this knowledge of God            ing to the Holy Scriptures. It teaches
`told this explicitly in John  12:41:        in Christ with its effect of repentance    this doctrine as the doctrine that the
"These things said Esaias when he            leading to forgiveness. It is not yet      professors and seminarians them-
saw his (Jesus').glory,  and spake of        the call, but it is basic to the call.     selves believe and by which they
him (Jesus)." No man ever sees the           Since the seminary prepares men for        themselves have been saved. Then,
naked substance of the Godhead.              the pastorate, this spiritual, experi-     and only then, is .it taught as a doc-
But Christ is the revelation of God          ential preparation is an aspect of the     trine that must be delivered to the
as `triune and holy; Jesus Christ is
                              .              task of the seminary. The work of          people of God in the congregations.
the glory of `God.                           the seminary is not only the aca-              God grant that in school this
    `We ministers of the Word must           demic and the intellectual. With the       year, our eyes see the Ring, Jehovah
have seen, and indeed constantly see,        academic and the intellectual, the         of hosts in Jesus Christ. Cl
Christ; Shall we preach Him, and             work of the Reformed seminary is                                             - DJE



The Apocrypha on Doctors                     well as by and through faith. The              Perhaps the most overlooked el-
     "She suffered Many Things of            Apocrypha was recognized by cer-           ement of healing is the need of the
 Many Physicians" (Standard  Bearer,         tain Protestant groups as educational      afflicted to be able to visualize them-
 Sept. 1, 1994) dealt with one of my         and uplifting. These books were not        selves as the favorite son or daugh-
 favorite Scripture passages from            only included in the 1611 edition of       ter of the Savior - for in Jesus' eyes,
 Mark 5:21-34. Perhaps the saddest           the Authorized King James Version,         we all are favorites! Truly, Paul ob-
 commentary in verse 25 is the ob-           but also in Martin Luther's German         served (Gal. 4:6), "And because ye
 servation that she "had spent all that      Version and in most other transla-         are sons, God hath sent forth the
 she had, and was nothing bettered,          tions in use at the time of the Refor-     Spiiit of his Son into your hearts,
 but rather grew worse." How ter-            mation.                                    crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore
 rible of those doctors to. take this            Martyrs Mirror (p. 284), in deal-      thou art no more a servant, but a
 poor woman's money without truly            ing with the Confessions of the            son; and if a son, then an heir of
 healing her. It is certainly quite pos-     Waldenses, makes this observation          God through Christ." In the depths
 sible that some of those physicians         about the Apocrypha: "Then follow          of Gethsemane, Christ Himself cried,
 were "faith" healers who claimed to         the books of the Apocrypha, which          "Abba, Father, all things are possible
 her that they could produce a mi-           were not received by the Hebrews;          unto thee: take away this cup from
 raculous healing when they really           hence, we read them, as Jerome says,       me: nevertheless not what I will,
 did not possess that power.                 in the preface to the proverbs, for        but what thou wilt" (Mark 1436).
     I would, however, like to point         the edification of the people, but not          Whether it is a daughter's flow
 out that Ecclesiasticus 38:1-15 begins      for the purpose of confirming church       of blood'or a beloved son's impend-
 by saying, "Honor a physician with          doctrines."                                ing crucifixion, Abba, Father, is
 the honor due unto him for the uses              Perhaps the most important ele-       deeply and genuinely concerned and
`which ye may have of him: for the           ment of the passage occurs in verse        is taking a personal interest in all
 Lord hath created  him," and goes           34, when Jesus addresses the woman         e v e n t s .
 on  to state (v. 4), "The Lord hath         as  daughter. Jairus had come to Jesus               (Dr.) Phyllis Pottorf-Albiecht
created medicines out of the earth;          because Jairus, a finite, mortal man             Cenchrea Christian Counseling
 and he that is wise will not abhor          was genuinely concerned about his                                  Broomfield, CO
 them." The books of the Apocry-              one and only daughter. But Jesus,
.*pha were originally included in the        the Master, was deeply and genu-           Response:
 1611 edition of the King James Ver-         inely concerned about aZZ the daugh-            Our Reformed churches have
.sion of the Bible, and perhaps if            ters of God. lI Corinthians 6:17,18,      this view of the Apocrypha:
-:those  books had remained in pub-           quoting Isaiah 52:ll and Jeremiah
.?lished versions, it would not have          31:9, says of God, "And will be a           We distinguish those sacred books
`..been so easy for some faith-healers        Father unto you, and ye shall be my          (which have just been named -
Ifto discount the(possibility;that  heal-     sons and daughters, saith the Lord           Ed.) from the apocryphal (which
,ing could come fromi <physicians as          &mighty."       .     -2     '               arc then named -led.) . . . All of

                                                                                             * -. November 1,1994/Sta%ard  Seared55


     which (apocryphal books - Ed.)              ity of the other sacred books (Bel-      of Galatians 4:6 are children of God
     the Church may read and take in-            gic Confession of Faith, Art. 6).        "by faith in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:26);
     struction from, so far as they agree                                                 the suffering woman of Mark 5:25-
     with the canonical books; but they            Regarding the heavenly Father's
     are far from having such power and                                                   34 had faith in Jesus (v. 34); and Jesus
                                               loving care over afflicted men and
     efficacy, as that we may horn their                                                  Christ is the eternal, natural Son of
     testimony confirm any point of            women, the sons and daughters of           God in human flesh (John l:l-18).
     faith, or of the Christian religion;      II Corinthians 6:17,18 are believers                                        - Ed.
     much less detract from the author-        in Jesus Christ (w. 14,15); the sons

     &!&@Jgl~.~                                                                                  p$$&mm i

                     Our Ch.ureh-Governed
                                               Seminarp

Introduction                                   churches. This was a conscious and         sions of disillusionment with de-
        Both in Presbyterian and Re-           deliberate decision which expressed        nominations and church-controlled
formed circles in the last three quar-         their considered judgment that a           seminaries.
ters of this century the tendency has          seminary, if it was to be Reformed,            In other instances independent
been to establish independent semi-            had to be under the supervision and        seminaries are formed by those who
naries which are governed by boards            direction of the church. This con-         wish to stay within a denomination
of directors who are in some in-               viction was embodied in the Consti-        which they know has departed in
stances answerable to societies of one         tution of the Theological School:          significant respects from the historic
sort or another, and who are, in               "The supervision and administration        Christian faith, which departure has
other instances, answerable only to            of the institution belongs to Synod        involved the seminary as well. They
themselves. Most seminaries orga-              itself"; and in the Constitution of the    wish to set up a rival seminary,
nized within the last seven decades            Theological School Committee: "The         therefore, which can be trusted to
or so are such independent serninar-           Synod itself shall care for all mat-       train orthodox preachers, perhaps in
ies.                                           ters that pertain to the proper ad-        the hope that the sad apostasy in
        The seminary of the Protestant         ministration of our theological            the denomination of which they are
Reformed Churches has become                   school." Our seminary was estab-           a part can be reversed.
something of an oddity in this re-             lished as and remains a church-gov-            Whatever the reasons, indepen-
.spect.                                        erned seminary.                            dent seminaries are presently in
        In the beginning of the history            In a way it is understandable          vogue, and our seminary is some-
of our Protestant Reformed                     that  .the trend is towards indepen-       thing of an exception on the ecclesi-
Churches, now nearly 70 years ago,             dent seminaries. For one thing, it         astical scene.
our fathers established a seminary             has often happened in the history of           This unusual character of our
which was governed by the                      the church that heresy first appeared      seminary brings us face to face with
                                               in the seminaries. There is a certain      the question: Were our fathers right
                                               truth to the saying: "As goes the          in establishing a church-governed
                                               seminary, so goes the church." But         seminary? In doing so, was it a mere
                                               these seminaries have, as often as         arbitrary choice with them? Was it
                                               not, been under the supervision of         a decision made on purely pragmatic
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-        ecclesiastical bodies; and it is           grounds? Ought we to follow
toy and Mm Testament in the Protes-            thought, whether rightly or wrongly,       today's trend and make our own
tant Reformed Seminary.                        that an independent seminary stands        seminary independent? Is this wise?
*       This feature article is the text of    a better chance of remaining faithful      Is this good? More importantly, is
Prof. Hanko's seminary convocation ad-         to the historical faith of the church.     this Reformed?
dress.                                         Independent seminaries are expres-             It is the burden of what I have

56lStandard  Bearer/November 1,1994


                                 .  .



to say that, if- we truly desire to         and power -from the people of-God             paring ministers forthe gospel min-
maintain a Reformed seminary, the           who sit in the pews. God's people             istry, for this is what the people of
present status of our school as             want and need pastors and teach-              God insist on. And this is `a Re-
 church-governed is the only -option        ers, They have established a semi-            formed seminary.
 open to us. A Reformed seminary            nary for this purpose.. They demand'
is a -church-governed seminary; an          of. the seminary that the `school ac-         What Is a Church-controlled ,  :'
independent seminary, free of               complish this purpose. They-want              Seniinary?
 church control, is wrong, fundarheni-      a seminary for no other reason than                Fundamentally, a Reformed
 tally wrong, so wrong that it cannot       - that*pastors  and preachers.may  bring      seminary is a church-controlled
function as an institution for'the          the gospel of salvation to them and           seminary because: such a seminary
training of Reformed pastors.               their children.                               is demanded by the Scriptures.  '
 -      ,I                                     `. A ieminary independent from                  It is clear that nowhere in all the
A             PracticalConsideration        the,churches  becomes often times a           Scriptures will-one find an exhorta-
       We are interested- tonight in es-    law unto itself in this respect. It does      tion to the church to establish semi-
 tablishing the fact that the oizZy  way    not hear the incessant cry for minis-         naries. That is not the point.
in which a seminary can be truly Re-        ters of the gospel, for it, has cut its            But  .the Scriptures do state
 formed is to be church-governed.' . ties with the church.*- And so, .with-               clearly that the training of ministers
But before this is -demonstrated, it        out being~firnily anchored in the very        is part of the ministry of the Word
,might  be'well  to consider the fact       life of the church, it can, and often         of God; and is, therefore, part of the
 that an independent seminary faces         does, become a citadel of learning            work of the church-as institute. That
 some real practical problems which         and scholarly research, an institution        is, the training -of ministers itself is
make it difficult, if not ultimately        to produce Ph.D.`s, Th.M.`s, Th.D.`s,         part of the official preaching of the
impossible, to remain a truly Re-           and M.Div.`s. -                               gospel. And only the ,chtirch insti-
 formed seminary.                                I and my, colleagues in the semi-        tute may, according to the command
       An-independent seminary is  an-      nary would be the very last people            of Christ, the Head ,of the `church,
-swerable to no ecclesiastical body.        to scorn academic training and to             preach the gospel.
This means, -first of all, that it has      mock degrees: Nevertheless, the                    I know only too well that even
 not the support-ofiany  ecclesiastical     church-of our Lord Jesus Christ does          Reformed churches are altogether
body as far as finances are con-            not want, in the first place, Ph.D.`s;        too slovenly about the proper dis-
 cerned. It depends for its very ex-        it wants pastors and teachers.                       tinctions of Scripture with re-
istence on a relatively large student       While the two need not nec-                            i gard to thechurch institute.
body, a popular staff widely known,         essarily be mutually ex-                                      In spite .of the fact that
 and the good.graces of individuals         elusive, the fact remains          The seminary                Scripture clearly as-
who are willing to contribute to its        that _ from some inde- '            established                 signs to the church in-
 support. Our seminary,,on theother         pendent - seniinaries             for the training.              stitute alone the work
 hand, can function just as well with       over half. of the gradu-       of ministers must be a            of preaching (along
 two or three students as with two          ates never enter the                     f u n c t i o n         with the administra-
 or three hundred  students.<' The          pastoral      ministry.            of the church,                tion of the sacraments
number makes no significant differ-         Such a seminary has                andtherefore                  and the exercise of
 ence. As long as the seminary serves       lost its reason for exist-      under her control.              discipline) all kinds of
 the purpose for. which the church          ence, for. a Reformed  u                                      ecclesiastical organiza-
has established it, its existence is        seminary, in all the tradi-                               tions and para-church  ~
 guaranteed. An independent semi-           tion of the church, has been a                         groups engage in and think
nary must please a varied constitu-         school for the preparation of min-            they can perform that which belongs
 ency to continue to function.' This        isters of the gospel of Jesus Christ.         rightfully only to the church. Noth-
 could pose, in itself, a significant            A seminary loose -from ecclesi-          ing else can, e.g., explain an "inde-
threat..                                    astical moorings easily becomes               pendent board of missions."
       More importantly, to separate a      wrapped up: in studies, the pursuit                However that may be, we may
 seminary from the church is all but        of academic achievement and schol-            not blur the lines. Only the church
to guarantee that it will in time cease     arship, degree-granting- programs,            is-commissioned to preach the gos-
to function in the way it ought to          and the churning out of learned pro-          pel. Scripture clearly indicates that
function, i.e., to prepare within its       fessors to teach in colleges. and uni-        the training of ministers belongs to
walls preachers and pastors for the         versities. But this is not what semi-         the preaching of the gospel. The
church of our Lord Jesus.Christ.            naries are for. A seminary anchored           seminary established..for  the ,train-
       A church-governed seminary is        firmly in the organic and institu-            ing'_of ministers must be a function
ecclesiastically related -to the            tional life of the church is a semi-          of the church, and therefore-under
churches and derives its strength           nary which will be interested in pre-         her control.

                                                                                                 November 1,199htandard  Bearer/57


     Let us look briefly at the perti-      another passage in Scripture, II           church. He is also, however, a metn-
nent Scriptures.  I                         Timothy  2:2. Paul in writing to           her  of a church near the seminary,
     The first text to note is`Ephesians    Timothy, his spiritual son, is telling     and his membership is in a different
 431, 12: "And he, (the ascended            him which matters belong to                congregation than his ministerial cre-
 Christ) gave some, apostles;  and-         TQnothy's  work as a faithful  pastor:     dentials. I am an emeritus minister
 some, prophets; and some, evange-          ",And the th@gs  that thou hast heard      of  Doon Protestant Reformed
lists; and some, pastors and teach-         of'me among many witnesses, the.           Church, but a member of Hope Prot-
 ers; -foi the perfecting-of the saints,    same commit thou to faithful men,          estant Reformed `Church:
for the work of the ministry, for the       who shall be ;able to teach others              This ought to be changed.- Not
 edifying of the body of Christ."           also."  -                                  Synod calIs a minister; only the lo-
     The text is speaking of those .of-         .Paul is speaking here of the fact     cal-church calls a minister. That.min-
fices in the church of Christ given         that men must be prepared  .who            ister, called to be a minister.in  train-
by the ascended Lord which belong           can be preachers in the church.. But       ing others for the ministry, ought t-o
to the church and are, the work of          the preparation `of these men is           be called by a local church. And
the church. These offices are for the       firmly placed .on the shoulders of         that church should hold both his
perfecting of the saints, the work of       Timothy. It is part of his work  as a      ministerial credentials and his mem-
the.ministry,  and the edifying of the      pastor  and teacher to commit -the         bership papers. . I ought to be an
body of Christ.              ,              things he himself has learned to oth-      associate pastor of Hope Protestant
     Among those offices are "pas-          ers.so that the church may continue        Reformed Church, called to serve as
tors and teachers."               1         to have preachers.                         professor in the sqminary.
     The precise meaning of thisrex-            That settles the matter.: Let it be         It is to be hoped that this strange
pression has been disputed. Some            clqarly :understood - if it were not       situation which now exists will be
have held to ihe idea that the ex-          for the fact that I and my colleagues      changed by the time our churches
pression refers to-only one office and      preach  in the Seminary, none of us        call another professor.
 that those who hold this office are        would be there. We are called to be             The truth of the matter is, how-
both pastors and teachers.- Some,           preachers. If we were not persuaded        -ever, that in spite of this anomaly
however, have: disagreed. They              by the Scriptures themselves that we       our churches have insisted that pro-
have insisted that the words "pas-          are  preaching,  no  :power  on earth      fessors be preachers of  the_ gospel,
tors and teachers" refer to two dis-        could ever have brought us to the          and that they continue as preachers
tinct offices in thb church, the-office     semhyry.                                   when their work is shifted from the
 of pastors and the office of profes-           It is preaching in a  differefi;       pastoral ministry to the ministry of
sors of theology, the latter of whom        form; preaching in the form of lec-        preparing pastors and teachers in
teach in -schools established for the       tures, discussions, questions and an-      Seminary. (See Article 5 of "The
-training of pastors; This latter in-       swers, tests `and exams; preaching         Constitution of the Theological
terpretation was the interpretation         in the form of instruction in Hebrew       School.")
of John Calvin and was followed by          grammar and church history;  but
so notable an exegete as William            preaching for all that. It is an offi-
Hendrickson. Calvin's distinction           cial function of the church.               Practical Implications
has found its way into our Church-              No para-church organization                 This principle position has many
Order. which, in Article 2, speaks of       may preach. No board or society            practical implications.
four offices, one-of which is profes-       may preach. The church is given            -    It has practical implications, first
sor of theology.        .                   the calling and  .responsibility  to       of all, for the churches and for the
    It is not my intention to enter         preach. In independent seminaries          people of God within the churches.
this dispute tonight. What is im-           there Is no preaching. And instruc-             The seminary belongs to God's
portant for our purposes is the fact        tion which is not preaching is not         people. It is not :the seminary of a
that no matter which of the two in-         preparation for the ministry of the        board of trustees or an executive
terpretations is adopted, the text          gospel.                                    committee. It is the seminary of the
clearly insists that teaching is a part         An anomaly exists in this respect      people of God. The building belongs
of th$ official work of the church,         in our own churches, an anomaly            to them, and the professors are their
an aspect of the work of pastors, that      which ought to be corrected. The           servants sent .to minister to the needs
is,` of the preaching of the gospel.        present set-up in our churches is this:    of the sheep. The students are their
And that is why this passage has            a professor is called by the Synod. If     students who have come from their
always been referred to in Reformed         he should accept the call, he becomes      homes, their families, their congre-
churches as the basis for the idea          an emeritus minister of the congre-        gations. The seminary is established
that theological instruction is a part      gation he .last served, and, as far as     by God's people to accomplish the
of the ministry of the tihurch.             his official work is concerned, he is      one great and all-important work in
    This idea is further proved by          under the direct supervision of that       which all God's people have a cru-

59kStandard  Bearer/November 1.1994


  cial part: providing the church with        accept their instruction-as such.          student must make up his own
  pastors and teachers:                           The work.of  the seminary is the       n&d. I It is like a preacher who reads
       God's people support theesemi-         God-ordained way of saving their           on the pulpit from eleven different
  nary. They support the  s&inary.            souls. This does not mean that stu-        commentaries with eleven different
  financially and they support the            dents .do not ,need the `preaching of      interpretations, and then tells the
  seminary in their prayers. It is a          the Word on the Lord's Day as well.        people to take the interpretation.they
  source of great encouragement to us         But the means of grace for the sal-        like.
  to discover in the churches an eager        vation of the students in .fheir work               Professors preach. They -say:
  interest in the seminary. Wherever          of pyepyation  JOY pyeuchi~g  comes to     "Thus saith the Lord." They say:
  the professors go, God's people bom-        them in the way of their theological       "This is the truth, the very truth of
  bard them with questions about the          instruction in seminary. Paul tells        God." It is not a matter of "take it
  seminary. This is exactly as it ought       Timothy that through his faithful la-      or leave it." Believe this and be
  to be. The seminary has and must            bors he shall save both himself and        saved; reject this and only eternal
  have the spiritual support, the inter-      those who hear him.                        desolation awaits you.
  est, the concern, the trust, the love           Students are, therefore, in sub-                They preach in Homiletics, -in
  of God's'people.                            jection to their professors as to.         Hermeneutics, in Exegesis, In His-
       But God's people must also con-        Christ.                                    tory of Dogma. Because they preach,
  tinue to see to it and to, demand of            This does not preclude discus-         their instruction must not be only
  the seminary that it provide them           sion, questions, even debate, argu-        academic, but it must be geared to
  with pastors and teachers, compe-           mentation .and `perhaps disagree-          the spiritual nurture of the students.
  tent to do the work and faithful to ._ ment in the classroom. But the fact             It must be practical as well as aca-
  the heritage of the truth. God's -is that students must submit them-                   demic. It must be spiritual in addi-
  people .ought  to visit the seminary,       selves to the'authority of their pro-      tion to intellectual. It must be geared
  ought to read avidly the annual re- _ fessors, and in such submission, sub-            to prepare men of God for the min-             -
  port ofthe Theological School Com-          mit to Christ. They must submit to         isewho  are truly men of God, men
  mittee sent to Synod, ought to listen       the instruction too which is given         of integrity, men of spiritual cour-
  carefdly to the students when they' them. They must heed the injunc-                   age, men' of personal piety and de-
  bring a word of edification in the          .tion of James which comes to all who      votion to God and His cause, men
  churches, ought to visit the cat-           put themselves under the preaching:        of prayer.
  echism classes taught by the stu-           -(`Let every man be swift to hear,                  And finally, professors must
  dents. They want to know and need           slow to speak" (1:19). '  -                themselves profit from their own in- _
  to know whether the seminary is still           Criticism of their practice            struction and studies. They must
  doing its work well. The seminary           preaching, correction of their moral       profit spiritually.
  is entrusted with the work of pro-          conduct, instruction in the truth -            2They must, of course, profit in- I
- ,viding them and their families with        all these the students must receive        tellectually. They must continue to
  preachers and instructors of their          as from Christ. Questions must not         study, to read, to grow, to advance
  children. Is the seminary doing this?       be for purposes of challenging the         in learning and ,in the understand-
  Whatever must be done to maintain           professors, but for purposes of leam-      ing of -God's Word. It will not do
  a Reformed seminary, God's people           ing more fully the truth. Debate           for a professor to do what some min-
 `must do.  '                                 must be-carried on with respect. At-       isters do - turn-over the pile every
       The principles I have set forth        tentiveness must characterize class-       ten years or so. They must not teach
  have implications for the students. - room conduct.                                    from notes yellow with age, never
  The students are not only attending             God is giving them, through this       changed, never developed, never
  an institution of higher learning to        form of preaching, that special grace      with anything new and fresh. They
  do post-grad work. They are plac-           necessary to be faithful ministers of      must grow or their students will die.
  ing themselves under the official           the gospel.                                    But Paul speaks also of the fact
  preaching of the Word of Christ.                Finally, these truths have impli-      that such growth must be spiritual.
  That is, they are sitting at the feet of    cations for professors.                    "But I keep under my body, and
  Christ Himself, who is pleased to               Professors preach the Word.            bring it into subjection; lest that by
  instruct them in the-calling to which           It is well that professors remind      any means, when I have preached
  presently He will call them.                themselves of this. It is altogether       to others, I myself should be a cast-
  _    It may not always be clear- to         too common in today's seminaries           away" (I Cor. 9:27). What is true of
  students that a Hebrew grammar              that professors call  the attention of,    preachers is also true of professors
  quiz is official preaching, and tak-        the students to the views of innu- -       who are, after all, preachers train-
  ing notes in principles of missions is      merable theologians, but never -ex-        ing preachers.
  listening to preaching. But such it         press their own opinion on these               B. B. Warfield, in commenting
  is. And students must recognize and         theories because, so it is said, the       on this very verse and how it ap-

                                                                                                   November 1,1994/Standard  Beard59


plies to seminary instruction says:                                 self derives-no spiritual profit from                 iscueth
"You can go through the motions of                                  .his ownteaching:  "I starve with.hun-           - From thy lips, doth it return to bless -
the work, and I shall not say that                                  ger treading out the' corn, I die of             _ Thine own heart-manyfold?
your workwill  be in vain- for-God ' travail .while their souls are born:"                                              _- A church-governed seminary is
is-good and who knows by whatin-                                    Rather, says War,field,  it should be            a genuinely Reformed seminary.
struments he may work his willof                                    said of a professor:                                -. May, by God's grace, our semi-
good for men?" But then he goes                                       8 teacher, then I, said, thy years,            nary remain a church-governed
on to describe'a-professor who `him-                                 _ Are they not joy? each word that              seminary.  0                ,.

                  .     .          -I    . .
     _   I                                r l?rotestiiit   R'efoimed  Seminary  '
    kobert  D. Decker                           '       -     '       -       '                                                      4949 Ivanrest Avenue
    Professoqof Practical Theology andNew  Testament
    DavidJ. Engelsma,.Rector                                                                -.                             Grandville, Michigan 49418
    Professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament                                                                                      Pkone:s  (616) 531-1490
    Herman C. Hanko                                                                 _  i
    Professor of-ChurchMstoy  and New Testament                                                                                          October lo,1994
                                                                            News from Seminary Hill          '               :
   Dear Brothemand  Sisters,                          > ,
         - By this time we-are-well into the work of the first-semester of the, new school-year. Classes began at the
   Protestant-Reformed Seminary on August 30. On the evening of September 7,. at Hope Church in Walker,
   Michigan, Professor  Hank0  gave the  convocation:address,to a large and appreciative audience. His topic
   was, "Our Church-Governed Seminary.`:                                                               _
              God has blessed the churches with eleven seminary students. Two are in their fourth (and final) year
   and will graduate in June, 1995, God willing. Both are doing their internships. One,is working in the Doon,
   Iowa PRC under the supervision of the Doon consistory. The other, interested in missions, is working in
   Singapore under the supervision of the consistories of the Evangelical Reformed Churches of Singapore
   (ERCS) and minister-on-loan Rev, Jay Kortering. i
              There are two third-year students, sixsecond-year students, and one who entered seminary this year. -
              Nine of the eleven aspire to the ministry in the-PRC. One is a member of an Orthodox Presbyterian
   congregation. Another is a Singaporean training for the ministry in the ERCS.
              Eight of the students are engaged in practice-preaching. Monday mornings are devoted to students'
   sermons and to critique by students and professors.
              `Punctuating the lecturing and practice-preaching are the sounds of construction. The addition to the
   seminary building is going up. All of us look-forward to the -completion of the addition. There will be
   study-space for the students; offices outside the classrooms for the professors, a gooh-sized  library to house
   our books, and space for denominational archives and publishing activities.
              Synod 1994 decided to raise the money that is  still needed for this project (about $100,000) by collections
                                                I                                                                 in the churches. We.commend  this
                                                                                                                  cause to our people and, indeed,
                                                                                                                  to all the readers of the Standard
                                                                                                                  Bearer.  It is particularly gratifying
                                                                                                                  to us that of the approximately
                                                                                                                  -$320,000  already contributed for ,
                                                                                                                  the addition. about $100,000 was
                                                                                                                  given by. friends and supporters
                                                                                                                  outside the. PRC.
                                                                                                                     We desire  .your prayers on
                                                                                                                  behalf of the work of the seminary, .
                                                                                                                  that the churches may have able,
                                                                                                                  diligent, faithful ministers of the I
                                                                                                                  Word  - Reformed pastors.
                                                                                                                                     , Cordially in Christ,


                        Constructidn  begins on seminary li$z$/office  expansion.

GO/Standard Bearer/November I, 1994


   An Ab:le.an,d .&iithful ,sM.ini&try
            ,
                                                         ,    :
                                              I
                                                      First, when the  .Church  herself         libraries. And she can digest, and
  , . . . A further means which the                provides a seminary for the instruc-         gradually improve a system of in-
Church is bound to employ for pro-                 tion of her own candidates for the           struction, iwhich shall be the result
viding an able and.faithful  ministry              ministry, she can at all times inspect       of.combined  wisdom, learning, and
is furnishing a seminary in which the and regulate the course of their edu-                     experience. Whereas those candi-
candidatesfor this office may receive the          cation; can see that it is sound, thor-      dates for the sacred office who corn:
most appropriate and complete instruc-             ough, and faithful; can direct and           mit themselves to the care of indi-
tion which she has it in her power to              control the instructors; can correct         vidual  ministers,`selected  according
give. In vain are young men of fer-                such, errors, and make such improve-         to the convenience of the cap.rice of
vent piety,, and the best talents,                 ments in her plans of instruction, as        each.pupil, must, in many cases, at
sought after and -discovered;  andin               the counsels of the whole body may           least, be under the guidance of in-
vain are funds provided for their                  discover. Whereas, if all is left to         structors who have neither. the tal-
support, while preparing for the                   individual. discretion, the  prepara-        ents, the learning, nor the leisure to
ministry, unless pure and ample                    tion for the service of the Church           do them justice  - and who have  -.
fountains of knowledge are opened                  may be in the highest degree defec-          not even a tolerable collection of
to  them,* and unless competent                    tive, or ill-judged, not to say  un-         books to supply the la-ck of their own
guides are assigned to direct them                 sound, ,-without the Church being            furniture as teachers.
in drinking at those fountains. This,              able effectually to interpose her  cor-          Further, when the. Church her-
however, is so -plain, so self-evident,            recting  hand.                               self provides the means bf instruc-        `L`
that I need. not enlarge upon its .                    Again, when the Church herself           tion for her own ministry (at a pub-
proof.                                             takes the instruction .of her candi-         lit seminary), she will, of course,.be
    But perhaps it may be supposed                 dates into her own hands, she can            furnished with ministers who have          ., *
by some, that there is no good rea-                furnish a more extensive, accurate,          enjoyed, in some measure, a  uniform
son why the means of education                     and complete course of instruction           course of education; who have derived
should be provided by the Church,                  than can be supposed to be, ordi-            their knowledge from the same mas-
as .such. It may. be imagined, that                narily, within the reach of detached         ters, and the same approved  foun-
they will as likely be provided, and               individuals. In erecting and endow-          tains,, and who may, therefore, be
as well provided, by private instruc-              ing a. seminary, she can select the          expected to agree in their views of
tors, as by public seminaries. But                 best instructors  out  of..her   -whole      evangelical truth and order. There
all reason, and all experience, pro-               body: She can give her pupils the            willthus be the most effectual pro-
nounce a different judgment, and as-               `benefit of the whole time, and the un-      vision made, speaking after the man-
sign, as the ground of their decision,             divided exertions,  of these instructors.    ner of men, for .promoting the unity       .
such considerations as these.                      Instead of having all the branches of        and peace of the Church. Whereas, if       '
                                                   knowledge, to which the theological          every candidate for-the holy minis-        *,
                                                   student applies himself, taught by a         try is instructed by a different mas-
Sainuel  .M;ller was one'of the founders           single master, she  can divide  the task     ter, each of whom may be supposed          s
                                                                                                                   -.        _
ofPrinceton  Seminary in 1812. He him-             of instruction among several corn7           to have his peculiarities of expres-       I  :
                                                                                                                                           `_
self taught at Princeton for 36 years.             petent teachers, in such a manner as         sion and opinion (especially about
The article we publish is part of the ser-         .to admit of each doing full justice         minor points of doctrine and disci-             `i
mon that Miller preached at the instal-            both to his pupils and himself. She          pline), the harmony of our ecclesias-
lation  of  Archibald Alexander as first           can form one ample library, by which         tical judicatories will gradually be
professor at Princeton in August, 1812.            a given-number of students ,may be           impaired; and strife, and perhaps
The full sermon has been published by              much better accommodated, when               eventually schism, may  ,be expected             .
Presbyterian Heritage Publication, P.O.            collected together, and having access        to arise in our growing and happy               -.a
                                                                                                                                                -.:%
Box `180922, Dallas, TX 75218. The                 to it in common, than if the same            Church.                                         .--
                                                                                                                                            ::.
excerpt reprinted here is .taken from this         amount of books were divided into                It is important to add, that when            .-:
publication with permission.                       a corresponding number of smaller            the Church provides  for educating
                                                                                                      November 1,1994/Standatd  BearerI           ..F._z+


a number of caniiidates  for the min- . --forrnitv  and with cordial affection-       more-especially of the Schools of
istry at the same'seminary, these can- to  herpublic-.standarasj if she dep-          Hillel and Shammai. Such a Divin-
didates themselvesmaybe  expected          recates the melancholy spectacle of        ity Professor was Cam-aliel, at whose
to be of essential service to each         a heterogeneous, divided, and dis-         feet the great apostle of the Gentiles
other. Numbers being engaged to-           tracted ministry; and finally, if she      received his education."
gether in the same studies will natu-      wishes-her ministers to be educated            Under the Christian dispensa-
rally excite the principle of emula-       under circumstances most favorable         tion, the same system, in substance,
tion. As "iron sharpeneth iron"            to their acting in after life as a band    was adopted and continued. At a
(Prov. 27:17), .so the amicable com-       of brethren, united in friendship as       very early period, there was a semi-
petition, and daily intercourse of pi- - well as in sentiment; then let.her take      nary of high reputation established
ous students, can scarcely fail of         measures for training-them up un-          in the city of Alexandria, in which
leading to closer and more perse-          der her own eye, and control; under        candidates of the holy ministry were
vering application; to' deeper re-         the same teachers; in the same course      trained up together, and under the
search; to richer acquirements; and        of study; and under all those advan-       ablest instructors, both in divine and
to a more indelible impression-, of        tages of early intercourse, arid affec-    human learning - a seminary in
that which is learned, upon their          tionate competition, which attend a        which      Pantaenus,       Clemans
minds, than can be expected to take        public seminary.                           Alexandrinus, Origen, and- others,
place in solitary study.                       In favor of all this reasoning, the    taught with high. reputation.
    Nor is it by any means unwor-          best experience, and  the  general         Eusebius and Jerome both declare
thy of notice, that when the minis-        practice of the Church, in different       that this seminary had existed, as a
ters of a Church are generally trained     ages, may be confidently urged. "It        nursery of the Church and had en-
up at the same seminary, they are          has been the way of God," says the         joyed a succession of able teachers
naturally led to form earlyfiiend~hips,    pious and learned Dr. Lightfoot, "to       from the time of Mark the evange-
which bind them together to the end        instruct his people by a studious and      list. Writers on Christian antiqui-
of life, and which are productive of       learned~mimshy, ever since he' gave        ties also assure us that there were
that mutual confidence and assis-          a written word to instruct them in."       seminaries of a similar kind very
tance, which can scarcely fail of          "Who," he asks, "were-the standing         early established at Rome, Caesarea,
shedding a benign influence on their       ministry of Israel, all the time from      Antioch, and other places; and that
personal enjoyment, and their offi-        the giving of the law, till the captiv-    they were considered as essential to
cial comfort and usefulness. These         ity in Babylon? Not prophets, or           the honor and prosperity of the
early friendships may also be ex-          inspired men; for they were but oc-        Church.
pected to add another impulse to a         casional teachers; but the Priests and         At the period of the Reforma-
sense of duty, in annually drawing         Levites, who became learned in the         tion, religion and learning revived
ministers from a distance to meet          law by study (Deut. 3310; Hos. 46;         together. The Reformers were not
each other in the higher judicatories      -Mal.  2:7). And for this end, they        less eminent for their erudition, than
of the Church; and,.which is scarcely      were disposed into forty-eight cites,      for their piety and zeal. They con-
less important, to facilitate and pro-     as so many universities, where they        tended earnestly for an enlightened,
mote that mutual- consultation re-         studied the law  together;  and from       as well as a faithful ministry; and,
specting plans of research, and new        thence were sent out into the sev-         accordingly, almost all the Protes-
and interesting publications, which        eral synagogues to teach the               tant Churches, when they found
is, ,at once, among the safeguards,        people."                                   themselves in a situation to admit
as well as pleasures, of theological           They had also, the same writer         of the exertion, founded theological
authorship.                                informs us, "contributions made for        seminaries, as nurseries for their
    These, brethren, are some of the       the support of these students, while       ministry. This was the case in
considerations which call upon ev-         they studied in the universities, as       Geneva, in Scotland, in Holland, in
ery Church to erect, and to support        well as afterwards when they               Germany, and, with very little ex-
with vigor and efficiency, a theologi-     Preached in the synagogues." He            ception, throughout Reformed
cal seminary for the training of her       tells us further, in another place',       Christendom. And the  history of
ministry. If she desires to augment        "that there' were among the Jews,          these seminaries, while it certainly
the number of her ministers; if she        authorized individual teachers, of         demonstrates that such establish-
wishes their preparation for the sa-       great eminence, who had their              ments are capable of being per-
cred office to be the best in her          Midrashoth, or Divinity Schools, in        verted, demonstrates with equal evi-
power to give, and at the least pos- i which they expounded the law to                dence that they have been made, and
sible expense; if she desires that they    their scholars or disciples." "Of          might always, with the divine bless-
may be a holy phalanx, united in           these Divinity; Schools," he adds,         ing on a faithful administration, be
the same great views of doctrine and       "there is very frequent mention            rendered extensively useful.  Q
discipline, and adhering with uni-         made among -the Jewish writers,

62lSiandard  Bearer/November 1,1994


    -0             Our Heritage-and the                                                                                            '
                        ' - Standard. Bearer                                                                                 1

                                          candidate for the ministry I was. ad-        As'we all know, Rev. Hoeksema
Address to RFPA Annual Meeting            vised by a certain Mr. Elhart of our     was strongly theocentric in his think-
    This is an important occasion,        Southwest Church not to preach on        ing and in his writing. I recall the
since tonight we celebrate `the 70th      the covenant for a long time. `!For,"    first radio sermon that he delivered,
anniversary of the Stundard  Bearer.      said he, "there are about as many        in which he -spoke on the subject,
On October 1,1924 the-first issue of      covenant views as there aie theolo-.     "God is." In the second he spoke
the Standard Bearer appeared in our       gians." That was a bit of an exag-       on the subject, "God is God," and in
homes. At'that time it was predicted      geration, but the point was well-        the'third, "God is a covenant God."
that the magazine would have a            made.                                        He made it a practice always to
speedy death. Maybe it would last            There were two outstanding            begin with God. If he-was speaking-
five years, at the most ten. Later it     views. The one was of Dr. Abraham        on the subject of love, he would say,
was said that it would die out with       Kuyper,  who spoke of the covenant       "God is love! God loves Himself as
our churches when Rev. Hoeksema           as a contract between two parties        the one and only good. He loves
passed away. Today the  Standard          opposing a third. And he made the        His people in Christ, and spreads
Bearer is still coming to our homes       basis for infant baptism his presup-     His love abroad in their-hearts, that
and has a -wider distribution than        posed regeneration. There was also       they may love Him and declare His
ever before.                              the view of Rev. Heyns, who spoke        praises." When he spoke -of truth
    We can certainly thank-God for        of the promise that is given condi-      he would.stress  that "God is truth,"
that. We can also be thankful for         tionally to every baptized child. He     and that God reveals His truth in
the faithful-writers who in our early     taught a certain baptismal grace,        Jesus Christ "who is the way, the
history contributed so much time          whereby the child was placed in a        truth, and the life." There is no love, _
,and effort to instruct us through its    sort of neutral position, whereby he     no truth apart from God, as we learn
pages. Rev. Herman Hoeksema and           could choose to be saved or could        from the infallible Scriptures.
Rev. George Ophoff burned a lot of        become a covenant breaker. This              Thus when he spoke of God's
midnight oil to get the  Standard         view is similar to that maintained       covenant he always stressed that
Bearer  to come out on time, and          by Dr. Schilder.                         God is the covenant God, who lives
have left-us a heritage of invaluable         Already in the very first issue      His own glorious and blessed life of
material.                                 of the Standard Bearer Rev. Hoek-        intimate fellowship within Himself
    If you were to ask, what is the       sema described the covenant as a re-     as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The
distinctive truth that distinguishes      lationship of friendship between God     three persons of the Trinity think as
the Protestant Reformed Churches          and His people in Christ. This view      one, speak as one, and work as one,
from other denominations and gives        he developed throughout the years,       for all God's works are carried out
her the.right  of existence, we would     as would be evident to anyone who        from the Father, through the Son,
answer, the truth of God's covenant.      might read the back issues of the        and in the Holy Spirit. God is ever
    We should understand that at          Standard Bearer.                         blessed in Himself and has no need
the beginning of our history there            This important truth, which we       of men's hands to be worshiped by
was no agreement as to the truth of       all dearly cherish, has been devel-      them.
God's covenant. When I was made           oped particularly along the lines of         The triune God wills to reveal
                                          God's sovereignty, the antithesis,       Himself in His Son, in Christ Jesus.
                                          and its particular, unconditional        Therefore Christ is the firstborn of                 .
                                          character.                               all creatures, the firstborn among
                                              On that I wish to broaden out a
Rev,  Hanko is a minister emeritus in                                              many brethren, and the first begot-
                                          bit this evening.
the Protestant Reformed Churches.                                                  ten from the dead, that in him all
                                                                                            November 1,1994/Standard  Bearer163               ,e
                                                                                                                                        .*-..-.


                     .  -  .-  --.-                                                                     I  _              s
fu&&s  ofblessed&&  &&d.&r,$.   ";  -                  .'  - .  `-  .'  -  '
                                                  thy'.seed;*- .It shall bruise thy head L. and-unworthy of God; The devilis
And Christ is made the head of His                and-thou  shalt-bruise .his heel" (Gen.    : not a pow-er dutside,of  Gdd,7but  is a
church, the Shepherd of the sheep                 3:15).                                      creature of God who must serve
given to Him of the Father.               .           What an amazing wonder. It              God's purpose.
    Moreover, God has willed to re-               was the woman who fell first. Yet it                 Over against that error, we hold
veal the fullness of His glory on the             is the woman who is mentioned pas           that God maintains the antithesis.
 dark background of sin and dea_th.               being saved,`by child-bearing. The          -Already on the first day of creation
 God wills sin, but only to show forth            seed that is prqmised to the woman          He created the light and formed the
the glory of His name through the                 is the Christ. Galatians tells us that      darkness. Light is the combination
salvation of His people in- Christ `c the seed refers to Christ. Scripture                   of -all color; darkness is the absence
Jesus.         -                                  speaks, not of many seeds, but of           of color.
     Gne cannot help but -marvel                  one, -which is Christ. And,, as we
                                                            ,..                                        Soon after, G.od.set up the tree
"when he reads Genesis one. `"In the - read later, that `includes all those                   of life in Paradise, and placed over
beginning God created the heaven                  who .belong to Christ, the body-of          against it the tree of knowledge of
and the earth." The-earth is one of               Christ, .the entire, assembly of the        good~and  evil. The tree of life was
the smallest planets, yet it was cre-             elect, to be brought into glory             God's "Yes." The tree of knotiledge
ated first. On the fourth day God,                through the cross of Christ.                was God's "No." To eat of the tree
created the sun and the moon and                       u+,  oo+  u+  u+                       of life meantlife; to eat of the tree of
the. billions upon billions of stars.                 That brings us to the:doctrine  of      knowledge meant death:`              !- 1
But  .the earth is the  center of his-            the antithesis, -which is hardly un-           ._ God spoke of the seed of the
tory.                                             derstood anymore today. Already             woman.and  the seed of the serpent. .
    On the sixth day God created                  in 1924 common grace was thought            Throughout history there is the con-
man from the dust of the earth, and               to serve as a bridge between Jerusa-        flict between Christ and Belial, holi-
breathed into his nostrils  th? breath            lem and Athens, between the church          ness and unholiness, righteousness
of life. The psalmist declares, `%hat             and the world. At that time a paper         and unrighteousness, .good.and evil,
is man that thou art mindful of him,              appeared that was called "Religion          church and world, heaven and hell.
or the sonof man that thou visitest               and Culture." The church and the                     The church is called to fight the
him?" Yet man was made a little                   world seemed to have so much in             battle of faith against all the forces
lower than the angels, to be crowned              common, especially the many bless-          of darkness. ..For it is exactly through
with glory and honor in the day of                ings of God. The world had devel-           that conflict that she is  .purified,
Jesus Christ, when God would make                 oped so far in knowledge that, as           strengthened, preserved, and pre-
all things new.                                   one professor expressed it, Socrates        pared for glory. God is for her .and
    Therefore man was made in the                 in his philosophy had climbed up            nothing can be against her. She is
image and likeness of God in true                 all the way to heaven; All he lacked        more than conqueror in a world that
knowledge, righteousness, and holi-               was a bit of special grace and                        is doomed.for  destruction.
ness, to know God, to love Him and                he might have been saved.                                     This is most beautifully       ,
serve Him. In his relation to God as              Today the distinction be-                                       expressed in. -11  Cor-
his sovereign friend, Adam was,                                                         Today
                                                  tween church and world                                          inthians 614-18:  "Be ye
God's friend servant. In his relation-                                              the distinction
                                                  is virtually obliterated,                                       not unequally yoked
to the earthly creation he was king;                                              between church
                                                  so that the churches are                                        with unbelievers; for
guardian of paradise.             And -in, his                                      and world is
                                                  moving in the direction                                         what fellowship has
relation to the human race he was                                                     virtually
                                                  of post-millennialism.                                          righteousness       tiith
our representative head and our first                                               obliterated....
                                                   - In describing history,                                     B unrighteousness? and
father.                                           many teach a d&lism. His-                                     what c&munion has light
    Adam lived in intimate covenant               tory is often described as a                          with darkness? and what con-
fellowship with God, who met him                  battle between God and Satan. Sa-           cord hath Christ with Belial? or what
at the Tree of Life, walked with him              tan made his first attack in Paradise.      part hath he that believeth with an
and talked with him inintimate com-               God ,put `up Abel; but Cain killed          infidel? and what agreement hath the
munion of life. It -was Adam's joy                him. The world became so wicked             temple of God with idols? For ye
to do God's will.                                 that God was forced to send the             are the- temple of the living God; as
    Sin entered in through the temp-              Flood. After- that, the conflict goes       God hath said, And..1 will dwell in
tation of Satan. But God is faithful.             on even to Christ, so that Satan cru-       them, and walk in them; and I will
He keeps covenant. He comes. to                   cifies the Christ. And the battle -of       be their God, and they shall be my
Adam and Eve with the promise of                  the ages still continues; but we need       people. Wherefore come out from
a seed. God says to Satan:. "I will               not fear, because the ultimate vic-         among them, and be ye separate,
put enmity between .thee and the                  tory `will be the Lords. This whole         saith the Lord, and touch not the
woman, and between her seed and                   idea is nothing less than blasphemy         unclean thing and I will receive you,

64Bandard  BeareilNovember 1,1994


and will be a Father unto you, and                this covenant will be established             through Him, and unto Him are all
ye shall be my sons and daughters,                with Abraham's seed, which is                 things forever and ever. That truth
saith the Lord almighty."                         Christ.                                       , we cherish and defend.
     The Lord casts the wicked far                         The.Liberated interpreted that to         u+u4*+44
from him. He dwells with the lowly,               mean that all those included in the               In conclusion I wish to stress
with those with a broken heart and                generations are in the covenant, so           that our early leaders were
a contrite spirit, who tremble at His             that all baptized children receive the        theocentric in their thinking and
word.                                             promise. Moreover, they held that             writing. They put God first and be-
     u+ l 4   * u+                                the promise is conditional, depend-           gan with God. We do well to emu-
     It was particularly in 1953 that a           ing upon their acceptance later in            late them in that.
strong emphasis was placed upon                   life.                                             Moreover, they left us a heritage
the particularity and  uncon-                              The promise is to Christ and all     that we love and cherish. The truth
ditionality of God's covenant.                    those who are included in Christ, as          of God's covenant, which is taught
     When Rev. DeJong  and Rev. Kok               is evident from Galatians 3. Scrip-           throughout all of the Scriptures, and
were in the Netherlands they told                 ture regards the church organically.          may well be considered a fundamen-
the professors of the Liberated                   God tells Abraham that "in Isaac              tal truth, appears on virtually every
churches that our churches had no                 shall thy seed be called." The chil-          page of the Bible. We are called to
official covenant doctrine, and that              dren of the promise are regarded as           preserve it for future generations.
there was ample room in our                       the seed. Therefore he is not a Jew               That truth also has a strong ap-
churches for the Liberated view of                who is one outwardly, but he is a             peal to those who still love the truth
the conditional promise.                          Jew who is one inwardly, and cir-             of the Scriptures. That is evident
     This set off a series of articles in         cumcision is a matter of the heart.           from the recent conference that was
the Standard Bearer maintaining and               Therefore it is not all Israel that is        held in Scotland, as well as from
defending our covenant view.                      called Israel, but true, spiritual Is-        much of the response that our Stan-
     Once more, reference was made                rael is the chosen of God. In the             dard Bearer receives from time to
to the promise to Abraham, "And I                 New Testament Paul refers to the              time.
will establish my covenant between                church as "saints in' Christ Jesus."              The  Standard Bearer  has always
me and thee and thy seed after thee               And our Heidelberg Catechism                  been our vanguard, our witness to
in their generations as an everlast-              speaks of the holy, catholic church,          the church-world round about us.
ing covenant, to be a God unto thee               as "gathered by the Son of God, and           Our opposition still comes, not so
-and to thy seed after thee" (Gen.                chosen unto everlasting life, agree-          much from the world, although that
17:7).                                            ing in one faith."                            is worsening, but from the church-
     Let me remark a moment that                           God's promise is particular and      world round about us. To them we
this speaks of a unilateral covenant.             unconditional. We are saved by                must continue to witness of the truth
God says, "My covenant," and, "I                  grace, and by grace only. All of              entrusted to us. May we be faithful
will establish my covenant." And                  God, nothing of man. Of Him,                  unto death. 0

`&Q@ll&&p-&                                                     i                                                  &&p&q gl@g$
L                                                                                                        ^         ;     `.._


     Secretary's Report ,to the RFPA -
                                             September, 1994
                                             I                                                                T                           I

                                                  Members and Friends of the RFPA:              build it." Yes, truly, we are involved
                                                           As we conclude another year of       in the building of the spiritual house
                                                  publishing the Standard Bearer, we            of our God through the instruction
                                                  are reminded of the words of David            and faithful  witness  of the  Standard
Mr. Bodbyl is secretary of the Board of           in Psalm 127, "Except the Lord build          Bearer. It has been our distinct and
theRFPA.  :                  I                    the house, they labour  in vain that          great privilege to testify of our cov-

                                                                                                     November 1,1994/Standard  Bear&S


enant-keeping God and His sover-                 In the hope of adding new sub-       `"I just wanted to tell you how much
eign work in salvation. We give           scribers, the board has been busy           I missed the Standard Bearer while
thanks that God has been pleased to       promoting the SB again in this past         you were on vacation. When the
use the Standard Bearer in this work      year through various means. In ad-          August issue did arrive-I devoured
Unto that end, we pray that God           dition to advertising in World maga-        it. I can honestly say that it was
will continue to use our editor-in-       zine, we have tried something new           worth the wait." Another one was
chief and the many contributing edi-      by purchasing the services of Tri-          from a pastor in Maryland. "I am
tors. The board expresses our deep        Media, which sends product "card-           thinking of using these articles for a
appreciation to Prof. Engelsma for        decks" to thousands of addresses,           small men's fellowship we have each
his willingness to serve as editor-in-    targeting specific categories of            Sunday morning consisting of a
chief and to Don and Judi Doezema,        people or institutions. We con-             group of eight men."
our managing editor and business          tracted with T&Media  to include a              If anyone has suggestions on
manager and assistant business man-       card advertising the SB in a deck           how to add to the readership of our
ager, for the excellent work that they    sent to 100,000 different pastors           magazine, please contact the busi-
do in bringing the Standard Bearer        throughout the country. So far, over        ness manager.
to publication.                           300 pastors have asked for a free               The number of subscribers to the
    The entire magazine is prepared       sample copy, and, of those, 100 have        SB stands at 2,587 as of July 1,1994.
for publishing and distribution in the    asked for a free trial subscription.        This is an increase of 126 over last
seminary building. The fact that the             In working to gain new readers       July 1st. Of our total subscribers, 36
editor-in-chief and the business man-     of our magazine, the RPPA Board             are students in college, 266 are in
agers are employees also of the semi-     noted with dismay that approxi-             foreign lands, and almost half are
nary make the arrangement a natu-         mately 350 families in the PRC were         not Protestant Reformed. It might
ral one - advantageous, really, to        not subscribers to the  SB. Some pro-       be interesting to note that over the
both parties. The RPPA Board nev-         motion within our own denomina-             last 10 years our subscriptions have
ertheless appreciates very much the       tion of churches seemed therefore to        increased by slightly over 1,000, an
willingness of the Theological School     be in order. We decided to send six         average of about 100 per year.
Committee to permit this use of the       issues free of charge to each of the            The publishing of the Standard
seminary facilities, and for further      350P.R. non-subscribers, in the hope        Bearer continues to be a work of love
cooperation during this past year in      that after several months of enjoy-         for the board and it is our prayer
the joint purchase of a large-screen      ing regular reading-of the SB, some         that God will continue to use this
monitor for the office computer, and      of the 350 will be motivated to be-         publication to the glory of His name.
for sharing the cost involved in ac-      come regular subscribers to it. In                                                 cl
quiring an automatic mailing ma-          the cover letter that was sent with
chine and postage meter. We look          the first of the six free copies, we
forward to a continued cordial and        stated our objective thus: "We be-                         NOTICE
mutually beneficial relationship in       lieve that our people should be a                    The seminary has appreci-
the future.                               reading people, and that a good part          ated very much the response to
                                                                                        its appeal, some time ago, for
    In addition to the large-screen       of their reading should be the kind           copies of old Acts of Synod of
monitor, we have purchased new            of material found in our Standard             the Protestant Reformed Churches.
software to help in the area of ac-       Bearer - material that helps a Re-            We have not yet, however, been
counting. With the purchase of the        formed believer grow in the Re-               able to put together a complete
automatic postage mailing machine,        formed faith, keeps him informed              set for the Archives room. Nor
we have come from the age of "lick-       about what is happening in the eccle-         have we been able to make a
em and stick-em" to being on the          siastical world, gives him biblical di-       complete backup set for the li-
cutting edge. The time saved will         rection in all aspects of the Chris-          brary. Especially hard to come
be used in more important ways by         tian life, and directs his attention (by      by are the Acts of the 40s and
                                                                                        the 50s and some of the 60s.
our very busy manager.                    book reviews) to some of the excel-                  So, once more, we ask that
    The SB continues to experience        lent Reformed literature available to-        any of our readers who have
solid financial support from the sub-     day." It is certainly the desire of           copies of the older Acts, and are
scribers as well as through the gifts     the board that many, if not all, will         willing to donate them for de-
of individuals and the churches. The      become lifelong subscribers to the            nominational use, please re-
individual gifts and church collec-       SB.                                           member the need for them at
tions account for approximately 60%              The following quotes are from          the seminary. Our address:
of our annual revenue. The board          letters that we received and are an                   4949 Ivanrest Ave.
takes this opportunity to thank all       encouragement to the board to con-                   Grandville, MI 49418
                                                                                          .
those who have supported this pub-        tinue in our pursuit of adding new
lication with their gifts.                ' subscribers to the Standard Be$rer.

66Efandaid  Bearer /Novemh 1; 1994


 MM'
             &&  "  .,  .1
                        ,,            :  :  :  :..    :`.  .'  ,:~  ;,I,    `.  ;
                                                      ;  I  .,  ,  `.                .,  :,  `,  ,:;  :`.  .-  J!?t@  pa&i+-
                                                                                                           ,,.

                                                                      What concerns us is not the      and provide pastoral care under the
                                                            statements or resolutions as such.         supervision of the elders" of a local
n Irenic Debate                                             As a matter of fact they are on the        church. While a number of CR con-
    Several months ago (May 15,                             whole very strong statements of the        gregations have used the 1992 pro-
1994 issue) we commented on a                               major differences between Rome and         vision to have women seminarians
document drafted by Richard John                            Protestants, differences which made        lead worship services, and a few
Newhaus (a Roman Catholic priest)                           the 16th century Reformation neces-        have. hired female interns, Trinity
and Charles Colson. The title of the                        sary. What concerns us a great deal        CRC in Mount Pleasant is only the
document is "Evangelicals and                               is the stated purpose of the group in      second CR congregation to hire a
Catholics Together: The Christian                           issuing these resolutions. Is it our       woman as its full-time pastor. The
Mission in the Third Millennium."                           calling to dialogue (converse) with        other woman serving as an
It was signed by a good number of                         Rome? And;is it our calling to dia-          unordained pastor is Ruth Hofman,
prominent Evangelicals (Richard                             logue "in a spirit of irenic (peaceful)    who in 1992 began serving First CRC
Mouw, James I. Packer, et. al.). This                       debate?" While "... the souls of them      in Toronto, a congregation which
document calls upon Roman Catho-                            that were slain for the Word of God,       has had women elders for years.
lics and evangelicals to accept each                        and for the testimony which they               Rev. .Keith  Tanis, coordinator of
other as Christians and to stop "ag-                        held are crying with a loud voice,         field education at Calvin Theologi-
gressive proselytizing of each others                       saying, How long 0 Lord, holy and          cal Seminary in Grand Rapids, con-
flocks." The document recognizes                            true, dost thou not judge and avenge       ducted the commissioning service at
the groups' common faith. "We to-                           our blood on them that dwell on the        Mount Pleasant. "It's a good fit for
gether, evangelicals and Catholics,                         earth?" (Revelation  6:9-ll), must we      her. She  really is an outstanding
confess our sins against the unity                          have peaceful discussions and de-          leader because of her campus min-
that Christ intends for all his dis-                        bate with Rome on the issues that          istry background in Inter-Varsity
ciples," the statement says.                                divide us? Many of those saints (in-       Christian Fellowship," Tanis said.
   -Recently a group of evangelicals                        cluding Guido de B&s, the author           Central Michigan University is lo-
have composed a document called                             of The Belgic  Confession of Faith)        cated in Mount Pleasant.
"Resolutions for Roman Catholic &                           were slain by Rome in the 16th cen-            Tanis said the commissioning
Evangelical Dialogue." This docu-                           tury!                                      service included laying on of hands
ment lists seven resolutions or state-                                The answer is never! We must     but carefully avoided language of an
ments of evangelical belief which                           call Rome to repentance for her apos-      ordination service. Other ministers
are, I'... offered as material for dia-                     tasy and the terrible atrocities she       participating in the service included
logue between Roman Catholics and                           committed against those whose only         Mary-Lee's father, Rev. Henry
Evangelicals, following from the re-                        "crime" was the desire to be faithful      Bouma, and a Lutheran pastor from
cent document, `Evangelicals and                            to the Word of God.                        the area.
Catholics Together: The Christian                                           -Modern Refomation             The service was attended by a
Mission in the Third Millennium,                                                                       number of female seminarians from
. . . . We the undersigned offer this                                                                  Calvin. "It was very encouraging
response in a spirit of irenic debate                       n               WomanSer+ing               -for the women students to see that
(emphasis mine, R.D.D.) on issues                                                                      they could do ministry in the Chris-
arising from that important joint                           As Pastor                                  tian Reformed Church," Tanis said,
statement . . . the following statements                              On Sunday, August 28, 1994,      noting that the 1994 synodical deci-
seek to identify issues of concern to                       Mary-Lee Bouma was "commis-                sion not to allow the ordination of
evangelical Protestants that the                            sioned" to serve as unordained pas-        women ministers or elders had dis-
thrust of the document raises. What                         tor of the Trinity Christian Reformed      couraged a number of women semi-
follows is intended to encourage fur-                       Church in -Mount  Pleasant, Michi-         narians.
ther discussion of the possibilities                        gan. As reported earlier in these              We have just one question in the
and problems of acting together."                           columns the CRC's 1994 Synod re-           light of this, "What is the difference
                                                            fused to ratify its 1993 decision to       between teaching/ expounding the
                                                            open the offices of minister and el-       Word of God.under the, supervision
                                                            der to women. In 1989, however,            of the elders and preaching the
                                                            the CRC synod allowed women to             Word of God under the supervision
Prof. Decker is professor of Practi&                        serve as "adjunct elders," and in          of the elders?"
Theology in .tht?' P;otestank  Reformed                     1992 the synod allowed women' to           - Refomed Believers Press Service
Seminary.  -          :  r  -.:.:,                          `&~h, expound ,!he, Word of God,
                              .i.,                                                                                           2..
                                                                                                          , ,+November 1,1994/St~ndard  &red67


 n The Synod of the                                drawn from the Reformed Ecumeni-            egetical basis for women to serve in
 Reformed Churches                                 cal Council because of the latter's         the office of deacon.
                                                                                                   There were several appeals
 in Australia                                      inability or unwillingness to exercise
                                                   discipline over one of the member           against the 1991 synod's decision on
    This denomination, consisting                  denominations, the Reformed                 the "Word and Spirit" issue. In 1991
 mostly of post World War II immi-                 Churches in the Netherlands. The            the synod took a decision which-in
 grants from the Netherlands, is di-               Dutch church, among other things,           effect left the door open to new rev-
 vided over three major issues. The                openly tolerates homosexuals even           elations/prophecies. The appeals
 first of these issues came by way of              among its officebearers. The synod,         urged the synod to affirm the clear
 an overture asking the RCA to ter-                however, after an impassioned plea          testimony of the Westminster Con-
 minate its membership in the Re-                  for continued involvement in the            fession  of Faith, viz., "those former
 formed Ecumenical Council. One of                 Council by Professor Henk dewaard,          ways of God's revealing His will
 the two men who represented the                   decided by a substantial majority to        unto His people have now ceased"
 RCA at the last meeting of the Re-                continue membership in the Re-              (Chapter 1, Section 1). The synod
 formed Ecumenical Council in Ath-                 formed Ecumenical Council.                  did not adopt the appeals. These
1 ens, Greece urged the synod to                       The Australian Church is also           issues are likely to continue to
 adopt the overture and thus termi-                divided over the issue of women in          trouble the RCA.         0
 nate its membership in the Council.               office. The synod affirmed the male                           - Christian Observer
 Several denominations (some of                    headship principle as recommended              - Reformed Ecumenical Council
 whom sent fraternal delegates to the              to Synod of 1991 and established a                                   News Exchange
 RCA synod) have recently with-                    study committee to examine the ex-




                 hen the Knitting Stopped
                                              I                                                                                      1

     Look not  every man on  his own               Churches as such, but as a reflec-          aspects of my presentation. He did
 things, but eve y man also on the things          tion of certain dimensions of spiri-        ask that I not publish his letter inas-
 ofothers.                                         tual practice and doctrine which            much as he fears his limitations in
                         Philippians  2:4          touch on the essence of what Chris-         the English language might have led
                                                   tianity is about. My regret is that so      him either to misunderstand what I
     For some time now we have                     little attention has been given it since    wrote, or to express himself inad-
 been dealing with the relationship                that time; and it would appear that         equately. It is a request I cannot
 between the Protestant Reformed                   there are others who feel the same,         but honor (although he does do quite
 Churches in America and the Liber-                if I can judge from the rather fre-         well); but there are at least a few
 a t e d   (Vrijgemaakt)   R e f o r m e d         quent expressions of appreciation I         points he makes which do warrant
 Churches in the Netherlands. I have               have received from those who have           consideration.
 enjoyed doing this since it touches               followed what I have written.                   He expresses regret that since
 on the life and development of that                   In all of this, however, one thing      1951 the Liberated Reformed and
 part of church history in the middle              has surprised me, the absence of            Protestant Reformed churches have
 of which I was privileged to live as              comment from those who might be             never been able to work together
 a maturing child and young man;                   expected to take exception to at least      again; and that is a regret we cer-
 and my sense is that what happened                some of what I have said - mem-             tainly share, as did Rev. Hoeksema
 during that time was important, not               bers of the Liberated Churches, and         in his rueful answer to Dr. Schildeis
 just for the Protestant Reformed                  those who followed Rev. DeWolf  in          final and rather curt editorial to us,
                                                   1953 - until, that is, just recently.        "De kous is .a$ w or "The stocking in
                                                   A short while ago I received a very         finished." Hoeksema concluded his
                                                   kind letter from a member of the            response with these words, "I wish
 Rev. Woudenberg  is pastor of the Prot-           Liberated Churches in the Nether-           to emphasize once more that the
 estant Reformed Church of Kdla~zoo,               lands who has ,been following my            stocking is not finished. And if Dr.
 Michigan.                                         articles, and disagrees with certain         Schilder feels that  ,because  of the

 6WStandard  barer/November 1; 1994


stand of our churches as revealed in         within our midst. We simply did           avoiding many of the problems over
the Declaration of Principles he does        not want them to think we were dif-       which those in the Netherlands were
not want to unravel the tangle and           ferent from what we are. But this is      being tom apart; and it troubled us
start knitting anew, it suits me. Nev-       apparently something which the Lib-       that no one else seemed to care.
-ertheless,  I want to state that in that    erated mind could not, and still to-          Then in 1939 Dr. Schilder came
case I am disappointed in him, and           day cannot, seem to grasp; and it         to our shores. Not only did he stop
for the rest say, `Vade,  Amice              cuts across the whole spectrum of         to meet us, but by the time he left
Schilder'." Deep in his heart he felt        religious perspective and Reformed        for home we felt that we had gained
that as Christians we ought to be            thought. It begins actually, as we        a friend. Having warmed to the gra-
able to pick up and start over again,        have tried to show in recent articles,    ciousness of his personality, we felt
even while with his mind he knew             with a variation in our concept of        sure that at last there was a major
it would not be. Our differences             logic itself. It involves a difference    Reformed theologian who would
were simply too great, and went too          of viewpoint - as our friend's let-       give our doctrinal efforts serious
deep. The knitting had indeed be-            ter also brings out - concerning the      consideration, which in his capacity
come too tangled to go on: or rather,        nature of the true church, and its        as editor of De Reformtie  (perhaps
one might say, it was too tangled            identity. It relates to one's perspec-    the most respected Reformed peri-
from the start ever to have been             tive as to the place which children       odical of that day) he was quite able
properly begun. Let me try to ex-            have in the covenant of God. And          to do. But it was not to be; the Sec-
plain.                                       finally, when everything is said and      ond World War intervened.
     Prior to that, throughout the de-       done, it comes down to what finally           All through that war we waited
cade of the 4Os, the Protestant Re-          proved to be the primary point of         and prayed, while hanging on every
formed Churches, and Rev. Hoek-              contention between us, the question       bit of news that filtered across the
sema particularly, had put a great           of conditionality in the covenant of      sea in the hope that the Lord would
deal of effort into trying to forge a        grace. These were,.and are, impor-        spare the doctor, hated as he was
working relationship with Dr.                tant issues (each of which we hope        by the German forces under whose
Schilder first, and then with the Lib-       to examine as time goes on); and be-      dominion he lived. And the shock
erated Reformed Churches in whose            cause of them it had proved impos-        came when we heard that his great-
birth Dr. Schilder played such a             sible for us to work together - to        est enemies had proved to be not
prominent part; but all that had             knit a common stocking if you will        the Germans, but those of his own
come out of it was the troubled              - with the kind of love and under-        church. They had actually used the
sense that it would not be done.             standing such a mutual effort re-         cover of the war, when he was in
There were differences between us            quires. The love and understand-          hiding, to deprive him of his office
in mentality and spiritual perspec-          ing were not there; and accordingly       as professor, and his place in the Re-
tive, which stood in the way; and I          our knitting had not as much as be-       formed Churches to which he had
fear still do today, as I believe this       gun.                                      given his life, all without an oppor-
letter from our friend, as kindly                But let us get back to where it       tunity for open discussion or for him
drafted as it is, demonstrates.              started, that sad history through         to defend himself. He had been
     One of the first points at which        which the yam became tangled; and         forced, together with his friends, to
this comes out is in his questioning         for this there is perhaps no better       leave and form a new denomination
of my attempt to show that the break         source than the long series of edito-     of their own. It was so reminiscent
between our two churches had for             rials which Rev. Hoeksema wrote           of what we had been through in our
all practical purposes beenthere well        concerning Dr. Schilder and the Lib-      past that immediately there sprang
before the Declaration of Principles         erated Churches, particularly after       forth for them a deep bond of sym-
-was ever penned. As carefully as I          the end of the war (a series I wish       pathy and love.
tried to bring this out - for I know         could be reprinted for all to read),          And then the war was over. De-
it is a bone of contention - he can-         even while bearing in mind from           tails of what had happened came
not seem to grasp the fact that the          whence the Protestant Reformed            through, each of which was reported
Declaration of Principles was not a          Churches had come.                        and analyzed in the pages of the
confessional statement to which                  We, after all, having originated      Standard Bearer  and among the
those who joined our churches had            out of the controversy over common        people in their homes (I remember
to subscribe, but a simple setting           grace, had gone on also to develop        well the Sunday afternoon conver-
forth or declaration for those with          a positive and consistently Reformed      sations about it all, between my par-
whom we were working as. to the              theology of grace, an effort which        ents and their friends). Those were
doctrinal convictions which live             had brought us to `what we believed       days in which people cared, stud-
within our denomination, and which           to be a new and fresh approach to         ied, and struggled to understand
should be understood and Tespected           the doctrine of, the covenant. To us      what was happening to the churches,
by anyone seeking to. live and work          it was meaningful- and gratifying,        together with the doctrinal causes

                                                                                           : November 1,1994/Standard  Bearer169


for it all. But there was a disturbing     of difference between us were not         (nephew) so as to pass back and
element as well: the covenant view         being talked ibout.                       forth in coded messages information
defended by our new Liberated                  It was almost, therefore, with a      about Dr. Schilder, as though they
friends showed closer affinity to that     sense of dismay that we learned in        were all part of one family. Cer-
of the Christian Reformed than to           1948 that the Liberated synod had        tainly he, we thought, would have
our own - with one exception, they         voted to seek a sister-church rela-       understood and respected what we
openly professed to ryject common           tion with us. It was not that we did     thought; but in fact his composition,
grace. And that was our h0p.e. We          not feel honored; it was just that,       a defense of the Liberated covenant
wanted to believe that somewhere           having had no substantial discussion      view, was so full of blatant.common
under the tangled mix of theologi-         between us, .we were not anywhere         grace, in fact unashamed  Armin-
cal tilements  being disputed, there       near being ready for that. But            ianism, that even those among us
would be found a common thread             maybe, at least so we wanted to           most sympathetic to the Liberated
which would draw us together as            think, that was what was meant; and       cause were made to blush. Nearly
one. At least for that we longed and,      soon we would be presented with a         five years had passed since the war,
as soon as open communications be-         plan for meaningful talk. But again       during which opportunities for dis-
gan again, listened with straining         months passed, and nothing. was           cussion and dialogue had abounded,
ears.                                      heard.                                    but never been held. We had sent
    We waited, then asked, and fi-             And then the silence was bro-         over as much of our material as we
nally  pleaded. The Liberated knew         `ken, as though by thunder, with that     could in English and in Dutch, and
of our sympathies, that was beyond         letter of Prof. Holwerda - written        apparently had received little seri-
question; but would they please con-       privately for other ears. The com-        ous thought. The knitting had not
sider the problems we faced in the         mittee had met, we learned, not with      begun; and how could it. be, with
theology they expounded, and `give         official representatives, but with two    threads as tangled as these had be-
some consideration fo what we held         private individuals who happened          come.
instead? Some said they would -            to be visiting in their land. That,           And that is the point. Efforts to
although by no means the men of            however, was not the greatest prob-       come together in a mutual sharing
greatest ability and prominence. But       lem; it was what they talked about.       and consideration, of theological
that did not matter; this was some-        They did not talk about what we           thought so that we might learn from
thing in which all should be free to       believed, and whether they under-         each other, correct each other's
have a place. So when a few began          stood our biblical basis for it; but      shortcomings, and build together to-
to write, Hoeksema eagerly took            simply whether the views of Rev.          ward a common theological goal and
what they produced, translated it,         -Hoeksema, upon which our                 ecclesiastical life were getting no-
and published both the English and         chtirches had been built, were bind-      where. The only thing that seemed
the Dutch so that our people could         ing, or could they be safely ignored?     to matter was  the. question of
follow it through as the discussion        Without one engagement of mean-           whether we were really serious in
developed, only to find these articles     ingful discussion, our doctrinal po-      our convictions, whether  we consid-
to cease to appear before the points       sitions were being dismissed as un-       ered them binding or not, when for
of real problem were ever met. Still       wortliy  of consideration; and those      any Reformed man the answer to
we were not being taken seriously.         who had joined our churches were          that is quite clear. There is one thing
    In fact, in that respect even. the     being told to have nothing to do with     binding and that alone, that which
long awaited visit of Dr. Schilder         them. The theological positions on        is taught in the Word of God, and
was a disappointnient. In many             which we had always stood were            that which derives from it - as set
ways it was a wonderful time. His          simply dismissed as unacceptable.         forth in the Reformed creeds - to-
ingratiating personality warmed the        This was hardly.the knitting in good      gether with, by extension in the prac-
hearts of our people once again; and       faith of an ecumenical stocking, but      tical applications of ecclesiastical life,.
the brilliance of his lectures thrilled    a kind of purposeful tangling of the      those things which are proved to be
them to the point that they were spo-      threads instead.                          based on it (Church Order, Article
ken of for years. But still things            .And what followed perhaps hurt        31). But such is not found in simple,
were not right. To begin with, of          even worse. Suddenly there ap-            cold formulations; it takes place only
course, Rev. Hoeksema had been laid        peared on our shores a pamphlet,          where this binding authority is used
low by a massive stroke, and could         the most significant part of which        in the life-of the church, in an active
take but a minor part - a provi-           was written by Prof. C. Veenhof, un-      interchange of conviction between
dence which we must to this day            der the title ApptY.  Here was a man      congregations within a denomina-
accept. But even more. there:.was          we-`trusted,  for he had been a per-      tion and, where it is possible, with
the fact, which only Rev. Ophoff           sonal correspondent. of Rev. Hock:        those  outqide.   Thts-last we had
poiyted  out at the last  &nfe_rent$       &uia all -through' the war. Hoek-         hoped coila be realized between us
which was held, that the real points       sema had ad&es&i-h&  as "neef"            and the Liberated Churches, a will-

7OjStandardije;;reiMovember  ii l&ai


ing engagement in theological and            But by 1950 it was evident that this                              not to this day; and without it the
ecclesiastical interaction with mutual       was not to be. We saw no real in-                                 stocking was indeed "a$ w In fact, it
interest in and respect for each other.      terest in what we believed, and have                              had never really had a start. Cl



Evangelism Activities                                At the request of a number of                             taken during the summer months to
    The Consistory of Georgetown             Presbyterian churches in Mississippi,                             the newly established Faith Chris-
PRC mBauer,  MI has appointed five           Prof. Engelsma planned to speak on                                tian School in Randolph, WI.
men to be the initial members of             October 27 at a Reformation Day lec-                                       At a special congregational
their newly created Evangelism               ture in Woodville, MS on "What is                                 meeting held at the First PRC in
Committee. Their mandate, in part,           the Reformed Church  .`.. and                                     Edgerton, MN, approval was given
is to lead their congregation in reach-      Where?" The next day, plans called                                to go ahead with projects to
ing out into the community and to            for Prof. Engelsma to be
help equip each member with the              in Collins, MS speaking
knowledge and or materials with              on the topic, "Martin                --.. .._.-
                                                                                  --lll.."."                                                                        Zl"S.  m-1-w. P.ns I,
which to give witness to their faith.        Luther: Man of Convic-                          "N,rEDsQ,~*
                                                                                  B&EzEiE,.                                  Slalemanl  of OwnershIp,  Menagsmenl,  and Clrculallon
                                                                                                                                                                C.puiedt,,urcxdq
    The Reformed Witness Commit-             tion." Plans also gave               I v*Urm*                                                  *.--la               1,101
                                                                                            ne Sunhd  Rrarrr
tee, comprised of members from our           Prof. Engelsma the op-                                                                            I  I-  7180               WIUPI
                                                                                  . w*a.+,,eq                                            ~~"~M.w                 I-Y-IN
Doon and Hull, IA, and Edgerton,             portunity to preach                        smmonthly  bnon~hly  in ,""C.  ,uly.  Au&us,,                    11                       tl2.w
                                                                                  ).---U.Y..-~..--,~..~-~~"~.~~,-,
MN PRCs; has started yet another             twice on October 30 for                    4949l"mrr,~l\"c..  crmdviilr.MI  .wI*w"9
new and exciting venture, a call-in-         two           Presbyterian           r-l.-u.".~run.-.-"-.-~,-,
                                                                                        4949  lv~nrut  AIL.  Cnn*iUr.  MI lP+lW709
radio program. This program, called          churches in Mississippi.             I.~-.LM.Y11-.I.",~*.rrl-,~~~,.."U,
Reformed Perspectives,  will air at 9:00                                          UklN...lSrWY11-.4
                                                                                        Wcbrnlrd  lk  NMiig  Awchd"".  9.0.  00x  60,.  crdviu.. Ml  491684603
P.M.  on the first and third Sundays         Congregational Activi- ' I"C."..U-"~Y`",
                                                                                        hf.  David  ,. Engdsmr.  ,949 ,"an,"l  Ave..  crm*iu~."I 494111mw
of each month over radio station             ties                                 w-.ml-L"-ulAwrUU"
KTSB. Mr. Jim Regnerus and Rev.                      The Consistory  of-                Don  Doarms.  4949  Ivanrot  Avs.  CmnCiUr.  MI W+l8~9IU9
Dykstra are the hosts of this pro-           the Byron Center, MI                 (.(*lrC-rh.nen-r"-L~."-,.ul~~IW*~-"lm,~h,~~ulwm-
                                                                                        rllllICI-u~~U-IVd,~L*,--~-.l~.-.n--"-.Y*
gram. The first program, not a call-         PRC has appointed a                        ~~-~r-runU~,,urulY..,~.".lIY~U-W*Cn.I-.~'
                                                                                                 .e..Mu%"Pm."rm."MI"#uu,lm~,~"~,

in because it was pre-recorded, aired        committee  .of church
on October 2.                                members to help set up
    Rev. C. Terpstra, pastor of the          a church library.
South Holland, IL PRC, reported to                   A growing PR con-
his Council on his recent visit to Flo-      gregation in Randolph,               II--.-".l--.-,-.~~~-.-~~                                                                    *a,.  0.v
                                                                                        I.?....I~LN)I..

rence, KY with Mr. Art DeJong.  The          WI has resulted in the
core group is small (6-7 people) but         formation of a new Bible
the members of it are eager to see           study society there. This
the work progress, if the Lord wills.        society was begun for
South  Hollandfs Council approved            the benefit of young                 I,Ir~~*~~mUII.I"YDI,I,I*MC~~lrC~.~..~,.~~n..U
                                                                                        YU.~......".Yl.,.I.IMN                    lU.IYDID,.Wl.t*IIY
                                                                                                                                %IYOID...9P"IIIII-
their Evangelism q Committee's ten-          adults and young mar-                                                                Cn.veCwr"..l-.-.~-"u.---I
                                                                                  II -a.m.                                          .  I.  wIDyL-D".w
tative plan to hold a series of mid-                                                     Ne P~d.?d  uum
                                             ried couples, ages 19-35.                                                                     Scplrmk 15. ,991
                                                                                  I,                I."d..M"."ldD.d.M                      `~ac.c$-&y   y&y~,:,d*y.g~~
week meetings in the Florence area           Another indication of in-            rL,-SC,Cm#,w                                                  10116                     11ZI
sometime this fall, in order to              creased growth at                    .I"-"*""-
                                                                                        ,I,*~~-I-.*"I-,"C~                                        0                         0
present the basic truths of the gos-         Randolph is that the                       ",""lC,.4n..snwl.n
                                                                                          ix.dW""`IIICC.saav.C,                                 116,                      1111
pel from a Reformed perspective.             Consistory called a spe-             `
                                                                                        !Jtz:t~~~-                                              2519                      274s
    The Lord willing, Prof. D.               cial        congregational           ,,lrDt-*Y
                                                                                        -CIICM.MAm"l                                             165                       116
Engelsma, of our churches' seminary          meeting to gain ap-                  .r".--"w-rOlY                                                    11                       25
and editor of this magazine, was             proval for the expansion             IwI.DIu~.IYII*,                                                190                       161
scheduled to take part in an ambi-           of their parking lot to              I WD-m.Mv*Llq                                                 2129                      1909
tious speaking tour in the state of          the north.                           L Fi?zLlzhZ,.  w                                               317                       316
Mississippi this Reformation Day                     During this past                   mIuh"-4"0                                                  0                        0
weekend.                                     Sunday School season                 .wIy*I*IwImlIw                                                SUB6                      1221
                                                                                  ?...MI"-CW-
                                             the children of the                  ,`xrl*.llil                                                      93                       94
                                                                                  I,I.a-.(*lma**U*I   1'101l91   .u.r.LU   ~~~lllwv.".eYY.
Mr. Wigger  is an elder in the Protes- *  S o u t h w e s t   P R C   i n         I~~Y..Mr*.c~r.uuML*"um,w.o...                                                  n.8.
tant Reformed `C$uch  of f+isonvilIe,        Grandville, ' MI decided                    `&.   g...,.,,  ,  nudninruMna~rr                                    orrobu  12. ,996
                                                                                  ,u*~.-*W~~~,ULAL,-~-*-lU..-*MI-~.~.
Michigan.         -      ' --                to give the, collections             ~l.l~.--~"-~.-.---~.~~-~-
                                                                                  IIM..mm-r.wl~ucuil                  . .
                 J.     *I,.  hi:-              I-  '        _I.  _:         1                                                                                  I-.                          1
                                                                                                                              Novqmbar  1,19W/Stan+rd  BearerR


       jgm                                                                                                               SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                         Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                         Grandvile, Michigan
       P.O. Box 603
       Grandvile, MI 49468-0603
r                                                                                                                                           I
reshingle the parsonage roof and               Remember to pray for him as well
construct an attached double garage.           as all our churches' pastors.                                     Foodfor 27ioUJhit
        On September  23,. Rev. B.                 Rev. A. denHartog, pastor of the                    "God creates out of nothing.
Gritters was installed as the pastor           Hope PRC in Redlands, CA, de-                       Therefore until a man is nothing God
of the Hudsonville, MI PRC. Rev.               clined the call from the Loveland,                  can make nothing out of him."
W. Bruinsma, appointed by Classis              CO PRC to serve as Home Mission-                                            - M. Luther IJ
East as Hudsonville's counselor, led           ary for work in southern Colorado.
the service and preached a fitting                 Since Rev. W. Bruinsma was                                      AlTENTlON
sermon based on I Corinthians 49,              scheduled to travel to southern                                      EVERYONE
2 entitled, "Stewards-of Christ." On           Colorado and preach there for two                         The Evangelism Committee
that same night, Hudsonville wel-              weeks in October, he asked for an                     of South Holland has undertaken
comed the entire Gritters family by            extension from the Byron Center                       the project of preserving the ser-
way of a program which included                congregation and will answer their                    mons of our deceased ministers.
numbers from Hudsonville's choir               call the end of October.                              Many of these sermons are still
and Sunday School. The following                   From a trio consisting of Revs.                   on the reel-to-reel tapes, which
Lord's day, September 25, Rev.                 W. Bekkering, R. Dykstra, and  T;                     are getting quite brittle. We in-
Gritters preached his Inaugural Ser-           Miersma, Coveland chose to extend                     tend to transfer these sermons
mon at Hudsonville under the title,            a call to Rev. Miersma, for the work                  to cassette tapes and catalog
"A Pastor's Jealousy for the                   of Home Missionary.                                   them. We will also make them
Church's Chastity," based on II                    From a trio of the Revs. R.                       available for our church librar-
     Corinthians 11:2,3.                       Dykstra, S. Key, and C. Terpstra, our                 ies and to all others who desire
                                               congregation in Lynden, WA has ex-                    to have these sermons in con-
Minister Activities                            tended a call to Rev. Dykstra.                        venient and usable cassette
         We are happy to report that one                                                             form. These sermons will then
of our churches' pastors, the Rev. S.              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                               be preserved for the coming
Houck, serving at the Peace PRC in                 On September 20, 1994, our                        generations.
Lynwood, IL, successfully under-               parents, grandparents, and great                          We need to hear from you!!
went an angioplasty procedure to               grandparents,                                         We need everyone's participa-
open the arteries of his heart. He             MR. and MRS. JOHN ZANDSTRA,                           tion in this project! Please drop
has since resumed his work after a                              SR.,                                 us a note listing the tapes you
couple of weeks for recuperation.              celebrated 50 years of marriage.                      have. We need the sermons of
                                                   We are thankful to our God for                    Rev. Hoeksema, Rev. Ophoff,
                                               giving us godly parents, who brought                  Rev. Vos, Rev.  Schipper, Prof.
                                               us up in the fear of His holy name.                   Hoeksema,  Rev.Kuiper, and
                                               May the Lord continue to bless them                   Rev. Verhil.
                                               and keep them in His care in the
         The Martha Ladies Aid Society                                                                   Please take the time to re-
                                               years ahead.
of the Hull Protestant Reformed                                                                      spond, especially if you have
                                                   "He hath remembered his cov-
Church expresses their sincere                                                                       tapes from Rev. Ophoff and
                                               enant for ever, the word which he
     Christian sympathy to their fellow                                                              Rev. Vos, for these are difficult
                                               commanded to a thousand genera-
     member, Mrs. Lois VanMaanen  and                                                                to find.
                                               tions" (Psalm 105:8).
     her family in the loss of her father,                                                               Let us as good stewards
                                               + Jacob and Joyce Lenting
         MR. HENRY SANDBULTE.                                                                        preserve these sermons which
                                                     Timothy Lenting, Duane  and
     May they  be.sustained  by God's                                                                God has given to us in His
                                               Mary Bruinsma, Mark Lenting, Joel and
grace and comforted in His -Word:                                                                    grace.
                                               Deborah Smits, Dale Lenting
     "The Lord will give strength unto his                                                               Our address is:
                                               9 John Zandstra, Jr.
     people; the Lord will bless his people                                                                Evangelism Committee
                                               0 John and Darlene Boersma                                  16511 South Park Ave.
with peace" (Psalm 29:ll).                           Chad, Jodi, John, David, Brian                       South Holland, IL 60473
              Rev.. Richard Moore, Pres.           and 4 great grandchildren                                   FAX (706) 331-0657
                Mrs. Jack Andringa, Sec.                                South Holland, lllln6ls

72AStandard  BearerlNovember 1,lQM


