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                             See "The Reformed Family: Saying Thanks" i page 88




Vol. 71, No, 4
November  !5,1994


C O N T E N T S :                                                                                                     November 15, 1994

Meditation - Rev. John A. H&s
       Thankful for a Blessed Victory . . . . . . ..*...............................*...........*.. 75
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                   :                                                                                ISSN  0 3 6 2 - 4 6 9 2
       PRC Featured in a Dutch Daily Newspaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ;.- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l..............................................  .78 hmi-monthly,  except monthly during June, July, and August.
A Cloud of Witnesses -, Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                          Pubtished bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                                                                       4849 iwnmst  Aw., Qrandvllb,  MI 49412. Second Class
       Guicio de BrBs: Author of the Belgik Confession .,,,,..,....  I............ 79                                                                                                  Postage Paid at Grandvllle. Michigan.
Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Ronald  J.  VanOverlbob                                                                                                                                Postmwtw' Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
       Cross-Cultural Missions - its Bibiiqal Basis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82                                                               P.O. Box 2&, Qrandvillal,  MI 494S&O6O2.
Ministering to the Saints - Mr. Ed Gritiers                                                                                                                                            Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
The Office of Eider'-  An Overview . . ..*......*.**.***.......*.....,...............                                                                                           84     Bacmtmy:  Prof. Robert D. Decker
Church and State - Mr. James Lanting                                                                  i                                                                                Mwaging Editor: Mr. Con Doesema
  Recent Developments in Church-Stqte Law . . . . . . ..*..........*.............. 86                                                                                                  DEPAillWENT EDITORS
When Jhou Sittest  in Thiqe House - Mrs., MaryBeth  Lubbers                                                                                                                            Rev. Wilbur Srulnama, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                       ~er,Rar.~denHartog,Rw.Ru~aellDylcsha,Rev.Bany
      .The Reformed Family:. Saying Thanks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..**........ 88                                                                 QritWm,  Rev. Cart Haa& R?, Jason Korterlng, Rev. Cornelius
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                            Hanko, Prof. Herman.Hanko.  Rev. John Heye, Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                       Nulper,  Mr. James Lanting;.Mrs.  MarySath Lubbers, Rev.
       Church Visitation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*........        90     Jatklahln Mahtanl, Rev. Thomas Mlersma, Rev. Charles
The Strength of Youth  - Rev. Wilbur G. Bruinsma                                                                                                                                       Terpstm, Rw. QlseVanSaren,  Rev. RonaldVanDvsrloop,  Mr.
                                                                                                                                                                                       Benjamin WIgger,  Rw:&mard Woudanbsrg.
       Asserting independence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93                     EDfTDFtW6FFiCB              CHURCH NBWS EDlTOR
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . ..*...*............... 96                                                                                           TheStandardBeamr            Mr. Ben Wgger
                                                                                                                                                                                       4646lvwmst                  6597 40thAw.
                                                                                                                                                                                       Qrandvllle, MI 4W18         HudsonvBe, Ml 49426
                                                                                                                                                                                       BUSINESS DFFtCE             NEW ZEALAND CFFtCE
                                                                                                                                                                                       TheStandardSear&           'The Standard Scarer
                                                                                                                                                                                       DonDoewma                   c/o B. VanHerk
       Our readers in the United States will celebrate the National Thank&v&  Day                                                                                                      P.O. Sax 803                BBFraserSt.
                                                                                                                                                                                       Qrandvtlb,  MI              Walnulomata, New Zealand .
in-accordance with the requirement of Article 67 of the Church Order of Dordt on                                                                                                                                   NORTHERN IRELAND OFFlCE
November 24. Our Canadian readers already celebrated Thanksgiving Day on                                                                                                               PHza?%-MS0                  Jo Mr. Jonathsa  McAubv
                                                                                                                                                                                                $316) S22-1772     164 Churoh Rd., Qlenwheny
October 10. Both the meditation by Rev. John Heys and the article by Mrs.  MaryBeth                                                                                                    FAX:   (616)  E21-202.3     Beliymena, 00. Antrim 8142 3EL ,
Lubbers, "The Reformed Family: Saying Thanks," reflect on a Reformed, Christian                                                                                                                                    Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                                       EDlToRlALPofJcY
thanksgiving and its importance.                                                                                                                                                       Every editor is solely msponaibN for the contents of his own
       This issue signals the beginning of two, new, provocative series. In his article,                                                                                               artldea. Contrlbutionsofgenerallntemstfromwrreade?Pand
                                                                                                                                                                                       questlokfor  The Raader Asks dbparbnent are vmkome.
"Cross-Cultural Missions  - Its Biblical Basis," ,under  the rubric, "Go Ye Into All                                                                                                   Contrlbutfona vitfl bs limited to approximately  200 words and
the World," our missions-column,. Rev. Ronald VanOverloop launches a series of                                                                                                         mwtbeneatfywrittenortypewritlen,andmustbesigned. Copy
articles on this subject. He is cooperating in this series with Rev. Russ Dykstra,                                                                                                     deadlines are the first  and fifteenth  of the month. All
                                                                                                                                                                                       cornmuntcatfcns refattw to the oontenta should be sent to the
Rev. Jay Kortering, and Rev. Jaiklshin Mahtani. All are, or have been, involved in                                                                                                     editorial omw.
missions, Rev. VanOverloop as a former home missionary of the PRC; Rev. Dykstra                                                                                                        REPRINT POLICY
as a longtime member of the Foreign Mission Committee of the PRC; Rev. Kortering                                                                                                       pennlMronbherebygrantedfortherdprkrtlnOofarticles,nour
as minister-on-loan from the PRC to the Evangelical Reformed `Churches of                                                                                                              msOarlnebytirpubliwUow,pmvided:a)thatsuchmpilnted
Singapore; and Rev. Mahtani as himself the fruit of missions and formerly pastor                                                                                                       artbbs  are mproduoed In fuW: b) that proper ackr+edgment
                                                                                                                                                                                       ls made; c) that a copy of the p&to&al in which such reprint
of the Covenant Reformed Church of Singapore.                                                                                                                                          appem b sent to our d+3rbl offke.
       Ruling elder Ed Gritters of the Hope PRC, Redlands, CA begins a study of the                                                                                                    SUSSCRlPTlON POLICY
work of the elder and the deacon in the Reformed church. Mr. Gritters, who has                                                                                                         Subs~dptk~~  prlcs:  $12.00 jam year In me U.S., Si5.M)
served both the Redlands  congregation and the Protestant Reformed denomination                                                                                                        ebe%hem. Unbse ,a definite request for discontlnuanc(, is
in the office of elder for many years, will treat the office and work of the elder. His                                                                                                recslwd,  lt la assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                                                                       subscriptknLocontlnue,sndhewillbeMlledfw~newal.  lfyou
articles will be followed by a similar treatment of the office of the deacon by one                                                                                                    hpwac~eotaddmss,pleasenotifytheSuslnessOtficeas
who has been a deacon in the PRC. We chose "Ministering to the Saints" as the                                                                                                          eady as poasibte  in order to avoid the inconvenience of
name of the rubric. If our readers address questions about these offices, and the                                                                                                      interrupted dehury. In&de your zip or Postal Code.
practical exercise of them in the congregation, to OUT writers, the length of the                                                                                                      ADVBRRSINQ  PWCY
series might profitably be extended beyond that which we envisioned.                                                                                                                   The &rrdardSeamrdoes  not aocept oommeroial advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                       of any kind. Announc6ments  of church and school events,
     Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Ron Cammenga, and Prof. Herman  Hank0  con-                                                                                                            annhrsrwrbe. obmrbs, and sympathy resolutions will be
tinue their series. Rev. Bruinsma. speaks to our young people about maturing to a                                                                                                      placadforaS10.OOfee.  lh+seahouMbeaenttotheSusiness
godly "independence." Rev. Cammenga enlightens us concerning the policy and                                                                                                            Dfficeandsh6uldbeaa%mpantedbyth6SlO.OOfee.  Deadline
                                                                                                                                                                                       for wnou~menta b it bwt one month pdor to pubkation
practice of church visitation. Those in the PRC and other Reformed churches who                                                                                                        date.
are not officebearers will appreciate his including the actual questions that are                                                                                                      BOUND VOLUMES
asked of councils at church visitation by the delegates from the classis.  Prof.                                                                                                       The Suatnesa  Dhice will  acxapt standing ordem for bound
Hanko relates the stirring history of a man who is rightly to be regarded as a                                                                                                         copieaofthewrrentwlume.  Suchordemarefilledassoonas
"R'eformed  church father," Guido de Bres.                                                           :                                                                                 poesibb  after oompletlon of a volume year.
  I All of this and more, in this issue.                                                                                                                                               16mm  mkwfilm, &mm ml&ofilm  and 105mm mfcrofiche,  and
                                                                                                                                                                            - D J E    artide cop&a are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                       htemational.
;IrllStan,dard Bearer/November Xi,1994


                   I .`:. ,A:.Blessed Victory
                      .



But thanks be to God, who giveth us             If, however,, we are by God's               Still more. Take nbte of the jact
the victory' through our `Lord Jesus ' grace called to be His people, we.               that we are spoken of here as thbse
Christ.                                     have a wonderful victory, as Paul           who  are given a tremendous victory
                  I Corinthians l&57
                           `_  .. __        states it here in this verse presented      through His Son, who was born out
                                            `above. Our Lord Jesus Christ eained        of that virgin. We did not, and will
    In this  ,verse the apostle Paul        for us a victory which we do not            not, get- a victory becaus'e  Of what
presetits  the bl&s&d truth that Gdd        deserve, or even want, as far as our        we did. Our text states emphati-
gives us the victory which He: real-        flesh is concerned. Indeed we want          tally: "God gjveth us the victory
ized through  Chr@t Jesus our Lord.         `deliverance from pain and physical         through our Lord Jesus Christ."
To appreciate this blessed truth, we        misery; but that is not the basic vic-          We therefore owe pur God
must consider what we need and              tory which we receive through our           thanks for giving us that blessed vic-
what we by God's grace receive.             Lord Jesus Christ: Yes, we will in          tory. Of it we sing from stanza one
    The word "but" wherewith this           heavenly glory be freed from pain,          of our  Psalter,  number 383:
verse  begins-`ri2veals that through and frcjm every kind of misery. But                    All that I ani I owe to Thee,
Paul our God  .presents   a  .bl&s&d        the victqry of which the text speaks            Thy wisdom, Lord, hath fash-
change, which He realizes thiough           is the triumph our God realizes for               ioned me;
His Son. In verses 50 through 56,           us over Satan and the sin into which            I give my Maker thankful pm&e,
the apostle Paul presents the awe-          he caused us $0 fall.                           Whose wondrous works qy soul
some truth that our flesh and blood             What we should continually -                  amaze.
cannot, and do not, inherit the king-       not merely occasionally  - bear in              This is the versification  of ,what
dom of heaven. In fact; through             mind is that every sin, no matter in        we find in Psalm 139:14,  where we
Adam -and Eve, ,and all their seed          what form it comes, is an act of ha-        read: "I will praise thee; for I am
which are not:-,&ived  by our God in        ,tred against God. Every sin is do-         fearfully and wonderfully  made;
His grace, comes the ,torment  of hell.     ing what Satan wants men to do be-          marvelous are thy works; and  th&
    For death is not simply physical        cd&e he hates God and wants us to           my soul knoweth right well." That
separation from this earth and from         live in hatred aga+t our God. Ev-           song confesses that we have been
friends -and loved  oties. Death            -q-y sin is an activity of going against    given a victory through our Lord
bring! to hell the souls of .those not      GocLwith  heart, mind, and strength.        Jesus Christ, a victory over Satan
chosen in Cl&i; and .whkn Christ            It always is an act in which we do          and sin.
returns, also the bodies of these-en-       what Satan taught mankind to do,                Therefore, on our Thanksgiving
emies of God and Christ &ill be cast namely, become a god, and do what                  Day, but also oil every other day,
irito everlasting torment. The Book         pleases man's flesh, rather than do         we are called to thank God foi this
of Revelation reveals that in several       what glorifies and pleases God.             victory which He  realize4  through
passages:                           '           The victory of which Paul wrote         His  ,Son Jesus Christ. We did not
    For us, therefore, is the impor-        is ours' through  otir Lord Jesus           personally win over Satan and sin.
tant question as to whether we be-          Christ. According to Scripture, it is       It is a victory `which our God ore&
lieve in  Clujst Jesus  as our Savior, our victory over Satan and sin. Our              ized through His Son: We must not
or belong to Satan, and cling to his        God declared that to Satan, telling         brush aside the truth that, no mat-
lie, which he spc+e  tb. Adam and           .him that He is going to put enmity         ter what happens, God is getting this
Eve, namely, that we are gods, and          against Satan in the hearts of some         victory for every elect child whom
can do what we please.                      of mankind, and that He will bring          He chose etkrnally in Christ. There-
                                                                                        fore we have this calling to thank
           . .                              forth Christ, who would be born of
                                            Mary without the work of a' man.            God for giving us this victory. We
                                            Christ will be the Son of God,              find that astounding truth in  Ro-
Rev. Hey.5 iS u minister emeritus in the    brought forth through the virgin            mans 8:28 in these words: "And we
Protestant Reformed Churches.               Mary.                                       know that all things work together
                                                                                             November 15,WWStandard Seared75


for good to them that love God, to         change that has come in the church-        age of sin into which Satan got us.
them who, are called according to          world today, and that raises serious       The question on Thanksgiving Day,
His purpose." We have this victory         questions about church conduct and         but also on every other day, is
one hundred percent because, as the        behavior. People consider that to          whether our God has given us
above text states, God gives it to us      be their victory which actually is         thankfulness  for this gift of freedom
through His Son.                           their defeat by Satan.                     from Satan and the sin into which
    Let us bear in mind that this gift        Even on the. Sabbath Day, what 1        Satan had gotten the whole human
of God-is the basic element of our         men consider to be their victory ac-       race; .and whether we find in our-
salvation. It makes the other parts        tually manifests their defeat. We,         selves that love of God that makes
possible, such as deliverance from,        today, have automobiles, radios, and       us want to'glorify Him by our speech
the everlasting punishment which           television sets which can bring            and works. .  -
we deserve by nature. The very de-         church members along with Satan                By God's grace we will, not
sire for salvation is part of the vic-     and his friends, who are citizens in       merely on Thanksgiving Day, thank
tory over Satan and sin; and it be-        his! kingdom of darkness. Earthly          Him for that blessed salvation, which
comes ours because God gives us            pleasures are sought on the Sabbath        Christ earned for us. By all means
this victory. We do not gain it by         Day. God gave us that Sabbath Day          we -must do that on Thanksgiving
our own power before it has already        so we could worship Him, and be            Day. But our calling is to do so ev-
been given to-us;                          busy  a22 day with spiritual matters.      ery day. Every day we must fight
    We should bear in mind, and            Things formerly condemned as sin,          the sinfulness of our flesh, and the
hold one to tightly, the fact that in      some churches present today as             boasting of what we are and did.
our text God through Paul promises         church victory. They manifest              That victory for which we thank God
us the victory which He announced          thankfulness  for  material things,        is not a victory which we realized.
the day when Satan got us to hate          brushing spiritual things aside. They      We. must thank God because He
God, and act as though we are gods.        enjoy, and sing songs, because they        giveth us that victory. As we read
He told Satan that day, that He            enjoy the music. They will applaud         in verse 50, "flesh and blood cannot
would put enmity in us against this        soloists and choirs for the music, not     inherit the kingdom of God, neither
devilish angel, who got us to com-         forthe truths which were sung. In          doth corruption `inherit  incor-
mit this terrible sin. He promised         fact, sometimes they want and re-          ruption." No, thanking God for giv-
to make His elect love Himself and         quest singing, enjoying it more than       ing us this. victory is thankfully
have enmity in their hearts against        the: preaching. And how often do           praising God for what He did in His
Satan. That basically is the victory       we give serious thought to what we         grace. Take a strong hold of that
which God. gives us through our            are singing? We sing with our              truth: We  thank God  because He
Lord,Jesus  Christ. That indeed is a       voices; but are we singing with our        giveth  us the victory  through His Son,
most precious gift.                        hearts and minds?                          who is our Lord Jesus Christ.
    The sad situation in the church           `What we should bear in mind is             Salvation is, from beginning to
world today is that salvation is pre-      that the day sin entered into man's        end, and as far as every detail of it
sented merely as deliverance from          life, the salvation which God prom-        is concerned, God's gift to us.
the punishment which God told              ises in Genesis 3:15 is deliverance        Therefore we are here called to thank
Adam would come upon those who             from Satan and sin. That victory           God, and not boast of what we did.
break His law, as we read in Gen-          which God gives us ends Satan's            We enjoy that victory; but if we do
esis 3:3. And on Thanksgiving Day,         devilish victory over us., And God         this correctly, we attribute every bit
relief from that punishment is pre-        told Satan that He would put en-           of that victory to our God, as the
sented as that for which we should         mity in the hearts of His elect against    song quoted a moment ago presents
,give thanks to God. The sad thing is      him; and the sin which he caused           that truth: "AZ2 that I am I owe to
that- Satan uses so many material          man to love. That is why in John Thee."
things to get church members' to           3:3 we read: "Except a man be born             Hold on tightly then to the truth
turn away from spiritual matters,          qgah, he cannot see the kingdom of         which our God presents to us
and to get them to be concerned only       heaven." Implied is the blessed            through Paul. Call every bit of your
about deliverance from the misery          truth that, in the hearts and minds        salvation the gift of God's grace; and
and pain, bringing joy to, their flesh,    of the elect, God will implant love        thank Him for the victory which He
but not to their souls.                    of Himself, and of all that w,hich this    realized for His elect.
    There was a time, .in the past,        love would produce. As we read in              If we do that sincerely, we re-
when Satan was not as victorious as        Ephesians 21, God.quickens us, who         veal that we have been given vic-
he is today in the church-world when       were dead in trespasses and sins.          tory by our God, through His Son.
he attacks members of churches in             iThe awesome question, how-             Praise God then  .from whom all
order to make them his disciples, not      ever, is whether God has given us          blessings flow. a-.
Christ/s.  Consider the awesome            that spiritual victory over the bond-

76/Standard  Bearer/November  15,1994


                       PRC Featured in. a
              Dutch Daily N.ewspaper
                                           .,,,,,,   .-:f;   :,<;"yy.-T   .;:,:.  J;;)+;;  -.-y;..:  j.    :  7  :,  ;  ;.;  ,'  ;    .:  \  .,  :  :%:'  :  ."`.,,  :&;  .`,  :,,~.`.~;`...`:::;.?,:`:~.~~`":   ,.,..,.   j


              Off i?r. of Grace` Flatly Contradicts Election                                                                                    The PRC came into existence in
           according to the Protestant Reformed Churches                                                                               1924 after a conflict in the Christian
                   "We S&y.that the Tmth is Logical"                                                                                   Reformed,Church (CRC) over com-
                                                                                                                                       mon grace  ("uzgemene   genade").  At
                                                                                                                                       that time the CRC deposed the
   `This was the  ,bold headline on page two of the second section of                                                                  preacher Herman Hoeksema ,and a
Reformatorisch  Dagblad on Friday, August  12,1994.  R@mnat&sch  Dagblad                                                               number of consistories because they
is a daily newspaper published by Reformed men and presenting the Re-                                                                  repudiated the doctrine of common
formed perspective on the news. It circulates widely throughout the Neth-                                                              grace. Hoeksema also fiercely op-
e r l a n d s .                                                                                                                        posed the "well-meant offer of
    The article was the result of interviews that correspondent Klaas van                                                              grace, s irreconcilable, on his view,
der Zwaag conducted earlier this summer with the Rev. Richard G. Moore,                                                                with the unconditional decree -of
pastor of the PRC of Hull, Iowa, and with the editor of the Standard Biarw.                                                            election and reprobation. The PRC
van der Zwaag translated the interviews into the Dutch language  -and wrote                                                            is a small denomination- of 26
the article `as the twelfth in a series in the Dutch paper on churches in                                                              churches and about 6,000 members,
America ("Geloveti in Ameriku ").                                                                                                      almost all of whom live in America.
    The questions put to the Protestant Reformed ministers were good,                                                                  Theologically, the denomination is
pointed questions, calculated to bring out the-basic, distinctive beliefs and                                                          very active. That appears, among
practices of the PRC. If the written form of the interview with the editor of                                                          other indications, from a conversa-
the SB is an indication, Mr. van der Zwaag.got  the answers straight and did                                                           tion with dogmatics professor David
justice to the positions on various, important doctrinal and ethical issues of                                                         J. Engelsma, professor of theology
the PRC. Not every nuance was captured, nor was every qualifying phrase                                                                at the Protestant Reformed Seminary
included, but this cannot be expected in the publishing of an interview.                                                               in Grand Rapids, and with Rev. R.
    The full-page article is a good introduction  of. the PRC to the readership                                                        G. Moore in Hull (Iowa).
of Reformatorisch  Dagblad.
    Supposing that the readers of the SB will be interested in this introduc-                                                                   Against Misunderstandings
tion of the PRC,to the.Dutch,.I have translated the article into English. What
follows, is my translation of the article on the PRC in the August 12, 1994                                                                      According to Prof. Engelsma,
issue of .Xeformatoristih  Dagblad, without editorial comment. (Anyone in-                                                             many outside the PRC have' a mis-
terested in a copy of the original article, reduced in size, can obtain it by                                                          taken notion of the doctrine of the
writing or calling the.business  office of the SB.)                                                                                    PRC:
                                         ***                                                                                                People think that we do not
                                                                                                                                            preach the gospel to all men.-
    The offer of -grace makes God               meerdk Gemeenten  in-Nederland  "), Dr.                                                     What  .we really oppose is the
dependent upon man. God is sov-                 C. Steenblok. However, in practice                                                          presupposition that God has a
ereign in election and reprobation.             the PRC draw different conclusions.                                                       sincere desire to save everyone
These conceptions in the Protestant             This denomination opposes conver-                                                           who hears the Word of the
Reformed Churches (PRC) resemble                sion as an "extraordinary mystical                                                          preaching. .We maintain that the
in many respects those of the spiri-            experience."' Also every confessing                                                         gospel is preached to everyone
tual father of the Reformed Congre-             member is obligated to partake of                                                         and that God calls everyone to
gations in the Netherlands ("Gerefor-           the Lord's Supper.                                                                          faith in Jesus Christ. With this,

                                                                                                                                                   November 15,1994/Standard  BearerI


  however, it holds perfectly that        constantly threatened by  Ar-               ment, in the Reformed Congrega-
  God wishes only the' salvation          minianism and by hyper-Calvinism..          tions in America (Netherlands Re;
  of the elect. He gives His grace                                                    formed Congregations).
  only to those who have been               We are criticized for hyper-cal-
  predestinated to eternal life.            vinism as though we would                   For them, truth is experiential.
                                            deny the responsibility of man              My main objqction against their
    When asked about this, Prof.            and would not call every man                doctrine is that they maintain
Engelsma says that the doctrine of          to..conversion. `Such a condqm-:           : that there must be's mystical ex-
his church shows significant sin&&          nation is unfair and unjust. We             perience before you are assured
ties to that of Dr. C. Steenblok. His       must indeed watch out for it that           of your faith. With this I have
book concerning covenant; calling,        we -are so' fearful' of.  Armini-             great difficulty., The danger is
and baptism, he has read with               anism that we no longer call to             then that feeling replaces faith.
(some) agreement. Just as was the           conversion. In that regard, we              Of course, we must oppose ex-
case with Steenblok in his day, also        have no hesitation to call the              clusive head-knowledge, but
the PRC are criticized for rational-        unconverted to conversion. We               faith in Christ is not the same as
ism and hyper-Calvinism.                    are very definitely committed to          feeling. The Heidelberg Cat-
                                            the task of missions and evan-              echism. speaks of trust. There
 We say that the truth is logical           gelism.                                     are times that I feel it - that is
  in this sense that there can be                                                       a wonderful, heavenly, experi-
  no contradictions between the               At the same time, Engelsma says           ence. But also the opposite is
  various truths of the Bible. All        that Christians can do nothing in             the case, but then faith still re-
  of the doctrines that make up           their own strength.                           mains. My second objection is
  the entire body of truth are har-                                                     that the (required) feeling is
  moniously related to each other.          We can in our own strength                  viewed as a mystical experience.
  If the truth would be contradic-          have no sorrow over our sin or              For the most part, you do not
  tory, theology would become a             be active with a view to justifi-           have such experiences under the
  theology of paradox, just as Karl         cation or in sanctification. When           preaching, but you enjoy them
  Barth speaks of "yes and no."             God calls us to repentance and              usually in private, sometimes
  ,God does not will that everyone          conversion, He Himself gives                even in the middle of the night.
  be saved. Either He  accom-               the strength to accomplish that             In my opinion, .there are people
j plishes this will or.He is unable         and to make His calling effec-              who believe, but do not come to
  to fulfil that will and is accord-       tual. When I stand in the pulpit             the Lord's Supper on account of
  ingly -a frustrated, an impotent          and call to repentance and faith,           their uncertainty and doubt.
  God,                                      God works through this preach-              That, in turn, causes doubt con-
                                            ing, especially through the com-            cerning their soul's salvation, for
          A Twofold Calling                 mand of repentance and faith.               feelings are always uncertain
                                                                                        and changeable. Faith is assured
    Prof. Engelsma defends the idea           Prof. Engelsma thinks that the            in the promises, not in feeling. I
of a twofold calling: an external and     external and internal aspects of the          view this as spiritual navel-gaz-.
an internal calling. The faith of the     call must not be separated from each          ing.  0
Reformation is, according to him,         other, as that takes place, in his judg-                         (to be concluded)




                                          fourth century, A.D., warns against
Augustine against                                                                       VIII, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fa-
                                          this sort of thing when he writes in          the&
D & - S e t t i n g                       his exposition of the Psalms, ch. VI:
                                                                                          If not even the angels in heaven
    Thank you for the informative           "But of that day and that hour            know the hour and time of Christ's
and well-written editorial in the  Oc-      knoweth no man, no neither angel,         coming what possible chance do we
tober 1, 1994 issue of the Standard         nor Power, neither the Son, but the       as human ,beings  have of knowing
Bearer  concerning the false prophecy      Father alone" shows clearly enough         the exact time `of the Lord's return?
of Mr. Harold Camping. The Bible            that no man shall arrogate to him-                                  Barney Sikma
forbids any date-setting. Also the          self the knowledge of that time, by
                                            any computation of years (volume                                 New York, NY
great St. Augustine, living in the

78lStandard  BearerlNovember  15,1994


           Guide
                        `,             .d@  IS&s;. Author  `,
           :.of t.hk,. Belgic COnfession j

Introduction                                 on the scaffold for his faith. To his       of the gospel. He was only 14 when
    Part of the power and enduring           story we now turn.'                         the news reached him of Tyndale's
value of .our confessions is. the fact                                                   cruel martyrdom.3  It may have been
that they arose out of the life of the       Early Life And Conversion                   Tyndale's willingness to die for the
church. They were `not drawn up                  Guido de B&s was born in Mons           sake of translating the Bible into the
by men sitting in ivory towers, con-         in 15222, the fourth child of a family      language of the people that led
templating the truth of Scripture but        of glass painters. In Mons the art of       Guido to study the Scriptures. But
far removed from the battle for the          glass painting had been highly de-          it was through this study that God
faith.. They breathe the life of the         veloped, and Mons deservedly had            led him to true faith in Jesus Christ.
church's struggles.                          an international reputation for the             Guide decided, perhaps because
    The :Heidelberg  Catechism was           skill of its artists. Guido himself was     of persecution in the Lowlands, to
written in the struggles between Cal-        trained for this work.                      go to London and join a refugee
vinism on  `the one hand and                     Guido's family carried on the           church in East London. East Lon-
Lutheranism and Romamsm  on the              traditions of the guilds in Mons, al-       don was a haven for refugees from
other hand, as these struggles were          though the children were split on           many different countries in Europe
bitterly fought out in Frederick's           Reformation doctrine. John, the old-        who were forced to flee because of
Palatinate. The Canons of Dordt              est, while remaining Roman Catho-           persecution. And so in that part of
arose out of. the' fierce battle with        lic all his life, helped Protestants in     London could also. be found a
Arminianism which all but engulfed           times of persecution. Christophe            Walloon4  congregation, to which
the churches in the Netherlands in           was a seller of glassware, but spent        Guido joined himself. The refugees
the first part of the 17th century.. The     his entire life distributing Bibles and     had peace in England because of the
Confession of Faifh' (Be&c Confession)       Protestant  ,literature,  often at great    benign rule of Edward VI who,
was written and reflects the ,bitter         risk to his life. Jerome became a           though young, favored Protestant-
persecution of the saints in the Low-        cloth dyer and remained within the          ism.5 Here he studied for the minis-
lands in the early years of the Refor-       Romish Church. Marlette, the only           try and listened to the powerful
mation.                                      girl, married `a Protestant in
    `It is persecution which gives to        Valenciennes and, with her husband,
the  Confession of  Faith its moving         was deeply involved in Protestant
power. The affirmations of the con-          affairs.                                    l It is very difficult to find any material
fession, "We all believe . ..". "We              The.city of Mons was on the bor-        on Guido de B&s; but an outstanding
                                                                                         popular biography has been written by
confess . ..`!. "We. believe and pro-        der-of France'and the Lowlands, that        Thea B. Van Halsema which bears the
fess . ..I' take on new meaning when         part of the Lowlands which is now           title:  Glorious Heretic: The  Story  of
we understand that they are shouts           Belgium. Here Lutheranism had               Guido de Brks.
that arise from scaffolds, burning           first come and had been eagerly             2 Schaff,  in his History of the Creeds,
piles of tinder, deep prison cells, and      studied by the citizens; but the Hu-        claims the date may have been 1523.
cruel tortures chambers.                     guenots from France soon followed           3 The translator of the English Bible who
    Its author, Guido de B&s, died           with the purer Reformation doc-             died for, his faith in the Lowlands.
                                             trines of John Calvin.                      4 French-speaking citizens of the Low-
                                                 Guido, already in his teens,            lands.
                                             heard from others Reformation               5 Edward died after only a few years
                                                                                         on  the throne and "Bloody Mary," who
Prof., Hanko  is professor of Church His-    truths and could not help but listen        followed Edward, began a systematic
toy and New Testament in the Protes-         to the stories of those who, already        persecution of Protestants which forced
tant Reformed Semina y.                      then, were being killed for the sake        many to flee again to the continent.

                                                                                              tkember  15,1994lStandard  BearerI


  preaching of the great Reformers a         faith; here the congregation knew de       churches held in Antwerp (the pass-
  Lasco and Martin Bucer.                    Bres only as "Jerome"; here the            word for entry was "Vineyard")
                                             meetings of the congregation were          where de  Bres' Confession* was
  Work  In The Lowlands                      always held in secret and at night,        adopted as the official confession of
      But Guido's love was for his na-       with small groups of not more than         the Reformed Churches.
  tive land, and in 1552, at the, age of     12 attending at one time.                       In 1566 de  Bres went to
  30, he returned - as an evangelist             In spite of the problems which         Valenciennes  to become a preacher
  and traveling, preacher. From that         the congregation faced, de Bres or-        in the church there, a congregation
  moment on, his life was in almost          ganized the church with elders and         which called itself the Church of the
  constant danger.                           deacons and faithfully administered        Eagle. While the Protestant faith
      His first field of ,labor was the      the sacraments.                            grew so rapidly that the Roman
  city of Lille, in which a large secret         But even this situation did not        Catholic authorities dared not inter-
  Protestant community had been es-          remain, for a more radical group of        fere in the ieligion of God's people,
  tablished under the name, the              the believers, under the leadership        certain radical elements once again
' Church of the Rose. From Lille he          of Robert du Four, thought it cow;         stepped forward and created
  went to Ghent, where he published          ardly and unfaithful to Christ to keep     trouble. Stirring up large mobs, they
  a tract entitled Le &ton de la foil6  a    their faith secret. The group, sev-        went through all the cathedrals
  stirring defense of the Reformed           eral hundred strong, moved in pub-         smashing burning, destroying any-
  faith.                                     lic procession through the city sing-      thing that in the least smelled like
      Guido enjoyed a brief interlude        ing Psalms in open defiance of the         popery. Philip II, infuriated at this,
  at this time. Traveling to Frankfurt       authorities. The next night, Septem-       sent troops to lay siege to the city,
  in Germany, Guido met Calvin and           ber 30, 1561, 500 Protestants gath-        which surrendered on Palm Sunday,
  was persuaded to come to Geneva.           ered for the same purpose. The re-         1567. Although de  Bres escaped
  In the three years he spent in             sult was that Roman Catholic inves-        with four companions, he was soon
  Geneva, Guido learned the Re-              tigators were sent with orders to          captured and imprisoned.
  formed faith more perfectly, mas-          suppress Protestantism in the city.
  tered Greek and Hebrew under Beza           Although Guido managed to                 His Martyrdom and Importance
  and Calvin, and was more fully             hide until December and flee in                The sad story is now soon told.
  equipped for the gospel ministry.          safety, all the information of the se-         He spent the first part of his cap-
  During this period (1559), he also         cret congregation was discovered,          tivity in a prison in Doornik, where
  married Catherine Ramon  and with          Guido's true identity was found out,       he could receive visitors. Many of
  her had four or five children, the         the people of the church were forced       his visitors, however, were enemies
  oldest named Israel, and the second,       to flee or be killed, and Guido's          who came to taunt him. But just as
  Sara.                                      rooms were ransacked and his pa-           was the case with the apostle Paul
      While Guido was in Geneva,             pers (including letters from Calvin)       (Phil.  1:12-14),   Guido's imprison-
  Charles v7 retired, weary and care-        were burned. Guido was hanged in           ment became an occasion for him to
  worn, to a monastery in Spain, and         effigy.                                    witness to the truth. When a prin-
  his cruel son Philip II came to the            Guido concentrated his work for        cess, along with many young court
  throne determined to stamp out all         several years in northern France, `per-    ladies, came to mock, and the prin-
  "heresy," especiallyin the Lowlands.       haps some of the quietest years of         cess said in horror at Guido's heavy
  While, therefore, up to this time per-     his ministerial career. Although also      chains, "My God, Mr. de  B&s, I
  secution had been sporadic and rela-       in France persecution against the          don't see how you can eat, drink, or
  `tively  light, it now became more se- Huguenots raged, in Guido's area               sleep that way. I think I would die
  vere and bitter.                           the church had peace. He worked            of fear, if I were in your place,"
      de B&s, afterreturning  again to       in Amiens, Montdidier, Dieppe, and         Guido responded: "My lady, the
  the Lowlands, was forced to travel         Sedan, building up the congrega-           good cause for which I suffer and
  in disguise and under the  pseud-          tions and preaching faithfully the         the good conscience God has given
  onym of Jerome. Although the cit-          gospel.                                    me make my bread sweeter and my
  ies in southern Belgium and north-             But he could not refrain from          sleep sounder than those of my per-
  em France (Lille, Antwerp,  Mons)          making periodic trips into his own
  were the area of his labor, his head-      country, a "lion's den" of danger.
  quarters was in Doom&,  where he           He traveled three times to Doom&,
  ministered to the congregation             his old congregation, once to Brus-
  which had chosen as its name, the                                                     6 "The Staff of the Faith."
                                             sels to meet with William of Orange        7 Ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and
  Church of the Palm.                        concerning matters of union between        present at Worms during Luther's stir-
      Here two former ministers had          Calvinists and Lutherans, once to a        ring defense.
  been burned at the stake for their         .secret Synod. of the Reformed             8 See below.

  BOAStandard BearerNovember  15,1994


secutors." And, then, still respond-       and buried in a shallow grave where        undergone," they obey their govem-
ing to the princess, "It is guilt that     dogs and wild animals dug it up and        ment in all things lawful, and that
makes a chain heavy. Innocence             consumed it.                               "having the fear of God before their
makes my chains light. I glory in              Guido de B&s is the author of          eyes, and being terrified by the
them as my badges of honor."               our Confession of Faith, although he       threatening of Christ, who had de-
    Soon Guido was transferred to          was assisted by Adrien de Saravia          clared in the Gospel that he would
Valenciennes and thrown into a             (professor of theology in Leyden),         deny them before God the Father,
dark, cold, damp, rat-infested dun-        H. Modetus (chaplain of William of         in case they denied him before men,
geon known as The Black Hole. In           Orange), and G.  Wingen.  It was           they therefore offered their backs to
spite of the cold, the hunger, the hor-    written in the vain hope that it           stripes, their tongues to knives, their
ror of this hole, Guido wrote a tract      would persuade the cruel Philip II         mouths to gags, and their whole
on the Lords Supper and letters to         to see that the views of the Calvin-       bodies to the fire."
his friends, his aged mother, and his      ists were truly biblical and stop per-         From this spilled blood God
wife. A letter to his wife is an espe-     secution against them. Roman               caused to emerge a confession of
cially moving testimony of his faith.      Catholics had lumped the Calvinists        faith which has held a special place
                                           with the radical and wild-eyed             in the hearts of Reformed believers.
  My dear and well-beloved wife in         Anabaptists who rejected the au-           It is as if, knowing that the confes-
  our Lord Jesus.                          thority of magistrates, and the Con-        sion was written in blood, the saints
    Your grief and anguish are the         fession  sets the Reformed faith over      receive it as a sacred trust, precious
  cause of my writing you this letter.     against Anabaptism.                        and vibrating yet with the faith of
  I most earnestly pray you not to be
  grieved beyond measure.... We                The Confession was thrown over         their fathers.
  knew when we married that we             the wall in Doomik and ultimately                  Our fathers both knew what they
  might not have many years to-            did reach the king, but it served only     believed and were faithfir to it, even
  gether, and the Lord has graciously      to arouse Philip to greater fury           to death. We have received, by the
  given us seven. If the Lord had          against the saints of God.                 Spirit of truth, the glorious fruit
  wished us to live together longer,           In a letter which was added to         which God worked through them.
  he could easily have caused it to be     the Confession, Guido and his co-          It is entrusted to our care that we
  so. But such was not his pleasure.       workers protested against being            may be faithful to it and teach it to
  Let his good will be done.... More-      called rebels against authority, sol-      our children.
  over, consider that I have not fallen
 `into the hands of my enemies by          emnly averred that though they                  We ought earnestly to pray that
  chance, but by the providence of         number over 100,000 and are cru-           we may know as they did the faith,
  God.... All these considerations         elly oppressed by "excommunica-            and that we may be faithful to it as
  have made my heart glad  and-            tions, imprisonments, banishments,         they were, for persecution shall soon
  peaceful, `and I pray you, my dear       `racks, and tortures, and other num-       also be our lot. 0
  and faithful companion, to be glad         erless oppressions which they had
  with me, and to thank the good
  God for what he is doing, for he                                         Confession of Faith
  does nothing but what is altogether                                         Article XXII
  good and right.... I pray you then                                     Of Faith in Jesus Christ
  to be comforted in the Lord, to                We believe that, to attain the true knowledge of this great mystery,
  commit yourself and your affairs           the Holy Ghost kindleth in our hearts an upright faith, which embraces
  to him, he is the husband of the           Jesus Christ, with all his merits, appropriates him, and seeks nothing
  widow and the father of the father-        more besides him. For it must needs follow, either that all things, which
  less, and he will never leave nor
  forsake you....                            are requisite to our salvation, are not in Jesus Christ, or if all things are
    Good-bye, Catherine, my well-            in him, that then those who possess Jesus Christ through faith, have
  beloved! I pray my God to com-             complete salvation in him. Therefore,.for  any to assert, that Christ is not
  fort you, and give you resignation         sufficient, but that something more is required besides him, would be
  to his holy will. Your faithful hus-       too gross a blasphemy: for hence it would follow, that Christ was but
  band, Guido de Brb.                        half a Savior. Therefore we justly say with Paul, that we are justified by
                                             faith alone, or by faith without works. However, to speak more clearly,
    Guido was publicly hanged on             we do not mean, that faith itself justifies us, for it is only an instrument
May 31, 1567 at the age of 47. He            with which we embrace Christ our Righteousness. But Jesus Christ,
was pushed off the ladder while              imputing to us all his merits, and so many holy works which he has
comforting the crowd which had               done for us, and in our stead, is our Righteousness. And faith is an
gathered and urging them to faith-           instrument that keeps us in communion with him in all his benefits,
fulness to the Scriptures. His body          which, when become ours, are more than sufficient to acquit us of our
was left hanging the rest of the day         sins.

                                                                                              November 15,1!394/Standard  Bearer/El


               Cross-Cultwal Missions
                             I. Its Biblical Basis
                                                            . .

    .The last command of the ascend-           rule; and then (except for the             tation  o f   t h e   g o s p e l   t o   t h e
ing Christ to His church was that it           Ninevites) they were saved in the          uncircumcised from its presentation
"go into all .the world" and preach            way of being brought into and be-          to the circumcised that the inspired
the gospel fl to every creature" (Mark         coming a part of Israel. The corpo-         apostle speaks of two gospels: "the
16:15).                                        rate organism of those whom God             gospel of the uncircumcision" and
    Local congregations and de-                saved was identified with the na-           "the gospel of the circumcision"
nominations must, to  the- best of             tion of Israel. The church and the          (Gal. 27). The apostle was inspired
their ability, take the glorious gos-          nation of Israel were seen to be one       to use similar language -when he
pel of grace everywhere, to every              and the same.                              wrote to the Corinthians for the first
nation and people. God has elected                     The new dispensation introduces    time, and said- that to the Jews he
His people out of every nation, tribe,         the truth that God saves people "out       came "as under the law," and to the
and tongue to manifest the diver-              of every nation." Jews and Gentiles        Gentiles he came "as without law"
sity and extent of His grace. This             are made to be one in Christ. In-          (I Cor.  9:20, 21). This strong lan-
universality and `diversity of the             stead of being "without Christ, aliens     guage does not imply and may not
church serve as the occasion for               from the commonwealth of Israel,           be made to imply that the gospel
those already saved to take the                and strangers from the covenants of        was or is to be changed in any sense.
"good news" to as many as they can,            promise, having no hope, and with-         But this language is used to make
even into different counties with              out God in the world," non-Jews            clear that the' manner in which the
their different cultures.                      who believe are "now in Christ             gospel is to be.brought  is going to
    The gospel .crosses cultures. It           Jesus" (Eph. 2). The middle wall of        be different. .Paul is inspired to use
is greater than'any one nation and             partition between the two is broken        this language to show that the same
culture. It may not be limited to              down. Circumcision and  uncir-             gospel is to be'presented differently,
any one race of people. It cannot be           cum&ion do not amount to any-              depending upon the audience to
restricted.                                    thing in themselves.                       whom the gospel is being preached.
    During the whole of the old dis-               The crossing of cultures with the           In the epistle to the .Galatia&  tie
pensation the good news of salva-.             gospel began in earnest, after the         are taught that the gospel had-to be
tion in the Messiah was brought,               Spirit of the ascended Christ was          presented differently to those who
with rare exceptions, only to the de-          poured out on Pentecost. The Spirit        had no  knotiledge of  iand back-
scendants of Abraham. The mes-                 was given to believers from many           ground in the Old Testament Scrip-
sage of salvation was almost exclu-            different nations, and the good news       tures, in contrast to those who do
sively given to Israelites. : The result       about the. coming of the Christ was        have that knowledge and back-
was that this salvation and its mes-           proclaimed in many different lan-.         ground.' The one and same gospel
sage became an essential part of the           guages.                                    had to be preached differently. It is
life and daily practice of that par-               The  taskof taking the preaching       the- same gospel, but its presenta-
ticular nation and people. The few             from one culture into another is no        tion is so distinct that it is called
individuals, from outside of the               easy task. It was extremely difficult      "the gospel of the uncircumcision"
physical seed of Abraham who were              immediately after the Spirit `was          in contrast to "the gospel of the cir-
saved were obvious exceptions to the           poured out upon people from every          cumcision."
                                               nation; And it is very difficult to-           These different presentations of
                                               day.                                       the same gospel brought criticism
                       8     `..                   The apostle Paul was very con-         upon Paul. Some charged him with
Re.?.  VanOverloop   .is  p a s t o r   .of    scious of what happens when the            preaching a false gospel. In the first
Georgetown  Jrotestant  Reformed               gospel crosses from one culture into       .two chapters of his letter to the
Church  .in Bauer, Michigan.                   another. So distinct was the presen-       Galatians he defends himself and the
                                                                   I
82/Standard  Bearer/November 15,1994                                                                         e


gospel he had been preaching among        audience to have an explanation of          ies -and pastors are called, not to be
the Gentiles, which included the          who David, Moses, and John the               served, but to serve those to whom
Galatian churches. Paul labors to         Baptist are. No explanation is              they preach. It is this servitude to
show that what he preached among          needed when quotes are made from            the audience which demands a pre-
them was not of or from man, but          Psalm 2, Psalm 16, and Isaiah 55.            sentation of the gospel which they
was of and from God (1:11,12).  To             In Acts 17 the Holy Spirit can most easily understand.
substantiate this claim, Paul de-         records another sermon. This ser-                     Paul describes his servitude to
scribes his conversion (1:13-16)  and     mon, preached by the same apostle those to whom he preached as be-
his early' ministry  (1:16-24).  Then     who preached in Antioch's syna-              ing "made all things to all men" (v.
he speaks of the conclusion of the        gogue, is a sample of- the kind `of         22); "To the Jews" Paul conducted
leaders. of the Christians at the         sermon which was preached to the            himself "as a Jew," that is, "as un-
fl Jerusalem Council"  `(2:1-lo),         heathen. There the apostle Paul is          ~der the law" (v. 20). The Jews to
namely, that God had committed to         presenting the gospel to philosophers       whom Paul brought the gospel be-
him and Barnabas the resfionsibility      of the Epicureans and of the Stoics,        lieved themselves to be bound to the
of preaching the good news of Jesus       to the men of Athens. In this ser-           ceremonial laws of the Old Testa-
Christ to the heathen, even as- He        mon the apostle does not quote from          ment. They were still observing the
had committed to Peter, James, and        the Old Testament, nor does he re-           temple service, the sacrifices and
John the responsibility of preaching      fer to figures of the Old Testament,         feasts, circumcision, and the distinc-
the good news of Jesus Christ to the      but he begins by declaring God'to           tion between clean and unclean food.
Jews. His unique ministry to the          be Creator and Sustainer of the uni-         Paul knew that in Christ he was free
heathen was acknowledged and ac-          verse. This sermon of the apostle is         from having to observe the ceremo-
cepted by the church. Finally, Paul       not to be judged a poorer sermon             nial laws. But for the sake of the
is inspired to describe a time when       than the one preached to the Jews in        gospel which he brought to the Jews,
he was forced to confront Peter           the synagogue in Ant&h.  It is rather        Paul lived under, that is, in obser-
when Peter foolishly and sinfully         to be seen as evidence that the one         vance of those laws. This does not
conducted himself as if one had to        and same gospel is to be pro-                            mean that Paul compro-
become a Jew to be truly saved in         claimed in different man-                                     mised biblical principles
Jesus Christ.. The apostle goes to        ners, depending on the               . . . the one           , by taking up Jewish
such length in his inspired epistle to    audience. The sermon is          and same gospel                ritual and practice. But
the Galatians in order to show that       of the same high quality       is to be proclaimed              it does mean that,
while the gospel is the same, the         as that preached in the       in different manners,             when  among, Jews,
manner. of its presentation is to be      synagogue in Antioch.             depending on               Paul observed- Jewish
distinct, and this distinction is not     The difference. is not in the audience.                        custom       concerning
to, be judged as compromising the         the gospel presented, `but                                   things indifferent. Paul
g o s p e l .                             in the manner of its  presen-`-   :  ' :                  did not consider it a sin to
  _,L The Holy Spirit saw fit to in-      tation to different cultures. Whether       Observe a ceremonial law,,if this ob-
clude in the book of -Acts the record     to the  Jeivs and proselytes of' servance was not done as a `means
of some of the sermons preached by        Antioch, or to the Gentiles on `Mars'       to acquire salvation and righteous-
the apostles. These sermons are ex-       Hill, Paul condemned sin and de-            ness. He preached Christ from the
amples of the presentation of the         manded repentance and belief in              Old Testament. Scripture,' but con-
gospel and its demands uponthose          , Jesus Christ.                             ceming food and drink he lived as a
who hear it. In Acts 13 we find a              Further biblical evidence of. the      Jew. Though he was free to eat
sermon Paul preached to an audi-          necessity of distinct presentations of      whatever food .he wanted, he. ab-
ence in the synagogue in Anti&h  of       the gospel, dependent on the culture        stained from that which had been
Pisidia  (13:16-41).  The hearers in      of the audience, is found in I              forbidden ,by ceremonial law, so as
that synagogue that Sabbath day           Corinthians 9:19-22. Paul declares          not to give offense. In order not to
were Jews ("men of Israel" - verse        himself to be first and foremost a          offend the Jews to whom he came
16; "children of  .the stock of           servant of, Jesus -Christ. This servi-      with the. gospel, Paul had Timothy
Abraham" - v. 27) and Gentiles            tide compelled him to preach (I Cor.        circumcised (Acts  16:3).  --For the
who had been proselytized into the        9:16). But Paulis also a servant of         same reason Paul took upon himself
Jewish nation ("ye that fear God" -       the audiences to which he preached          an old dispensational vow (Acts
w. 16, 27). Paul's presentation of        ("I made myself servant unto all" -         21:23ff.).  But Paul refused to have
the gospel to this audience was           v. 19). Because the minister is a ser-      Titus circumcised when those who
based on the Old Testament Scrip-         vant to God; he. must make himself          demanded Titus' circumcision said
tures and on God's relationship to        a servant to others. He serves his          it was necessary for salvation (Gal.
Israel and His promise to David.          Master by serving his Master's              21-3): Paul's observance of the cer-
There is obviously no need for this       people. Like the Master,`missionar-         emonial laws did not compromise
                   a                                                                            `November 16,1994/Standard  Wearer/83


the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ    use anything He wants or nothing                  Paul adapted himself, in his pre-
alone, but it was an accommodation         at all, for nothing is impossible with     sentation of the gospel, to the weak.
in order to win the Jews and to            Him. But He is pleased to use              His purpose was to bring them to
avoid being a stumbling block to           means, and the Scriptures show us          Christ. Paul did not adapt himself
them.                                      that the means He normally uses for        to the stubborn, because his purpose
       On the other hand, to the Gen-      bringing the gospel is the preaching       was not to further man's own inter-
tiles Paul came "as without law" (v.       by ministers and missionaries.             ests. But in as far as he is able be-
21). In Christ, Paul and we are made       God's sovereign use of the preach-         fore God, Paul sought to live among
free from needing obedience to the         ing of ministers and missionaries          the people to whom he preached the
law to be saved. But salvation in          does not relieve them of their re-         gospel, in such a way that he would
Christ enabled Paul and enables us         sponsibility to present the gospel in      not by his personal conduct unnec-
to keep the law by loving God and          the preaching in the best possible         essarily offend the hearers.
our neighbor. So when Paul was             way and to the best of their ability.             Taking the gospel across cul-
among the Gentiles, then he                In fact, from a certain perspective,       tures requires wisdom, much wis-
preached Christ and demanded re-           God's use of these men increases           dom, but it must be done. We must
pentance and obedience, but he re-         their  .responsibility  to do the best     learn from the experiences of the
fused to live and act as a Jew. Paul       they possibly can do. Paul was fully       early New Testament church, for
also refused to demand that the hea-       aware of this responsibility. He           they are recorded as an example for
then conform, to Jewish traditions         knew that those who preach the gos-        us.
and practices. As much as possible         pel can offend unnecessarily by their             It is the intent of the four men
Paul lived as the people with whom         conduct. It is a terrible sin to cause     responsible for this rubric during
he labored.                                offense by conduct. Those who              this volume-year to deal with the
       The purpose for the distinctive     preach the gospel have the  God-           subject of cross-cultural missions bib-
presentations of the one gospel, ac-       given responsibility to conduct them-      lically and practically. What is in-
cording to the inspired apostle, is        selves with "meekness and fear" (I         volved in bringing the glorious gos-
"that I might gain the more" (v. 19),      Pet.  3:15)  and to see that their         pel of salvation in Jesus Christ to
or "that I might by all means save         "speech .be alway with grace, sea-         Singapore or Ghana or Jamaica? It
some" (v. 22). This does not mean          soned with salt" (Col.  4:6)., They        is our prayer that these articles will
that Paul saw himself as the one who       are to be "wise as serpents and            make it easier for all to understand
was gaining or saving people.              harmless as doves" (Matt.  10:16).         the issues and difficulties of taking
Rather, Paul was conscious that God        Paul used this approach because he         the gospel to other lands. We covet
is pleased to use earthly means to         desired, the salvation of those to         your prayers, your interest, and your
perform His miracles of saving and         whom God sent him to preach.               questions and responses.  0
strengthening His people. God can




                          The Office of Elder
                             -An' Overview
       By the time this article appears    ,has been placed on nomination for         And rightly so, for who of us is wor-
in print, letters will have again been     the office of Elder. Please let us know    thy of so great a task? And I, even
sent by our various consistories to        if you have valid reasons why you          as I struggle to write these words,
certain confessing male members            would be unable to serve...."              know full well some would say of
somewhat as follows: "The  Con-                Unable to serve? Sometimes the         me, "Why him?" - and I, without
sistory informs you that your name         nomination comes as a surprise, es-        defense.
                                           pecially to those who receive it for              With this, the Lord willing, we
                                           the first time. But as you ponder          begin a short series of discussions
Mr. Griffers is a member of Hope Prot-     your answer, you may already have          of "eldership" in the church of
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,        turned the question around: "Lord,         Christ. Some of the things we hope
CA.                                        who - really - is able to serve?"          to examine at this time are the back-

&l/Standard  Wearer/November  15,1994


ground of the office of elder, its           recorded, the emphasis is obviously        the quality of the preaching and
scriptural basis, the virtual disap-         on the "elder," as opposed to the          teaching in the Romish Church until
pearance of the office during what           "younger." This is clearly inferred        the time of the Reformation. It was
we sometimes refer to as the "Dark           in the account of King Rehoboam's          under John Calvin's leadership in the
Ages" (or, more appropriately,               foolish decision to forsake the coun-      Reformed church of Geneva that the
through the development of the               sel of the old men and to consult          New Testament office of elder was
Romish church hierarchy), the Re-            with the young men who were                once again restored to its  Christ-
formed view of Eldership, as well            grown up with him. The rationale           ordained administrative role. From
as the qualifications for the -elder,        for this, we believe, is that with age     this providential care of God for His
both the necessary qualifications,           comes knowledge and experience;            church comes the guidance that has
and the desirable.                           but, more importantly, knowledge           evolved into our standards for
    Since we believe the elder is ap-        and experience tried by the fires of       church government as expressed
pointed by, and serves as the repre-         God's Word and Spirit brings forth         particularly in our Church Order
sentative of Christ in His ruling            wisdom      and understanding.             and the Form of Ordination for
(kingly) office, we must first have a        Solomon, in a spirit of true humil-        officebearers. We believe the above
clear understanding of how the               ity,  ,properly chose wisdom (cf. I        history is basic to a proper discus-
elder's position relates to this same        Rings  3:9). What more important           sion of the office of elder in our
office as it comes to expression in.         qualification could there be "to judge     church of today.
the entire body of believers in their        this thy so great a people"?                   When we speak of the office of
roles as prophet, priest, and king un-           It is in the New Testament, how-       elder, we should note that the Bible
der Christ. In these offices common          ever, that the office of elder, or         uses the words "elder" and "bishop"
to all believers, the saints take a vi-      bishop, more clearly evolves as the        interchangeably. Consequently, the
brant and active part in all the af-         organ through which Christ directly        same word is used for the office of
fairs of the church. Within this set-        rules His church. (We will not quote       "prophet" and "king." We know,
ting, Christ, through the congrega-          all of the many scriptural references      however, that these two offices are
tion, calls certain believers to the spe-    to the establishment and use of the        separate and distinct, but also equal.
cial offices of prophet (ministers),         elders' office, and its requirements).     This is apparent from I Timothy 5:17
priest (deacons), ,and king (elders).        ,We know from Acts 14:23  that Paul        where we read, "Let the elders that
Through these special offices, and           and Barnabas ordained elders in ev-        rule well be counted worthy of
in a unique relationship to the fel-         ery church as their missionary work        double honour, especiaZ2y  those who
low-members of the congregation,             progressed. From various other             labor in the word cind doctrine (preach-
Christ rules His church. And it is           verses recording divinely-inspired         ing)." This adds another dimension
on this latter office, namely of elder,      instruction to the early church, we        - ministers (preachers) are included
that we focus our attention. ' That          may briefly summarize the primary          with the elders who rule well. So,
this special office is separate and dis-     duties of the elder, namely, to feed       there is' some overlapping of the of-
tinct from .the general kingly office        (oversee) the Lord's flock as His rep-     fices, `namely, the pastor is also a
shared by all believers is clear from        resentatives (John 21:16; I Pet. 5:2);     rding elder. Now, is the ruling el-
the scriptural admonition, "Obey             to rule over and care for the church       der also a teaching (preaching) el-
them that have rule over you, `and           of God (I Tim. 3:4, 5; 5:17); to pre-      der?  ,The answer,-of course, is Yes
submit to them" (Heb. 13:17).                serve sound doctrine (preaching)           .and No.
    Now it is of utmost importance           and guard against error (Tit. 1:9-11);         But we reserve further discus-
to see that this office of ruling, or        and to teach (I Tim. 3:2). Other texts     sion of this for a later article.
authority, is not one earned or mer-         are Acts 15:22; 20:17ff.,  Titus 1:5-9;        The Editorial Staff of the Sfan-
ited. It is not even bestowed on the         and f Peter 51-3. We will quote oth-       dard Bearer suggested that this ru-
officebearer by the congregation.            ers when we examine the qualifica-         ,bric be essentially practical - not
Christ Himself, the only ruler and           tions for bishops.                         theoretical. I fear the foregoing leans
King of His church, through His ser-             Before looking at the present-         toward the theoretical, but our hope
vant representatives, not only insti-        day Reformed concept of church             is that this may. set the stage for a
tuted the office but also fills it by        government, `we note that it is of his-    more practical look at the elders' of-
the activity of the Holy Spirit.             torical significance that the office of    fice. At another time, we hope to
    That the church of God through           elder virtually disappeared during         look at the qualifications of the rul-
all ages was historically ruled by el-       the third and fourth centuries as the      ing elder, his duties, his relationship
ders is abundantly clear from the            early church became more and more          to the offices of the minister and the
Scriptures. The Old Testament                hierarchical, with the governing of        diaconate, his responsibilities to the
makes reference time and again to,           the church vested in the pope and          flock of Christ, and the con-
the "elders of Israel." Although the         his appointed bishops. With this           gregation's responsibilities to their
origin of this office in Israel is not       came a devastating deterioration in        elders. We will see that the work of

                                                                                             November 15,1994lStandard  WearerI




                                                                                                         i


   the elder requires devotion, deter-           of our readers who have been newly         DeKoster.  These books, and others,
   inination, and hard, hard work As             nominated, or elected as elders, to        are in your church's `or your pastor's
   weak vessels, standing in Christ's            read some of the following: Prof.          library. Read them. Study them.
   stead, ruling His people, how could           H. Hanko's "Notes on the Church            Do it now. You will find them ex-
   itbe `o t h e r w i s e !                     Order"; Prof. W. Heyn's Haidbook           tremely helpful, interesting and in-
       Until then, I would encourage             for  Elders and Deacons;  and The          formative. I did! 0
   you - ask you - especially those              Elders Handbook  by Berghoef-





    .~ Recent Developmerits in
               Church-Stat.&  L a w .
   n  IRS Requires                                (4) a statement by the charity de-        ductions, these expansive regula-
                                                  claring that no goods or services         tions will regrettably entail addi-
   Substantiation for                            were furnished the donor in connec-        tional bookkeeping and accounting
   Charitable Codbutions                          tion with any contribution or that        work for treasurers of charitable in-
                                                  the goods and services provided           stitutions, including our churches
   The'new law disallows a deductio?i  for       were of "insubstantial value" or con-      and schools. The IRS has recently
   any ,kontribution  of $250 or more that        sisted of "intangible religious ben-      promised additional regulations in-
   is not. substantiated by a  `written           e f i t s . `:                            terpreting this new law. Accord-
   lickndwledgementfrom  the charity.                For example, if a person regu-         ingly, -school and church treasurers
          IRS Revenue Procedure 90-12             larly contributed $50 per week to his     should consult with their local
                                  ( 1 9 9 4 )     church's general fund, but contrib-       C.P.A. to formulate for donors year-
                                                  utes a single gift of $300 to the         end receipts that comply with these
       The treasurers of our churches,' church's benevolence fund and $500                  new  ins requirements.
  schools, and denominational orga-               to the church building fund, the $300
   nizations should be aware of new               and the $500 gifts must be listed         w Parochial Schools
   IRS. rules regarding charitable gifts          separately on the receipt furnished       Now        Subject,to        r     .'
   effective for 1994. The new rules              the donor at year end.
   declare that no charitable deduction                                                     Age Discrimination Act .
                                                      Moreover, as mentioned above,
   will be allowed for gifts in excess of the written acknowledgment or re-                     Are parochial schools subject to
   $250 unless the taxpayer provides              ceipt must state that the donor re-       the federal. Age Discrimination in
  `the IRS with a written receipt from            ceived no goods or services in con-       Employment Act (ADEA)? Yes,
  the charitable organization.                    sideration for'the gifts or that their    ruled a federal appeals court re-
       These written receipts for gifts          value was "insubstantial" or con-          cently.
   of $250 or more must contain the               sisted of "intangible religious ben-          The case began when a Catholic
   following information to conform to            efits."                                   high school refused to .renew  the
   IRS guidelines: (1) the name of the .-L            When the taxpayer does receive        contract of a math teacher who had
  donor taxpayer; (2) a description of something. of value- in connection                   been employed by the parochial
   the gift (property or cash); (3) item-        with, his contribution (e.g., a book       school for the five previous years.
_ ization of each gift in excess of $250;        or a power tool at a ftmd-raising auc-     The school argued his dismissal was
                                                  tion), the receipt must indicate the      occasioned by his failure to begin
                                                  extent to `which the contribution ex-     classes with prayer and failure to at-
                                                  ceeded the value of the goods or ser:     tend Mass with his students. The
                                                 v i c e s   r e c e i v e d .              teacher alleged he was dismissed be-
                                                                                            cause of his age.
   Mr. Lanting, a member of South Hol-                Although these new rules were             The ADEA makes it unlawful
   land Protestant Reformed Church, is a         .undoubtedly  designed to thwart           ,for an employer to discriminate
   practicingaftorneyz                    :;. abuse of charitable contribution  de-

   WStindard WhaierlNovember  15,1394


against any employee or applicant           ject to federal laws prohibiting dis-.         California-law does not require a fce-
on the basis of, age. An "employer"         crimination. based, on race, gender,           tus to be viable to support a fet,al
is defined as "a person engaged in          national origin, and now age. Al-              murder charge.
an industry affecting commerce who          though. religious institutions may                 The California Supreme Court
has twenty or more employees . . . . fl     still discriminate based on religion,          upheld the conviction, declaring th,at
The ADEA does not specify whether           the alleged religious reason may not           third party killing of a fetus wil1h
religious institutions are "employ-         be a pretext for discrimination based          malice aforethought is murder I$0
ers" within the Act.                        on gender, race, or age. One won-              long as the state can show that tlle
    The school argued that the case         ders how long religious institutions           fetus had progressed beyond the enCl-
should be summarily dismissed be-           will remain exempt from "religious             bryonic stage of seven to  eiglnt
cause, as a religious institution, it       discrimination" and regrettably be             weeks.
should be exempt from the ADEA's            held to the same laws as secular or-               Comment.  The California  Sl1-
anti-discrimination provisions. (The        ganizations in this regard also. See           preme Court, of course, made a
lower court had held that applica-          DeMarco  v. Holy Cross High School, -4         sound decision in upholding tlle
tion of the ADEA to. a parochial            F.3d 166 (2nd Cir. 1993).                      state .fetal murder statute. But tlle
school would give rise to an unto-                                                         defendant's argument is compellinis:
ward risk of excessive government           w State Supreme Court                          If mothers and doctors can kill a fe-
entanglement with religion). The            Holds Killing tif a Fetus                      ~I.JS  .prior to viability (24  weeksi9,
federal appeals court disagreed and                                                        how can a robbery defendant be co:n-
held the parochial-school subject to        i s   M u r d e r .                            victed of fetal murder without re-
the age discrimination act.                     During a robbery in California,            gard to viability?
    The  ,appellate  court brushed          a pregnant woman was shot and the                  This case clearly illustrates  tl3e
aside the school's concern that the         fetus was stillborn as a result of the         absurdities resulting from the Roe 0.
government would be evaluating re-          injuries. The assailant was charged            Wade decision permitting abortion --
ligious motivations for dismissal or        and convicted by a jury for murder             killing a 15-week  fetus during a rdb-
reassignment of employees of  reli-         of a fetus during the course of a rob-         bery is murder, but terminating a
gious,institutions,  and stated:            b e r y .                                      15-week  fetus in a clinic is an "abclr-
                                                The defendant appealed,' argu-             tion." This California Suprenle
    Given that the religious duties         ing that the trial judge erred in re-          Court decision deserves much more
  that the teacher allegedly failed to      fusing to instruct the jury regarding          notoriety  than what it will undout,t-
  carry out are easily  isolated and de-    the "viability" of the fetus. The pros-        edly experience. See  People. v. Dav
  fined, we are confident that the able     ecution contended that no viability
  district judge will be able to focus                                                     Calif. Supreme Court (May 16,199< ts:
                                            instruction was necessary because
  the trial upon whether-the teacher
  was fired because of his age or be-
 cause of his failure to perform reli-                                       Lord, Lead the Way
  gious duties, and this can be done
  without putting into issue the va-                     If there be someone, Lord, who needs a smile,
  lidity or truthfulness of Catholic re-                 If one must be assured life is worthwhile,,
  ligious teaching.                                It I today must walk the extra mile;
                                                          `Lord, lead the way.
    The court then went on to say
that even if the age:discrimination                      If there be someone, Lord, who is in need;
inquiry would "present serious en-                  If I be called to do a kindly deed;
tanglement concerns" between                        If I must go and sow the-precious seed, I
church and state, religious institu-                        Lord, lead the way;
tions would nonetheless be subject
to the ADEA simply because Con-                     If there be someone, Lord, whose faith is weak,
gress did not specifically make them                If I must go a wandering soul to seek;
exempt from the ADEA.                               If I be asked to turn the other cheek -
    Comment.  Other recent cases                           Lord, lead the way.
have held private schools to be sub-
ject to federal laws prohibiting dis-               For if I live for others I will see
criminatory action based on gender.'                That any joy I bring will come to me,
It now seems clear that most reli-                  But all my strength, 0 Lord, must come from Thee,.
gious institutions including churches                       Please lead the way.
and private schools (with greater                                                                       Annetta  J a n s e n
than twenty employees)  wiII be sub-                                                                   '  Don; Michigan

                                                                                                Novembeg,lB,  lgg4/Standard  Bearerh


                    Th.e, Reformed ~Family:
              . J .. saying Thanks

"I thank my God upon ezjey remem-            proclamation, the Reformed believer           of Tabernacles were all occasions of
brance of you. "                             delights in thanksgiving. To God,             thanksgiving. When the people of
                         Philippians  1:3    first of all. Thanks is our joyful re-        Israel arrived in Canaan and planted
    In.America  it is the time of har-       frain for blessings innumerable  -            their, own crops, they took a sheaf
vest and thanksgiving.                       life, health, liberty, shelter, clothing,     of grain and waved it before the
    All across this vast land, boun-         food convenient for me (Prov. 30:8),          Lord. In this manner, they acknowl-
tiful crops are being gathered in.           family, friends, church, school, work         edged that their daily bread came
Thousands of acres of golden grain           For salvation in Jesus Christ.                from God's hand. They expressed
have been reaped. Great dunes of                 Just as Paul tells the  Thessa-           gratitude to the Lord of the harvest.
corn tumble out of capacious grana-          lomans to pray without ceasing (I                     At the Feast of Firstfruits, Israel
ries. Fattened hogs and sleek cattle         Thess.  5:17), so, gratitude to God           was instructed to bring their har-
are led to market. Fruits and veg-           should be as regular as our heart-            vested crops as gifts to God. At the
etables, exotic and common, are              beat.                                         Feast of Tabernacles, the Israelites
stockpiled. Dainties fit for demigods            Do I have meager provisions?              cut branches from trees and made
- this is America's daily bread.             Am I ill? Is my house ramshackle?             booths to live in for a feast of thanks-
    The earth yields her increase; the       Am I imprisoned? Am I even now                giving which lasted for a week.
Reformed believer receives a comu-           being persecuted? Yet, I will thank                   Ruth and Naomi shared in the
copia of blessing. "He gave us ram           Him for the salvation given to one            festivities of Bethlehem's barley har-
from heaven, and fruitful seasons,           so undeserving. "Although the fig             vest; Nabal and his men celebrated
filling our hearts with food and glad-       tree shall not blossom, neither shall         the shearing of sheep.
ness." Psalm 68 puts it this way:            fruit be in the vines: the labour  of                 So, today, harvest is the tangible
He daily loadeth us with benefits.           the olive shall faiI, and the fields shall    fruit of one's labors. Whatever one's
    Ever since October 3,1863,  when         yield no meat; the flock shall be cut         work, at whatever time of year, the
Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a na-             off from the fold, and there shall be         reaping of bounties after months of
tional day of Thanksgiving, the citi-        no herd in the stalls: Yet I will re-         arduous labor - whether that be
zens of America have celebrated              joice in the Lord, I will joy in the          raising children or cabbages  - calls
Thanksgiving Day on the last Thurs-          God of my salvation" (Hab. 3                              for thanksgiving.
day in November:                             :17 and 18). Correctly it has                                      Unquestionably, the
                    7                        .been said, "It isn't what
  I do, therefore, invite my fellow citi-    you have in your pocket             With or without             Reformed believer de-
  zens, in every part of the United          that makes you happy,                 presidential               lights in giving
  States, and those who are sojourn-         but what you have in                 proclamation,               thanks to God. Does
  ing in foreign lands, to set apart         your heart." A thank-            the Reformed believer           he also express that
  and observe the last Thursday in           ful heart, like the golden             delights in               heartfelt joy in thanks
  November next as a day of thanks-          grain spilling out of its            thanksgiving.               to his neighbor? Just
  giving praise to our beneficent Fa-                                                                       as one cannot keep the
                                             granaries, brims over in
  ther who dwelleth  in the heavens.                                                                     first table of the law
                     Abraham Lincoln         praise to God and gratitude to                          (showing our love for God)
    With or without presidential             each other.                                   without keeping the second table
                                                 Already in the Old Testament,             (showing love for our neighbor), so
                                             harvest blessing called for  celebra-         it is impossible to express thanks to
Mrs. Lubbers is a wife and mother in         tion. Israel celebrated thanksgiving          God but withhold thanks to one an-
the Protestant Reformed Church  of           in its sacrifices and feasts. Passover,       other. To paraphrase, how can one
South Holland, Illinois.                     the Feast of Firstfruits, and the Feast       thank God whom he has not seen, if

88bSfandard Bearer/November  15,1994


he does not thank the neighbor              ashamed of his chains, beloved             tain that we will not pass this way
whom he, has seen? Perversely,              brethren, faithful ministers, examples     again. The grave is silent (Ps. 6:5).
however, the simple thank `you to           to other believers (I Thess. 1:7). "I      It can render no thanks.
one's fellow believer is far more dif-      thank my God upon every remem-                 Jesus also had something to say
ficult to express. But the added ben-       brance  of you..." (Phil.  1:3). Paul      about expressing gratitude. In a
efit is that while one is busy thank-       freely and lavishly thanked the loved      small village He cleansed ten lep-
ing his fellow saints, one really has       ones in the churches, using words          ers. Only one turned back, falling
precious little breath left for criti-      of affection and intimacy. He was          down on his face giving thanks.
cism. (Read Colossians  3:14-17.)           not reluctant to express his feelings      "And Jesus answering said, Were
    Husbands should be busy thank-          of gratitude to his fellow believers.      there not ten cleansed? but where
ing wives. Wives should be diligent         The 16th chapter of Romans is es-          are the nine?" (Luke  1717).  Giving
in thanking their husbands. I think         sentially  a. touching litany of thanks    thanks,  .being thankful, expressing
of the old husband who lay dying,           for everyone who assisted Paul, how-       our thankfulness to God and to one
wracked with pain and the accom-            ever humbly, in his ministry. It in-       another, is not the optional Chris-
panying unpleasantness of a body            eludes men and women, although it          tian life. It is the very essence of
that would no longer obey him. He           begins withthanks to a woman. Be-          Christianity.
apologized to his wife for the de-          ing courteous, chivalrous, grateful            We in America celebrate an
meaning tasks which she had to per-         are not maxims of Benjamin Franklin        earthly harvest. It is only a simple
form for him, humiliating both to           or Emily Post, but God-breathed            picture of the great harvest when the
him and to her. She answered with           Christian virtues from the apostle's       wheat is decisively separated from
a love that had become steadfast and        own pen. Moreover, it is a sign of         the tares, and all the grateful saints
deep through the years, "Say not an-        the perilous times in which we are         are gathered into God's garners. ".
other word; this is small thanks -for       living that men are unthankful (II             When we all get to Heaven!
50-some years of wonderful mar-             Tim. 3).                                       What a Day of Thanksgiving
riage to ~ou.~                                    This should teach us to be effu-     that will be! Cl            .-
    Thank you to the father who la-         sive with our thanks to each other:
bors tirelessly in an unglamorous job       employers thanking employees for
to provide his family with food,            long hours and faithful years of ser-
shelter, and clothing, driving around       vice, and employees thanking em-                 Ma@ a joyfirCnoise  unto
in an older car so that he will not                ployers for regular work to earn      thx LORD, aKye hniak
lag behind with the Chris-                           the daily bread; children               Serve. the  LORD with
tian school tuition.                                       thanking parents for all
Thank you to the              This we do know,               the benefits of home,      gcadness: . come  6efore  his
mother who keeps the                                          and parents thanking      presence with singing.
home and gives of           we need each other                children for the joy
her very life for the                  on this                 and warmth they               Know ye that the LORD
well-being of the           earthly pilgrimage                 bring to an  other-      h is God:, it is he that hat/i
family. Thank you to          _ atid it is.cede           ,, wise cold and  ster-       maa%  us, an& not we  our-
the minister who
brings sharp words             that we will not                ile world; thank you
                                                              to Christian school       seCVe.9; We are his peopb, and
                                 pass this way
of admonition and                                            teachers, and to sup-      the d&p of his pasture.
soft words of comfort.                 again.               portive parents who
And the minister thanks                                  wiilingly sacrifice to              Enter into fiisgates with
his parishioners, as Paul did                         build, equip, and maintain        than(.givin~,  and  into his
in I Thessalonians 2:13, for receiv-        the Christian school; thank you to          courts with praise: 6e than&
ing the Word of truth.                      each saint with special words of en-
    Just think of the courtesy of Paul      couragement and praise; thanks for          fid unto him, and 6Gzs3 his
who, almost without exception, be-          any service rendered, no matter how         name.
gins and ends each of .his letters to       insignificant it may seem; thank you
the churches with thanks for all the        with our mouth, telling each other              nor ih LORD isgood. his
saints in general and for certain           of the great benefits.in Jesus Christ       rnercfi is ~~erl&rting; -and his
saints, specifically. Paul thanks           and for each other. For we are all
workers, fellow prisoners, co-labor-        blocks, fitly joined together, even         truth endureth to aggeneia-
ers which were- a comfort to him            though we do not fully understand           tions.
(Col.  4:11), those that refreshed his      where or how each fits in. This we                                     Psalm 100
spirit and that of their fellow saints      do know, we need each other on this
(I Cor. 15:18), those who were not          earthly pilgrimage - and it is cer-

                                                                                           November 15,1994lStandard  Beareri99


                              C,h.urch Vidtation

The classis shall authorize at least two        the ministers, consistories  and school-       This principle is well put by the
of her oldest, most experienced and most        masters  fulfill their office faithfully    following writers.
competent ministers to visit all the            . . .N and that the church visitors "...
churches once a year and to take tied           direct everything to the peace,               Church visitation is mutual in char-
whether the minister and the consistory         upbuilding and the greatest profit            acter.. By means of this institution
faithfully perform the duties of their of-                                                    the churches watch for each other's
                                                of the churches  and schools." The            welfare and advise and admonish
fice, adhere to sound doctrine, observe         CRC revision of 1914 dropped the              each other when necessary. Church
in all things the adopted order, and            references to the schoolmasters and           visitation is not an institution of su-
properly promote as much as lies in             the schools.                                  pervision, exercised by superior of-
them, through word and deed, the                    Although the practice of church           ficers over inferior officers. Nei-
upbuilding  of  the congregation, in par-       visitation is long-standing it was not        ther is it supervision exercised by
ticular of the youth, to the end that they      immediately introduced into the Re-           an authoritative superior body over
may in timefraternally  admonish those          formed churches. Early there were            inferior  bodies.       The various
who have in anything been negligent,            many who feared that such a prac-             churches comprising a classis, be-
and may by their advice and assistance                                                       ing all equal in authority, super-
                                                tice would encourage hierarchy and            vise each other.  (VanDellen  and
help direct all things unto the peace,          rob the local congregations of their          Monsma, The  Church Order Com-
upbuilding, and greatest profit  of  the        autonomy. The question was put to             mentary, p. 195.)
churches. And each classis may con-             the Synod of Middelburg, 1581:
tinue these visitors in service as long as      "Whether it would be good besides             On the one hand, the Reformed
it sees fit, except where the visitors them-    the classical meetings also to intro-       churches were afraid of  .hierarchi-
selves request to be released  for the rea-     duce annual visits to the churches,           cal elements while, on the other
sons of which the classis shall judge.          or to appoint Inspectors or Superin-          hand, they were aware of the need
             Church Order, Article 44.          tendents, but  &ith proper limita-            to keep watch over each other, not
                                                tions. Answer: It is unnecessary              fn ti supervisory manner, as if they
Historical Background                           and dangerous." Nevertheless, in a            had authority over  one  another, but
                                                                                             `in the manner of equals who hold
     The  practice of church visitation         short time the fears of what such a           each other to their word and see
is of long standing in Reformed                 practice might lead to were over-             the need to help and warn one an-
.churches. Already the Synod of `s              come and the benefits of annual               other if the need should arise.
Gravenhague, in 1586, adopted the               church visitation were seen.                  (VanOene,  With Common Consent,
practice. Our present  article is in                                                          p. 216.)
essence  that adopted by the Synod              Principle on Which church
of Dordt,  161%`19. The Synod of                Visitation is Based                           Church visitation is in essence this,
the Christian Reformed Church, in                  The principle on which church              that representatives of the churches
1914, revised the article in the Church         visitation rests is the mutual respon-        come to inquire whether this sister
                                                                                              church maintains the faithfulness to
Order of Dordt in one respect. Dordt            sibility that sister churches have to-        the covenant ,of the churches by liv-
had specified the purpose of church             wards each other in the fellowship            ing  up to the adopted order.
visitation as ". . . discem  whether            of a denomination. It is not a matter         (VanOene,  p. 217.)
                                                or lording it over another consistory
                                                or  prying  into the private affairs of         There is a clear, biblical basis for
                                                a consistory. But it is a matter of all     the practice of church visitation. Ac-
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwesf            the churches of the classis being con-      cording to Acts  11:22, 23 Barnabas
Protestant Reformed Church in                   cerned for the welfare and faithful-        was sent by the church at Jerusalem
Grandville, Michigan                            ness of each other.                         to the church at Antioch to investi-

SO/Standard Bearer/November 15,1994


gate repqrts which they had received       church visitors, .,perhaps a team of          reason that they must be men well
about. their sister congregation. In `: one  .mimster and one elder.. The                versed in the principles and prac-
Acts 1536 ~Paul leaves on his second " Church dkfer of the CRC, Article 42a             tices of "Reformed church govern-
missionary journey in order to "...        states: "The classis shall appoint at         ment, as well as possessing practi-
visit our brethren in every city where     least one committee composed of               cal wisdom that comes only with a
we have preached the word of the           two of the more experienced and               number of years of service in the
Lord, and see how they do."                competent officebearers, two minis-           ministry.
Clearly, the apostle was not merely `. ters, or one minister and one eldqr,,,
interested in "visiting" socially with ; to visit allits churches once a year.." ::$he'Actuil Visits
the brethren. But it was his pur-          It is more for practical reasons that              The annual visit by the church
pose to make inquiry with respect          our Church Order assigns the work             visitors must be announced to the
to the spiritual condition of the con-     of church visitation to ministers.            congregation. The consistory must
gregations and officebearers - to ";..       According. to ,the -article, .those         be informed in time .to make such
see how they do?" Essentially, this        appointed are to be the "... oldest,          an announcement. The decisions
was church visitation.                     most experienced and most compe-              which our churches have appended
                                           tent ministers...." The main require-         to Article 44 include that, "The visi-
The Church Visitors                        ment is that'the church visitors be           tors shall give the congregations at
    The church visitors are ap-            the most comRetent  of the ministers          least eight days' `notice of the day
pointed by the classis. Each classis       of the classis. Generally, the most           and hour of their proposed visit."
appoints at least two ministers to do      competent are also the oldest and             The congregation as a whole must
this work. Two are required so that        most experienced. The work de-                be `aware of the visit. One reason
they may function officially as a          mands this experience and compe-              for this is to make it possible for
committee on behalf of the classis.        tency. Church visitors find them-             any member to meet with the
"At least two" implies that, if the        selves in many different situations.          consistory and church visitors.
classis deems it necessary, the num-       They are confronted .`with different               At the visits, one of the visitors
ber may be greater. Three ought to         problems and `are asked advice in             functions as the president of their
be appointed, or an alternate to the       perplexing situations. It stands to           committee, asking the questions and
two, since circumstances may pro-
hibit one of the appointees from be-
ing able to function and because nei-
ther of the two appointed is in a po-                                 Questions for Church Visitation
sition to visit his own consistory.                   .               Questions to the Ful~]Co&story
    Church visitors are "authorized"           1. ~ Is the Word administered at least twice,on the Lord's Day?
by the classis. They are appointed             2. Is the Heidelberg Catechism regularly explained in the services for
to their position by the vote of the           divine worship, so that no doctrine is left untreated?
classis. But they are not simply "ap-          3: In the reading services, are sermons used as much as possible which
pointed," they are "authorized."               are produced in our own circle?
That bespeaks authority. The church            4. Is the Lord's Supper celebrated at least four times a year preceded by
visitors come with the authority of           -a preparatory sermon and followed by an applicatory sermon?.
the classis that `sends them.                  5. Does the consistory~ see to, it that catechism classes are regularly con-
    The -appointment of the church           ducted? Does the consistory determine- the material for instruction? And
                                               does it see to it that the classes are regularly attended?
visitors is an annual not a perma-             6. Are consistory'members chosen in agreement with the rules of the
nent appointment. Within the year              Church Order?
of their appointment they are to visit         7. Does the consistory meet regularly in accord with the needs of the
all of the churches of the classis. At         congregation, at least once a month?
the end of the year, their term as             8. Are all matters coming before the consistory treated according to our
church visitors expires. And al-               Church .Order  and are the minutes properly recorded and kept?
though the same men may serve                  9. Is censura  morum conducted among the members of the consistory
again, they must be reappointed by             before each Lord's Supper?
the classis.                                   10. Is family visitation conducted faithfully,.  so thhat each family receives
                                               an official visit once, a year?     .
    The article" requires that the             11. Is church discipline faithfully  exercised according to God's Word and
church visitors be competent "min-             the Church Order?
isters." This is not for principle rea-        12. Is the consistory aware whether there are members of secret organiza-
sons. It would not be improper- for           tions in the congregation, and if so, is church discipline applied to them?
elders to serve as church visitors.            13. What is the spiritual condition of the'congregation?  Is there unity,
There can be no principle objection           peace, and love?
to the appointment of elders as

                                                                                               November 15,1994/Standard  Bearer/91


                                                                                            directing the discussion, and' .the
   14. Do the children of the congregation, when they come to years `of                     other functions as the secretary and
   discretion, seek admission to  the-Lord`s Supper? And if they are remiss,                examines the consistory minute
   are they pointed to their obligation and treated as the need requires?                   books. For the visits, an adopted set
   15. Is the congregation busy in the extension of God's kingdom, espe-                    of questions is followed (see insert).
   cially in the promotion of missions, to the best of its ability?
   16. Are the  synodical  assessments faithfully paid, in agreement with the               First there are questions put to the
   stipulated regulations?                                                                  whole consistory. Then follow ques-
   17. Are the funds of the  chu;ch; and the poor fund and all proofs of                    tions to the elders and deacons in
   possessions kept in a safe place `so that no occasion is given for mistrust              the absence of the minister, to the
   nor difficulties can arise on leave of office or death, and is the congrega-             ir&ister'and  deacons in the absence
   tion properly incorporated with the State? Are the archives in'order?                    of the elders, and to the minister and
   18. Does the consistory see to it that the parents send theirchildren  to the            elders in the absence of the deacons.
   Christian school?                                               \                            Although the adopted questions
   19. Are the Forms of Unity signed by all the members of the consistory,                  must be asked and answered, the
   the ministers, elders, and deacons?                                                      visitors are not restricted to these
                        Q u e s t i o n s                      totheElders   andtieacow     questions. There may and ought to
                           in the Absence of the Minister                                   be more extended discussion of cer-
   1. Does the minister  in the preaching  and  in the administration of the                tain of the questions. Related  a;ldi-
   sacraments do his work faithfully according to the Word of God, the                      `tional questions may also be asked.
   Forms of Unity, and the Church Order?                                                        It is profitable that the church
   2. Does the minister faithfully explain God's Word so that the congrega-                 visitors choose a theme and conduct
   tion is built up through his preaching?                                                  the `visitation from `the perspective
   3. Does he regularly conduct the catechism classes, visit the sick faith-                of this theme. Possible themes in-
   fully, and does he take part in family visitation?
   4. Does the minister reveal himself as a-worthy example?                                 clude: mutual -supervision among
    5. Is he devoted as much as possible to the exercise of his office?                     the officebearers; denominational re-
    6. Does he receive sufficient income to take care of the needs of his                   sponsibility; the importance of the
   family, taking in consideration the character of his work?                               example of the officebearers; the
                                                                                            officebearers' attention to the youth
                                Questions to the Minister                                   of the congregation (in light of the
                                    and the Deacons                                         fact that Article 44 itself calls special
                               in the Absence of the Elders                                 attention to the youth); the impor-
    1. Do the elders regularly attend the services for divine worship as well
    as the consistory meetings?                                                             tance of holding to the traditions;
    2.. Do they at set times attend the catechism classes to see how they are               the church's calling to be a witness
    conducted and attended; and do they assist the minister when the need                   in the  community;  the unity  .of the
    requires it in catechizing?                                                             church and the calling of the
    3. Do they see to it that Christian discipline is exercised, and that every-            -officebearers to promote the unity
    thing is done honorably and in good order?                                              of the congregation.
    4. Do the elders visit the sick and others in agreement with the calling of                 Although the church visitors are
    their office?                                      .,          :.     ~                 to conduct, an annual' visitation of
    5. Do they try to prevent and remove all offense in the congregation,                   every congregation in the  classis,
    and try to comfort and instruct the members?
    6. Do they conduct themselves as examples to the congregation in their                  they ought also to be available to
    family and outward walk of life?                                                        consistories for special consultation.
                                                                                            Usually special visits will be made
                        Questions to the Ministers and Elders                               at the request of a consistory. It is
                           in the Absence of the Deacons                                    not impossible, however, that the
    1. Do the deacons attend regularly the ,services  for divihe  worship as                church visitors take the initiative
    well as the consistory meetings; and in case such meetings are held, do                 and call for a special meeting. This
    they also attend deacons' meetings?                                                     is certainly within their rights and
    2. Are they diligent in the collecting of the alms and do they faithfully               "authorization' by the  classis. The
    realize their calling in the care and comfort of the poor and oppressed?
    3. Are the collections counted in the presence of the'minister or one or                visitors may feel the necessity of do-
    more of the elders?                                                                    ing this if there are reports of seri-
    4. Do they administer the finances wisely in consultation iyith the minis-              ous problems in a congregation that
    ter and the consistory?                                                                 perhaps threaten its continued ex-
    5. Do they in their family and outward life and walk reveal  themselves                 istence. If a consistory is facing a
    as exemplary Christians?                                                                difficult problem and feels the need
                                                                                            for help and advice, it ought to feel
                                                                                            free to call upon the church visitors

92lStandard  Bearer/November 15,1994


before having to apply to the classis       Purpose of Church Visitation               mands that the church visitors "fra-
itself for help.                                 As far as the individual              ternally admonish" them.
                                            churches are concerned, the purpose            As far as the officebearers are
Church Visitors' Reports                    of church visitation is the upbuilding     concerned, church visitation serves
    Having been appointed by the            of  the- congregations. Since the          to encourage them to faithfulness
classis, the. church visitors must also     upbuilding of the congregationsde-         and diligence in their respective of-
report to the  classis: "After com-         pends on `the faithful labors of the       fices. Church visitation affords an
pleting the visitation of all the, con-     officebearers, inquiry is made into        opportunity to remind the  office-
gregations, the visitors .shall with        the faithfumess  of -the officebearers,    .bearers of the importance of their
requisite discretion, compose a  re-        including the'godliness  of their tialk    labors, and to stir them up to even
port of their activities to be deliv-       `,.and the purity, of their. doctrine.     greater diligence.
ered at the next following classis."        Since the,future  of the congregations         As far as the classis and, even
Church visitors must give an' ac-           his with the children and young            more broadly, the denomination is
count of their work to the classis.         .;people,  special attention is paid to    concerned, the purpose of church
The obligation to report indicates          the labors bestowed on the children        visitation is the preservation of the
that they-did .not visit the churches       * and youth. And since the upbuild-        purity of the churches. It is the
in their own authority, but received        `ing of the congregations `is served       means `to assure that all the sister
their mandate from the classis. This        by observance of "the adopted or-          churches are living faithfully within
report is to be given with "requisite       der," the church visitors, must in-        the denomination. It is the means
discretion," for the protection of in-      quire whether all things are done ac-      by which the churches carry out
dividuals and of consistories.              cording to our Church Order. This is       their calling of mutual supervision.
    Besides the annual report read          the main reason for the inspection         And it is the means to protect and
on the floor of the classis, the church     of the consistory's books, to be as-       to strengthen the unity of the
visitors are also to keep a record of       sured that the adopted order is be-        `churches.
their visits in the. various congrega-      : ing followed by the con&story.               May God continue to use this
tions: "They shall record their find-            If the officebearers are found        institution for the blessing of our
ings and actions in a book, which           `negligent in `their calling, the          churches!  IJ
can be consulted at the next. visita-       upbuilding of the congregation  de-
tion, and which can be kept in the
classical archive."





    While in  my teens  I gave no           simply did not care! Now, as I look        assert your independence as a young
thought to the meaning of-bemg'a            back .on these years, I think that it      man or woman.
teenager or just-where I was in my          : would have been heipful to under-            In his book entitled The Secret of
development as a human being. I             `stand this about myself: what was         Christian Family Living,  Ralph
was too busy getting on with my             there about my teenage years which         Heynen attempts a description of the
life to worry about this. -Besides,,1       was distinct from childhood and            teenager.
                                            adulthood?
                                                 Perhaps this does not interest          The adolescent is required to live
                                            you either at this stage in your life.       as gracefully as he can in two
Rev. Bruinsma is pastor'of  First Plyot-    But relax for a few minutes and read         worlds, the lingering world of child-
                                                                                         hood and the opening world of
-e@ant  Reformed Church in Holland,         anyway. Maybe you will discover a            adulthood. He is seldom sure of
Michigan.                                   few tips that might be useful as you         which of these two areas he occu-
                                                                                            November 15,1994lStandard Bearer193


   pies at a given time. In a sense           learn. This is why the teenage years         childhood and adulthood, but he is
   these young people are still chil-         are referred to as adolescence; they         caught between two spiritual forces
   dren. They still have some of the          are years &ring which one comes              at work in this world as well. Think
   feelings of dependency of child-
   hood. And yet, they have a strong          of age, grows up, becomes mature.            `about that `for a moment! `There are
   desire to be independent., They                 There are three very important          two worlds that surround Christian
   need their parents;and  yet they de-       questions you will need to answer            youth: `the world of righteousness
   sire to break the.ties of garental con-    during these years. When you an-             and the world of unrighteousness.
   kC$S.                                      swer these for yourself, then you will       Both of these worlds exert a tremen-
                                              be ready to become independent.              dous amount of pressure on a young
          Now, I realize that you may not     The first `end by far the most vital         man and woman. There are parents,
 view yourself in this particular way.        question is: what will be my spiri-          teachers, and ministers who con-
 lt may seem that this definition of          t&l commitment? Will I  .walk in             stantly urge the teenager to walk in
 adolescence describes a teenager .as         the way of God's commandments                a way of holiness, to serve God and
 nothing more than a confused, over-          and Word? Will I love God and                to love Him above all else. Before
 grown kid who is trying to act like          -live my life in service to Him? Or          the shift from childhood into ado-
 an adult. Let me assure you that             wiil I choose to walk in the way of          lescence this was fine. We, ,simply
 this is far from the case! A teenager        sin and unrepentance? Will I de-             accepted what they taught us as
 is not a kid anymore! He has                 spise the ways of God and take my            true. Now, however, we want, to be
 reached the age of puberty. He has           place with the rest of the ungodlyin         free to make this decision for our-
 definitely gone' through certain             this world? This question, of course,        selves. We want to be independent.
 physical, emotional, and psychologi-         has everything to do,with  the other         And sometimes, to show that we are
 cal changes in his life that separate        two questions a young person must            not kids anymore; we deliberately
 him from his little brothers and sis-        answer. Those are: what will be              reject the urging of our parents and
 ters.                                        my life's work? And,`whom  will I            follow the other spiritual force that
   Yet; this description of an ado-           choose to be my' life's mate, if I           pressures us.
 lescent is accurate. In every person's       Thoose  to marry? You must make                     The wicked world surrounds us
 life there is a certain period during        commitments in all these areas be-           and waits in the shadows. She is as
 which he makes a change from child-          fore you can truly call yourself an          a beautiful woman with all her
 hood into adulthood. That was true           adult or a mature`individual.                charms and  allurements.  She con-
 of me and it is true of you too., A              I know, there are those who do           stantly beckons from the sideline, of-
 person does not simply change into           not wish to face these questions.            fering us her ways as an alternative
 an adult overnight. It is a gradual          They-are indeed difficult to answer.         to the ways of our parents and
 process through which a young man            Some young people do not wish to             church. These are., waysof sin and
 and woman must go in order to mas-           grow up and become`responsible for           rebellion against God and His Word.
ter what it takes to be independent.          their lives. But these questions will        Yet, these ways seem so much more
 It is a sad and harmful thing when           not go away. They press themselves           simple, so much less demanding
 children are cast out into the world         `on the teenager. This is why the teen-      than the ways of holiness that our
 to fend for themselves prematurely,          age years can be so difficult.l You,               parents, taught us in our child-
 that is, before they have reached a          as young people; are not chil-                    . . , hood. Thus..does  the wicked
 certain age of maturity.                     dren anymore! Yet the fact                                world put its pressure,on
     That you stand -at the brink of          remains: to become inde-            _ . . . ~--~            us as youth without our
 adulthood, but have not yet quite            pendent of mother and fa-           The teenager            .even realizing it. And
 entered it, makes these years very           ther you must be ready                is caught              we`are ,suddenly swept
 special in your life. You have left          to stand alone spiritually,           between                up in the battle of the
 childhood behind, and stand at the           financially, and emotion-                  tW0                Ages - a battle that we
 door of maturity. The teenager is a          `ally. You must be able            spiritual forces          would just as soon` ig-
 young adult. Yet, you would have             to say with Paul in I                   at work              nore, but which forces
 to be quite proud not, to admit that         Corinthians 1311, "When            in this world.          itself upon us.
 this whole area of adult,hood  is new        I was a child, I spake. as a                                    Now, do not get me
 to you. You h&,had no previous               child, I understood as a child,                         wrong. I do not,wish  to dis-
 experience in it and:therefore  are ig-      I thought as a child but when I                   courage you; This time of your
 norant of its/demands and responsi-          became a man,.1 put away childish           life is marked by strength and vital-
bilities. You do not yet' have the            things." Until we can put away              ity. God strengthens you that you
wisdom  bb which you can assert               childish things we have not become          might assert your independence and
your independency from -mother                mature enough to be independent;            learn your particular place in life. I
and father. All this' you have to                 There is more to all of this. Not       write these things only to help sort
                           : .                only is the teenager caught between         things out, in order that the ti-ansi-

94lStandard  Bearer/November-15; 1994


tion from childhood to adulthood           the hands of our almighty and ever             through the hard times. If you take
might take place as smoothly as pos-       faithful God who by His grace alone            time out to probe. beneath the hard
sible.                                     works in the hearts of sinners. As             veneer that we as adults can some-
    There are two roads to becom-          parents we are thankful for the work           times wear, you will find that we
ing independent. There is the way          He has accomplished in us through              are human beings who have experi-
of the world. `In this way we reject       the cross of Jesus Christ, and we are          enced the same pains and difficul-
the church, the old paths of                           confident that the same            ties you have. Please, young people,
our parents, and; worst of                                work He has  per-               please, do not allow our own im-
all, the God of our sal- ,       The right way.              formed in us He-also         perfections, inconsistencies, and sins
vation. The spiritual          to assert independence          accomplishes in            to keep you from talking to us!
commitment we                  is to remain faithful             your hearts. To               The final means God gives you
make is to walk in             to God and His cause          b e   s u r e ,   t h a t    to ease your burdens is prayer.
the way of unbe-                   in this world,                 does not re-            What is prayer good for in this re-
lief, turning our              and to take our place              move           the      spect? First, by means of prayer you
back on the truth                   in the midst                  struggles you           must ask God to direct you in your
of the Scripture                 of Christ's church               confront while          decisions. Christ promises us in Mat-
that parents taught                 as an active,                asserting your           thew  27, 8, "Ask, and it shall be
us during child-                    enthusiastic                independence,             given you; seek, and ye shall find;
hood. Having an-                       member.                but it ought to en-         knock, and it shall be opened unto
swered this question,we                                     courage you.                  you; for everyone that asketh
then choose a vocation that                                  There  -are several          receiveth; and he that seeketh
may'violate scriptural principles 1                  means God gives you as cov-          findeth; and to him that knocketh it
(perhaps union membership or Sab-          enant youth that will assist you in            shall be opened." Secondly, by
bath desecration). The spouse we           becoming mature, independent                   means of prayer you ask that God's
choose need not have any spiritual         adults. If you make use of them,               will be done in your life in order
moorings either. What she believes         the many, difficult and burdensome             that you might find contentment and
is of no consequence to this decision      questions you must answer for your-            peace even-when things do not seem
we make. We then assert our inde-          selves will become lighter. The first          to go your way. Finally, by means
pendence by leaving father and             is the Word of God. We learn from              of prayer you can find forgiveness
mother behind and making a new             the Bible that God's Word is a lamp            where you have taken the wrong
life for ourselves in this world. This     unto our feet and a light upon our             turn and have ended up in failure.
is one way of asserting our indepen-       path in this world. No, it is not a            Prayer will certainly assist you as
dence.                                     ready-made handbook that will tell             you assert your independence.
    The pther way, the right way, is       us exactly what we must do in a                    When finally all those struggles
to follow in the spiritual ways we         given situation. It will not tell us,          are behind you, when you have an-
-were  taught as a child (provided, of     for example, what job we must                  swered in the right way all those
course, these were the ways of God         choose or who will be our wife or              important questions for yourself,
and the Scripture). The right- way         husband. But the Word of God will              then you will look back across those
to assert independence is to remain        lay out for us the spiritual principles        difficult teenage years and thank
faithful to God and His cause in this      required of us to make decisions in            God for His grace! I know I often
world, and to take our place in the        these areas of our lives. This will            do that in my life. How often I was
midst of Christ's church as an ac-         make our struggles easier. In this             tempted to turn down the wrong
tive, enthusiastic member. This will       connection, do not forget that care-           path. By God's grace alone I am
in turn determine what vocation and        ful application of the preaching of            what I `am: What godly, covenant
what spouse we choose. In this way         God's Word assists us too in the               adult does not feel that in his heart?
too we can assert our-independence.        many questions and problems we                 What child of God does not thank
We can leave father and mother and         confront.                                      his God every day anew for the
make a life for ourselves in this           I A second means God has given                guidance God gave him and still
world and in the church.                   us is Christian adults. Christian par-         gives him in his life?
    So . . . which will it be? I cannot    ents, teachers, and pastors are not a              Rest assured in God's promise
plan your life. Parents cannot de-         bane; they are not a source of harm            to you, Christian young man and
termine your future life. Yeu must         or ruin for us. Rather, they are a             woman: "I will never leave you or
determine where you want to be             boon, a blessing or benefit given by           forsake you." That promise is the
when,you  have finally reached ma-         God on our behalf. We must not                 rock to which all of us must cling.
turity. All we can do as pastors,          view the .Christian adults God has             That will lead you too as you make
teachers, and parents is to instruct       given us in our lives as the enemy,            the transition from childhood to
and admonish. The rest we leave in         but as those who will help us                  a d u l t h o o d .   0

                                                                                             November  15,1994lStandard Bearer195


                                                                                                              SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                              Postage Paid at
                                                                                                              GrandvIle,. Michigan
      P. 0: Box 603
      Grandvile, MI  49466-0603





                                             School Activities                          come out for a time of fellowship,
Denominational  Activities                       Rev. W. Bruinsma spoke for this        volleyball, and softball.
       This year's Fall Ladies' League       year's first P.T.A. meeting for the        Congregational Activities
Meeting, made up of ladies from PR           Hope PR Christian School in Walker,            Although I. lack details, I want
churches in Iowa and Minnesota,              MI. He spoke on "Home School-              to include here that on the evening
met at the Doon, IA PRC on Octo-             ing."                                      of October 21, the congregation of
ber 11 to hear Rev. R. Dykstra speak             On the evening of October 21,          Lynden, WA PRC met in their church
on the topic, "The New Age Move-             the Mothers' Circle of the Hope            for a farewell program for Rev.
ment in Our Day," based, on Isaiah           Christian School in Redlands, CA           Haak, his wife, and their three
5:13-30.                                     hosted a Fall Banquet. Their theme         daughters.
        Our Southeast PRC in Grand           this year was to be in celebration of          And, related to the Haaks' leav-
Rapids, MI played host to this year's        their school's 20th anniversary.           ing of the Lynden congregation,
Mr. & Mrs. and Adult Bible Societ-               The Fund-Raisers of the                there was a note of thanks from the
ies League Meeting on September 27.          Loveland, CO  PR Christian School          Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village, IL
This year's meeting featured Rev. R.         recently sponsored what I think was        Building Committee, thanking their
Cammenga, speaking on "The Im-               a rather unusual event. They spon-         congregation for the effort put for-
portance of Society Life in Our              sored a Western Night and Chile            ward to refurbish their parsonage.
Churches." A collection was taken            Cook-Off. One could not only enter         The congregation was also reminded
for Rev. Kortering, to be distributed        the cook-off, but he could also enjoy      to reserve the dates of October 28 or
to needy ministers with whom he              a meal of cowboy food, consisting          29 to help unload the furniture of
comes in contact in his work in              of a menu of barbecue briskets, po-        the Haaks, who hoped, the Lord will-
Singapore.                                   tatoes, cowboy beans, corn bread,          ing, to arrive in Bethel that week-
        Also on September 27 there was       and peaches. All events were held          end.
the annual Fall Men's and Ladies'            in the field in front of the school, so    Minister Activities
League Meeting held at the First             participants were encouraged to                Rev. W. Bruinsma, pastor of the
PRC in Holland, MI. Prof. D.                 bring their lawn chairs, dress up in       First  PRC in Holland, MI has de-
Engelsma spoke on the theme, "The            their western duds if they wished,         clined the call he was considering to
Church in the World."                        and enjoy an evening of cowboy             serve as the next pastor of Byron
       Mentioning Prof. Engelsma's           food, music, and fun.                      Center, MI PRC, which was recently
name also reminds me that his                Young People's Activities                  left vacant by Rev. Gritters' accep-
eschatology class resumed meeting                The Federation Board of our            tance of the call to Hudsonville.
on September 21 at 7~45 P.M. at the          churches' Young People's Societies                       FoodFor 5!7iqtZt
Faith PRC in Jenison, MI and will            recently sponsored a travelogue by             "Woe be to the people where the
thereafter meet on alternate Wednes-         well-known Christian travelogue art-       pulpit gives no utterance to the deep
days, D.V.                                   ist Don VanPolen,  entitled "Songs         things of God. They will grow lean
        Prof. H. Hanko is leading a Bible    of Faith from Around the World."           from want of nourishment and sad
Study class at our Hope PRC in               Mr. VanPolen  took the viewer to 12        from lack of comfort."
Walker, MI on Monday evenings at             countries and told the stories behind                                C.H. Spurgeon,
8                                                                                                     Sermons on Sovereignty Cl
      P.M.  The first topic of study this    15 well-known hymns. This event
fall was prayer. All were invited to         was held at Faith Church on Sep-
attend, but a special invitation was         tember 28.                                                  NOTICE!!!
extended to young confessing                     The Young People's Society of              Classis East will meet in regular ses-
church members.                              the First PRC in Edgerton, MN re-          sion on January  11,1995  at the Southwest
                                             cently sponsored a hamburg and             Protestant Reformed Church. Material to
                                                                                        be treated at this session must be in the
Mr. Wigger is an elder in the Protes-        hotdog fry for their congregation at       hands of the Stated Clerk by December
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,         Edgerton  City Park. Besides sup-          12, 1994.
Michigan.                                    per, everyone was encouraged to                           Jon J. Huisken, Stated Clerk

96/Siind&id Bearer lNove,m,ber  15,1994


