A Reformed BEARER
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                    See "Day of Shadow&--p.  211

vol. /l,  LVO. Y
February 1,1995


CONTENTS:                                                                                                                             February  I,  1995


Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
        The Wise Builder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~... 195                      ISSN 0362-4692
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                   Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. decker,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,.........,,.,....,..,...,,,,,,                                                                                                  199           Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
Go Ye into All the World - Rev. Ronald H, Hanko                                                                                                                                                       Poafmaator:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
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A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                                                                                                                             EDtTORtAL COMMRTEE
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In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHattog                                                                                                                                                                     Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezsma
    Weak and Strong Faith (III) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~...........~....... 205                                                                  DEPARTMENTEDtTORS
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Car/J, Haak                                                                                                                                                              Rev. Wilbur Erulnsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Decker, Rev. AriedenHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
     Jesus and Nicodemus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207                                    Grkters, Rev. Carl Hsak. Rev. Jason Kortering. Rev. Cornelius
Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                      Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Hsys, Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Kuipsr, Mr. James Laming, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
        6. The Cbming of Antichrist . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..**..*.***..................*............. 208                                                                                         Jaikishin Mahtani, Rev. Thomas Misrsma, Rev. Charles
,Day of Shadows - Homer C: Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                   Terpstra, Rev. GieeVanBaren, Rev. RonstdVanCvsrtoop,  Mr.
                                                                                                                                                                                                      Benjamin Wigger.  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
        The Last Four Days of Creation-Week (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Book F&views ..,.,........................................,,..,,....~..................`.`............                                                                                  213           EDtTONtALbFFlCE                 CHURCH NEWS EDtTOR
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that the account of creation in Genesis 1 and 2, particularly the creation of                                                                                                                         Contributions will be limited to approximately 366 words and
Adam and Eve, is actual, factual history.                                                                                                                                                             mustbeneattywrittenortypewritten,andmustbesigned.            Copy
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                            The Wise Builder

     Therefore whosoever heareth these           Jesus also `lays down the prin-           But in his haste to get settled in
sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will      ciples that govern these heavenly          his home the fool does not take into
liken him unto a wise man, which built       citizens, instructing them to keep         consideration the terrain or the
his house  uporz a rock: and the rain        God's commandments with their              weather conditions. He does not
descended, and the floods came, and the      whole being, to pray in sincerity, and     bother to lay a firm foundation, but
win& blew, and beat upon that house;         to seek first the kingdom of heaven        hastily erects his house. In a very
and it fell not, for it was founded upon     and its righteousness. In one word,        short time he has moved in, enjoys
a rock. And eve y one who heareth these      Jesus sums up the teachings of the         the comfort of his living room, and
sayings of mine, and doeth them not,         entire Scriptures and urges us to live     looking out of the window sees his
shall be likened unto a foolish man,         wholeheartedly as citizens of the          neighbor still digging deep in the
which built his house upon the sand.         kingdom, having our treasure in            earth as he lays his foundation for
And the rains de&$&d,  and the floods        heaven.                                    his house.
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon        Our Lord concludes by saying,                A wise man is one who seeks
that house, and it fell, and great was       "Therefore whosoever heareth these         out the best means toward,&  best
the fall thereof.                            sayings of mine, and doeth them, I         end. That characterizes  .the wise
                     Matthew 7~24-27         will liken him unto a wise man,            builder. He does not live merely
                                             which built his house upon a rock."        for the moment, but he looks ahead
     "Whosoever heareth these say-                                                      and reckons with the -future. He
ings of mine...."                               +++  +*  +*  +*                         knows that the sun does not always
     Our Lord makes-this  statement                                                     shine, but that inclement weather,"
at the end of the well-known Ser-                Our house is an essential part of      with rains, floods, and winds, will
mon on the Mount. In this sermon             our lives. It is the place where we        surely come.
He was instructing His disciples, in         reside, our home. It gives us shel-            Being interested in the spiritual
the presence of a large multitude,           ter, comfort, rest, felIowship, and se-    welfare of himself and his family,
concerning the kingdom of heaven.            curity. There we can associate with        he seeks the spiritual shelter and
He had emphasized that this king-            family and,friends.                        comfort of the Scriptures. Christ
dom is not earthly, but heavenly.                Each of us has his own house as        must be the Head of his family. His
The citizens of the kingdom are not          center of his- earthly existence. We       Spirit must govern their hearts. The
known by their outward appearance,           also have a spiritual house as the         fear of the Lord must be dominant.
their nationality, or their race' dis-       center of our spiritual life.              His love must dwell there. Peace
tinctions. They have their own spiri-            A wise man seeks a permanent           with God and the joy of salvation
tual earmarks. They are the poor in          residence. He is not only interested       must be evident in all the activities
spirit, the meek, the merciful, the          in the present, but also in his future     of the home. The whole family must
pure of heart, and the peacemakers.          welfare. He is not like the fool .who      freely worship God in word and
They mourn, they hunger and thirst           lives only for the moment, having          deed.
after righteousness,' and they are per- :    little concern about the day of to-            The wise builder builds  .his
secuted for righteousness' sake.             morrow.                                    house upon the Rock Christ Jesus.
                                                 They both build a house. They          We sometimes'sing: `IThe Church's
                                             choose a location,' possibly near a        one -foundation is Jesus Christ our
                                             stream or river. Since they both pro-      `Lord." Since that is true of' the
                                             fess to be Christians; they surely :$church, it is also true of every indi-
                                             build within convenient distance           vidual believer.
Rev. Hanko is a .minister  emeritus in       from their church and a Christian              We must be founded upon
the Protestant Reformed  Churches.           school.                                    Christ as He is revealed to us in His

                                                                                                 February  1,1995/Standarb  Searetfl95


Word, "built upon the foundation                  ened. He does not know where to            We are building on sand, or we are
 of the prophets and the apostles,                turn. He may put his trust in the          building on the eternal Rock Christ
Jesus Christ himself being the chief              arm of flesh, or in others, but all        Jesus. It is either . . . or, never both.
cornerstone."                                     help fails him. As a final resort he
             We realize that of ourselves we      may turn to God in prayer, yet even            4-u-++++-+-+u+
are sinners, hopelessly lost in sin,              that will prove to be in vain.
worthy only of God's righteous con-                    The wise builder has a double              "And the rains descended, and
demnation unto everlasting desola-                s e c u r i t y .                          the floods came . . . . n
tion of hell. One sin is sufficient to                 On the one hand, he has his God            This refers to the final judgment.
condemn us forever, and we have                   as his refuge. God is his almighty,             There is also a judgment already
so very many, increasing our guilt                heavenly Father, who cares for him.        in this present time. It should serve
from moment to moment every day.                  Although He may be angry at the            as a warning when the rising floods
             Our only hope of salvation is in     moment, His love never fails. He is        and the howling winds threaten our
the cross of the Savior Jesus Christ.             kind and merciful; He will not for-        house. The Lord does not leave
We have no way out of our misery.                 ever chide, nor will He keep His an-       Himself without witness, but warns
But God does the humanly impos-                   ger forever. He is longsuffering with      us that to live apart form  Him is
sible. For He loves His people with               His children in Christ Jesus.              death. Unless we repent we perish
an eternal love, which is so great                     On the other hand, he has .a liv-     with the floods of His judgment.
that He freely gave His Son as ran-               ing faith which keeps him close to              There may be those who seek
som for our souls. And the Son gave               his Lord. In times of trial and afflic-    their eternal security in their works.
His life, even unto death, the ac-                tion he turns to his God and finds         They are members of the church who
cursed death of utter darkness and                his comfort in the Most High. He           are very regular in their attendance.
desolation in hell, to redeem us from             knows that God is for him and noth-        They take an active part in the life
our sins and to merit for us eternal              ing can be against him, for the Al-        of the church. They may be minis-
life.                                             mighty turns all things to his salva-      ters, elders, deacons, or other promi-
             It is upon that Rock Christ Jesus    tion. God is his Refuge and his            nent leaders. They are proud of their
that the wise man builds his house.               Strength, his ever-present help in all     accomplishments. As Jesus warns
                                                  his trials.                                us, "Many will say in that day, Lord,
                                                       Our children must be taught           Lord, have we not prophesied in thy
                                                  that, in order that they may seek the      name, and in thy name cast out dev-
             That is his eternal security.        Lord in their youth. They must learn       ils? and in thy name done many
             Rains do descend at regular in-      to have the Word of God as a lamp          mighty works? And then I will pro-
tervals. Storms do rage, with light-              before their feet and a light upon         fess unto them, I never knew you:
ning slashing the sky and clattering              their pathway.                             depart from me, ye that work iniq-
thunder shaking the house. Rivers                      Our young people must learn           uity?"
do rise to flood stage, lapping at the            that, because they are confronted               Nothing is more certain than
soil about the house.                             with some of life's biggest decisions.     death. And thereupon follows the
             Life has its problems. Financial     They must learn to put their trust in      judgment. "For we must allappear
cares arise - unexpected expenses,                the living God, seeking His guidance       before the judgment seat of Christ,
church budget, school tuition, a fam-             as they take their places as active        that every one may-receive the deeds
ily trying to live on one income in a             members in the church, as they seek        done in his body, according to that
two-income society, illness, infirmi-             to know whom the Lord has planned          he hath done, whether it be good or
ties in the family, loss of dear ones,            for their life mate and how they can       bad."
and other trials.                                 best serve Him in fulfilhng their call-         For the wise man who is
             The devil is always on the alert     ing here on earth. Their future hap-       founded upon the eternal Rock,
to tempt us: The world lures and                  piness is in God alone.                    death is gain. He never dies, but
threatens. Our flesh is weak. Each                     That is a lesson we all must          when he lays off his pilgrim's garb
of us knows his own spiritual                     learn. Every day of our lives we are       he has a house with God eternal in
struggle against temptation and sin.              building a house, building for the         the heavens. The final judgment
Our character sins, which are so                  present or for the future - for this       gives him a reward of grace, his own
much a part of us, can become so                  world, or for the world to come. We        place, purpose, and calling among
overwhelmingly powerful that they                 are laboring for the bread that per-       the saints in glory. He will shine
threaten to destroy us and our fami-              ishes, involving our whole lives in        like the sun in the kingdom of the
l i e s .                                         perishable things, or we are pilgrims      Father.
             The fool does not reckon with        and strangers on the earth, only trav-         Blessed is he, who heareth the
those things. He panics when all                  eling through as we seek the king-         words of our Lord and doeth them.
that he holds most precious is threat-            dom of heaven and its righteousness.                                               0

1!3S/StandardBearer/February  1,1995


                         Jelle in Wonderland

        Children know the strange         I994 issue of  Christian Renewal un-       Alliance that they would have to
world of "Alice in Wonderland."           der the title, "Future Federation and      "lecture" the independent churches
Lewis Carroll created this world in       Ecumenical Relations":                     on common grace or on any other
two books, Alice's Adventures in                                                     matter. Admittedly, this is a fine
Wonderland and Through the Look-            Honesty - we need that too in our        idea. The PRC would, I am sure, be
ing-GZass. It is truly a wonderland.        ecumenical endeavors. Let me be          willing to give such lectures at a
It is not that this world is wrong but      specific. The Protestant Reformed        meeting of the ARC. Many churches
that it does not make sense. It is a        Churches informed the Alliance           in the ARC would benefit from
world of "sentence first - verdict          that for them  to attend as fraternal
                                            delegates they would have to "let-       good, solid lectures on the issue of
afterward"; a world in which the            ture us" on common grace and             particular or common grace based
"sun was shining on the sea" in the         other matters that divide us. Here       on the Bible and the Reformed
"middle of the night"; a'world  in          I say: let's be frank and honest with    creeds. Listening and responding
which one believes six impossible           each other. If the Protestant Re-        to such lectures might even be as
things before breakfast.                    formed brothers think that we must       profitable to the ARC as some of the
        .premises are absurd in this        adopt their position on common           other items on its agenda. But the
world; conclusions, solemnly drawn,         grace and the well-meant offer of        PRC were not so presumptuous as
do not follow. Alice's reaction to a        the gospel in order to join in fed-      to stipulate this, or even offer it.
remark is that she "felt dreadfully         eration, then forget about it. That
                                            simply isn't going to happen. I          Their decision was this:
puzzled....       The Hatter's remark       could live in a church where there
seemed to her to have no sort of            was freedom to disagree about              That synod authorize the Contact
meaning in it, and yet it was cer-          common grace, but if I have to deny        Committee to send observers to the
tainly English." Triumphantly, the          common grace in order to be a              ARC .., provided that the ARC gives
Mock Turtle exclaims, "We& I never          member of the same church, then            our observers the time to address
heard it before, but it sounds un-          the game is over. And that is even         the real issues between the ARC and
common  nonsense.N To the won-             more the case with the well-meant           the PRC ("Acts of Synod of the PRC
                                                                                       1994," Art. 59)
derland itself applies the bewildered       offer of the gospel. I, and I'm sure
response of little Alice to a speech,       the majority of independent
                                            churches, simply are not going to            Nor  did the synod of the PRC
"If any one of them can explain it,         do that. Well then, let's be honest      authorize the sending to the ARC of
I'll give him sixpence. I don't be-         and not pretend that we are going        "fraternal delegates." The synod au-
lieve there's an atom of meaning in         to work together toward federation.      thorized the sending merely of "ob-
it."                                        The door to that is closed. I con-       servers." Of all of this, synod in-
        It is a world of non-reality.       sider our Protestant Reformed            formed the ARC in clear language.
        As it unfolds, things become        brothers to be dead wrong on these       The Rev. Tuininga has it wrong.
"curiouser and curiouser."                  matters, and if they won't even con-         But errors do not yet a wonder-
        Such is the world -of the Rev.      sider the possibility that they could    land make.
Jelle Tuininga, by all accounts a           be wrong,  then talking together is
                                            a waste of time. We have better              The wonderland begins to ap-
leader in the Alliance of Reformed          things to do. (This is not to deny       pear in the definite impression given
Churches (ARC), as regards his prd-         that I count them  brothers in           by Tuininga that the  PRC, burning
sentation of the relation of the Prot-      Christ.)                                 with desire to federate with the in-
estant Reformed Churches (PRC) to                                                    dependent churches, are aggres-
the independent churches associat-            Jelle in wonderland!                   sively pursuing the churches of the
ing as the ARC.                               The wonderland of the Rev. Jelle       ARC. The ardent suitor, however,
        Behold this wonderland in the     Tuininga is not his doctrinal errors.      insists that the marriage be on PR
Rev. Tuininga's account of the PRC        It is not even his factual errors. The     terms., The  PRC insist that the
and the ARC in the December 26,           PRC did not, of course, inform the

                                                                                           February  1,1995/Standard Bearerll97


churches of the ARC adopt the po-         posing their do&hai views on the         Christian Renewal,  "they (the PRC)
sition of the PRC on common grace.        independents. The PRC would "let:        won't even consider the possibility
    Jelle in wonderland!                  ture" the churches of the ARC. .Af-      that they could be wrong." Because
    Reality is that the independent       ter their "lecture," there will be no    of the intransigence of the PRC,
churches have approached the  PRC,        opportunity for discussion, much         "talking together is a waste of time."
inviting this denomination to attend      less for debate. Probably, they will         What must a sensible man or
their meeting. The independent            not even allow for questions.            woman make of this?
churches have made plain that a             Oh, those hardnosed PRC!                   One has the sense of utter be-
purpose of their association is some          Jelle in wonderland!                 wilderment.
kind of "federation," not only of the         The invitation by the ARC to, the        This is a strange and different
independent churches but also of the      PRC to attend its meeting involved       world.
Reformed denominations whom               some desire for "ecumenical rela-            It is not that statements are
they invite to their meeting. ,In re-     tions," if not for "federation." The     wrong, but that the whole presenta-
sponse to another, likely invitation      ARC made known that this was the         tion is non-reality. With the Mock
from the ARC, the PRC have in-            nature of the invitation. This re-       Turtle of Alice's wonderland, one
formed the independent churches: if       quires talking together. The conver-     says, "Well, I never heard it before,
we attend, we request the right to        sation must be more than a five-         but it sounds uncommon nonsense."
lay before you the doctrinal, ethical,    minute speech by the PR observers            A wonderland!
and church political issues that sepa-    extending greetings from their de-           Jelle's wonderland. Q
rate us.                                  nomination. By their synodical  de-                 (installment two to follow)
    A completely reasonable, can-         cision, the PRC have responded to                                        - DJE
did, and desirable, if not expected,      the ARC invitation, "Let us discuss
reply to the invitation from the ARC,     the real issues between the PRC and
one would think.                          the CR churches that have left the
    The PRC have made no de-              CRC, We will present these issues
mands upon the independents, in-          according to our. convictions based
deed are in no position to make any       on Holy Scripture, the Reformed
demands; ar,e not, and never have         confessions, and the Church Order
been, working, or pretending to           of Dordt."
work, toward any "federation" with            How do churches proceed with                      I Believe It
the independents; and have ex-            ecumenical relations, much more
pressed no particular interest in any     "federation," otherwise?                 You ask me why I'm happy -
"federation."                                 Of course, the PRC do not think          Why I'm singing all the day;
    The PRC are interested in all de-     that they are wrong. If they did,        Why I smile at tribulations
velopments in the sphere of the Re-       they would send a delegation to the          That would hinder or dismay:
formed churches. Nothing Re-              next synod of the CRC confessing         `Tis because the Savior promised-
formed is alien to them. They have        their sins.                                  To be with me all the way -
a special interest in the current con-        But they are perfectly willing to              And I believe it!
flicts in the Christian Reformed          discuss and debate, hearing and con-
Church (CRC) inasmuch as they see         sidering the reply to their presenta-    You ask me why the burdens
in them the outworkings of the doc-       tion, as well as the arguments in fa-        Of the world cannot oppress -
trinal and church political decisions     vor of common grace by such cham-        Why the many cares and trials
and actions of the CRC in connec-         pions as the Rev. Jelle Tuininga.            That I meet cannot distress:
tion with the controversy that re-            In response to an invitation that    `Tis because the Savior promised
sulted in the formation of the PRC.       carries with it implications for ecu-        To be with me, and to bless,
But the history of the `churches of       menical relations and even "federa-                And I believe it!
the ARC is not their affair. Nor have     tion," the PRC have said, in perfect
they ever evinced any ardor for           honesty, "Let us discuss the issues."    You ask me how I hope to meet
union with the churches of the ARC.       The churches of the ARC declined             The loved ones gone before
They have behaved -themselves  with       to permit this to happen. No invita-     In a bright and glad tomorrow,
utmost decorum. The recent widow          tion was forthcoming to the PRC              On a fair eternal shore:
has not been pestered by an ardent        from the ARC to its.meeting  in 1994.    `Tis because the Savior promised
admirer. She invited a neighbor to        The reason, evidently, was that the          Love and life forevermore,
stop by.                                  ARC was unwilling to have the PRC                  And I believe it!
    Jelle's wonderland takes further      open up the real issues in a discus-
wondrous form in the charge `that         sion. And the Rev. Jelle Tuininga                               Standard Bearer,
the unreasonable PRC insist on im-        announces to the readership of                              September 15,1933

195lStandarci,BearerlFebruqy  1,1995


                                          Dordt's ,e,nrollment  hit an all-time           President Nelson Mandela of
                                          high of over 1200 students. Current         South Africa appeared. on television
                                          enrollment at the college is 1156. For
n DORDT COLLEGE                                                                       the next day, saying that Heyns had
                                          over 25 years Haan was featured in          been a soldier for peace. "His un-
FOUNDER DIES                              a daily broadcast called  `"Gbserva-        timely death is a loss to, the South
    The Rev. Bernard J. (B. J.) Haan      tions," on' Dordt's non-commercial,         African nation as a whole, black and
passed away on `December 8,1994.          full-service FM radio station.              white," Mandela said.
Born in Sully, Iowa in 1917, Rev.                Though a champion of conser-             When the DRC elected Heyns
Haan spent part of his childhood in       vative positions,  Haan remained            moderator of their synod in 1986; it
OrangeCity,  Iowa before'his family       deeply loyal to the Christian Re-           was a clear move away from a
moved to Grand Rapids. After              formed Church. During his last              strong defense of apartheid. The
graduating from Calvin Seminary in        broadcast in August of 1993, just           1986 synod took the first steps in
1942, Haan was ordained to the min-       two months after the CRC synod had          publicly retracting the church's sup-
istry of the Christian Reformed           tentatively approved of the ordina-         port of apartheid. In 1990 Heyns
Church. His first congregation was        tion-of women to the offices of min-        was elected vice-moderator of the
the CRC in  Ridott, Illinois.  Haan       ister and elder, Haan appealed to           synod. This synod wentfarther than
accepted a call to First CRC of Sioux     conservatives not to give up hope.          the 1986 synod by declaring apart-
Center, Iowa in 1945. He remained         Said Haan, "The question is, how            heid to be sinful. At the synod of
in Sioux Center the rest of his life.     are we going to face the future?            October 1994. of the DRC, Heyns
    Haan's stay in Sioux Center was       .What must we do to maintain our            served as chair of the Commission
not without controversy. Shortly af-      strong position as conservative             for Doctrine and Current Affairs. In
ter his arrival, he led a movement        Christian Reformed people and               that role he led the synod in its at-
against plans by the American Le-         churches? Well, there's a way to do         tempt to keep both left and right in
gion to opena  movie theatre in Sioux     that, I'm convinced. But don't jump         the church. While drafting a lengthy
Center. He won this crusade and           .off the ship. Don't leave. Don't let       answer to critics from the right, this
there. is no, theatre in Sioux Center     people push you out."                       commission proposed a resolution
even today. In the early 195Os, Rev.            A memorial service conducted          to apologize to its members who had
Haan became convinced of the need         by Rev. John Witvliet, Haan's pas-          borne clear, prophetic witness
for a Junior Teachers' Collegein  the     tor at First CRC, Sioux Center, and         against apartheid. As a result the
Midwest in response to a growing          Dr. J. B. Hulst, Haan's successor as        DRC synod welcomed longtime
shortage of qualified teachers in the     president of Dordt College, was held        apartheid critic Beyers Naude as a
Christian Schools. There were those       D e c e m b e r   8 .                       distinguished visitor to the synod.
who thought it impossible for Haan        `:                  Christian Renewal          Johan  Heyns was a well-known
to realize .his dream. One man said                                                   figure in the Reformed Ecumenical
to him, "Bernie, you'll be dead and       n  THEOLOGIAN,                        ,,    Council (REC), having served as a
buried before a single student is en-     MURDERED IN                                 delegate to its meetings four times.
rolled." In spite of the skeptics, and    SC&JTH AFRICA'                              In 1988, at the  REC. meeting in
over the objections `of many Calvin                                                   Harare,,  Heyns said, "Apartheid is
College alumni in the educational                 On November 5 Professor Johan       sin." This was the first time a DRC
community, Dordt College was es-          Heyns, a former moderator of the            official had publicly made such a
tablished in 1955.                        Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) in              declaration. In 1992, he and the rest
    The first year's enrollment was       South Africa,, was assassinated. He         of the DRC delegation agreed to an
thirty-five students. IRev. Haan was      was at home in his family room with         REC statement that the theological
Dordt's first president, serving the      his wife and. three  grandchildren.         defense of apartheid is heresy. i
college from 1955 to 1982: In 1978        `An unknown assailant fired .a single
                                          shot with a large caliber rifle through         Hey& was well .known in po-
                                                                                      litical,circles  as well. He was a per-
                 :                        a window, striking Heyns in the back
                                          of his head and killing him instantly.      sonal `friend both to P. W. Botha and
                                                                                      to F., W. DeKlerk,  the two immedi-
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical    Heyns was 66 years old and had, re-         ate past presidents of South Africa.
Theology in the Protestant Reformed       cently retired as Professor of Theol-                y::.
                                                                                          _            . .    REC News Exchange
Seminary.     i  -  :                     ogy at the University of Pretoria.

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n ANOTHER CHURCH                          pointment of Calvin Seminary pro-        commandment [against taking God's
LEAVES THE REC                            fessor Dr. John Cooper as chairman       name in vain]," commented Pastor
     The Midlands Reformed                of the study committee. Cooper, a        George VanderWeit, stated clerk of
Churches of South Africa have offi-       former elder of Eastern Ave. CRC         Classis Lake Erie. "I think," said
cially notified the REC that they         in Grand Rapids who supports             VanderWeit, "there has to be some
have terminated membership in the         women in office, has been a vocal        balance on the committee, what we
REC. As grounds for their decision,       opponent of feminine language for        try to do on committees is make sure
this denomination charges the REC         God.                                     issues get a fair hearing. This has
with being unfaithful to its constitu-        Now some of Cooper's usual al-       nothing to do with whether people
tion when it retained the member-         lies in the defense of women in of-      are in favor of addressing God as
ship of the Reformed Churches of          fice are unhappy with his appoint-       `Mother,' it has everything to do
the Netherlands in 1992.                  ment to the study committee. Ac-         with making sure this issue gets a
                 REC News Exchange        cording to "Cross Talk," the Classis     fair hearing, with whether the vari-
                                          Lake Erie newsletter, "it seems that     ous issues surrounding this subject
w ADDRESSING GOD                          synod has `stacked the deck' to se-      get raised and addressed." "The
                                          cure a particular conclusion." The       conclusion of the committee," in-
WITH FEMININE TERMS                       newsletter goes on to say, "Because      sisted VanderWeit, "may indeed be
     That's what .a seven member          of public positions on this and re-      that it's inappropriate to address
committee appointed by the 1994           lated issues, it appears that the two    God as `Mother.' That may be the
synod of the Christian Reformed           theologians and the two ministers        final conclusion of a balanced com-
Church has been studying. The             appointed to this committee hold         mittee, but when synod appointed
question under study is, may CRC          the same position as synod.... To        people who already staked out a
members speak concerning God us-          ensure a fair study and a serious        public position . . . it doesn't do any-
ing feminine terms such as                consideration of the issues involved,    thing to give the church any confi-
"Mother, N "She," and "Her"?              classis requested the Board of Trust-    dence in the committee."
     Even voting to study the matter      ees to add Dr. Clay Libolt, pastor of        Classis Lake Erie may very well
has been controversial for many in        our River Terrace church, to the         be correct in its assessment of the
the CRC. The study committee was          committee. Clay's doctorate is in        synod's appointing these people to
appointed in response to several          the Old Testament, the section of the    the study committee. That aside,
overtures from Classis Hudson and         Bible where the majority of the femi-    how can the question of whether it
Classis of the Heartland, most of         nine imagery used to describe God        is appropriate to address God, Our
which called for disciplinary action      is found."                               Father, using feminine terms even
against CRC members who address               "Several people are already on       be considered a matter for study in
God as "Mother." Conservative ob-         record saying this practice (address-    a Reformed church?  0
jections to a study committee were        ing God with feminine terms, RDD)           Reformed Believers Press Service
largely muted, however, by the ap-        is possibly a violation of the third





  Two Years in Northern lre,land

                                          Northern Ireland                             But first of all a little geogra-
                                             `Our family arrived in Northern       phy. Most people living outside the
                                          Ireland, appropriately, on St.           United Kingdom do not realize that
                                          Patrick's Day, March 17,1993.  Now       the island of Ireland is  not all  one
                                          that we have been here nearly two        country, nor do they know that
                                          years, we have been asked to write       Northern Ireland, with England,
                                          about the work we are doing and          Scotland, and Wales, make up the
Rev. Hanko is missionary to Northern      about our experiences living and         United Kingdom, or Great Britain.
Ireland.                                  working in another country.              The larger (southern and western)

2OWStandard  Bearer/February 1,1995


part of the island is an independent       important, though, it is not the busi-            The CRF meets twice for wor-
country, the Republic of Ireland, or       ness of a minister to make political          ship on the Lord's Day and has a
Eire. Northern Ireland, the north-         commentary. His business is the               midweek Bible study and prayer
eastern part of the island, is the only    preaching of the gospel, and that is          meeting. There are five Bible his-
part still under British rule.             what we are here to do. To turn               tory and Bible doctrine classes
    The island is, from very ancient       aside from that calling would be to           taught during the week for the chil-
times, divided into four provinces:        reject the very reason for our com-           dren and young people, and we try,
Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and             ing.                                          especially during the summer, to
Connacht. Six of the original nine                 What we have experienced is           have as many other activities as pos-
counties of the old province of Ul-        that the gospel transcends all these          sible for the whole CRF.
ster make up what is known today           earthly, temporal differences. Just               In its meetings the CRF uses a
as Northern Ireland, and so North-         as the gospel transcends differences          different Psalm book than do the
ern Ireland is still often called Ul-      of culture and color, so it transcends        Protestant Reformed Churches.
ster. Three counties are now part of       these differences also. In our own            They use the Scottish Metrical
Eire. The six remaining counties           fellowship the precious truths of the         Psalms, and these are sung without
(clockwise from the north) are             gospel of grace have brought to-              instrumental accompaniment. In al-
Antrim,  Down, Armagh, Fermanagh,          gether and united people of very dif-         most every other respect the wor-
Tyrone, and Londonderry. We live           ferent backgrounds and political              ship services would be like those in
near the center of County Antrim,          views.                                        the PRC. In the catechism classes
in the northeastern part of Northern                                                     not only the Heidelberg Catechism,
Ireland, not far from the shores of        The Covenant Reformed                         but also the Westminster Larger and
Lough (lake) Neagh, the largest body       Fellowship                                    Shorter Catechisms are used.
of fresh water in the British Isles.               Our work of preaching the gos-            We meet in an upstairs room
    The division of the island into        pel centers in the Covenant Re-               (which is very biblical), rented from
two parts reflects the present politi-     formed Fellowship (CRF). The Cov-             a local Sunday School in the north
cal troubles here. This is the thing       enant Reformed Fellowship is a                Antrim town of Ballymena. In many
we are asked about most often. The         group of about nine families and sev-         ways this meeting place is less than
Republic of Ireland is largely Roman       eral individuals worshiping together.         adequate for our needs. Not only is
Catholic, and in the view of the           The CRY includes many children,               it very small and of difficult access,
northerners is dominated by the Ro-        young people, and "singles" who               but it is used by other groups as
man Catholic Church. Northern Ire-         also take an active part in the life of       well and is above the local pigeon
land is predominantly Protestant,          the Fellowship. In all this God has           club (which is not very biblical and
and for this reason the majority in        blessed us abundantly and proved              sometimes causes problems). Not
Northern Ireland do not want to be         to us His covenant faithfulness.              having a place of our own makes it
part of the Republic.                      Those who have visited us know that           more difficult to maintain close fel-
    There are many shades of po-           we are a "fellowship" in more than            lowship among the scattered mem-
litical opinion, however. We have          name.                                         bers of the CRF.
found that there are especially four               One difficulty that we face is the        To promote the CRF in Bally-
groups: those who want a united            fact that the members of the CRF              mena we advertise our worship ser-
Ireland and who view the British as        are rather scattered. That they are           vices, hold frequent special meetings
trespassers even in Northern Ireland;      willing to come a long distance for           in the Town Hall, and have an an-
those who want to remain under             the meetings shows their commit-              nual week of evangelistic gospel
British rule; a very small group who       ment, but the distance makes it dif-          meetings. At present we are hold-
dislike both the British and the Re-       ficult to have meetings and other ac-         ing once a month, in the Town Hall,
publican south and who want an in-         tivities, especially on the Lord's Day.       in place of our regular Bible study,
dependent Ulster; and those on both        It is also difficult for members who          a special Bible study on the book of
sides of the border who do not care        do not live in Ballymena to be a liv-         Revelation. We have not only ad-
what happens as long as the fight-         ing witness there for the truths of           vertised this but are preparing and
ing and terrorism stop.                    God's Word. For that reason it is a           handing out at each meeting install-
    We make every effort to avoid          long-term goal of the CRF to have             ments of a carefully prepared study
putting in our "two cents worth."          not only a congregation in Ballymena          guide for the book.
Unlike many American politicians           where we now meet, but other con-                 Especially by means of our an-
who visit here, we do not feel that        gregations in other parts of the Prov-        nual gospel meetings we are trying
we are qualified to make judgments         ince. We have come to see that a              to reach not only those who go to
about the political situation. It          Zocal   church is a very important part       church but also that larger part of
would be a bit presumptuous for us         of the spiritual life of the members          the population who are unsaved and
as visitors to do so anyway. More          and of the witness of the church.             who have no church affiliation at all.

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This is an area, however, where             dition of the, nation is desperate.                Standard Bearer and the Beacon
much more needs to be done. It              Those from America who have been                   Lights. Every family in the Fellow-
would be good, I believe, to do more        in the New England States will have                ship gets both (does every family in
door-to-door visitation and to have,        an idea of what things are like here.              your church get them?) and so do
at least during the warmer months,              Our witness is limited in some                 many others. We also send out thou-
some      open-air m.eetings  i n           ways by a lack of manpower. "Pray                  sands of pamphlets, mostly those
Ballymena. The fact that the town           ye therefore the Lord of the harvest               that are printed by the various PR
has just, finished, erecting a new          that he will send forth labourers into             Churches, but also some that we
"stand"~  in the town  center'is an         his harvest" (lvIatt;  9:38). We do all            print ourselves. We publish and
added incentive to have some of             we can, primarily through the Brit-                send a biweekly study sheet as well.
these meetings.                             ish Reformed Fellowship, an orga-                  This is now being sent to nearly 500
     The principal goals of the CRF         nization whose stated purpose is:                  addresses around Britain and Ire-
itself are twofold.                                                                            land and has been a most effective
     First, and most importantly, the           (a) To promote a knowledge of                  means of making contact with those
CRF wants to be organized as a                the Reformed faith in the British                of like precious faith, and of teach-
church. When this will take place is          Isles.                                           ing the Reformed faith to others.
not yet clear, though progress is be-           (b) To organize meetings, con-                      By all these means we hope and
ing made. A constitution has been             ferences, preaching services, and
                                              other activities in .order to further            pray that the Lord will rebuild His
prepared which would serve as a               the Reformed faith and to 8ive                   church where it, is fallen into spiri-
basis for organizing; the decision to         practical expression to the unity en-            tual decay and that He will
organize on the basis of the Three            joyed by Christians of Reformed                  strengthen "that which remains."
Forms of Unity and the Westminster            persuasion.                                      We covet your prayers in all these
Standards has been made; and we                 (c) To encourage the formation                 endeavors both for ourselves the
have even been registered with the            of groups in different areas of the              CRF, and for the whole cause and
government as a charity. The most             country who will seek to promote                 covenant of Jesus Christ in these
difficult part still remains - deter-         the Reformed faith on a local level.             Isles.
mining when we are spiritually
ready to make this important step,              .Last year the BRF organized                   What have we learned?
and when we have enough commit-             conferences and meetings in Lewes                       Born and raised in the Protes-
ted people to form a church and             in the south of England; in                        tant Reformed Churches, we are
enough qualified men to serve as el-        Wrexham, Wales; in London; and in                  now learning "in practice" that God
ders and deacons. We hope that our          Portadown, Northern Ireland; and                   has His people in every nation un-
parent church, Hudsonville PRC,             through  a week-long  family confer-               der heaven and that He preserves
will be able to help us with these          ence in Galashiels in the south of                 everywhere a remnant according to
more important matters.                     Scotland. Those who attended the                   the election of grace.
     Second, the CRF wishes to ob-          family conference from the USA will                     What is more important, we are
tain a meeting place of its own. It         know that the conference met a22 the               learning that we still have much to
has been difficult, .though, to find        goals .of the BRF. These and other             learn. We are learning, for example,
something. Ballymena is prosper-            endeavors of the BRF are fully sup-                that there are other traditions and
ing economically and there are not          ported by the CRF.                                 other "ways of doing things"; that
many suitable buildings or building          The CRF, however, holds its                       our way is not always the best way
sites available.                            own meetings, especially in North-                           here, especially in things indif-
                                            em Ireland. Nineteen of                                           ferent; and that we are
Great Britain and Eire                      these were held last                                                 here not only to teach
                                            year, including an                            e
    The CRF does not only look to                                                  we are here not                but also to learn. Be-
itself, however. We firmly believe          open-air meeting in             `*'
that it is our calling;as  much as pos-     Portrush and a week of          only to teach but                     cause of this, the two
sible, to give a witness first in North-    gospel meetings in                     also to learn.                 years in Northern Ire-
                                                                                                                 land have been years
ern Ireland, then'in Great Britain and      Ballymena. We would                                                of great .spiritual growth,
Eire. We believe this to be our call-       like to have more of the meet-                         not only for me, but for my fam-
ing because most of Great .Britain          ings that are held especially for those            ily as well.
`and Eire (except for some areas of         who are unsaved -the open-air and                      This also applies to evangelism
Scotland and parts of Northern Ire-         gospel meetings.                               work One of the main lessons in
land) now belong to what one mod-               Besides all these meetings, good           that aspect of our work seems to be
em writer has described as a "post-         Christian reading is another means             that things which would not work
Christian world." Especially in En-         of more widely promoting the truth.            well in the cause of the gospel in
gland-and' Wales the spiritual con-         We send out or distribute both the             one place do work well in others.

2021Standard  Bearer /February 1,1995


For that reason we must learn to lis-      ing and practice without, but also         gospel ministry. We often hear com-
ten to those who live here. Their          against our own weakness and sins.         plaints such as the following:.
ideas are often more practical and         How quickly they rise up against us!
fruitful than our own, exactly be-         Pray that in this battle the weapons           We find your `News' a great en-
cause they have lived here all their       of our warfare may not be carnal,            couragement, as we have virtually
lives.                                     but spiritual, and mighty through            no truly reformed fellowship in our
    Nevertheless, it is still very evi-    God to the pulling down of strong-           area. Sometimes we feel we are
dent that the main thing is to preach      holds, the casting down of imagina-          striving for a faith unknown to
and teach the gospel according to          tions and every high thing that              those around us.
                                                                                                      Et****+****
the Word of God. It is wonderful to        exalteth itself against the knowledge          We pray that God will prosper
see the gospel attracting and hold-        of God (II Cor. 10:4).                       your work in Ulster and that it may
ing men, women, and children, and              On a more practical note, we             spread farther afield to the main-
to see that after so many ages it con-     have seen what a great threat Ro-            land. Our land desperately needs
tinues to be a balm to weary souls,        man Catholicism still is to the cause        such sound Scriptural churches.
the bread of life to the hungry, and       of the truth. If there are any who                         !t,********
light to those who sit in the shadow       think that the references to the er-           I am an old woman over 80.
of death.                                  rors of Roman Catholicism in our             There is an old.woman beside me
    It is especially heartening to see     Three Forms of Unity are outdated,           dying of cancer and another old
                                                                                        woman over 80 living with a son
what interest such truths as the doc-      they should live here for a time,            who is bad with his nerves and
trines of particular grace and of the      where the dark shadow of resurgent           people like us never see the face of
covenant have aroused. We may              Romanism lies not only over North-           any Christian worker;... Go ye into
sometimes take these truths for            em Ireland and Britain, but over all         all  the world. Go tell old and
granted in the Protestant Reformed         of Europe. Living here, it is not at         young the truth that Jesus saves.
Churches, but they have proved             all difficult to believe that Rome is
themselves again to be part of that        the Antichrist spoken of by the Word           Likewise, our limited experience
rich heritage of truth that should         of God.                                    with open-air preaching has helped
never be neglected. We have even               On the other hand, we also un-         us understand why Paul's spirit was
experienced, we believe, a little of       derstand better two things the Bible       stirred when he was in Athens (Acts
what our founding fathers went             speaks of: Jesus' concern for the          1796).  To see so many people walk-
through in their struggle for the doc-     scattered sheep, and Paul's stirred-       ing by, heedless and thinking only
trines of particular grace. Our            up spirit in Athens. Living in- the        of this present world, helps one to
preaching and teaching these truths        world of the PRC, where we have            preach the gospel with urgency, and
throughout the British Isles have          everything even our own Christian          to pray earnestly that God would
aroused a veritable storm of contro-       schools, we sometimes forget that          save many from spiritual darkness.
veysy.                                     there are those who have virtually             We hope that all this will not
    So we learn, too, that the work        nothing.                                   only give you a better understand:
we are called to do here is part of            There are Christians here (and         ing of the work that the Covenant
the great battle! of faith. How easy it    in many parts of the USA as well)          Reformed Fellowship is doing, but
is to forget that! In the battle, as       who have none of the many bless-           that it will make you more fervent
always, we have found that our war-        ings we take for granted  - no             in prayer for the Lord's work here
fare is not only against wrong teach-      church, no Christian fellowship, no        and everywhere. 0

                                                                     A Godly Marriage
  "A prudent wife is from the Lord"
  King Solomon has said,                                                      Thelma Westra
  And unto him that findeth one,                                       Faith PRC, Jenison, MI
  Who of the Lord is led                   For marriage is a picture of
  To search out one who fears His          Christ and His bride, the church;          The home established in His fear
          name,                            So godly men must ever strive              Where joy and peace abide,
  That man shall not `be put to            When for a mate they search                Where Christ is honored, and .His
          shame.                           First of all for inward beauty,                will                  _'
                                           Love of the Lord, fervor for duty.         Rules all, whate'er betide;
                                                                                      That home the Lord- will surely
                                                                                          bless;
                                                                                      He'll prove to them His faithful-
                                                                                          ness.

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           There are anthropomorphisms in Scripture, fig-       that must come to pass in history. He strikes through
       ures of speech in which human characteristics are        kings in the day of His wrath (Ps. 110:5)  and gathers
       ascribed to God in order that we may better un-          His people out of all nations.
       derstand Him and His works. God's repentance                 Scripture speaks of things not made with hands
       is such a figure: God is not a man that He should        to emphasize their heavenly, spiritual character. We
       repent; He never changes or does any thing for           are circumcised in Christ with the circumcision made
       which He is sorry. Yet we read of the repentance         without hands (Col. 2:ll). This is the work of the
       of God several times, because to our limited minds       Spirit of Christ whereby He cuts away the foreskin of
       it seems that God changes in respect to His deal-        our hearts (Jer. 4:4) that we may put off the body of
       ings with the sons of men.                               the sins of the flesh. The first covenant had a taber-
           When we read in the Scriptures of God's              nacle built by Moses to divine specifications. Christ
       hand(s), fingers, eyes, nostrils, and more, we might     has entered, as a High Priest of good things to come,
      be tempted to call these references anthropomori          into a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
       phisms: we ourselves have these features, and it         with hands (Heb. 9:ll). So also at the moment of our
       is as if God possesses them too. Not so. It is           death we have a building of God, an house not made
       better to think of these features as being perfect       with hands, eternal in the heavens (II Cor. 5:l).
       and original in God, and in us only in a deriva-             But Scripture also speaks of human hands, the
       tive, creaturely way. They belong to the image of        creaturely reflection of the hands of God. There was
       God in us, especially to that aspect of the image        a ceremony in the early church similar to Old Testa-
       which enables us to bear God's likeness. The hand        ment anointing, called the laying on of hands (Acts
       belongs to our being image-bearers, which allows         6:6; 13:3; I. Tim. 4:14). The laying on of hands by an
       us to function as kings.                                 officebearer symbolized appointment unto a church
           God has a hand in the absolute, original sense.      office, and qualification by the Holy Spirit to do the
       By His hand He made all things (Acts 7:50); His          work which the office entails (Acts 8:17; II Tim. 1:6).
       hand is glorious in power (Ex. 15:6); and His hand       The early church, as well as the church today, had the
       is never shortened or limited (Is. 59:l). His hand       practice of shaking hands; this is not a matter of good
       protects us from the enemy, so that the child of         manners, but a giving of the right hand of fellowship
       God cannot be plucked out of it (John 10:29-30).         (Gal. 2:9). How pleasant and how good it is when
       Because God's hand is near, we cannot be moved           brothers and sisters observe this sign, especially on
       (Ps. 16:8), but rather we enjoy the pleasures and        the Lord's Day.
       treasures which are at His right hand for ever-              The human hand is very skillful. The psalmist
       more (Ps. 16:ll). God will never forget us, for He       vows, "If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand
       has graven us upon the palms of His hands; we            forget her cunning (to play the harp)" (Ps. 137~5).  With
       are ever before Him (Is. 19:16).                         our hands we are to work. Paul did, to put to shame
           When an ancient potentate wished to show             the criticizing Corinthians (I Cor.  4:12). The same
       his pleasure and confidence in another person, he        apostle commands us to labor, working with our hands
       set him on the right hand of his person and throne.      the thing which is good (Eph. 4:28). Then we will not
       Thus, when God expressed His pleasure, approval,         steal or be burdensome to our neighbor, but we will
       and trust in the man Christ Jesus, He commanded          have to give to the needy. Paul comes pretty close to
       that Christ sit at His right hand (Ps. llO:l), which     telling us to mind our own business when he exhorts
       is the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3).     us to "study to be quiet, and to do your own busi-
       That this position is not one of idle repose, but        ness, and to work with your own hands" (I Thess.
       one of active dominion is shown by Stephen shortly       4:ll).
       before his death, for he saw Jesus standing at the           Finally, that which is at hand is near. John the
       right hand of God (Acts 7~55). The slain lamb is         Baptist preached that the kingdom of heaven is at
       worthy to receive the book of the seven seals out        hand (Matt. 3:2). So did Jesus (Matt. 10:7). The com-
       of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne,       ing of the Lord is at hand (Phil. 4:5). And because the
       to open the book, and to bring to pass all things        end of all things is at hand we are to be sober, and
                                                                watch unto prayer (I Pet. 4:7). 0
      Rev. @iper  is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed
       Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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        Weak and Strong ..Faith (III)

    The good works of the strong in        fast even when all around us for-         faith causes the child of God to de-
faith are first of all the works of hu-    sake that truth. The strong in faith      sire to go up to the house of God
mility and meekness. The first fruit       will confess the truth even when ridi-    even when there are many hin-
of faith is a deep recognition of one's    culed and persecuted by the world.        drances that might otherwise pre-
own unworthiness before God. It is-        He is ready to die for the sake of the    vent him. Even if he has to crawl
remarkable that one of the greatest        truth of God because he knows that        on his knees to church he would
commendations that Jesus ever gave         the glory of God is always at stake       rather do that than miss even one
of anyone's faith was the one He           in confessing and maintaining the         worship service. The chief reason
gave of the Syro-Phoenician woman.         truth.                                    why the strong in faith desire to go
This woman was not deterred in her             Strong faith is manifested in the     to church is simply to worship God,
pleading with Jesus even when He           good works of love to God and love        to hear His Word, and to praise His
told her that it was not meet to take      to our fellow man, especially to those    glorious name. Strong faith works
the children's bread and cast it to        of the household of faith. Strong         hard to maintain the peace and unity
the dogs. She answered Jesus with          faith overcomes the inclination of        of the church without compromis-
the humble plea, "Truth, Lord: yet         our sinful nature to pride, enmity,       ing the Word of God.
the dogs eat of the crumbs which           self-seeking, and strife. Temperance          God gives us faith. God alone
fall from their masters' table." Jesus     and self-control are the fruits of        can also strengthen our faith. Rec-
answered her, utterly amazed by her        strong faith. Strong faith is shown       ognizing our proneness to be weak
faith: "Oh woman, great is thy faith:      in words and deeds of kindness, hu-       in faith we need often to pray ear-
be it unto thee even as thou wilt"         mility, and mercy, especially to those    nestly to God, "Lord, I believe; help
(Matt. 15:26,27).                          who are in trouble and distressed         Thou mine unbelief." God strength-
    The fruit of strong faith is daily     and in great need. Strong faith is a      ens our faith through the means of
repentance from sin. The strong in         faith that causes the true child of       the preaching of the Word and the
faith hate and condemn sin in their        God not only to give of the wealth        use of the sacraments. At home God
own life and in the world in which         that God has given to him, but es-        strengthens the faith of His saints
they live. They strive against evil        pecially to give himself both to God      through meditation on His Word and
with the strength of Christ Jesus that     and his fellow saints. Strong faith       through `daily prayer to God. We
is in them. They steadfastly resist its    enables the child of God to bear with     all know this very well, but we so
temptations and flee from every evil       the weakness of his fellow saints and     often fail actually to practice the
lust. Strong faith knows the dread-        to endure the wrong that is often         truth of this. Our faith must be con-
ful power of sin and that no other         done against him even by fellow           stantly strengthened by hearing the
power but the power of Christ can          Christians. Totally opposite from the     solid doctrine of the Word of God
overcome it.                               ungodly world the believer does not       through the preaching in the true
    To be strong in the faith is to be     seek to show off his strength by seek-    church of God. Many are weak in
strong in the truth of God. We know        ing vengeance against those who           faith because they refuse to leave
our calling to maintain that truth in      have wronged him. The strong be-          apostatizing churches where the
our lives. That truth is everything        liever follows the Lord's example in      Word of God is no longer preached.
to us. By the strength of Christ we        committing all things to Him who          Our faith is strengthened as we again
resist every temptation to compro-         judges righteously. Contrary to ev-       and again meditate on God's won-
mise that truth. We remain stead-          ery imagination of the world, there       derful being and attributes and the
                                           is great strength in meekness.            mighty works of salvation God has
                                               Strong faith is manifest in love      accomplished for us in His Son Jesus
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Prot-    for the house of God. It joys and         Christ. The truth of God's sover-
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,        rejoices in the worship of God and        eignty, and of His almighty power
California.                                the fellowship of His saints. Such        and holiness, must be constantly

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preached in the church to strengthen                and mercy. God never tries our faith           Our faith grows strong as we
the faith of God's people. We                    to destroy our faith - of course not.        willingly serve God in His church
strengthen our faith by having the               We all by nature want to live a life         and in His kingdom. To be strong in
mighty works .of God rehearsed in                   of ease and pleasure, of riches and       the faith means that we are conscious
our ears each Lord's Day in God's                luxury. But there is great danger in         of this calling. The more the soldier
house. We strengthen our faith                   prolonged periods of life that are free      fights in the battle, the more tried
when we stand in awe before these                from troubles and trials. This often         and strong he will become. We grow
wonderful works and bless the name               leads to carelessness and weaken-            strong by knowing our enemy and
of our God together with His saints              ing of faith. If we are in such a situ-      courageously fighting against him.
in His presence.                                 ation in life we need to be on our           We' grow strong.in the great battle
     Our faith is not made strong by             guard against the very serious dan-          of the Lord when we realize more
cold, heartless prayer that is noth-             gers of materialism and covetous-            and more that the battle is the Lord's
ing more than a routine repetition               ness which have the potential of             and all our strength is in Him alone.
of a few stock phrases. Our faith is                greatly weakening our faith. We            `. The members of the church of
strengthened by sincere, meaningful,             must be ready for the Lordfs trials          Jesus Christ. who are strong in the
and earnest prayer to God. Strong                in our life and for His good- purpose        faith are a great encouragement to
Christians are those who spend long              in them. God tries our faith in order        other members. On the other hand,
periods of time each day in prayer.              that it might be strong and that it          weak members sometimes drag oth-
It is impossible to be strong in the             might shine for the glory of His             ers down with them. We are called
faith without prayer. .The true Chris-           name. We should desire this above            to build one another up in the'faith.
tian is often found wrestling long               all and not a life of ease.                  We are responsible not only for -our
and hard with God for His blessing,                     Our faith is strengthened by the      own faith but also for the faith of
and crying out unto Him in the                   grace of God through the exercise            our fellow saints. God has ordered
weakness of his sin and the great                of godliness. Often the reason why           the communion of the saints in such
troubles of his life. The Lord hears             we are living in ease and without            a way that some are strong and some
such prayers and. strengthens His                much persecution in our life is that         are weak The strong in the faith
saints who rely upon Him.                        we are not really exercising our faith.      are called to support the weak. This
     Our faith is strengthened by a              If we withdraw ourselves from real,          is a beautiful thing to behold in the
life of thankfulness to God. Thank-              active involvement in the life of the        church. There will come times when
fulness causes the child of God to               church and from the heat of the              even the strong in faith are in great
consider again and again the won-                battle of faith that we are called to        need. There will come times when
derful works of God which He ac-                 fight together with the members of           we  face  great crises  in life  that  will
complished for our salvation. The                the church, we will soon grow weak           seem to overwhelm us. We cannot
more we consider these wonderful                 in faith. If we live a life of compro-       face these alone. God does not want
works the more reason we                                mise, letting things slide in our     us to face these alone. He gives us
have to trust in the Lord                                   life, compromising the truth      fellow saints who are strong in faith
our God, the more we                      strong              of God whenever we face         to support and encourage us. There
are assured that God is                 Christians            opposition and ridicule         wjli come times when we .need to
truly our God, the                       are those             from the world, never          strengthen and encourage others. We
more we are confident                   who spend              really standing up for         will be miserably unable to do that
that He will also ac-                   long periods           the truth of God, our          if we ourselves are weak in our faith.
complish our final and                    of time              faith will soon become          As the end of the age ap-
perfect salvation. The                   each day              miserably weak. .If our        proaches,' the battle will become
joy of the Lord is our                   in prayer.           life is totally caught up in    more and more fierce, and the need
strength. Consider how                                       our occupation in this           for Christians to be strong in the faith
often we are exhorted in                                    world, in gaining more and        is increasingly urgent. The Bible tells
the Word of God to give thanks                          more of this world's riches and       us that in the last days many shall
unto the Lord. Israel sometimes                  glory, and in indulging in more and          depart from the faith. We are often
went to battle and conquered her en-             more of this worlds pleasures, our           warned in Gods Word about the
emies while singing the praises of               faith will grow weaker and weaker.           coming of the great tribulation. May
God. When we do the same, God                    That is obvious is it not? But how           the Lord make us strong in the faith
willstrengthen our faith in the midst            far are some of us at least really           that we might be able to stand both
of great trials and give us the vic-             guilty of this kind of a thing? May          now and in the days to come. May
tory over our enemies.                           the Lord have mercy. on us and               He make. us strong in faith that we
    God strengthens our faith                    strengthen our faith for the great           might be useful for the glorious
through the trying of our faith. This            battle we are engaged in that we             cause of His kingdom. ~3
is an amazing wonder of God's grace              might not fall in that battle.

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     This beautiful account of the        be wise and learned. Further, as a          tion, is made possible through His
Lord and Nicodemus was part of            ruler of the Jews he belonged to the        being lifted up on the cross. By His
the first visit of Jesus to Jerusalem     Jewish council called the Sanhedrin.        death He earns the right of eternal
for the Passover. While He was there          Jesus was waiting for  Nico-            life for all those brought to faith in
He performed some miracles which          demus. To this child of God He un-          Him. More, His sacrificial death is
are not recorded in the Scriptures.       folded the glorious truth of regen-         to be traced back to the love of God
Many believed in Him as a "won-           eration, spiritual rebirth. Jesus taught    for His people. Out of I-& eternal
der-worker," but their belief went        that in order for one to enter the          love God gave His only begotten
no further than that. Jesus, there-       kingdom of God a radical change             Son that we might not be con-
fore, did not commit himself to           must take place in him. Corrupt, sin-       demned. Finally, it is only the born-
t h e m .                                 ful, fallen.man must be changed in          again child of God who can and does
     Yet, Jesus did at this time com-     the very depths of his being and na-        believe in Jesus and becomes a citi-
mit Himself to this one man named         ture in order to enter the kingdom.         zen of His glorious and everlasting
Nicodemus. Why? Nicodemus                 One must be given a new heart. This         kingdom.
shows that he is one of the sheep         change can be effected only through
Christ has come to save, and is now       the sovereign and wonderful work-           Outline
drawn to Christ for instruction in        ing of God which Jesus calls being          1. The setting: Nicodemus comes
the truths- of salvation. He was a        born again. A new heavenly and              to Jesus by night (w. 1,2).
man.in whom the Spirit of God was         spiritual life must be implanted in                 a. Nicodemus' identity (v. 1).
at work, and he had been given an         the depths of the heart by the grace                b.  His address (implied ques-
intense desire for further enlighten-     and Spirit of God or one has abso-          tion?) to Jesus (v. 2).
ment and instruction.                     lutely no ability whatsoever to enter       2. Jesus teaches Nicodemus the ne-
   Nicodemus was a member of the          the kingdom.                                cessity of spiritual regeneration (wt
religious elite of his day. The Phari-        Further, ,Jesus taught him that         3-8).
sees were a religious sect which had      this spiritual rebirth was exclusively              a. The statement of the neces-
arisen during the intertestamentary       the work of, the Spirit of God. It is       sity of regeneration (v. 3).
period. They were a self-righteous        like the wind that blows where it                   b. Nicodemus' question (v. 4).
and hypocritical class of men who         wills. No one can tell where it comes               c. The Lord's answer (w. 5-8).
confined religion to external deeds.      from or where it goes. So is the mys-                  1) Jesus reaffirms the ne-
They imagined themselves to be            terious and wonderful, sovereign            cessity of regeneration (v. 5).
righteous through their own keep-         and irresistible working of the Spirit                 2) The antithesis between
ing of God's law. They exaited            o f   G o d .                               the flesh and the Spirit (v. 6).
themselves far above. the common              In answer to Nicodemus' ques-                      3) The secret and sovereign
people. They were sure they would         tion as to how all of this was pos-         working of the Holy Spirit in regen-
enter the kingdom of God on the           sible, Jesus went on to instruct him        eration (w. 7,8).
basis of their own great worthiness       in the central and precious truths of       3. Jesus' discourse to Nicodemus
and good works. `Nicodemus was a          salvation. Jesus explained that He          on "heavenly things" (w. 9-21).
man of high standing, considered to       is able to give this instruction, for          a. Nicodemus' question as to
                                          He is the One sent down from                how the things Jesus has been talk-
                                          heaven and therefore speaks of what         ing about are possible (v. 9).
Rev. Haak- is pasfor of Bethel Profes-    He has seen.. Centrally, all of salva-              b. The Lord's rebuke (w.  lo-
fanf Reformed Church in Elk Grove, IL-    tion, from regeneration to glorifica-       13).
linois.

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          1) Nicodemus ought to                        4) The reason for this con-         3. Explain why Jesus would
know, being in the position of a mas-      demnation (w. 19-21).                       talk to Nicodemus about spiritual re-
ter in Israel (v. 10).                                                                 birth at that time. Is there anything
          2) Jesus speaks of the           Questions:                                  which indicates that this was the in-
things He knows as the One sent                 1. What is regeneration? See           struction that Nicodemus needed at
down from heaven (w. 11-13).               Articles 11 and 12,3rd  and 4th Head        that moment?
     c. The Lord's answer to               of Doctrine, Canons of Dordt.                   4. What does Nicodemus' re-
Nicodemus' question (w. 14-21).                        a. What is meant by regen-      sponse in verse 4 indicate?
          1) Possible by and through       eration in the narrower and in the              5. What does it mean to be
the Son of man being lifted up on a        broader sense?                              born again of "water and of the
cross (w. 14,15).                                      b. What is meant by imme-       Spirit"?
          2) This is motivated by the      diate regeneration? Mediate regen-              6. Discuss the antithesis be-
love of God for the world of believ-       eration?                                    tween the Spirit and the flesh and
ers (w. 16,17).                                2. What motivated Nicodemus             how this also becomes the experi-
          3) The twofold result of         to come to Jesus? Why did he come           ence of believers in their daily lives.
God's giving His Son (v. 18).              at night?                                                                        cl




       6. The Coming of Antichrist

     Although Jesus does not use that      false christs and the false prophets.           Two things strike us as peculiar
exact word, there can be no doubt          II Thessalonians 2 teaches that the         in Jesus' reference to Antichrist in
that in verse 24 of Matthew 24, He         Lawless One comes "after the work-          Matthew 24. First, He speaks of
sets forth the truth about the Anti-       ing of Satan with all power and signs       them in the plural, whereas we are
christ: "For there shall arise false       and lying wonders" (v. 9). Fourth,          accustomed to speak of one Anti-
christs, and false prophets, and shall     Jesus stresses that the false christs       christ. Second, He calls them "jalse
shew great signs and wonders,              intend to deceive men, particularly         christs," whereas it is common with
insomuch that, if it were possible,        the elect. Speaking of the revelation       us to speak of "Anti-Christ."
they shall deceive the very elect."        of the Antichrist, II Thessalonians
Jesus teaches that another sign of the     2:lO states that he comes with "all         False Christs
end of the world will be the coming        deceivableness of unrighteousness"              When we look through the,Saip-
of Antichrist. That Jesus refers to        and that in connection with his com-        tures, we discover that several dif-
that which the church has always           ing, God will send many men a               ferent names are used for the reality
called "Antichrist" is evident, `first,    "strong delusion, that they' should         that we commonly call Antichrist.
from the fact that "false christs" are     believe a lie." So, it is plain that we     II Thessalonians 2 calls him the uman
the same as "antichrists." In the          are now confronted with the bibli-          of sin, the son of perdition, and that
word "false christs" (one word in          cal doctrine of the Antichrist.             wicked." Revelation 13 rather
the Greek), the idea, "antichrists," is        The truth about the Antichrist is       speaks of "the beast." Johns epistles
implied. Second, the text links "false     too extensive and too important to          speak of "antichrist" and "anti-
christs" with "false prophets," and        be treated in one article. Scripture        christs." The name that Jesus uses
Scripture elsewhere teaches that a         is detailed in its treatment of Anti-       is "false christs." In this name is the
false prophet will be intimately re-       christ, and it makes clear that the         word "Christ." "Christ" means
lated to the Antichrist. Third, one        appearance of Antichrist is a tremen-       "anointed" and describes someone
is struck by the text's ascribing          dously significant event at the end         who has been appointed and qua&=
"great signs and wonders" to the           of time. Therefore, we will consider        fied for a certain work in the world
                                           the Bible's teaching on the Antichrist      on behalf of God. A word that
                                           in several articles, looking closely not    means the very same as "Christ" is
Pro$ Engelsma  is professor of Dogmat-     only at Matthew 24 but also at the          the word "Messiah." "Messiah," or
ics and Old Testament in the Protes-       prophecy of Daniel, Revelation 13,          "Christ," is the title of one whose
fan t Reformed Semina y.                   and II Thessalonians 2.                     work it is to redeem God's people

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from sin and death and to renew            perficially considered, seem to sup-       and that spirit is Satan. But he is at
the creation as God's kingdom of           port this, it is not love that really      work as the spirit of Antichrist, as
righteousness and peace. The one           moves him, but hatred. The one,            the spirit that aims at and works for
who is this Christ is Jesus. He is         main, driving force in all his being       one thing: Antichrist. Here, by the
God's Anointed, the Servant of Je-         and activity is opposition to Christ       way, you see the formal similarity,
hovah. The confession of the church        as God's Man in the world, hatred          the striking parallel, of Christ and
through the ages has been this: Jesus      for Jesus as God in the flesh. In his      Antichrist. Just as Christ has His
is the Christ. He is the Christ in         opposition, he usurps Jesus' place         Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who functions
distinction from all other, pretender      and presents himself as the legiti-        as the Spirit of Christ to realize the
messiahs. He is the Christ and He          mate Christ.                               Kingdom of Christ, so does Anti-
only.                                          All of this is implied in the          christ have his spirit, the devil, who
    A false Christ, therefore, is one      name, "false christs."                     functions on behalf of Antichrist.
who claims to be the redeemer and                                                          The many false christs, or anti-
world-savior, but. is not. His claim       Many Antichrists                           christs, are the men and women,
is a lie. By his lying claim, the false        But Jesus speaks of more than          raised up by the devil throughout
Christ  denies Jesus Christ. -A false      one antichrist: "false  christs." To       history, who oppose Jesus Christ,
Christ is necessarily an antichrist.       understand this, we must take note         present themselves as redeemers and
This is the name that the apostle John     of the fact that there is a coming of      saviors in Christ's place, and thus
uses. In fact, it is only in John's        Antichrist. It is especially John who      prepare the way for the real Anti-
epistles that we find the word             instructs us concerning this in the        christ. They are the many forerun-
"antichrist." In I John 2:18, we read:     passages that we have already              ners of the Antichrist. Such were
"Little children, it is the last time;     quoted, although Paul also mentions        Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus
and as ye have heard that antichrist       this. In I John 218, John writes, ac-      Epiphanes in the old dispensation.
shall come, even now are there many        cording to the original Greek, that        Such were the Caesars of the Ro-
antichrists; whereby we know that          the church has heard that antichrist       man Empire. Since heretical preach-
it is the last time." Verse 22 of this     "comes `I - not  "shall  come," but        ers and religious teachers serve the
chapter identifies antichrist as "he       "comes. I' There is an ongoing pro-        interests of the false christs by their
that denieth that Jesus is the Christ."    cess throughout history. Nineteen          denial that Jesus is the Christ, John
I John 4:1-3 also mentions antichrist:     hundred years ago already, it was          refers to them too as antichrists. To-
"Beloved, believe not every spirit....     the case that Antichrist was in the        day, as in John's day, the world is
Hereby know ye the Spirit of God:          process of coming. This process of         swarming with antichrists. All those
Every spirit that confesseth that          coming involves the presence of            who deny that Jesus is God in the
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is       many antichrists. Paul teaches the         flesh, that He was born of a virgin,
of God: and every spirit that              same thing in II Thessalonians 2. He       and that He was raised bodily from
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is        writes in verse 7 of the mystery of        the dead are antichrists. All those
come in the flesh is not of God: and       iniquity which is working in the           who propagate the message of hu-
this  -is that spirit of antichrist,       world to produce the Antichrist and        manism, that man saves himself and
whereof. ye have heard that it should      states that this mystery of iniquity       that man himself is ~mankind's  only
come; and even now alrea'dy is it in       was already present and active in          hope, no matter how,the  message is
t h e   w o r l d . "                      the world over nineteen hundred            worded and no matter where it is
    Literally, an antichrist is a man      years ago, in the time of the apostles.    preached, whether in churches,
who is against Christ, that is, against        Already in Old Testament times,        schools, newspapers, or whatever,
the one and only Christ of God,            but especially from the moment of          are antichrists. .They are, all of them,
Jesus. This name sets forth the es-        Christ's ascension into heaven, An-        part and parcel of the coming of An-
sence of Antichrist: he is opposed         tichrist has been coming. The great        tichrist.
to Christ. He is against Christ per-       world-kingdom with its mighty, but
sonally; he is against Christ's body,      wicked, leader will not drop out of        D e c e p t i o n
the church; he is against Christ's         the blue. In the future, Antichrist            Just as with Antichrist, so with
Word, Holy Scripture. But Christ is        will come fully, but only as the re-       all of the false christs: they come to
the revelation and servant of God.         sult of gradual development and as         deceive. This is their purpose; this
The hostility of Antichrist to Christ      the culmination of a long process.         is their activity; this is their threat.
is, therefore, ultimately enmity               The constant activity in the           Because Jesus wanted to warn His
against God. He is anti-God. Al-           world to produce Antichrist is that        disciples against the deceitfulness of
though he leaves the impression            of the spirit of Antichrist, according     these enemies, He called them by the
with people that he is motivated by        to I John 4:1-3. There is a personal,      name that He did, "false christs."
love for the world, by humanitari-         crafty, powerful spirit at work in' the    Jesus had a practical purpose in
anism, and although his deeds, su-         world in every area of human life,         mind: to alert us to the tactics and

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               power of Antichrist. Antichrist does      reach into heaven to assault God,           done in the service of the lie, and to
               not come openly showing his bris-         there. He cannot anymore lay hands          call fire out of heaven; as Revelation
               tling hatred for Christ and the           on Jesus the Christ on God's right          13  teaches.        Because  of, these
               church. He comes with smooth lies.        hand. But he knows that the elect           miracles, many will acknowledge
               He comes with religious terminol-         church are the body of Jesus, so that       Antichrist as Christ and will wor-
               ogy, even the language of old ortho-      to touch them is to touch Jesus. He         ship him as divine.
               doxy. He operates, especially             knows that the elect are the chosen
               against the church, by deceit. He is      of God, eternally loved and destined        Secure by the W&d
               false. He does not say, "There is no      for life and glory in God's Kingdom,            Does this leave the elect believer
               Christ and no salvation and no God;       so that to destroy one of them would        defenseless? Not at all. He will be
          I    the Bible is all a fraud and the hope     be to wound and defeat God.                 able to identifyand reject Antichrist,
               of believers, a mad delusion." But            Not only is this the purpose of         as now he is `able to identify and
     I         he says, "Of course, there is a Christ    the false christs, it would also be the     reject the many false christs and false
               and a God and a salvation, but I am       result, "if it were possible." Strong       prophets by the Word of God, Holy
               that Christ, and ideal mankind is         words, these. Not to terrify the elect;     Scripture. Antichrist is a liar. He
               that God, and an earthly life free        as if there were the smallest possi-        contradicts the Scriptures, openly
               from war and poverty is that salva-       bility that one of the elect be de-         and plainly. The man. or woman
               tion."                                    ceived (there is no such possibility)       who knows and loves the truth of
                   Jesus spoke of Antichrist's           but to warn us of the power of the          Scripture can easily detect him and
               power to deceive in the last part of      foe, so that we be on guard and so          see through his deceitfulness, and
               the verse: "insomuch that, if it were     that we exert ourselves - now, to-          such a man or woman will certainly
               possible, they shall deceive the very     day - against the powerful decep-           reject him. The defense -of the
               elect." Here, the aim of the false        tion.                                       church is the Word of God.
I              christs is given. Really, the one goal        If you ask, "How do the false                The Word is a sure defense. An-
               of all the being and labor of Anti-       christs deceive?" the answer is: pri-       tichrist will fail. His failure is cer-
               christ, all his splendor and achieve-     marily, by the word of the lie, i.e.,       tain because he opposes God, the Al-
               ments, all his heresies and lawless-      by the preaching of false doctrine.         mighty. God stands over against
               ness is this: deceive, and thus de-       Jesus indicated this in the text when       this creature, not struggling for mas-
               stroy, the church of Jesus Christ.        He associated "false prophets" with         tery but laughing and having that
               This is the one great ambition of the     the false christs. As we saw in an          speck of dust in derision. Anti-
               mighty spirit behind Antichrist, as       earlier article, false prophets are         christ's failure is certain because he
               Revelation 12:17 teaches: "and the        preachers and religious teachers who        pits himself against Jesus the Christ.
               dragon was wroth with the woman,          proclaim heresies. Working in the           Christ has died and risen again. He
               and went to make war with the rem-        Christian churches, but standing in         sits in sovereign power on God's
~              nant of her seed; which keep the          the service of the church's great en-       right hand as. Lord of lords, Anti-
               commandments of God, and have             emy, they direct men's attention            christ included.
               the testimony of Jesus Christ."           away from God's Word, Holy Scrip-               " Antichrist will fail as regards his
                   It is significant that the objects    ture, to various words of men; away         purpose  to  deceive the elect. Jesus
               of Antichrist's wicked designs are        from God's heavenly Kingdom to              teaches this when he says, "if it were
               called "the elect" by Jesus. Anti-        man's earthly kingdom; away from            possible, they shall deceive the very
               christ consciously seeks to destroy       God's power, grace; to man's own            elect."  "If it were possible!" That
               the elect. If you would ask him,          abilities; away from the second com-        is, it is not possible. It is not pos-
               "Whom do you desire to deceive            ing of Christ to certain earthly goals.     sible to deceive one elect. For they
               and destroy," he would answer:                                                        are the chosen of God. Their salva-
               "the elect of God." Of course, he is      Contemporary signs and wonders              tiori is as sure as God's eternal de-
               ignorant of their identity; God has           In support of this false word, the      cree. Their salvation depends only
               not given him a peek into the Lamb's      Antichrist does great signs and won-        upon God and His love. Since He is
               book of life. So, he must seek them       ders, i.e., miracles. These ,will not       almighty, unchangeable, and  faith-
               out by their manifestation of elec-       be mere magical tricks,`but  astound-       ful;their salvation is sure.
               tion in their confession of Jesus         ing deeds that defy exp1anation.m               This is the comfort of the believ-
               Christ and obedience to God's law.        terms of ordinary' human power.             ing people of God in the midst of
               But he seeks the elect, and he seeks      The power manifested in these               the great spiritual conflict now go-
               them exactly because they are the         miracles will be the enormous power         ing on. This is their strength to with-
               elect, or chosen, of God. These he        of the devil. The devil will empower        stand Christ's enemy.  5
               desires  to. destroy spiritually be-      the false christs and false prophets                             . . L ;
               cause, fundamentally, he is against       to do "lying wonders," as II Thess-                             -.  :
               God and His Christ.  He* cannot           alonians  2:9 calls them, i.e., miracles                         .--..:,
                                                                                                                         i.  *

               210lStandard  Bearer/February 1,1995


                                                     Chapter 4
                 The Last .Four Days of
                  Creation-Week (cont.)
                                           ever, is the fact that among those in          Moreover, the deceitful aspect of
God's Creation of Man:                     the Reformed tradition it is becom-            many of these attempts lies in the
(1) The Fact of Man's Creation             ing a common thing to compromise               fact that they are made under the
    We have seen repeatedly in these       in one way or another with the phi-            guise of exegesis, while in fact they
studies of Genesis 1 that unbelief and     losophy of evolution. For example;             are no exegesis whatsoever, but the
faith, when confronted by the same         it is claimed that while man did not           introduction of mere human specu-
set of facts, come inevitably to dif-      evolve out of the animals, neverthe-           lation, anti-biblical speculation.  They
ferent conclusions with respect to         less God created him "via the ani-             are attempts to force upon the Bible
those facts.                               mals." This is taught as a valid in-           theories and views which plainly
    This is also true with respect to      terpretation of the'scriptural fact that       contradict what the Bible says.
man. It is unquestionably true that        God created man out of the dust of                    Over against such corruptions
man is the highest creature of the         the ground. It is claimed, too, that           we must maintain without compro-
earth, that he represents the apex of      Adam and Eve were not the first                mise the simple and clear language
all creatures, that he stands, at the      human couple, but that the human               of Scripture concerning the creation
pinnacle of all earthly things. It is      race actually existed some two mil-            of man and concerning the origin
also without doubt true that the ani-      lion years prior to Adam and Eve.              and nature of the human race. In
mal stands. in nature and in form          The biblical narrative in Genesis              fact, it is becoming more and more
nearest to man and that the universe       merely means that God separated                urgent, as these corruptions multi-
is characterized by a gradual ascent       Adam and Eve from the rest of the              ply within the walls of the church,
from the lower to the higher crea-         human race in order to deal                    that we see the danger from the foe
tures, the highest of whom is man.         covenantally with them. By others              within the gate and that we deal "_
It is even true- that the animals are      it is claimed that Adam and Eve did            with this danger forthrightly and do
living souls, and that in this respect     not actually. exist and that a                         not allow ourselves and our
the animals are related to the life of     Paradise without sin and                                   generations to be deceived
man. All these are facts. But with         death also had no real ex-              *a* it is            and to be deprived of the
respect to the conclusion, the Chris-      istence. The record in                becoming                heritage of the truth.
tian maintains over against. the evo-      Genesis must be so "in-             more and more              We must see clearly that
lutionist,that  it is not true that one    terpreted" as to get rid              urgent . . .             as soon as one begins to'
creature evolved into the other.           of the element of any lit-           that we see               corrupt the truth  con-
Rather,. all the various creatures         era1 history in it.                  the danger                cerning  Adam and his
came into existence through God's              All these claims and            from the foe              creation, he also  cor-
special creative work according to         attempts are not made,                  within                rupts the truth about the
which He.gave unto each creature,          mind you, by the unbe-                the gate....          entire human race and the
throughout the six days of creation-       lieving world, but they arise                             truth about sin and its ori-
week, its-own peculiar and separate        within the church. It is charac-                      gin. He corrupts the truth of
nature and its own place in the or-        teristic that such claims are made in          original guilt, of inherited corrup-
ganic whole of the creation, until in      the name of Christian scholarship,             tion, and of the universality of sin.
man, created on the sixth day, He          and even Reformed scholarship, and             He also inevitably corrupts the truth
unites the world unto Himself.             that the various attempts to deny the          concerning salvation in our Lord
    What is a grave danger, how-           literally historical truths and facts re-      Jesus Christ and Gods everlasting
                                           lated in the first part of the book of         covenant of grace in Him. Hence,
The late Homer'.koeksema was profes-       Genesis are madeby those to whom               let us pay attention, first of all, to
sor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in      the church ordinarily looks for lead-          what Scripture says concerning the
the Protestant Reformed Semina y.          &hip, guidance, and instruction.               creation of man.

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    Of this we read, in the first place,    two works are plainly not on the             from the earth; yet, he must not
in Genesis 1:26,27: "And God said,          same level. What we find instead is          merely be brought forth by the earth
Let us make man in our image, after         that there is a significant pause be-        as are the animals, but be created in
our likeness: and let them have do-         fore the creation of man. The Lord           God's image.
minion over the fish of the sea and         is now about to create something                   3. Notice that God created
over the fowl of the air, and over          distinct: a creature who, though he          Adam. We must remember that
the cattle, and over all the earth, and     is related to the animal on his earthy       while in our English rendering we
over every creeping thing that              side, is nevertheless a distinct crea-       read repeatedly here of "man," the
creepeth upon the earth. So God             ture, not a descendant of the ani-           original term that is translated
created man in his own image, in            mal. God reveals Himself as speak-           "man" is throughout the text
the image of God created he him;            ing before He creates man. He does           "Adam." The name "Adam" is that
male and female created he them."           not speak to the angels. That is irn-        name for the first man, and for the
    This is followed by the statement       possible for the simple reason that          race of mankind which is out of him,
of verse 28: "And God blessed them,         the angels did not participate in the        which emphasizes that he is of the
and God said unto them, Be fruitful         creation of man and man was not              earth, earthy: he is made from the
and multiply, and replenish the             made after the image of the angels.          ground. Our name "man," on the
earth, and subdue it: and have do-          Nor is the plural "us" to be ex-             other hand, a term which also oc-
minion over the fish of the sea, and        plained as a so-called plural of maj-        curs in Scripture, refers rather to his
over the fowl of the air, and over          esty. But God speaks to Himself.             spiritual nature. But what we wish
every livingthing that moveth upon          He does so as the God who is one in          to emphasize is the fact that there
the earth." This is followed by the         Being and who yet is more than one,          were no so-called pre-Adamite men,
significant statements. in verses 29        namely, three in Persons. This very          who possibly existed some two mil-
and 30 assigning to man and to the          fact already sets apart the creation         lion years before Adam. Nor were
animals respectively their proper           of man as a distinct and special crea-       there, by the way, any other men -
food in the earth as it was before          ture.                                        possibly men on other planets - as
the fall and before sin and death en-           2. Notice the contents of that           some like to suggest today. Adam
tered. Finally, at the end of chapter       speech of God. God says, "Let us             was the first and only man whom
1, in verse 31, we find the summary         make man in our image, after our             God created.
statement that "God saw everything          likeness." At present it is our inten-             4. Take note of the fact that al-
that he had made and, behold, it was        tion only to note this fact; we will         ready in Genesis 1 we read that God
very good," and then the notice:            enter into the details of its.meaning        made them male and female. For
"And the evening and the morning            later. But the emphasis falls here on        thus we read- in verse 27: "... male
were the sixth day."                        the idea that man is to be a separate        and female created he them." It is
    It is not our intention at the mo-      creature: he is to be the creature           true, of course, that in chapter 2 of
ment to enter into all the details of       after God's image. Of no other crea-         Genesis we are furnished with the
this biblical presentation; that will       ture is this true. Nor is it thus, that      details concerning the creation of the
be done later. But at present we            God created a man and then                         woman. There we read of the
call attention simply to the facts of       added the divine image to                                 fact that the Lord God said,
man's creation, and that, too, exactly      him. No, God created                                        "It is not good that the
because there are so many attempts          man in His own image.           . . . all the fanciful        man should be alone; I
to read into this narrative the whole       This is repeatedly em-               hypotheses                will make an help
cunningly devised fable of evolution.       phasized in the text.          that are conjured up             meet for him." Later
We want to point out that the only          For this same reason                 nowadays                   we read of the fact
way in which that can be done is            the earth may not                 in the name of                that God brought the
precisely by reading something into.        merely bring him             Ch@tiati scholarship            : animals  to. man to
the text that is not actuallythere.         forth:- it will `never do not in  anyway  :                   _' see what' he would
    On the basis of the biblical data       bring forth the crea-           have their origin              call them, after which
just quoted, notice the following el-       ture in the likeness of        and their foundation            we read significantly
ements.                                     God. Neither can man            in the Scriptures.           again that for Adam
    1. Notice the fact that there is        simply be brought forth                                     there was not found an
no continuity in the narrative of           from God. That is true'only                               help meet for him. Then  '
Gods work on the sixth day. The             of the Son of God by eternal gen-                  we read of the deep sleep
record in Genesis 1 does not take us        eration. Man must be `a creature,            brought upon Adam, which was not
directly from the creation of the           and yet a creature that looks like           because Adam needed an anesthetic
land-animals to the creation of man,        God, reflecting the image and like-          for an operation, but which was due
even though these two works both            ness of God. Hence, he must be cre-          to the fact that God resumed His
took place on the same day. These           atively formed, and formed, indeed,          work of creating; and this work of

212lStandard  Bearer/February 1,1995


creation must necessarily fall outside    power, accomplished on the sixth            woman; but the woman of the man.
of Adam's experience. But all of this     day - the climax of all the work of         Neither was the man created for the
is simply explanation and details         creation - that Scripture pictures to       woman; but the woman for the
concerning the creation of male and       IiS.                                        man." Again in I Timothy 213 this
female that is performed on the sixth             But once more  - almost as          same historicity is underlying the
day. The creation of the first man        though the narrative could not em-          apostle's point when he writes: "For
Adam, the naming of the animals,          phasize it enough - our attention is        Adam was first formed, then Eve."
and the creation of the woman out         called to man's creation in the sec-        He then goes on to write about the
of the man as an help meet for Adarn      ond chapter of Genesis, verse 7,            fall also as historically real: "And
- all of this was finished on the         where we read: "And the Lord God            Adam was not deceived, but the
sixth day.                                formed man out of the dust of the           woman being deceived was in the
    5. Notice that it is very plain,      ground, and breathed into his nos-          transgression." To mention but one
according to the narrative of Gen-        trils the breath of life; and man be-       more passage, in I Corinthians  15:45
esis 1:26-28,  that man was created       came a living soul."                        are the well-known words: "And
as the most highly exalted creature               Nor does one find a different       so it is written, the first man Adam
of the earth. His highly exalted po-      note anywhere in all of Scripture.          was made a living soul; the last
sition is exactly that he occupies the    This same creation-truth is simply          Adam was made a quickening
place of dominion over all other          assumed and,acknowledged  without           spirit."
creatures. He is not one of the ani-      argumentation in the New Testa-                 We have emphasized these very
mals, but he is exalted above them,       ment. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in His         simple and factual details of the
and that, too, by virtue of his very      reply to the Pharisees in Matthew           wonderful and incomprehensible
creation and by virtue of his being       19:3ff., refers to it when He says:         and profound work of man's cre-
created in the image of God. Once         "Have ye not read, that he which            ation in order to show that the truth
more this distinction is emphasized       made them at the beginning made             of Holy Writ is very plain and very
when God, though He ordains that          them male and female, and said, For         simple. We have done so, too, in
both man and the animals shall live       this cause shall a man leave father         order to point out that all the fanci-
from the earth, nevertheless speaks       and mother, and shall cleave to his         ful hypotheses that are conjured up
to man in distinction from the beasts.    wife: and they twain shall be one           nowadays in the name of Christian
    6. Finally, it is very plain,. ac-    flesh?" The apostle Paul refers to          scholarship, do not in any way have
cording to the text, that all this be-    the unity of the entire race in Adam,       their origin and their foundation in
longs to the sixth day. Let it be em-     at Athens, when he says that God            the Scriptures. They are brought
phasized again that the text of Scrip-    "hath made of one blood all nations         from without, and the attempt is
ture leaves absolutely no other im-       of men for to dwell on the face of          made to cloak them somehow in
pression than that this was a real        the earth" (Acts 1226).  In Romans          scriptural terminology and give
day and a literal day. Not a process      5 he speaks of the one man by whom          them a semblance of scriptural justi-
of evolution  - whether that be the-      sin entered into the world, and death       fication. But that attempt is vain.
istic evolution or progressive cre-       by  sin\ -This one man is the real,         We have done so, too, in order to
ation or a providentially controlled      historical Adam, who also is "the           sound the warning that the church
evolution, or whatever else one           figure of him that was to come"             cannot tamper with the truth of
wishes to call it - not a process of      (Ram. 5:12ff.). In I Corinthians 11:8,      man's creation without tampering
evolution is portrayed by Scripture.      9 the apostle speaks of this same cre-      with all of Scripture and with all re-
But it is a very definite and special     ative act: "For the man is not of the       lated truth. 0
creative act of God's almighty



                                                  As the title suggests, this book        But the book is not without its
                                          is intended to be a textbook on             difficulties, most of which arise be-
                                          hermeneutics. From many points of           cause of its dual authorship. Early
An Introduction  to Biblical  Her-        view, it is an excellent textbook           in the book we are warned that the
meneutics: The Search for Meaning,        which can be used with great profit e       authors do not always agree on all
by Walter C. Kaiser and Moises            in seminary courses on  herme-              matters, and Silva especially takes
Silva.        Grand Rapids, MI:           neutics; but it is also sufficiently        the time to call attention to his dis-
Zondervan Publishing, 1994. 298  pp:      worthwhile for ministers who have           agreements with Kaiser. If these dis-
$24.99 (hard cover). [Reviewed by         all their hermeneutics under their          agreements were on relatively mi-
Prof. Herman Hanko.]                      belts,' to read and study.                  nor points, this would not be so bad,

                                                                                            February d,l9!35/Standard  Bearer/21  3


 but they seem oftentimes to be dis-               psalmist He wrote: "Purge me with            used men to write the Scriptures -
 agreements over a very fundamen-                  hyssop, and I shall be clean" (I%.           not, at least, if one believes in pre-
 tal point: the doctrine of Scripture              51:7).  Knowing gives somewhat               destination and providence.
 itself. One gets the impression that              more understanding, but is not de-               The grammatical and historical
 Moises Silva is much more ready to                cisive.                                      method of interpretation is sound;
 accept the findings of higher critical                Kaiser also has an excellent             but let it be understood that the
 studies than Walter Kaiser.                       chapter on the theological use of            spiritual aspect of interpretation (the
      The book pretty well covers the              Scripture in which he talksabout the         search in every part of Scripture for
 field and devotes separate chapters               analogy of faith. Here more than             the meaning of the Holy Spirit) is
 to various aspects of hermeneutics:               elsewhere his emphasis on the unity          fundamental and crucial. It is not
:. interpreting historical narratives,             of divine authorship comes out.              an aspect alongside of the grammati-
 prophecy, gospels, parables, epistles,                While Silva also has many good           cal and historical - as Silva so' of-
 wisdom writings, etc. In some of                  things to contribute to the on-going         ten seems to make it; it is the one
 these       traditional        a r e a s   o f    discussions of biblical interpretation,      great aspect in the light of which all
 hermeneutical studies the book has                he is `not as strong on certain key          the grammatical and historical as-
 fresh and helpful material.                       matters as Kaiser. Silva (and I have         pects have to be considered.
      The writings of Kaiser especially            mentioned this in other reviews of               The book is an important book.
 are well' worth the price of the book.            his books) concedes much too much            It will bring one up-to-date on what
 He has an excellent chapter on the                to higher criticism. And interest-           modern and recent critical studies
 interpretation of `prophecy and even              ingly enough, he appeals to common           are doing and how conservatives are
 argues strongly for a unilateral and              grace to justify his adoption of some        buying into higher criticism; but it
 unconditional covenant. In treating               higher critical methods. He does             will have the positive fruit of en-
 the problem of how to bridge cul-                 this in a chapter on "Calvinistic            riching one's own ability to work
 tural disparity (the view that differ-            Hermeneutics," because in a chap-            with God's holy Word. n
 ences in culture between the writer               ter under this title, he finds a justifi-
 of a book and the reader make the                 cation in the writings of Calvin for         I Will Maintain, by Marjorie Bowen
 writings difficult to understand),                his appeal to common grace. He               (William and Mary Trilogy, Volume
 Kaiser has extremely helpful ideas                leaves the impression that Calvin            1). Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada: In-
 on how to distinguish the enduring                himself could very well have been            heritance Publications, 1993. 383
 in Scripture, which is rooted in prin-            eager to adopt the assured results           pages. $15.90 (US); $17.95 (Can.) (pa-
 ciple, from the cultural. He ad-                  of modern critical studies, if he had        per). [Reviewed by the Editor.]
 dresses the question of I Corinthians             only known them.
 11:2ff. in this connection. While Kai-                The willingness to' accept some-             This is great reading for. a.lI ages,
 ser does castigate modern critics for             thing of what one finds in higher            high school and older.
 destroying the perspicuity of Scrip-              criticism rests on a faulty view of              I Will Maintain is well-written
 ture by an appeal to cultural dispar-             Scripture. The book, while covering          historical fiction with a solid, sig-
 ity, he, in the judgment of this re-              the field of hermeneutics, does not          nificant, exciting historical base. Vol-
 viewer, makes far too much of it and              devote a separate section to a dot-.         ume one of the trilogy tells the story
 does not sufficiently emphasize that              trine of Scripture - although such           of William III, prince of. Orange in
 the same Holy Spirit who wrote the                a doctrine comes out in many dif-            the Netherlands and king of  En-.
 Scriptures is also the Interpreter. I             ferent ways. But the faulty doctrine         gland, in the days of his coming to
 do not mean to imply that Kaiser                  of Scripture to which I allude is a          power in the Netherlands. Mary,
 ignores this point, for he more than              major and fundamental concession             daughter of English king James II
Silva emphasizes its importance in                 to. higher critical studies. Scripture       and William's future wife, does not
 hermeneutics. Cultural disparity, af-             is said to be authored by men and,           yet appear in volume one. No
 ter all, is a relatively insignificant            therefore has a human dimension.             doubt, she will receive her due in
 matter if one takes into account the              It is this human side to Scripture           the following volumes.
 work of the Spirit. All one needs is              which opens the door to higher criti-            The title is taken from the motto
 a good Bible dictionary to help him               cism. If only conservative scholars          of the house ,of Orange.
 with various cultural problems.                   could see that the doctrine of Scrip-            William is known in history for
 And, even then, an understanding                  ture which Scripture teaches ex-             his heroic defense of the Netherlands
 of the text is not absolutely depen-              cludes the human and .insists only           against the aggression of Louis XIV
 dent on full cultural awareness of                on the?divine, the battle for the de-        of France and Charles II of England
 biblical times. I do not need to                  fense of the Bible would not go the          (William's uncle) and for his deliv-
 know, e.g., with certainty what hys-              way of victory for the infidel. Nor          erance of England`&om Stuart tyr-
 sop is to understand what the Holy                does this insistence-on Scripture as         anny and Roman Catholicism by the
 Spirit means when through the                     being divine negate the fact that God        "Glorious" Revolution of 1688.  Prot-

 214lStandard   Bearer/February  1,19!35


estants in Northern Ireland honor his         a royal threat. William saw the            count of the important history of one
memory. because of a similar deliv-           house of Orange (and himself in par-       of the world's great nations, the
ery associated with the battle of the         ticular) as savior of the fatherland.      Dutch. This history was bound up
Boyne in 1690.                                At best, the de Witts had weakened         with the Reformed faith and had im-
    At the heart of volume one is             the nation and were themselves too         plications for the exercise of Protes-
the struggle between William and              weak to defend it against its foes.        tantism throughout Europe.
another noble Hollander, the pow-                 There is fascinating character             Christian high schools could
erful "pensionary" (comparable to a           study both of the prince and of the        profitably assign the book, indeed,
prime minister), John de Witt. It was         pensionary; gripping dialogue; the         the whole trilogy, for history or lit-
not merely a struggle for power..             excitement of war on sea and land;         erature classes.
Both men had lofty ideals. Each was           and the tragedy of the murder of               It is delightful reading, especially
convinced that what he stood for              the de Witts by the mob. Romance           for those who have held out against
was necessary for the good of the             will come in the following two vol-        the pressure'to "burn their wooden
Netherlands. de Witt saw the Neth-            umes.                                      shoes" and are quite unashamed of
erlands as a republic, and the repre-             No small part of the appeal and        their Dutch ancestry.
sentative of the house of Orange as           worth of the book is the lively ac-                                                0





                                              Ghana, Africa on behalf of our                 Make a note of their address:
MisGon Activities,                            denomination's Foreign Mission             6551 Walker Road, Alamosa, CO
    For the second consecutive year,          Committee. Preliminary reports sug-        81101.
the Council of the Hudsonville, MI            gest that it was a very busy and fruit-
PRC, the calling church for our               ful visit. We are confident of more        Evangelism  A c t i v i t i e s
denomination's mission effort in              details at a later date.                       As we reported earlier, last year
Northern Ireland, has decided to                  Qur Domestic Mission Commit-           the congregation in Lynden, WA had
send a delegation to visit with mis-          tee continues to assist our Lynden,        received a request from a pastor in
sionary Rev. Ron Hanko, his wife              WA PRC in working with the Sov-            Quebec, Canada for some literature.
Nancy, and their famiIy, as well as           ereign Grace Reformed Church in            He also inquired about the possibil-
the members of the Covenant Re-               Spokane, WA, by attempting to ar-          ity of some literature being available
formed Fellowship. However, differ-           range two-week visits per month by         in the French language. Since that
ent from last year, instead of two' our various pastors for the coming                   issue of the SB came out, Lynden
elders and their wives going from             year. Through these means it is            has been contacted by a young lady
Hudsonville, it was decided to send           hoped that this small group, consist-      in one of our churches in the Grand
Rev. Barry Gritters, newly installed          ing of some 35-40 members, along           Rapids, MI area who is majoring in
pastor at Hudsonville, along with             with their pastor, Rev. Robert             French and would like to try trans-
his  .wife Lori. Accompanying the             Hargrove, will become better ac-           lating some of Lynden's pamphlets
Gritters on'this' two-week trip will          quainted with us, while we in turn         into French.
be Rev. Audred Spriensma;  as rep-            will become better acquainted with             Lynden has also received a re-
resentative from our churches' :Mis-          them.                                      quest from a recent convert in the
sion Committee, and his wife Aiva.                Rev. Tom Miersma's installation        Oregon State Penitentiary who is try-
Plans presently call for these.four  to       as home missionary to the San Luis         ing to start a Reformed Bible study
leave on January 17 and return, D.V.,         Valley Mission in southern Colorado        in prison. This man was also con-
on January 31.                                took place on December 18 in the           tacted by a Spanish-speaking man
    Rev. Richard Moore and ex-el-             sanctuary of the Loveland, CO PRC.         who was interested in some litera-
der Don  VerMeer,  both from our              That evening he was able to preach         ture in his own language.
Hull, IA PRC, returned home in late           his inaugural sermon based on                  At. the close of 1994, the Men's
December from a six-week visit to             Zechariah 6:9-15 entitled, "The            Society of the Hudsonville, MI PRC
                                              Branch, the Priest-King." We can           reported to their congregation that
                                              also be assured that the saints of         they have now sent over 1,000 Bibles
                                      :I,.    S.L.V. Mission eagerly awaited the         to various individuals, mostly teen-
Mr, Wigger is a .&ember of fhe,Prbfes-"       arrival of the Miersmas, and the first     agers, and various schools in Ghana,
fanf Reformed church  of Hud~onville,         sermon of Rev. Miersma in their            Africa. The Men's Society used all
Michigan.                                     midst on Sunday, Christmas Day.            their church's older extra Bibles and
                  ;5 .,c

                                                                                               February  1,1995/Standard Bearer/215


                                                                                                            SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                            Postage Paid at
                                                                                                            Grandville,  Michigan
    P.O. Box 603
   .Grandville,  MI 49468-0603


began purchasing new ones when             the Byron Center, MI PRC gave a            ter, MI has extended a call to Rev.
these ran out. Accompanying these          condensed version of their Christ-         C. Terpstra, pastor of the South Hol-
Bibles were extra Sunday School pa-        mas program at Sunset Manor, a re-         land, IL PRC.
pers,  Beacon Lights,  and other appro-    tirement home in Jenison, MI, on De-           From a tio of the Revs. Wayne
priate materials for these young           cember 19.                                 Bekkering, Wilbur Bruinsma, and
people. To make this project as cost-          While on classical appointment         Charles Terpstra, the congregation
effective as possible, the Men's Soci-     to the Lynden, WA congregation,            in Edgerton, MN extended a call to
ety began using the services of Chal-      Rev. J. Mahtani, pastor of the Trin-       Rev. Bruinsma.
lenge Ministries located in Ghana.         ity PRC in Houston, TX, gave a slide           Rev. Bruinsma also received a
For a very reasonable fee, Challenge       presentation entitled "Evangelism in       call to serve as pastor of the Lynden,
Ministries provides a KJV Bible, a         Houston," for the Young Adult and          WA PRC. With Rev. Bruinsma on
cover-letter written by the Men's So-      Adult Bible Classes of Lynden. Rev.        that trio were the Revs. Meindert
ciety, and delivery to the individu-       Mahtani returned tb Houston with           Joostens and Ken Koole.
als who write. All Hudsonville need        12 more registrations for Trinity's
do is supply them with a mailing           up-coming spring conference on Re-                      Foodfor ?fiou..fit
label and the fee.                         formed Evangelism.                             Christ became what we are that
                                                                                      He might make us what He is.
Congregational Activities                  Minister Activities                                                      Afhanasius
     The Sunday School children of             Our congregation in Byron Cen-




  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                                                               NOTICE
     The Council of the Doon Prot-                                                        Classis  West of the Protestant
estant Reformed Church expresses                                                      Reformed Churches will meet in
its heartfelt sympathy to its fellow                                                  Loveland- PR Church in Loveland,
officebearer, elder Bob Blankespoor                                                   CO, on Wednesday, March 1, 1995
and family, also to fellow member,                       NOTlCE                       at  8:30 a.m., the Lord willing. All
James Blankespoor and family in the            With thankfulness to God, the          delegates in need of lodging or
death of their father                      faculty of the Protestant Reformed         transportation from the airport
    HENRY J. BLANKESPOOR.                  Theological Seminary informs the           should notify the Clerk of Loveland's
     May the comfort of the family         churches that it has licensed Semi-        consistory.
be in this: "Precious in the sight of      narian Cheah Fook Meng to speak                     Rev. Steven Key, Stated Clerk
the Lord is the death of his saints"       a word of edification in the meet-
(Psalm 116:15).                            ings for public worship. Fook Meng                    URGENT REQUEST
           Rev. R. Dykstra, President      is a member of the First Evangeli-             The archives of the Protestant
               Edwin VanGinkel,  Clerk     cal Reformed Church of Singapore           Reformed Churches, as they are
                                           with which the Protestant Reformed         preserved in the Protestant Re-
         TEACHERNEEDED                     Churches have a sister-church rela-        formed Seminary, still have no copy
     Hope Protestant Reformed              tionship. The scheduling of his            of the 1953 Acts of Synod of the
Christian School is in need of an          speaking in the worship services will      PRC. Anyone able and willing to
elementary and junior high teacher         be done by the Seminary.                   donate (or sell) that volume, for this
(Math/Science), certification pre-                                For the faculty,    cause, is urged to contact the semi-
ferred, for the 1995-1996 school              Prof. David J. Engelsma, Rector         nary:
year. If interested, direct inquiries                                                            4949 lvanrest Ave.
to 1545 Wilson Ave. S.W., Grand                                                                 Grandville, Ml 49418
Rapids, Ml 49504, or call (616) 453-                                                             tel. (616) 531-1490
971 7 or (616) 453-8402.

21 G/Standard Bearer /February 1,1!395


