A Reformed          BtER
Semi-Monthly
Magazine





                    See "Sanctifying our Children"- p. 232


February 15,2995


CONTENTS:                                                                                   February  15,  1995

Meditation - Rev. John A. Heys
   Entering Into and Enjoying Salvation ..*.s......*..***....................m....... 219
Editorial - Prof. David J, Engelsma
   Jelle in Wonderland (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~...........~.....................~~......          221        ISSN 0362-4692
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                                                                     Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
   Oath ..,.....................,...........................................................~.......~.......                       224        Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
                                                                                                                                              4649 lvanrest Ave., Grandville, MI 49416. Second Class
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225    Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                  Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
   Franciscus Gomarus: Stubborn Champion of God's Glory (2) . . . 226                                                                         P.O. Box 603, Grandville, MI 49466-0693.
Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Jason L. Kortering                                                                                            EDtTORtAL COMMtTTEE
   The Gospel in Southeast Asia (1) . . . . . . . . ..~......................................... 229                                          Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                              Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
Search the Scriptures - Rev. Car/J. Haak                                                                                                      Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
   Jesus is Magnified by His Forerunner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...* 231              DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
When Thou Sittest  In Thine House - Rev. Ronald J. VanUverloop                                                                                Rev. Wilbur Eruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga. Prof. Robert
   Sanctifying our Children . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~..~.....................~...........          232        Decker, Rev. ArledenHartog,  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Berry
                                                                                                                                              Grittars, Rev. Carl Haak. Rev. Jason Kortering. Rev. Cornelius
Decency and Order  - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                                                  Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Date
                                                                                                                                              Kulper, Mr. James Laming, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
   Particular Synods and Delegates Ad Examina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~.~.~.~~~~... 235                                             Jaikishin Mahtanl, Rev. Thomas Misrsma, Rev. Charies
Book Review .,........................................................................................                             237        Terpstra, Rev.GiseVanBaren,  Rev. RonaldVanOvsrloop,  Mr.
                                                                                                                                              Benjamin Wigger. Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
Report of Classis East - Mr. Jon J. Huisken ,,,,.,,,,,,.,,,,,,,,...,,..,.,,~~.,.,.... 238
News From Our Churches  -  Mr. Benjamin Wigger ,,,,,,.....,..,......~....~,,,, 239                                                            EDtTORlAL OFFICE             CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wigger
                                                                                                                                              4949 lvanrest                6597 49th Ave.
                                                                                                                                              Grandville, MI 49418         Hudsonville, Ml 49426
                                                                                                                                              BUSINESS OFFICE ~ r NEW ZEALAND OFFICE
                                                                                                                                              The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                              Don Doezema                  c/o B. VanHerk
       Prominent in this issue of the Standard Bearer is the life of the instituted                                                           P.O. BOX 663                 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                              Grendville, MI               Wainuiomata, New Zealand
church.                                                                                                                                         49469.0603                 NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE
       The church contends for the faith once delivered to the saints. "A Cloud of                                                            Pn: (616) 531-1496           c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                                                       (616) 536.1776      164 Church Rd., Glenwherry
Witnesses" gives the second installment on Franciscus Gomarus, defender of the                                                                FAX:  (616) 531-3633         Ballymena, Co. Antrim ET42  3EL
Reformed faith in the Netherlands at the time of the Synod of Dordt. Prof. Hanko                                                                                           Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                              EDtTORlAL POLICY
describes him as one of the company of those who "fought for truth and right."                                                                Every editor Is solely responsible for the contents of his own
Through them, the true church was valiant for truth. Through them, Christ has                                                                 articles. Contributions of general interestfrom our readers and
                                                                                                                                              questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
preserved His true church.                                                                                                                    Gontributions will be limited to approximately 360 words and
       Prof. Decker calls attention to serious concerns surfacing in the Presbyterian                                                         mustbeneatiywrittsnorty&swritteii;e.ndmustbesigned.  Copy
Church in America (PCA). Within this church, a group has formed itself as "Con-                                                               deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
                                                                                                                                              communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
cerned Presbyterians.fl "All Around Us" also notes further developments of strife                                                             editorial offtcs.
and division in the Christian Reformed Church (see "Banned from Christian Re-                                                                 REPRINT POLICY
formed Pulpits").                                                                                                                             Permlssion  is herebygrantedforthe reprinting of articles in our
       The church goes into all the world in missions. Rev. Jason Kortering is a                                                              magexinebyotherpublications,  provided: a) thatsuchreprinted
minister-on-loan from the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC) to the Evangelical                                                               articles are reproduced In full; b) that proper acknowledgment
                                                                                                                                              Is made; 6) that a copy of the periodical in which such reprint
Reformed Churches of Singapore (ERCS). He begins what promises to be not only                                                                 appears is sent to our editorial office.
an informative and interesting series, but also profitable one on "the Gospel in                                                              SUBSCRIPTION POUCY
Southeast Asia." Not only are the ERCS themselves mission churches, but also                                                                  Subscription price: $12.00 per year In the U.S., $15.60
they have contacts in Malaysia, Indonesia, India, and Myanmar.                                                                                elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuence Is
       Rev. Ron Cammenga treats an aspect of the denominational life of the church.                                                           received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
                                                                                                                                              subscrtptiontocontinue,andhewill  bebilledforrenswal.  lfyou
He explains the articles of the Dordt Church Order that deal with particular synods                                                           haveachangeofaddress, pleasenotifytheBusinessOfficeas
and synod&al  deputies (see "Decency and Order").                                                                                             eady as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
       A slice of the denominational life of the PRC appears in Jon Huisken's "report                                                         Interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
of Classis  East." This brief report of a routine classis  shows the mutual care and                                                          ADVERTISING POLICY
supervision of churches in the Reformed federation.                                                                                           The &arrdardEearerdoes not accept commercial advertising
                                                                                                                                              of any kind. Announcements of church and school events,
       Two announcements calling for men to study for the ministry and making                                                                 anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will  be
available financial help indicate the indispensable cooperation of churches in a                                                              plawdfora$lO.DJfee.  Theseshould bessntto the Business
denomination.                                                                                                                                 Offlceandshouldbeaccompanledbythe$1O.Wfee.  Deadline
                                                                                                                                              for announcements is at least one month prior to publication
       Office in the Reformed church is the subject of the book reviewed by Prof.                                                             date.
Hanko, Order in the Offices. Are there three offices or two?                                                                                  BOUND VOLUMES
       All of this is important to every reader, since, as the Belgic Confession declares                                                     The Business Office will  accept standing orders for bound
in Article 28, "all men are in duty bound to join and unite themselves with (the                                                              copiesofthecurrentvolume. Suchordersarefillsdassoonas
true church) . . . serving to the edification of the brethren, according to the talents                                                       possible after completion of a volume year.
God has given them."                                                                                                                          16mm microfilm, 35mm microfilm and 105mm mlcrofichs, and
                                                                                                                               - D J E        article oopies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                              Internatlonat.
218/Standard  Bearer/February 15,1995


                                       Entering Into
               and Enjoying Salvation

                                              That was a sarcastic question put to       cerned only with a salvation from
                                              our Savior, who had said that He is        what hurts our flesh; and he strives
    I am the door: by me if any man           the door of the sheepfold. And in          to get us concerned only about sal-
enter in he shall be saved, and shall go      response Jesus declared that they          vation from punishment, not from
in and out, andfind pasture.                  were thieves and robbers who were          sin itself. Christ, however, is not
                                John 10:9.    spiritually blind. What we must            the door through which Satan wants
                                              bear in mind is the fact that we live      us to go, except for deliverance from
    No matter who we are and                  in a world wherein there are many          the punishment which we deserve.
where we live, physical death will            churches that have spiritual leaders              Now our God, the day Adam
sooner or later come upon us. It may          who are thieves and robbers and are        and Eve fell into sin and died spiri-
come unexpectedly by what is called           spiritually blind.                         tually, presented salvation as enmity
an accident. It usually comes be-                 Today there are many spiritual         against Satan and all that he does
cause organs of the body wear out             thieves and robbers who vigorously         and wants us to do. Our calling is
and cannot function anymore, caus-            fight to steal away the truth which        to be thankful for that work of God's
ing the heart to stop its beating.            our Savior `implanted in other             grace whereby He makes us able to
    However, as believing children            churches. Today, in some churches,         walk in love towards Himself.
of God we have the comforting truth           those who call themselves Christians              We do well therefore to bear in
which our Savior gives to us in the           definitely are antichristian. Not only     mind that Christ Jesus is the door,
verse quoted above. Through the               by their teaching but also by their        through which all the elect enter into
apostle John, our Savior Jesus Christ         walk of life they manifest themselves      the holy kingdom of heaven. Now
presents Himself as the door                  to be antichristian. This is so very       the door through which the elect en-
through which our souls enter into            evident today, not only by the false       ter is Christ Jesus, who lets His elect
the blessed life of His kingdom of            doctrines they maintain, but also by       enter but also enables them to do
heaven.                                       the walk of life they defend. There-       so.
    This He told the Pharisees who            fore we do well to consider this truth            However, we do not open that
had questioned His words, and had             that Christ is the door that keeps all     door into the kingdom of heaven.
sarcastically asked Him whether He            of the elect safe, enabling them to        With our souls we have the blessing
considered them to be blind. For              go in and out and find fruitful pas-       of being made able and willing to
Christ Jesus had caused a blind man           ture. Let us also then bear in mind        enter the kingdom of heaven; and
to see all the things that were round         that Satan, hating Christ, also hates      Christ Jesus is that door. He opens
about him. To him our Savior said:            all who believe in Christ as their Sav-    the way for us to be saved from Sa-
"For judgment I am come into the              ior. Our calling is to agree with          tan and sin, and to be made able
world, that they which see not might          Christ Jesus that He is the door that      and willing to serve Him in love. As
see; and they which see might be              keeps us safe from the thieves and         the text states, we shall be saved so
made blind" (John 9:39).                      robbers that are in the church world.      that we shall go in and out and find
    Those Pharisees were moved to                 Still more, let us keep before our     pasture.
ask our Savior, "Are we blind?"               minds every Sabbath day that Satan                Now let us bear in mind that
                                              is trying through so many things and       sheep have enemies who want to
                                              people, and by all means through           steal them, or even to kill them. The
                                              their preaching, to turn us away           thieves and robbers want to steal
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the       from Christ as our Savior. Satan           them, and profit by selling them to
Protestant Reformed Churches.                 works hard in his way to get us con-       others, while the wolves want to eat

                                                                                                 February 15,1995/Standard  Seared21  9


them, and beoefit  themselves in that     states that He is the Door. He not          Psalter, number 383: "All that I am I
way. Both of these, the wolves and        only desires to open the way for us         owe to Thee. Thy wisdom, Lord,
the thieves and robbers, make it very     to blessings, He does do so by caus-        hath fashioned `me."
necessary that we, as sheep of Christ,    ing every one of His elect to want it.             Those Pharisees that asked Jesus
the Almighty Shepherd, are kept               We are saved from the evil, dev-        whether they were blind revealed
safe.                                     ilish love of sin into which Satan led      their blindness. They did  noi- see
    Our salvation has two basic ele-      Adam and Eve, and thus the whole            their spiritual blindness and did not
ments which we should appreciate          human race. In Ephesians 2~8-10 we          desire and trust in Christ as Savior.
and believe by God's grace. We are        read: "For by grace are ye saved            Every day we need Christ as the
by that grace protected, being            through faith; and that not of your-        Door that opens and lets us enter
brought where these wolves, thieves,      selves: it is the gift of God: not of       salvation, as a gift of His grace.
and robbers cannot steal us away          works, lest any man should boast.                  The evidence of our spiritual re-
from Christ our Good Shepherd.            For we are His workmanship, cre-            birth is that we thank God for every
But likewise we should appreciate         ated in Christ Jesus unto good              bit of our salvation, including the de-
the blessed fact that our Savior feeds    works, which God hath before or-            sire for it. Desiring salvation reveals
us with the bread of life, which we       dained that we should walk in               that God has already begun it in us.
need spiritually, Christ, as the Door,    them." Christ does not try to make          And let us not believe or teach the
protects us, keeping us safe when         us desire salvation. As our Savior          lie that Christ will save us if we al-
Satan tries to capture us by those        He makes us desire salvation, and           ready saved ourselves from the car-
who believe false doctrines, and          we owe Him thanks for that desire           nal desire wherewith we were born.
merely want earthly advantages            as well as for all the rest of that sal-    Let us rather sing humbly but joy-
rather than heavenly communion            vation.                                     fully that Christ, the Door, made our
with God.                                     What is more, here in the verse         salvation possible, and began it in
    But Christ Jesus, the Door, opens     quoted at the beginning of this medi-       us.
up for us the way to be fed with the.     tation, our Savior says, "By me if any             By God's grace we will confess
Bread of Life. Knowing this and en-       man enter, he shall be saved." We           His Son to be the Door through
joying it we can and will sing, en-       do not save ourselves from the pun-         which He brings us out of our love
thusiastically and spiritually, what      ishment which we deserve. Christ            of sin, and into love of Himself; and
we find presented in Psalm 23, and        does that. We do not save ourselves         He has made us able to be citizens
sung from our Psalter number 55 in        from that carnal nature wherewith           that love Him.
these words:                              we were born. And we do not want                   Sing then the truth that He is
                                          salvation until God fulfills His prom-      the Door which gives to our souls
    The Lord my Shepherd                  ise and puts enmity in our hearts           the desire to serve and glorify God,
         holds me                         against Satan. Christ does not              by giving all the credit of our salva-
    Within His tender care,               merely save us from the punishment          tion to God. For by His grace we
    And with His flock He folds me,       which we desenre, He saves us from          will soon enter in and enjoy the
    No want shall find me there.          our love of sin, making us want to          blessed salvation wherein we  shrill
    In pastures green He feeds me,        walk in love toward God.                    have covenant fellowship with God
    With plenty I am blest;                   We do well also by taking note          through Christ, and will enter into
    By quiet streams He leads me          of the fact that our Savior tells us        and enjoy salvation as His free and
    And makes me safely rest.             that we shall be saved. First of all,       wonderful gift to us in His grace.
                                          we need the desire to be saved from                When saved we give all the
    The sad thing, however, is that       our sinful nature wherewith we were         credit of it to God, who eternally
our Savior is presented by some as        born. To get salvation we need to           planned it and realized it in time.
a door which we open. The                 have been already saved in our              Call Christ the Door, and praise Him
Arminian lie is that Christ wants to      hearts by the desire, which He al-          from whom  alI blessings flow. .Q
be the door, and will be so if we let     ready worked in us. He already
Him serve us that way. There is           caused us to believe that Christ is
much false preaching that claims that     the Door that makes us safe, free
Jesus offers us salvation, and real-      from Satan's devilish desire for us
izes it, if we let Him be such for us.    to walk in sin.
But we do well to take note here              As surely as we have no power
that He presents Himself here as the      to save our physical lives from
Door, not as a possible door that         death, we have no power to change
serves us when we let Him do so,          our hearts and minds into the de-
while many whom He wants to let           sire to be saved from spiritual death.
in do not let Him do soi But the text     As we so sing correctly from the

22OIStandard  Bearer/February 15,1995


                       Jelle in Wonderland
                                                             0

    "Curiouser and curiouser!"             liever. Since Rev. Tuininga is an ar-      then CR ministers Herman Hoek-
    This was Alice's response to de-       dent defender of the doctrine of           sema, George Ophoff, and Henry
velopments in Lewis Carroll's topsy-       common grace, the PRC are exclud-          Danhof and with their consistories,
turvy world, Alice's wonderland.           ing him from the church that is form-      demanding that they subscribe and
    This, likewise, is our response        ing. They say to him: "(You) have          submit. The CRC made this doc-
to Rev. Jelle Tuininga's fantastic pre-    to deny common grace in order to           trine binding. Because Hoeksema
sentation of relations between his         be a member of the same church."           and the others could not and would
Alliance of Reformed Churches                  How high-handed!                       not accept this doctrine of common
(ARC) and the Protestant Reformed              How intolerant!                        grace, the CRC deposed them from
Churches (PRC).                                How fantastic!                         office and set them outside the
    JeIle's wonderland!                        Jelle in a church-historical won-      church.
    The more this world unfolds in         derland!                                       Pleading for his ecclesiastical life
Rev. Tuininga's article, "Future Fed-                                                 and, as he was convinced, for the
eration and Ecumenical Relations,"         Church-Historical Reality                  life of the CRC as a truly Reformed
in the December 26, 1994 issue of              Let us cut for a merciful moment       body, Hoeksema besought the CRC
Christian Renewal,  the "curiouser"        to reality - reality as it is etched in    that no binding decision be taken,
does it become.                            history, as it stands before the Re-       but that there be freedom of teach-
                                           formed churches in North America,          ing, discussion, and study. To no
Upside Down Church History                 and as it will be (and already is be-      avail. Those who then were forced
    The Rev. Tuininga proceeds to          ing) judged by the reigning Christ.        to begin the PRC were put out,
turn church history upside down.               We ignore here the fact that the       stripped of office, membership in the
With some vehemence, and no little         PRC are in no way involved with            church, property, and, not insignifi-
sense of injury, he declares:              the ARC in the forming of a new            cantly, name.
                                           church, and are, therefore, in no po-          Now for Rev. Tuininga to sug-
  I could live in a church where there     sition to make demands upon Rev.           gest, with some indignation, that it
  was freedom to disagree about            Tuininga or anyone else in the ARC.        is the PRC who are to be criticized
  common grace, but if I have to deny      This was pointed out in the previ-         for demanding that the independent
  common grace in order to be a                                                       CR churches deny common grace,
  member of the same church, then          ous editorial.
  the game is over. And that is even           In 1924, the Christian Reformed        under penalty of being excluded
  more the case with the well-meant        Church (CRC) synodically adopted           from some (imaginary) church, is not
  offer of the gospel. I, and I'm sure     three points of doctrine affirming         so much wrong as it is fantastic. It
  the -majority of independent             that Christ is gracious in the gospel      is a feature of a world that rivals
  churches, simply are not going to        to everyone who hears, that by a           Alice's wonderland.
  do that.                                 work of the Holy Spirit within him             Add to this that Rev. Jelle
                                           the unregenerated sinner is only par-      Tuininga, as a minister in the CRC,
    In the wonderland, a church is         tially depraved, and that reprobate        was for more than 25 years content-
forming. The PRC are involved.             unbelievers are able by the grace of       edly responsible for alI the decisions
They demand that the Rev. Tuininga         God to perform good works. This            and actions of his church expelling
adopt their doctrines of particular        was, and is, her doctrine of "com-         those who then formed the PRC. In-
grace in the preaching, the total de-      mon grace." The CRC declared that          deed, there is no reason to think that
pravity of the unregenerated sinner,       this doctrine is confessional. She         he does not remain responsible to
and the work of the Spirit produc-         made it a confessional issue with          this day. That this man can become
ing good works only in the elect be-                                                  indignant, apparently sincerely, with

                                                                                           February 15,1!395/Standard  Bearer1221


the PRC for binding a denial of com-       the gospel of salvation by grace           issues addressed, is nonsense. It is
mon grace upon him defies compre-          alone.                                     the nonsense of Jelle's wonderland.
hension.                                       What does objection to women               We have a standing controversy
    Jelle in wonderland.                   in office have to do with this funda-      with our mother, the CRC.
                                           mental issue? Pelagian Rome op-                It is church political: major as-
The Issue of Grace Remains                 poses women in office. Multitudes          semblies exercised the keys of the
    Playing in the background of           of free will fundamentalists restrict      kingdom that Christ gave to the lo-
Rev. Tuininga's indignation with the       office to males, champion creation,        cal, autonomous church, by disci-
PRC (if there is any sense in his won-     and defend inerrancy.                      plining officebearers and others.
derland at all) is the notion that the         In comparison with the issue of            It is ethical: the CRC cast out of
departure of the independents from         particular grace versus the common         the church men and women, ac-
the CRC should be reason enough            grace of the three points adopted by       knowledged by her to be Reformed
for the PRC forthwith to abandon           the CRC in 1924, the issue of women        in the fundamentals, because these
their long-held convictions concern-       in office is relatively unimportant. I     men and women confessed the truth
ing the one, sovereign, particular         write foolishly for a moment (work-        of sovereign grace.
grace of God in Christ Jesus and to        ing in the atmosphere of a wonder-             It is practical: the teaching that
cast'in their lot with the indepen-        land has this effect). If I were ma-       the elect church and the reprobate
dent CR churches.                          rooned for a Sabbath in a place            world share the grace of God works
    Truly, Jelle is deeply in his won-     where there is no PR congregation,         the worldliness of that institute and
derland.                                   say, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada,          its members where this teaching pre-
    Why, pray tell?                        and had to choose to worship in a          vails.
    Why should the leaving of the          church where the male minister pro-            It is above all doctrinal: Com-
CRC by certain ministers and               claims that God in the gospel loves,       mon grace, especially the  "well-
churches over issues of women in           is gracious to, and sincerely, but in-     meant offer," is the denial of irre-
office, evolution, and even the falli-     effectually, desires to save every hu-     sistible grace.
bility of Scripture affect the PRC         man without exception (that is, the            The Rev. Jelle Tuininga holds
whatsoever? Our controversy with           theology of the "well-meant offer")        with the CRC in this controversy.
the CRC, forced on us by the CRC,          or in a church where a female min-         He holds with the CRC, and against
has never been, and is not now,            ister expounds that God in the gos-        the PRC, openly and vehemently: "I
women in office, evolution, or even        pel loves, is gracious to, sincerely       consider our Protestant Reformed
the fallibility of Scripture, although     desires to save, and effectually does      brothers to be dead wrong on these
we are convinced, and have demon-          save the elect in Christ alone (that       matters." This is not surprising in
strated, that every one of these re-       is, the gospel of sovereign grace), I      the least. He is a Christian Reformed
cent errors in the CRC arises, at least    would be found in the church with          theologian who happens to be out-
in. part, from the doctrine of com-        the female (my eyes being tightly          side the CRC.
mon grace adopted by the CRC in            closed).                                       But it should be obvious to him
1924.                                          The independents in the ARC            that the PRC, then, have a contro-
    Louis Berkhof and the others           are CR churches that dislike women         versy with him and his likeminded
who created and made binding the           in office, evolution (although I like      alliance, and that he has a contro-
three points of common grace were          to hear from them once how they            versy with the PRC. This is the same
staunch advocates of infallibility and     explain the "day" of Genesis l), er-       controversy that the PRC have with
creation, and, I would imagine, stal-      rors in the Bible, and synods. But         the CRC, and the CRC with the PRC.
wart opponents of women in office.         they maintain, strongly, the doctrine      Rev. Tuininga must not entertain the
They were those who would today            of common grace adopted by the             odd notion that the mere fact of his
be considered the "conservatives" in       CRC in 1924. Rev. Tuininga frankly         being outside the CRC has changed
the CRC, not those who are being           tells the entire Reformed world in         anything as regards this controversy.
called "liberals."                         North America, in his article in Chris-    He certainly must not become indig-
    The controversy between the            tian  Renewal,  that he embraces com-      nant when the PRC respond to his
PRC and the CRC has always been,           mon grace and, especially, the well-       invitation to participate in his alli-
and is today, the sovereign particu-       meant offer; that he judges the PRC        ance by asking for time to discuss
larity, or the particular sovereignty,     to be "dead wrong" in their confes-        the "real issues" between us.
of the grace of God in Jesus Christ        sion of particular grace; and that he          The controversy between the
the Lord in the gospel. Our contro-        is speaking for the majority of the        PRC and Rev. Tuininga does not
versy concerns the heart of the Can-       independent churches.                      mean that there can be no contact,
ons of Dordt and, therefore, the               To suppose that the PRC should         just as the controversy between the
heart of the Reformation, the heart        join with these independent CR             PRC and the CRC does not mean
of Augustinianism, and the heart of        churches, no questions asked and no        this. We can talk The PRC have

222lStandard  Bearer /February 15,1995


always been willing to talk. But we         der of Dordt, and Rev. Tuininga's            formed faith, "federation" means
must discuss the issues. If the ARC,        own dismissal, in this very article,         congregations uniting in the bond of
like the CRC, refuses to do this, re-       of any biblical basis for classes and        a synod whose decisions are "settled
sponsibility for the separation lies        synods. Tuininga writes: "one looks          and binding, unless it be proved to
with them. And the PRC are per-             in vain in the Scriptures for what           conflict with the Word of God or
fectly ready to go on by themselves         we know as classes and synods. It            with the articles of the church or-
alone, manifesting themselves as true       simply isn't there.... It's a far fetched    der." "Ecumenical relations" means
churches by the marks laid down in          conclusion."                                 relations between ecclesiastical bod-
Article 29 of the Belgic Confession,            Here things become serious in            ies.
maintaining the gospel of free;sov-         the wonderland of Jelle Tuininga.                    In the wonderland of Rev.
ereign, unconditional, particular           Things become deadly serious. For            Tuininga, "federation" comes to
grace that has ever been the hall-          words are given a new and differ-            mean an association of independent
mark of the Reformed church in the          ent meaning. Crucially important             churches apart from the Reformed
world, and developing the truth in          words are given a new and differ-            synod. "Ecumenical relations" now
various, important: ways.                   ent meaning. Specifically, the words         is connection with the ARC.
    If only God will go with us -           "federate" and "ecumenical rela-                     By remaining aloof from the
yes, if only God in mercy will go           tions" are given a new and different         ARC, the PRC are guilty of disre-
with us, also in our generations.           meaning.                                     garding "federation" and "ecumeni-
                                                This is where things become se-          cal relations." They are sinning
Independent Federation                      rious in Alice's wonderland. All of          against the unity and catholicity of
    One other feature of Jelle's won-       a sudden, the smile fades from the           the church of Christ. So it is sug-
derland deserves notice. It is  the         reader's face.                               gested in wonderland.
mention of "federation" and "ecu-                                                                "Ecumenical  relations,n  with
menical relations" and the implied            "I don't know what you mean by             what? The ARC? The ARC is not
rebuke of the PRC for sin against             `glory,"' Alice said.                      an ecclesiastical body according to
these expressidns of the unity of the         Humpty Dumpty smiled contemp-              Article 29 of the Church Order of
church of Christ. Rev. Tuininga               tuously. "Of course you don't -            Dordt: "Four kinds of ecclesiastical
speaks of the "Protestant Reformed            till I tell you. I meant `there's a        assemblies shall be maintained: the
brothers . . . join(ing)  in federation"      nice knock-down argument for
                                              you!`"                                     consistory, the classis, the particular
and of  "work(ing) together toward            "But `glory' doesn't mean `a nice          synod, and the general synod."
federation." The heading of the ar-           knock-down argument,"' Alice ob-                   "Federation," how? By associ-
ticle in which he sets forth his won-         jected.                                    ating with independent congrega-
derland description of the relations          "When I use a word," Humpty                tions that neglect or repudiate ma-
between the PRC and the ARC is                Dumpty `said in rather a scornful          jor assemblies with the authority of
"Future Federation and Ecumenical             tone, "it means just what I choose         "settled and binding" decisions?
Relations."                                   it to mean  - neither more nor             This is condemned as independency
    The context of Rev. Tuininga's            less."                                     by Articles 29, 30, and 31 of the
reference to "federation" is the                                                         Church Order of Dordt, and inde-
present refusal of the congregations            In a wonderland, words mean              pendency is the opposite and enemy
of the ARC to band together                 anything that the master of wonder-          of Reformed federation.
synodically, the virtual decision of        land wants them to mean.                             Independency chides a Re-
the ARC that any future association             In the solid, biblical, creedal, and     formed denomination for lack of in-
will repudiate the authority of the         church political world of the Re-            terest in "federation."
major assemblies as expressed by the        formed faith, words mean what the                    Only in a wonderland.
phrase "settled and binding" in Ar-         standards define them to mean.                       Jelle's wonderland. 0
ticle 31 of the Reformed Church Or-             In the real world of the  Re-                                                  - DJE

                                                  The Trial and the Refuge

                                            This little roughness in the path,           The fruit of trial's always sweet
Be comforted, 0 heart of mine,                  What matters it? Ere long                        To Him who's ever near.
    God ever lives and loves,               `Twill all have passed, and thou             The Comforter's untiring work
Yea lives and loves eternally,                     shalt sing                                    Is to allay each fear.
    As day by day He proves.                    The everlasting song.                    Then seek thy refuge, 0 my soul,
And so His love and peace shall be          Without Him thou canst nothing do,                   In thine eternal God.
    Thy portion constantly,                     There why not leave it all?              Rest in His everlasting arms,
As well along life's rugged way             For with Him all things may be done                  And feed upon His Word.
    As in eteniity.                             Though they were great or small.                  Standard  Bearer,  August  15; 1933

                                                                                                  February 15,1!395/Standard  Bearer1223


                                                     Oath                                               `.

         As partaker of Christ's anointing, and in the of-       stand the oath to be His institution and to be legiti-
    fice of believer, the child of God speaks on three           mate in certain circumstances.
    different levels. In general conversation he is called           The priests who served under the old covenant
    to speak the truth in love, avoiding all lying as the        were made priests without an oath, but God made
    proper work of the Devil. At certain times he makes          Christ a Priest with an oath, when He said unto
    vows: confession of faith, marriage, baptism, and            Him, "The Lord hath sworn and will not repent,
    installation into church office. When we speak a             thou art a priest forever after the order of
    vow unto the Lord we must not defer to pay it                Melchizedec" (Ps.  110:4;, Heb.  7:21). This makes
    (Eccl.  5:4). Occasionally, the child of God is re-          Christ a better Priest of a better covenant. Although
    quired to sware an oath. The Catechism, in Lord's            this oath, recorded in the Scriptures, is for our in-
    Day 37, instructs us that we may swear religiously           struction and assurance, it also had great signifi-
    by the name of God "when the magistrates demand              cance for Christ to whom it was spoken. During the
    it of the subjects; or when necessity requires us            difficult years of His ministry,  and especially when
    thereby to confirm fidelity and truth to the glory of        He was betrayed, denied, rejected, and forsaken,
    God and the safety of the neighbor." A lawful oath           our great High Priest could recall the eternal oath of
    is one sworn in the name of God who alone knows              God. He foundconsolation for His weary soul, and
    the heart, understands the truth of every matter,            strength for the final descent into hellish agonies.
  and both can and will punish those who swear                       But the oath of God is also our strong consola-
    falsely.                                                     tion. God wills that His people live a robust, vi-
         Scripture warns us against swearing in the name         brant life of faith, that they stand upon His prom-
    of a false god or by any creature (Jer. 12:16),  despis-     ises, that they lay hold of the hope that is set before
    ing an oath (Ex. 16:59), loving a false oath (Zech.          them, and that they flee for refuge in Christ. Ac-
    8:17), swearing carelessly (Matt. 14:9), or using an         cordingly, God has given us two precious things in
    oath among brethren (Matt. 5:34ff.,  James 5:12). So         which it was impossible for Him to lie: His imrnu-
    serious is an oath that it binds the soul (Num. 30:2),       table counsel with Christ and His church at its very
    must be kept even when it leads to our own hurt              heart, and the confirmation of that counsel with an
    (Ps. 15:4), and if broken involves one in sin which          oath. Receiving these two things, counsel and oath,
    must be confessed (Lev. 5:4).                                we have a strong consolation! Let the oath of God,
         When men swear an oath they swear by the                then, be the end of all strife, doubt, and disputation
    greater, and such an oath is to them an end of all           that can go on between .the old and the new man in
    striving and disputation; they simply place the mat-         us; let consideration of God's oath upon His prom-
    ter in the hands of God for His righteous disposi-           ise still our fears and give us the answer of a good
    tion. When God makes promises He swears by Him-              conscience toward God.
    self because He can swear by no greater (Heb.                    As we live together in the church, "let our yea
    6:13ff.). In the Old Testament we read over forty            be yea, and our nay nay, for whatsoever is more
    times that God swore an oath to the fathers con-             than these cometh of evil" (Matt. 5:37). Let us honor
    cerning His covenant and the land that He would              one another as saints in whom the Holy Spirit works
    give them for an everlasting possession. Once we             a love for all truth as well as for the brotherhood.
    read that God swore in His wrath that. the people of         And when it. is required of us to swear an oath, let
    Israel would not enter into His rest (Heb. 3:ll). In         `us do that boldly in the name of our God, who has
    that God swore by Himself many times, we under-              instituted it for the glory of His name, the welfare
                                                                 of His church, and the good order of society. c]

     Rev. Kuiper is pastor  of  Southeast Protestant Reformed
     Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


224/Standard  Bearer/February 15,1995


n CONCERNED                                worship, doctrine, and practice that             BANNED FROM
PRESBYTERIANS                              are occurring in the PCA.                    CHRHSTIAN:REFORMED
    Back in the early 1970s a new              The Concerned Presbyterians              PIJIJ'ITS
denomination emerged in the south-         held a special meeting last year on              Classis of the Heartland (located
ern United States. This denomina-          September 30 to discuss the ques-            in Northwest Iowa) has sent a letter
tion came out of the Southern Pres-        tion, When is it appropriate to leave        to every classis,in the Christian Re-
byterian Church which has since            a denomination?" A call for seces-           formed Church (CRC) informing
merged with the Northern Presby-           sion was ,not issued at this meeting.        them that two former CRC minis-
terian Church (healing a breach that       Rather, the Concerned Presbyterians          ters, Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman
existed since the Civil War) to form       took a decision to "call the PCA to          (professor at Mid-America Reformed
the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. The         be what she said she would be."              Seminary), and Rev. Ralph Pontier
new church in the South, calling it-       "Recognizing that              not    all    (former pastor of First CRC, Orange
self the Presbyterian Church in            presbyteries are Biblical, the Steer-        City, Iowa) have no right to preach
America (PCA), began with only a           ing Committee also authorized a              from any CRC pulpit.
few congregations but has grown            committee to make plans for a `Bib-              Kloosterman and Pontier are
rapidly. It now numbers over one           lical Presbytery.' N According to the
thousand congregations, with about         official statement, "The Steering            two of three pastors who have re-
                                                                                        cently left the `CRC in Northwest
a quarter of a million members, mak-       Committee further determined to              Iowa. The other is the retired min-
ing it the second4argest  Presbyterian     have a study committee make a pre-           ister, Dr. Richard Venema. Dr.
denomination in the United States.         sentation at the March 1995 Con-             Venema left the CRC and joined the
The PCA was formed because of lib-         cerned Presbyterian Day." The third          Presbytery of the Dakotas of the Or-
eralism in the Southern church. This       annual "Concerned Presbyterian               thodox Presbyterian Church. Rev1
relatively young denomination is one       Day" is scheduled to meet on March           Pontier, as reported earlier in these
of the fastest growing churches in         3,1995.                                      columns, led a group out of First
the Presbyterian and Reformed tra-             The keynote speaker at the               CRC Orange City and formed an in-
dition, The PCA is a member of the         March meeting is Dr. George W.               dependent congregation called. Re-
North American Presbyterian and            Knight III, professor at Greenville          deemer Alliance Reformed Church.
Reformed Council and is a church           Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
in "ecclesiastical fellowship" with        Dr. Knight has been deeply involved          Dr. Kloosterman, a member of First
                                                                                        CRC Orange City, left that congre-
the Christian Reformed Church.             in denominational affairs in the PCA.        gation to become a member of the
    Recently a number of both rul-         For nearly twenty years he taught at
ing and teaching elders of the PCA         the official PCA seminary, Covenant          newly formed independent church.
formed an organization called "Con-        Theological Seminary in St. Louis,               All three ministers had submit-
                                                                                        ted letters to the December 7 meet-
cerned Presbyterians." Included in         Missouri. Before accepting the pro-
the membership of this conservative        fessorship at Greenville, Knight also        ing of the classis requesting that they
                                                                                        be released from the ministry of the
organization, are men who were             served as an administrator at Knox           Word in the CRC. The council of
leading figures in the formation of        Theological Seminary, which was
the PCA, Dr. Morton H. Smith of            founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy              First Orange City also sent a request
                                                                                        to classis asking that "Classis Heart-
Greenville Presbyterian Theological        of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church           land acknowledge the resignations
Seminary among them. The Con-              in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.                  of Revs. Kloosterman and Pontier as
cerned Presbyterians are troubled by           If the question, "When is it ap'         ministers of the Word in the CRCNA
several phenomena in the spheres of        propriate to leave a denomination?"
                                           is being addressed, and if men like          and hereby declare them as being
                                           Drs. Smith and Knight are involved,          released from their active ministe-
                                           there must be reason for concern             rial service in the CRCNA." Among
                                           within the PCA. We shall continue            the grounds for this request, First
Prof. Decker is. professor of Practical    to monitor developments.                     Orange City told classis that no dis-
Theology in the Protestant Reformed           Reformed Believers Press Service          cipline had been imposed by the
Seminary.

                                                                                             February 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1225


council on the two ministers.                ted to preach in the churches pro-      Life Application Bible,  and the  Teen
       Instead of ruling in favor of this    vided that the consistory is con-       Study Bible.
request, the classis accepted the rec-       vinced that such a minister is com-         The NJV is now the most popu-
ommendations of the Classical In-            mitted to the Reformed confessions"     lar Bible translation in America.
terim Committee and ruled that               (Acts of Synod 1904).                   Some 100 million copies have been
Venema and Kloosterman be "dis-                  Meanwhile, as of this date;the      distributed since the NIV New Tes-
missed" from their offices and that          CRC tolerates some seventeen of her     tament was first published in 1973.
Pontier be declared to have the sta-         churches which allow women elders.
tus of one deposed from office.              In addition, two classes (Lake Erie     P Attendance at all of Cuba's Prot-
       In a letter dated December 8,         and Chicago South) have licensed        estant churches has tripled in the
Classis  of the..Heartjand  stated clerk,    seven women to expound in their         past three years according to recent
Rev. Jack Gray, .informed  all other         churches, and two congregations of      reports. Some eighty percent of
classes in the CRC that "Richard             the CRC, Trinity in Mt. Pleasant,       former church members have been
Venema has, a right to Christian Re-         Michigan and First CRC Toronto,         brought back to the church. Many
formed pulpits through our ecclesi-          Ontario, have women as full-time        families are now looking for pasto-
astical fellowshipwith the Orthodox          expounders.                             ral help because they want to give
Bresbyterian  Church,  but. neither             Reformed Believers Press Service     their children the values which ma-
Nelson Kloosterman nor Ralph                                                         terialism cannot provide.
Pontier have any right to a Chris-           l NEWS BRIEFS                               This, coupled with the fact that
tian `Reformed pulpit." The ground           8t All ten positions on the Chris-      the church continues to flourish in
for considering Rev. Pontier as hav-         tian Booksellers Association (CBA)      Communist China, is evidence of the
ing the status. of .ndeposed"  ,accord-      Bible bestselling list for the month    truth that Satan has never been able
ing to classis is the. fact that he cre-     of December were published by           to harm, much less destroy, God's
ated  schism<,in  First Orange City          Zondervan Publishing House. All         church by means of persecution. In-
CRC,                -t  :    -               are variations of the New Interna-      deed, God by the power of His grace
      The practical effect of .the ban       tional Version (NIV). Among these       in Christ Jesus.uses  persecution to
remains unclear, since in 1904 the           are the New Student Bible, Women's      strengthen and. bless His church! 0
CRC synod decided that, "ministers           Devotional Bible, Adventure Bible,                        The Church Herald
of other denominations are permit-





     `.  .  .  .
     .' .                    Francjscus Go,marus:
'                                                                             -_
      0.._                   stubborn Champion
                                  of God's Glory (2)

                                             Controversy With Arminius               in the church of Amsterdam It was
                                                 It may surprise our readers         not long after the beginning of his
                                             somewhat that Gomarus fought            ministry that he began a series of
                                             hard against the appointment of         sermons on the book of Romans. In
                                             Arminius as professor in theology.      connection with his treatment of Ro-
                                             But this surprise will evaporate        mans 7~14-25,  Arminius took the po-
                                             when we realize that Arminius was       sition that Paul was describing in
                                             under strong suspicion for his views    this passage his spiritual state prior
Prof. Hanko is professor of-church  His-     before he was considered for a pro-     to his conversion. One can readily
toy and New Testament iri the Protes-        fessorship. After he completed his      recognize that this implies that Paul,
fant Reformed Semina y.                      studies, Arminius became ,minister      before being converted, was able to

226lStandard  Bearer/February 15,1;995


will the good: "The good that I              to the fact that Arminius was capable           appear before the throne of God
would...." And such a view was a             of cloaking his error in a deceptive            with Arminius' errors."3  The Court
denial of the total depravity of man.'       way to make it appear Reformed;                 judged the matters in dispute to be
    These views were challenged by           but the difficulty in detecting what            matters of little significance.
Plancius, one of Arminius' fellow-           is wrong may also, sadly enough,                     In further efforts to resolve the
ministers  in.`Amsterdam. A contro-          be explained by the lack of theologi-           disagreements, a conference was ar-
versy arose in the church there,             cal sensitivity in today's church.              ranged, at which Gomarus and
which intensified when Arminius                   At any rate, the problem lies in           Arminius were to submit papers out-
got around to preaching on Romans            the fact that Arminius is teaching in           lining their respective positions on
9. It was in the middle of the con-          this paragraph a conditional predes-            the doctrine of predestination. Each
troversy that the appointment came           tination: "[God] has decreed . . . to           was given 250 &iilders to cover the
which Gomarus, aware of the con-             justify... the faithful . ..." That is, God     expense of preparing the papers.
troversy, opposed. But Arminius              has decreed to justify those who                The conference was never held be-
had powerful friends in the highest          have faith - which makes faith a                cause  Arrninius died. of what was
reaches of government and his ap-            condition to election. And: ,"Repro-            probably tuberculosis in 1609..
pointment went through.                      bation  is the decree . . . of God . . . to          It is not our purpose in this ar-
    In the end, Gomarus agreed to            condemn . . . the unbelieving . . . . n That    ticle to trace the history of the con-
the appointment. A conference was            is, also reprobation is a conditional           troversy any further than Gomarus'
held, prior to the final approval of         decree, the condition of which is un-           involvement in it. `As anyone with
Arminius, sponsored by the States            b e l i e f .                                   even a passing knowledge of the
General of the Dutch government,                  Gomarus attacked these state-              controversy knows, the issues were
between Gomarus and Arminius.                ments, and the result was bitter and            the great issues of salvation bysov-
The interpretation of Romans 7 was           prolonged controversy. Arminius                 ereign  grace:.  alone vs. salvation
discussed, but Arminius so managed           continued to present himself as a               based on- the Works of man. Ten
to hide his true beliefs that Gomarus        faithful defender of the Reformed               years after the death of Arminius the
was satisfied and approved'the ap-           faith, while attempting to cast                 controversy tias settledrat  the Synod
pointment. Gomarus laterspoke of             Gomarus in the bad light of an en:              of Dordrecht, -where' Gomarus! `PO-
regretting that approval.                    emy of true Calvinism. It is not hard           sition was vindicated.
    The controversy broke out again          to understand that Gomarus re-                       In 1611 Gomarus resigned from
on February 7,1604 when Arminius             ceived a bad reputation for his op-             his position in the University of Ley-
propounded various theses on. the            position to Arminius. After all, the            den. The reason for his resignation
doctrine of predestination. `The sum         point seemed insignificant, as even             is not known, but it may be thatthe
of these theses can be found in the          the leaders in government were later            controversy and the support of
following quote from them.                   to say. Why fight about it? And                 Arrninius by the government wore
                                             Arminius was such a nice man! He                beyond. endurance the strength of
    Divine predestination is the de-         `protested his innocence time and               .tliQ old,:-cirarrior.  At any rate, upon
  cree of God in Christ by which he          again and assured everyone that he              his resignation, he became pastor of
  has decreed with himself from eter-        was soundly Reformed and deeply                 a-Reformed congregation in  Middle-
  nity to justify, adopt, and gift with      committed to the confessions. How
  eternal life, to the praise of his glo-                                                    burg; where he also lectured in the-
  rious grace, the faithful whom he          could Gomarus, that man who never               ology and Hebrew in the local Uni-
  has decreed to gift with faith. On         smiled, be such a stubborn man?                 versity.
  the other hand, reprobation is the              The controversy swirled about                   In 1614 he went to Saumur in
  decree of the anger or severe will         for four years and finally engulfed             France, where he became professor
  of God, by which he has deter-             the churches. In 1608 Gomarus and               of theology.4  In 1618-1619 Gomarus
  mined from eternity, for the pur-          Arminius conducted a public debate
  pose of showing his anger and              before the Supreme Court of the
  power, to condemn to eternal               Hague in an effort on the part of the           1
  death, as placed out of union with                                                              Strangely enough, this same view
  Christ, the unbelieving who, by            government to resolve the problems.             has recently been defended by some Re-
  their own fault and the just judg-         At the conclusion of the debate,                formed theologians such as Herman
  ment of God, are not to believe.2          Barneveldt, a friend of Arminius and            Ridderbos and Anthony Hoekema.
                                             head of the government, in a short              2    Quoted from  Cyclopedia  of  Bibli-
                                                                                             cal, Theological, and  Ecclesiastical Lit-
    It is my guess that the majority         address to the two combatants, de-              erature, McClintock  & Strong, III, 920.
of our readers might be hard-pressed         clared that he thanked God that their           3    Ibid.
to find any fault with this statement        contentions did not affect the fun-             4    The school in Saumur not very long
of Arminius. The difficulty in find-         damental articles of the Christian re-          after Dort became a hotbed of
ing its error is probably due in part        ligion. To this Gomarus replied in              Amyraldism, a heresy not unlike the
                                             characteristic fashion, "I would not            Arminian heresy.

                                                                                                   February 15,1995/Standard  Beaier/227


was at the Synod of Dort along with       ality. Thus one author can write:               would allow only one book to de-
other professor advisors. He took                                                         termine his theology: the sacred
an active role in the Synod's pro-            [He] displayed a most violent,              Scriptures. In a sort of album in
ceedings and was instrumental in the        virulent, and intolerant spirit, and          which he kept various letters, tokens
victory of the truth of Scripture on        endeavored by various publications            of friendship, and something of a di-
that great Synod meeting.                   to excite the indignation of the              ary!.,he  had written in Hebrew: "Thy
     An interesting sidelight to            States of Holland against his rival.7         (God's) Word is Light."
Gomarus' role at the Synod was his                                                                He was of the stripe of Calvin,
work                                          But some of all this was true.
         on a committee to investigate                                                    Gottschalk,             Augustine,        and
the teachings of Maccovius.               Even Junius, later related to                   Athanasius. He was the forerunner
Maccovius also held strongly to the       Gomarus through marriage, said:                 of others to follow, of whom one
doctrine of sovereign predestination,                                                     has got to be Herman Hoeksema.
but was charged with carrying the             That man pleases himself most
                                            wonderfully by his own remarks.               We need not always approve of the
doctrine to such sn extreme that he         He derives all his stock of knowl-            way in which they did things (al-
made God the author of sin. The             edge from others; he brings forward           though we can take a long and hard
Synod handed the case to govern-           , nothing of his own: or, if at any            look at ourselves in this respect), but
ment representatives who were un-           time he varies from his usual prac-           we ought to thank God for them,
able to resolve the conflict. A com-        tice, he is exceedingly infelicitous          for they were men of courage and
mittee was appointed to deal with           in those occasional changes.8                 conviction who fought for truth and
the matter, on which committee                                                            right against all odds. To concen-
Gomarus served. Later in the pro-             There is a story somewhere,                 trate on their weaknesses and foibles,
ceedings of the Synod, the commit-        whether true or apocryphal it is hard                    so as to condemn their defense
tee reported that the-matter had been     to say, that at the Synod of                                      of the faith, is to be un-
amicably resolved and Maccovius           Dort, one elder was  ap-                                            faithful to the truth. To
was  cautioned not to make radical        pointed to sit alongside                    God's           `1       look  beyond personali-
and biblically unwarranted  state-        Gomarus to tug him back               p r o v i d e n c e            ties and weigh all in
ments.5                                   into his. seat when he               prepares men                     the light of Scripture is
    -After the Synod, Gomarus went        leaped. to his feet and            who are  "stub&or&                 to be faithful. To fight
to  the University of Groningen,          rather too forcibly made                   about the                 is the courage of faith.
where he became professor of divin-       a point.                                     right                   May God grant men
ity  and Hebrew. In 1633 he took              In any case, Gomarus                    things.          I      like these to the church
part in the revision of the transla-      was a staunch defender of.                                  today - even if they some-
tion -of  the Bible, which work was       the faith. Perhaps it took a man                        times have difficult personali-
done.in Leyden; During these meet-        such as he to stand against the grow-           ties. The church needs more than
.ings he argued strenuously against       ing tide of Arminianism. God's                  nice men. a
including the Apocryphal .books in        providence prepares men  who--are
the Bible, but was overruled.6  Here      "stubborn" about the right things.
he stayed till his death on January       And if this seems to condone their
11,1641.                                  sins, the fact is that, though it does
                                          not, God can, as the proverb has it,
Concluding remarks                        draw a straight. line with a crooked
    There can be no question about        stick. And sometimes. only very                 5       See Wagenaar's  excellent  book on
it that Gomarus was a difficult man,      strong language will do to put to               the Synod of Dart and its preceding his-
hard to get along with, prone to ex-      flight the clever designs of heretics.          tory: Van Strfjd en Ovenoinning.
                                                                                          6
treme statements, sometimes violent           At the Synod of Dort Gomarus                        The translation was the one ordered
                                                                                          by the Synod of Dort, which became
in his opposition to Arminius and         defended not only orthodoxy but                 known as the  Statenvertaling, and
Arminianism.         He never "beat       supralapsarian orthodoxy. And, al-              which was to the Dutch what the KJV
around the bush." He never left any       though his views in this respect did            was (and is) to the English.
doubt in anyone's mind as to what         not  prevail on the Synod, for the              7       Cyclopedia  of  Biblical, Theologi-
he believed. He never worried about       Canons are infralapsarian, his supra-           cal, and Ecclesiastical Literature. See
"stepping on people's toesN or of-        lapsarianism was not condemned by               also some of the characterizations of
fending them if they were not heart       the Synod and his defense of the                Carl Bangs in his book, Arminius.
and mind committed to the truth.          faith was of inestimable service as             8       Quoted from  Arminius,  by Carl
    Sometimes descriptions of him         the Synod struggled with the errors             Bangs. It is to be hoped that Junius
                                                                                          made these remarks in exasperation,
are biased, and bitterness against his    of Arminianism.                                 and that he took a more favorable atti-
staunch defense of the faith pours            Gomarus cared about only one                tude towards Gomarus when he became
out in diatribes against his person-      thing: the glory of God. Gomarus                a relative.

228lStandard  Bearer/February 15,1995


                                             h               ospel in
                            Southeast Asia (I) :'

     Obviously, this is a big subject        industry on `the southwest as row             tne number or cars on tne road. lr
 and needs refinement. We have been          upon row of the world's largest ves-          we wanted to spend about
 asked to focus on this part of the          sels await unloading, and the ship            US$50,000,  it would hardly buy a
 world because of our ministry in            refurbishing business on the south            used car on the level most of you
 Singapore. The Evangelical Re-              and north. The business district is           drive in the States. Singapore off-
 formed Churches, among whom we              attractive because it is literally circled    sets this with an excellent public
 labor as minister on loan, rejoice in       by some of the world's tallest hotels         transport system of both buses and
 that they also have contacts in Ma-         and is skirted on the east by'the fi-         t r a i n s .
 laysia, Indonesia, India, and               nancial district, which includes                   If you would join us in taking
 Myanmar:        We will focus on            banks from all over the world.                the bus to our flat from the airport,
 Singapore for this series and begin              The rest of the island is made           the first thing that might attract your
 in part one to consider a general pic-      up, as you guessed, by housing.               attention is the variety of people.
 ture of the society and culture, and        There is some landed, private prop-           This is increasingly true throughout
 then say a few words about its reli-        erty, which is sold by the govern-            the world. The races and nations
 gious makeup. In part two we will           ment on a bid basis. This makes it            are mixing continually. Here in
 consider what kind of people this           very expensive, for there are plenty          Singapore this has been going on for
 culture has produced, and tell a few        of people who have the money to               many years and is entrenched within
 of their stories. Then in part three        out-bid those who have less. A                the culture itself. The big difference
 we will discuss how this particular         small, single-dwelling bungalow,              we notice is that; while in mostcoun-
 setting affects the way the gospel is       starts at one and a half million U.S.         tries different races and cultures live
 broughtto God's people.                     dollars. Most people live in govern-          alongside each `other, separate from
     Flying in and out of Singapore          ment housing, which they buy from             one another, in Singapore there is
 has become somewhat routine for us.         the government with a 99-year lease.          more complete -integration of the
 Nevertheless, I am moved in my              The average cost of such a flat now           races and cultures than I have seen
 soul every time the plane circles the       is about US$125,000.00.  These blocks         anywhere else. There is, for ex-
 island city-state in preparation for        (they go up, instead of stretching out        ample, a real mixture of the races in
 landing at Changi Airport. The com-         on a street) are between 12 and 28            public transport. In the specially re-
 paratively small island of 23 miles         stories high. They are built-in estates,      served seat for the elderly (right by
 by 10 miles holds almost three mil-         much like cities. Today the govern-           the door) sits a grandmother. She
lion people. It is not as I had antici-      ment is working harder at making              still dresses in her old-world attire,
 pated, arriving for the first time, that    them varied in height, with attrac-           dark-colored high-neck blouse with
 the island would be one mass of             tive designs and more fanciful ar-            black slacks. Probably sitting next
 high-rise buildings and cluttered           chitecture.                                   to her is a young career woman on
 streets. From the air you see parks,             Even though autos are expensive          the way to the office. She is carrying
 reservoirs, tree-lined boulevards,          to own, the streets are filled with           her black leather case and is smartly
 even undeveloped land. What at-             autos, buses, motorcycles, bicycles,          dressed in a business suit with mini-
 tracts attention is the expansive oil       and lorries of every size and shape.          skirt. A few seats over is an Indian
 refining industry on the western            The government purposely controls             gentleman, literally wrapped in what
 part, the huge container shipment           the number of available licenses,             looks like a white bed sheet, called
                                             places a huge tax on just the right to        a choti. Sitting next to me is a Mus-
                                             own a car, adds a sizable tax to take         lim woman with her children. She
 Rev. Kortering  is a Protestant Reformed    it on the road, and charges high              could be wearing a scarf and sarong
 minister-on-loan to Singapore.              prices for petro in order to control          and her children playing in their

                                                                                                February 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1229


jeans. This is not a special holiday,       to be brushed off. From time to time      3% Hindus, 15% Muslim, 14% Chris-
this is every day. We are literally         we meet Buddhist monks with               tian, and the rest a mixture of other
surrounded with such displays of            shaved heads, dressed in saffron          religions or people who are secular.
`dress and culture.                         robes as they walk toward their               Since most of the people are Chi-
    If we take note of the schools          temple. You cannot travel or live in      nese and to some degree practice
that we pass, we would notice that          Singapore without some interaction        their own interesting mixture of re-
there are some separate schools for         with the peoples of different cultures    ligion, we should say a brief word
Chinese, Indians, and Malays  (Mus-         and religions.                            about that.
lim); but most of them are inte-                Finally we arrive at our own              True as it may be that the older
grated. The children do not wear            place of residence. We take the lift      Chinese people practice this religion,
their own culturally distinct clothes       to the 11th floor and walk down to        the fact remains that the Buddhists
to school however. They all wear            the 10th. We pass along a narrow          are working hard in the temples to
the same uniform, which was de-             corridor along the outside edge of        indoctrinate the younger generation.
signed for their particular school.         the building past two other resi-         When we visit the Chinese temples
For the children, it is shorts and          dences until we reach our flat. You       we see children worshiping. Also,
shirts for the boys, and skirts and         can be sure that you will be greeted      we must remember that the Chinese
blouses for the girls. School is oper-      by two little Chinese girls who will      Christians were almost all brought
ated on two shifts, one group of stu-       say, "Hi," or "Bye." They are our         up in homes where this religion was
dents attends morning class from            immediate neighbors. Whenever we          practiced. This religion is not to be
about  7~30  A.M.  - 1:00  P.M.  and the    ask the many questions, they don't        dismissed as of little consequence.
afternoon group follows till about          answer. Perhaps "Hi" and "Bye" is         It is pervasive and, even now, only
6:30 P.M. Families which have chil-         the extent of their English skills.       the grace of God can deliver one
dren in both shifts have children in        Their parents work every day, and         from the lasting evil effects of it.
school for about 12 hours a day.            grandpa and grandma come to                   It would not be correct to say
Imagine what that does to family            spend the day with them. Their par-       that what is called the Chinese reli-
and church life.                            ents are career oriented, speak good      gion in Singapore is the same thing
    Most striking to westerners who         English, and are gone long hours.         as Buddhism. There are Chinese
visit Singapore are the religious           Their grandparents speak no En-           Buddhists here. In fact, they are
places of worship. They are every-          glish, only Mandarin. This is a typi-     growing in numbers. The religion
where on the island. Though there           cal Singapore family situation, one       of the Chinese contains elements of
are mosques, temples, synagogues,           encouraged by the government. Our         Buddhism, especially its concept of
and churches in almost every coun-          neighbors burn two joss sticks ev-        life after death.. The soul leaves the
try, the significant difference in          ery morning, so the sweet aroma fil-      body and goes into the spirit world.
Singapore is that one cannot escape         ters into our flat every day.             They even describe eighteen stages
taking note of them here. Sure, there           Right now, as I write this, I look    of hell. If paper money, autos, or
may be a mosque down the road               out the front patio over against the      houses are burned, a deceased per-
from First Church in Grand Rapids,          block situated right across from us.      son will .have them available as he
but how many even look in that di;          There are 110 flats in that block.        moves through the spirit world.
rection? However, when the Mus-             About 50 feet separate our two            Eventually the. soul is reincarnated
lims worship here in Singapore on           blocks. Both are 12 stories high. I       into the physical body of a man,
Friday, you can hardly catch a bus          counted. the altars with offerings on     plant, or animal, determined by how
near the mosque. The overflow of            them, which were within my view,          good a life a person lived and by
worshipers fills the sidewalk and           and it came to 33. The altars are         the Law of Karma. The only escape
even streets. A huge pile of slippers       immediately discernible for their         from this endless cycle is to attain
is mounted just within the com-             bright red and gold colors, auspi-        nirvana by enlightened meditation,
pound next to the trough used for           cious for good luck. Besides that,        and by abstaining from worldly de-
foot washing. If you go to Covenant         there are the many joss-stick hold-       sires. Out of the Buddhist writings
with us on Sunday morning, we               ers. That would give some indica-         come the mythological gods of the
would pass through a narrow street          tion of the preponderance of Chi-         Chinese. These include the Monkey
with a large Buddhist temple. The           nese practicing their religion. We        God, Dragon God, Kitchen God,
whole area is filled with chanting so       can pick out a few Muslim house-          Goddess of Mercy, and such like.
loud that the whole neighborhood            holds by the writings about their             Confucianism is a philosophical
hears it. The smell of incense fills        doors. Hindus are harder to discern,      system of thought. It too has had
the air; and it has happened that by        for they have their own prayer            an impact upon Chinese religion.
the time my wife and I arrive at            rooms inside. The breakdown of re-        The impact of this philosophy is seen
church our clothes smell of burning,        ligion in Singapore is about 53% Chi-     in its emphasis upon filial responsi-
and even flecks of black soot have          nese religion (including Buddhists),      bility. This has tremendous  over-

23OIStandard Bearer/February  l&l995


tones. Family and social responsi-           cultism, astrology, mediums in the             In our next article, D.V., we will
bility come before individual desires.       temple, communication with the            examine in a little more depth how
 A parent loses face if a son should         dead, and mystical superstitions.         this affects the entire culture and so-
violate any. of the five virtues: live       My wife and I were struck with this       ciety within which the gospel is be-
 a principled life, be faithful to           when a young man stopped the en-          ing preached and also give some ex-
friends, be,loyal  to the state, be hon-     tire process of trimming the tree be-     amples of how personal lives have
 est in official duty, and be coura-         hind our flat in Happy Mansion in         been affected. Then we will be more
geous on the battlefield.                    order to build a temporary altar at       appreciative of the gospel, which
      Finally, there is the animistic el-    the base of the tree, lest cutting its    comes not in word only, but also in
ement introduced by Taoism. This             limbs would offend the spirits in the     deed and in power (I Thess. 1:5). Cl
addition includes such things as oc-         tree.





                                                      John 3:22-36
                          Jesus is Magnified
                        by His Forerunner
                              `,

                                             ciples, are engaged in baptizing,  al-    Christ, but the forerunner, who must
     In these verses we have the fi-         though at different locations. Spe-       decrease when the Lord has come.
nal and beautiful testimony of John          cifically, Johns beautiful testimony      He compares himself to being the
the Baptist to the excellency of Christ      of Jesus was given over against the       best man at a wedding, whose joy it
as the Son of God and true Messiah.          jealousy his disciples showed to-         is to see the bride go to the groom.
It is marked by self-effacing humil-         wards Jesus. It began over a ques-        More, the excellency of Christ is that
ity, faithful clarity, and great             tion (argument) between the Jews          He is from above, and, as the One
weightiness. John declares that Jesus        and the disciples of John over "pu-       whom the Father loves, bears testi-
is the Son of God sent down from             rifying," that is, whether the bap-       mony of the things that He has seen.
heaven and that to believe in Him is         tism of Jesus or the baptism of John      The ones who are given to receive
to have everlasting life.                    had the superior cleansing power.         His testimony will also affirm that
     The first thing called to our at-       Along with that comparison between        the witness that God has given of
tention is the  setting in which John's      the two baptisms was the fact that        His Son is true. It is Christ who
tribute to Christ was given. In gen-         the crowds were dwindling before          speaks the words of God, for the
eral, we are informed that after the         John and growing before Jesus.            Spirit has been fully given to Him.
Passover and discussion with                 John's disciples see Jesus and John           The climax of Johns magnifica-
Nicodemus, Jesus remained in the             as rivals, and they come to John          tion of Christ is in verse 36. To be-
land of Judea  for an extended pe-           alarmed over the situation.               lieve in the Son is to have everlast-
riod of time. ("He tarried with                  John gives a wonderful,  self-        ing life, and to reject the Son is to
them...," v. 22). Both Jesus and John        effacing answer in which he per-          fall under the wrath of God.
the Baptist, with their respective dis-      forms the task given to him to mag-           Perhaps for the last time (pub-
                                             nify the Son of God and point to          licly) in his life John proclaims Christ-
                                             Him as the Christ. He begins by           as the One worthy of all honor and
                                             reminding his disciples that heaven       praise. Nowhere are more honor-
                                             assigns to each one his place and         able things written concerning Jesus
                                             honor. We must not presume to find        than these words spoken by John.
Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Protes-        fault when others have more accep-        Let us follow in the path of John
tant Reformed Church in Elk Grove, Il-       tance than we do. John is clear con-      and magnify the Son of God by
linois.                                      cerning his place. He is not the          speaking of His praises and honor.

                                                                                            February 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1231


Outline                                    is to fall under the wrath of God (v.          5. What practical truth does
1. The setting for John's final testi-     36).                                       John teach in verse 27 concerning
mony to the excellency of Christ (w.                                                  jealousy in the church?
22-26).                                    Questions:                                     6. Discuss the meaning of
    a. The notice. that both Jesus                 1. Compare verses 22 and 26        John's example of the bridegroom,
and John are baptizing in the regions      with chapter 42. We would get the          bride, and friend of the bridegroom,
in and near Judea  (vv. 22-24).            impression from this chapter that          which John gives to explain the re-
    b. The jealousy of John's dis-         Jesus Himself baptized, although He        lationship between himself and
ciples towards Jesus provoked by a         did not. What can we say concern-          Christ, between Christ and His
question about purifying and the           ing the work and authority of              people, and between John and God's
crowds turning from John to Jesus          Christ's servants in the light of this?    people.
(vv. 25,26).                                       2. Why are we informed in              7. What is the difference be-
2. John's beautiful testimony of the       verse 23 that there was much water         tween Jesus as the One from above
greatness of.Jesus  (vv. 27-36).           where John was baptizing? Is this          and John as one of the earth?
    a. One's honor and place               an argument in favor of immersion?             8. Explain the meaning of
comes from heaven (v. 27).                         3. Compare verse 24 with Mat-      verse 33.
    b. John's place is to go before        thew 413, 14 and explain the sig-              9. Discuss the meaning of
the Christ and direct the bride to         nificance of this verse in the under-      verse 34. What can we say about
her Bridegroom (vv. 28-30).                standing of the chronology of John         the relationship of the Holy Spirit
    c. Christ's greatness is found         the Baptist's life.                        and Christ?
in the fact that He comes down from                4. What was the question de-           10. Show how John magnifies
heaven and testifies of what He has        bated between the Jews and John's          Christ in the way he refers to Him
seen and heard (vv. 31-33).                disciples?                                 throughout the passage.
    d. The Father has entrusted all                   a. Who were these "Jews"?           11. What does verse 36 teach us
things to the Son and has given Him                   b. Show that jealousy was       about the blessing of faith? What is
the fullness of the Spirit (vv. 34,35).    at the bottom of John's disciples          faith according to this verse?
    e. To believe in.the Son is ev-        coming to their master as they do in           12. What place must the magni-
erlasting life, and not to believe Him     verse 26.                                  fication of Christ have in our lives?0



                Sanctifying our Childr:en

    What motivates a parent in the         motives and goals are the farthest         to talk about these things, but how
training of a child? Why do we want        thing from the parents' mind at the        can we apply them in a real and
our children to behave? What mo-           moment they are disciplining a child       practical way. We do not want only
tives should a godly parent have for       who has just embarrassed them?             to talk about right goals and mo-
rearing a child?                                   You want your young child to       tives. We want to live them!
    And what should be the goal in         behave in the grocery store -why?
godly child-rearing?                       You worry about what your teen-               +++  +++  +*  +++
    Or is talk about motives and           ager is doing on a Friday or Satur-
goals too abstract? Is it not true that    day night - why?                               We are helped and guided in es-
                                                   What should motivate believing     tablishing our goals and motives by
                                           parents? What should be the goals          the example of the patriarch Job.
                                           godly parents try to keep in mind          The book which is named after him
Rev.  VanOverloop  is pastor  of           when they are raising their children?      opens with a most remarkable de-
Georgetown Protestant Reformed             How can we keep the right motiva-          scription of him. He is said to be
Church in Bauer, Michigan.                 tion and the right goals? It is nice       "perfect and upright, and one that

232lStandard  Bearer/February 15,1995


     feared God and eschewed evil" (1:l).        future, that they marry someone            ing on their own, in their own
     Later God uses these same words to          with whom they will be truly happy,        houses. The Bible shows that Job
     describe Job to the devil.                  that they are able to find a good and      was not concerned about the spe-
         This description is followed by         stable job. We have all sorts of con-      cific activity they were involved in,
     an example from Job's life which in-        cerns.                                     namely, feasting. Rather Job's con-
     dicates that he was upright, feared             But Job was concerned about the        cern was for the spiritual dangers
     God, and eschewed evil. This ex-            holiness of his seven sons and three       which he knew threatened them in
     ample is taken from his home life.          daughters. That is unusual. But it         those activities. Job knew what his
     It is interesting to note that out of       is most wonderful.                         children were doing, but he did not
     all of the activities in which Job was          That Job was concerned about           show his concern by being nosy.
     involved (and we can assume that            his children's holiness indicates that     Nor did Job show his concern by
     he was perfect, upright, and feared         Job had an even greater concern,           worrying or being anxious  - some-
     God in all of them) the only example        namely, his God. Job's concern for         thing which would accomplish noth-
     recorded for us is taken from his           his children's holiness was motivated      ing for his children and only give
     home life (Job 1:4, 5). If there were       by his fear of God. He was not             himself headaches and ulcers.
     to be a record of your godliness and        working for his children's happiness,          Job's children were involved in
     fear of God, would a biographer take        health, riches, job opportunities, or      the legitimate pleasure of feasting.
     his sole example from your home             marriage prospects. Rather Job was         They would get together every day
     life? Is your godliness manifested          concerned about his children's rela-       for a meal. The seven sons took turns
     as much in your home life as it is in       tionshipto God. Job was more con-          hosting, one a day, inviting the three
     the rest of your life? It should be!        cerned about God than he was about         sisters to join them.
     Our godly conduct in our homes              his children. Not that he had no               Job's concern for God's glory
     should be the center of our piety.          concern for his children. He had           showed itself in that he was aware
         From this one example of Job's          great concern for them, but it was         of how it is possible to sin, even
     uprightness and fear of God we can          not separated from his concern for         while doing something which was
     learn what are to be the motives and        God. Therefore he was concerned            not wrong in itself. Job knew there
     goals in Christian child-rearing. The       about his children's relationship to       was always the possibility that his
     example of Job's godliness taken            God. Therefore he was concerned            children, like any other people,
     from his home life is that he "sent         about his children's holiness. To be       might sin and curse God in their
     and sanctified them (his children),         sanctified, or to be holy, means to        hearts (Job  1:5b). This statement
     and rose up early in the morning,           be separated from sin and to be            makes it obvious that Job was more
     and offered burnt offerings accord-         dedicated to serving and glorifying        concerned about God, and about
     ing to the number of them all: for          God.                                       God's being blessed, than he was
     Job said, It may be that my sons have           Notice how great Job's concern         about his children and their happi-
     sinned, and cursed God in their             for his children's holiness is: he was     ness, education, or well-being. Job
     hearts. Thus did Job continually."          concerned about the mere possibil-         truly did fear God. He was very
         Job had great concern for his           ity that his sons and daughters "may       concerned whether his children
     seven sons and three daughters.             . . . have sinned, and cursed God in       would sin and whether they would
     That in itself is not unusual. Even         their hearts" (1:5b). That this was        curse God in their hearts.
     unbelieving parents have great con-         his concern makes it obvious that              Are you? Who is more promi-
     cern for their sons and daughters.          Job was concerned more for God's           nent in your concerns: God or your
     But Job's concern was for his               glory than for the welfare of his own      children. Are you, like Job, con-
     children's holiness. That is not the        children. God's glory motivated him        cerned only when you believe your
     first thing we might list when ex-          more than his children's salvation.        children are involved in illegitimate
     pressing our concerns for our chil-         Job was motivated by concern for           activities? And then, what is it that
     dren. We might have concern for our         God first, and then for his children.      motivates that concern: personal
     children's health, for their proper         And his concern for his children was       embarrassment, or the fear of God
     diet and exercise. If they are ill, then    related to his concern for God,            and whether He is blessed or cursed
     this really becomes a concern. We           namely, maybe they sinned against          in their hearts?
     might' have concern for our                 God! Maybe they cursed God in-                 Job was concerned only about
     children's happiness, whether they          stead of blessing Him.                     the mere possibility of his children
     are moody or whether they are cre-              Job's concern for his children's       sinning: "may be" (Job 1:5b). And
     ative. We might be concerned about          relationship to God revealed itself        Job was concerned about the root,
     our children's development, whether         in a concern about a specific activ-       whether they might be sinning "in
     they crawl before they walk or              ity. Job knew what activities his chil-    their hearts." He wanted them to
     whether they learn to read easily.          dren were engaged in. The context          be holy, not just in their outward
I    We have concerns for our children's         indicates that Job's children were liv-    life, but especially in their inward

                                                                                                 February 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1233


life. Job desired the fear of God in      pressed with the seriousness of their     child leaves this earthly life.
them; he wanted them to be bless-         sinfulness and of the possibility of
ing God in their hearts.                  sin in their hearts. They also had to         U+++++++U+
    When we are concerned about           be impressed with the awareness of
the fact or possibility that our chil-    forgiveness in God's Lamb.                     God promises to bless. The fruit
dren have sinned or may be sinning,           Job offered a burnt offering for      of our concern and efforts for our
then we must do something about           each of his children.                     children's holiness God blesses. We
it. But what should we do? Job "rose          On a regular basis we should          do not read that Job tried to sanctify
up early in the morning, and offered      teach our children of God, of His         his children. Rather we read that
burnt offerings according to the          high demands, and of the forgive-         he "sanctified them." Job's concern
number of them all" (Job 1:5). Ris-       ness He provides in His Son. Bring-       and great efforts bore fruit. This
ing early indicates urgency. Is the       ing our children to the worship ser-      does not mean that Job himself made
fear of God an urgent matter in your      vices is one very good way of doing       his children holy. That no human
life? Is your children's holiness that    that. The pure preaching of the gos-      can do. Only God, through the Holy
which would make you rise up              pel shows them the seriousness of         `Spirit, can make a person holy. In
early? If these concerns do not grip      sin, of their heart's activity, and of    fact, we show that we are fully
your heart, then you have failed in       forgiveness in Christ. In catechism       aware of the fact that we cannot
child-rearing, no matter what else        and in the worship services the chil-     make our children holy, and that it
you do. If your children's lives in-      dren, along with older people, are        is only God who can make them
dicate that they do not fear the Lord,    called to exercise faith in Christ and    holy, when we pray to God for them
but you were concerned about their        to receive forgiveness and righteous-     and when we take them to worship
holiness, then you have not failed in     ness through faith in Him.                services and to catechism instruc-
child-rearing. You did all God re-            In our homes parental example         tion. Only God can work in the
quired of you. You will hear, "Well       and instruction should do the same.       heart, which is where holiness must
done."                                    It is very important that we always       begin. As parents, all we do is touch
    Job rose early to offer burnt of-     show them the blood, but this is es-      the outward appearance of their
ferings. Burnt offerings are differ-      pecially so when they have sinned.        lives, and that we do so imperfectly.
ent from sin offerings. Sin offerings     Instead of only shouting and "lay-        We cannot, but God can!
were for actual sins. Burnt offer-        ing down the law," we should chas-             God reveals in His Word that
ings were for the general sinfulness      ten in love and show that forgive-        He will make holy our children, but
of our depraved human natures. Job        ness is found in the mercy of God.        not necessarily all of them, and not
sought forgiveness, not of specific       The cross of Christ is powerful to        only them. But He will make holy
sins, but for the sinfulness of his       work in their hearts the fear of God,     the elect, spiritual seed among our
children's depraved natures, which        love for God, and a .willing desire to    children. And God makes them holy
natures Job himself  gave to his chil-    serve Him out of gratitude.               through the instrumentality of our
dren. Job asked God to forgive them           Pray for your children that they      parental concerns and efforts. God
of all of their sinfulness as well as     be forgiven if they have sinned. And      is pleased to use our concern and
for any sin they may have coinmit-        pray that they will not sin, but will     efforts for His glory in our children
ted. By seeking that forgiveness with     fear and bless God. Pray more for         as His means. This is the norm.
an offering, Job `was showing that        their fearing and blessing God than       Godly parents teach their children
he sought that forgiveness in the         you pray for their physical health.       the fear of the Lord, which instruc-
blood of the Lamb which God prom-         Do this praying with earnestness and      tion God uses to work faith and re-
ised to send, namely, the Messiah.        urgency, rising early because the         pentance in the hearts of `the elect,
He made it clear that forgiveness         matter is so important to you. Do         spiritual seed among them.
was needed, but that forgiveness          this praying with concern for the              God did not make Job's children
was not going to be found anywhere        particular needs of each child (`Job      healthy and well. Soon Job would
else but in God. They could not find      did so "according to the number of        bury all ten of them. Rather God
it in themselves or in anything else      them all"). As the parent, you know       used Job's continual instructional ac-
- just in the promised Messiah,           the weaknesses of each child. As          tivity as His means to destroy more
whose sacrifice would provide sal-        the parent, you know better than          and more the power of sin in their
vation.                                   anyone else the potential sins of each    lives.
    Job performed the activity of of-     child. And do this praying as Job
fering burnt offerings in the sight of    did: "continually." The sanctifica-           +=u  u+  +u  u+
his children. And Job did this con-       tion of our children is a lifelong
tinually. On a regular basis his chil-    struggle. When you receive the gift           God usually blesses our efforts
dren observed him offering sacrifices     of a child, you begin a struggle          and prayers with the holiness of our
on their behalf. They had to be im-       which will not end until you or the       children. This is a tremendous

234lStandard  Bearer/February l&l995


mercy. He uses weakest means to              fear of the Lord. It is difficult to es-     to God before his and her fellow-
fulfill His will. Parenting is a hard        tablish a godly home. In the con-            saints, that they will use "the utmost
work. It is difficult, spiritual work.       sciousness of this difficulty every          of (their) power." 0
It is not easy to rear children in the       godly parent willingly takes a vow





                      Particular Synods and
                      Delegates Ad Examina

         (Every year [or if need be oftener]  four or five or more neighboring classes shall meet as a particular synod, to
    which each classis shall delegate two ministers and two elders. At the close of both the particzdar and the general
    synod, some church shall be empowered to determine with advice of classis, the time and place of the next synod.)
                                                                                                      Church Order,  Article 47.

         (Each synod shall be at liberty to solicit and hold correspondence with its neighboring synod or synods in such
    manner as they shall judge most conducive to general edification.)
                                                                                                      Church Order,  Article 48.

         (Each synod shall delegate some to execute everything ordained by synod both as to what pertains to the govern-
    ment and to the respective classes, resorting under it, and likewise to supervise together or in smaller number all
    examinations offuture ministers. And, moreover, in all other eventual difficulties they shall extend help to the.classes
    in order that proper unity, order, and soundness of doctrine may be maintained and established. Also they shall keep
    proper record of all their actions to report thereof to synod, and if it be demanded, give reasons. They shall also not be
    dischargedfrom their service before and until synod itself discharges them.)
                                                                                                      Church Order,  Article 49.


Overview                                    prohibitive. Neither are particular           Article 47
    Articles 47-49 of our  Church Or-       synods necessary in our day when                   Article 47 describes the nature
der  deal with particular (regional, or     it is completely feasible for the gen-        of particular synods. Particular syn-
provincial) synods. These articles are      eral synod to meet every year. Our            ods are made up of groups of classes,
in parentheses in OLK Church Order.         present ecclesiastical structure serves       usually four or five classes, in one
The explanation for this is that we         u s   w e l l .                               region. The particular synods are
do not have particular synods in our             This is not to say that there is         to meet at least once a year, a stipu-
denomination. We have only a gen-           nothing in Articles 47-49 that applies        lation that we now apply to our gen-
eral synod. Strictly speaking, these        to us. On the contrary, there is some-        eral synod. To the particular syn-
articles do not apply to our ecclesi-       thing in each of these articles that          ods are to be delegated two minis-
astical situation.                          has application to our churches, even        ters and two elders from each
    Nor is it likely that we will ever      though we do not have particular              classis.
have particular synods. The small-          synods. It would be better, how-                  As is the case with our general
ness of our denomination makes this         ever, that a future revision of our          synod, a calling church is designated
                                            Church Order  removed the stipula-           to convene the particular synod.
                                            tions in these articles that do apply        Usually the synod will meet in the
Rev. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest        to us and included them under other          facilities of this church. The
Protestant Reformed Church in               articles.                                    consistory of this church will call and
Grandville, Michigan.                                                                    oversee a special worship service

                                                                                               February 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1235


prior. to the meeting of the synod.         report on the proceedings of the          of Article 49 concerns the appoint-
The "Rules of Order" for the Synod          neighboring  classis. More could be       ment of delegates ad exumina, or syn-
of our Protestant Reformed                  done in this area than is presently       odical deputies. "Each synod shall
Churches require that on the evening        being done.                               delegate some . . . to supervise to-
preceding the beginning of synod "...                                                 gether or in smaller number all ex-
a prayer service, in charge of the con-     Article 49                                aminations of future ministers. And,
vening consistory, shall be held in             Article 49 empowers the particu-      moreover, in all other eventual dif-
the city in which synod is to meet.         lar synod to appoint various com-         ficulties they shall extend help to the
The members of synod are expected           mittees. The article speaks of "del-      classes in order that proper unity,
to attend this service in a body." Or-      egating some to execute everything        order, and soundness of doctrine
dinarily the president of the preced-       ordained by synod."                       may be maintained and established."
ing synod leads this pre-synodical              These committees may be either            Article 49 does not specify the
service and preaches an appropriate         standing committees or temporary          number of delegates  ad examina that
sermon.                                     committees. Our general synod has         are to be appointed. Each of our
     Article 47 provides for the con-       several standing committees: Do-          classes appoints three ministers as
ve,ning of an early or special par-         mestic Mission Committee, Foreign         primi  delegates ad exumina and three
ticular synod. Usually this would be        Mission  Comqittee, Committee  for        ministers as  secundi  delegates ad
due to difficulties that a classis could    Contact with Other Churches, Theo-        exuminu. Each of these appointments
not satisfactorily resolve. How this        logical School Committee, Emeritus        is for a three-year term.
special synod would be convened is          Committee, Student Aid Committee,             Other articles in our Church Or-
not specified. Generally, the rule is       Catechism Book Committee, Emeri-          der refer to the delegates ad examinu,
that the classis desiring the special       tus Committee, Student Aid Com-
meeting of synod would contact the          mittee, Catechism Book Committee,         - They must be present at the pe-
other classes and explain their rea-        Finance Committee, Yearbook Com-                remptory examination of can-
sons for such a special meeting. If         mittee, and Board of Trustees.                  didates for the ministry, Ar-
the majority of the classes are in fa-          Besides these standing commit-              ticle 4.
vor of the special meeting, the par-        tees, synod may appoint special           - They must be present at the ad-
ticular synod is convened by the call-      study committees or committees to               mission of ministers from
ing church. The "Rules of Order"            implement a particular sjrllodical de-          other denominations, Article 9.
of our general synod state: "When           cision. In recent years, our synod        - They must be present at the re-
a classis desires an early synod, it        has appointed a committee to index              lease of a minister under Ar-
shall apply to the convening church,        past synodical  decisions and a com-            ticle 11.
whose consistory in turn shall seek         mittee to investigate `the health in-     - They must be present when a
the approval of the other classis."         surance needs of our clergy.                    classis considers a minister's
                                              It used to be the case that our               request for emeritation, Article
Article 48                                  synod had a standing "Synodical                 13.
    Article 48 provides .for corre-         Committee," just as each of our           - They must be present when new
spondence between particular syn-           classes has a "Classical Committee."            congregations are organized
ods. The article merely says that           Some years ago, however, this com-              or received into the denorni-
each particular synod shall be at lib-      mittee was discontinued. The com-               nation, Article 38.
erty to solicit and hold correspon-         mittee had no work regularly and          - They must be present at deposi-
dence with its neighboring synods.          when synod had a particular task to             tion proceedings, Article 79.
Clearly, however, Article 48 intends        be performed, this task was assigned
to encourage such mutual correspon-         to a special committee.                       Our synod has adopted the fol-
dence. Denominational unity de-                 Article 49 also calls for a com-      lowing "Rules for Synodical Del-
mands this.                                 mittee "to execute everything or-         egates  Ad Examina ":
    In our situation, Article 48 ap-        dained by synod . . . as to what per-
plies to our classes. There ought to        tains to the government . . . . n This     I. At the conclusion of the exami-
be mutual correspondence between            provision reflects the state-church        nation, at which they shall have the
our classes. That mutual correspon-         arrangement that was in place in the       privilege to cross-question the can-
dence ought to include: exchange            Netherlands when our Church Or&r            didate, these delegates shall submit
of minutes; notification of, the other      was written. Any future revision of         a joint report and their reason for
classis of significant decisions, deci-     the Church Order should remove this        their advice.
                                                                                       II. If the vote of the classis is con-
sions that are of significance to the       provision.                                 trary to the advice of the delegates,
denomination broadly; even sending                                                     and no agreement can be reached,
observers to the meetings of the            Delegates Ad Exumina                       the question of admission shall be
other classis who can then briefly             The most significant stipulation         decided by synod. Until such time

236lStandard  Bearer/February 15,1995


 the ordination of the candidate shall     ties. The church visitors are avail-        examina play an important role in
 be postponed, and in the mean-            able to a consistory in case a              safeguarding the unity of the
 while no congregation of another          consistory is experiencing difficul-        churches. By their involvement in
 classis  shall have the right to ex-      ties. In much the same way, the del-        examinations, in admission of new
  tend a call to him and no classis        egates ad examina may serve a neigh-        congregations, and in assisting
  shall be permitted to examine him.
 III. The `delegates for examination       boring classis that is experiencing         classes in difficulties, they see to it
  shall submit a report of all their       difficulties. In this case, of course,      that the fundamental basis for the
  activities to synod.                     they have no right to impose them-          unity of the federation is maintained
                                           selves on the classis. They must be         - the pure doctrine of the  Scrip-
    Significantly, Article 49 also         summoned by the classis. And they           tures, the Reformed faith. Theirs is
makes the delegates ad examina avail-      serve only in an advisory capacity.         a serious responsibility!  IJ
able to a classis in case of difficul-         The  synodical  delegates ad





Order in the O@es, Mark R. Brown,          in America, have basically followed         isters of the gospel and never to el-
ed. Duncansville, PA: Classic Pres-        the Dabney-Thornwell theory. The            ders. It is argued that Calvin also
byterian Government Resources,             Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the           followed this practice and, therefore,
1993.  304~~.   N.p. (paper). [Re-         confessional successor to the North-        supported a three-office position.
viewed by Prof. Herman Hanko.]             ern Presbyterian church of Charles              Three-office people point to the
                                           Hodge, has, not shown much inter-           fact that the issue is basically one of
    Although I knew that the ques-         est in her ecclesiastical roots" (p.        parity, i.e., equality between the of-
tion of two offices or three offices in    116).                                       fices of minister/preacher/pastor
the church was often debated among             It might seem to us that the            and elder. They argue that there is
Presbyterians, I had no idea of the        question .is relatively insignificant       no parity between the offices, that,
extent of the disagreement and the         because, whether one holds to the           indeed, to insist on parity is to in-
divisive character of it. Presbyteri-      two-office or the three-office posi-        troduce into the church an egalitari-
ans take it with great seriousness.        tion, one still believes that Christ has    anism which is destructive of the of-
    The debate was more extensive          appointed ministers, elders, and dea-       fices.
in the last century, and involved ba-      cons in the church. The difference              From this position of non-par-
sic disagreements between Charles          is that ministers and elders are said,      ity, other. conclusions, follow. The
Hodge on the one side and                  by two-office people, to hold the           ministers in the church, with their
Thornwell and Dabney favoring the          same office. That is why it is cus-         credentials in presbytery (classis)
two-office idea. One of the great          tomary in the PCA to speaks of TE's         rather than in the local congregation,
debates of post-reformation times          (teaching elders) and RE's (ruling el-      constitute the essence of the church.
took place on the General Assembly         ders) .                                     Elders are representatives of the con-
over this question, with Hodge de-              But the authors of these essays        gregation in something akin to an
fending the three-office position and      show that the issue is one of great         ecclesiastical republic.
Thornwell the two-office idea. One         importance and one that strikes at               The book is replete with refer-
wishes one could have been a wit-          the very roots of Presbyterian church       ences to dozens of Old Testament
ness to that debate.                       government. The debate revolves             and New Testament texts and care-
    This book is a collection of fif-      around the teaching concerning of-          ful exegesis of many of them. For
teen essays written by men of the          fices in both the Old and New Tes-          example, I Timothy 5:17 is repeat-
last century and men active in the         taments, the teaching concerning this       edly discussed, for it becomes a cru-
ministry today who are intent on de-       question in the Westminster Confes-         cial passage in the argumentation of
fending the three-office position. To      sions, and the teaching of historical       two-office people. The intent of the
the editor and writers it is an im-        Presbyterianism  in its various books       book is to clarify the issues and de-
portant position to defend because         of church order.                            liver the present churches within. the
there is confusion over the question            While we cannot go into all the        Presbyterian orbit from confusion
today and because the three-office         issues involved, it is interesting to       and practices which are inconsistent.
position has fallen into neglect. The      note a few of them. The three-office        The book succeeds admirably in
editor writes: "The Southern Pres-         people maintain that the words              forcing one to ponder the biblical
byterian church and its confessional       "bishop" and "presbyter" in the New         idea of office, especially as it applies
successor, the Presbyterian Church         Testament always refer to the min-          to the church.

                                                                                                 February 15,1995/Standard  SeiuerI237


    While those within Reformed           without reading this book and study-          had acquired a library of 20,000 vol-
churches have a different church po-      ing the questions which are raised.           umes, one of the largest in the coun-
litical heritage and while all the is-        I cannot refrain from including           try at that time! But he cautioned:
sues confronted in this book are not      one quotation, found in a footnote,           "Beware of a passion for books and
germane to Reformed churches, the         and really having nothing to do with          a blind chase of a large library. It is
book brings up questions and prob-        the issues at hand. It refers to Tho-         as a general thing vain and useless.
lems which ought to be answered           mas Smyth, an Irish Presbyterian              I feel I was an exception to a general
within our tradition as well. No one      from Belfast, a minister in the States        rule. I have felt a special call to col-
ought to write again on the matter        for a number of years, and an ar-             lect a large library not for myself
of offices in the Reformed tradition      dent defender of the three-office po-         but for posterity" (p. 95). 0
                                          sition. In the course of his life he



                                                                                                               January 11,1995
                                                                                     Southwest Protestant Reformed Church

     Classis East met in regular ses-     ter synod adjourns." The overture             Secundi:  R. Cammenga, M. Joostens,
sion on Wednesday, January 11,1995        was sent to synod with the approval           K. Koole, A. Spriensma, B. Wouden-
at the Southwest Protestant Re-           of classis on the grounds that this is        berg. Elders: Primi:  D. Doezema, J.
formed Church. The church history         good order and will deal with those           Kalsbeek, Jr., C. Kuiper, E. Ophoff,
class of Covenant Christian High.         affected by synod's decisions in a            Sr., A. Rau; Secundi: K. Doezema,
School was present for about an           brotherly way.                                K. Elzinga, D. Lotterman, K Schip-
hour of the morning's session. Rev.           Classis heard the report of its           per, T. Spriensma. In other elections,
R. Cammenga chaired the meeting.          special committee to investigate, at          Rev. R. Cammenga was elected to a
Each church was represented by two        the request of synod, the continuing          three-year term as primus delegate
delegates.                                support, at present levels, of small,         ad examina and Rev. J. Slopsema to a
    Classis heard the reports of the      needy churches, giving special atten-         three-year term as secundus delegate
Stated Clerk, the Classical Commit-       tion to the church extension work             ad examina.  Rev. Koole was elected
tee, and the church visitors. There       by these small churches. The com-             to a three-year term on the Classical
was one matter relating to the church     mittee reported on its visit to Cov-          Committee; Revs. Kuiper and
visitors' report that was dealt with      enant PRC, Wyckoff, NJ to discuss             Slopsema were chosen as church
in closed session.                        this matter with its consistory. The          visitors with Rev. VanOverloop as
    Overtures to synod were sent by       committee recommended that Cov-               alternate.
First Church, Grand Rapids, and           enant be given an adjustment in its               Classis  granted classical appoint-
Grandville. First Church is asking        subsidy for 1995 ($2,500) and for             ments to Byron Center PRC as fol-
for a change in the calculation of        1996 ($5,000) so that this congrega-          lows: (Evening service only) Janu-
families for  synodical  assessments.     tion would have sufficient money to           ary 22 - Joostens; January 29 -
They wish to exclude those mem-           carry out a church extension pro-             Woudenberg; February 5  - Van
bers in nursing homes who are un-         gram. Covenant presented classis              Overloop; February 12 - Kuiper;
able to contribute financially to the     with its proposed program to carry            February 19  - Gritters; February 26
church. This overture was sent to         out such work. The classis approved           - Cammenga; March 5 - Bruin-
synod with the disapproval of classis     the work of its committee and de-             sma; March 12 - Koole; March 19
on the same grounds that synod            cided to forward its recommenda-              - Slopsema; March 26 - Sprien-
gave to other overtures from First        tions to synod.                               sma; April 2 - Joostens; April 9 -
Church dealt with by the Synods of            Classis approved subsidy re-              Woudenberg; April 16 - VanOver-
1983 and 1984.                            quests for 1996 from Kalamazoo                loop; April 23 - Cammenga; April
    The Grandville overture re-           ($9,000) and from Covenant                    30 - Gritters; May 7 - Flikkema;
quested that the duties of the syn-       ($38,500).  Classis also approved             May 14 - Kuiper.
odical stated clerk be expanded to        Covenant's request to contact the                 T h e   e x p e n s e s   o f   classis
include the following: "to inform         churches in Classis East for collec-          amounted to $1,165.00.  Classis will
those individuals, consistories,          tions for their building fund.                meet next at First PRC, Grand Rap-
classes, committees, and organiza-            Classis  elected the following del-       ids, on May 10,1995.
tions addressed or affected by a syn-     egates to synod: Ministers:  Primi:           Respectfully submitted,
odical decision of that decision. This    W. Bruinsma, B. Gritters, D. Kuiper,                                   Jon 1. Huisken,
shall be done within two months af-       J. Slopsema,. R. VanOverloop;                                            Stated Clerk

238lStaridard  Bearer/February 15,1995


                                           Loveland Christian School in              Grandville, MI PRC met recently to
School News                                Loveland, CO marked this past holi-       hear Dr. Elton Bruins, professor
    In their monthly newsletter the        day season by rendering their an-         emeritus at Hope College, give a
School Board of the Covenant Chris-        nual all-school Christmas program,        slide/lecture presentation on his trip
tian School in Lynden, WA informed         on December 20. The program was           this past summer to Greece, which
their supporting families that the         entitled, "Unto Us a Son Is Given."       retraced the journeys of the apostle
teachers and students of Covenant                                                    Paul.
wanted to do something special for         Evangelism Activities                            The Voices of Victory, a male
someone - a sort of children's val-            The Evangelism Committee of           quartet from two of our West Michi-
entine, if you will. Students and par-     the Bethel PRC in Elk Grove Village,      gan churches, provided the program
ents alike were asked to begin sav-        IL reported to their congregation on      for the annual combined societies'
ing their loose change, dollars, or        upcoming plans. First, they are plan-     Christmas Bible Study at the
whatever they could, this time not         ning to advertise their February 19       Hudsonville, MI PRC.
as a giftto their school, but rather as    evening service to encourage visitors            A new Kawai Baby Grand pi-
a giftf?om  their school. We suppose       to attend. Rev. C. Haak, pastor at        ano has been installed in the sanctu-
that, since the time of that note,`Cov-    Bethel, plans to speak that evening       ary of the Southwest PRC in
enant has been doing just that, so         on the subject, "How do I get to          Grandville, MI. This piano was
that by `this time they have already       Heaven?" Plans are also in the            made possible through a generous
sent a gift; as they intended, to the      works to obtain a guest book for visi-    gift from the estate of a deceased
new fledgling Faith Christian School       tors to sign. Plans also call for an      member of their congregation.
in Randolph, WI.                           update of Bethel's church brochure               At last year's annual congrega-
    We should also include here that       as well as their bulletin covers.         tional meeting, the members of the
the student body of the Hope P.R.              Looking ahead just a little to the    Hope PRC in Redlands, CA ap-
Christian School in Walker, MI had         month of April and the conference         proved a couple of proposals con-
opportunity to donate toward their         on Reformed Evangelism sponsored          cerning their fellowship hall - the
annual Christmas collection. -This         by our Trinity PRC in Houston, TX,        first to re-carpet it, and the second
year's collection `was for our small,      we are happy to report that plans         to purchase movable partitions for
struggling  Edgerton  Free Christian       seem to be coming together nicely.        it.
School in Edgerton, MN.                    It appears that the response by way
    In their newsletter dated Decem-       of registration has been greater than     Young People's Activities
ber 23,1994, the Board of the Asso-        even Trinity had dared hoped. As                 A new Bible Study started Janu-
ciation for Protestant Reformed Sec-       of January 15 there were 170 regis-       ary 29, meeting the last Sunday of
ondary B&cation  in Lansing, IL in-        trants for this conference, which         every month, at the Faith PRC in
formed their membership that if they       promises to be a major event in the       Jenison, MI. This Bible study, spon-
make sufficient progress in their          history of Trinity and their small but    sored by the Federation Board, was
plans, they will recommend to their        growing congregation.                     intended for all young people out of
Association that they approve an at-           The Church Extension Commit-          high school. Rev. W. Bruinsma was
tempt to purchase 9.5 acres of prop-       tee of the Lynden, WA PRC has or-         scheduled to lead the first session.
erty  in Lansing, immediately adja-        dered two Standard Bearer subscrip-              We also cannot help but notice
cent to'the proposed building site of      tions for their church, in order to       that again this past December many
the  P&e PRC. The Board also               make the magazine available for all       of our churches' young people's so-
planned on presenting a proposal at        visitors and others who might be in-      cieties set a night aside to visit with
their annual Association meeting in        terested. They have also purchased        their congregation's widows, widow-
March to raise the necessary funds.        a subscription for the Lynden Chris-      ers, shut-ins, and others, to bring
    The student body of the                tian Rest Home in cassette tape form      greetings either by way of a card, or
                                           that is now sent to them on a bi-         fruit basket, or simply a song. We
                                           monthly basis.                            would encourage them, as well as
                                                                                     all of us, to continue to remember
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-      Congregational Activities                 these special saints throughout the
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,                                                 rest of the year.
Michigan.                                      The Adult Bible Study of the

                                                                                            February 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1239


                                                                                                                SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                Grandvile, Michigan
   P. 0. Box 603
  Grandville, MI 49468-0603


Minister Activities                               call he received from the Byron Cen-                 Food-for c!liougfit
    `Rev. C. Terpstra, pastor at the              ter, MI PRC to serve as their pastor.         The principal work of the Spirit
South Holland, IL PRC, declined the                                                         is faith. The principal exercise of
                                                                                            faith is prayer.
                                                                                                                -  JohnCalvin   0





        CALL TO ASPIRANTS                                                                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
          TO THE MINISTRY
    All young men desiring to begin stud-         FINANCIAL AID FOR STUDENTS                    The Martha Ladies' Aid Society
ies for the 1995 - 1996 academic year in                       NOTICE!!                     of the Hull Protestant Reformed
the Theological School of the Protestant                                                    Church expresses her sincere Chris-
Reformed Churches should make applica-                All students enrolled in the Prot-    tian sympathy to her fellow mem-
tion at the March 16, 1995 meeting of the         estant Reformed Seminary, who will        bers, Mrs. Dena Blankespoor and
Theological School Committee.                     be in need of financial assistance        Mrs. Sally Kooiker, in the loss of
    A testimonial from the prospective            for the coming school year, are           their husband and father,
student's consistory that he is a member          asked to contact the Student Aid            MR. HENRY BLANKESPOOR.
in full communion, sound in faith, and up-        Committee Secretary, Mr. Larry                May they be sustained by God's
right in walk; a certificate of health from a     Meulenberg. (Phone 453-8466.)             grace and comforted in His Word:
reputable physician; and high school .and         This contact should be made be-           "The Lord will give strength unto his
college transcripts must accompany the ap-        fore the next scheduled meeting of        people; the Lord wil bless his people
plication. Before entering the seminary,          April 11, 1995, D.V.                      with peace" (Psalm 29:ll).
all students must have earned a bachelor's                     Student Aid Committee             Rev. Richard Moore, President
degree and met all of the course require-                           Larry Meulenberg,             Mrs. Jack Andringa, Secretary
ments for entrance to the seminary. These                                    Secretary
entrance requirements are listed in the                                                                   CORRECTION
seminary catalog available from the school.                                                     In the "Congregational Statistics"
    All applicants must appear before the                                                   of the 1994 Acts of the PRC, the
Theological School Committee for interview                                                  telephone number of Rev. Koole is
before admission is granted. In the event                                                   incorrectly listed as 667-1378. It
that a student cannot appear at the March                                                   should be:
16th meeting, notification of this fact, along          TEACHER NEEDED!!!                             457-8720  (home)
with a suggested interview date, must be                                                              457-5848 (study)
given to the secretary of the Theological             The Hope Christian School in
School Committee before this meeting.             Redlands, California, is in need of
    All correspondence should be directed         teachers. Either Class 1-2 or 3-5
to the  Theological,School  Committee,            are available at this time. Please
        4949 lvanrest Avenue                      mail resume to                                            NOTICE:
        Grandville, Ml 49418.                            Hope Christian School                  The new address of
                              John Buiter,               1309 E. Brockton Ave.                  Rev. Ronald VanOverloop  is:
                                 Secretary
        *  !' * * * * *                                  Redlands, CA 92374.                       4510 Bridgeville Court
                                                      Or please contact Ron Van                    Hudsonville, Ml 49426
    The Protestant Reformed Semi-                 Voorthysen at (909) 794-6457,                  (telephone: 616-662-0257)
nary admits students of any race,                 Steven Feenstra at (909) 794-5933,
color, and national or ethnic origin.             or Ed Gritters at (909) 792-4923.


24OIStandard Bearer/February 15,1995


