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A Reformed
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Semi-Monthly
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                       I in  ""Jem!ish  Dreams."
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                            damental hope



                      See "Another Letter and Response on `Jewish Dreams' "                                                       `-
                                                                                                        -page293


March 15,1995


     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                   March 15, 1995                                              p-q  $L/LDH
/                                                                                                                                         ______--                                                      I       "!`"-`[,`"'
     Meditation - Rev. Come/h Hanko                                                                                                                                                                          --                          l3l3wER
           Reconciled to God ~~...........,.......,..,,,,,,.,...~~~..............,,.,..,,,,,.....,,.,,                                                                                         291
     Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                     ISSN  0362-4692
           Another Letter and Response on "Jewish Dreams" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293                                                                                                          Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
     Letters . . . . . . . . . ..`................................................~....`......................,,,,,,,,,,,,                                                                     297           Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                                 4949 lvanreat Ave., Grandville. MI 49416. Second Class
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Postage Paid at Grandvllle. Mlchlgan.
           Andrew Melville: Father of Presbyterianism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
     A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Da/e H. Wiper                                                                                                                                                                Portmaetrr:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                             P.O. Box 663, Grandville, MI 49466-6693.
           Sacrifices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303    EDlTORtAL  COMMITTEE
     Go Ye Into All the World - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                          Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
           A Return Visit to a Beloved Church in Singapore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304                                                                                                 Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezama
     Search the Scriptures - Rev, Car/J. Haak                                                                                                                                                                DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
          Jqhn  4:1-26                                                                                                                                                                                       Rev. Wtlbur  Bruinsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
           Jesus and the Samaritan Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.............. 306                                                                               Decker, Rev.Arte denHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Grttters,  Rev. Carl Haak, Rev. Jason Kortering, Rev. Cornelius
     Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                                      Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Hsys, Rev. Dale
           The Last Four Days of Creation-Week (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308                                                                                         Kuiper, Mr. James Laming,  Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                             Jaikishin Mahtani, Rev. Thomas Miersma, Rev. Charlss
     News From Our Churches  -  Mr. Benjamin Wigger ,,,,,,..,....,,,.,,..,....,.... 311                                                                                                                      Terpstra, Rev. GiseVanBaren,  Rev. RonaldVanCverloop.  Mr.
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        h 'm?& [I!!&@ ,: ,I r                                                                                                                                                                        1 Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
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                           Reconciled to God
                                                                                              _ _ _ _ _
                                              I                                                                                             1

                                                   to live in covenant fellowship with          At Christmas time we so
                                                   Him.                                     thoughtlessly sing, "God and sinners
    And all things are of God, who hath                As the highest of all God's          reconciled," as if a third party came
reconciled us to himself, by ]esus Christ,         earthly creatures we saw the glory       between God and us to reconcile
and hath given to us the ministry of               of the Creator in all His creatures,     God to us as well as us to God. No!
reconciliation; to wit, that God was in            walked and talked with Him in inti-      A thousand times, No. God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto  him-           mate communion of life, and served       Christ reconciling us unto Himself.
serfi not imputing their trespasses unto           Him by devoting ourselves to Him             Godin Jesus Christ took the bur-
them; and hath committed unto us the               in Adam, who was king over all the       den of our guilt and sin upon Him-
ministry of reconciliation. Now then               earthly creation. This was a small       self and bore it away!
we are ambassadors of Christ, as though            foretaste of heaven.                         God is the Reconciler. We are
God did beseech you by us: we pray                     But that bond of intimate com-       the reconciled -by sovereign grace
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled            munion of fellowship and friendship      alone, rooted in eternal love in Christ
to God.                                            was broken. And we are responsible       Jesus!
                 II Corinthians 59%20              for that. By the instigation of the
                                                   devil and our own willful disobedi-         +u+++++++*
    What an amazing and blessed                    ence we sinned against God by eat-
experience! God has reconciled us                  ing of the forbidden tree. First Eve,        Great is the mystery of godli-
to Himself by Jesus Christ.                        then Adam. We were guilty of             ness! God does far beyond all that
    Reconciled. The word implies                   breach of covenant, allying ourselves    we could ask or think.
that there was once a relationship of              with God's enemy the devil, rebel-           He reconciled us, His people
friendship between God and us, and,                ling against our Creator and our cov-    whom He has chosen from before
moreover, that this relationship was               enant God.                               the foundation of the earth in Christ
disrupted. And now (glorious real-                     As a result, we are hopelessly       Jesus. He appointed His Son to be
ity!) it is restored.                              lost, dead in trespasses and sins,       the Christ, the Anointed One, to
    God established that relationship              prone to hate God and our neigh-         bring about this reconciliation with
of friendship between Himself and                  bor, worthy only of everlasting con-     those given to Him of the Father.
us already in Paradise.                            demnation in hell under Gods holy            He is the Firstborn of all crea-
    In Adam we were created in the                 wrath.                                   tures. All things were made by Him,
likeness and image of God in true                      We could not save ourselves.         and for Him, that in Him should be
knowledge, righteousness, and holi-                There was no angel or other crea-        all the fullness of blessedness.
ness, to know Him, love Him, and                   ture that could possibly save us. All        The Father sent His Son into the
serve Him in love.                                 the offerings and sacrifices of the      world to be born of a woman, to
    From the physical aspect, we                   Old Testament could not atone for a      come under the law and thus be
were formed as rational, moral crea-               single sin. We were hopelessly lost      laden with the guilt of our transgres-
tures, with mind and will and all                  in our sin and guilt.                    sions. The Son took on our flesh
our faculties, capable of being im-                    But God, who is rich in mercy,       and blood from His mother Mary to
age bearers. Spiritually we bore the               for that great love wherewith He         do the Father's will by bearing away
image of God as His friend servants                loved us from all eternity, has          our sin, the sin of the world.
                                                   planned for us a way, the only way           Even more, God was in Christ
                                                   of salvation. The Holy One whom          reconciling the world unto Himself.
                                                   we so deeply offend with our trans-      When our first father fell into sin,
                                                   gressions has reconciled us to Him-      he fell as king of the earthly creation
,Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in              self in Christ Jesus.                    and brought the creature with him
the Pro'testant  Reformed Churches.

                                                                                                      March 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1291


under the curse. We see the evi-                God makes all things new.             they preach except they be sent? As
dences of that in the sickness, dis-        There will be a new heaven and a          it is written, How beautiful are the
ease, and infirmities among the ani-        new earth, united in one. Christ will     feet of them that preach the gospel
mals, as well as in the imperfections       bring His church into glory, and His      of peace, and bring glad tidings of
in trees and plants. Paul tells us that     saints will reign with Him over the       good things!" (Rom. 10:14,15).
the whole creation groans, being            new creation. Even the angels will              By that Word the church is gath-
made subject to vanity and corrup-          be subject to us, that we may reflect     ered, preserved, and defended unto
tion. But the creature groans in            the glory of the Father, world with-      the day of the ingathering of the
hope, waiting for deliverance from          out end,                                  saints when Christ returns. To her
the bondage of corruption, to share                                                   comes the Word of God: "Thus saith
in the liberty of the sons of God                                                     the Lord that created thee, 0 Jacob,
(Rom. 8:19-22).                                                                       and he that formed thee, 0 Israel,
     Christ did not die to reconcile            "We are ambassadors of Christ."       Fear not, for I have redeemed thee,
only a certainnumber  of individu-              There is actually no end to all       I have called thee by thy name; thou
als, or the totality of the elect. But      the wonders that are involved in our      art mine" (Is. 43:l).
He brought reconciliation to His            eternal reconciliation.                         As a bridegroom takes his wife
fallen creation. God was in Christ              God through Jesus Christ as our       into his arms and declares, "You are
reconciling the world unto Himself.         exalted Lord in the heavens gathers       mine," or as a mother takes her new-
That includes the whole creation,           unto Himself a people, His church,        born baby to her breast with the
with the exception of the reprobate        by His Word and Spirit.                    comforting thought, "You are my
wicked, who perish in their sins.               He has given His inspired, in-        very own, even my flesh and blood,"
     God's reconciliation reaches           fallible, and inerrant Word of rev-       so God takes His bride unto Him-
even beyond that. For there had also        elation, in which He makes Himself        self and claims us as His very own
been a fall in the angel world, a seri-     known to His people in all His glo-       forever.
ous disruption when Satan and his          rious perfections, confiding in us His           But the complaint arises within
host rebelled and were cast out. A          eternal thoughts, plans and purpose,      us, "My sins are so great and so
large part of the angel world was           and mighty works as the God of our        many that they cannot possibly be
cast out with Satan, so that the origi-     salvation in Jesus Christ. God            forgiven. I am most unworthy of so
nal unity of the angelic host no           breathed His Word into holy men,           great a salvation. I deserve only to
longer existed. Also the angels in          who were moved to write exactly as        be cast away forever, to die in my
heaven eagerly watch the unfolding          the Holy Spirit guided them. All          sins."
of God's plan of redemption, for            Scripture is given by the inspiration           Are you weary? Heavy laden?
they are personally involved in the         of God, and is profitable for doc-        Do you hunger after God? Do you
restoration of all things in Christ        trine, for reproof, for correction, for    thirst for His approval and blessing?
Jesus (I Pet. 1:12).                       instruction in righteousness.              Then to you Christ says, "Ho, ev-
     Christ came to reconcile all               Our sovereign Lord has en-            eryone that thirsteth, come ye to the
things unto Himself, both in heaven        trusted that Word to His church, that      waters, ,and he that hath no money;
and on earth.                               through the office of the elders and      come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come,
     Therefore, as a reward for II.is       minister that Word may be pro-            buy wine and milk without money
accomplished work on the cross, our        claimed for the gathering of the           and without price" (Is. 55:l). Christ,
Lord was exalted to the highest             saints. Ministers are servants, am-       who calls His sheep by name and
heavens, far above all principalities      bassadors of Jesus Christ, who are         carries His lambs in His bosom, be-
and powers in heaven and on earth.          sent with the authority and mandate       seeches by His Word and Spirit: Be
He was given a name above all              of their Lord. His mandate is,             ye reconciled to God! Believe only!
names, that every knee must bow,            "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,        For faith is God's gift unto salva-
and every tongue must confess that         saith your God. Speak ye to the            t i o n !   0
He is Lord to the glory of the Father      heart of Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
(Phil. 2:9-11).                            that her warfare is accomplished,
    And He was exalted as Head of          that her iniquity is pardoned; for she
His church. He now reigns in               hath received of the `Lord's hand
heaven for the ingathering of the          double for all her sins" (Is. 40:1,2).
saints. He gathers His church from              That Word is powerful as the
all nations and races, defends and         power of God unto salvation to all
protects her unto the day of His re-       who believe. For "how shall they
turn. Therefore all things are yours,      believe on him of whom they have
and ye are Christ's, and Christ is         not heard? And how shall they hear
God's.                                     without a preacher? And how shall

292iStandard  Bearerilklarch 15,1995


                                                                                       --
   EdMOli&ii



  Another Letter and Response
                     on "Jewish Dreams"

    The editorial "Jewish Dreams"          so now, these advocates of f'domin-             While I am impressed by the
(Standard Bearer, Jan. 15,1995)  con-      ion theology" have violently assailed       creeds and confessions of the church,
tinues to draw response. Some of           confessional Reformed  amillen-             they are not equal to Scripture. Prof.
the response is sharp. This is not         nialism. A kinder epithet has been          Engelsma is fond of quoting confes-
surprising. For some time now, as          "pessimillennialism," that is, a doc-       sional statements while giving little
regards the. doctrine of the last          trine of the last things that is pessi-     regard to biblical exegesis. Have we
things, premillennial  dispensa-           mistic. Reformed amillennialists are        become Romanists? Yes, Engelsma
tionalism and postmillennialism            Ulosers." Although there have been          does reference a few Bible passages,
have pretty much had the field to          Reformed and Presbyterian theolo-           but he only uses them as props to
themselves. In their controversy           gians who have debated "Christian           support an already accepted confes-
with each other, both severely criti-      Reconstruction" in terms of its teach-      sional statement. Proof-texting is no
cize Reformed amillennialism. From         ing about Old Testament law                 substitute for exegesis.
the Reformed quarter, little or noth-      ("theonomy"), few have insisted that            Engelsma calls postmillen-
ing has been forthcoming in defense        the movement must be repudiated             nialism a "heresy." Is he willing to
of amillennia,lism,  much less a vig-      by,Reformed churches because of its         include, for example, John Owen the
orous attack upon both forms of            postmillennialism. This was the             principal author of the postmillennial
millennial error.                          thrust of the editorial "Jewish             Savoy Declaration, Charles Hodge,
    "Jewish Dreams" put the con-           Dreams."                                    B.B. Warfield,  and Marcellus Kik as
fessional Reformed doctrine of                 Postmillennialists have re-             heretics because of their post-
amillennialism into the field of dis-      sponded.                                    millennial beliefs?
cussion about the last things. The             Enter now the postmillennial ad-            It is somewhat curious that
present age, from Christ's ascension       vocate of "Christian Reconstruction"        Engelsma fails to quote the West-
until shortly before His second com-       Gary DeMar. DeMar is president of           minster Confession and its cat-
ing, when Satan shall be loosed from       American Vision and a member of a           echisms' and instead quotes Peter
his prison, is the thousand-year pe-       congregation in the Presbyterian            Toon's  interpretation  of the
riod of Revelation 20.. The Messi-         Church of America (PCA). He is a            assembly's work. Engelsma is se-
anic kingdom in.history is not a fu-       prolific and influential author. His        lective in the way he presents the
ture' carnal kingdom, whether of           books include God and Gotiernment,          confessional statements of the
Jews reigning from Jerusalem or of         3 ~01s.; Ruler of the Nations: Bibli-       church. He chooses what suits his
saints exercising political power          cal Blueprints  for  Government; Sur-       purpose. In the WC Larger Catechism
from Vallecito, California or Tyler,       viving College Successfilly: A Com-         the kingship of Christ is said to be
Texas. It is, rather, Christ's spiri-      plete Manual for the Rigors of Aca-         evidenced to God's people by
tual reign by His gospel and Spirit        demic Combat; The Reduction  of             Christ's "overcoming all their en-
in the hearts and.lives of the believ-     Christianity  (with Peter  J. Leithart);    emies, and powerfully ordering all
ing elect. The -victorious kingdom         and  Last Days Madness.                     things for his own glory" (X, Q.
of Christ is, as it, has ever been, the       What follows is the letter from          45). Thomas Ridgeley (c. 1667-1734),
true, faithful.church  in the midst of     Gary DeMar responding to my edi-            in his massive commentary on the
a hostile world;                           torial "Jewish Dreams" and my re-           Larger Catechism, published between
    The editorial. took up the chal-       ply to.DeMar's  letter.                     1731 and 1733, gives a decidedly
lenge to Reformed amillennialism                                                       post-millennial interpretation of the
from the postmillennial "Christian                         X-F+*****                   Assembly's position:
Reconstructionists." For 30 years or

                                                                                              March 15,1995/Standard  Bearer/293


    We freely own, as what we think          sages like Matthew 24, 2  Thessa-            and the restrainer. In fact, they be-
  agreeable to scripture, that as Christ     lonians 2, and 2 Timothy 3 address           lieved that the "day of the Lord"
  has, in all ages, displayed his glory      conditions near the time when Jesus          had already come (2 Thess.  2:2).
  as King of the Church, so we have          returns at the end of history. While         "The mystery of lawlessness was al-
  ground to conclude, from scripture,        this view is popular today, especially       ready at work," Paul writes (v. 7). It
  that the administration of his gov-
  ernment in this world, before his          among dispensationalists, it cannot          is quite evident, therefore, that Paul
  coming to judgment, will be at-            survive exegetical scrutiny. There           is describing events that the
  tended with greater magnificence,          is a great deal of biblical and his-         Thessalonians were quite familiar
  more visible marks of glory, and           torical evidence to demonstrate that         with.
  various occurrences of providence,         these passages refer to conditions                Revelation  1:l states that the
  which shall tend to the welfare and        leading up to and including the de-          events depicted therein "must
  happiness of his church, in a greater      struction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.           shortly take place." The time is said
  degree than has been beheld or ex-             Postmillennialists  do not do their      to be "near" (1:3) for those who first
  perienced by it, since it was planted      work in an exegetical vacuum.  I de-         read the book. We are told in the
  by the ministry of the apostles af-
  ter his ascension into heaven. This        voted more than 120 pages of de-             last chapter of Revelation that the
  we think to be the sense, in gen-          tailed exegesis to Matthew  24:1-34          described events "must shortly take
  eral, of those scriptures, both in the     in my book Last Days Madness. More           place" (22:6). Jesus said that He was
  Old and New Testament, which               than fifty pages were devoted to 2           coming "quickly" (22~7). And to con-
  speak of the latter-day glory!'            Thessalonians 2. I also discussed            firm what was said in the first chap-
                                             Titus  213 in great detail. In each          ter, "the time is near" (22:lO). Rev-
    The Shorter Catechism is no less         case I showed that these passages,           elation was written nearly two thou-
postmillennial. "Christ executeth the        and many more like them, refer to            sand years ago. If words mean any-
office of a king, in subduing us to          events of the first century. More-           thing, then the events of Revelation
himself, in ruling and defending us,         over, I was able to demonstrate that         are now history.
and in restraining and conquering            numerous Bible commentators agree                 Prof. Engelsma can follow the
all his and our enemies" (SC, Q. 26).        with me, most of whom are not                dispensationalists and claim that
The evidence of His exaltation is            postmillennial!                              these time indicators are fluid and
made visible to His Church when                  Prof. Engelsma claims that the           do not necessarily mean what they
He does "gather and defend his               solemn duty of the Protestant Re-            seem to mean, or he can deal with
church, and subdue [her] enemies"            formed Churches "from the soon-              them honestly and get back to do-
(LC, Q. 54).                                 coming Christ [is] to expose the             ing exegetical work.and  quit relying
    The Larger Catechism in the sec-         hopes of postmillennialism as `Jew-          on the confessions to do his think-
ond petition of the Lords Prayer             ish dreams."' The "soon-coming               ing for him. Until Prof. Engelsma
states, "we pray, that the kingdom           Christ"? Prof. Engelsma sounds               deals with  exegetical  issues, the only
of sin and Satan may be destroyed,           more like Hal Lindsey and Dave               ones who will listen to him will be
the gospel propagated throughout             Hunt than a Reformed Christian.              those who already agree with him,
the world, the Jews called, [and] the        Dave Hunt, an anti-reformed author,          a number that is steadily declining.
fullness of the Gentiles brought in . . .    has written How Close Are We: Com-                Why not open the campus of the
and that he would be pleased so to           pelling Evidence  for  the Soon Return of    seminary of the Protestant Reformed
exercise the kingdom of his power            Christ.  The church has been preach-         Church to a debate on the topics of
in all the world, as may best conduce        ing the "soon-return of Christ" for          "the last days" and "postmillen-
to these ends" (LC, (2. 291).  None          centuries. This doctrine has been            nialism"? I would be willing to pay
of this squares with Engelsma's no-          the bane of Reformed theology and            my own way to participate in such
tion that "the church in the end-time        the benefit of dispensationalism.            a debate. How about it, Prof.
will be a persecuted church, not a           How can Christians claim that Jesus          Engelsma?
triumphalist [sicJ church" (173). By         is coming soon in light of the time
the way, the answer to  LC Question          references set forth in the New Tes-         1    Thomas Ridgeley, Commentary on
191 is almost identical to that of The       tament?                                      the Larger Catechism, previously titled A
Savoy Declaration  (26.5),  which               Jesus said that He would return           Body of Divinity: Wherein the Doctrines
Engelsma condemns! It seems,                 in judgment before the last apostle          of the Christian Religion are Explained and
therefore, that the Helvetic  Confes-        died (Matt. 16:27-28;  cf. John 21:18-       Defended, Being the Substance  of  Several
sion is out of step with the other           23). Jesus promised His disciples            Lectures on the Assembly's Larger Cat-
great confessional statements of the         that He would return in judgment             echism  (Edmonton, AB Canada: Still
Reformed churches. This is why                                                            Waters Revival Books,  [X355]   1993),
                                             to destroy the temple before their
Scripture must be the determining                                                         1:562.
                                             generation passed away (Matt.                                             Gay  DeMar
factor.                                      24:24). The Thessalonians knew the                                  American Vision
  Prof. Engelsma insists. that pas-          identity of the man of .lawlessness                                 Atlanta, Georgia
294ptandard  Bearer/March 15,1995


                Reply                       structionists." Insofar as Warfield        and Shorter Catechisms prove abso-
    Gary DeMar is "impressed" by            and other earlier Presbyterians            lutely nothing for a postmillennial
the creeds. I am bound by them. I           shared the error of postmillen-            interpretation of the Westminster
have vowed in the Reformed "For-            nialism, this was "stubble" in their       documents. No amillennialist has
mula of Subscription" `that I believe       work of building upon the founda-          any difficulty with these expressions
"that all the articles and points of        tion. Their stubble must be burned,        whatsoever. All of these statements
doctrine contained (in the `Three           but they themselves shall be saved         square perfectly with "Engelsma's
Forms of Unity') do fully agree with        (I Cor. 390-15).                           notion that `the church in the end-
the Word of God." I have also                   If DeMar and others are deter-         time will be a persecuted church, not
promised "diligently to teach and           mined to present my attack on the          a triumphalist church."' Christ has
faithfully to defend the aforesaid          postmillennial doctrine as an attack       been restraining and subduing His
doctrine." Further, I have sworn            on the persons of those who held, or       and our enemies by His sovereign
"not only (to) reject .all errors that      hold, this doctrine, so be it. But I       power since His ascension into
militate against this doctrine . . . but    vehemently deny this accusation. I         heaven (Eph.  220-23).  The fulfill-
(also) . . . to refute and contradict       yield to no one in regard for, and         ment of this sovereign restraint and
these and to exert (myself) in keep-        even love of, Martin Luther. But I         subduing in history does not require
ing the Church free from such er-           call his miserable doctrine of the         the "Christianizing of the world"
rors." Included is adherence to the         Lord's Supper a heresy for all that.       and a kingdom of earthly power and
eschatological teaching of the creeds.          I charged heresy, not against          glory. The risen Christ restrains and
This fidelity to the confessions is not     postmillennialism but against the          subdues His enemies by His secret
"Romanist." It is Reformed. The             "judaizing" of the "Christian Recon-       providence, and He governs and ex-
Reformed faith is confessional.             struction" brand of postmillen-            alts His church by His grace.
                                            nialism. As I carefully indicated, this        The right understanding of the
Heresy?                                     refers to      ti Christian Recon-         Larger Catechism's explanation of
                                            struction"`s imposing upon New             the second petition of the Lord's
    I never used the word "heresy"          Testament Christians "a vast array         Prayer, in Question 191, an explana-
to describe postmillennialism. Not          of Old Testament laws that, accord-        tion that is virtually identical with
once. This was deliberate. The rea-         ing to Article 25 of the Belgic Con-       the explanation of the Heidelberg
son was my very high regard for             fession, have been accomplished in         Catechism in Question 123, will
some  of the theologians mentioned          Christ, so that the `use of them must      serve to make clear the meaning of
by DeMar, especially B. B. Warfield,        be abolished among Christians."'           all of DeMar's  quotations from the
as well as others. Now,that DeMar               This error I not only called "her-     Westminster Catechisms.
presses me, I call the postmillen-          esy" but also "the fundamental her-            In the second petition, the Cat-
nialism taught by J. Marcellus Kik          esy." To this the church said "no"         echism explains, believers pray that
in his An Eschatology  of `victo y and      by the leading of the Spirit in Acts       God in Christ will destroy the king-
by "Christian Reconstruction" a her-        15. Against this Paul fought in the        dom of Satan and build up the king-
esy. By heresy, I mean not only a           book of Galatians.                         dom of Christ, which is the church.
serious departure from the teaching             Warfield  never taught this.           DeMar thinks that this refers to some'
of the Scriptures but also a grievous                                                  future time before the coming of
corruption of the gospel. The error         The Westminster Standards                  Christ. Also, he supposes that the
is that the spiritual kingdom re-                                                      destruction of Satan's kingdom and
vealed and realized by the gospel is            That I did not quote the               the victory of Christ's kingdom in
changed into a carnal kingdom, and          Westminster Confession and its cat-        this future time are earthly, that is,
the spiritual triumph of the exalted        echisms is not at `all  U~~rio~s.n I       physical, political, social, and visible
Christ in history is changed into an        pointed.out  why I did not: "I leave       to the bodily eye. The saints will
earthly triumph. The evil practical         to those whose creeds they are to          have dominion: the carnal kingdom.
effect of the error is to turn the hope     demonstrate that the Westminster               He is mistaken on both counts.
of Christians away from the coming          Standards rule out the illusory            Christ has been destroying the king-
of Christ to the carnal millennial          dream of postmillennialism." The           dom of Satan and building up His
kingdom. This subversion of the             creeds that bind me(and the major-         own kingdom, the'church, ever since
Christian hope tends to affect all of       ity of readers of the  SB)' are the        He ascended into heaven. The na-
the Christian life.                         "Three Forms'of Unity." Therefore,         ture of the defeat of Satan's king-
    Warfield  and some of the Puri-         I limited myself to references to          dom and of' the .victory  of Christ's
tans before him were far more re-           them.               :     __               kingdom .is spiritual. It consists of '
strained.,in  predicting a future              L I offer my judgment, neverthe-        the gathering out of Satan's kingdom
earthly "enlargement" of the church         less, that the -four quotations by         of the elect; of the sanctification of
than Kik and. the "Christian Recon-         DeMar from the Westminster Larger.         the elect to serve the Lord in every

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sphere of life; and of the preserva-           magnificence, more visible marks of       opposes, with might and main, that
tion of the church in truth and holi-          glory . . . the welfare and happiness     Jesus' coming is soon, near, and
ness against the onslaughts of the             of his church in a greater degree."       quickly, exactly as I charged against
devil. The perfect answer to the sec-          A sleepy amillennialist might let this    it in U Jewish Dreams."
ond petition will be granted in the            get past him.                                      This is assault upon the funda-
Day of Christ.                                     This is worlds apart from the         mental hope of the church. Nothing
    How does the Larger Catechism              "Christianizing" of America, and          less.
itself sum up its explanation of the           then of the world, envisioned and             I ignore the tactic of blackening
second petition?  I'... that Christ            promoted by "Christian Reconstruc-        Reformed eschatology  by linking it
would rule in our hearts here, and             tion" as the real triumph of Christ       with that of premillennial dispen-
hasten the time of his second com-             in history.                               sationalism. It is not Reformed
ing, and our reigning with him for                                                       amillennialism that agrees with
ever."                                         "Behold, I Come Slowly"                   premillennialism in denying future
    There is not so much as a hint                                                       persecution to the church and in af-
of postmillennialism in Question 191               With DeMar's  remarks on the          firming an earthly kingdom of
of the Larger Catechism or in the              Bible's teaching concerning the sec-      Christ.
other quotations adduced by Gary               ond coming of the Lord and the con-
DeMar. One finds postmillennialism             dition of the church in the days pre-     Eschatological Apostasy
in these confessional statements only          ceding that coming, I am simply de-
if he has decided beforehand to un-            lighted. I knew these things, of              DeMar may well be right when
derstand "restrain," "subdue," "de-            course, as do all those who have read     he says that the number of Reformed
fend," and "conquer" in the earthly            in "Reconstruction" literature. But       and Presbyterian amillennialists "is
sense they had for Old Testament               many of the readers of this maga-         steadily declining." The reason, in
Israel in the day of shadows.                  zine have not read the "Reconstruc-       part, is the great apostasy now ful-
    The answer to Question 191 of              tion" books. They are largely de-         filling the apostle's prophecy in II
the Larger Catechism is by no means            pendent upon the analyses of oth-         Thessalonians 2:3. This falling away
"almost identical to that of The Sa-           ers. Now they can read for them-          is due, in part, to the failure of Pres-
voy Declaration  (26.5)." Chapter              selves from a leading, authoritative      byterian and Reformed churches,
26.5 of the Congregational Savoy               "Christian Reconstructionist" the         ministers, theologians, and editors
Declaration (which I quoted in the             main teachings of that movement           of religious periodicals vigorously to
editorial "Jewish Dreams") differs             concerning the end of the world.          defend amillennialism and equally
radically from Question 191 of the                 The church of the last days will      vigorously to expose and condemn
Presbyterian Larger Catechism. The             not be persecuted!                        postmillennialism.
Savoy Declaration posits "enlarged"                All of the prophecy of the New            Lest I be guilty of failing to do
churches enjoying "a more quiet,               Testament of apostasy, tribulation,       what little I can to stop the decline
peaceable, and glorious condition              and Antichrist in the last days has       from the truth of amillennialism, I
than they have enjoyed" "in fhe lat-           already been completely fulfilled in      intend to devote future, editorials to
ter days, Antichrist being desfroyed  . . .    the destruction of Jerusalem in A. D.     a biblical, confessional defense of
and the adversaries of the kingdom of          70! Nothing of all of this sizable and    amillennialism against the erroneous
his dear  Son  broken" and  "in this           significant portion of New Testa-         doctrine of postmillennialism. These
world. "                                       ment Scripture, as well as Old Tes-       will have the "Christian Reconstruc-
    Take note: "in this world. "               tament Scripture, including nearly all    tion" movement especially in view.
    The Independents who drew up               of the book of Revelation, applies to
the Savoy Declaration, dissatisfied            the New Testament church of our day       The Challenge
with Presbyterian Westminster's  re-           and thefuture!
fusal.to  do so, gave clear expression             Most astounding of all, and well-         Gary DeMar throws out an in-
to the postmillennial dream of an              nigh incredible, is the flat, bold de-    triguing challenge: a public debate
earthly kingdom. Their churches are            nial that the coming of Jesus Christ      on postmillennialism on the campus
taught to look forward to earthly              - the second, bodily, visible com-        of the Protestant Reformed Theo-
peace, earthly prosperity, and                 ing of Jesus Christ - is "soon" and       logical Seminary. My only hesita-
earthly power!                                 "near"! The Reformed church has           tion is that I must not be respon-
    Even the quotation from Thomas             been mistaken in her teaching that        sible for giving a platform to error.
Ridgeley, although obviously origi-            Jesus' coming is "near"! Indeed,          I certainly would not want to leave
nating in a misguided longing for              "this doctrine has been the bane of       the impression that -the Bible is un-
"latter-day glory," only very cau-             Reformed theology"! (emphasis             clear on this important doctrine of
tiously advances the mildest form              mine - D JE)                              the last things, so that amillennialism
of postmillennialism:  n... greater                Postmillennialism denies and          and postmillennialism are two legiti-

296lStandard  Bearer/March 15,1995


     mate options for Reformed and Pres-                        the audience. He would be giving a                                 There is nothing wrong with  this.
     byterian Christians.                                       platform to a defense of  amillen-                                 I am interested.
           But DeMar  is the well-known,                   nialism.                                                                                                - DJE
     popular theologian. He would draw

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1                  --                                    ,.             _          _'      -.
     n .The Sum of                                         from the fact that the blood of Christ                             RESPONSE:
     Christian Doctrine                                    cleanses our conscience so that we                                      It is clear that your objections
                                                           can come with boldness to God's                                    are not so much against my article,
           Is it really true that the Heidel-              throne of grace to ask for those                                   but against the high esteem the Re-
     berg Catechism contains "the sum                      things of which we have need (Heb.                                 formed churches have for the Hei-
     of Christian doctrine" as stated in                   10:22).  Furthermore, he says that                                 delberg Catechism. After all, the
     the October 15, 1994  Standard                        the blood of Christ, who through the                               words "the sum of Christian doc-
     Bearer, "The Good Practice of Two                     eternal covenant offered Himself                                   trine comprehended in the Heidel-
     Services, One Given to Catechism                      without spot to God, purges our con-                               berg Catechism" are taken from Ar-
     Preaching," by Rev. Dale Kuiper,                      science from dead works to serve                                   ticle 68 of our Church Order, which
     and so often affirmed in our circles?                 the living God (Heb. 9:14). And he                                 requires the minister to preach the
     I can think of several important doc-                 closes his discourse with this prayer:                             Catechism (ordinarily) each Sunday.
     trines not covered by the Catechism.                  "Now the God of peace that brought                                 That Reformed churches maintain
     The obvious one, of course, is the                    again from the dead our Lord Jesus,                                that the Catechism contains "the sum
     doctrine of the last times. Much of                   that great Shepherd of the sheep,                                  of Christian doctrine" is further
     the Bible is devoted to this impor-                   through the blood of the everlasting                               shown by the second question asked
     tant subject since it is an integral part             covenant, make you perfect in ev-                                  of the full consistory by the classical
     of His coming into this world. Yet                    ery good work to do his will, work-                                church visitors, "Is the Heidelberg
     the Catechism chooses to ignore it                    ing in you that which is well pleas-                               Catechism regularly explained in the
     except to mention that He is coming                   ing in his sight through Jesus Christ,                             services for divine worship, so that
     again as judge.                                       to whom be glory for ever and ever.                                no doctrine is left untreated?" Make
           Another example is the doctrine                 Amen."                                                             no mistake, Reformed churches his-
     of the efficacy of the blood of Christ.                            Curiously, the Catechism, in its                      torically, and the Protestant Re-
     The Catechism devotes very little                     one reference to my free and good                                  formed Churches today, believe that
     time to this subject, although we all                 conscience in Question and Answer                                  all the doctrines of Holy Scripture
     agree that it is of central importance                32, makes no mention of the blood                                  are treated in the 52 Lord's Days of
     in the life of God's people. The re-                  of Christ. What is more, it seems to                               our Catechism.
     sult is a general ignorance in our                    contradict itself when it says in                                       Your positions that "several im-
     churches of the twofold purpose of                   Lord's Day 23 that my conscience                                   portant doctrines (are) not covered
     our Savior's blood sacrifice on the                  accuses me that I have sinned                                      by the Catechism," that the Cat-
     cross. We are all familiar with the                   against all of God's commandments                                  echism llseems to contradict itself,"
     fact that in the sight of God the                     and kept none of them. How can a                                   that we refrain from calling the Cat-
blood of Christ is a payment for sin.                     free and good conscience, cleansed                                  echism "the sum of Christian doc-
As such it is a propitiation, a re-                       by the blood of Christ, still accuse                               trine," and that "we could better call
demption price, a sacrifice which                         me of all sin? It seems to me that                                 it the sum of what we choose to be-
makes satisfaction for our sin. It is                     the writers of the Catechism would                                 lieve of Christian doctrine," are a far
a covering for sin in the sight of God,                   have done well to explain this ap-                                 cry from the Reformed position on
for without shedding of blood there                       parent anomaly. Since they did not,                                the contents of the Catechism and
is no remission (Heb. 9:22).                              but rather chose to ignore it, among                               the value of its being preached. You
           But this is certainly not all. The             other things, I would suggest that                                 ought to bring your objections to
blood of Jesus Christ also has a pro-                     we refrain from calling the Cat-                                   your consistory for instruction on
found effect on us, His people. The                       echism, "the sum of Christian doc-                                 this matter.
author to the Hebrews makes this                          trine." Perhaps we could call it the                                     1. As to your contention that
abundantly plain. He says, for ex-                        sum of what we choose to believe of                                the doctrine of the last times is short-
ample, that we are sanctified by the                      Christian doctrine, which might well                               changed by the Catechism, consider
body and blood of Jesus Christ, not                       be quite another matter.                                           that its treatment of the Apostles'
just in the sight of God, but also in                                                             Len Houweling              Creed is sufficiently broad that the
our own experience. This is clear                                                                  Lynden, WA                pastor may treat any aspect of

                                                                                                                                         March 15,1995lStandard  Bearer1297


Christ's return that he believes the                     3. As to the "contradiction" be-      cils since the apostles' times, whether
congregation needs to hear, includ-              tween Q. and A. 32 and Q. and. A.             general or particular, may err, and
ing instruction against false                    60 (regarding the  conscience), have          many have erred. Therefore, they
eschatological heresies. In doing so,            you never heard of the apostle Paul           are not to be made the rule of faith
he must be guided by what A. 52                  and the great conflict between his            and practice, but to be used as a help
states, as well as by what the other             inward and outward man (Rom.                  in both.
two Reformed creeds teach.                       7:22-25)?   Have you never experi-                In the light of the above, would
     2. As to your contention that               enced the accusing voice of con-              you please expound from the Scrip-
the Catechism emphasizes the blood               science? Thanks be to God that the            tures the derivation and meaning,
of Christ as payment for sin but does            testimony of the Holy Spirit in our           nof of the birth of Christ, but of the
not do justice to another benefit of             hearts is able to overcome that ac-           term, "Christmas," and the basis
His blood, namely, "purging our                  cusing voice, and give us peace with          from the Scriptures for the institut-
consciences from dead works to                   God!                                          ing of this day of public worship of
serve the living God," (or sanctifica-                            - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper        the living God on the 25th Decem-
tion, or renewal), the following will                                                          ber, annually, as a commemoration
show that the Catechism does this                q   Against Dordt's                           day of our Lord's birth. What I am
in many places.                                  Observance of Christmas                       driving at in making this request is
          a. L.D. I: "He also assures                    Firstly, let me say that I hold       the upholding of what we Reformed
me of eternal life, and makes me sin-            you, your fellow ministers, and the           Christians have always aimed at: a
cerely  willing  and  ready,  henceforth,        Protestant Reformed Churches in               casting off of the baggage of men,
to live unto him."                               high regard, and we do appreciate             gathered over the centuries, and a
         b. L.D. XX: "to make me                 your care and regard to us over the           reformation, as far as is practical,
by a true faith partaker of Christ and           years from when we first made con-            back to biblical, New Testament doc-
all His benefits, that He may comfort            tact with you. More recently, we              trine and worship, uncluttered and
me and abide with me for ever."                  have really appreciated the love and          unfettered by that baggage which we
          c. L.D. XXI: "and that I               care and sound teaching given to              (by nature) are so prone to add in
am and for ever shall remain a Ziv-              David Higgs and Chris Connors, and            our ignorance and with the "best of
iug member thereof" and "readily                 their respective families. May the            intentions." If you are able to dem-
and cheerfully to employ his gifts for                                                         onstrate that "Christmas" is not
the advantage and salvation of oth-              Lord continue to bless all of you in          some of that baggage, I will be happy
ers."                                            His service and stab&h, settle, and           to accept it as a God-given part of
         d. L.D. XXVI, which ex-                 strengthen His people in the earth.           His worship.
plains what it is to be washed with                      What prompted me to write was
                                                 the                                               In your exposition of the Word
the blood and Spirit of Christ, gives                    Standard Bearer, vol. 71, no. 6,
                                                 December  15,1994,  "Letters": "Ob-           on this subject, would you please
the twofold purpose of the Savior's              servance of Christmas."                       deal with the fact that there is no
blood: "It is to receive of God the                                                            reference to such a commemoration
remission of sins, freely, for the sake                  The matter I address has been         in God's Word and, further, that it
of Christ's blood, which He shed for             entrenched in continental Reformed
                                                 theology for some 400 years to vary-          appears not to have been part of the
us by His sacrifice upon the cross;                                                            worship of the early church for 200
and also to be renewed by the Holy               ing degrees, so I do not expect Peter
                                                 Torlach will change anything, but             or 300 years.
Ghost, and sanctified to be members              truth is mighty above all things in               Would you also please explain
of Christ, that so we may more and                                                             its first appearance, which seems to
more die unto sin, and lead holy and             the hands of our God.
                                                         One of the great principles of the    have been associated with a church
unblamable lives." (See also L.D.                Reformation was that the Word of              sliding away from its moorings of
XXVIII on the explanation of the                 God was the only rule to direct us            apostolic doctrine and worship and
Lord's Supper.)                                  how we are to glorify and enjoy               entering into sacramentalism and
         e. L.D.  XxX11: "(Christ)               Him. Another was that the supreme             syncretism. Amongst other things,
also renews us by His Holy Spirit                judge by which all controversies of           the mass of the Christ Child seems
after His own image..." (this in con-            religion are to be determined, and            to have been associated deliberately
nection with good works).                        all decrees of councils, opinions of          with heathen feasts in order to make
         f. Really the entire third              ancient writers, doctrines of men,            Christianity "fit in" and be more "ap-
part -of the Catechism, with its treat-          and private spirits are to -be exam-          pealing" to the unbelieving and hea-
ment bf the Law and Prayer, devel-               ined, and in whose sentence we are            then.
ops. the truth that the -believer is re-         to rest, can be no other than the Holy        :. Coming to the Westminster Con-
newed unto good works,. also `the                Spirit speaking inthe Scripture. Yet          fession of Faith, Chapter 21, Section
good work- of calling, boldly upon               a third was that all synodsor coun-           1 on the regulative principle, it says
Gdd in prayer,              L  ",  '  .:-  I.                                                  in part: "the acceptable way of wor-

298lStandard  BearerlMarch  15,1995


shipping the true God is instituted       tic&r day by public notice - in the           ing to Webster's Ninth New Colle-
by himself, and so limited by his         colloquial, they were "one-offs."             giate  Dictionay,  derives  .fro.m  a
own revealed will, that he may not            For unambiguous clarity, here is          word meaning "Christ's mass."
be worshipped according to the            a quote: "There is no day com-                From this, nothing follows concern-
imaginations and devices of men, or       manded in scripture to be kept holy           ing use of the word by the true
the suggestions of Satan, under any       under the gospel but the Lord's Day,          church. According to Baker's Dic-
visible representation, or any other      which is the Christian Sabbath. Fes-          tionay of Christian Ethics (ed. Carl
way not prescribed in the holy Scrip-     tival Days, vulgarly called IioZy Days,       F. H. Henry, Baker, 1973),  the word
ture." Again I look for you to show       having no warrant in the word of              "Sunday" is "derived from pagan
me where the observance of "Christ-       God, are not to be continued."                sources and denotes the day devoted
mas" is prescribed in the holy Scrip-         You may not see a conflict with           to the sun" (p. 653). This does not
ture. It may be highly offensive to       the regulative principle, and the             rule out Christians meeting for wor-
you, but to my understanding of the       Synod of Dordt may not have ei-               ship on this day or using the word
history of the "feast," it comes pos-     ther, but that does not mean there is         to refer to the day on which they
sibly within the gamut of "sugges-        not one. The historical Presbyterian          engage in public worship.
tions of Satan," for the reason of its    Reformed Church clearly says "yes,                There is no basis in Scripture for
close association and origin in           there is a problem."                          the Reformed churches' commemo-
sacramentalism and the mass. Its              The "how" of your worship of              ration of Christ's birth on December
fruit, as evidenced in nativity scenes    God in the PRC regularly includes             25. Neither is there basis in' Scrip-
and worship of "the baby Jesus" and       worshiping God in the context of              ture for their observing a Day of
of "Mary, the Mother of God," also        Christmas. That is "how" you wor-             Prayer on the second Wednesday of
points to its suspect origins. Please     ship him, amongst other "hows."               March annually. Nor is there such
do not misunderstand my argument:             Your argument against worship-            basis in Scripture for services of pub-
I am not suggesting that these ex-        ing exdusively on the Sabbath day is          lic worship in observance of "notable
cesses in any way exist in your wor-      a "red herring" not worthy of com-            judgments,"  "some special blessing,"
ship.                                     ment, as no such concept exists in            and "days of public thanksgiving,"
    I found it offensive for you to       Reformed circles to my knowledge.             as allowed by the Westminster
attempt to use the Westminster Con-           The "kind of wisdom that we               Assembly's "Directory for the Pub-
fession of Faith in support of your       defenders of the regulative principle"        lic Worship of God" and as actually
position. The WCF and associated          must demonstrate is heavenly and              held by Presbyterian churches in the
Standards and Scottish  Pres-             not earthly. Your bringing in of the          Scottish tradition.
byterianism have always been clearly      suggestion of "rigid, stifling (and di-           The Reformed and Presbyterian
and emphatically opposed to the ob-       visive) legalism" smacks of the               churches have the liberty to observe
servance of Christmas. To get it          earth's wisdom, i.e., "throw enough           these special occasions by worship
clear what the Westminster Stan-          mud and some of it will stick." My            services on other days than the
dards say on the subject of worship       answer to such a charge of "legal-            Lord's Day. This is really our lib-
other than on the Lord's day, let me      ism" in this matter is, who is it that        erty. It is our liberty in Christ Jesus.
quote and explain. The WCF, Chap-         is binding something on the people            The Belgic Confession asserts this lib-
ter 21, Section 5, says in part that      of God, that is not bound in His              erty in general terms: "it is useful
"religious oaths and vows, solemn         Word?                                         and beneficial that those who are rul-
fastings, and thanksgivings upon spe-         The Son has made us free. If              ers of the church institute and es-
cid occasions" are .part of the wor-      any minister of our church were to            tablish certain ordinances among
ship of God.                              call for the observance of Christmas,         themselves for maintaining the body
    The surrounding context and the       both myself and all my family, who            of the church" (Art. 32). The Sec-
Directory for Public Worship make         are grown, responsible, believing             ond Helvetic  Confession of 1566, in
very clear what is intended here.         members, would not attend because             its day a Reformation creed of stand-
The Directory under the headings          we would see it as an infringement            ing, distribution, and influence, ex-
"Concerning the Observation of            of the liberty we have in Christ, as          presses this liberty in specific terms:
Days of Public Thanksgiving" and          dishonouring to our Lord, and as,
"Touching Days and Places of Pub-         will worship.                                   Moreover, if in` Christian liberty the,
lic Worship" should be carefully                            (Elder) Peter Torlach _I      churches religiously celebrate the
read. The clear teaching that will                    Woodridge, Queensland               memory of the Lord's nativity, cir-
come out of such a careful reading                                     Australia          cumcision, passion, resurrection,
                                                .'
is that all other days of ,.worship                                                      and' of his ascension into heaven,
                                                                                          and,tlie sending of the Holy Spirit         .
called for by the church .were spe-                                                       upon .his disciples;`:we  approve of
cial occasions called by the church       R e s p o n s e i                               it highly (Chapter 24, in Xefotsned
for a `particular purpose on a. par-,         The term "Christmas," accord-               Confessions of the 16th Century,

                                                                                                March 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1299


  ed.    Arthur C.          Cochrane,        (see Heid. Cat., Q. 103; John 4:24).           You inform us what you would
  Westminster, 1966).                             The Reformed churches that            do, should any minister call for the
                                             stand in the tradition of, Dordt do        observance of Christmas: flatly
    That which churches maintain-            not accuse, and never have accused,        refuse to attend.
ing the "regulative principle" do not        their Presbyterian brothers and sis-           It may be profitable to you to
have liberty to do is to introduce           ters who stand in the tradition of         know what I would do, if the situa-
into the worship service itself,             Westminster of any wrong-doing as          tion were reversed. If the consistory
whether on the Lord's Day or on a            regards their worship. It is perfectly     decided to drop the observance of
special occasion, any other element          alright  in our judgment that the Scot-    Christmas by a special worship ser-
of worship besides those com-                tish Presbyterians do not observe          vice on December 25, I would ac-
manded by Scripture. As the Hei-             Christmas by a public worship ser-         quiesce, although regretting the un-
delberg Catechism explains, God re-          vice on December 25, or any other          necessary giving up of a delightful,
quires in the second commandment             date. We make no effort to bind            edifying service. If the consistory
that we not worship Him "in any              their consciences.                         gave as its reason, that it desired to
other way than He has commanded                   When, on the other hand, our          avoid practical dangers, e.g., the
in His Word" (Q. 96).                        Presbyterian brothers and sisters ac-      secular corruption of Christmas or
    The "regulative principle" of            cuse the Reformed churches stand-          the threat of Roman Catholicism, I
public worship does not care on              ing in the tradition of Dordt of trans-    would still acquiesce, although be-
what day, in addition to Sunday, the         gressing the second commandment,           lieving the thinking of the consistory
church may gather for public wor-            because they do observe Christmas,         to be faulty.
ship, or that the occasion may be            we warn them, "Beware, lest in ap-             But if the consistory gave as its
celebrating the birth of Christ or           plying the good principle you `fall        reason for dropping the observance
some notable judgment. The con-              into a rigid, stifling (and divisive)      of Christmas that observance of
cern of the "regulative principle" is        legalism, and, thus, imperil the prin-     Christmas is per se violation of the
that when the church does gather             ciple itself."' This was, and is, my       second commandment, I would
for worship she worships God only            warning, not to those who choose           move heaven and earth to restore
as He has commanded in His Word,             not to observe Christmas, but to           the observance and, certainly, to at-
that is, by hearing His Word; using          those who are inclined to charge Ar-       tend an observance myself.
the sacraments; publicly calling upon        ticle 67 of the Church Order of                It is a precious principle with us
the Lord (which includes congrega-           Dordt, and the Reformed believers          Reformed of Dordt not to allow our
tional singing of the Psalms); con-          adhering to it, with violation of the      liberty in Christ to be infringed. B
tributing to the relief of the poor;         second commandment.                                                          - Ed.
and doing all in spirit and in truth
-,&+I  Qj@g"@$~\gy$&&gg@$.   .,  1  .,  _'                         1                          ,, Pmf                     j~?y$$~
                                                                                                         _,,:IT--yyq
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                                Andrew Melville:
           Father of Presbyterianism
                                           -L-                                                                                      1
                                             Introduction                               ish Isles, only this time we shall
                                                  Although some time ago we             travel to the northern part, that part
                                             spent time in England in the early         called Scotland.
                                             days of the Reformation, we left En-           We. have already been there
                                             gland after meeting only a few men         once, briefly, to meet John Knox, the
                                             and returned to the continent of Eu-       father of the Reformation. We re-
                                             rope to talk with men there, men           turn now to meet his successor, An-
                                             who were deeply involved in the            drew Melville.
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-      Reformation in Switzerland, Ger-
tqy and New Testbment  in the Pl;otes-       many, and the Lowlands. It is time         Background
tant Reformed Seminary.                      now to return for a while to the. Brit-        There are a few things to know

3OO/Stanciard  Bearer/March 15,1!395


as far as the Reformation in Great        and, after completing his work there,     land which would be Calvinistic in
Britain is concerned to understand        he went to St Mary's College at St.       doctrine, liturgy, and church govem-
the work there and the men whom           Andrews, a bit to the south, for four     ment. But the forces opposed to him,
God used in the work.                     more years of study.                      especially in the areas of liturgy and
    The Reformation in the British            He proved to be such an excel-        church government, vere strong.
Isles differed from that on the conti-    lent student that he soon gained a        The ruling monarch, Mary Stuart,
nent in the first instance in that,       reputation forbeing the best philoso-     Queen of the Scats, was a perpetual
while on the continent the Reforma-       pher, poet, and Greek scholar among       obstacle.
tion churches left the Roman Catho-       all Scotland's university students.            By the time Melville returned to
lic Church to form new denomina-          The rector of the school took a spe-      Scotland, Knox had been dead two
tions, in the British Isles the Refor-    cial interest in him and said to him      years, James VIZ sat on the throne3,
mation attempted to reform the Ro-        when he left the college to pursue        and the church was governed by a
man Catholic Church itself so as to       his studies elsewhere: "My silly fa-      sort of highbred  polity composed of
create a Protestant church out of the     therless and motherless boy, it's ill     elements of presbyterianism and
old institution. This always made         to wit what God may make of thee          prelacy.4
complete Reformation very difficult;      yet."                                          Melville's considerable ability
and, indeed, in England the Angli-            At the age of 19, his studies led     was soon recognized, along with his
can Church emerged as the Protes-         him overseas, first to Paris for two      devotion to Presbyterian&m and his
tant Church, an Anglican Church           years and then to Poitiers, both cit-     threat to prelacy. Morton, regent of
which retained a great deal of            ies of France. He determined to           the king, understood perhaps better
Romish liturgy and church govem-          study law, not because he had any         than anyone else what a threat
ment.                                     intention of entering the  legal pro-     Melville could be. Upon Melville's
    In Scotland this same method          fession, but because of the mental        arrival, Morton offered Melville a
was followed; and the result was a        discipline which studies in law re-       position of private tutor in the court
profound struggle which lasted for        quired. But his reputation preceded       of the regent, with promises of good
over a century. The struggle was          him at Poitiers, and no sooner had        wages and advancement. If Melville
chiefly between a basically Roman         he arrived than he was asked to take      had accepted, it would probably
Catholic church government and a          a professorship. After he was there       have happened that Melville would
genuine presbyterian church govem-        for three years, troubles between the     have become an enemy to the church
ment. It was in this struggle that        Protestants and the Roman Catho-          of Christ in his land. But he saw
Andrew Melville played an impor-          lics made it advisable for him to go      the danger and instead accepted the
tant role.                                elsewhere. He chose Geneva and in         position of principal at Glasgow Col-
                                          1567 began a seven-year stay which        lege, offered him by the General As-
Melville's youth and education            was perhaps the most happy and            sembly of the church. That began
    Andrew Melville was the young-        carefree time of his life. Beza,          his active work in his homeland..
est of the nine sons of Richard           Calvin's successor and rector at the           Soon he was deeply involved in
Melville. Richard Melville lived on       Academy, offered him a professor-         the affairs of the church. He reor-
a small estate on the banks of the        ship in the Humanities, and in            ganized the college of which he was
South Esk near Montrose, a city on        Geneva he enjoyed his work, his sur-      principal; was, as professor of di-
the east coast of Scotland about half-    roundings, his students, and his con-     vinity, present at ecclesiastical as-
way between Edinburgh and Aber-           tacts with the great men of the           semblies; and was involved in con-
deen. Andrew was born in the year         Calvin Reformation. Here he would         ferences within the church and con-
1545.                                     ha&liked  to stay; but an urgent call     ferences between the church and
    Tragedy entered his life early.       from his friends in Scotland per-
At the age of two he lost both par-       suaded him that God had assigned
ents. His father was killed in the        him a place and a work in his home-       1    The broadest assembly of the church,
battle of Pinkie and his mother died      land from which he could not turn         comparable to a Synod in Reformed churches.
                                                                                    2    Later James I of England, the one for
later the same year. Because An-          away.                                     whom the King James Version of the Bible
drew was"now an orphan, his old-                                                    was named.
est brother, a minister in Maritoun,      The beginning of the struggle             3    Although Scotland was also ruled, as
assumed responsibility for Andrew's           The first General Assembly' had       England was, by a Parliament, just as in En-
                                                                                    gland so also in Scotland there was a con-
education.                                met in 1560 under'the leadership of       stant struggle for power between the king
    Though of a somewhat delicate         John Knox. That General Assembly          and parliament.
constitution, Andrew proved to be         had adopted a confession'and' pre-        1    Prelacy was the form of church govem-
an exceptionally good student. He         pared  a book` on Church  .Order.         ment favored by James. It was similar to
was educated till 14 years old in the     Knox spent all .his later years strug-    Roman  Cathqlic church government, with-
                                                                                    out the pope. It had its archbishops, bish-
grammar school in his home town;          gling to` establish a church in Scot-     ops, and lower levels of clergy.

                                                                                             March 15,199!5/Standard  Bearer1301


Parliament, or the church and the          Melville himself set forth the prin-       suffered for the cause'of the gospel.
king.                                      ciple in words that have become .fa-       The first year was the worst, for he
    Melville's stay in Geneva where        mous. Melville was chosen as a             was deprived of all opportunities to
biblical principles of church polity       leader of a delegation to bring to the     communicate with others. But the
had been developed and practiced           king the protest of the Synod of Fife      rigors of his confinement were re-
by Calvin and the Company of Pas-          against royal encroachments on the         laxed a bit and he was permitted to
tors had convinced him that                church's autonomy. James was not           have visitors and to correspond
Presbyterianism5  was the only bibli-      impressed. After the king had ex-          from prison with his colleagues in
cally sanctioned system of church          pressed his displeasure, Melville . the ministry. Men of prominence
government, and he began now to            said: "Sirrah, ye are God's silly vas-     consulted him and he could use his
exert all his efforts to establish such    sal; there are two kings and two           imprisonment, as Paul did, for the
a biblical system in Scotland. But         kingdoms in Scotland: there is king        extension of the gospel (Phil. 1:13,
this brought him into direct conflict      James, the head of the common-             14).
with the king and his court. And           wealth; and there is Christ Jesus, the             At the age of 66 Melville was
Morton, who had originally offered         king of the Church, whose subject          released. Though his heart cried out
Melville a lucrative place in the          James the Sixth is, and of whose           for Scotland, and.though  he wanted
court, now became Melville's               kingdom he is not a king, not a lord,      to have his bones laid to rest in his
bitterest enemy.                           not a head, but a member."                 homeland, the king adamantly re-
    But Melville's courage was well            In 1584 matters came to some-          fused, and Melville was forced to
known in the land. On one occa-            thing of a head. Melville was sum-         go to France to spend his last years
sion, when Morton threatened               moned before the Privy Council for         in exile. There history lost him and,
Melville in an extraordinarily men-        preaching a sermon at the General          though we know that he died some-
acing way (and Morton's threats had        Assembly of the church in which he         where around 1622 at approximately
before made bold men quail),               condemned the tyrannous measures           77 years old, nothing is known of
Melville responded: "Tush, man!            of the court. He was cited for high        his last days or the .date of his death.
threaten your courtiers so. It is the      treason and threatened with impris-        He died alone, an exile in the cause
same to me whether I rot in the air        onment. Although Melville ap-              of the gospel, with no one to mourn
or in the ground; and I have lived         peared as directed, he denied the          his passing.
out of your country as well as in it.      Privy Council the. right to try him                One of his biographers summed
Let God be praised; you can neither        until he had been tried by an eccle-       up his life. Though he was short of
hang nor exile his truth!"                 siastical court. This so infuriated the    stature and physically somewhat
    It would carry us too far afield       head of the Privy Council that he          frail,
to describe in detail the long struggle    completely lost his temper. Melville,
between the king and the church            unmoved, took his Bible from his                As a preacher of God's Word, he
with Melville at its head. The issue       belt and put it on the table, telling           was talented in a very high degree
was not only whether prelacy or            his accusers: "These are my instruc-            - zealous, untiring, instant in sea-
presbyterianism was to be the gov-         tions: see if any of you can judge of           son and out of season, and emi-
ernment of the church; the question        them, or show that I have passed                nently successful - and as a saint
was also whether James Stuart, king        my injunctions."                                of God, he was a living epistle, of
                                                                                           the power of religion on the heart.
of Scotland and England, was to rule           Although in 1578 the Second                 Sound in faith, pure in morals, he
in the church of Christ. Just as in        Book Of Discipline which sanctioned             recommended the Gospel in his life
England the king (or queen) was the,       a pure Presbyterianism was adopted              and conversation - he fought the
head of the church, so also James          by the General Assembly, and al-                good fight; and as a shock cometh
insisted that the king in Scotland be      though this became the standard in              in at its season, so he bade adieu to
supreme in all matters of church gov-      the Presbyterian churches and was
ernment. That principle could not          sworn to in the National League and        5       Presbyterianism is that form of church
be tolerated by men concerned that         Covenant of 1581, James VI won the         government which is rule by elders., It is the
Christ rule in the church as the           battle over Melville. The success of       basic form of church government followed
                                                                                      by all Reformed and Presbyterian churches.
church's only.Head.6                       Presbyterianism had to wait for a          6       Our own Church Order devotes an ar-
    I am personally.convinced7  that       better day.                                ticle to this truth - Article 28.
the relation of the church to the secu-        When James was in Londong' he          7       Some of my good Presbyterian friends
lar government as defined by the           summoned Melville to London with           differ with me on this point.
                                                                                      6       The Scottish Presbyterians believed that
Presbyterians in Scotland.was not  in,.    .guile and, at the first opportunity,      if the king ruled in violation of the law of
all respects  biblical.8  Nevertheless,    had him imprisoned. Four years             God, the members of the commpnwealth  had
in their firm insistence that not King     Melville was kept in the ,tower  of        the right to overthrow the goverqment.
                                                                                      9
James but Christ is the Head of the        London, famous for the imprison-                   He  l&came king of England as well as
                                                                                      Scotland and has gone down in  history as
church, they were absolutely correct.      ment and torture of reformers who          James I of England.

302lStanciard Bearer/March 15,1995


this mortal 1ife;ripe for everlasting                     to the death, the propagation of a             their own lifetime, especially when
glory.. If John Knox rid Scotland of                      form of worship uncongenial to the             evil men come to power, but the
the errors and superstitions of pop-                      Scottish character.                            legacy of their works has survived
ery, Andrew Melville contributed                                                                         the centuries and has come down to
materially, by his fortitude, ex-                           Some noble men of God have
ample, and counsel, to resist, even                                                                      us as a sacred trust. 0
                                                     died unknown and unrecognized in
                                                    .            .~.        TV.                                     :1 .+ .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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                                                          ,~-  :I---  _  .,  ..;~.-:  -1':  --~*

                                                    Sacrifices                                                                            "-
    From the earliest times, God taught His people that                              tament priests had to do this often, i.e., every year.
there is no remission of sin without the shedding of                                 "But now once in the end of the world hath he
blood (Heb. 9:22). Surely Cain and Abel were taught to                               appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of him-
sacrifice by their parents, from whom God took the fig                               self" (Heb. 9:26). How terrible to teach that Christ
leaves, replacing them with bloody animal skins (Gen.                                must be offered repeatedly for sin (the unbloody
3:21). Animal sacrifices could not make the conscience                               sacrifice of the Mass), or that men must atone for
of him that did the service perfect (Heb. 9:9); yet /Abel                            some of their sins themselves (the notion of purga-
obtained witness that he was righteous through the ex-                               tory). The willing sacrifice of Christ was full pay-
cellent sacrifice that he brought (Heb. 11:4). The excel-                            ment for the sins of the elect; it was full satisfaction
lence of his sacrifice was not only that it was a firs&g                             of the justice of God; it reconciled God's people to
of the flock, but an animal offered to God in faith, the                             God in the way of atonement. Thus, the bloody,
faith that looked forward to the sacrifice of the Lamb of                            Old Testament ceremonies of circumcision and the
God. Christ was the excellence of Abel's sacrifice!                                  Passover are replaced with Holy Baptism and the
     We may assume that, from Abel on, the people of                                 Lord's Supper. We have the circumcision made
God were a sacrificing people. Noah offered burnt of-                                without hands; Christ is our Passover and our Red
ferings to God (Gen. 820); Abraham built altars unto                                 Sea. Since Christ was offered once to bear the sins
God wherever he went (Gen. X&7,8;  13:18);  so did Isaac                             of many, we look for Him to appear the second
(Gen..26:25)  and Jacob (Gen. 31:54).  With the giving of                            time, without sin, unto salvation (Heb. 9:28).
the law at Sinai,' and in connection with the temple and                                   Are we to sacrifice no more? Our reasonable
Aaronitic priesthood, God instituted six types of sacri-                             service is that we present our bodies living sacri-
fices or offerings: sin offerings; trespass offerings; burnt                         fices to God, antithetically, by not being conformed
offerings, peace offerings; meat and drink offerings; and                            to this world, but by being transformed by the re-
heave and wave offerings. These were brought either                                  newing of our minds (Rom. 12:1, 2). Specifically,
every day, on the Sabbath, or on special feast days. The                             the sacrifices that please God are a broken spirit, a
first three kinds were brought to gain covenant fellow-                              broken and a contrite heart (Es. 51:17), mercy and
ship with God by the way of removal of sin, while the                                the knowledge of God (Hosea 6:6), careful listening
latter three were an expression of gratitude for the en-                             and obedience (I Sam. 15:22), thanksgiving with sing-
joyment of this fellowship. Some involved animals (al-                               ing (Ps. 107:22), of righteousness and trust in the
ways with salt), some crops, and some flour and wine.                                Lord (Ps. 45; Mal. 3:3), of doing good and giving to
    When God sent forth His Son in the fullness of time,                             the poor (Heb. 13:16). Because Christ's sacrifice re-
made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4), Christ                               moved the curse of the law from us, and because
removed the curse of the law for all those given to Him                              He is the end of the law for righteousness to every-
for redemption. When He offered Himself on the altar                                 one that believes, our sacrifice of self is the fruit of
of the cross through the eternal Spirit, Christ fulfilled                            His sacrifice, and consists in thanksgiving and praise
every typical sacrifice. He was made a priest with an                                for so great and so free a salvation.
oath; the Old Testament priests were not (Heb. 7;21).                                      As Christ is a priest forever, ever living to make
He has an everlasting, unchangeable priesthood, while                                intercession for us, so will we forever be priests
Old Testament priests died (Heb. 7:23,24).  He entered                               under him unto God (Rev. 5:lO). As pillars in His
into the holy place made without handswith His own                                   temple, we will serve God endlessly and sinlessly,
blood (Heb. 9:24), and He did this once, while Old Tes-                              never to go out from His presence (Rev. 3:12). Q
                                            I' .                                                               /
Rev. `l$.@er  is pastor of Z&heast Protestant Reformed Church
iti Qand Rapids, Michigan.                                .,  /,  _
                                                            ,

                                                                                                                     March 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1303


                          A Return Visit to a
   Beloved Church in Singapore
                                           ^=j.  .   .                                                                       1
    It was truly the fulfillment of a         permit their use for a church. The       as lively stones, are built up a spiri-
dream when last September we re-              present building is a pretty far cry     tual house, an holy priesthood, to
ceived an invitation to return to             from anything we looked at, more         offer up spiritual sacrifices, accept-
Singapore to visit the Evangelical           beautiful than anyone at that time        able to God by Christ Jesus." The
Reformed Churches there. It has               would have imagined possible. The        message was inspiring. It exhorted
been eight years since we left                Lord in His providence enabled the       the congregation to remember that
Singapore after seven years of labors         church in Singapore to raise the         though we ought to be thankful for
in the ERCS. The occasion for this            funds for the new building and to        the beautiful building the Lord has
visit would be the dedication of the          obtain governmental approval for its     given, the true church is spiritual in
new church building and the celebra-          use as a church. The story of how        its nature. The beautiful figure used
tion of the 13th anniversary of the          this all came about would be long         by the inspired apostle was nicely
First Evangelical Reformed Church             enough to fill the space allotted for    explained in the sermon. The appli-
on January 22,1995.  A few months             this article.                            cation was especially the calling of
later we received a check in the mail             Compared to our church build-        the church as a holy priesthood to
for .more than sufficient funds for          ings  ip the U.S.A. the new ERCS          offer up spiritual  sacrifices  to God
airfare for my wife Sherry and me.           building is pretty unusual. Its de-       by Jesus Christ. The worship service
    Words cannot describe the joy             sign was largely determined by the       was followed by a short dedication
that filled our hearts at the occasion        relatively small piece of property       ceremony that was held in the car
of meeting many of the beloved               which could be purchased in the           park. This was followed by a whole
saints in the ERCS. The ties of our           Singapore situation and the peculiar     afternoon of fellowship. We were
Christian love with them have not             shape and grade of this property.        quite overwhelmed by it all, espe-
weakened over the years. Floods of           The building occupies almost all of       cially by our fellowship with many
memories of experiences of the past           the land. Even the driveway into the     dear saints of God in the church.
came back immediately.                        church is not property owned by the          Our ten days in Singapore were
    It was also a great joy to see the       ERCS. The ground floor is used as         obviously far too short. Sherry kept
new church building for the first             a car park. This was required by         a diary of all the things that were
time. What a contrast with the                city codes. The sanctuary has a seat-    crammed into those days. Looking
kampong that we worshiped to-                ing capacity of between 250 and 300.      back, we find it all quite incredible.
gether in during our days in                 There is a balcony which allows for       I preached three times. We joined
Singapore. We think also of the vari-        future expansion. The two lower           six Bible Study groups, called "cell
ous buildings in Singapore that we           levels which are underground will         groups" in Singapore. All of these
investigated for possible. use as a           eventually be used for the church        were blessed times of fellowship.
church building some of them pretty           office and classrooms. These have        We were often put on the docket for
humble places. Again and again ef-           good potential for various endeav-        the typical types of questions about
forts during those years were disap-         ors which the ERCS have in mind           the "then and the now." Besides
pointed for various reasons. Usu-            for the future. The sanctuary is air-     this we visited in many homes. We
ally the places under consideration          conditioned, something very nice for      heard about many different situa-
either proved to be unsuitable or            the hot tropical weather in               tions in the lives of the saints there.
government regulations prevented a           Singapore.                                There was an outpouring of Chris-
"change of use" of the buildings to               The great highlight of our trip      tian love toward us.
                                             was of course the dedication cer-             There are of course many
                                             emony for the building. The church        changes which have taken place
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Prot-      was filled almost to capacity. Pas-       since we left Singapore eight years
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,          tor Lau Chin Kwee preached the spe-       ago. The city-state of Singapore
California.                                  cial sermon on I Peter 2:5: "Ye also,     never ceases to amaze us. The evi-

3tWStandard  Bearer/March 15,1995


                                                                                      to His                              1
dence of tremendous prosperity is             The second biggest change is            joined the church in recent years.
on every hand. Huge skyscrapers           that most of the members are now            Some of these are very actively in-
and large new housing estates are         involved in their careers. When we          volved in the life and work of the
still being built almost everywhere.      lived in Singapore, many of the             church. The Lord continues to add
The immense population on this tiny       members were still students in col-                    church in Singapore in won-
island is astounding. The way the         leges and universities. Some of the         derful ways.
population is accommodated and            members have prospered greatly in              `It was sad to see that some had
controlled, the cleanliness and order-    their careers. The main `reason for         left the church for various reasons.
liness of the city, the schools, the      this is, of course, that many are col-      Others were discouraged and were
general good public behavior of the       lege and university graduates with          having spiritual struggles. A num-
people, the many new shopping cen-        advanced degrees. Opportunities in          ber who had not been in church for
ters, the ever more beautiful hous-       Singapore for people with degrees           some time showed up nevertheless
ing estates - all these things are        are almost without limit. Many are          at the worship services while we
quite remarkable.                         employed with multi-national com-           were there to meet with us. Our
    During our last several days in       panies. The demands and pressures           hearts go out to those who are strug-
Singapore we stayed with a family         of work in terms of time and com-           gling and to some who, for various
that lives on the 20th floor. Looking     mitment, and opportunity for con-           reasons, even left the church. Sins
out the window in every direction         tinual advancement, are very great.         and weaknesses in the church of
one can see tall apartment buildings          The two above-mentioned  fac-           Jesus Christ cause offenses and di-
as far as the eye can see. Within a       toss are responsible also for the           visions and problems among her
five-minute walk of this apartment        greatest changes in the church, and         members. Some also are led away
is a shopping center where one can        they are the ones that have the great-      by the temptations of the world. We
buy almost anything he might need         est significance for its future. We         hope and pray that our short visit
or want, a subway station to take         had opportunity to observe family           with some of these will help to bring
him very quickly to some of the           living in many homes with its joys          them back
main districts in Singapore, a bus        and also its struggles. We saw that             Besides the ongoing challenge of
terminal in which -he can board a         at least some of the members are            evangelism in the midst of a hea-
bus to most places in Singapore, and      having problems balancing commit-           then nation such as Singapore, the
several food centers with the typical     ments to work on the one hand, and          ERCS faces the new challenges of a
variety of Asian foods and even           the family and involvement in the           new stage of development the
popular Western fast-food places.         life of the church on the other. I          church is in today. There must be a
Schools for the children are nearby.      was impressed by how similar all            solid ministry to families and grow-
In short, almost everything one           this is to the situation in our own         ing children. We were happy to hear
needs in life is within walking dis-      churches in the U.S.A. The dangers          that there is catechism training for
tance. What a different life-style        of prosperity and materialism are a         the children. Because the members
than we are used to in America!           constant threat to the spirituality of      of the church are quite spread out
 Though we were again fasci-              God's people. Some by God's grace           over the island, and because trans-
nated by all of this, seeing this was     know how to maintain proper pri-            portation still presents some prob-
not our main objective. We spent          orities, while others give way to the       lems for members living in the more
most of the time visiting with the        temptations of the world and be-            remote areas, getting children to-
members of the church. We espe-           come so involved in careers and ad-         gether for regular catechism classes
cially enjoyed visiting with new          vancement in this life that their spiri-    is not always easy. Young families
families. The biggest change in the       tual life suffers. I was impressed          in their homes have more to learn
eight years  sincp our leaving            especially by some .of the mothers          regarding the urgency of strong
Singapore is the many new families.       who seemed to be doing a good job           training for their children and the
The two churches now have more            with raising their children.                urgency of setting aside time and en-
than eighty children. There were              We experienced both joys and            ergy every day for this purpose in
none when we first came. Now              sorrows while we'were  among the            the midst of a very busy and high-
whenever you go to church you see         members of the. church. Our great           pressured way .of life. No one may
one mother after another with a baby      joy is to see that the vast majority of     make  excuses forneglect in this area.
in her arms and families with two,        members who were brought by                 Sacrifices must be made and priori-
three, and four children. What is so      God's grace into the church during          ties maintained. Many of our Re-
amazing is that most of the families      our years in Singapore are still mem-       formed homes have a strong cov-
in the church are in about the same       bers today.. The Lord preserves His         enant tradition, something we must
stage of life. The oldest children are    people, some through great trials           never stop being thankful for and
just beginning their teens. There are     and temptations. It was also a joy to       something that we need to strive
only few members over forty.              meet many new people who have               very hard to maintain. Establishing

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such a covenant tradition in fami-            we believe could fill a need in the             have greatly helped the church with.
lies of relatively new converts who           ERCS that in our churches in                    some large problems they are fac-
did not inherit this tradition from           America is served by regular train-             ing. The Lord is using Pastor
their fathers and others is a real chal-      ing of our youth in Essentials in Re-           Kortering to strengthen His church
lenge.                                        formed Doctrine in our catechism                in Singapore. He is a much-needed
     We also see the need in the              classes. Our prayer is that the Lord            encouragement to Pastor Lau and
ERCS for continued emphasis on                will greatly bless the proposed Bible           the other members of the sessions
doctrinal and theological develop-            school training in the ERCS.                    of. the two churches. We were also
ment and growth among her mem-                    We were excited to meet sev-                impressed with how Mrs. Kortering
bers. There is hardly a church in             eral brethren in the church from                is giving a lot of wise advice and
the world anymore that pays any at-           Myanmar. They are regularly at-                 encouragement, especially to moth-
tention to this. Young people and             tending the worship services at First           ers in their struggles and problems
new converts do not always appre-             ERCS. The church is praying for an              with young families.
ciate the urgency of doctrinal devel-         open door for doing mission work                    We are thankful to our God that
opment and strength as much as do             some day in Myanmar. We hope                    He continues to use our Protestant
those who are older and who have              that our Protestant Reformed                    Reformed Churches, especially now
seen the serious consequences of              Churches can in some way be in-                 through our missionary-pastor, in
apostasy in the history of the church.        volved in this as well.                         the work of missions in Singapore.
We were happy to hear about the                   We had opportunity to spend                 Our prayer is that this may continue
efforts of the ERCS, under the lead-          one day with Pastor and Mrs.                    for many years if the Lord tarries.
ership also of Pastor Kortering, to           Kortering. They live in a nice apart-           The presence of a missionary pastor
begin Bible school training in the            ment similar to the kind of place that          from our churches in the U.S. also
church. We hope that this will ben-           many of the ERCS members live in.               does a lot of good in many. ways to
efit not only future ministers and            During our visit in Singapore we                maintain and develop a good rela-
church workers but also some of the           heard many comments about how                   tionship between our churches in
so-called ordinary members. The               much the Korterings are appreciated             America and the churches in
church as a whole will benefit                in Singapore. Pastor Kortering evi-             Singapore. Our prayer is that this
greatly if a number of members at-            dently is ministering very effectively          relationship will grow stronger over
tend these classes with the purpose           in the church. The Lord sent him                the years and that we will be able to
of being more solidly grounded in             there at a crucial time in the devel-           help each other in our respective
the doctrine of the Reformed faith.           opment of the church. His labors                strengths and weaknesses. 0
The proposed Bible school training                                                                                    ---





                                                     John 4:1-26
                                            J e s u s   a n d
                      the Samaritan Woman.
                                       - L               __-                     -       -                               -4
                                                  We have seen that the gospel ac-            different person, who is also one of
                                              cording to John shows the .personal             the sheep entrusted to Him of the
                                              and private ministry of Jesus with              Father. The Samaritan woman be-
                                              individuals. In chapter 3 the Lord              longed to a people despised by the
                                              dealt with Nicodemus, a man from                Jews. Besides, she herself wasigno-
                                              the self-righteous, formalistic  Phari-         rant, carnally-minded, and living in
                                              sees;who  had to be taught that one             adultery. .He gathers her to Himself
Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Protes-         cannot enter the kingdom unless he              in a way which is again. filled -with
tant Reformed Church in Elk Grove Vil-        is born again by the Spirit of God.             the knowledge and compassion of
lage,  Illinois.~~                            Now the Savior confronts anentirely             the Shepherd of the sheep. The-Sav-

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ior reveals her sin and opens her             communion with God. These alone                and the Samaritan woman (w. 7-
eyes to see. Him as the Christ, the           can satisfy man's deepest need. As             26).
living water of salvation.                    without water we die, so without                       a. Jesus' request of the woman
    The setting `for this memorable           the salvation that Christ alone can            and the surprised response of the
encounter is found in Jesus' return           give we are dead and dwell in a dry            woman that He (a Jew) would speak
from  Judea- to Galilee. He leaves            and thirsty land where we can never            to her a Samaritan (w. 7-9).
Judea because He knew His in-                 find satisfaction.                                     b. The Lord provokes her cu-
creased popularity would bring the            2. In order for the Samaritan woman            riosity by telling her of the living
resentment of the religious leaders.          to come to know her need of the salva-         water which He has, and the
The Lord does not want a prema-               tion that is to be found alone in Jesus, it    woman's resultant perplexity (vv.
ture crisis. He therefore separates           was first of all necessa y for her to come     10-12).
Himself from them.                            to the knowledge of her great sinful-                  c. Jesus explains the spiritual
    When we read that "he must                ness. This woman was living in adul-           character of the living water which
needs go through Samaria," we                 tery, and probably had committed               He gives, and the woman's request
should understand that at the heart           that sin with one man after another.           ( w .   1 3 - 1 5 ) .
of this necessity is the will of His          Jesus does not ignore her life of sm.                  d. Jesus exposes her sin of liv-
Father. The Lord knew this woman              He never does. His question about              ing in adultery (w. 16-18).
as one given to Him of His Father's           her husband is like an arrow which                     e. The woman's question about
election, and He goes forth to seek           pierced her conscience. Until one is           the true place of worship, and the
and to save.                                  brought to feel his sinfulness and to          Lord's response (w. 19-24).
    The Jews despised the Samari-             see himself as God sees him, he can-                   f. The woman's statement
tans as a people of mixed origins             not taste the living water Christ              about the promise of the Messiah,
and perverted religion. The Samari-           gives.                                         and Jesus' declaration to her that He
tans were a mixture of the remnants           3. Jesus teaches her of the true wor-          is that Christ (w. 25,26).
of the ten tribes left in the land at         ship of God. This worship shall no
the time of the destruction under the         longer be confined to one place, or            Questions
Assyrians and people of other east-           any place. It does not center in the                   1. Why did the Lord leave
ern nations brought to Canaan by              external. Rather it consists in the            Judea  when He knew that the Phari-
the Assyrian `kings in order to de-           renewed heart rendering sincere                sees had heard of His growing popu-
nationalize the Jews (see II Rings 17,        homage to God and is to be con-                larity?
especially verses 24-27). They had            ducted in full harmony with the                        2. What is the significance of
developed a religion which was a              truth of God as revealed in His                the fact that Jesus Himself never per-
combination of the Pentateuch and             Word.                                          sonally baptized but only His dis-
paganism. The center of their wor-            4. Jesus clearly identifies Himself to         ciples? (see I Cor. 1:13-17).
ship was on Mt. Gerizim, where the            the woman as the promised Christ. This                 3. Why must He needs go
ruins of a temple remained. Mutual            was the point to which He had been             through Samaria? (see Luke 19:lO).
contempt prevailed between the                leading her from the outset. She                       4. What do you know of the
Jews and the Samaritans. We should            must know two things: who she is               Samaritans: their origins? beliefs?
not think that they had no business           - a sinner; and who He is - the                place of worship? relationship to the
contact with each other and never             Christ of God. Then she (we) shall             Jews? (see II Kings 17; Ezra 2, 3;
traveled through each others' land.           never thirst again!                            Nehemiah 4).
Yet plainly there was no kindness                                                                    5. In Matthew 10:5 the Lord in-
lost between them. The Jews saw                                                              structs the disciples whom He sends
the Samaritans as being of mixed              Outline                                        out not to enter  Samaria. Yet He
blood and of corrupted worship.               1. The setting for Jesus' encounter            Himself goes there to seek and save
    At least four things stand out in         with the Samaritan woman (w, l-                this woman. Explain the significance
the way the Lord drew this woman              6).                                            of this, especially in light of the fact
to know and believe in Him as the                    a. The reason for Jesus' leav-          that at His Ascension He commands
Christ.                                       ing Judea  and going to Galilee (w.            the church to go to Samaria and unto
                                              l-3).             :                            the uttermost parts of the world
1. ]esus uses the illustration of "liv-              b. The necessity for His going          (Acts 1:8; 8:5,6).
ing water" to show the truth of the spiri-    through Samaria (v.' 4).                               6. Show the perfect wisdom of
tual blessings of salvation which He has             c. Jesus stops at Jacob's well          the Lord in dealing with this
come to .g*ve to, His people. These bless-    near the city of Shechem and under             woman, how He draws her out and
ings include righteousness and the            the shadow of.Mt. Gerizim (w. 5,               instructs her in the truth of salva-
true knowledge of God, the favor              6).                                            tion. Show that the Lord is in con-
and love of God, and eternal life in          2. The conversation between Jesus' trol of the conversation and directs

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it in such a way that the woman is               9. Explain the need of the              13. What is the significance of
shown her need and that Jesus is          woman to know her sin if she is to         the woman's introducing the truth
the Christ. What lesson may we            understand what this living water          of the promise of the Messiah? Does
learn from this?                          is.                                        this show that the Spirit was indeed
     7. What does Christ mean                    10. Why does the woman ask          at work in her?
when He likens salvation to "living       about the proper place of worship?             14. What is the significance of
water" which He alone is able to                 11. What does it mean that sal-     Jesus' plainly identifying Himself to
give? Enumerate the different             vation is of the Jews?                     her as the Christ, especially in light
thoughts suggested in this figure.               12. What does the Lord teach        of the fact that He would often for-
    8. Why did Jesus say to her,          about the true worship of God in           bid His disciples from doing so? 0
"Go, call thy husband"?                   response to the woman's question?





                                                     Chapter 4
                        The Last Four Days
              of Creation-Week (cont.)

God's Creation of Man (2):                And all that Scripture tells us reveals    How would we conceive of this?
Created a Living Soul                     that in man there is created in every      Did God make a mere form of clay?
    Concerning the manner of the          respect a special creature of God.         Or did He make a living human
creation of man, Scripture informs               God formed man of the dust of       body? Or did He make something
us in Genesis 1:27 that "God created      the ground. While the animals were         like a corpse? Or did God perhaps
man (Adam) in his own image" and,         simply called forth from the earth         make an animal from the dust and
further, in Genesis  25'~ "And the        and thus given their distinct form,        then make of that animal a man by
Lord God formed man (Adam) of             Scripture points us to the fact that       breathing into his nostrils the breath
the dust of the ground, and breathed      when God created man in His own            of life? Moreover, what is that
into his nostrils the breath of life;     image, forming him from the dust           breathing into his nostrilsthe breath
and man became a living soul."            of the ground and breathing into his       of life? Must we crudely conceive
    We may well caution ourselves         nostrils the breath of life, the Lord      of God as performing some kind of
at this point that we must not think      God did something other than               act of artificial respiration upon a
finitely and earthly concerning the       merely causing the earth to bring' clay image or upon a lifeless corpse?
divine work of creation, nor imag-        forth man. Man is created by a spe-        All such conceptions are precluded
ine that we can comprehend the            cial act of God. Even the form, the        by the language of Scripture. For
work of the infinite Creator. Never-      impress, of his nature, both body          Scripture reminds us, on the one
theless, the Lord God Himself un-         and soul, is different- from that of       hand, that in whatever it tells us it
folds to us in this language some-        the animals. On the one hand, God          is telling us concerning the marvel
thing of His own marvelous work           did not form a mere body, a clay           of creation, the unfathomable work
of creation and reveals to us some-       image, lifeless. This is often the         of God whereby He calls things that'
thing of the work that He performed.      crude conception which is presented        are not as though they were; on the
                                          of this work of the Almighty. That         other hand, it reminds us that God
                                          man is body and soul is `perfectly         specially formed man, and that, too,
                                          true.' But we are inclined to sepa-        by one creative act with a twofold
                                          rate that body. and soul, as if the        aspect.
The late Homer Hoeksema was profes-       body were a mere material house in             Man is created, not by two sepa-
sdr of Dogmatics aid Old Testameizt in    which the soul dwells. But this is         rate actsof God but by one creative
the Protestant Reformed Seminary.         not the presentation of Scripture.         act, even though this one creative

308lStandard  Bearer/March 15,1995


act of God has two aspects. By this        earth for his very subsistence, and        in part the tension in the life of the
one creative act God formed man's          from it his life must constantly be        Christian. This is not merely a ten-
one nature with its physical and           sustained. He has earthy sensations        sion of the sinful and the holy, of
spiritual sides. Thus, Genesis 2:7         and perceptions: an earthly eye with       the carnal and the spiritual, but also
presents the creation of man. He is        which he perceives earthly things,         a tension of the earthy and the heav-
so created that by the one act of God      an earthly ear that can hear earthly       enly.. That is why a spiritually
his physical and psychical, or spiri-      sounds, an earthly sense of taste and      healthy child of God, who lives in
tual, parts are so closely connected       touch and smell that brings him into       the hope of the city that hath foun-
that he is one personal, thinking,         contact with earthly objects. He is        dations, can nevertheless be reluc-
willing, rational, and moral creature.     in all his existence earthy, and bound     tant to depart from this present life
Note that the text informs us that         to the earth. And so we read also          and can cling to this life as long as
God formed man of the dust of the          that there are things which eye can-       possible. The Christian is betwixt
ground, that God breathed into             not see, and ear cannot hear, which        two: the earthy and the heavenly.
man's nostrils the breath of life, and,    have never arisen in the heart of          In regeneration he received the be-
thus, man became a living soul. The        man, things which only the Spirit of       ginning of a new life, a life which is
whole man, therefore, by his being         God can reveal unto him.                   both holy and heavenly. Yet, as long
formed from the dust and by the                3. As a living soul man is mor-        as he is in the body, he is earthy; he
inbreathing of the breath of life, is a    tal, that is, able to die. As he was       is bound to the earth by many ties.
living soul, according to the text. We     created, indeed, death had no do-          Death is, from the point of view of
may also note that by this expres-         minion over him. But he was not            our earthy existence, a being un-
sion as such, man, while he is in-         beyond the reach of death. The pos-        clothed, and we do not like to be
deed distinct in his position and na-      sibility was there for man to fall and     unclothed. Yet, at the same time,
ture, is put inthe same class as the       to die.                                    we desire to be clothed upon with
animals. The animals, as we noted              Let us also note the significance      our house which is from heaven,
earlier, are also called living souls      of the preceding items. This ex-           when mortality is swallowed up of
in Scripture (Gen. 1:20,24).               plains, in the first place, why God's      life. But to be clothed upon with
    What are the implications as to        revelation of the things of the king-      our heavenly house it is first neces-
the nature of man in this expression?      dom must necessarily come to us in         sary that we be unclothed, that is,
There are especially three factors to      the form of human language and an          stripped of all that which is of the
be mentioned.                              earthly Bible. It explains why, in         earth, earthy. For man was made a
    1. Man is a being that moves           the Bible, heavenly things must            living soul, and the flesh and blood
freely upon the face of the earth,         needs be pictured to us in earthly         of that earthy living soul cannot pos-
even as do the animals. This, as we        forms and symbols. That is the only        sibly inherit the kingdom of God.
saw in connection with the creation        way in which we can, in our present                Yet, man is more than a mere
of the animals, belongs to the na-         state, have any understanding of and       creature of the earth, earthy. Like
ture of a living soul: it moves upon       contact with heavenly things. We                  the animals, he is a living soul.
the earth freely by an impulse from        cannot yet see face to face;                          But the animals are living
within.                                    for we are of the earth,            There is a         souls whose life, or soul, is
    2. It is emphasized that man is        earthy, and as such can         sharp bounda  y,         in their blood. Pour out
of the earth; earthy, when he is           see only in a glass darkly.         therefore,           their blood upon the
called a living soul. As formed from       In the second place, this          between man            earth, and there is noth-
the dust of the ground, man is an          explains also why we            and the creature          hg  left  anymore  of  the
earthy creature. Thus the apostle          must be changed in or-             nearest him,           existence of the animals.
also teaches us in I Corinthians 15:45,    der to inherit the king-           the animal,            Not so with man. His
47,48. After he informs us that the        dom of God. That king-          and between man           very creation reveals
first man Adam was made a living           dom is heavenly, and we             and all the          this. While of the  ani-
soul, he writes: "The first man is of      are earthly; as the apostle     earthly creation.        mals it is said that God
the earth, earthy: -the second man is      says, "Flesh and blood can-                             called them forth from the
the Lord from heaven. As is the            not inherit the kingdom of                            earth, and while in that sense
earthy, such are they also that are        God" (I Cor. 15:50). There must                    it is also said of them that God
earthy: and as is the heavenly, such       be a,change  from the mortal to the       formed them from the ground, yet,
are they also that are heavenly." ,By      immortal,, from the natural (or           Scripture points to the distinct and
virtue of his creation man is closely      psychical) to the spiritual, from the     special character of man in the very
related to the earth from whence he        earthy to the heavenly, before we         narrative of his creation. For we
is formed. He lives an earthly life.       can possibly inherit the everlasting      read that God "formed Adam from
As created, he cannot reach to             kingdom of glory.                         the dust of the ground and breathed
heaven. He is dependent upon the               In the third place, this explains     into his nostrils the breath of life;

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 and so man became a living soul"                 the Spirit of God he is formed into a       lated to God, yet he is earthy. He is
 (Gen.  27). Moreover, Genesis 1:26-             personal, rational, moral spirit. God        dependent upon the creation, yet he
28 teaches very plainly that by this              so wrought upon man that he be-             is lord over the earthly creatures. He
 creative act there is created in man             came a personal being, with mind            is created as the bearer of the image
 the position of dominion over the                and will, with a moral nature, ca-          of God - a personal, rational, moral
 earthly creation. There is a sharp              pable of standing in a free, personal,       being - and created actually bear-
boundary, therefore, between man                  covenant relationship of friendship         ing that image, too; yet, he is ca-
 and the creature nearest him, the ani-           to the living God, capable of being         pable of falling into the bondage of
mal, and between man and all                               adorned with the image of          sin and of perverting that image into
 the earthly creation.                                        God, as he was originally,      its very opposite. He is created liv-
     This design to be lord              While man             so that "he might rightly      ing, yet also mortal and capable of
 of the earthly creation is,           is indeed limited        know God, his Creator,        dying and returning to the dust.
in the first place, evident              to the sphere          heartily love Him, and               For, as we indicated before, the
 even in man's physical           of  things earthly,           live with Him in eternal      first man Adam, according to Scrip-
 organism. This is to be                  he stands             happiness, to glorify and     ture, was made a living soul. He is
 expected; man is one,                 at the pinnacle          praise Him" (Heidelberg       not the last man. He is not a quick-
 and his physical organ-          of  created things,           Catechism, Q. 7). By vir-     ening spirit. But as far as the spiri-
ism must also needs be                  as their lord.         tue of the two-sided act of    tual is above the natural, the incor-
 adapted to the whole of his                                 God whereby He created           ruptible above the corruptible, the
 existence and nature. While he                           man a living soul, man was so       immortal above the mortal, the heav-
is made a little lower than the an-               created that he was a creature ca-          enly above the earthy - so far is
 gels, he is so made that he must and            pable of occupying the position of           the last man, Christ, above the first
 can exercise dominion over all the              lord of the earthly creation and ser-        man, Adam.
 earth, and subdue it. While man is              vant of the living God.                             Nor is there any process of evo-
indeed limited to the sphere of                           This also means that man's ex-      lution between those two, Adam and
 things earthly, he stands at the pin-           istence does not end with his physi-         Christ. Between them lies the chasm
nacle of created things, as their lord.          cal and earthy end. He is a personal         of sin and death - the chasm that
 Even his physical organism as spe-               spirit who continues to exist even          is bridged only by the wonder of
cially formed from the dust of the               through physical death, which is not         sovereign grace. Or, if you will, be-
 earth bespeaks this: it is created as           to be confused with immortality in           tween them lies the whole process
 an instrument and manifestation of              the Scriptural sense. Mere contin-           of sacred history. The first man,
his lordship. This need not be bela-             ued existence is no immortality.             Adam, who'was made a living soul,
bored; it is self-evident. Man is not            There is continued existence ei-                    did not regard his honorable po-
 as to his nature like the beasts. His           ther in everlasting death, un-                         sition; he violated the  cov-
upright bearing, his intelligent face,            der the wrath of zod, or in          As far as          enant of God and fell into
his finely shaped hands - all these              everlasting life and immor-          the spiritual        the abyss of sin and death,
bespeak the fact that he was as to               tality in the heavenly tab-            is above            dragging with him all
his physical side created above the              ernacle of God. But Scrip-           the natural,          that bear the image of the
rest of the earthly creation, created            ture points us to this fact             the in-             earthy.
to be king, created, too, so as to be            of man's being a personal            corruptible                But God in His eter-
capable of bearing the image of God.             spirit, standing in rela-               above               nal and sovereign  .pur-
     But above all, Scripture makes              tion to the living God. It         the corruptible,         pose of election and re-
the distinction that God breathed                tells us, for example, that         the immortal            demption had provided
into his nostrils the breath of life.            when the dust returns                 above the             some better thing for us.
This aspect of man's creation is ab-             unto the earth, the spirit             mortal,              Even the fall of the first
sent from the creation of the animals            shall return to God who              the heavenly           man was to serve that
altogether. This can mean nothing                gave it. It reminds us:               above the             purpose, must serve to
less, in the light of what Scripture             "Fear not them which kilI          earthy - so far          make room for the com-
tells us about man as a living soul,             the body, but are not able         is the last man,         ing of the last man, our
than that man was so formed that                 to kill the soul." And it               Christ,            Lord Jesus Christ, the
he is a personal, rational, and moral            teaches us that- the rich               above              Lord from heaven, who is
being. The animals are purely                    man opens his eyes in hell,         the first man,       made a quickening spirit.
earthly and material living souls:               while Lazarus is carried `into         Adam.             He came in the fullness of
their soul is in their blood. Man                Abraham's bosom.  Is                                    tiine - He, the Lord ram
. was made a psychical body, a body              Such, therefore, is man's                             heaven, in the likeness of sin-
fit to be the instrument for a per-              creation.       He is one  physical-         ful flesh. He died to blot out the guilt
sonal s$rit. By the inbreathing of               psychical-personal being. He is  re-         of our sins, the sins of all His own.

31 ~/Standard Bearer/March  15,1995


He is raised and exalted into heav-          this mortal shall put on immortal-        understand the creation of the first
enly glory, immortal glory, and has          ity, and this corruptible shall put on    man Adam. He was created, and
received the promise of the Spirit,          incorruption. We who have borne           he was created specifically as the
in order that He may impart to all           the image of the earthy shall bear        kind of creature that he was, with a
His own His incorruptible and im-            the image of the heavenly and shall       view to the great work of our God,
mortal and heavenly resurrection             inherit the kingdom of God. It is in      the revelation of the wonder of
life, and, finally, raise them all up at     this light, therefore, that we must       grace, which is the object of our
the last day. In and through Him                                                       study in sacred history. ~3


   A%%w~ lqi~~m C&/f ~~I~/&!%~~                                                              ii& /&~7$~~]/iiil//~J~  lVly@&/ii
I__-                                                 __________-                                                         2  I
                                                                                                                   ____~
Evangelism Activities                        School Activities                         is a good one. This meeting was held
                                                                                       in the Anglican Church, where
     Along with some bulletins from              The Hope School Foundation, of        Immanuel holds their regular wor-
our Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL this            our Hope PR Christian School in           ship services.
past week came information from              Walker, MI sponsored three travel-            In our last issue of the SB, we
their Evangelism Committee giving            ogues, one on February 4 entitled         noted that Rev. and Mrs. A. den-
quotes from contacts they have re-           "Americana," one on March 4 en-           Hartog of the Hope PRC in
ceived lately. These contacts came          titled "Exploring the Northwest,"          Redlands, CA were able to return to
from Florida, the Philippines, Penn-         and one still to come on April 1 en-      Singapore for two weeks in January.
sylvania, and Hawaii. Each excerpt          titled, "Canadian Maritimes." All          What we failed to tell you then was
spoke of how much the information           three were planned for the audito-         that the  denHartogs  were invited
sent to-them was appreciated. These         rium of Grandville Public High             back so that they could be included
opportunities, along with those of          School, and were intended to intro-        in the dedication of the new church
our other churches, can only make           duce the travelogue-goers to the ser-      buikling of the First Evangelical Re-
us aware again and again of the             vices the Hope Foundation could            formed Church of Singapore. Need-
power of the truth of God's Word            provide.                                   less to say, they were overjoyed by
to penetrate all languages and social                                                  this invitation to return to the saints
barriers. We also can not help but                                                     among whom they labored for seven
be aware of the calling God has             Congregational Activities                  years. (See "Go Ye Into All the
given His church to "preach the gos-                                                   World," in this issue, for a report on
pel to every creature" (Mark 1625).                                                    this activity of Rev. denHartog.)
                                                What better way to spend a cold
It is humbling to know that we as           wintry night than to find a warm
churches have been privileged to be         spot with a good book. Perhaps this
used in a small way to carry out            was the thought that accompanied           Young People's Activities
this calling.                               an announcement in a recent bulle-
    In a recent bulletin from the           tin from the Bethel PRC in Elk Grove           The young people of the
Hope PRC in Redlands, CA, we find           Village, IL. Their entire congrega-        Randolph, WI PRC invited young
word that for several months their          ,tion was encouraged to read the           people of area PRC's to join them
pastor, Rev. A. denHartog,  has been        book  Having a Heart for God,  by          for a ski outing on February 18 at
conducting monthly Bible studies on         Sinclair Ferguson - and then not           Cascade Ski Resort. Young people
the book of Ephesians at the home           only to read it but also to get to-        were invited to come already the
.of a family in Victorville/ Apple Val-     gether and discuss what they had           night before for supper at Randolph
ley, which according to my Califor-         read.                                      Church, followed by an overnighter
nia map appears to be approximately             The Trinitarian Bible Society,         in their new gym at Faith Christian
40 miles north of Redlands. At this         whose stated purpose is to promote         School and then a full day of skiing
time a number of families are attend-       `and distribute the King James Ver-        on Saturday.
ing these meetings, and the                 sion of the Bible, held an organiza-
Consistory .of Hope has decided to          tional meeting with the assistance of                                        /I
                                                                                                                        :'
support and supervise this work.
..,                                         our Immanuel PRC congregation in           Minister Activities
                                            Lacombe;  AB, Canada. While the
Mr. l@&er .is a mekber hf the Protes-       Consistory of Immanuel did not of-             Rev. M. DeVries  and his family
tant Refor&d Church of Hudsonville,         ficially endorse this organization, it     are waiting for clearance from the
Michigan.,                                  did recognize that its stated purpose      Canadia    overnment  which will al-
                                                                                                  7
                                                                                              March 15,1995/Standard  Bearer/311


                                                                                                                              -_
         =pE
     g$y@gjf@Jg~                                                                                                          SECOND CLASS
        ~ggy@~                                                                                                            Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                          Grandville, Michigan
       P.O.Box603
       Grandville,  MI 49468-0603
I                                     ___-        _--                                                                                               1
low them to move to Canada and                 they will be moving.                                   of the Doon, IA PRC to serve as their
begin their stay in our First PRC in               After Rev. W. Bruinsma's de-                       next pastor.
Edmonton, AB, Canada. This will                cline, the Council of Edgerton, MN                         The Lynden, WA PRC formed a
very likely take a couple of months PRC has formed another trio from                                  new trio consisting of the Revs.
yet, In the meantime, Rev. DeVries             which a call to serve as pastor was                    Mitch Dick, Meindert Joostens, and
and his wife were able to go on Rev.           to be extended. From a trio of the                     Richard Moore.
DeVries' scheduled classical appoint-          Revs. W. Bekkering, R. Dykstra, and
     ment to First on February 12 and 19.      K. Koole, Rev. Dykstra received the                    Foodfor  Zlbu#it
This gave them a time to get  ac-              call.         1                                            A prayerless man is a careless man.
     quainted with their new labors and            The Byron Center, MI PRC has                         -William  Tiptaft  (1803-1864)  Q
     to look at the parsonage into which       extended a call to Rev. R. Dykstra

                                                    :~$:j$@($:~~s@  ~~~~~`~~~~,i~~:~~~~~~S
                                                           __-

                                                 RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
           TEACHER NEEDED                          The Men's and Ladies' Society                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
         The Hope Christian School in          of the First Protestant Reformed                           On February 11, 1995, our par-
     Redlands, California, is in need of       Church of Holland, Michigan  ex-                       e n t s ,
     teachers. Either class 1-2 or 3-5 is      presses its heartfelt sympathy to Mr.                       MR. and MRS. GORDON
     available at this time. Please mail       and Mrs. Henry Lubbers in the death                                    WASSINK,
     resume to                                 of Henry's sister,                                     celebrated their 40th wedding anni-
            Hope Christian School                        HENRIETTA MARING.                            versary. We wish to thank them for
            1309 E. Brockton Ave.              "Blessed be God, even the Father                       the love and support they have
             Redlands, CA 92374.               of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father                   shown through the years but most
     Or `please contact Ron Van                of mercies, and the God of all corn- ' of all for the God-fearing upbringing
     Voorthysen at (909) 794-6457,             fort" (II Corinthians 1:3).                            we have received. We pray that
     Steven Feenstra at (909) 7945933,                   Cornelius Doezema, President                 God will richly bless them as they
     or Ed Gritters at (909) 792-4923.                      Wilma Kamstra, Secretary                  continue to serve Him.
                                                                                              8        a-. "The lines are fallen unto me in
                                                    WEDDING ANNIVERSARY                               pleasant places, yea I have a goodly
                                                    On February 2,1995                                heritage" (Psalm 16:6).
                                                         MR. and MRS. CONRAD                              Deane and Donna Wassink
       RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                     DEVRIES                                 Darle and Colleen Wassink
       The Council of the First Protes-        observed their 65th wedding anni-                          Tim and Linda Mowery
     tant Reformed Church of Grand             versary. We thank our heavenly Fa-                         Douglas and Kathy Wassink
     Rapids expresses its heartfelt sym-       ther for giving us God-fearing par-                        Ryan and Karla Feenstra
     pathy to its fellow officebearer,         ents and for blessing them with                              25 grandchildren
     emeritus, Rev. George Lubbers and         many years together.                                                                 Holland, Mlchlgan
     family in the death of his sister,             "But the mercy of the Lord is
            HENRIETTA MARING.                  from everlasting to everlasting upon
         "And God shall wipe away all          them that fear him, and his righ-
     tears from their eyes; and there shall    teousness unto children's children"
     be no more death, neither sorrow,         (Psalm 103:17).
     nor crying, neither shall there be any         Mrs. Vernon DeVries (Marilyn)
     more pain; for the former things are           Mr. and Mrs. Loren DeZwarte
     passed away" (Revelation 21:4).                     16 grandchildren
             Rev. M. Joostens, President                 36 great grandchildren
                       R. VanPutten,  Clerk                                            Pella, lowa



     312fStandard  Bearer/March 15,1995


