I    A  Reform&Y   -
     Semi-Month/y
     Magazine
                        I

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                             See "A Wfense  df. (Reformed) Amillehnialism" -&p...317
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     April 1, 1,995




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  CONTEiVTti:                                                                                       April  1,  1995
                                                                                                                                 1
  blZ%iitatlon - Rev. J6hmTHeys
       That Blessed Promise .................................................................... 315
  Editorial  1  Prof.  D&id  J.  Engelstia  -                             .                           *  1
       .A Defense of8(Reformed)  Amillennialism ................. .A':.,.............. 317                                            ISSN                       0362-4692                          .
  Letters ...... ..i.........................................................~.~...................~          ........... 319         SemCmo!dhly. except monthly during June, July, and August.
  The Reider Asks:..:  `I.. ........ . ............................ ...... ..! ................ ............... 319                   Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
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        YinAYang .:i:........,i.. .......... :.:..............................................................325                     Editor: Prof. David J. Engelama
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  Search the Scriptul'es - Rev. Car1.J. Haak                                                                                          Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doazema
   . The Harvest inSamaria .....................................;.~......................... 327                                      DEPtiiMENl  EDKORS
  Church and State'- Mr. Jaines Lantinb                                   `,          :                                               Rev;Wilbur  Brulnsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
        Recent Developments in Church/State Law ................................ 329                                                  ,Decker,  Rsv.AriedenHartog.  Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
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_ Decen_cy!and  Order - Rbv. Ronald L. Cammeirga                                             . .                                      Hanko. Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. Johp Heys, Rev. Dale
        The General Synod ........................................................................ 330                                Kulper, Mr. James Lanting, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
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  Book Reviews .........................................................................................                332           Tarpstra, Rev. QiseVanBaren.  Rev. RoneldVanOvertoop, Mr.
  Report of Classis West - Rev. Steven J. Key ....................................... 334                                             Benjamin Wigger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
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  314iStandard  BearerjApril 1, I&


                                            I                                                          I                                         I
     Nevertheless we, according to Kis            ingly dwell. We do have here our             unrighteousness, and could tempt
 promise, look  fqr  new  heavtris and a          .God's manifestation of the coming           `man, and cause the whole human
 new earth,, wherein dwelleth righteous-
           _                                      of the blessed-glory that He prom-           race to fall into corruption and guilt.
 ness.           I,                               ised usand that is coming to pass in         Now, through Christ Jesus our Sav-
                          II Peter 3:13.          its fullness.                                ior, all those chosen in Christ shall
                                                        Peter begins this epistle with that    have the fulfillment of that-blessed
     The coming of our Savior Jesus               truth in mind. For in the first-verse        promise of dwelling where righ-
-Christ is not mentioned literally in             of this second epistle he writes that        teousness.dwells everlastingly.
this -verse. We do, however, find                 we have with us a"`precious  faith"              In the text quoted at the begin-                   '
&Iim presented literally in the sec-              through the righteousness of God             ning of this article;, we are assured _
ond verse of this chapter. There He               and of our Savior. Still more, this          that what is coming for us is not
is called our Savior: It is plain, then,          13th verse of chapter 3 begins with          merely. a -place  where there -will be
that when our God speaks .of the                  references to God's promise of -what         no sin and punishment. It is the
-"new heavens and the new earth"                  He intends to do, and what He will           place where- all the citizens ofP the
He refers to the day in which Christ              truly give us, namely, a-new life of         kingdom of heaven shall love God
Jesus our Savior comes and God's                  righteousness in the kingdom of              and  sexv,e  Him constantly and joy-
most blessed promise is fulfilled.                Christ where we will live with Him.          fully with. their .hearts, minds, and
Christ's most blessed kingdom,                    And'He  will bless us, not merely            strength every minute.
.which is promised, .will come.                   with a life like that comfortable life           There is so much! emphasis. ,m
     What is more,. in the verse -pre-            which Adamand Eve had when they              the church-world today on deliver-
ceding this statement of the coming               were created. We will have more              ance from punishment. That deliv-
of the new heavens and new earth                 glory than the highest angels' now - erance is surely a blessed gift from
we have ,God's promise to us that                 have in heaven; and we will have it          our God. Acts 16:31 clearly makes
the present heaven and .earth  will               in the new creation of which our text        it part of our salvation. But the ba-
be dissolved, melting away with a                 s p e a k s .   -                            sic element of our salvation is deliv-
fervent heat. For in verse 12 our                  - Our Savior ,did not die for any           erance from sin, not merely from -
God, through Peter, states:. "`look-              of the angels; and He did not earn           ,that punishment. It is deliverance
ing for and hasting unto the coming               for them glory above the glory they          from -the love of sin. It is granting
of the day of God, wherein the heav- already had. We will by God's grace                       us the desire to walk in love to .God,                      _
ens being on fire shall be dissolve-d,           be brought into a far richer glory            and to serve Him eagerly and thank-
and the elements shall melt.with fer-            -than that of the angels, and far richer      fully in -all our thinking, willing, and
vent heat."                                      than Adam and Eve had before they             acting. Only in that way.can there
    Now here, in verse 13, our God               fell  mtor.sin. The believers are all         be salvation from punishment. What
through the- apostle Peter presents              together members of Christ's body.            is more, the, basic element of our sal-
the awesome -truth that the new                  And He uses the angels for the good           vation is being born spiritually.
heavens and the new earth will come of His elect. Of these angels we read                      Thus inJohn 3:3 we read, "Except a
into being. as a -wonderful realm,               in Hebrews l:l& "Are they not all ' man.be  born again, he cannot see
wherein righteousness will everlast-             ministering spirits, sent forth-to min-       the kingdom of God." We are not
                                            - ister for them who shall be heirs of             saved basically for our pwn glory..
                                                 salvation?".                                  We are saved basically  .for Go$`!
                                                     ,.The righteous earth on which            glory. .It is good and wonderful that
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the          Adam and Eve were created was a               we are by God saved from the~pun-
Protestant Reformed Churches.                    realm where Satan could come with             ishment which we deserve. But God

                                                                                                            April .1,~199UStandard Bearer1315


       saves us for His own glory. Accord-        ingly be in torment in hell. We do        father, and be born on this earth, to
  ing to Psalm 149:14, we are "fear;              well to take note of the fact that the    pay for our guilt, and to ascend up
  fully and wonderfully made" and . almightyandunchangeable God will                        into heaven to save all those who
       therefore-we praise Him.                  - have realized what He had in His         were eternally chosen in Him.
           What is more, `the-righteous ; heart and mind before He even cre-                    What a blessed and wonderful
       earth on which Adam and Eve were ' ated the heavens and the earth and                gift of God's grace do we now see.
 -created  was one on which there was d all that they contain.                              For it we must be, and by God's
  not one sin .committed  until Satan                 Our c&.li.ng, therefore, is to be     grace we are, thankful. What a
       came to begin it. But. in the new' r concerned with the basic element-of             blessed promise.do  we have here in
       heavens and earth there will be for        our salvation. God promises us that       this 13th verse  ,of Peter's second
       us, as members of Christ's body, no        Christ is coming to -bring  us with       ,epis:tle.  God's promise is going to
       sin. The new heavens and earth will        body and soul into the blessed life       be fulfilled, for He is the almighty,
  be a holy place where saints shall              which He eternally decreed to give        unchangeable God, whose name is
       walkin  love toward-God with heart,        us: Peter, in the text quoted above,      Jehovah, which means I AM. Every
       mind, soul, and strength, every            is used by God to bring to us the         one of His promises to His elect is
  minute, by God's promise in His                 rich, heavenly blessedness which He       going to be fulfilled, at the exact time
       grace.                                     realizes through His Son, and for us.     that He eternally decided to fulfill
  _       .Stiq more, in the verse where-         It is extremely important for us,         it. A new heaven and a new earth
       with this `article begins we read that     through His Son,* to keep in mind,        are most assuredly coming.
       the elect are by God's grace already       and to search with our hearts and             .Let us then, by His grace, praise
       looking for the "new heavens and           minds, the joy that God realized for      God from whom all blessings flow.
       new earth wherein dwelleth righ-           us, and will fulfill through His Son.     We do have such a blessed promise;
  teousness." .We, are not merely                 Salvation is the blessed gift of God's    and we have it given to us by the
       saved from punishment. Basically grace, whereby we will love Him                     almighty, unchangeable God, so that
       our salvationis deliverance from our       fully and constantly, so that we will     we can be, and by His grace are,
  love of sin, and of sinful deeds. And           never get the slightest desire to com-    sure that a22 things work together for
       Christ will come to raise our bodies       mit a sinful thought or desire.           our good. Our salvation is abso-
       so that we can, and :will, in love of          That is why our Savior Himself        lutely sure. 0
       God, desire to do nothing else but         said, as we find it,in Matthew 5:6,
       serve God with heart, mind, and            "Blessed are they which do hunger
  soul. Very rightfully we sing in                and thirst after righteousness: for
  -God's church: "Praise God from                 they shall be filled." Likewise in
  whom all blessings flow." -                     Ephesians 4:24 we read: "And that
           All this t&es place because of         ye put on the new man, -which after
  God's promise to bring forth the-new            God is created in .righteousness and
i heavens and earth, wherein righ-                true holiness." We do well to take                          Faith
  teousness will eternally dwell. And             note of the fact that we are created      "Be not anxious;" Jesus says,
  the text above calls it dwelling in ' ' in righteousness. We did not change                   Whatever comes your way
  "righteousness," which means                    our own spiritual being. God              Is sent by God, then surely He
       dwelling where we will do only             changed  us; making us righteous by           Will give you strength each day.
  what is right  inGod's eyes. That               His grace. And so correctly .we sing:
  we will do because of perfect love              "All that I am I owe to Thee. Thy         "Consider now the lilies!"
  for Him which He has implanted in               wisdom, Lord, hath fashioned me."             How beautiful the sight!
  our hearts.                                         Now, to create is to bring into       Our God in His great majesty
           The day we fell our God de-            being that which does not exist. We           Has thus arrayed in white.,
  clared that He will make all the elect          create absolutely nothingspiritual or
  love Him,and hate Satan.- And, look-            physical. We owe all that is physi-       "He feeds the little sparrow,"
  ing for His return, we are looking              cally and s@itually  good to God,             And causes birds to sing;
  for a blessed, beautiful kingdom,               as the gift of.His grace. The awe-        Will He not bless my pathway
  where we will by God's grace live               some fact is that righteousness did           With every perfect thing?
  f o r e v e r .   -                             not,. and cannot, come into any man
          Looking for Christ's return, we         or angel,`except.as  the gift of God's    Indeed my hairs are numbered,
  are looking for that blessed, beauti-           grace. Sin began in heaven as the             Such blessings I receive!
  ful life in a new realm, where we               work of Satan and of the fallen an-       0 give me faith, Lord Jesus,
  will stays forever. For we `will be             gels. Sin began'in heaven before it           To trust Thee and believe.
  righteous everlastingly. Satan and              came on this earth., And our Savior                                  Annetta Iansen
  all the fallen angels shall -everlast-          had to be born without an earthly                               Don; Michigan

  31 G/Standard Bearer /April 1,1995


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                                                      I                                                                                                     I
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                                                                 1                                                                             _ I
           Response to the editorial, "Jew-                i&uentialtB&ner of Truth publish-            ' There are three main rival views
     ish Dreams" (the, Sfundurd Bearer,                    ing group vigorously and incessantly -         of evangelical eschatology - four,
     Jan. 15, 1995),  has .made clear how                  push postmillennialism, usually in             considering dispensationalism.  Ei-
     deep and entrenched are the inroads                   connection with,their  expectation of          ther all'are in error, or all but one
     of postmillennialism into Reformed                    a coming great `revival`of Christian,          is. It. is always the task of
                                                                                                        Trinitarian theologians to discover  -
     circles. The editorial, written at the                ity.- -                                        what is biblically correct. When a                          .
     beginning of a new year, reminded                          It is also true that there is little      theologian has concluded that a
     Reformed Christians that our -only                    or no defense of amillennialism  in          ' particular view is correct, he shot&i
     hope, according to the Bible, is the                  the Reformed press. I Exposure and           ' seek to make his discovery a test of
     second coming-of the Lor.d Jesus. It                  condemnation of postmillennialism              orthodoxy - if not in his-own era,
     sketched- in broad.,outline  the tradi-               as false and dangerous doctrine are            if that is premature,-then someday;
     tional, creedal Reformed conception                   unheard of.                           i-       The goal of the Church should +-
     of the last days: abounding lawless-                       -Reformed and- Presbyterian               ways  be an increase in confessional
     ness; widespread -apostasy; the An-                   churches  and officebearers have  ap-          precision. A large part of the
                                                                                                          Church's confession deals with
     tichrist; and great tribulation for the               parentlp decided to tolerate post-             eschatology. Orthodoxy means
     true church. It gave a warning                        millennial&m. This is tacit sanction- straight speaking. One  cannot speak
     against the&false hope that is known                  ing of the error. Postmillennialism            straight with a four-way tongue.
     as postmillennialism, quoting a Re-                   is, at the very least, a legitimate op-           It is time to stop believing in
     formed creed that condemned  "Jew:                    tion for Reformed Christians. It is,           theological  ,plurahsm  as anything
     ish  dreamsathat  there will be a                     therefore, no -wonder that these             * more than a temporarystopgap. It
                                                                                                          _ . .        _ . . . .      > . .           -'
     golden age on earth before the Day                    churches and ministers are unable              is tune to reject the idea ot the equal
     of Judgment."                                         to- respond to the sharp .attack on            ultimacy of incompatible  theolog&-                    -
          Against this Reformed doctrine                   amillennialism by the, postmillen-             cal positions. Premillennialism,.
                                                                                                          postmillennialism, and amillen-
     of the endtime with its condemna-                     nialists. Much less can they take the          nialism are theologically  inworn:  .
     tion of postmillennialism have come                   offensive against the error.                   patible. God cannot be pleased'
     vehement objections. The objections,                     ,Postmillennialism  wins by de-             with all three. At least two of them
     arise from conservative Reformed                      fault.                                         should be discarded as heretical, if
     and Presbyterian men and churches.                         Error carries the day because             nqt  today, then before Christ comes
           One objector asked for a defense                truth is kept from the field..                 in final judgment.
     of amillennialism from Scripture.                          The notion of some amillen-                 I contend that two of them will
     He alsoconfidently asserted that the                  nialists that amillennialism  and-             be. This is another implication of
     number of Reformed amillennialists                    postmillennialism are two valid op-            postmillennialism: the Church  fl
                                                                                                          eventually identify other  escha-
     is steadily decreasing, suggesting                    tions for Reformed Christians and,             tologies as wrong. Amillennialists
     that the reason for this-is the irrefut-              that the silence of the amillennialists        and  premillennialists believe that
     able arguments of the postmillen-                     will result in amillennialism and              such eschatological precision and
,    nialists.                                             postmillennialism dwelling together            confidence  will never come to the
           It is true that the post-                       -in blest accord is silly. i                   Church in history; therefore, they
     millennialists are-very vocal and ag-                     `-The aggressive postmillennialists        are formally defenders of  eschato-
     gressive in promoting their theory know better than this and intend, in                              logical liberty (at least in  Presbyte-
     of the last days. Nor is this true                    fact, to wipe amillennialism out, root         riancircles) even though they can-  _
~    only of those associated  ,with the                   .and branch. They, have given the              not stand  postmUennizilism.  They
                                                                                                         believe that today's eschatological
     movement known as "Christian Re-                      Reformed amillennialists fair warn-            confusion is a permanent condition:
     construction," Also the  menof the                    ing. Gary North-has written:                   the equal judicial  ultimacy of all

                                                                                                                   April 1,1995/Standatd ~earer/317


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                                   -
                    three. We oostmillennialists  do not                                - Antichrist over the entire world, and                amillennialists -and the postmillen-
                      _      .'
                 `agree:   I  -' We -do not -hold                                        great tribulation for all those who                   nialists believe in Jesus? Cannot we
                    eschatologies  in dialectical . . . ten-                              fear God-and keep His-command-
                    sion ("Eschafology and Social                                                                                              live together in harmony?"
                    Theory,"                                                             ments. To such a world, thus fully
                                        Christi@y  8 Society 4,                                                                                        Postmillennialism tells the Re-
                    no. 2, April 1994  11).                                               developed in sin, will Christ return.               formed saints that apostasy, Anti-
                                                                                         I          Postmillennialism  .in Reformed           1 christ, and persecution are past. It
                       The delightful- Dr. North  is-                                     and~l'resbyterian  circles holds out                calls them to take power -in the
                  wrong  on'two  counts.  Rrotestant -' quite- a different prospect. Gradu-                                                   world. It assures them of future
                 .Reformed  amillenmaliits  do believe , `ally, the gospel will convert the ma-                                                earthly ease.- It leaves the people
                  that  .eschatological  precision and                                   jority of the' ,world'si.inhabitants.'               unprepared `for the struggle that lies
                 confidence will come to the Church -True Christians will possess politi-                                                     ahead for the church, the fiercest
'               - in history, In fact,they'beheve  that. ,. &il power in every nation, control-                                               struggle that the church has ever
                  this precision has already come to* ling -all aspects' of the life of-the na-                                               faced. It renders the people oblivi-
                  the church in history.- It has come .- tion so that there will `be a genu-                                                  ous to the gathering storm :at this
                  to the church as represented by the                                    inely Christian culture. This will be                very moment. - The abounding law-
                 `Protestant Reformed Churches. It                                      L the- "Christ@izing,"-  as they put it,              lessness in Western society, for ex-
                 is  the~co&ssion of  amill&ialism                                       of, the world. - The -human race will                ample, does not for the post-
                with. its corresponding repudiation                                      obey the law of- God, at least out-                  millennialist herald the "lawless
                 of !premillennialism and postmillen-                                    wardly (for many will `remain                        one," the "man. of `sin," of II
          .      nialism'as false-doctrines. And this,                                   unconverted). There will be earthly                  Thessalonians 2. It is merely the pre-
                ' of course, ,mdicates  Dr. North's-sec-                                 peace worldwide. The result will                     lude to the collapse of ungodly soci-
                 ond'm$take.                           :-                 -`.'        :- -be unprecedented material prosper-                  ety so that the saints can take con-
                      The -:quotation  -d&s serve to                                     ity. Poverty will disappear. Dis-                    trol.
                 show that `postmillefmialism  .Iis not                                  ease will be checked. Crime will be                           I heard R. J. Rushdoony for the
                content peacefully to coexist with                                       virtually non-existent.                              first time, -early in my ministry, -in
                 amillennialism,  contrary to the think-                                            Coming is a "golden age."' It             the late 1960s as I recall, in Ft.
                 ing of. the-Reformed amillennialists                                    will last at least for a thousand-years,             Collins, Colorado., He described in
                - who'refuseto speak `out in defense                                     perhaps &hundred thousand years.                     graphic detail animpending collapse
     o                  f                     -amillennialism.   `.-                          ' C~hrist will get ark earthly victory
                                                                                         .  -.                                                of civilization. His advice to Chris-
                      In this and a fiw subsequent  -  m  mstory:                                                               .I            tians in view-of-this disaster? `Save
                 editotials,  I like to do my small part                                            This, earthly victory will be the         your gold and silver." This will em-
                 in defendingandpromoting  the bib- "Messianic kingdom!" in  -its full                                                        power the saints to reconstruct soci-
                 lical- doctrine. of the last days,                                      splendor. V                                          ety. I did not know whether to
                 namely, Reformed amillennialism.                                                   At this point;-: the postmillen-          laugh or cry. The thought of -pas-
               -This- will necessarily involve                                                     nialists differ'among~themselves.          sessing any silver and gold was hi-
                 demonstrating that' post-                                                                 Some  ,have Jesus returning to     larious. The idea that a Reformed
                ..millennialism  .is  .a false                                                       ; the grand earthly-kingdom.             minister would strengthen Christians
                 doctrine, as well as a vain                         -                                     - - Others, looking hard at the    for their strugglein the last days by
     -_ and dangerous hope.                                          Postmillennialism  - ' disconcerting testimony
     ,                                                                                                                                        financial advice was sad.
               ' Let  us-h+  ihe  po-  - ., leaves the people-  of  Revelation  %V'ff.,  that                                                     In Ezekiel 33; the LORD instructs
                 sitions  `clearly in `our                                        unprepared                   at the very endSatan  will     the watchman to signal the approach
                 mind.                                  * --              for-the struggle                  unleash  anall-out  assault       of the enemy against His people,
                      Both. are teachings                                 that lies' ahead                    -,on the church, predict        w+-ning.that the watchman who fails
                 about the last days.                                     sjcor   the  church,  -  -' that. the peaceable.earthly             to blow the trumpet of alarm shall
                 Bdth instruct-the church  t'ze~fierceststi&e                                                 kingdom of Christ will          be guilty of the blood of the people.
                 as to what she can expect.                               that the church
                                                                '                                          - `suffer revolution at the            Reformed amillennialism sees
                 in the future before &the -  has  everfuced-                                                `end from the ungodly who        the enemy of the church approach-
                 second coming of Jesus                                                                    -were only submitting out-         ing. It sees this in light of the Word
                 Christ.                                                                           -  -wa$ly.~                                of.God,  Holy Scripture. It is giving
                      They:differ   r a d i c a l l y .                                            In either-case, the second  com-           the warning. No opposition from
                      Reformed amillennialism teaches                                    ing of Christ will follow -hard upon                 dreamers of coming earthly ,peace
                 the church, that is, us .who believe                                    the "golden" millennial age.                         will stop its trumpet.      .
               .   a n d   o u r   &ildren;to-expect  increas-   - Merely to describe the'two  po-                                              * As for those who refuse to heed
                 ing lawlessness:.in  the world, apos-                                   sitions is to squelch the -inevitable                the warning, their blood will be upon
                 tasy from the truth in the churches,                                    protest from some, "What difference                  their own heads.
     - the e'stabhshment  of the kingdom of                                              does it make? Must  .we argue about
                        _:              _.                                                                                                                                     --DJE
                                                                                       I . such things? Do not both the
                ,318IStandard  Bearer /April  1,1995



                                                                                                                                I


                               t
                                                                                                         '  .  .
                                                                                                                                                         I





                                                                                                                          .'     .
                                                      I-  -3. -"Lecture us.", Yes, those are             Whatever might he mean?
                                                ;my words, and I purposely used                     * ?Inder~present  conditions"!
--Curious Missive -. .  I                            them, and the two articles by                       c u r i o u s .   -
     &om Wondefland                      -           Engelsma clearly showed the correct-                                                           -- Ed.
     `I Probably not many readers of                 ness of that designation. I know my         H I dissent with your editorials,
     Chriitiai; Renewal read the Stan:               PR brothers longer than yesterday.          U Jelle in Wonderland  (Staizdard
     durd Bearer, and so I had second.          I have written letters to the SB more            Bearer, Feb. 1 and 15, 1995). I rec-
     thoughts about replying to the ar-              than once, even in the day when             ognize the, errors in the statements
     ticles of Engelsma in the February 1            `H.H. (Herman, Hoeksema) was <edi-          made by Rev. Tuininga about the
     and February 15. issues `of the SB.             tor. And I pretty well know what            ProtestamReformed  Churches, and
     But for the sake of those readers who           to'expect in response. That's why I         believe they must be addressed. It
     get both magazines, I believe a brief           used this designation, and the re-          is the way in which your article does
     reply might be .helpful, especially             sponse wastrue to form. No doubt            this that I disagree. .,                -_ ' - -.
     since Engelsma goes to great lengths            there will be more of the same in                   The Bible gives explicit instruc-
     in trying.to refute something I wrote           response to what I am now writing           tion on how we must respond .to
     in the December ,26 issue of .Cn I              in CR Anh it's not that I mind that         those who have wronged us. I
     .willtrytobebrief:-            -                so much; I'm just saying that "lec-         Thessalonians  5:15 states: "See that
       ' 1. I  ' wrote that the "PR                  ture us" is the proper terminology.         none render- evil for evil unto any
     churchesinformed'the.Alliance  that                ' 4. Engelsma himself admits             man;.but ever follow that whichis
     for them to attend as fraternal del-            that the invitation from ARC "in-           .good, both among yourselves; and
     egates they would have to "lecture              volved some desire for `ecumenical          to all men." I `do not believe that
     us' on common grace and other mat-              relations,' if not for `federation."'       the spirit. of your editorial was one -
     ters -that divide us." Note that al-            That's exactly why I-wrote that we          of humility that the Bible commands
     though I did not say it in so many              can.forget  about federative relations      of us. I saw little; if anything;in  the
     words, this presupposes that the Al-            with the.  PR's `under present condi-       article that affirmed Rev. Tuininga
liance had asked them to attend.                     tions. .That -does not necessarily pre-     as a brother in Christ (which at least
     That's the way any unbiased reader              clude other forms of-contact and co-        he will acknowledge of us): The ar-
     will understand it. I see ver);,little          operation. -                                ticle disparaged him using a cynical
     difference between this and the ,de-                               (Rev.) Jelle Tuininga    and disrespectful attitude toward
     cision of the PR synod which                             Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada        him, which is not necessary to point
     Engelsma' quotes: "That synod au-                                                           out his errors.
     thorize  -the Contact Committee to              RESPONSE:                                           I believe the attempt to make
     send observers to the ARC provided                  The  Rev.-JeEe  Tuininga writes:        your article humorous by belittling
     that the ARC gives our observers the            I, . . . we can forget about federative Rev. Tuininga will discredit the sub-
     time to address the real issues be-             relations with the PR's under present       stance the article-did have for some
     tween the ARC and the PRC." To                  conditions;" .                              that read it. Being correct does not
     me'they are one and the same.                       Not: "we can forget about fed-          give us .the license to flaunt it. by
             "Fraternal delegates" (my               erative relations with the PR's until       ridiculing those who have errone-
     wo:s,- `JT) or           "observers"            we sit down to  disctiss  ourm doctrimil    ous beliefs. We must-"bear witness
     (Engelsma).  Agam,  what- really is             differences."         - .                   to the truth," while remembering
     the difference? Inthe CRC they were                 Not eveti "we can forget about          that our disagreements with others
     called-fraternal delegates; at the Al-          federative relations with the PR's. be-     `may only be done in the spirit of
     liance I guess we call them "observ-            cause.of do&i@  &flerences. "               humility.                            .  -
     ers." Nothing to get hot and both-                  But:  "... under present condi-                                                      Steve Faber
     ered about.                                     t&s."                                                                            Grandville, MII
                                                                                                   -.
I                                                                                                                                                        , .-

     "Common Grace" and                              have found the articles  edifying and       common grace. As 1,understand  it,
     Difficult Texts                                 thought-provoking.                          -your position is that God has no gra- _
                                               -.        I would like your comments on           cious purposes with regard .to the
         I have subscribed to the Stan-              two verses in light of-the Protestant       non-elect, either, in *providentially
     dard Bearer for about two years, and            Reformed Churches' position on              .providing them with material ben-
                                                                                                                     .                         .

                                                                                                                    April 1,1995/Standard Bearer,19


 "efits,  orin permitting them to come       sage by the CRC, explaining the pas-          looked, that the text does not at all
 under the preaching of the gospel.          sage as follows:                              state,  th,at God is gracious to the
      This position helps to explain                                                       just and to the unjust, but that He
  many -verses that would otherwise              20. But does not Matt.  544, 45           rains and causes His sun to shine
  be difficult to interpret, e.g., Mat-        prove-the point synod made in its          on all.
  thew.13:10-15.  However, two verses          first declaration?                            `21: How, then, must the text  bh
mentioned below seem to contradict               If the synods interpretation of           interpreted?
  this position. In Matthew  5:44,             this text were the correct one, it            We must take `our starting point
                                                                                           from verse  $4. The Lord  achnon-
  Christians are commanded to love             would prove far too much and, be-
                                               sides, it would lead to absurdity.          ishes His people that they shalllove
  their enemies. In verse 45, God the          It  is, deplorable that synod merely        their.enemies. Now, love is not .a
 -Father  is set forth as their example.       quoted without even an attempt at           sentimental feeling or emotion or
  It states that God provides sunshine         explanation;- otherwise synod               affection. It is, according to Scrip-
and- rain on both the -evil and the            would .have soon realized how un-           ture, the bond of perfectness. It is
  good. The implication is that .God           tenable the position is, that. in these     therefore, the bond between two
_ loves His enemies (the evil) and             verses we have a proof that God is         -parties or persons that are ethically
  demonstrates this by providing them          gracious to all men. The interpre-          perfect, that seek each other and
  with sunshine and' rain. Also, in            tation which, evidently, synod              find delight in each other because
                                                                                           of their ethical perfection, and that,
 Mark 10:17-22,  Jesus encounters the          would offer, runs as follows:               in the  sphere',of ethical perfection
 rich young ruler. It states in verse                  a. We must love our  en-
                                              -emies.  .                                  seek each  otherls.good.  It  isin this
 21 that Jesus, looking at him, loved                  b. If we do, we will be chil-       true sense that God is love.
 him. The young man went away                  dren of God and reflect `His love,            However,it  stands to reason that
' unconverted:, As far as we know he          for He loves all His enemies, as             in the case of loving-our enemies
 was notone  of the elect, yet Christ         well as the good, in this present            that despitefully use us, curse us
 loved him. Both verses seem to.be            life.                  _  -3                -and persecute us, love must needs
teaching that God loves unbelievers                    c.    This love to  -all men is    be onesided. There cannot be a
 (and thus presumably is graciously           manifested in the.rain and sunshine         bond of fellowship between the
                                                                                           wicked and the perfect in Christ.
 disposed toward them).                       on all without distinction.                  To love our enemy, therefore, is not
     I am sympathetic with your po-              Of this interpretation we assert
                                              that, first, it proves too much and,         to flatter him, to have fellowship
 sition on common grace, but it is            secondly, it leads to absurdity and         with him, to play games with him
 hard for me. to reconcile these verses       is untenable. `It proves too much,          and to speak sweetly to him; but
 with it. I will appreciate -your com-        for, all the Scriptures witness that        rather to rebuke him, to demand
 ments.                                       God does not love, but hates His            that he leave his wicked way and
                         Kennefh D. Asher     enemies and purposes to destroy             thus to bless him and to pray for
                          Bay Village, OH     them, except them He chose in               him. It is to bestow good things
                                              Christ Jesus and whom He loves              upon him with the demand of true
                                                                                          love that  he  leave-his wicked way,
 Response:                                    not as His enemies, but as His re-          walk in the light and thus have  fel-
     It is indeed the position of the         deemed people, justified and sanc-
                                              tified in Christ: God does, indeed,         lowship  with us. If he heed our
 Protestant Reformed Churches that            love His enemies,  but`not  as such,        love, which will be the cause if he
 God is not gracious toward the+ep--          but as His children in Christ. And          be of God's elect and receive grace,
 robate ungodly. He bestows on'               it leads to absurdity, for' if rain and     he will turn from darkness into
 them good gifts in His providence,           sunshine are a manifestation of             light and our love assumes the  ha-
 but these gifts of providence do not         God's love to  alI men, the just and        ture of a bond of perfectness. If he
`express -any love, or favor, of God          the unjust, what  are  floods and           despise our love, our very act of
 toward them.  " God does not give'          -droughts, pestilences and earth-            love will be to his greater damna-
                                                                                          tion. But the cursing and persecu-
 the gifts with His blessing. Nor do          quakes and all destructive forces           tion of the wicked may never tempt
the good gifts do the unbeliever any          and evils sent to all through na-
                                              ture, but manifestations of His  ha-        the child of God to live and act
 good.                                        tred for all, the just and the unjust?      from the principle of hatred, to re-
     When the Christian Reformed              But it is absurd to say that God            ward evil for evil, an eye for an
 Church (CRC) adopted her doctrine            hates  the:just, for He loves them.         eye and a tooth for a tooth.
 of common grace in 1924, she ap-             It is also absurd to say that God             As a single illustration from ac-
 pealed to Matthew 544, 45 in sup-            changes, now loving the just and            tual life and experience, the Lord
> port of her contention that there is a      the unjust and manifesting this love        points to the fact, that so God rains
 "favorable~  attitude of God towards        in rain and sunshine, now hating             and causes His sun to shine upon
                                                                                          the just and the unjust, thus be-
humanity in .general  and not only            them and revealing his hatred in            stowing good things  upon'them  all,
 towards the-elect.".                         upheavals and destruction. Hence,
                                              the interpretation that leads to this       demanding that they-shall employ
     Herman Hoeksema  .refuted the           evident absurdity is itself absurd.          them as means to walk in righteous-
 (implied) interpretation of the pas-           Besides, it must not be over:             ness and light. For with God love

32OIStanbard   Bearer/April  1,1995


  is delight in perfection in the high-         This necessarily raises the fur-                Alfred Edersheim puts us on the
  est sense of the word. If now the        ther question, "Did Christ in His                right track:
  wicked receive grace with rain and       love for and desire to save some per-
  sunshine, they will walk in the light    soits who yet perish also carry this               "He loved  him" - as He loves
  and have fellowship with God. If         love and desire to save to the cross?"             those who are His Own.... And,
  they do not receive grace they will                                                         although we hear no more of him,
  employ the rain and the sunshine         For Mark  10:32ff.  proclaims the                  who that day went back to his rich
  in the service of sin and receive the    cross, especially verse 45:  "... the              home very poor,  because "very sor-
  greater damnation.                       Son of man came . . . to minister, and             rowful," we cannot but believe that
    But rain and sunshine is never         to give His life a ransom for many."               he, whom Jesus loved, yet found
  grace and Matt.  5~44,  45 does not      In this case, Christ died for persons              in the poverty of earth the treasure
  prove the contention of the first        who go lost forever. The doctrine                  of heaven (Jesus the Messiah, vol.
  point. (The  Protestant Reformed         of limited atonement is denied.
  Churches in America,                                                                        2,  New York  Herrick,  1883, pp.
                            Grand Rap-          Scripture condemns the notion                 341,342).
  ids, 2nd ed., 1947, pp. 325-327.)        of a universal, ineffectual Messianic
    However one might explain              love as false. Christ loved "His                     Some have thought that this rich
                                           own," loved them "unto the end,"                 young ruler was John Mark himself,
Mark  10:17-22,  the incident of the
rich young ruler who asked Jesus           gave Himself to the cross for them               who wrote the most detailed and
                                           alone, and effectually gives eternal             vivid account of the incident.
about inheriting eternal life and went     life to every one of the (see John 13:1,         Herman Hoeksema suggests that the
away grieved, Jesus' love for the rich                                                      ruler was Joseph of Arimathea (see
ruler was a  saving love,  that is, a      18; 17:lff .).
                                                From the fact that Jesus loved              his unpublished notes on "New Tes-
love  that desired his salvation. The                                                       tament History," p. 30).
context concerns inheriting eternal        the rich ruler, we may, must, and
                                                                                                The passage makes plain that
life (v. 17) and entering the kingdom      can only conclude that the rich ruler
of God (w. 23-31). If, then, the rich      was one of the elect and that, later,            Jesus does not make the way of dis-
                                                                                            cipleship easy for those whom He
ruler perished in his sins, it is pos-.    he was converted, gladly selling all
sible that the Christ of God loves a       he had, giving to the poor, and fol-             loves and that one elected by God
                                           lowing Christ. Jesus suggests as                 and loved by the Christ may not in
man with a love that desires his sal-      much in verses 23-27: what is im-                every case be converted at once by
vation,  but that He fails, neverthe-
less, to accomplish the desired sal-       possible with men is possible with               the gospel-call.
vation.                                    God, even the salvation of a rich                                        -Ed. Comm.  cl
                                           man.

I'
  Jd$gW&,.                                 ,,`
                                                   .                                   -         ~y&&&&f&&g&@j-~
                                                                                                   I!

n  WHY I SIGNED IT                         and Richard John Neuhaus, a former               lent book, Evangelism and the Sov-
    This is the title of a lengthy es-     Protestant who turned Roman                      ereignty  of  God.  Thus when we dis-
say which appeared in the Decem-           Catholic. This document calls for                covered that Dr. Packer had signed
ber 12 issue of  Christianity Today        Catholic and evangelical cooperation             ECT we were very disappointed and
by James I. Packer. "It" refers to         on social and cultural issues where              dismayed. Our disappointment and
the document,  Evangelicals  Catholics     both traditions share common goals,              dismay increase when we read
Together: The Christian Mission in the     one example being the fight against              Packer's defense of his signing the
Third MiZlennium  (ECT), which was         abortion.         The document also              document.
signed by a number of Roman                stresses mutual allegiance to the                    Dr. Packer sees the criticism he
Catholics as well as a number of           Apostles' Creed, world evangelism,               has received for signing ECT as mo-
evangelical leaders  .and theologians      justification "by grace through faith            tivated in part by evangelical love
and concerning which we reported           because of Christ," and encourages               for isolationism, and rivalry fed by .
earlier in these columns. The  25-         "civil" discourse over doctrinal dif-            mutual suspicion and inflammatory
page document originated with              ferences. *                                      talk. "So," writes Packer, "I ought
evangelical leader Charles Colson              We are indebted to Dr. Packer,.              to have anticipated that some Prot-
                                           professor of theology at Regent Uni-             estants would say bleak, skewed,
                                           versity, Vancouver, Canada, for                  fearful, and fear-driven things."
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical     many of his books: Undersigned,                  Thus  in the essay `Packer seeks to
Theology in the Protestant Reformed        for example, requires his students               set the record straight as to his rea-
Seminary.                                  in Missions to read Packer's  excel-             sons for signing ECT.

                                                                                                         April  1,1995/Standanl Beard321


     Dr. Packer says,                           tions: false doctrine, blasphemy, the         munity Church in Sun Valley, Cali-
                                                lie, an accursed idolatry, pernicious         fornia and one of the critics of ECT,
  I could not become a Roman Catho-             ways, anti-christian. What is more,           said, "Roman Catholicism is `another
  lic because of certain basic tenets           Scripture calls God's people to re-           religion."'
  to which the Roman system, as                 buke false teachers and to turn away                            Christianity Today
  such, is committed. Rome's claim              from them and have no fellowship                                Evangelical Times
  to be the only institution that can           with them (cf. II Thess. 3:14-15; Ro-
  without qualification be called the
  church of Christ is theologically             mans 16:17; I Timothy 4:7,5:20,6:20-          n  LEAKAGEOR
  flawed, for it  misconceives the na-          21; Titus 3:lO; II Peter 21-3; and 3:17-      H E M O R R H A G E ?
  ture  of the church as the New Tes-           18).                                              A few years ago when asked
  tament explains it. The claim is his-                 Packer cites three reasons for his    what effect the women in office is-
  torically flawed, too, for the papacy,        cooperating with Rome: 1. There are           sue might have on the Christian Re-
  which is supposed to be of the                Christians in the Roman Catholic
  church's essence, was a relatively                                                          formed Church (CRC) Dr. Melvin
                                                Church, 2. "Billy Graham's co-op-
  late development....                                                                        Hugen, professor at Calvin Theologi-
                                                erative evangelism, in which all the
     Also, developed Roman teaching                                                           cal Seminary, predicted that only a
                                                churches in an area, of whatever
  on the mass and on merit cuts                                                               few members would leave the CRC.
  across Paul's doctrine of justifica-          stripe, are invited to share, is well         He called that "leakage."
  tion in and through Christ by faith.          established on today's Christian                  The facts are that in 1992 the
  And all forms of the Mary cult, the           scene," and 3. "Charismatic  get-             CRC Yearbook listed 316,415 mem-
  invoking of saints and the belief in          togethers, some of them one-off,              bers. The Yearbook of 1995 lists
  purgatory, and the disbursing of in-          some of them regular, and some of
  dulgences  (tihich  still goes on)            them huge, where the distinction be-          294,179 members. This represents a
  damp down the full assurance to                                                             loss of over 22,000 members. The
                                                tween Protestant and Catholic van-
  which, according to Scripture, jus-           ishes in a Christ-centered unity of           1995 membership total puts the CRC
  tification should. lead through the                                                         back to 1981 when it had 294,354
  ministry of the Holy Spirit.                  experience, are well established."            members. Besides the loss of all
     Finally, the infallibility claimed                 None of these reasons prove           these members, who is to know how
  .for all concillior and some papal            anything! All three are beside the            many people may have refrained
. pronouncements, and the insistence            point. Reason number 1 is for God             from joining the CRC in the past sev-
  that the faithful should take their           alone to judge. Reasons 2 and 3 are           eral years because of this issue and
  beliefs from the church as such               denials of true unity in Christ, for
  rather than from the Bible as such,                                                         others?
                                                how can there be unity except it be
  make self-correction, as ordinarily                                                             Whether one regards this loss as
                                                unity in the truth of the Word of
  understood, impossible. The as-                                                             "leakage" or "hemorrhage," the fact
                                                G o d ? !
  sumption that the church is never                                                           is that a significant number of people
  wrong on basics is very cramping.                     Another closely related develop-      have left the CRC in recent years.
  So I find the Roman communion,                ment took place on January 19. On             The CRC has not grown, she has de-
  as it stands, unacceptable, just as           this date several of the signers of           clined in members.
  much as more than four-and-a-half             ECT and several evangelical critics               Meanwhile, the 55 independent
  centuries of Protestants did before           of ECT met at D. James Kennedy's              churches in the Alliance of Reformed
  me.                                           Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in            Churches (we emphasize  indepen:
                                                Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We are
    Notice Packer's language.                                                                 dent churches because some of the
                                                told that although the sessions were
Rome's view of the church is "theo-                                                           churches in the Alliance are still in
                                                marked by "sharp exchanges," these
logically flawed," and it, "miscon-                                                           the CRC) now number 10,805 mem-
                                                men were able to agree on a five-
ceives the riature  of the church as                                                          bers.
                                                point document designed to "eluci-
the New Testament explains it."                                                                   This is history repeating itself.
                                                date" the stance of evangelicals  who
Rome's teaching on the mass and                 signed ECT. Among other things                Where liberalism takes hold in a de-
merit "cuts across Paul's doctrine of           the document declares their belief            nomination one sees a decline in
justification in and through Christ                                                           membership. At the same time,
                                                in justification by faith alone. (The
by faith." All forms of the Mary                                                              while it may not be spectacular in
                                                word "alone" is conspicuously ab-
cult, the invoking  of  saints, the be-         sent from the ECT document. And               terms of numbers, where the Word
lief in purgatory, and the disburse-            what Roman Catholic will affirm the           of. God is faithfully preached the
ment of indulgences "damp down"                 biblical and Reformation truth of jus-        church grows. She grows in num-
the full assurance to which justifica-          tification by faith alone?)                   ber; but, much more importantly, the
tion shouldlead..  .Scripture,  .th#e .six-,                                                  church grows in the knowledge and
                                                        This is not enough! What these
teenth century Reformers,  and- the                                                           grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
                                                men must do, if they wish to be
Reformed Confessions use different                                                            Christ (cf. II Pet.  3:17-18  and be-
                                                evangelical, is recant. For as Johri
language to describe these aberra-                                                            w a r e ! ) .   0
                                                MacArthur, pastor of Grace Com-                 Reformed Believers' Press Service
3WStandard  Bearer/April  1,199S


 lg&&i@~a'
                                   ~q                 ~..     ~.     1                        /g&g+-
                                            ..~


  The True and -False Churches.

                                            I                                                                                       I
                                                   grace and the doctrine of the cov-         here too. In the course of Dutch
                                                   enant). In no sense was it adopted         history false teachings eventually
    Him that oqercometh  will I make a             as another creed or confession. Nor,       arose within the church, but none
pillar in the temple of my God, and he             for that matter, is it essentially dif-    that really disturbed its sense of va-
shall go no more out: and I will write             ferent from the decisions made by          lidity until in the early nineteenth
upon him the.name  of my God, and the              the Liberated Churches; and this           century (the early 1800s) practically
name of the city of my God, which is               their people seem to understand            the whole of the Reformed denomi-
new Jerusalem, which cometh  down out              very well, as is particularly evident      nation was overwhelmed with a
of heaven from nzy Gqd: and I will write           when it comes to their view of the         very non-scriptural kind of modern-
upon him my ny name.                               true and false church. In fact, few        ism. This strained the convictions
                       Revelation 3:12             things would seem more distinctly          of those sincere Christian  peo,ple
                                                   characteristic of the Liberated            who remained, and presented them
    As we have noted several times,                Churches than their conviction that        with a major problem. To leave and
in the eyes of the  Lib,erated                     they, and possibly those sympathetic       worship outside of the Reformed
Churches, when the synod of the                    to them, are the "true church," and        Church seemed almost unthinkable,
Protestant Reformed Churches                       all others "false."                        and in fact illegal, since the govern-
adopted the Declaration of Principles                   This is not something new and         ment did not approve of religious
it committed a-fatal error. With that              original with them; behind it is a         assemblies not authorized by them.
action the Declaration became                      long history, going back at least to       But this did not negate the fact that
"settled and binding" (according to                the  Afscheiding  movement of 1934.        "the pure doctrine of the gospel"
Article 31 of the Church Order), and               In fact, it may well have been in de-      (Art. 29) was no longer being
our churches ,became  guilty - in                  velopment all through the unique           preached, so that the conviction
their eyes - of assigning lmore  au-               history of the Dutch Reformed              gradually developed that the State
thority to itself and its ordinances               Church. After the revolution in the        church had become the "false
than to the Word of God" (in the                   late 15OOs, it became. evident that in     church." Untidily they declared this,
words of Article 29 of the Belgic                  the Netherlands alone was there a          and began to organize what we now
Confession). And so we became to                   church which had both the loyalty          know as the Afscheiding churches. It
them a "false church."                             of nearly a whole nation and official      was difficult, but based on a deep
  - This. reasoning, however, is ex-               recognition by the government.             conviction. According, to the Con-
tremely strained. The fact is that,                There were others within the land,         fession of Faith they were required
according to Article 31 of the Church              of course. A good number of Ro-            to join this new church, and others
Order, every action of every major                 man Catholics remained -but they           to do the same.
ecclesiastical assembly is to be con-              were precisely those designated by             Nor did it stop with that. Within
sidered "settled and binding" within               the Belgic Confession to be the "false     a half century another, larger group
the limits of that for which it was                church"; and there were some Bap-          (the Doleantie under the leadership
adopted (which in the instance of                  tist extremists, and Arminians too         of Dr; Abraham Kuyper) felt corn;
the Declaration was to inform those                - who were rather easily dismissed         pelled to leave the State Church for
with whom we were working as to                    as "false church" as well. It was the      much the same reasons, with the re-
what they could expect to hear from                Reformed  (Heroormde)  Church, rec-        sult that these two groups rather
our pulpits concerning common                      ognized as it was by the state, which      naturally soon gave consideration to
                                                   was.generally  accepted as that "true      union with each other. There were
                                                   church" to which the Confession in-        differences, some of which were dis-
                                                   sisted everyone should be joined.          tinctly doctrinal with% rather serious
R&v. koudenberg  is pas@ of the, $pt-                  But God has His way of under-          implications. But much more im-
estkt Reformed Church of Kizlam$oo,                mining shallow presumptions; and           portant, it soon became evident, was
Michigan,.                                         in the process of time it happened         the manner in which they viewed

                                                                                                       April 1,1995/Standard Beared323


the State Church which they had left.      ences between the Roman Catholic           have taken that position, they stand
Dr. Kuyper and his people were in-         Church and the Reformed Churches,          on very dangerous ground.
clined to be far less condemnatory         and not as a means of identifying              It is certainly also very unscrip-
than were the Afscheiding; but, in the     one of the various churches of the         tural. In this regard, Rev. Hoeksema
end, the decisive requirement for          Reformation to be "true," and all of       often pointed to the seven churches
union was that the new church              the rest "false." Perhaps the clearest     to which the book of Revelation was
should officially declare the State        statement, although not necessarily        addressed. Very strikingly these
Church to be "false." Without that         the most precise, on this principle is     churches vary considerably in their
the Afscheiding churches would not         that which is set forth in the             purity, from Smyrna and Philadel-
enter into the union; and for the sake     Westminster Confession, Chapter            phia, for whom the Lord has noth-
of the union this was accepted. The        25:46:                                     ing but commendation, to Sardis and
importance of doing so very evi-                                                      Laodicea which are called dead, and
dently went deep in the hearts of            IV This catholic Church hath been        that which the Lord is about to spew
the people of that tradition; they           sometimes more, sometimes less           out of his mouth. Nevertheless, they
could not recognize the newly                visible. And particular Churches,        are all still called churches of God,
formed  Gereformeerde  churches to be        which are members thereof, are           to whom He will come again if they
the "true church" unless that which          more or less pure, according as the      repent.
they had left was declared to be             doctrine of the Gospel is taught and
                                             embraced, ordinances adminis-                On the other hand, neither does
"false."                                     tered, and public worship per-           it mean that it does not matter how
     It was from this tradition that         formed more or less purely in them.      far a church has departed, as
Schilder and his followers arose. In         V The purest Churches under              Abraham Kuyper sometimes seemed
fact, the separation of 1944 was ba-         heaven are subject both to mixture       to suggest with his view of the
sically over the very doctrinal dif-         and error, and some have so de-          pluriformity  of the church. If there is
ferences which had existed already           generated, as to become no               one thing that the record of the seven
at the union of 1892. These were             Churches of Christ, but synagogues       churches teaches, -along with the
never really settled; and in 1942 they       of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall      whole history of the Bible, it is that
drove the two sides apart again.             be always a Church on earth to
                                             worship God according to His will.       God is very much concerned with
And so it was that, when Schilder            VI There is no other head of the         those who depart from the truth and
and his people were put out of the           Church but the Lord Jesus Christ.        from a holy way of life. Repeat-
Gereformeerde  churches, they felt           Nor can the Pope of Rome, in any         edly, over and over again, the Scrip-
compelled to declare the  Gerefor-           sense, be head thereof, but is that      tures admonish the church of God
meerde  churches to have become the          Antichrist, that man of sin, and son     to depart from evil and hold to the
"false church," just as the fathers had      of perdition, that exalteth himself      truth. This is, after all, one of the
done to the  Hervormde  church in            in the Church, against Christ and        marks of the church given in the Bel-
their day. And, when our efforts to          all that is called God.                  gic Confession, and is brought out
work with them failed, they felt the                                                  in its own way by the Westminster
need to declare us "false" as well.        The point is that for any church to        as well. As is pointed out, it is in
It was but a continuation of their         pronounce itself the "true" church         purity of doctrine and life that the
tradition, but also quite a misappli-      and all others "false" is a presump-       church becomes more clearly visible
cation of the Confession as well.          tion that is far removed from the          in distinction from the world. Wh'en
     When Guido de Bres wrote the          mentality of the Reformation and its       the truth is not taught and the disci-
Confession in the early 156Os, he was      confessions, and a presumption that        pline of godly life is not maintained,
not in Art. 29 writing anything new.       is fraught with great danger (1 Cor.       the unity of the church with Christ
What he set down as the marks of           10112; Phil. 2:3).                         set forth in the sacraments cannot
the true church was essentially noth-          Nevertheless, in this day when         be maintained.
ing other than that which Calvin had       there is such a proliferation of dif-          And thus the principle, that one
set forth before in the last Book of       ferent churches, the principles in-        should leave the church which is de-
his Institutes, and which was sug-         volved are fraught with dangers on         parting in the way of falsehood and
gested in the 27th article of the          both sides.                                join himself to the true church where
Gallican Confession,  which is thought         To begin with, it is certainly not     the truth is most purely found and
to have been composed by Calvin's          so that there is one "true" church in      most clearly evident, is certainly to
students under his guidance - the          this world, so that all others can be      be maintained - but only  .m the
confession upon which de  Bres             called "false." This is, of course, the    way of full Christian responsibility.
based his confession. Clearly what         position of the Roman Catholic             One must be sure that the departing
Calvin had in mind through the             Church; but it is also that which the      church has been pointed to its error,
whole of his last Book of the Insti-       Reformers uniformly rejected. And,
                                           insofar as the Liberated Churches          and is unwilling to repent and re-
tutes was a delineation of the differ-                                                turn to the truth. But, when that

324JStandard  Bearer/April  1,1995


     has been done without results, the         nor hot, I will spue thee out of my       which the Lord says, Rev. 3:12, "Him
     time comes for one to seek a church        mouth." When one's spiritual life is      that overcometh will I make a pillar
     where the marks are clearly evident        maintained only by the Lord com-          in the temple of my God, and he
     and to join himself to it. The Con-        ing "in to him" who hears His voice,      shall go no more out: and I willwrite
     fession certainly does not encourage       and not through the evident life of       upon him the name of my God, and
     a quick jumping from church to             the church in which he is found, the      the name of the city of my God,
     church; but it does recognize that         time comes that the Christian must        which is new Jerusalem, which
     there come times when the warning          seriously consider the need to leave      cometh down out of heaven from
     of God to Laodicea becomes very            such a church and join himself to         my God: and I will write upon him
     real, Rev. 3:16: "So then because          one in which the marks of a true          my new name." 0
     thou art lukewarm, and neither cold        church are clearly visible, and to





                                                                                                             a
J                            Yin-Yang
                                                                                                    @

         What you see above is a Yin-           or display on our bodies and they         War, tired of social injustices -just
     Yang symbol. Along with the peace          immediately form a judgment as to         plain tired of everything! They were
     sign and the symbol of the cross, it       what kind of persons we are. Those        especially dissatisfied with the code
     has become a popular ornament to-          who display a symbol are making a         of ethics that governed Western so-
     day. It can be found in most pop           statement about themselves, whether       ciety.
     jewelry stores. It can be worn             they mean to or not. They set them-           They were sick and tired of hear-
     around one's neck, on one's ears, or       selves up for judgment by others.         ing about sin. A large segment of
     even as a pendant on his clothing.         So, before simply wearing a yin-yang      the young felt that our society was
     One can sow it on his pants, or-buy        symbol for the fun of it, we would        far too judgmental and narrow, and
     a shirt with the symbol already on         do well to know what the symbol           that it did not accept a person for
     it. The more daring might even             means and from whence it comes.           who he or she was. The 60s became
     choose to have it tattooed on their            Most of you are probably under        known as a time of sexual revolu-
     bodies.                                    the impression that the symbol rep-       tion: "free love" was the hippie slo-
         What is this symbol? Where did         resents nothing more than a bygone        gan. Young people rebelled against
     it come from? What does it mean?           era which we call the "60s." I know       the institution of marriage and de-
         Or, are these questions unimpor-       that era, because I lived through it.     cided that fornication and living to-
     tant and irrelevant?                       I saw the hippies with their long hair    gether out of wedlock were perfectly
         Perhaps we might think that the        and their peace signs and their yin-      acceptable. Disobedience to all in
     design is only a piece of decoration       yang symbols. I did not give much         authority, from parents to govern-
     that has no real meaning. We wear          thought to it then, being a young         ment, was fostered and advanced.
     it simply for the fun of it. Why,          person, but there was something go-       Western religion (actually Christian-
     then, make a big deal out of some-         ing on during this period of history.     ity) was said to have failed the hu-
     thing so minor?                            It was a time of rebellion against all    man race and a`new kind of religion
         But is what we wear really so * the established standards of our so-             was needed. A new spirituality
     minor? People look at what we wear         ciety  - standards which, by the          must be' encouraged: a spirituality
                                                way, were still greatly influenced by     that elevated feelings and emotion
                                                Christianity. A revolution in cul-        above knowledge andreason.
                                                ture took place. Young people were            For that  reason   .many young
     Rev. Bruinsma  is pastor of First Prot-    tired of the stale moralisms of the       people turned to the ancient mysti-
     estant Reformed Church in Holland,         apostate church, tired of the Cold        cal religions of the East: Buddhism,
     Michigan.

                                                                           .I                       April 1,1995/Standard Bearer1325


  Hinduism, Zen, and Taoism. Per-             word best describes what is ultimate            counter-balance each other. Each
  haps these names do not mean much           reality. We as Christians would say             invades the other's hemisphere and
  to you. After all, they are religions       that God is the ultimate reality. The           establishes itself in the very center
  which belong to people on the other         Taoist, on the other hand, does not             of' its opposite's territory. In the
  side of the  w&d. Do they really            look beyond creation. He is a -pan-            end both are resolved in an all-em-
  have anything to do with us? More           theist (believing that creation is god).       bracing circle, symbol of the final
  than we think! They have touched            As he examines creation, he notices            un$y of Tao. Constantly turning
  the very heart of the social mores of                                                      and interchanging places, the op-
                                              that there is a certain way, process,          posites are but phases of a revolv-
  our society. During the 60s and 70s         or order of nature. This is "Tao." It          ing wheel. Life does not move on-
  many people from the East moved             is the ultimate, undefinable reality           ward and upward towards a fixed
  to America and established huge             of life. It is the ground for all exist-       pinnacle or pole. It turns and bends
  communes to which young people              ence. It is truth. It is behind all,           back upon itself until the self comes
  flocked during this time. Besides,          beneath all, and the womb out of               full-circle and knows that at center
  many singers and movie stars, who           which all life springs. To it all life         all things are one.
  had the wealth to afford it, traveled       also returns. It is the force of nature
  to India and China to learn the reli-       that gives to everything life and re-        Let me put it simply. There is no
  gions of the East. They came back          ality.                                        such thing as absolute evil or abso-
  having thoroughly imbibed the prin-             Nothing can be discovered con-           lute good. What may seem like evil
  ciples of these religions. These they      cerning this "Way" other than one             could in fact be good. And what
, then portrayed to the general public       fact: nothing stays the same. The             seems to be good may really be evil.
  in movies and in song without many         Tao therefore is the continuous flow          Whatever the case, both are simply
  even realizing it. I know I did not!       and change that occurs in life. But           opposite poles of the one true real-
      The result of all this activity in     this means that, for one to be wise,          ity. To discover truth one must ex-
  the 60s and 70s is the present cul-        for one to discover what is true re-          perience the necessary tension or
  ture in which you as young people          ality, he must never concern himself          pull between the two. After all, in
  are called to live. The hippies of my      with absolutes. There are no abso-            what we consider the good there is
  generation have now grown up.              lutes. The only way to power is               contained the seed of evil (the black
  They have cut their hair and taken         through mystical absorption into the          dot in the white side of the yin-yang
 their place in the adult world, but         flow of the universe. And this                symbol). The opposite is also true:
  their ideas have not changed! They pro-    means meditation. One must empty              what we consider evil contains at
 mote the  same  godless principles of       his mind of all self-centered con-            least the seed of good (the white dot
 yesteryear. These are the principles        sciousness and concentrate on the            in the black side of the yin-yang
 that have given rise to the New Age         flow of nature. He must attempt to           symbol).
 Movement of our day. No wonder              harmonize seeming contradiction.                  The point is this: our modem
 the yin-yang symbol has made a                  We will not go into Taoism any           society has resurrected not only the
 comeback.                                   further than this, though there is           yin-yang symbol, but the principle
     The yin-yang symbolizes one of          much more involved. The point is:            it bears, namely relativism. There is
 the basic premises of the counter-          everything is relative. There is no          no right or wrong. What may be
 culture of the 60s and therefore of         objective, changeless truth, no stan-        right for me, may not be -right for
 modernday  society. That premise            dard according to which we can               you. What is wrong for'me, may
 is: there are no absolutes. There is        judge everything. In fact, things            not be wrong for you. There is no
 nothing we can use as a standard to         which may seem to us as opposites            objective truth. Result? The plural-
 judge something else, since life is         are in fact only different poles of the      ism of today. The "anything goes"
 nothing more than constant change.          same reality. Both poles are neces-          attitude of our society and  church-
 This is. the teaching in the main, of       sary for the discovery of the way, of        world. Let me give you a few ex-
 Chinese Taoism and Japanese Zen             the truth, of power.                         amples.
 Buddhism. Now, it is not my inten-              Huston Smith in his book, The                RELIGION: We may not con-
 tion to wax philosophical! I do not         Religions of Man, defines the yin-           demn anyone else's religion. Every-
 want to put you to sleep! But-we            yang symbol thus:                            one is seeking God the way he sees
 ought to know what Taoism teaches                                                        best. We are all going to heaven
 in order to understand the meaning           This polarity sums  up all life's ba-       anyway; we are just getting there in
 of the yin-yang symbol. After all,           sic oppositions: good-evil, active-         different ways. All religions con-
 the yin-yang symbol is probably              passive, positive-negative,  light-         tain the seed of truth. Especially we
 somewhere between 2,000 to 2,500             dark, summer-winter, male-female,           as Christians ought to set aside all
 years old!                                   etc. But though its principles are          doctrinal barriers and unite in order
     The word "Tao" means "the                in tension, they are not flatly op-         to show people the way. The Bible
 way." In the mind of the Taoist this         posed. They complement and                  is not infallible, it is not meant to be

326lStandard   Bearer/April  1,1999


objective truth, it is subject to all          woman the female ought to explore
                                                                                         right and wrong -
                                                                                         vation from sin?              7
                                                                                         wrong. As Christians we must judge
kinds  of  interpretations. To con-            and develop the masculine side of                                in ourselves, but
demn what others believe is judg-              her person. The same goes for the         in others too. How else can the true
mental, narrow-minded, and big-                man in discovering the female side        church bring the good news of sal-
oted. No one has a comer on the                of his character. So, we have the
truth.                                         men and women of the 90s switch-              It is exactly because we are so
     MORALS: What right have we                ing roles. There is no objective rule     convicted of this rule of God in our
to judge one who refuses to honor              to say any of this is wrong. A per-       lives that we wish to separate our-
the outdated law that sex is to be             son should be able to decide for him-     selves from the ungodly youth of
enjoyed within marriage? Marriage              self one way or another.                  this wicked world. We want to ap-
is only an ancient institution of cer-             Against this relativism of yin-       pear to others as being different from
tain people. Sex can be enjoyed and            yang stands the child of God who          the wicked. This is why our par-
should be enjoyed by everyone, in              believes there is indeed an objective     ents placed on us a sign or a symbol
any way he chooses to carry it out.            right and wrong. Because we believe       very shortly after we were born. It
We have no right either to rise up in          in God who transcends creation, we        was the symbol of baptism. By this
judgment over a divorced person or             believe there is one changeless norm:     symbol we are distinguished from
a remarried person. Maybe divorce              God! He never changes! Neither            the children of unbelievers and
or remarriage is wrong for us, but             does His Word. There are not many         marked as those who are members
not for them. Who sets us up as                different ways to heaven. There is        of the Christian church and covenant
judges?                                        one way: God's way, through re-           of God. Why then would we wish
     HOMOSEXUALITY: If a per-                  pentance over sin and a conscious         to bear another sign? Especially is
son adopts a homosexual life-style,            faith in the redeeming blood of Jesus     this true if that sign covers over the
there is no reason to condemn him              Christ our Lord. Christ alone is the      sign of baptism and makes us ap-
for it, though it may not be my thing.         door that opens to heaven.                pear as if we are, in fact, no differ-
     ABORTION: It is wrong to force                Where do we find the unchang-         ent from the heathen of this world?
something on someone. If it is a               ing rule and authority for our lives,         In what camp do you wish to
person's choice to end a pregnancy,            young people? In the Bible, because       make your stand in this world,
then let her make that choice. It              the Bible is the very Word of our         young people? Do you wish to cast
could be wrong for me, but I may               God! Doctrine can be judged right         your lot with the people of God, or
not condemn her on the basis of                or wrong on the basis of what the         withthe wicked? You cannot have
what I personally think is wrong.              Bible teaches us. The proper way of       both! We are either for God or
     FEMINISM By what law is the               walking in holiness can be found,         against Him! Let us cast from us
man given prominence over the                  because it is outlined for us in the      the burden of the sin of the wicked
woman? By the law of Tao every                 Bible in detail. When we walk con-        and confess with Joshua, "As for me
man has a feminine side to his na-             trary to the Word of God, then we         and my house, we will serve the
ture, and every woman has a mas-               are doing wrong, because we vio-          Lord!"  0
culine side. In order to be a whole            late God's objective rule of right and


I                                                                                                                                      I


                                                    John 4:27-42
                 The Harvest in Samaria
                                          I
                                                   Uur study this time is a sequel       vest that shalt be gathered out ot all
                                               to the remarkable conversation be-        nations in the New Testament era.
                                               tween Jesus and the Samaritan             Second, Christ instructs His disciples
                                               woman. Two things stand out in the        in their calling as reapers in this har-
                                               passage. First, Christ uses His la-       vest.
                                               bors with the woman as the ground-            We should notice that the fruit
Rev. Haak is pastor of Bethel Pr6ie.s:         work for gathering a spiritual har-       of Christ's work in the heart of this
t&t Reformed Churdh in Elk Grove' Gil- ' vest among the Samaritans. This is              woman was that she became zeal-
                               I'  1,
lage, Ill&is.                                  a prefiguration of the spiritual har-     ous in witnessing of Him whom she                  ..:.-
                                                                                                   April 1,1995/Standard Bearer1327


           believed was the Christ (see Acts           2.  Jesus and the disciples at the           they should look up and see that the
           4:20; Rom. 10:9,10).  By the grace of       well (w. 31-38).                             harvest was not in the future but
           God this witness led to the Samari-             a. Jesus tells them that His             was surrounding them?
            tans coming to hear Christ and be-         meat is to do the will of the Father.            9. Does Christ refer only to the
           lieving on Him through hearing His              b. Jesus announces to them that          Samaritans who were making their
           own words. The principles clearly           there is an abundant spiritual har-          way across the fields to Him as the
           taught are, first, that our witness         vest surrounding them.                       "harvest," or does His reference to
           must center in calling others to come           c. Jesus impresses on them the           the ripe field go beyond that to in-
           and hear Christ themselves in the           blessedness of being one who is used         clude all the spiritual harvest of the
           Word (preaching of the Word), and           to reap this harvest.                        New Testament age?
           second, that one comes to faith             3. The ministry of Christ to the Sa-              10. Explain the difference be-
           through hearing Christ Himself in           maritans (w. 39-42).                         tween spiritual sowing and spiritual
            the Word.                                      a. The Lord speaks the word              reaping. Who does the sowing? the
                Jesus also reveals in this passage     there for two days.                          reaping? Does Amos  9:13 fit in
           something of His holy dedication to             b. Many believe as the result            here? If so, how?
           do all the work of His Sender. His          of hearing His own word and con-                  11. In applying what is said in
           meat is to do the will of the Father;       fess that He is the Savior of the            verse 38 to ourselves, explain what
           that is, what alone s$isfied Christ         world.                                       should be the true effect upon us?
           was to do God's will concerning our                                                           12. From the words of the Sa-
           redemption. To perftirm that will           Questions for Study:                         maritans in verse 42, what my we
           was the hunger of His life. (This               1. How is the providence of              say as to the relationship between
           total and sacred consecration to the        God at work in controlling when the          our witness to others of Christ and.
           will of the Father is something that        disciples return? (Not too soon be-          their actual hearing of Christ them-
           is'emphasized to us in John - see           fore Christ has revealed Himself as          selves?
           5:36; 6:38; 8:29;,17:4;  19:30.)            the Messiah,  yet  not too late after             13. What does the "Savior of the
                The will of the Father centers in      the woman has left Jesus.) Discuss           world" signify? 0
           gathering the harvest of His re-            how the providence of God is beau-
           deemed. This harvest, Jesus says is         tifully arranged around the work of
           now ripe, for upon His death and            salvation.
           , resurrection the church is to be gath-        2. Why did  the dis-
           ered out of all nations. In this har-       ciples not dare to ask the
           vest Christ will employ His church          woman and Jesus the ques-
           in the work of reaping. This will be        tions  .that were on their
           entirely gracious, for all the labor is     minds?                                                  God's Word
           performed by the Sower. More, the               3. Why did the woman                 God's Word, a Lamp unto my feet,
           graciousness of it is that both the         leave her waterpot?                          A Light upon my way;
           Sower and the reaper rejoice to-                4. In what ways is the               Lest I should stumble on the path
           gether. We are given to rejoice in          Samaritan, woman an ex-                      I travel  day by day.
            God's perfect work of gathering a          ample of the eager and zeal-
           redeemed church "out of the whole           ous witness of Christ that is            God's Word, a Guide to rule my life,
           human race . . . chosen to everlasting      always the result of true con-               A Sword equipping me
           life, agreeing in true faith" (Heid.        version? What was the con-               To fight in sin's great battle
           Cat., L.D. 21).                             tent of her witness?                         And gain the &tory.
                                                           5. What does verse 31
           Outline of the Passage:                     reveal about the disciples?              God's Word, a Refuge for the soul,
           1. The conversation between Jesus               6. Explain what Christ                   Hope for the troubled heart;
           and the Samaritan woman comes to            meant when He said that do-              Assuring me of blessings
           an end (w. 27-30). .                        ing the will of God provided                 That His great love imparts.
                a. The d+iples ret&n, marvel-          Him with "meat to eat."
           ing that He tall& with this woman.              7.  What  "work"   of the            God's Word, my dearest treasure,
                b. The woman departs, leaving          Father did Jesus "finish"?                   My Source of power and might;
           her waterpbt.                                   8. What did Christ in-               I'll ever hide it in my heart
                     1) The woman's enthusias-         tend to teach the d,isciples                 And heed it day and night.
           tic witness to the men of the city.         when He contrasted the                                                Annetfa Jansen
                     2) The result of this wit-        proverb "There are yet four                                       Dorr, Michigan
           ness: the Samaritans come out to            months and then  cometh
  .I y.                                                harvest" with the fact that
,..--      Jesus.
 -.        328/Standard   Bearer/April  1,1995


                                                                     . .


                                                                                                             _





      I                     r  2.                                                                                                                I
      p#lu@&l&~,                                         ::  D        `:                                    LA!ii!cu~~1                               (
                                                                                                .      6            '

                       ecent Develop.ments in .-
 -              I              Church/Stat@ Law .                                                                                    -  `-
                                            I                                                                                                    I
n Religious Freedom Restoration                  their employer, a California commu-       to unmarried cohabiting couples,`al-
ACt.(RFRA) gains visibility                      nity college. The college required        leging  the practice violated his reli-
           In November of 1993 President         prospective employees to take an          gious principles. Three couples filed
 Clintori  signed into law T impor-              oath swearing to support and de-:         `claims of marital status discrimina-
tant  liw. insuring a significant de-            fend the U.S. Constitution. The two       tion alleging the landlord's policy
 gree of ieligious freedom- under the            applicants refused to take the re-        violated  city and state laws.prohib-
First Amendme+.' Although the law                quired- oath on the grounds their         iting housing discrimination.
was supported by .post religipus  or-            religion prohibited taking oaths of       -  _ ,The Alaska supreme court ruled
 ganizations, it nevertheless took two           allegiance to any entity other than       against  .the landlord who then ap-
years of debate and pblitical  maneu-            God. Both applicants filed suit al-       pealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
yering  before it passed both houses ,           leging that the college's rejection of    Although the U.S. Supreme Court
 of  -Congr$ss.  .                               their employment based on  thei.? re-     refused to  hear, the case, Justice  -
           The RFRA was passed lay Con-          fusal to take the required oaths via- Clarence Thomad filed a  @n.ificant
 gress in response to the notorious              lated the RFRA.                           dissent referring to the RFRA. Jus-
 1990 Supreme Court decision in the                  The California court ruled in the     tice Thomas. .expressed  his skepti-
 case of Employment Di$sion  v. Smith.           employees,' favor and issued an tin-      cism.,as  to whether Alaska had a
In that case a bitterly divided court            junction prohibiting the college from     "compelling  interest" in marital Sta-
held that a-Ftate law was valid even             requiring the Jehovah's Witnesses  t6     tus  discrimiriation,  stating that if
if it interfered with free exercise of           swear an oath as a prerequisite to        such were a compelling state inter-
.religion,  so long as the law was "fa-          employment.                               est, he was at a loss as to what state
 c@lly neutral."                                     In another case, a landlord in        interest would not qualify as com-
                                                                                                                          *     _
           The RFRA essentially provides         Alaska refused to rent his apartment      pelling.
that a governmental law  or'regula-   I  _
 tion rniy not "subs&&ally burden"
 a citizen's free -exercise of his reli-
 gion unZe!s the law or regulation is
 (1) in furtherance of a "compelling
 governmental interest" and (2) is the
 "least restrictive means" of achievi
`ing the contemplated governmental
 objectiire  (see box). The RFRA also
 provides that an aggrieved person
may pursue legal remedies when the
 A& is violated.
           Numerous courts in recent
 months have issued significant rul-
ings interpreting the Act. In Cali-
fornia, ttio Jphovah's Witnesses re-
 fused to thke an oath demanded by


Mr. Larking,  a- member of South Hol-
* land Protestant Reformed Church, is a
 prfxticing attorney.

                                                                                                            April  1,1995/Standard Bearer1329


       Although the landlord did not.           rule in favor,of  employees under all               . we'aring.  an anti-abortion butt-on
) prevailin  this case;it is noteworthv       ' circumstances.             .                         which depicted a fetus of`20 weeks;
  that even, Supreme Court justices are               In a recent federal appeals court              The employee was terminated after
 `now looking to the.RFRA  to insure            decision a practicing Seventh  .Day                  she refused to cover the button at
 citizens a degree of religious free-           Adventist refused to work on his                     work, which allegedly caused con-
  dom in this country. '  y  `-  i              Sabbath `(from sundown Friday to                     flicts among employees who claimed
                                    -L. .       sundown Saturday).i His employer,                   : to be disturbed by the picture of the
 R  Religious   f r e e d o m   `-             the Hi&borough .County  Sheriff's                    fetus.
 for employees                                 Detention  Departme&,had  insti-                          The court  .held that her  ;
       In addition to the RFR&*another  : tuted a rotating shift policy. The em-                    remployer's  request that she cover the-
 important guarantee for Christians            ployee was terminated after failing                  button at work was a "reasonable
 in the work place is Title VII of-the         to. report  ,,to work on a Friday                     accommodation" of faith commit-
 !Civil Rights Act of 1964. Under this         `.eirening.                                          ment to.wear  the button until abor-
 federal law, an employer must  "rea:           : -The court ruled against the em-                  t i o n   w a s   ended.    .
 sonably' accommodate". an  em--               ployee, however, because he failed                        Although the decision- is clearly
 ployee$religious'beliefs  unless do-;         to avail himself `of the Department's                wrong, the case illustrates that-Title
 ingso would cause the'employer an             provisions to advertise for replace-                 VII of the Civil Rights Act-nonethe-
 "undue hardship." Thistfederal  law           `ment workers on the Department's                    less requires that employers reason-
 has. been used by employees j with            bulletin  board. `The court held that                ably .accommodate  employees' reli-
 sincerely held religious. beliefs to          the Department's  .rotating' shift                   gious beliefs. Reformed Christians,
 avoid union-' membership in a                 policy was reasonable since it'con-                  and not only Seventh Day Adven-
 "closed shop" by  payment--of  an             tained `built-in provisions for em-                  tists and Roman-Catholics, should
 *amount equivalent to union dues-to ployees to `advertise for shift                                be, appealing to this significant fed-
 a recogr&ed  charity... Title VII has         changes. ,                                  -*  !    eral law to avoid compulsory union
 `also been-used by- employees to                     In another case, a federal court              membership, Sunday assignments,  -
 avoid Sunday work assignments.                in -Nebraska ruled *against a Roman                  and other work `activities, that vio-
 Two recent cases demonstrate, how- ' Catholic employee who insisted on                             late an employee's religious faith. Q
 ever, thatcourts may.be  reluctamto                                            -_                                                   -:  -
                                                                                                                                              1

  .                   ,-:-----,-The--General  Synod.  :  -  _
                                             8  _'




                      ._                                                              ,
                                                                                                        The article calls for the general
                                               Frequency of meetings                                synod to meet biennially, that is, ev-
         I  .  . .                               Article  50  of our  Church Order                  ery other year. Our practice is to
                            a  !               concerns itself with the formal mat-                 meet annually: "Synod shall meet               -
                                               ters connected to the convening -of                  on the first Wednesday of June each
 keb. Camme&a  is pastor of-Southwest          the general synod of the churches.                   year (unless  otherwise designated by
 ProtestanF Reformed  : Church in              It deals especially with the frequency - the preceding synod)" ("Rules of Or-
 F;~andvillej Michigan.                        and consistency of these meetings.                   der for the Synod of the Protestant
 33OIStandard  Bearer/April  1,1995



                 I


 Reformed ,Churches in America," I,          ing committees of synod. It is much            at the National Synod before all
 A.).' For the past several years synod      better that synod meet every year             , other activities should give them-
 has been convened on the second             so that there-,may be an annual re-            selves to fasting and prayer and the
 Tuesday of June.                            view and approval of,.the  work of             minister of the place deliver an ex-
     For several reasons it is `to be.       the committees'of  synod.           6          hortation from God's ,Word that is
                                                                                            fitting for the forthcoming agenda.
 preferred that the general synod                Althoughnour  synod meets usu-
 meet annually rather than biennially.       ally once-each year, it ,is possible that            Our "Rules of Order" state:
 The;  Churih  Order itself favors fre-      a  special synod be called. Article-50
 quent meetings of the ecclesiastical        provides for a' special synod when             On the . . . evening `preceding the-
 assemblies. ' Article 37 calls for a        "it becomes necessary in the opin-             opening bf synod a prayer service,
 weekly meeting of the consistory;,          ion  !of at least three classes." Since        in charge of the  =.convening
 Article 41 calls for the classes to meet' our churches are-divided into only               consistory, shall be sheld  in the city
 every  :three  months. The general          two classes; we have adopted the             in which synod is to meet.`. The
 rule ought to `be that the .assemblies      following rule: When a classis de-             members of synod are expected to
 meet as often as is practically fea-        sires an early synod, it shall apply           attend-this service in a body. I, D.
 sible.                                      to the convening church, -whose
     The requirement of Article 50           consistory in turn shall seek the ap-        It is the custom that the president of               ,
 that, the general synod ineet  every        proval of .the other classis" ("Rules        the  ,previous synod conduct this
 other year takes for- granted that          of Order for the Synod of the Prot-          worship service and deliver the pre-
 there are +rticular synods that are         estant Reformed Churches in                  s~ddicd sermon. This  sermon is
 meeting annually (Church Order, Ar-'        America," I, B.).                            then also included in the printed
 titles 47-49). But since our churches                                                    "Acts."
 do not have particular synods, it is        Calling Church                                       Since the pre-synodical  service
 important that our general synod                                                         is `an ,official.  worship service; the         '
                                  I  I           Article. 50 makes mention of a
 meet every year.                            "local church" designated to con-e           members- of the convening church
     Neither is this .a great. hardship, : vene the general synod. This has               ought to be inattendance. Besides;
 as was often the case in the early          always been'the practice of the Re-          all who are able are invited and
 history of the Reformed Churches            formed churches. In harmony with             ought to- make an -iff ort to. attend.
 in the Netherlands.--Social and po-         this provision  .of Article. 50, the         There have been times recently that
 litical conditions often made itdiffi-      "RuIes  of Order for the Synod of the        the .pre-syxiodical service was not
 cult - at times impossible - for            Protestant Reformed Churches in              very well attended. This is a shame!
 the synods to convene.. With condi-         America': state:                             Is `this an indication that we have
 tions what they are in our land, and                                                     begun to lose our .denominational  ,
/with  the efficiency of the modem             Each synod`shall  appoint a conven-        consciousness and that we are not
 means of transportation, our  1               ing consistory whose duty it shall         as grateful to God as we ought to be
 churches have held an annual synod          ' be to -announce  the xiext succeed-        for the work of our broadest assem-
 since our first synod was convened            ing synod to the churches in a             bly?
in 3940. .                '                    synociically  designated publication
    The' annual meetings of synod              at least one month before the date         Synodical Delegates
                                               of meeting. It shall also provide
 also serve as a needed safeguard.             all facilities needed for the synod!:              Article 50  -mandates  that three
 First of all, they safeguar.d  the qual-      cal meetings, make arrangements            ministers and three elders from ev-
ity ;of the work performed by the              for the lodging of delegates, etc,         ery classis be delegatedto the gen-
 synod. Biennial meetings of synod             Expenses thus incurred shall be            eral synod. 4u.r "Rules' of Order,"
would result in a considerably                 paid by the synodical  treasurer. I,       which `had required four ministers
 lengthier agenda, with the potential          c*          /                              and four elder delegates from our
 for too much work to be done in too                                                      two classes, were revised by the
 short a time. Work done in haste                `Although not specifically men-          Synod of 1992 so that at present five
 does not usualleserve  the churches         tioned in Article 50, one of the most        ministers and five elders from each
well.                                        important duties of the calling              classis are delegated `each year to
     Besides, annual -meetings of            church is to take charge of the pre-         synod.
 synod safeguard the churches from           synodical#worship  service. This is a         * Significantly, the same number
the danger of "boardism," that is,           custom of tlong-standing  in the Re-         of ministers and elders serve as syn
the running of the church by boards          formed churches. Already- in 1578,           odical delegates. Not .only is this a
and committees. If the synod meets           the Synod of Middelbtirg  decided:           practical safeguard against hierar-
 only every two years, it will neces-                                                     chy, but this derives from the Re-
sarily bethe case that m.ore respon-           But it is deemed good that hereaf-         formed principle of parity of
sibility will be shifted to the stand-         ter those who have come together           officebearers. ,

                                                                                                       April 1,1995/Standwd Bearerl3~1


             The method of selecting synodi-        ally delegated to the synods, so that      to the synods of our churches over
        cal delegates is not spelled out in         year after year decisions involving        the ,years. What a great blessing that
        Article 50. In the apast there: were,       the churches in common are made            this is true today. The Lord has cer-
        in the Reformedchurches, instances          by the same few, still the method of       tainly used the elders in significant
        of classes appointing delegates by          voting for synodical delegates does        ways in the many important deci-
        rotation, so that the ministers took        more to insure that the most capable       sions that our synods have taken.
        turns  serving,as synodical delegates.      ministers will be involved in the              In addition to the synod&l del-
             Much to be preferred is the            most important work of the                 egates, there are those who auto-
        method of selecting synodical del-          churches in common., The best              `matically  have , advisory vote at
        egates by secret ballot. It may even        qualified ought to represent the           synod: Not o,nly.does.this  mean that
        be ,argued that this is implied in Ar-      -classes at the major assembly, with-      they have the privilege.of the floor,
        ticle 41 which speaks of the work of        out regard to the-distance they must       but also that they are available to
        the classis. "And, finally, at one but      travel or the frequency of previous        serve as advisors to the committees
        the last meeting and, if necessary, at      attendance.                                of pre-advice.  The "Rules of Order"
        the last meeting before the. synod,             Elder delegates are,chosen from        (IV) specify that advisory members
        delegates shall be chosen to attend         those presently serving in the office.     of synod include: the seminarypro-
        said synod." The article speaks of          Usually the elder delegates available      .fessors; the missionaries,  .although
        choosing synodical delegates, -which        to serve at synod are mentioned on         only on matters directly concerning
        can hardly be done if the rotary            a, consistory's credentials or pre-        their labors; reporters of standing or
        method of selecting delegates is fol-       sented from the floor .by the del-         special committees; the Synodical
        l o w e d .   `-                            egates of that consistory. Some            Stated Clerk; and the Synodical
             Because of concern over the use        consistories ask who of their elders       Treasurer.
        of the zotary method, .the Synod of         is willing to be nominated to serve            The advisory'members  of synod,
        the* Christian Reformed Church of           as a synodical delegate. Other             especially our seminary professors
        1938 issued the warning to the              consistories have the' general policy      and denominational missionaries,  _
        classes-of that denomination that ";..      that all the elders are to be willing      have also played an important part
        with a view to the welfare of the           to be @laced on nomination unless          -in the deliberations of our broadest
        Churches, it advises against the ro-        they are able to present good reason       assembly over the years. It is with
        tary method of selecting synodical          to the consistoj as towhy they can-        good reason that they are granted
        delegates': Acts of Synod of the CZ$,       not be considered for nomination.          advisory vote and expected by the
        2938, pp.  80,81).   -  `.  '                  ..We ought to be very thankful to       churches to attend .the meetings of
             Altho.ugh  there' may be a dan-        God for .the number of qualified el-       the general synod. 0
        ger that the same men are continu-          ders who have served as delegates



                                                                                                 no voice, but the voice of the Mas-
,       Paradigms in T$ity:, Classic Read-            ernment  only when threatened. It
      - ings in &formed and  ~resby&%ian              would be much better if we would           ter?. And what made the mummied
                                                                                                 forms of medieval Christianity, but
        Church Governments by David. W.               study the Word bf God and come
                                                      to our values in biblical conclusions      the very principle . . . that the Church
        Hall, J0seph.H. ,Hall, editors. Grand I       not as reactionaries but as positive       has a large discretion? She claimed _
        Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans               Protestants seeking to hold forth the      the right to command where God
        Publishing Co., .19?4. ,pp. xiii-621.         whole counsel of God in matters of         had not  spoken;she  made void His
j_      $29.99. (paper). [Reviewed by Prof.           government as well.  James Henley          law,  and substituted her own au-
      - Robert D. Decker.]                    _.      Thornwell is helpful again. Re-            thority and inventions.... It is be-
                                                      sponding to those who-allege that          cause we love the liberty where-
             T+ book ought to be in every             church government and restraint            with Christ has made us free, that
        minister's library. The two intro-            is an unlawful imposition,                 we renounce and abhor the detest-
                                                                                                 able principle of Prelatists, Popes,
        ductory essays by the editors are             Thornwell  wrote, "Is the law of
                                                      God  tyranny? And does man be-             and loose Presbyterians, that what-
        must reading especially in our day.           come a slave by being bound to             ever is not forbidden is lawful. The
        David Hall writes,                            obey it? Is not obedience to God           Church may be very wise, but God
                                                      the very essence of liberty, and is        is wiser" (p.  33,34).
          As most quickly recognize, unfor-           not the  Church  most divinely free
          tunately many of us are led to our         when she most perfectly fulfills His          A paradigm is an outstandingly
          positions in church government not         will?  What is it that has made this      clear example or pattern of some-
         -with forethought but ixi a posture         `free, exultant Church of.ours,' but      thing. The bulk of the book (pp. 55-
          of reaction. We often learn gov-           the sublime determination to hear

        332lSfandard  Bearer /April 1,1995


602) consists of an anthology of what          m&t) as "aberrational forms of gov-         Order, of Dordt. In addition to this,
the editors consider to be .the best.          ernment" deriying one or more of            David Hall's position that "All gov-
writings  6f the church fathers, as            the  fufidamental  characteristics of       emment is necessitated by human
well as excerpts from the confedsions          the church. The former .denies her          depravity and the Fall and, as such,
on the subject of church polity or             catholicity.`and the latter her Scrip-      is necessarily a mechanism of re-
government. Each of these is pre-              tural foundation  (p. 4).                   sponse to that fallen condition" sim-
ceded by a bhef, very helpful bio-                     Hall contends that the -main        ply is not true. Government finds
graphical/historical introduction.             principles of the presbyterian form         its origin in .the will of the Sover-
The editors believe, and rightly so,           of government derived from Scrip-           ei@ God who created the heavens
that these writings are paradigms of           ture are: "the rule of a plurality of       and the earth. Adam had domin-
what a Reformed/Presbyterian                   elders- in the local church, the sub-       ion, rule, in paradise. Christ is God's
church polity ought to.be. They urge           mission of the lo&l goveming body           King and will certainly rule in the
us not to, :II . . . `reinvent the wlieel.'    to a higher govemg-body, and+he             New Creation.
The biblical aspects of, government            unity of churches finding its most              Both introductory essays, but es-
need not  b,e ignored by each succes-          concrete representation in the  con-        pecially  is this true of the second by -
sive generation, nor rediscovered by           nect+n of the churches and their kl-        David- H-all, are characterized by
the alternating generations.  We               ders in regional bodies, sometimes          highly technical;unfamiliar,  and ob-
could profit much by studyixig the             called `courts' when discipline is un-      scure terminology which makes
`anciimt paths' (Jkr. 6:16; l&:15) and         dertaken" (p: 5). Both editors assert       them difficult-for anyone lacking a
attempting to .mold our inchoate               that these fundamental principles are       college or seminary education.
governments after the progress of              evident froin `Acts 15 - the U Jerusa-      Among  these are terms like
our spiritual ancestors. That, far             lem Co&&" which de& with the                "repristinator of presbyteriar&m,"
from being a pharisaic expression of           question of circumcision (Ijp. 5, 17-       "recrudescence of the! presbyterian
traditionalism, is the better part of          19). The decisions of the elders and        system,"  "praxis,  m  "h&martiology,"
wisdom, as we seek to rule out those           apbtles at that council in Jerusalem        and "heuristic value." But if one
inefficacious modes of governing"              applied to all, the churches.               has `-a dictionary at his elbow he
(p. 20). If nothing else, this anthol-         "Strangely' absent frog this record         should be able to make his way
ogy will guide the serious student             is the thought that each church, on         through the essays.
of Reformed/Presbyterian -church               this question, would do just `as `it            Joseph Hall was formerly pro-
polity to the primary sources. The             pleased. Thes'e  (the. decisions of tile    fessor of. church history a;d librar:
anthology  `is divided into five sec-          ~council in Jerusalem) were standards       .ian at Knox Theblogical  Seminary,
tions treating "The Historical Foun-           `by the whole ,church for the whdle         Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and cur-
dation of Church l?olity," "Contineri-         bhurch.  It was one church with th'e        rently teaches at Mid-America Semi-
tal Europe and Reformation Poli-               sanie' beliefs and practices, not just      nary. His son, David Hall, is pastor
ties, ti "Dutch Reformed Polities,"            a consortium of loosely affiliated          of  Covenafit   Presbyteiian  Church
"Scottish and British Polities," and           churches. The decision of the As-           (PCA) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
"North American Polities."                     sembly of Jerusalem was for all                 The book is greatly enhanced by
    The anthology is introduced by             churches" (p. 17). According to Acts        a "Bibliographical Essay" by David
two excellent essays by the editors.           16:4 these decisions- ("decrees," ac-       Hall and an index. 0
Joseph Hall writes on the "History             cording tq the Greek) were deliv-
and Character of Church Govem-                 e?ed by Paul and' Silas to the
ment"; and David Hall's essay is en-           churches and refeived by them with
titled "The Pastoral and Theological           joy!
Significance of Church Govern-                    * Both editors aie convinced that
ment."                                         the biblical principles of church gov-
    Joseph Hall's thesis is that the           ernment as enunciated by the
marks of the church (pure preach-              apostles and i early post-apostolic
ing of the `Word, administr&ion  of            Church, and as restored by the Re-
the sacraments, and biblical disci-            formers of the sixteenth century (no-
pline) are the "essential ingredients          tably Calvin) are the principles of
of true church government" (pp. 3-             Reformed/Presbyterian church  pal:
4). Moreover, both editors insist that         ity: This reviewer agrees! What  is
church polity ought to be biblical in          missing, however, is a recogriitipn
its-origin.  iJoseph Hall sees congre-         of and an eiplanation  of the impor-
gational/independent churches  .and            tant -and fundamental principle of
the prelactic (Anglican and Roman              the autonomy of the local church as
Catholic systems of church gdvem-              so beautifully woven into the Church

                                                                                                    Apr!l 1,1995/Standard Bearer/333


                                                                                .
                                                          I  ,.                 .  . '    I'





                                                                                                     March 1,1995  in Loveland, CO


    The March meeting of Classis                    to God that  all the churches in            tablished the "PrinciEles  for Assis-
West was held in Lo+d, CO on                        Classis West are experiencing unity,        tance in Discipline"; 2) .No evidence
Wednesday, March 1. ,The custom-                    peace, and  .love, and that the             is presented that the current arrange-
ary Officebearers' Conference was                   consistories  are faithfully caring for     .ments involved in-our sister-church
held the day before. The theme of                   the sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ.         relation&ps  do not serve the spi+
the- Conference-was "The Truth of                   They stated, "We must not take this         tual well-being of the PRC of N.Z.;
God's Gracious Covenant." , The key-                blessing for granted, but we must           3) Such a request of a congregation/
note address was given.by Rev. Russ                 continue to seek this blessing ear-         denomination joining another de-
Dykstra,.who  spoke on "God's Gra-                  nestly before God's  ,face. Of par-         nomination ought to arise from the
cious Covenant: A .Glorious Truth,                  ticular interest to `the Qassis  was a      congregation/denomination itself.
A -Blessed Experience;" Section&                    report by the Church.Visitors of their          Classis granted classic4 appoint-
were led by.Rev. Mitchell Dick, "Set-               visit to the Trinity PRC in Houston,        ments as follows: Edmonton `PRC
ting the Record Straight on Pre-Sup-                Texas.  !t was especially encourag-         - Rev. -Houck (April 23 and -30);
posed Regeneration"; Rev. Thomas                    ing to hear of the extensive evange-        Edgerton PRC  - Revs.  DeVries
Miersma, "A Critique of the Condi-                  lism efforts of that small congrega-        (May 21, 28), Dykstra (Aug. 13,20),       '
tional Covenant"; and Rev. Arie den-                tion, and of the Lord's evident bless-      Bekkering (Sept. 10,17);  Lynden PRC
Hartog, "Covenant Breakers."                        ing upon their labors and those of          ---Revs.  Moore (April 23, 30), Dick
Healthy discussion followed each                    l'astor Mahtani. God has graciously         (May 14, 21), Key (July 23, 30),
paper, showing -unity of thought                    added to their number;,but  also has        Terpstra (Aug. 13, 20), Haak (Sept.
among.our  officebearers concerning                 given them much opportunity to              10, 17).  Classis instructed the va-
this significant truth.                             spread God% truth. This they have           cant church to seek supply from  I
    Tuesday evening the delegates                   ldonenot only among the general             seminary students or candidates
and members of Loveland:s  congre-                  Eopuiation, but also in the Sindhi          from M&June, through July.
gation gathered for a-slide presenta-               Indian community in Houston, most              Classis  approved subsidy re-
tion by Rev. Richard Moore, a mem-                  of whom are Hindu.  Classis will            quests. as follows and forwarded
ber of. the Foreign Mission Commit-                 report to Synod 1995 that although          ,them to Synod: Bethel PRC  -
tee of the Protestant Reformed                      the congregation in Houston is small,       $20,300; Edgerton PRC - $14,000;
Churches., Rev. Moore, together                     "the I churches can enthusiastically        Edmonton PRC - $32,378; Lacombe
with Elder Don ,VerMeer,  recently                  continue to support Trinity PRC ac-         PRC  `
                                                                                                          - $15,221; Pella PRC  -
spent several weeks in -Ghana, ,Af-'                cording to her need;`!! We pray that        $22,500; Trinity PRC - $32,000.
rica, investigating further the possi-              God, will continue to. bless their ef-          Voting for synodical  delegates
bility of the PRC doing mission work                forts to proclaim the gospel, and also      resulted in the following: Ministers:
-in that country. For further mfor-                 those- evangelism labors of all the         Primi:  W. Bekkering, R.-Dykstra, C.
mation concerning this investigatory                churches:  -                                Haak, C. Terpstra, G. VanBaren;
work, confer the March 1; 1995 is-                         The Classis also considered an       Secundi: A. denHartog,  M. Dick, S.
sue of theStrindard  Bearer. Our con-               ove+.ue which asksSynod  1995 "to           Houck,  S. Key, R. Moore. Elders:
gregations would, be,well served by                 investigate through its committee for       Primi:      Ed  Gritters (Redlands),
having Rev. Moore come-and show
                  .-                                cpntact the possibility of having our       Henry Hoekstra (Hull), Chester
his slides. .           -            .,             .sister church in New Zealand join          Hunter, Jr. (Doon), David Poortinga
    Rev. ,Michael  DeVriesbegan  the                one of the Classes in our Protestant        (Loveland), Ed VanGinkel (Doon);
session  ,of &as&s  with :devotjons                 Reformed  i Churches in America."           Secundi:      Gary Buteyn, Henry
-based on-John  13:14, 15. --.Re,j.,,Dick           Classis  .West ..decided to send the        Ferguson,-,Tim   Kpoima, Herman
then chaired the Classis.  meeting.                 overture on to synod with disap-            Mole&amp,  Michael VanBaren.              '
   :-The agenda of Classis was brief.               proval, The grounds -for disapprov-             Rev; R. Moore was elected to
There were regular reports from the                 kg were three: 1) Past synods have          serve a three-year term and Elder
Classical Committee, the Stated                     had i the .opportunity  to face these       Ed VanGinkel  a one-year term on
Clerk, and the Reading- Sermon                      matters when they' formed sister-           the Classical Committee. Rev. C.
Committee. At the March-meetings                    church relationships with the PRC           Haak was elected to serve a three-
of Classis West, the Church Visitors                of New  :Zealand  and the ERCS,             year  prims  term  ,and Rev. S. Key
annually give their report. The                     when' they, renewed the support of          was re-elected  toa two-year term as
Church Visitors noted with gratitude                thePRC of N.Z., and when they es-           Synodical Deputies, with Rev. G.

334Etandard  Bearer/April  1,1995



                                             _      .     -I       ,.,     .


   VanBaren elected to a three-year               Bekkering and A. denHartog  as al-        ber 20,1995,  the Lord willing. -0
   secundus term. Revs. G. Lanting and            temates.                                                Respectfully submitted,
   G. VanBaren were elected to be                    The next meeting of Classis will                             Rev. Steven Key,
   church visitors, with Revs. W.                 be in-South  Holland, IL on Septem-                                  Stated Clerk





   Minister Activities                            Indian community of Houston. Re-          year by introducing a series of ser-
                                                  portedly, Trinity received dozens of      mons dealing with the subject'of
        Rev. S. Houck, pastor of the              phone calls enquiring about their         worship. This series was entitled
   Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL, had a                church as well as their upcoming          "Reformed Worship: Fellowship
   recurrence of his heart problems. At           conference. Rev. Mahtani was also         with the Holy One." Over the
- first it looked as though he would              able to bring -the Word -at a recent      weeks, D.V., Rev.-Key will use pas-
   have to have beass surgery again.              Christian SINDHIconference.  One          sages of Scripture to explain the vari-
   However, `it now looks as though               of their meetings was held in the         ous elements of our worship. He
    doctors may be able to treat him sim-         sanctuary of Trinity, and Rev.            also hoped to show why we include
   ply with medication. Let us remem-             Mahtani spoke on the subject "Train       in our worship such elements as:
   ber Rev. Houck, along with &ll our             up a Child."                              singing (exclusively Psalms), preach-
  pastors,  .either active or retired, in            `We can also mention here that,        ing, offerings, and prayer. a       -
  - prayer.                                       as,.many  of you undoubtedly know,
        The congregation of the                   the congregation of Trinity has been
    Edgerton, .MN..PRC  has extended- a           busy for the better part of-a year        Young People's Activities
    call to Rev. R..Dykstra to serve as           now planning for this month's Re-                  : .                             _
   their next pastor. And the-Lynden,             formed Evangelism Spring Confer-              The Young People's Society of
   WA congregation has `extended a                ence. From all accounts, registra-        the .Hull, IA PRC hosted a winter
    call to Rev. M. Joostens, with the            tion for this conference has far ex-      singspiration at their church.
   prayer that in harmony-with God's              ceeded  expectatiqns.3,  -God has         Through song and special numbers
    ,will he will hear and accept their           greatly blessed the efforts of Trinity    they developed the theme "Praise Ye
    call to serve as their next past-or.          with more than 180 registered so far.     the Lord."
                                                  Since original plans called for a con-        On February 11, the young
                                                  ference to bring together  PRs from       people of the Grandville,  MI PRC
   Evangelism.Activities  '                       all over this country, as well as         hosted a formal candlelight valen-
                                                  guests from the Houston area, it was      tine dinner at-Hope School. .There
         Rev. S. Key, pastor of the               necessary to closeregistration in or-     were three seatings ,from 4:45-9:00
    Randolph, WI PRC, was asked to                der to accommodate local interest in      p.m. with couples having a choice
    bring the Word at the evening ser-            attending the meetings. The Lord          of chicken or prime rib. Proceeds
    vice of  ;the Second Christian  Re-           willing, this conference will start on    will go for this year% convention.
   .formed  Church of Randolph on                 April `3, and run through April 5th.          The young people of the South
    January 8. Rev. Key preached-from             Let us remember Trinity. and all          Hollandi-IL PRC set ,a new record
    Luke  16:27-31  on the theme "The             those who gather there this first         back in January when they made 406
    Sufficiency of the Word."                     week in April in our prayers, that        sub-sandwiches as part of a fun-d-
        Rev.  J; Mahtani, pastor of the           God will use ,all this for His glory.     raiser for-this year's convention.
    Trinity PRC in Houston, TX, was in-               The newly organized Evange-              _The sanctuary of the Grandville,
    terviewed on three different occa-            lism Society of the Georgetown PRC        MI  ERC was the site of a Young
   `sions by radio station KI-ICB' 105.7          in Hudsonville, MI has decided to         People's Society Mass, Meeting held
    FM in-Houston concerning informa-             purchase a new recording system to        on February lg., Rev. ASpriensma,
   tion about -Trinity,  the upcoming Re-         use during their weekly worship ser-      Grandville's pastor, spoke on :"Per:
    formed Evangelism Conference, and             vices:                                    sonal Devotions of a.Young  Person."
    the `Christian SINDHI outreach to the                                                    Young peogle from many  we?
                                                                                            Michigan-PR churches got together
                                                  CongFegational  Activifies ,              on Saturday, March 4 at Heritage
    Mr. Wjgger  is a member                                                          L
                                of the Protks-                                              Christian. School in Hudbonville to I           :
    tunt Reformed Church of HudsonvilIe,            a Rev.  S: Key, pastor- of the          make apple pies. This fund-raiser,              .
    M i c h i g a n . ,                           Randolph, WI PRC, began the new           sponsored by the Federation Board               !I
                                                                                                      April  1,1995/Standard  Bearer1335



                                                                                                            -.


         ;pkE
     mDm                                                                                                           SECONDCLASS
       Bg$Jggq                                                                                                     Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                   Grandvile, Michigan
       - P. 0. Box 603
       Grandvile, MI 49468-0603

1                                                                                             r:                                               I

     of Young People's Societies, has           unbaked pies were delivered to area            Food for Thought
     turned into an annual event. This          churches for pickup that afternoon,                 "He that would walk  aright
     year the young people made 1,021           followed, no doubt, by consumption            must have. one eye upward to Jesus
     pies, starting at 7~30 a.m. and finish-    that night.                                    Christ and another inward to the cor-
     ing around noon, after which the                                                          ruption of his own nature."
                                                                                                                - Thomas Boston 0





       RESOLUTIOii OF SYMPATiiY                                 .NOTICE!!!                          .WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
         The Men's and Ladies' Society              The Board of the Reformed                       The Lord- willing on -April 10,
     of the First Protestant Reformed           Heritage Christian School Associa-             1995, our parents, .grandparents,
     Church, Holland, Michigan, wishes          tion is inviting applications for a  full-    and great grandparents,
     to express sincerest sympathy to           time teacher position (grades 1-4)                    -      MR. and MRS.
     Mr. and Mrs. Terry Elzinga and'fam-        which- will begin in August of 1995.                       GERRIT LUBBERS,
     ily in the loss of Mrs. Elzinga's          Successful applicants must be com-            celebrate their 65th wedding anni-
     mother,                                    mitted to the Reformed faith, bibli-          versary. We are thankful to our
            GtiDYS SANTORA.                     cal inerrancy, 6-day creation, male           heavenly Father for giving us God-
     May they find comfort in these             headship, the antithesis. between             fearing parents. We ,thank the Lord
     words: "Wait on the Lord: be of            Christianity and the world, and cov-          for the years they have shared, and
     good courage, and he shall                 enantal theology. Applicants should           for the constant love, the covenant
     strengthen thine heart: Wait I say,        send a letter- of  apptication' and           instruction, and the guidance they
     on the Lord" (Psalm-27:14).           '    resume to:                                    have given us through the years.
          Cornelius Doezema, President                    David Kloosterman                   May the Lord continue to bless them
                 Wilma Kamstra, Secretary                 5630 Powderhorn                     and keep them in His care in the
                                                       Kalamazoo, Ml 49009.                   years ahead. "But the mercy of the
                                                For more information phone: (616)             Lord is.from everlasting to everlast-
                                                375-5751.                                     ing upon them that fear him, and
                                                                                              his righteousness unto children's
      RESOiUTlON OF SYMPATHY                                                                  children" (Psalm 103:17).
        The Adult -Bible Society of                                                           I% Bernie and Ruth Lubbers                 _
Southwest Protestant Reformed                                                                 @ Jay and Donna Lubbers
Church expresses Christian sympa-                                                             @ Carolyn  Schipper
thy to .David and Beverly Reitsma in                                                          $I? Glenn Lubbers
the  toss of David's brother,                                                                 $I? Ted.and Gloria Miedema
           JONATHAN REITSMA.                                   NOTItiE!I!-                    &r David and Marcia Doeze>ma
        .We rejoice with them in ttie               Classis East will meet in regu-                  26 grandchildren _-
words  of"RomanS   8:18: "For I                 lar session on Wednesday, May 10,                    50 great grandchildren -I- --
reckon that the sufferings of this              1995 at the First Protestant Re-                                      Hudsonville. Michigan
present time are not worthy to, be              formed Church, Grand Rapids, Ml.
compared with the glory which shall.            Material to be treated at this ses-
be revealed in us."                             sion must be in the hands of the
          Rev.-R.  Cammenga, President          Stated Clerk by April 12, 1995.
                  ' Deb Kuiper, Secretary               Jon J.,Huisken,  Stated Clerk


336lStandard  Bearer /April 1,1995


