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                                 See "Music in the Church'kpage 374.

I                                                                       I ,
     Vol. 71, No. 15
     May 1,1995


     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                        May 1, 1995
I                                                                                                                                                                                           I
     Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hank0
              Stewards of God's Manifold Grace B............................................. 363
     Editorial - Prof. David J, Engelsma                                                                                                                                                           ISSN 0362-4692
              A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism                                                                                                                                               Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
              3. Apostasy and Persecution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~........................... 365                                                                     Published by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
     Letters . . . . ..~.............................................................................................                                                                 367          4940 Ivanrest Ave., Grandvllle, MI 49418. Second Class
                                                                                                                                                                                                   Postage Pald at Qrandvllle, Mlchlgan.
     The Reader Asks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*.*.....................................................                                                   367          Postmutrr:  Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
     A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                                  P.O. Box 803, Qrandvflle, MI 484850803.
              Samuel Rutherford: Westminster Divine (1) . . . . . . . ..*..................... 369                                                                                                 EDITORIAL COMMllTEE
     In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHartog                                                                                                                                                             Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
                                                                                                                                                                                                   Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
              The Maker and Breaker of a Family's Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371                                                                        Managlcq Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
     Bring the Parchments - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                DEPARTMENT EDITORS
              Musi!: in the Church (1) ,.,........................~...~...............................,,                                                                              374          Rev. Wilbur Brulnsma, Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
     Contribution - Rev. John A. Heys                                                                                                                                                              i%cker,  RevAdedenHattog, Rev. Russell  Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                                                                                                                                                                                                   Gdtters, Rev. Carl Haak, Rev. Jason Korlerlng, Rev. Comellus
              A Timely Warning . . . . . . . . . ..*...................................*..........................                                                                    378          Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Dale
     Things Which Must Shortly Come to Pass - Prof. David J, Engelsma                                                                                                                              Kulper, Mr. James Lantfng, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
                                                                                                                                                                                                   Jalklshln Mahtanl, Rev. Thomas Mlersma, Rev. Charles
              7. The Beast from the Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379                                Terpstra, Rev. QlseVanSaren,  Rev. RonaldVanCvedoop,  Mr.
     Book Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~....... 382    Benjamin WIgger,  Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
     News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*............... 383                                                                                                 EDITORIAL OFFICE             CHURCH NSWS  EDllOR
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                          Stewards of God's
                                  Manifold Grace

    As eve y man hath received the gifi,    Son, and has given His Spirit into         church receives his own gracious en-
even so minister  the same one to an-       our hearts, making us new creatures        dowment as steward in the house
other, as good stewards of the manifold     in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.       of God, his own place and calling
grace of God.                                        We who were dead in trespasses    among the brethren. In the office of
                            I Peter 4:lO    and sins, children of Satan, rebels        believers we receive the anointing
                                            who defiantly transgressed all His         of Christ, to be devoted to God as
    Manifold grace!                         commandments, worthy only of ev-           prophets, priests, and kings.
    Our God is the God of all grace.        erlasting condemnation in torments             According to Jesus' parable, one
He is infinitely glorious in all His        of hell, God raises out of death into      receives five talents, another two,
divine perfections, eternally blessed       life, delivers out of darkness into His    and another one, each according to
in the intimacy of His covenant life        marvelous light, and makes us sons         his ability (Matt. 25:14,15).
as three Persons within the one di-         and daughters, heirs of eternal sal-           The stewards referred to in the
vine Being. He is the God of all            vation.                                    parable were often household slaves.
grace, beautiful, adorable, ever glo-           While millions perish in their         They might be intelligent and ca-
rious in His majesty.                       sins, cast out forever, God has sepa-      pable persons, but they were owned
    He who called the things that           rated us unto Himself in eternal,          by their lord and master, in every
were not as though they were and            boundless love, and claims us as His       way completely subservient to him.
upholds them by His almighty                very own: "My children!" "My cho-              In a far richer sense we confess,
power declares to us:                       sen!" "My peculiar possession!"            "I am not my own; I belong with
      The cattle on a thousand hills            This God is our God forever and        body and soul, for time and eter-
        And all the forest beasts are       ever. We have a place in His church,       nity, to my faithful Savior Jesus
           Mine,                            among the assembly of the saints,          Christ, who is now gone into glory,
     Each mountain bird to Me is            with a rightful claim to all His prom-     makes me a steward in God's house,
      k n o w n ,                           ises.                                      entrusting His goods to my care, and
        Whatever roams the field I              And, with all that, we are privi-      upon our Lord's return requires of
           own.                             leged to love and to serve Him as          me that I give an account of my
                                            stewards in His house, serving His         stewardship."
    And we also belong to Him, not          purpose to the glory of His match-             Scripture assures us, "For we are
only because He is our Creator, as          less Name. In worship and in holy          his workmanship, created in Christ
marvelous as that may be, but also          adoration we confess,                      Jesus unto good works, which God
because He has made us His pecu-                      All that I am I owe to Thee,     hath before ordained that we should
liar possession in Christ Jesus ac-                     Thy wisdom, Lord, hath         walk in them" (Eph. 290).
cording to sovereign election.                            fashioned me;                    Among all the people of God
    In eternal good -pleasure and                     I give my maker thankful         who have lived on this earth there
amazing grace, for reasons in Him-                        praise,                      are no two alike. Among all those
self, God chose us, redeemed us                         Whose wondrous works my        living today, each is an individual
through the atoning death of His                          soul amaze.                  with his own distinctive nature,
                                                                                       characteristics, gifts, and talents.
                                                                                           For each of .us God has deter-
                                                                                       mined our parents, our time and
Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in            Blessed gift!                          place of birth, and the span of our
the Protestant Reformed Churches.               Every true member of the               lives. Each of us has his or her own

                                                                                                  May 1,1995/Standard  Bearer1363


place in our own families, among           and fall into sin, God in mercy for-          in all its minute details will pass in
our friends, in our church and our         gives upon confession of our sins.            review before us. We will be judged
environment.                               He justifies, sanctifies, and preserves       accordingly.'
    We are God's workmanship.              us from day to day as we walk life's              Our only salvation will be that
Each of us is custom made, as it           pathway.                                      Christ,. who died for us and is risen,
were, exactly as God determined                    We are called to work out our         is our Judge. All our works that we
from all eternity, in order that we        salvation with fear and trembling.            performed will be burned like straw
may serve our own appointed                          We are not robots that  me-         and stubble. Only that which was
purpose .here on earth.                                chanically move about, but        performed by the Spirit of Christ
    Every single member            Each of us            we are rational, moral,         through us will stand. Christ's work
of the body of Christ,           is custom made,          thinking, willing persons,     in and through us will determine our
whether young or old,             . as it were,           who are responsible to         place in glory.
must fulfill his unique                                   God for all that we do.            Maybe we have but one talent.
task. We are members               exactly as             We have a responsibility       We may feel that if we only had
one of another as belong-        God determined
                                    from all              for ourselves, but also for    more we could do far more for the
ing to the body of Christ,                               the fellow members of the       kingdom.
each functioning in his or          eternity,           body of Christ. The gift             I knew a woman who because
her own place for the salva-                          that we receive must be n&t-       of some infirmity spent most of her
tion of the body.                          istered one for the other.                    life in Pine Rest. There was one
    Each father as head of the farn-               We have a responsibility, first of    thing that troubled her. She seemed
ily, each mother as she carries out        all, toward our family. Also to the           so useless in this world. She could
her duties in the home, each son or        members of the congregation and               not have a family or be active in the
daughter, each brother or sister, in       denomination in which we reside,              church.
the home as prophet. This is also          and also to God's universal church.               In order to take away some of
our calling in the church and in the       That church is gathered, protected,           the monotony in her life, she was
midst of the world. God's mandate          and defended by no one less than              placed in the wash room, where the
is, "Ye are My witnesses."                 the Son of God, the Lord of glory;            women who suffered from depres-
    Each of us must consecrate his         but He uses means toward that end.            sion washed away their tears. This
life in the fear of the Lord. Children             We must bear with one anotheis        woman did not preach to them. She
as we!1 as adults are told, "Whether       weaknesses, forgiving one another,            did not know how, nor did she in-
you eat, or whether you drink, or          even as God in Christ has forgiven            tend to do that. She had but a word,
whatever you do, do it all to the          us. At all times we must be ready             also for the weary. She told them to
glory of God."                             to give a cup of water to the thirsty,        pray, assured them that God under-
    Each of us has the responsibility      a slice of bread to the hungry, lodg-         stood, and that He could help them.
to fight the battle of faith, defend       ing to the stranger, and a visit to the           One of these women said when
the truth, maintain God's Name, and        needy. There may even be a Lazarus            she was recovered, "No one in that
resist all the onslaughts of the devil     at our doorstep, filthy, full of sores,       hospital helped me as much as the
in an evil world.                          and hungry. In as much as we ex-              woman in the wash room." And
    What a blessed privilege! To-          tend a hand to one of the least of            she thought that she amounted to
gether we serve for the coming of          the brethren, we have done it unto            nothing.
God's kingdom in the day of the            Christ.                                           Manifold grace! Did Christ en-
Lord!                                              This includes that we are ready       trust you with five talents? Do not
                                           at all times to give an account of the        despise those who have but one.
   +uu++++*                                hope that is within us. Always, ev-           Were you given two talents? Labor
                                           ery day of our lives, in all that we          while it is day. Do you have but
    Stewards..                             say and do, we are stewards of the            one? Do not make light of it. We
    The God of all grace bestows           manifold grace of God. What are               could not handle any more.
upon us the many and various bless-        you and I doing with the talents that             In any instance, when we speak
ings of grace whereby we are graced        have been entrusted to us? "For we            let us speak the truth according to
in the Beloved.                            must all appear before the judgment           the Word of God, and when we
    The Spirit of Christ has called        seat of Christ; that every one may            work let us work with the ability
us out of death into life. We live,        receive the things done in his body,          that God gives us. "That God in all
yet not we, Christ lives in us. Ac-        according. to that he hath done,              things may be glorified through
cording to that new life we walk by        whether it .be good or bad" (II Cor.          Christ Jesus, to whom be praise and
faith and not by sight, capable of         5:lO).                                        dominion for ever and ever. Amen"
crucifying the flesh and living a new              We all without exception must         (v. 11).  0
and holy life. If and when we falter       stand in judgment. Our whole life

3WStandard  Bearer/May 1,1995


 Ei&mi~ii              "


                                       A Defense Of
         (Reformed) Amillennialism
                            3. Apostasy and Persecution

    It is the Reformed doctrine of            ther condemn Jewish dreams that              most desirable and comfortable to
the last things that the last days are        there will be a golden age on earth          the righteous and elect: because
a time of departure from the faith            before the Day of Judgment, and              then their full deliverance shall be
by many and a time of persecution             that the pious, having subdued all           perfected, and there they shall re-
                                                                                           ceive the fruits of their labor and
of the true church by a wicked                their godless enemies, will possess
                                              all the kingdoms of the earth. For           trouble which they have borne.
world. Apostasy and persecution               evangelical truth in Matt., chs. 24          Their innocence shall be known to
characterize the entire age from              and 25, and Luke, ch. 18, and ap-            all, and they shall see the terrible
Christ's ascension to His second              ostolic teaching in II Thess., ch. 2,        vengeance which God shall execute
coming. They increase and inten-              and II Tim., chs. 3 and 4, present           on the wicked, who most cruelly
sify at the very end in connection            something quite different (RefOrt?2d         persecuted, oppressed and tor-
with the coming of the Antichrist             Confessions of the 26th Century,             mented them in this world.
and the establishment of the univer-          ed. Arthur C. Cochrane, West-
sal kingdom of the beast.                     minster Press, 1966, chap. 11).                The article continues that it is
    The Reformed faith repudiates                                                        only then, at Christ's return, that the
the notion that the last days hold              The two main sections on                 faithful and elect will be crowned
the prospect of the conversion of the       eschatology in the "Three Forms of           with glory and honor, all tears will
majority of the human race so that          Unity" are Question 52 of the Hei-           be wiped from their eyes, and "their
the true church of Christ is in a po-       delberg Catechism and Article 37 of          cause which is now condemned by
sition to persecute the ungodly.            the Belgic Confession. Question 52           many judges and magistrates, as he-
                                            of the Catechism locates every be-           retical and impious, will then be
       The Reformed Creeds                  liever, and by implication the true          known to be the cause of the Son of
                                            church, in circumstances of perse-           God."
    Reformed doctrine is established        cution throughout the present age:               Not only is there nothing in
by the Reformed creeds. These                                                            these articles about any hope of a
creeds teach the last days as the time        Q. What comfort is it to thee that         "golden age," but also the articles
                                              "Christ shall come again to judge
of apostasy and persecution. The                                                         plainly rule out the notion of an
                                              the quick and the dead"?
Second  Helvetic  Confession  (1566),                                                    earthly kingdom of Christ in history.
                                              A. That in all my sorrows and per-
expressing the conviction of all the          secutions, with uplifted head I look           The ungodly always dominate.
leading Reformers, stated:                    for the very same person,                  The world's rulers always condemn
                                                                            who  be-
                                              fore offered himself for my sake, . . .    the cause of the true church. The
  And from heaven the same Christ             to come as judge from heaven:              wicked always oppress the saints.
 will return in judgment, when                who shall cast all his and my en-          The only hope of the church in the
 wickedness will then be at its great-        emies into everlasting condernna-          world, and their full deliverance, is
  est in the world and when the An-           tion, but shall translate me with all      the second coming of Christ and the
 tichrist, having corrupted true reli-        his chosen ones to himself, into           final judgment.
  gion, will fill up all things with su-      heavenly joys and glory.                       This is Reformed doctrine.
 perstition and impiety and will cru-                                                        Postmillennialism has no basis
 elly lay waste the Church with                 Article 37 of the Belgic Confes-
 bloodshed and flames (Dan., ch.                                                         in the Reformed creeds. Postmil-
                                            sion does the same. It declares that
  11). But Christ will come again to                                                     lennialism conflicts with the Re-
                                            the final judgment is
 claim his own, and by his coming                                                        formed creeds. Postmillennialism is
 to destroy the Antichrist.... We fur-                                                   condemned by the Reformed creeds,

                                                                                                   May 1,1995/Standard  Bear4365
                                                                                                               *


explicitly by the Second  Helvetic          This is future with regard to the           scribes the "last days," that is, the
Confession of 1566, implicitly by the       church at the end of the 20th cen-          present age between Christ's ascen-
others.                                     tury. In Revelation 13, John proph-         sion and His return, as the time in
                                            esied the world-kingdom of the beast        which "all that will live godly in
             Perpetual War                  that would make war with the                Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution"
                                            saints. In Revelation 19, the apostle       (v. 12).
     As is true of all of the doctrines     tells us that this beast, with his false        Scripture contradicts postmillen-
contained in the Reformed creeds,           prophet, appears in history immedi-         nialism's dream of the earthly vic-
amillennialism is based on the plain        ately before the second coming of           tory of the church in the future.
teaching of the Bible.                      Christ. At His coming, Christ casts
     The original promise of the gos-       the beast and the false prophet into        The True Church Becomes Smaller
pel in Genesis 3:15 put enmity be-          the lake of fire (v. 20).
tween the church and a wicked                   This is the clear, irrefutable              Leading up to the final, furious
world that is spiritually descended         teaching of II Thessalonians 2. That        fight of Satan's minions under
from Satan: "And I will put enmity          individual who is "that man of sin,"        Satan's man against Christ's church
between thee and the woman, and             "the son of perdition," and "that           is the great apostasy. This is a whole-
between thy seed and her seed . . . . fl    Wicked" will be on the scene when           sale falling away from the truth by
Enmity is war. In the war, the un-          the Lord Jesus comes again, for the         many who once confessed the faith.
godly - Satan's spawn - do real,            Lord will "consume (him) with the           Either they truly confessed the faith
although not fatal, harm to the             spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy      in their forebears, or they insincerely
saints:  `I... thou shalt bruise his        (him) with the brightness of his com-       confessed it personally.
heel." This war with its sufferings         ing" (v. 8). Inasmuch as he will op-            The future is not bright with the
for the people of God continues to          pose and exalt himself above all that       prospect of mass conversions, much
the very end of time at Christ's re-        is called God, or that is worshiped,        less the conversion to Christ of a ma-
turn, for Romans 16:20  promises the        and will claim to be God himself, he        jority of mankind, as is the dream
apostolic church that "the God of           is Antichrist (v. 4). He will oppose        of postmillennialism. On the con-
peace shall bruise Satan under your         Christ (who is the revelation of God),      trary, the future is dark with the cer-
feet shortly." Crushed principally          and he will present himself as              tainty of departure from Christ on
at the cross, Satan is, nevertheless,       Christ's vicar, or substitute. Oppos-       the part of many who once professed
not crushed finally until the Lord          ing Christ, he will necessarily op-         Him. This is the clear, conclusive
returns to cast him into the lake of        pose Christ's church. This will be          doctrine of the apostle in II
fire (Rev. 2O:lO). In the meantime,         great tribulation for the church.           Thessalonians 2:3: "Let no man de-
he bruises the heel of Christ's body            Reformed Christians may differ          ceive you by any means: for that
in the world without any letup.             as to the identity of the Antichrist,       day shall not come, except there
    Psalm 2 teaches that the kings          whether he will be a certain pope of        come a falling away first, and that
of the earth foolishly set themselves       the Roman Catholic Church or a po-          man of sin be revealed." The day of
against Jehovah and His Christ un-          litical figure who will have the back-      Christ, that is, the day of His per-
til the Christ breaks them with a rod       ing of the false church headed by           sonal, visible coming, is preceded by
of iron. Revelation  19:llff. makes         Rome. There may be no disagree-             the sign of Antichrist. Antichrist is
clear that the destruction of these         ment among us, that the Antichrist          preceded and produced by apostasy.
raging foes with a rod of iron will         and his assault upon the church are         An outstanding. sign of the end in
occur at Jesus Christ's second com-         future.                                     the day of Christ is departure from
ing. That Revelation 19:llff.  refers           This view of the future is in har-      the truth of the gospel. What this
to the second coming is evident from        mony with the testimony of the              apostasy consists of and how it oc-
the opening of heaven (v. 11) and           Scriptures everywhere that persecu-         curs are suggested in verses 9-12.
from the fact that at that time Anti-       tion will be the lot of the believers           The falling away began already
christ and his false prophet are cast       always. "Blessed are ye," said              in the apostles' time as their struggle
into hell (v. 20). Until the personal       Christ, "when men shall revile you,         with legalism,  gnosticism,  and
return of Christ, the nations under         and persecute you . . . for my sake"        antinomism shows. It picked up in-
the government of the kings of the          (Matt.  5:ll). "In the world ye shall       tensity in the development of Ro-
earth make war against Him as He            have tribulation," He said to the           man Catholicism. Almost at once
is present in His church by His             church at His leaving (John 16:33).         after the Reformation, Protestantism
Word.                                       In every age, God's elect confess,          began to fall away in Arminianism,
    The climax of this war against          "For thy sake we are killed all the         liberalism, and the mysticism repre-
the seed of the woman by the seed           day long; we'are accounted as sheep         sented today in the charismatic
of the Serpent will be the persecu-         for the slaughter" (Rom. 8:36)., In II      movement.
tion of the church by the Antichrist.       Timothy 3, the apostle expressly de-            To those who have eyes to see

366lStandard  Bearer /May 1,199s


the biblical signs, the present condi-     ready been completely fulfilled.          Christ. The coming of Christ was
tion of the churches manifests plainly     Nothing of this applies to the church     Jesus' coming in judgment upon
the truth of Reformed  amillen-            any longer. Thus, huge chunks of          Jerusalem (see DeMar,  Last Days
nialism.                                   Holy Scripture are made irrelevant        Madness: Obsession of the Modern
    The tactic by which post-              to the church, including most of the      Church, American Vision, 1994, pp.
millennialism tries to escape the          book of Revelation.                       311-350).
force of the biblical passages that            Gary  DeMar,  who has boasted             Fundamental to this twisting of
forecast apostasy and persecution in       of postmillennialism's powerful ex-       the Word of God in the interests of
the last days is both desperate and        egesis, interprets II Thessalonians 2     the carnal kingdom is the
deadly dangerous. It consists of re-       in such a way that nothing in the         postmillennial understanding of
ferring all of these passages to an        chapter is future. The man of sin         Matthew 24, Jesus' great eschato-
event in the past. This event is the       was a "contemporary" of the apostle       logical discourse.
destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70.      Paul. The day of the Lord was the             We look at this passage next
Whatever in the New Testament,             day of the destruction of Jerusalem.      time, God willing. 0
and in the Old as well, predicts tribu-    The apostasy was the falling away                                              - DJE
lation for the people of God has al-       of the Jews after the ascension of

   il.@[@@[t$
 .i:                                                                                         -II

False Prophecies                           there is not a PRC in our area. You       common grace vs. special grace as I
                                           may wish to make a brief comment          feel you do. I would highly recom-
    My purpose in writing to you is        in a future issue of the SB regarding     mend them to you. You are not in a
to enclose a copy of an article on         what was said in this article.            camp alone.
Harold Camping from a recent is-               One additional comment. We                Thank you at this time for your
sue of the San Francisco Chronicle.        have purchased a set of audio tapes       attention to false prophecies and
You will find it interesting if you        put out by Ligonier Ministries on         your comments on them o
have not already received a copy.          "Giants of the Christian Faith" by                                  Herman Dykstra
You may not have, inasmuch as              Dr. John Gerstner. They interpret                                      Concord, CA

   `Dj@ ~g@&ei!&s

Pelted with Questions                      it! We've never seen the Bible so             3. In your most recent edition,
    We have been receiving the             clearly as we are now beginning to.       you warned against postmillen-
Standard Bearer  for only two or           The Reformed faith "makes sense";         nialism. Our pastor is amillennial;
three months (plus extra copies sent       the other parts of Christianity (frag-    we understand much of the Re-
to us by the Evangelism Committee          mented with truth and non-truth)          formed community is. We haven't
of the South Holland Protestant Re-        left large gaps in the Bible and in a     had opportunity to discuss this with
formed Church). We eagerly antici-         godly life-style.                         him yet (he is fielding so many other
pate the arrival of each month's is-           However, we are full of ques-         of our questions!) Could you please
sue; for we are learning a great deal      tions. We were wondering if some-         explain further: do the Protestant
from them. Your magazine has very          one there would mind fielding some        Reformed Churches stand in the
encouraging, inspiring articles that       questions that have arisen as we          amillermial  position, or another?
cause us to think deeply about the         have read the  Standard Bearer?           What exactly do these terms mean
Word of God. Thank you!                    Please forgive our ignorance; at          scripturally? (We used to be
    My husband and I are new to            times we really feel like "babes in       premillennial dispensationalists, and
the Reformed faith. After we had           arms." Thank God we are in His            that went out the door when we
studied the "5 points of Calvinism"        everlasting ones!                         joined the OX.)
for maybe two years, God intro-                1. What does it mean (in a                4. Finally, the PRC seem to
duced us to the full plan this past        negative connotation) the "offering       have made a stand to sing only
October, as He brought along min-          of the gospel"?                           psalms put to music, rather than
istry materials from the Protestant            2. There seems to  .be contro-        hymns. Please understand, we mean
Reformed Churches and placed us            versy about something referred to         no disrespect, but does not
in an Orthodox Presbyterian Church         as  ucommon grace." Could you             Colossians say "psalms, hymns, and
near where we are living. We love          please enlighten us?                      spiritual songs...l ? If you object to

                                                                                                  May 1,1!395/Standard  Bearer1367


the Arminian influence in some              Hawking Him," by Herman Hoek-              to the unbeliever, cancer is God's
hymns, there are many that clearly          sema. We recommend the book,               curse upon the godly).
(at least to our infant understand-         Hype+Calvinism & the Call of the               We are sending you the pam-
ing) do proclaim the sovereignty of         Gospel, by David J. Engelsma, avail-       phlets, "The Curse-Reward of the
God (Isaac Watts' hymns, hymns by           able from the Reformed Free Pub-           Wicked Well-Doer," by Herman
other Reformers, etc.). Are those al-       lishing Association (RFPA).                Hoeksema, and "Grace Uncom-
lowed at home, or ever at church                2) "Common grace" is the               mon," by Barrett Gritters. We rec-
with PRC people? Can you please             broader error of which the "well-          ommend the book, Saved by Grace,
explain  - scripturally  - your             meant offer" is one (main) element.        by Ron Cammenga and Ron Hanko,
stand?                                      The doctrine of "common grace" is          and the three-volume work by
     We sincerely hope we are not           the teaching that God has an atti-         Herman Hoeksema on the Heidel-
pelting you with too much at a time.        tude of favor, or love, toward every       berg Catechism, The Triple Knowl-
We so appreciate the hard labor of          human (and devil?) throughout life         edge.  (These books are available
study in the Word and prayer that           and as long as history lasts and that,     from the RFPA.)
obviously accompany each issue of           therefore, God blesses every human             3) Perhaps the recent editorials
the Stunclard Bearer. Thank you for         in several important ways. He gives        in the  Standard Bearer  on
your time with our multitude of             the reprobate ungodly material gifts,      postmillennialism are helpful to you
questions; and also in your faithful-       e.g., health and riches, as tokens of      in understanding the truth about the
ness in proclaiming God's Word.             His love for them. He works in each        last days and, particularly, about
                  Mr. and Mrs. David Lee    unregenerated unbeliever by His            what you and all other true believ-
                    Mountain View, CA       Spirit to keep him from being to-          ers must expect. Postmillennialism
                                            tally depraved and to enable him to        is the teaching that soon a majority
Response:                                   perform good works. He works by            of humans will be converted, the en-
                                            His Spirit in the wicked world so          tire world will be "Christianized,"
     1) The "well-meant offer of the        that there is great wisdom and sig-        and a very long period of earthly
gospel" is a teaching (and practice)        nificant goodness in the world that        power, peace, and prosperity will be
found in Calvin&tic  circles that holds     crucified Jesus. Because of this           enjoyed by the church before Christ
that God in the preaching of the gos-       "common grace" goodness and wis-           comes again. There will be no Anti-
pel loves every single person who           dom in the unbelieving world, the          christ and no persecution.
hears the preaching, that God sin-          church today can and should learn              Amillennialism teaches that the
cerely desires to save every single         from the unbelieving world. The            "thousand years" of Revelation 20,
person who hears the gospel, and            church should learn that the Bible is      like much of the book, is figurative.
that the preaching of the gospel is a       a thoroughly human product of his-         The earthly future for the true
gracious offer by God to every              tory and, therefore, not the inerrant      church consists of Antichrist (II
hearer to accept the salvation that         Word of God, e.g., in Genesis l-11.        Thess. 2; Rev. 12,13) and great per-
God wants to give him or her.               The church should lean from the            secution.
     The Protestant Reformed                world that the explanation of ori-             The PRC are confessionally
Churches (PRC) reject this doctrine         gins is evolution including the de-        amillennial.
(and practice) as sheer Arminianism.        scent of man from primates. The                We are sending you the pam-
Arminianism, or "freewillism," is           church should learn that the wife is       phlets, "The Millennium," "The An-
the heresy condemned in the Re-             not in subjection to her husband in        tichrist," and "The Mark of the
formed creed, the Canons of Dordt.          marriage and that women have ev-           Beast," by Herman Hoeksema, and
It is the lie that Martin Luther fought     ery right to the offices in the church.    the pamphlet, "The Antichrist," by
in his great Reformation work, The          The church should also learn from          Barrett Gritters. We recommend the
Bondage  of  the Will.                      the "common grace" wisdom of the           commentary on Revelation, Behold
    The PRC believe that the church         world that homosexuality is a per-         He Cometh, by Herman Hoeksema.
must preach the gospel to every-            fectly innocent condition of some          (The book is available from the
body, calling, or summoning, every-         persons and that homosexual prac-          RFPA.)
body to repent and believe on Jesus         tice in committed relationships is             4) It is the official position of the
Christ, but that God is gracious in         pleasing to God.                           PRC to sing only the Psalms in the
the preaching only to the elect, even           The PRC judge the doctrine of          worship of the churches. Thus, they
as His desire with the preaching is         "common grace" to be the denial of         maintain the official stand of the Re-
the gathering of His elect church for       the biblical truth of total depravity,     formed churches as expressed in Ar-
whom Christ died (see Matt. 22:14;          the bridge over the antithesis (the        ticle 69 of the Church Order of
Rom. 9:13,X3).                              spiritual separation of church and         Dordt: "In the churches only the
    We are sending you the pam-             world), and the despair of afflicted       150 Psalms of David . . . shall be
phlet, "Jesus Savior and the Evil of        Christians (for if health is blessing      sung."

368lStandard  Bearer /May 1,1995


         Our reasons are the same as            out the Psalms just as bad money           Kortering, and "Music in the
     those that motivated Dordt. First,         drives out good.                           Church," by David J. Engelsma. The
     the Psalms are the one and only                We wince at your mention of            latter explains that the "psalms and
     songbook given to the church for use       Isaac Watts. Watts was a foe of ex-        hymns and spiritual songs" of
     in worship by the Holy Spirit in in-       clusive Psalm-singing. He was also         Colossians  396 refer to the Psalms
     spired Scripture. Second, the Psalms       heretical in his doctrines of the Trin-    only.
     are God-centered. Third, although          ity, the person of Christ, the atone-          You have indeed "pelted" us
     some hymns are sound, invariably           ment, and total depravity.                 with questions. But they are good
     the church's opening up of her wor-            PR people sing good hymns in           questions about vital issues in the
     ship to hymns results in the singing       their homes, schools, and various          Reformed and Presbyterian churches
     of sentimental, man-centered, "free-       gatherings for fellowship, although        today.
     willist," and even frivolous hymns.        even here we are (or should be) de-            We are glad you wrote.
     Heresy has often been sung into the        termined to give the Psalms pride              We rejoice with you over your
     church before it was preached.             of place.                                  conversion to the Reformed faith.
     What also happens is that the God-             We are sending you the pam-            Isn't it grand? Q
     glorifying, profound Psalms are            phlets, "Psalm Singing," by Jason                                   - Ed. Comm.
     driven out of worship. Hymns drive





                           Samuel Rutherford:
                     Westminster Divine (1

                                                men, one man is outstanding, and           some reason to believe that Samuel
     Introduction                               we choose to tell something of the         did not receive much spiritual in-
         All students of church history         Westminster Assembly by a sketch           struction and that his conversion
     are agreed that from the time of the       of this towering man of God, Samuel        took place at a later date. An old
     apostles to today the history of the       Rutherford.                                story, however, speaks of the fact
     church of Christ has never seen two                                                   that as a little boy he was barely
     greater assemblies than the Synod          His early life and work                    saved from drowning in a well and
     of Dordt and the Westminster As-               It is strange that more is known       that, in gratitude to God, his father
     sembly. It is a surprising thing that      about the early life of other of the       dedicated Samuel to the service of
     they were both held in the first half      saints in the Middle Ages than there       Christ.
     of the 17th century - indeed that          is about the early life of these men           Even his early education is lost
     they were held within 25 years of          of God who were instrumental in            in the past. He probably received
     each other. The times must have            the work of reformation in the             early training in an ancient abbey in
     been particularly important or dan-        church. But so it is also with Samuel      Judburgh, and went on, at the age
     gerous for the church of Christ, for       Rutherford. His early life is lost in      of 17, to the College of Edinburgh.
     God to give to His people two as-          the mists of forgotten centuries.          Three years later he graduated with
     semblies such as the world has never           He was born around 1600 in a           a Master of Arts degree, and was
     known. It was a remarkable age.            small farming community near               hired by the College in 1623, as Re-
         While God blessed the West-            Nesbit, in the southern part of the        gent of Humanity.  Thispost  was
     minster Assembly with many great           lowlands of Scotland, in the               about the lowest post one could hold
                                                presbytery of Judburgh. His par-           in the faculty. The teacher was re-
                                                ents were farmers and he was one           sponsible for teaching Latin to the
     Prof. Hanks is professor of Church His-    of three sons. How spiritually             students who entered the College,
     tory and New Testament in the Protes-      minded and God-fearing the family          for all the instruction was given in
I    tant Reformed Seminary.                    was remains a mystery. There is            Latin Andy the student, quite obvi-
                                                                                                      May 1,1995lStandard  Bearer1369


ously, had to be thoroughly adept                  and a few nobility scattered through-         come to stay with him, also died in
,at -Latin to gain an education.                   out the area. John Welsh, a son-in-           Anwoth. His two children were bur-
         There were four higher chairs of          law of John Knox, had labored in              ied on the hillsides of Anwoth, and
philosophy, and the professors in                  this very parish up to 1600.                  he himself was very ill for three
lower branches could apply for any                     The story of John Welsh is itself         months so that he had difficulty
of these four chairs when a vacancy                a story of constant struggle between          preaching even once on the Lord's
occurred. And, at the first vacancy,               the faithful in Scotland and the              Day.
four professors did apply, including               Stuart kings. One incident, a kind                 Many visitors from the land
Rutherford.                                        of parenthesis in our story, will il-         passed through, especially travelers
         It is a measure of the emphasis           lustrate the whole matter. After              between Scotland and Ireland; for
placed on a classical education in                 Welsh had been imprisoned and later           Stranraer, not far distant from
those Reformation days that all four               exiled to France, he was permitted            Anwoth, was Scotland's nearest port
were required to talk for nearly an                to return to England. In 1621 his             of travel to Ireland. The renowned
hour on a given Ode of Horace,' and                wife was admitted to the presence             Bishop Ussher, Bishop of Dublin, Ire-
the one most able to do this was                   of James I. A chronicler of those             land, was present incognito at a woi=
chosen. Rutherford won without                     days describes the interview.                 ship service.3
difficulty. He was on his way to
being a classicist without genuine re-                 The king asked her who her fa-            Exile in Aberdeen
ligion. But God's plans were differ-                 ther had been, and she. replied,                 But Rutherford had yet greater
ent.                                                 m John Knox."                               sorrows to face. He was a bitter
         His tenure did not last long, for             "Knox and Welsh!" he exclaimed;           opponent of prelacy and of the
in 1625 he was asked to resign for                   "the devil never made sic [such] a
                                                     match as that!"                             Arminianism that almost always ac-
what  was apparently a moral mis-                      "It's right like, sir," she said, "for    companied it. For a book he wrote
demeanor. This quite effectively put                 we never speired [asked] his ad-            against Arminianism he was sum-
a stop to all his aspirations and                    vice."                                      moned to be tried by the Court of
hopes for a career in Scotland's uni-                  He then asked how many of John            High Commission in 1636. Found
versities.  That.he   carried the bur-               box's children were still al+, and          guilty, he was forbidden to preach
den of this lapse with him is evi- '                 if they were lads or lasses. She told       or teach and was banished to Aber-
dent from what he later wrote to a                  `him that there were three, and that         deen in the Scottish Highlands and
young man:                                           they were all lasses.
                                                       "God be thanked," cried the Ki&,          a city which was a stronghold of
                                                                                                 prelacy.
         The old ashes of the sins of my             lifting up both his hands, "for if               In this exile in Aberdeen he was
  youth are new fire of sorrow to me                 they had been three lads, I had             shunned by the good citizens of the
                  The devil . . . is much to be      never buiked [enjoyed] my three             city who feared the wrath of the king
  ie&Ld, . . .                                       Kingdoms in peace."
                     for in youth he findeth                                                     and his minions. But he willingly
  dry sticks, and dry coals, and a hot                 She urged the King to let her hus-
  hearth-stone; and how soon can he                  band return to Scotland and to give         bore this reproach as from Christ,
  with his flint cast fire, and with his             him his native air.                         and wrote to a friend: "That honour
  bellows blow it up, and fire the                     "Give him his native air!" said           that I have prayed for these sixteen
                                                     James; "give him the devil!"
  house!                                                                                         years, with submission to my Lord's
                                                       But her wit flashed out with in-
                                                     dignation as she rejoined: "Give            will, my kind Lord hath now be-
         This lapse and dismissal must               that to your hungry courtiers!"             stowed upon me, even to suffer for
have  made a profound impression                       The King at last said that he could       my royal and princely King Jesus."
upon Rutherford, and it appears as                   return if he would first submit to          The two years spent here were not
if the Lord used this folly to bring                 the Bishops. She lifted her apron,          idle years, however; during that tiine
him to true  repentance and conver-                  held it out, and made reply in her          he wrote hundreds of letters, sent to
sion. He resolved to enter the pas-                  father's spirit: "Please Your Maj-
toral ministry, and set about study-                 esty, I'd rather kep his head there."2
ing for it in the University of
Edinburgh.                                             Rutherford's ministry in Anwoth           1    A Latin poet of the first century
                                                   lasted nine years and was greatly             A.D,
Ministry in Anwoth                                 blessed.  His`-fame as a faithful             2    Marcus L. Loane, Makers Of Puri-
        In 1627 he assumed the pastor-             preacher of the gospel spread, and            tan History.  Quoted from James
                                                                                                 Young, 
ate of a small farming,parish  in the              people came from great distances to                      Life of John Welsh.
                                                                                                 3    Bishop Ussher was, though a prel-
beautiful  aiea  bf Anwoth in  .the                hear him ,preach. abut his ministry           &,~~~friend of Presbyterians in Ireland.
southwest part of Scotland, where                  was also filled with great sorrows.           He %c% the man famous for construct-
he miniStered  to a.few farm families              His iwife  died after a long and pain-        ing: t& &ronology  which is `still in use
   I        I        ' .           _' :      :'    ful illness. His mother, who had              today in  many circles.

370lStandard  Bearer /May !,199!5


all parts, of the British Isles. These               matter.  He, consented to go only if       children given him lived. God, how-
letters have been gathered into a                    he would be permitted to preach in         ever, uses even a man's sorrow for
single volume, and contain some of                   St. Andrews'in addition to his teach-      the comfort of others: To one who
his best writings.                                   ing responsibilities. He told the          lost a son he wrote: "Your Lord may
                                                     Commissioners: "There is woe to me         gather His roses and shake His
Professor at St. Andrews                             if I preach not the gospel, and I          apples at what season of the year
      After two years, with the resur-               know no one who can go between             He pleaseth." And to another he
gence of Presbyterianism  in connec-                 me and that woe." This permission          wrote: "I know there is a true sor-
tion with the signing-of the National                was granted him and he moved to            row that is without tears; and I know
League and Covenant, Rutherford,                     St. Andrews, an influential parish at      there is a real sorrow that is beyond
felt free to leave Aberdeen and to                   the center of church life in Scotland.     tears."
return to his beloved congregation                       Here he married again, Jean                In St. Andrews Rutherford set
in Anwoth. But after being there                     McMath,  but this marriage also was        about his new work with vigor and
for but a short time, he was assigned                filled with much grief. Although his       favor. He was to remain in this po-
the chair of Divinity at St. Mary's                  wife outlived him, he lost his chil-       sition the rest of his life, although
College in St. Andrews. He strenu-                   dren through untimely deaths. The          he was to be of service throughout
ously resisted, for his heart was not                first two died while he was away in        Scotland.
in teaching but in the pastoral min-                 London attending the Westminster               We will continue our story an-
istry. But he had ,no choice in the                  Assembly; only one of the five more        other time. 0

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                                                                                                                 \'  ,TiI  ,g,  JCi,   I17,,-   !  1c 3,'




                         The Maker and Breaker
                          Ij. ~
                                `of a Family's Peace
                                                I                                                                                                            I
                                                                                                ____-___-

      For some time now in our                       ful wisdom that is so very relevant        ful devices used in the book is that
Young Adults' Society in Redlands                    for our everyday life, is that the wis-    of contrasting or antithetic parallel-
we have been studying-the book of                    dom of which the book of Proverbs          ism. The contrast in the passages
Proverbs; In my preparations for                     speaks is the wisdom of God. It is         before us is between the evil and
these studies I am once again deeply                 not the wisdom of the men of this          foolishness of the love of money, and
impressed with the great wisdom                      world, which in the final analysis is      the great value and blessedness of
this holy and inspired book of the                   foolishness. In fact, the wisdom of        the fear of the Lord and contentment
Word of God contains. I shall use a                  the book: of Proverbs stands abso-         therewith.
passage that we recently studied to                  lutely opposite to the devilish and            I have borrowed the title for this
fulfill my obligation this month for                 sensual "wisdom" of this world.            article, "The Maker and Breaker of
this department in the  Standard                     Iroverbs gives us true, heavenly,          a Family's Peace," as well asthe par-
Bearer.                                              spiritual wisdom.                          ticular collection of verses, from a
      The book of Proverbs, as you                       In the course of our study of          chapter in William Amot's commen-
probably know, has as its great                      Proverbs we have noted a number            tary The verses are taken from Prov-
theme, "The fear of the Lord is the                  of subjects that appear.over  and over     erbs  15:16, 17, 27;  173. "Better is
beginning of wisdom." The reason                     again in this book. The mere fact of       little with the fear of the Lord than
why this book contains such abso-                    the constant repetition of these sub:      great treasure and trouble there-
lutely perfect wisdom, such wonder-                  jects ought to give us great reason        with." "Better is a dinner of herbs
                                                     for pause. .One of these subjects is       where love is, than a stalled ox and
                    :                 .i:            warning against the great evil of cov-     hatred therewith." "He that  -4s
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of ,Hc& &$                 etousness and- materialism. `.             greedy of gain` troubleth -his own
estant Reformed Church in Jedjands,                      The book,of  Proverbs is:full'df       house;-but he that hateth gifts shall
California.                            ,.  :         contrasts. One' of the most power-         live." "Better is a dry morsel, and

                                                                                                               Mtiy 1,1995/Standard  Beareri


quietness therewith, than a house of        ten the highest degree of strife,          have these material riches continue
sacrifices with strife." There are          crime, and violence are found among        in the fear of the Lord and enjoy the
more, similar proverbs that could be        the poor. The world does its stud-         love and peace of God in their fami-
added to this collection.                   ies and presents its statistics which      lies.
     These proverbs speak to the cov-       show that poverty is one of the chief               But the above-mentioned prov-
enant home, to the family. Two con-         causes of juvenile delinquency,            erbs are given to us to warn us.
trasting pictures arepresented to us.       crime, and violence in our streets.        Striving after riches can lead to di-
On the one hand there is a picture          The reasoning is that people who           sastrous consequences when this is
of the humble cottage of a family           grow up in poverty become bitter           done at the expense of the fear of
where earthly provisions are mea-           and angry, and this drives them to         the Lord. There is in our sinful na-
ger. The meal in this home is of            crime. There is no doubt truth in          ture a strong desire to accumulate
herbs. The family cannot afford to          the belief that a life of poverty in       the wealth, the luxury of the world
buy provision for a meal of meat            the world stirs up evil resentment         and the glory that is associated with
and rich delicacy. This is a very           and bitterness. The solution, accord-      it. We are tempted by the ungodly
poor home. All that there is to eat         ing to the world, is welfare, raising      world in this, especially in our mod-
is a dry morsel. But this home is           the economic standards of the poor,        em day through the power of the
characterized by the fear of the Lord.      or, more nobly, giving everyone            media and advertising. We easily
The fruit of the fear of the Lord in        equal opportunity to get a job to sup-     imagine that we must have as much
this home is that love reigns there         port himself. But the history of our       as or more than our ungodly neigh-
among the members of the family,            own country proves that none of            bor.
the love of God in Christ Jesus. This       these ideas have worked. Poverty                    The more riches that we obtain,
love brings peace and true lasting          without the fear of God brings strife      the greater the temptations of sin be-
joy and happiness.                          and wickedness. But riches with-               come. This is true in the first
 The contrasting picture is that            out the fear of God also brings                       place because the lust for
of a home where there is great              strife and wickedness.                                  riches cannot be satisfied.
riches. This home is a luxurious pal-           The teaching of the             "' the "St          Though we might imagine
ace. The meals are rich, the table          above quoted proverbs is            for riches          that if we could only attain
lavishly spread with abundance of           that where the fear of God           cannot             to this or that standard of
food. But there is no fear of God in        is, God's people can and do        be satisfied.        earthly wealth or be able to
this home. In this home there is            live in peace' and love even                          purchase this or that new-
envy, jealousy, and all the attendant       when there is little of this world's           fangled luxury then we would be
evils. The strife of this family finally    goods.                                     happy, this will never happen. It
destroys this home.                             On the other hand, it is also true     will not happen with respect to
     This contrast is real. It is seen      that not every home where there is         those who are driven by covetous-
in. the world when one visits the           wealth, good food, and expensive           ness and the love of money. Sec-
home of the truly God-fearing, and          decor is devoid of the fear of the         ondly, the greater  wealth that we
the home where its members have             Lord. Generally the rule of the Lord       have, the more potential we have to
forsaken the fear of the Lord. An-          in calling His people is. that: "Not       sin. The possession of great wealth
other feature of the proverbs is that       many wise men after the flesh, not         by the ungodly in this world is of-
they are so strikingly, obviously, and      many mighty, not many noble, are           ten accompanied by a very evil life-
undeniably true. So it is with the          called. But God hath chosen the            style. When a child of God attains
proverbs mentioned above. Yet the           foolish things of the world to con-        to such wealth in the world, there is
proverbs usually present an element         found the wise; and God hath cho-          a great temptation to follow this life-
that is contrary to the expectation of      sen the weak things of the world to        style simply because he has enough
foolish men. Foolish sinful man             confound the things which are              money to do so. There is even the
imagines that the more that he has          mighty; and the base things of the         subtle temptation of the devil that
the more he will insure happiness           world, and the things which are de-        says to a man that, because he has
and peace in his own life and in the        spised, hath God chosen, yea, and          gained a certain wealth through his
life of his family. On the other hand       the things which are not, to bring to      own hard labor, he has an inherent
he forgets that the fear of the Lord        nought the things which are: that          right. to the life-style he can afford,
is essential to true happiness.             no flesh should glory in His pres-         without seriously thinking about his
    We must -understand  the con-           ence" (I Cor. 1:27-29 - striking pas-      moral responsibility and calling be-
trast presented in Proverbs in the          sage of God's Word!). Nevertheless         fore God first of all. In our drive to
right way. It is not true that every        there are some exceptions, as this I: get more and more, how easy it is
poverty-stricken home will be one           passage itself indicates. Sometimes        to neglect the fear of God and to
that has peace and unity and love.          God also gives material riches to His      compromise our calling to be a holy
In fact, in the world we see that of-       people on earth. And some who              and separate people unto-the Lord.

372lStandard  Bearer IMay 1,1!395


     It is easy to begin to lose the                 see their children walking in the fear         in the world. They justify them-
right perspective-in life, and to be-                of the Lord. Of this truth the book            selves by contending that their mo-
gin to live in such a way that we                    of Proverbs also speaks over and               tivation is to be able to afford a more
put the emphasis more and more on                    over. There is no greater reward               affluent life-style for their children.
gaining wealth and less and less on                  than this upon the faithful labors of          But by such a course of action these
growing in the fear of God. Going                    parents with their children.                   mothers will most certainly in the
in that direction will lead to imagin-                   Proverbs 15:27 warns, however,             end trouble their own house. God's
ing that there is greater value in                   that "he that is greedy of gain                Word says this.
riches than there is in the reward of                troubleth his own house." This is a                     One of the greatest dangers for
knowing the fearing God. This is of                  word especially to fathers and the             modem-day Christian homes is that
course a tragic mistake, for all the                 heads of families. This word is so             parents become troublers of their
riches and glory in this world can-                  contrary to the imagination of men.            own house because of a desire for
not begin to compare with the riches                 For the man of this world imagines             material wealth. For most of us
that belong to those who fear the                    that the more wealth he has the hap-           there is little danger that our chil-
Lord. Above all, the reason why                      pier he will be. Often he is driven            dren will not have enough to get
the fear of the Lord is better than all              by this imagination also for his chil-         them through life in this world.
the riches of this world is that God                 dren. He will make his children                There is a far greater danger that
gives an eternal reward of glory and                 happy by showering them with pre-              they have too much and that they
blessing to those who fear Him.                      sents, all the latest sports equipment,        are not taught to use the material
     The people of the Lord are called               electronic gadgetry, cars, and what-           abundance of our age in the fear of
to fear Him. This must be the main                   ever else the rich of the world have.               the Lord.
characteristic of the life of' Gods                  In father's busyness to do this he                      One of the greatest spiritual les-
people in the world. The fear of                     neglects to teach his children the fear             sons we should teach our children
God is knowing Him as the sover-                     of the Lord. With the absence of               is that of contentment with what the
eign and holy God and walking                        the fear of the Lord in the hearts of          Lord gives them, even if that be little.
humbly before Him, seeking in all                    his children, material abundance               How hard it is in our age of mate-
things to do His commandments, to                    only feeds every sinful passion born                rial abundance to teach our children
please Him, and to glorify Him.                      within his children. Contrary to this               the grace of contentment.
Those who fear God know how aw-                      father's imagination, he only breeds                    Listen to the clear and powerful
ful His holy displeasure and judg-                   into his children greed and lust and           words of the above proverbs. "Bet-
ment are and how exceedingly                         selfishness which soon are manifest                 ter is little with the fear of the Lord
b l e s s e d   a r e   H i s   f a v o r   a n d    in envy and strife and confusion in                 than great treasure with trouble
lovingkindness. The Lord God Him-                    the home. In this way the father                    therewith." "Better is a dry morsel,
self sovereignly works this fear in                  described above, rather than bring-                 and quietness therewith, than an
the hearts of His people through His                 ing happiness to his home, has                 house full of sacrifices with strife."
Word and Spirit, and He calls them                   greatly troubled his home. In many                      There is one other reason for the
to continue in that fear. The fruit of               instances, children in the homes of                 great urgency of listening to these
walking in that fear is that His love                fathers who are always lavishing               proverbs. God's people in this
is shed abroad in our hearts and we                  presents on them grow up to de-                         world are called to make great
have peace with God. Having peace                    spise their fathers and to live                             sacrifices because of the prin-
with God and the love of God in                      lives of unbridled lust, self-       How hard                    ciples of the fear of the
our hearts we can also live in peace                 ishness, and sin. You of-                  it is                  Lord. Often they will
and love with one another.                           ten see examples of this              in our age                   need to suffer financial
     The reference of the proverbs                   in the world.                        of material                    loss because they refuse
quoted above is, as we said, espe-                       The same course of               abundance                      in their business prac-
cially to the covenant home. What                    action is followed by                  to teach                     tices to compromise the
can compare to the love and peace                    many women and
and joy of the home of the God-fear-                 mothers in our day,                 our children                    law of God in any way
                                                                                           the grace                    in their life., Times will
ing? In this home parents teach their                and, sad to say, too of-  '        of con tentmen t.              come for many that they
children the fear of the Lord, and                   ten even in our own                                              will have to pass up lu-
children by the grace and Holy Spirit                churches. God gives them                                    crative job opportunities be-
of God grow up in that fear. Such                    children and has given to them                           cause taking these would re-
children will walk in obedience and                  the special responsibility to be keep-         quire moving away from the true
love for their parents, and will them-               ers of the home, to raise their chil-               church or compromising the truth
selves also learn the great benefit of               dren in the fear of the Lord.  In-                  of God in another way. The temp-
the fear of the Lord. There is no                    stead they forsake their homes and             tations,  at that time will be very
greater joy for godly parents than to                God-given calling to pursue a career           great. We are going to be faced with

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   these kinds of scenarios more and             high cost of Christian school tuition             fices made out of the motive of the
   more as the end approaches. We                and supporting the church budget.                 fear of God will not breed bitterness
   are living in the days of the rise of         By doing this we as parents will be               in our covenant children. We need
   the Antichrist and in the time when           a concrete example to our children                not be afraid of that. Rather, by the
   those who refuse the mark of the              of the fear of God. Even if our fami-             grace and Spirit of God it will instill
   beast will not be able to buy or sell         lies are reduced to only a dry mor-               in our children the great benefit of
   anymore. We need to prepare our               se1 of bread (and that is really low),            the fear of God and the right evalu-
   children for these times. Our chil-           as long as we continue in the fear of             ation of the things of this world. It
   dren will have to be satisfied with           the Lord we shall have greater riches             will yield the Lord's blessing of
   less than the neighbors' children be-         than all the world. Financial sacri-              peace and love in our homes. Cl,
   cause ,mom and dad need to pay the                                       -
    r----
    ) @fli/,qg$ g/R@ /~~!r~~h;@~ik~                                                                __I-                                       1
    L                 -__                         -      -                              -____


                         Music in the Church" `,.
                                 -                                     -                      -                                               1

         "Let the word of Christ dwell in              Colossians  3:16 makes clear that           Article 69 of the Church Order of
   you richly in all wisdom; teaching and        music is to have a vital place in the             Dordt: "In the churches only the
   admonishing one another in psalms and         worship of the church now, on earth.              150 Psalms  of David, the.Ten  Com-
   hymns and spiritual songs, singkzg with       The reference is to the congregation              mandments, the Lord's Prayer, the
   grace in your hearts to the Lord."            of saints and their gatherings for                Twelve Articles of Faith, and Songs
                            Colossians  3:16     worship. Verse 15 has reminded us                 of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon, the
                                                 that we are called to the peace of                Morning and Evening Hymns, and
         Music has always been an im-            God "in one body." This body, this                the Hymn of Prayer before the ser-
   portant part of the worship of the            church, has its life, and it is vital             mon shall be sung." Our stand to-
`- --church. Its place in the worship of         that the Word of Christ dwell richly              day is the historic, traditional Re-
   the early church after the apostles           in the body. "You" is plural in the               formed position - that of Calvin;
   comes out in the earliest description         Greek, not singular  - the reference              of the Synod of Dordt; and- of the
   that we have of a Christian worship           is to all the members as they make                Reformed churches generally, until
   service. Speaking of the Christians,          up the congregation. "In you"                     recently, when the.' Reformed
   a contemporary observer wrote,                means "among you." In keeping                     churches have been amusing them-
   "they are accustomed to come to-              with this reference to the church, the            selves by abandoning the Reformed
   gether on a fixed day, before dawn,           apostle speaks of our teaching and                tradition wholesale. The exceptions
   and to speak with themselves mu-              admonishing each other. The sing-                 to the Psalms mentioned in Article
   tually in a song to Christ, asit were         ing, therefore, is the united singing             69 (some of which are quite un-
   to God." This dates from the reign            of all the members, from their hearts             known to most.of  us) find their place
   of the Emperor Trajan, who ruled              (note again the plural) as a church.              there through curious, historical cir-
   Rome from A.D. 98 to 117.                     The Holy Spirit teaches and exhorts               cumstances: the popular Dutch
         Nothing needs to be said to             us as to music in the church.                     songbook  of the time of `the Synod
   those familiar with the Old Testa-                                                              of Dordt contained also these hymns;
   ment about the place of music in Old          What We Are to Sing                               rather than to disturb the people,
   Testament worship.                                  It might seem that the text, as             Dordt made allowance for these
         The book of Revelation teaches          well as the similar Scripture in                  hymns; But the spirit and principle
    that the congregation of the re-             Ephesians 5:19, overthrows one of                 of Article 69 is: "In the churches
    deemed will sing in the new world:           our cherished positions as Protestant             only the 150 Psalms of David shall
    "And they sung as it were a new              Reformed Churches regarding mu-                   be sung." Period!
    song before the throne..." (Rev. 143).       sic in the church, namely, that only                This stand on Psalm-singing
                                                 Psalms be sung, to the exclusion of                  n:'
                                                 hymns. Does not the apostle men-                   +.J;     ,..
   Prof. Engelsma  is. professor  o;f Dogmat-    tion Psalms,  hyinns and `spiritual
    ics and Old Testament in the Protes-         songs? Our position is expressed in               * reprinted from Beacon L&Us, Feb.,
    tant Reformed Seminary.                                      .:              ~'      I         March, and' `April,  1983. .,,..'

   374lStandard  Bearer /May 1,1955


does not depend only on a few New         spiritual songs" are not three differ-     Word of Christ is dwelling among
Testament texts about singing, the        ent kinds of songs: the inspired           us in our music. The Word of Christ
interpretation `of which. is disputed;    Psalms of David; uninspired hymns          is the Word  about  Christ  - His
but it is based also on an important      based on the New Testament; and            Godhead; His humiliation; His re-
biblical truth about the worship of       uninspired spiritual songs treating        demption; His salvation; His glory.
God, namely, that we may not wor-         of various religious themes. Rather,       It is also the Word that Christ Him-
ship God as we see fit ("will-wor-        they are all the inspired Psalms of        self speaks. This Word, and this
ship"), but only in the manner which      the Old Testament. The inspired            Word only, is to dwell in the church,
He prescribes in His Word. This is        Psalms are of two different kinds:         for she is the body of which He is
called "the regulative principle of       hymns and spiritual songs.                 the Head.
worship." It is laid down in the sec-     "Hymns" are the Psalms that explic-                The Psalms are this Word of
ond commandment of the Law, as            itly praise God, e.g., Psalm 150           Christ. They are inspired; they are
the Heidelberg Catechism explains         ("Hallelujah! Hallelujah! In His           part of the Holy Scriptures of the
in Q. 96: "What doth God require          temple God be praised"). "Spiritual        Old Testament that was "breathed
in the second commandment? That           songs" are the Psalms which deal           forth of God" (II Tim.  3~169.  The
we in no wise represent God by im-        with other aspects of the believer's       Holy Spirit spoke them; David and
ages, nor worship him in any other way    life and experience, e.g., repentance      the other writers were only instru-
than he has commanded in his word. I'     (Psalm 51: "God be merciful to me")        ments (Acts  1:16). Remember, they
Apart now from the "hymn ques-            and the duty to obey God's Law             are the inspired Word of Christ, ex-
tion," this regulative principle of       (Psalm 119: "How I love Thy law,           pressly for the purpose of being the
worship - obedience to the second         0 Lord!").                                 songs of the church.
commandment! - is well-nigh lost              The proof of this, namely, that                Also, they are about Christ. All
sight of in Reformed churches to-         "psalms and hymns and spiritual            of the Psalms are "Messianic." This
day. The ruling question for wor-         songs" in Colossians  3:16 are all         is Jesus' own analysis of them in
ship is not, "Does God command            Psalms, is immediately plain to alh        Luke  24:44.  I`... all things must be
this particular aspect of worship in      the church of Paul's day, specifically     fulfilled, which were written in the
the Scriptures?" But the controlling      the congregation at Colosse, Asia          law of Moses, and in the prophets,
question is, "Do we think that this       Minor, had no other songs than the                 and in the psalms, concerning me. rr
would be a nice liturgical innova-        Psalms! She had no "hymns"                            This is questioned by some.
tion? Does this or that move us           in the sense in which we                                  The alleged lack of refer-
emotionally (for a month or two)?                                          When we sing
                                          are accustomed to speak                                     ences in the Psalms to
Will this be popular to draw our                                             the  Psalms,
                                          of hymns today, refer-                                      Christ and His saving
unspiritual young people to the                                               the Word
                                          ring to such songs as                                       works is one of the
evening service?" Altogether apart                                             of  Christ
                                          "Glory be to the Father,"                                    main reasons why some
from, the preaching of false doctrine,                                       is dwelling
                                          or "Rock of Ages." Be-                                      suppose that we should
or the absence of preaching, as be-                                           among us
                                          sides, the meaning of the                                  also have hymns in our
comes more and more common in                                                in our music.
                                          Greek word "hymn" is                                      song books of worship.
the second service, blasphemy is          "song of praise- to God."                              They find The Psalter defi-
regularly done in the worship of the      Elsewhere in the New Testament,                    cient especially for the Christian
churches. Strange fire is offered up      the word "hymn" is clearly used to         holidays, Christmas, Good Friday,
to the Holy Father on the altar of        refer to a Psalm which consists of         Easter, and Pentecost. This is a mis-
the worship of the church.                the praise of God. Such an instance        t a k e .
    God will be worshiped as He           is Matthew 2630: "And when they                    We may take Christmas as an
prescribes in His Word, and no oth-       had sung an hymn, they went into           example. We may truthfully assert
erwise. This extends. to our music.       the mount of Olives." The reference        that the Psalms are rich with the gos-
The music with which we praise God        is certainly to the Psalms; undoubt-       pel of the Coming of the Christ -
at church must be His Word. Just as       edly the reference is to Psalms 113-       His Coming from God; His Coming
we preach His Word and pray His           118, the "Great Hallel" (Song of           as man; His Coming in lowliness;
Word, so are we to sing His Word.         Praise to Jehovah), which the Israel-      His Coming for the redemption of
Now God has given the church one,         ites customarily sang on the occa-         sinners; and the like. We may as-
inspired songbook the Psalms.             sion of the Passover. In addition, in      sert further. that many of the popu-
    But even if the issue of exclu-       the Greek Old Testament used by            lar Christmas hymns not only lack
sive Psalm-singing versus the sing-       the apostles, the Septuagint, the          the solid, biblical truth about the
ing also of hymns were to be de-          Psalms  .were  exactly labeled,            birth of Christ that characterizes The
cided on the basis of Colossians  3:16    "Psalms and Hymns, and Spiritual          Psalter, but also are empty and even
alone, the churches would *Sing only      Songs."                              I     frivolous.        "Silent `Nigh't; -Holy
the Psalms. "Psalms and hymns and            When we sing the Psalms, the            Night" (which `I would not classify
                                                                                                   Ma? 1,1995/Standard  Bearer/375


as frivolous, or empty) certainly can-       on these are starved for music with            press most fervently our love,
not stand comparison with numbers            some real meat in it. They find                thanks, and praise to God our Sav-
3 and 4 in The  PsaZ~er  (based on           such "strong" music in "rock." It             ior. Accordingly, singing has a vital
Psalm 2), or with number 243 (based          would be better if they had been               place in the worship of the congre-
on Psalm 89).                                brought up on strong Christian mu-             gation. God wills congregational
    It is exactly the worth of the           sic, such as the psalms.                       singing.
Psalms that they are Christ's own              Writing in The Banner of Truth,                      Our exclusion of choirs and so-
Word about Himself. They are not           October, 1982, J.R.  deWitt states:             loists ("special music") from the
a religious man's words about man's                                                         worship services is based on the re-
religious feelings, problems, and as-          I have an idea that the-super-                    vealed will of God that in His
pirations, but they are Christ's Word        ficiality of much evangelical                            worship the congregation  -
about Christ. Since Christ is the rev-       Christianity in our day may                    _  -        all the members as one body
elation of Jehovah God, the Psalms           be traceable to a long ne-        The musical               - is to sing His praise. It
are God-centered and God-glorify-            glect of the Psalter as an               power               is not His will that most
ing. Just for this reason they do jus-       instrument in public                and beauty               of the congregation be en-
tice. to the hopes and fears, the            praise. When one lives              of u church               tertained. or even edified,
struggles and victories, the sins and        with the Psalms, those                   is not               by a few, but that the
salvation, the shame and glory of the        wonderful worship po-                    a large              whole church praise Him
man, or woman, of God. There is a            ems of Scripture, with           and excellent
                                             all their marvelous var-                                     .in song.      Inevitably,
depth, a profundity, a reality about                                          church-choir,
                                             iegation, displaying as                                      choirs and special num-
the Psalms that is commonly miss-            they do the whole range              butgood                 bers in the services not
ing from even the better hymns.              of the emotions, asuira-         congregational             onlyI infringe on the preach-
                                                                                                                               &
This, not only when the Psalms are           tions, and  wrestlinks of            singing.              ing, but also weaken congre-
talking about Jehovah, but also when         faith, tend to becomeforma-                              gational singing. The musi-
they are talking about man. As you           tive for one's experience of                           cal power and beauty of a church
sing them, you say to yourself, "Yes,        spiritual reality. On the other hand,          is not a large and excellent church-
fhis is my sin; this is my fear and          when one turns from the Psalms to              choir, but good congregational sing-
                                             merely human expressions of reli-
doubt; this is my feeling; this is my        gious sentiment, one immediately               ing.
only salvation; this is my hope," and        runs the danger of descending to                       Like the exclusive singing of
the like. For the Psalms know man            another level of religious feeling, a          Psalms in the worship services, the
in relationship to God, whether in           level not nearly so much shaped                excluding of choirs and special mu-
covenant friendship or in covenant-          by the Word of God itself.                     sic from the service for divine wor-
violating rebellion, and this is really                                                     ship is the historic, traditional Re-
man.                                           We ought to appreciate our heri-             formed stand. John Calvin banned
    Today there is a noticeable con-       tage. We ought to know and un-                   choirs from the Reformed, biblically-
version to the singing of the Psalms       derstand it, first of all, but then we           based worship. He was disgusted
by those whose  tradition was not          should appreciate it. We should not              with the entertainment that cluttered
that of Psalms-singing or whose tra-       be embarrassed by our liturgy, par-              up the services of Roman Catholi-
dition has moved away from the             ticularly our singing Psalms at                  c i s m :
singing of Psalms. They recognize          church; we should not grumble
the unique worth of the Psalms in          about it. We should be thankful for                      Similarly in these days, in the
the singing of the church, as well as      it and exploit it. We carry on a long                 popedom, the organs are piping on
the weakening of the church by             and honorable tradition; we repre-                    one side, and there is chanting in
many hymns.  The Biblical Educa-           sent the historic Reformed position                   four parts on the other side, and
tor of January, 1980 points to the         here. But above all, our heritage and                 there is such a lot of foolery, that
                                                                                                 the simple people are ravished by
worth of the Psalms:                       worship are biblical.                                 it, but never a whit edified (Ser-
                                                                                                 mons on Ephesians).
    The reason Christian kids so of-       Our Singing
  ten go for "rock" music is that their        "Singing.," the Holy Spirit says,            We should not hang our heads in
  musical taste is completely              with reference to our teaching and               shame when visitors to our services
  unformed. The violence in today's        admonishing one another in Psalms
  music is but the reverse side of the                                                      exclaim in amazement, "You have
                                           and hymns and spiritual songs. The
  sentimental, goopy, syrupy, popu-                                                         no  choir!" We have every right spir-
  lar music of a previous generation.      body of Christ is to be a singing body           itedly to defend this exclusion of a
  "Champagne music" leads to               in her assemblies for worship. The               choir and to point to our emphasis
  "marijuana music." Too many gos-         gift of song has unique power, not               on congregational singing as Re-
  pel songs are nothing but sentimen-      only to move the people of God but               formed and biblical.
  tal goop, and children brought up        also to serve as the vehicle to ex-                      A contemporary Presbyterian

376lStandard  Bearer May I,1995


student of liturgy (the form of wor-       schools, likewise, must be full of           Those specially gifted musically can
ship) has noted that the introduc-         music, especially the praise of God          exercise their gift. The rest of the
tion of choirs tends to "suppress con-     in song. We owe our schools a great          saints can be edified by the singing
gregational participation":                debt that they teach The Psalter to          of the choral society. That God for-
                                           our children. They may also teach            bids this as part of the worship ser-
    Even in churches with no ten-          them good hymns, although even in            vice does not imply that there is no
  dency to sacerdotalism, the use of       the schools the Psalms should have           place for this at all. We are not al-
  robed choirs in chancels (the part       pride of place. We certainly must            ways singing ourselves; there are
  of the church building containing
  seats for the clergy and the choir       not have bad hymns in the schools,           times when we take pleasure in lis-
  - DJE) tends to approximate the          i.e., hymns that are doctrinally erro-       tening to the singing of others.
  worship service to a concert of sa-      neous and spiritually misleading,                What better way is there to
  cred music, and works against con-       much less "gospel-rock" and the like         spend an hour or so a week than
  gregational worship. Perhaps the         corruption.                                  singing, with a view to giving an
  most unfortunate legacy of the                   Singing is to be part of our per-    edifying, pleasing program for oth-
  Anglo-Catholic movement to the           sonal life. "Is any merry?" asks             ers! What more worthwhile, enjoy-
  Reformed churches generally has          James; "let him sing psalms" (Jam.           able way to spend an evening once
  been this epidemic of chancels and       593). In your home, as you travel,           in awhile than hearing a good pro-
  theatrical choirs (James Hastings
  Nichols,                                 on the job (if permitted), it should         gram of music! It is especially ben-
               Corporate Worship in the
  Reformed Tradition).                     not be an unheard-of thing, that you         eficial that the young people partici-
                                           break out in song - not turn the             pate in the choral society. We warn
    The call to sing is not limited to     radio on, but yourself sing; not sing        them against bad music. Sharp and
the worship services, but extends to       the latest "hit-song," but sing              frequent as our warning is, it is not
other areas of the life of the saints.     Psalms. If now some young person             sharp and frequent enough. The
We do well to sing at our society          sneers at this, or raises his eyes heav-     temptation is strong. The bad mu-
meetings for the study of Holy Scrip-      enward in exasperation at such pi-           sic is rotten. They are still listening
ture. We should sing more often            ety, let him ask himself whether he          to it. But with the warning, we
than we do when we come together           has any of the merriment of eternal          should give them opportunity and
for Christian fellowship  - our Sun-       life, worked in his heart by the Holy        encouragement to fill the strong need
day evening visits. We ought to sing       Spirit of Jesus Christ the Lord, at          for music with good music. The
in our homes, as part of our family-       all!                                         choirs and bands at school and the
worship. Parents must teach their                  As part of the broader life of a     choral society of the church do this.
children the Psalms and the great,         congregation than its services for di-           Let there be music in the church!
good hymns of the New Testament            vine worship, a choral society (or                                                  cl
church in this way. Our Christian          choir) has its rightful, valuable place.
r Lqp/pheg aii @&f                                                                                                     4
                                                                                                            ,",

                                                   Do I Live For Him?

   Do I begin each day anew                                            Oh, may I live so close to Him
        In prayer to God above?                                            And trust His tender care;
   To seek His guidance through the day,                               That each new day may bring me joy
        To praise Him for His love?                                        In knowing He is there.

   Do I awake with songs of joy                                        My task will be a lighter one
        For having such a Friend;                                          My path a brighter way,
   Who, though all others may forsake,                                 Till life's long journey ended
        Will keep me to the end?                                           Then dawns Eternal Day.

   Do I arise and go about                                                                                 Annettu Jansen
       My daily tasks to do                                                                               Dorr, Michigan
   Content to know that I am His
       And He will see me through?


                                                                                                  May 1,1995lStandard  Bearer/377


    I


         Very plainly we are approach-          that the day of Christ is at hand. Let    christ will prevent both small and
   ing the end of this present world.           no man deceive you by any means;          great, rich men and poor "to buy
   Our God informs us of this fact              for that day shall not come, except       and sell" if they receive not his mark
   through the apostle John. For in I           there come a falling away first, and      on their right hand or forehead. A
   John 218 we read: "Little children,          that man of sin be revealed, the son      very, very rough time lies ahead for
   it is the last time: and as ye have          of perdition; who opposeth and            the believers. How soon this will
   heard that antichrist shall come, even       exalteth himself above all that is        happen we do not know. But by
   now are there many antichrists:              called God, or that is worshiped; so      God's grace we do believe His
   whereby we know that it is the last          that he as God sitteth in the temple      Word, and are sure that our calling
   time."                                       of God, shewing himself that he is        is to heed His timely warning.
         We do well, in the first place, to     God."                                         We are not there yet; the true
   take note of the fact that the name              Take note then of the fact that       church does not have that cruel
    Antichrist literally means "against         antichrists were there already, and       treatment upon it. But we must be
    Christ." Very clearly we are in the         that the way was certainly being pre-     careful, lest we begin to look for
_ --day when, in the church world, there        pared for the coming of the world-        what Satan wants, rather than for
   is much teaching and defense of the          wide Antichrist, who would make           what God calls us to do. We do
   lie concerning what Scripture teaches        life very miserable for us, the chil-     well to consider that glorious truth
    us in regard to Christ Jesus, our Sav-      dren of God.                              of our God that "all things work to-
    ior. And the sad thing today is that,           In Revelation 13:7 we read of the     gether for good to them that love
    in the church world, there are false        Antichrist making war with the            God" (Rom.  828). We must take
    doctrines and practices that separate       saints, and of overwhelming them,         God's warning with the confidence
    churches and lead church members            that is, overcoming them physically.      that His promise to His elect will be
    away from the truth concerning              What is more, the final Antichrist        fulfilled in every small detail, on the
    Christ and what actually is Christi-        will come and have power over all         basis of what His Son did for us,
    anity.                                      kindreds, and tongues, and nations.       through His cross and death. He is
         Today we are in the last part of       He will be tke Antichrist. And we         our Savior, and He is working for
    that period of time of which the            have a timely warning that his day        our complete salvation from Satan
    apostle John wrote.                In II    is coming, and that physical torment      and sin.
    Thessalonians 21-4 the work of the          will be upon us, upon all the elect           How appealing it is, for our sin-
    coming Antichrist is clearly revealed       children of God who are living on         ful flesh, not to be Christians, but to
    in false doctrines and evil practices       earth in that day.                        be antichristians. Satan has turned
   which we are by the Antichrist called            But the comfort for us is that        us away from God, and from His
   to defend and maintain.                      what lies ahead is what God prom-         love which sent Christ to us as His
         In that passage we read: "Now          ises us, as the work of His grace in      Son, to save us from the guilt of our
   we beseech you, brethren, by the             Christ. He will keep us faithful, and     sin. But what counts is what God
    coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and        cause us to refuse to serve that An-      gives us, not what friends and rela-
   by our gathering together unto him,          tichrist, who will rule over all the      tives give us. We read in Psalm
    that ye be not shaken in mind, or be        nations of this world. In Matthew         139:14: "I will praise thee; for I am
    troubled, neither by spirit, nor by         27~1 we read that "the chief priests      fearfully and wonderfully made;
   word, nor by letter as from us, as           and elders of the people took coun-       marvelous are thy works; and that
                                                sel against Jesus to put him to           my soul knoweth right well." Simi-
                                                death." And in that passage of Rev-       larly, we read in Psalm 23:l "The
                                                elation 13 we find the Antichrist "do-    Lord is my shepherd: I shall not
                                                ing great wonders" and deceiving          want." This is so because He
                                                "them that dwell on the earth, by         restoreth our souls, leading us be-
   Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the      means of the miracles." We read in        side the still waters, thereby restor-
   Protestant Reformed Churches.                the verses following that the Anti-       ing our souls, leading us on the paths

   378lSfandard  Bearer /May 1,1995


of righteousness, for His name's                 antichristian doctrines that are in the    what He wants. He warns us in
sake. Go"d leads us on the paths of              world today. Just look up Genesis          order to cause us to want salvation.
righteousness, and causes goodness               3:1-5. Satan does this today through       "All that I am I owe to Thee, Thy
and mercy to follow us all the days              the doctrine of Arminianism, which         wisdom, Lord, hath fashioned me."
of our lives.                                    presents the lie that man has power        This is based on Psalm 139~14.  There
      It will be a long time before we           to let God save him, and that God is       we read this important truth: "I will
again come to what we call Christ-               disappointed and kept from what He         praise thee, for I am fearfully and
mas. But we do well to hold on                   wants, when man does not do His            wonderfully made: marvelous are
tightly to the truth of Scripture                will.                                      thy works; and that my soul
wherein we are in God's mercy and                    Look up Romans 9~16, where we          knoweth right well."
grace warned of the coming of that               read: "So then it is not of him that           We want salvation because God
universal antichrist. We have a call-            willeth, nor of him that runneth, but      has already begun it in us. An im-
ing to walk and work as Christians,              of God who sheweth mercy." God             portant part of our salvation is that
and to look forward to the next                  does not depend upon our will; and,        we want it; and that is God's gift to
Christmas from a spiritual point of              being born spiritually dead, we can-       us. As God said to Satan'in Genesis
view, in order to enjoy the work of              not want salvation until God has be-       3:15, He will put enmity in His elect
God's grace upon us. He gave us a                gun it in us. God does not depend          against Satan and sin. And let us,
blessed Savior, and causes us to be-             upon man for natural things. Nor           by God's grace, take hold of that im-
gin to walk in love towards Him, as              does He depend on man for spiri-           portant truth, and heed His warn-
our God and Savior.                              tual activities. We do not make Him        ing to us day after day, and time
      Let us remember that Christ's              our Savior. He causes us to want           after time. He saves us. We do not
birth and His cross really count.                salvation. And He gives it to us.          save Him from leaving us in sin.
They give us divinely promised                   God decided eternally whom He will         God saves us from our love of sin,
blessings. Therefore, in His grace               save.                                      and causes us to be thankful for His
our God warns us of Satan and his                    God warns us, not in order to          salvation.  0
lies, which are presented in all the             get us to decide whether we wilI do
 1




           7. The Beast from the"Sea
        -
                                            I                                                                                             /I
      Of what-does the Antichrist ac-                The 13th chapter of Revelation         only a short time before the child's
tually consist? How will the anti-               must be viewed in the light of chap-       victory is perfected and before he is
Christian power be realized at the               ter 12. Chapter 12 tells of a great        totally destroyed. In his great wrath,
end? What concretely must the                    red dragon, identified in verse 9 as       he persecutes the woman, the
church expect and what will she be               "the Devil and Satan, which                church, and makes war with the
confronted with, in Antichrist, in the           deceiveth the whole world." Ac-            remnant of her seed, "which keep
future?                                          cording to verses 4, 5, the dragon         the commandments of God, and
      For the answer to these ques-              desired to devour the man child of         have the testimony of Jesus Christ"
tions, we turn to Revelation 13:1-10.            a certain woman. The woman is the          (vv.  13-17).  That is, he hates and
Because space is limited and because             Old Testament people of God, re-           tries to destroy the church and the
I will be quoting parts of the pas-              garded as the church in the old dis-       saints.
sage as I go along, I will not quote             pensation, and her man child is Jesus          In this connection, chapter 13
the passage here. The reader is                  the Christ. This describes the Devil's     records the appearance of a beast
asked to read the entire 13th chap-              purpose and activity throughout the        rising up out of the sea. This beast
ter of Revelation carefully, as well             old dispensation.                          is the product ofthe dragon of chap-
as the closely related 12th chapter.                 When that child ascends to God         ter 12, the culmination of the
                                                 (v. 5), the Devil is cast out of heaven    dragon's wrathful campaign against
Prof. Engelsma is professor  of  Dogmat-         into the earth (w.  7-9); He is en-        the church, the commandments of
ics. and Old Testament in the Protes-            raged because of the victory of the        God, and the testimony of Jesus
tan t Reformed Semina y.          /              child (v., 12). He knows that he has       Christ.

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    Out of the sea arises a beast, a              Especially the fourth beast re-        flicts will be a world-government.
wild animal. Its appearance is that           ceives attention in Daniel 7. It is        That the beast is a political reality, a
of a leopard, or panther, with the            most terrible, strong, and destruc-        kingdom, is evident in his appear-
exception that its feet are those of a        tive. It has ten horns. Among the          ance. He has horns and crowns.
bear, and its mouth, the mouth of a           ten horns, there grows up an elev-         Horns in Scripture represent ruling
lion. The beast, therefore, is a fear-        enth horn. This little horn has a          power, and crowns are tokens of au-
ful monster, savage and threatening           man's eyes and a mouth speaking            thority, of kingship. The ten horns
in the extreme. It combines the cun-          great, boastful things. After it grows     and crowns indicate a fullness of po-
ning and agility of the leopard with          up, the little horn makes war with         litical power. In addition Revela-
the tearing, powerful paws of the             the saints and prevails; speaks            tion  13:2 expressly says that the
bear and the devouring mouth and              against God; and exalts itself to such     beast has power and a throne and
fangs of the lion.                            an extent that it attempts to dethrone     great authority. In fact, verse 7 states
    The beast has seven heads and             God, endeavoring to change times           that he has power over all kindreds,
ten horns. Immediately, this re-              and laws.                                  and tongues, and nations. He exer-
minds us of the red dragon himself,               There are definite, unmistakable       cises this power also, for the last part
who in chapter 12, verse 3, appears           similarities between the fourth beast      of the chapter informs us that the
as having seven heads and ten horns.          of Daniel 7, especially as it expresses    beast controls everything - trade
This is the  Devil's  creature! The           itself in the little horn, and John's      and labor; art, religion, and educa-
heads of the beast are full of names          beast out of the sea. Both have ten        tion; the life and death of every man.
of blasphemy. One of the heads is             horns. Both fight against and over-        If any question remains, the fact that
peculiar in that it shows that it was         come the saints and blaspheme God.         Daniel 7 calls the four beasts four
once dealt a death-blow, which,               There is even distinct similarity as       kings and the fact that Revelation
however, has been healed.                     regards the time during which they         17 identifies the beast from the sea
    Having risen, the beast is wor-           make war with the saints. Daniel           as a king settle it. The beast is a
shiped by the whole world. It ut-             225 says that the saints are given         great kingdom under a mighty king.
ters blasphemies against God, and             into the hand of the little horn "un-          It is an absolutely  universal
it makes war with the saints and              til a time and times and the divid-        world-power. All the world won-
overcomes them.                               ing of time," i.e., one time, two          dered after the beast, we read in
    The same beast is referred to             times, and one half of one time. Rev-      verse 3. It has power over all
also in Revelation 17. There it is            elation 13:5 states that power was         kindreds, and tongues, and nations,
described as scarlet in color and as          given (to the beast) to continue 42        according to verse 7. Verse 8 says
carrying a woman who is called the            months. Forty-two months is three          that all that dwell on the earth shall
great whore. Verse 8 says that the '          and a half years, i.e., as to the idea,    worship him, i.e., all those whose
origin of the beast is the abyss and          not necessarily the actual time, one       names are not written in the Lamb's
that the elrd of it is perdition, i.e., it    year, two years, and a half a year,        book of life. Every nation is under
comes out of hell and goes into hell.         corresponding to the time, times,          the sway of the beast. The dream of
                                              and half a time of Daniel.                 many of a one-world government is
The Beasts of Daniel 7                            The explanation of these simi-         going to be realized in the future.
    John's vision of the beast is simi-       larities is simply that the beast of           A striking feature of the beast is
lar to the vision of the prophet              Revelation 13 is the fourth beast of       that it does `not subjugate the na-
Daniel in Daniel 7. The apostle's             Daniel 7, particularly as the fourth       tions of the world by sheer force,
vision in Revelation 13 is based on           beast develops itself finally in the       but that the peoples of the world
the prophet's vision. Both of them            little horn.                               wiIlingly submit to it and ally them-
concern the same truth of the Anti-                                                      selves with it. It differs in this re-
christ in the last days. In Daniel 7,         Antichrist, a World-Power                  spect from other world-powers that
the prophet saw four beasts arising               But what does that little horn of      have preceded it in history. There
from the sea, one after the other.            the fourth beast represent? What is        have been other nations that domi-
The first was like a lion; the second         the beast out of the sea?                  nated almost all the world and es-
was like a bear; the third was like a             It is Antichrist. In Daniel 7 and      tablished world-empires, e.g., the
panther; and the fourth was so ter-           Revelation 13, God reveals that            Greco-Macedonian empire under
rible and dreadful that no known              Antichrist will be a political entity,     Alexander the Great and the Roman
animal could represent it. It be-             a world-government. The origin of          empire, but they advanced by con-
comes clear that the beast of Johns           the beast is the sea. In Scripture,        quest. It is different with the beast
vision is a composite of the four             the tossing, restless sea represents       from the sea. It is true that it pos-
beasts of Daniel, i.e., the beast of          the nations of the world, always in        sesses and shows tremendous
John is nothing other than all four           turmoil. In the end, the result of         power, for all the world asks, "Who
beasts of Daniel rolled into one.             centuries of global tensions and con-      is like the beast? Who is able to

38QIStandard  Bearer /May 1,1995


make war with him?" But apart                 seven heads of the beast. Revela-            attempt to establish the kingdom of
from this power, military power, if           tion 17 explains these heads as seven        Antichrist, it is not difficult to un-
you will, he manifests a certain in-          kings, i.e., kingdoms, five of which         derstand this. The healed death
nate authority, a wonderful  cha-             had already fallen at the time of the        wound must refer to the division of
risma, which is freely acknowl-                        writing of the book of Revela-      peoples by God at Babel, as recorded
edged by all nations. All the                           tion (about A.D. 95), one of       in Genesis 11. Soon after the flood,
world wonders at the beast,                               which was then existing,         under the mighty Nimrod, there was
stands in awe of it. All the        Tewible times          and the last of which had       an attempt at a world-kingdom. But
world worships the beast.              are ahead            still to come. The great       God frustrated the effort by con-
Because of the marvelous               for  those           kingdom that existed at        founding their language. At that
intrinsic authority of the             who bow               the time of the writing of    time, God divided the human race
beast, all the nations will-           their knee            Revelation was the Ro-        into the different nations by giving
ingly align themselves           to the living God           man empire. It was this       the different groups their own pe-
with the beast and sub-                and pray,             kingdom, in fact, which       culiar language and, no doubt, their
mit to it.                              "Thine is            was persecuting the           own color and other racial, national
    Revelation speaks of              the kingdom           church at that time and        characteristics. Thus God scattered
this more fully. It teaches         and the power           which had exiled the           the peoples and separated them.
that, in the end, a mighty            and the glo y        apostle John to the island      Down through history, that tremen-
nation with a powerful                 forever.  "        of Patmos. The kingdom           dous blow to man's aspiration for a
leader will arise.- Then, ten                            that was yet to come, the sev-    one-world government has stymied
other kingdoms, represented in                         enth head of the beast, was the     all efforts to realize the kingdom of
Revelation 13 by the ten horns on               kingdom of Antichrist itself. The          Antichrist. But at the end, the death-
the beast's head, will with one mind          five kingdoms that had already               blow will be healed. The nations
give their power and strength to the          fallen by the time of the apostles           will again be able to communicate
beast, so that the beast will stand           were, going back in order from the           with each other, will seek each other,
astride the earth like a colossus.            time of the apostles, the kingdom of         and will actually unite under the
                                              the Greeks and Macedonians; the              headship  of Antichrist.
Culmination  of Attempts                      kingdom of the Medes and Persians;
of World-Dominion                             the Babylonian kingdom; the                  Beast
    Another significant aspect of this        Assyrian kingdom; and the kingdom                We are seeing this take place to-
coming world-power is that it em-             of Babel, headed by Nimrod at the            day. The nations are talking to each
bodies the other great world-pow-             time of the building of the tower of         other, and they are talking peace.
ers that have preceded it in history.         Babel. All these were great king-            The sea of the nations of the world
This is brought out in two ways.              doms that attempted world-domin-             is swept by winds of economic in-
First, the beast of Revelation 13 has         ion and that were more or less suc-          terdependence, mutual fear of war,
the characteristics' of a leopard, a          cessful. They are all heads of the           and, not least, a common hatred for
bear, and a lion, i.e., as we noted           beast. The Spirit teaches us by this         God and His Christ and a common
before, although the beast of Rev-            that the great kingdom of Antichrist,        love of man.
elation 13 is the final development           when it comes, stands related to all             Out of it will come the beast.
of the fourth beast of Daniel's vi-           these former empires, that it is the         And it will be a beast! Not, of course,
sion, it somehow also incorporates            goal that they all strove for, that it       in the opinion of the ungodly world
the other three beasts of Daniel 7.           is the fruition of their efforts, and        which will acclaim it as utopia, as
The four beasts of Daniel 7 are four          that, in it, the essence of them all is      heaven on earth, but in the judgment
great world-kingdoms: in order, the           still to be found. Always through            of the people of God, who see it as
Babylonian empire (headed by                  history, the kingdom of Antichrist           it really is. For it will have the spiri-
Nebuchadnezzar), the kingdom of               has been coming (see "The Coming             tual character of the dragon. It is
the Medes and Persians (of which              of Antichrist," in the February 1 is-        .the dragon that gives it its power
Cyrus was the outstanding ruler),             sue of the SB).                              and throne and authority, accord-
the kingdom of the Greeks and                                                              ing to verse 2. It is a beast in its
Macedonians (under Alexander the              The Wounded Head                             relation to God. It is full of pride
Great), and the Roman empire, the                     It is in this connection that we     and full of hatred for God. It de-
fourth beast. The beast of Revela-            must consider the statement in Rev-          mands to be worshiped as God. It
tion 13 is the final development of           elation 13:3 that one of the heads of        hates God and raves against him.
the old Roman empire yet in the fu-           the beast was "wounded to death,"            Verse 1 tells us that it has names of
ture, but it definitely takes up into         but "his deadly wound was healed."           blasphemy on its heads. These
itself the other great kingdoms.              If each head is taken as a manifesta-        names show what the beast essen-
    This is also the meaning of the           tion of the beast in history, as an          tially is: nothing but a monstrous

                                                                                                      May 1,1995/Standard  Bearer/381


 blasphemy. As it is, so does it be-          over mankind and over God's cre-              have ever done, by faith in the Lamb
 have: it blasphemes God, His Name            ation. For a little while Satan will          slain from the foundation of the
 (i.e., Jesus Christ), and His tabernacle     crow, "I am God; I rule all; mine is          world. Out of this faith comes pa-
 (v. 6). It is, therefore, also a beast in    the kingdom, the power, and the               tience, patience to endure the fear-
 its relation to the church. It makes         glory." Indeed, for a time, times,            ful things that are seen, while we
 war with the saints and overcomes            and half a time, it seems so, also to         look at the things which are not seen.
 them. As we will see later, the              the people of God.                                Nor are we afraid. Our names
 antichristian world-power inaugu-                    This is the earthly future. Ter-      are written in the book of life (Rev.
 rates the great tribulation.                 rible times are ahead for those who           13:s). The `saints will do valiantly
     The beast is the kingdom of Sa-          bow their knee to the living God and          (Dan.  %1:32). The martyrs at once
 tan in the world. Satan is its builder       pray, "Thine is the kingdom and the           live and reign with Christ (Rev. 20:4,
 and maker, its power, and its spiri-         power and the glory forever."                 6). To suffer for Christ is a precious
 tual head. Throughout history, Sa-                   Since the kingdom of the beast        gift to us (Phil. 1:29). And the beast
 tan has worked at this: against the          is essentially spiritual, the Devil's         is ordained to defeat and destruc-
 kingdom of God, to rear up his king-         "No" to the kingdom of God, we                tion: he must be killed and shall go
 dom. Time and again, he failed. In           citizens of God's kingdom must op-            into everlasting captivity (Rev.
 the end, he will be successful. There        pose it in a spiritual manner. We             13:lO).
 will be an empire that manifests             do not try to prevent it or overthrow             The Ancient of Days has given
 Satan's life and principles, that re-        it by political shenanigans or by force       the kingdom to Jesus Christ.
 dounds to Satan's praise, and that           of arms. We resist it, as the saints              Jesus Christ is Lord. 0
 fulfills his lust for an absolute reign

                                                                                            Miller addressed these published
j  -,-  A.
  lm&gf    \-.,G
           l@\lQl(%gL~~                                                                     sermons "to the young persons un-
 The Guilt, Folly, and Sources  of Sui-       He was of a different stamp because           der the author's pastoral care." He
 cide,  by Samuel Miller. Dallas,             he was determined to speak bibli-             concluded the publication with, the
 Texas: Presbyterian Heritage Publi-          cally on the wickedness of self-mur-          exhortation, "My young friends! this
 cations, 1994. 56pp. $3.50 (paper).          der. From Scripture he pointed out            subject is entitled to your particular
 [Reviewed by the Editor.]                    that suicide is sin against God and           regard."
                                              sin against the neighbor. Suicide is              This is a booklet that parents
     This reprint of two published            "generally prompted by the most               should put in the hands of their teen-
 sermons on the subject of suicide by         sordid and unworthy selfishness M (p.         age children. Our young people's
 the, Presbyterian theologian Samuel          18).                                          societies could profitably, .make it
 Miller is timely. Not only is our                    The despicable motives of sui-        their study.
 country presently moving toward              cide are uncovered. Among them                    The conclusion is positive:
 societal approval and legal sanction         are drunkenness and gambling.                   Take refuge, then, in the grace of
 of suicide, but also preachers fail to               Intriguing is Miller's admonition       the gospel.... Instead of flying to
 warn sharply against the sin of sui-         to the state to discountenance and              the hateful instruments of death, on
 cide. Some exert themselves to find          discourage suicide by appropriate               the approach of iZalai%y,  you will
 excuses for the suicide and go out           penalties (pp. 52,53).                          have a covenant God and Father,
 of their way to offer false comfort to               Miller's answer to the question,        to whose gracious throne you may
                                                                                              repair with boldness and affection-
 grieving relatives. The serious ef-          "Can we entertain no hope of the                ate confidence" (p. 55). 0
 fect is that those, particularly the         final salvation of one who destroys
 young people in the congregation,            his own life?" although reasoned, is
 who may be struggling with this              not hopeful:
 temptation to kill themselves, do not                                                      CORRECTION:
hear the Word of God forbidding                 It is possible that a child of God              In the March 15th issue of the
 this way of escape from misery. In-            may be so far under the power of            Standard Bearer  the "News" re-
 deed, they are left with the impres-           mental derangement, as to rush              ported that the Young People's, ski
 sion that this way is a possibility as         unbidden into the presence of his           outing overnighter was held in Faith
 far as the church is concerned. Such           Father. . . . But it may be questioned,
                                                on very solid ground, whether a             Christian School's gymnasium. This
 preachers may well ask themselves              real  Christian, in the exercise  of his    was incorrect. Faith Christian School
 whether the blood of the suicide will          reason, ever became his own execu-          does not have a gym. The  over-
 not be required at their hands, as             tioner (p. 27).                             nighter was held in a local gymna-
 God warned the prophet-watchman                                                            sium in Randolph, not Faith School.
 in Ezekiel 3:16ff.                                   We are told that it is especially                                      - B W
     Miller was of a different stamp.         the youth who commit suicide.

 382lStandard  Bearer/May 1, lQ!S


 School Activities                                In the last bulletin I received         Bethel was finding it more and more
     Do your vacation plans this sum-         from Trinity it was noted that on           difficult to move the massive
 mer include spending some time in            the Lord's Day, April 2, the sanctu-        amounts of day-care center equip-
 Colorado? If they do, you could              ary at Trinity would host four wor-         ment every Sunday, as well as ev-
 help the Loveland PR Christian               ship services. The four speakers for        ery time the center was used for
 School and your wallet at the same           the conference were each scheduled          Bible study or catechism. Besides
 time. It just so happens that that           to preach at one of these services.         that, every use of the center meant
 school's fund-raisers are sponsoring         Rev. Mahtani, pastor at Trinity, at         having to move more than 100 chairs
 a Bed and Breakfast project. For             9:30  A.M.;  Rev. Haak, from Bethel         in and out of a shed outside, in all
 $30.00  you will receive a comfort-          PRC, Elk Grove Village, IL, at 11:30       kinds of weather, and the room was
 able bed, fellowship with other              A.M.;  Rev.  VanOverloop,  pastor at       just getting too small.
 Christians, and breakfast the next           Georgetown PRC in Bauer, MI, at                 For these and other reasons the
 morning. A $2.00 additional dona-           400 P.M.; and Prof. Engelsma from            congregation decided to approve the
tion is requested for each child. If          our seminary, at 6:00  P.M.                recommended move and, beginning
you are visiting Loveland over Sun-               At last count Trinity was expect-      April 2, all divine worship services,
day, a noon meal can also be ar-             ing 170 registered guests, with about       catechism classes, and Bible study
ranged. If you would like to make             140 of those staying at the J Bar J        meetings will be held there.
a reservation or if you have more            Ranch and 30 at homes or in motels.              On Saturday, March 18, the men
questions, simply contact Mrs. Clara         They also expected another dozen            of the Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL
VanBaren,  709 E. 57th St., Loveland,        or more visitors to come mostly for         began doing the groundwork for
CO 80538, phone (303) 667-1347, or           the evening lectures. We certainly          their new church building.
Mrs. Gina Solanyk (303) 669-9005.            echo the prayers of Trinity when we
    At the March Parent /Teacher             say, may God's Name be praised              Minister Activities
Conferences held at our Adams St.            and His people richly blessed                   The Byron Center, MI PRC will
Chr. School in Grand Rapids, MI,             through this conference.                    call a pastor on Sunday, April 23,
there was yet another unique fund-                The Evangelism Societies of the        from a trio of the Revs. denHartog,
raiser for Adams. Parents, grand-            Byron Center and Hudsonville, MI            Key, and Koole.
parents, and other supporters were           PRCs joined together to sponsor a               The Edgerton, MN PRC has ex-
asked to be part of a test drive. Rep-       lecture held in the auditorium of the       tended a call to Rev. C.. Terpstra,
resentatives from Chrysler Corp.             Jamestown CRC on March 23. Rev.             pastor of the South Holland, IL PRC.
were at school with mini-vans and            B. Gritters, Hudsonville's pastor,              Rev. M. Joostens, pastor of the
were paying $5 per adult and $10             spoke on the subject, "Imitators of         First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI, has
per couple for them simpiy to drive          Jesus Christ."                              accepted the call he was extended
around the block and tell the repre-             Those gathered together that            from the Lynden, WA PRC.
sentatives what they thought. It was         night heard Pastor Gritters ask and             Rev. and Mrs. M. DeVries, with
promised that there would be no              answer the all-important questions,         their family, received permission to
sales pitch.                                 What did Jesus Christ do when He            enter Canada to reside there as pas-
                                             lived, that Christians are to imitate?      tor of the First PRC in Edmonton,
Evangelism  Activities                       And if Jesus were to examine the            AB, Canada. Rev. DeVries preached
    This being the first week in             conduct of churches and Christians          his farewell in Edgerton, MN on
April, my mind wanders south to              today, would He find them behav-            Sunday, March 19 and moved that
the warm state of Texas and our              ing as He behaved?"                         week, arriving in Edmonton on Fri-
Trinity PRC in Houston, who will                                                         day, the 24th. Installation was
this week (April 3,4,5) be hosting a         Congregational Activities                   scheduled for the 27th, and we as-
Spring Conference on Reformed                    The Council of the Bethel PRC           sume Rev. DeVries preached his first
Evangelism. Trinity has worked               in Elk Grove Village, IL decided back       sermon, as First's third pastor, the
long and hard on this conference and         in February to investigate the details      following Sunday. We also learned
we all hope and pray that nothing            involved in holding worship services        that Rev. and Mrs. DeVries are in
but good will come from it.                  at the Holiday Inn, 680 Irving Park         Canada without their four children.
                                             Road, Itasca, IL, a location, about five    The children stayed in Minnesota
Mr. Wigger is a member                                                                   because of work and a desire to fin-
                           of the Protes-    miles from their  form'& meeting
tant Reformed Church                                                                     ish the school year there.
                         of Hudsonville,     place in the Children's World Learn-
Michigan.                                    ing Center in Elk Grove Village.                                                   0

                                                                                                   Mey 1,199SlStandard  Bearer1383


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                                                                                                                          Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                          Grandville, Michigan
        P,O.'Box603
        Grandville, MI 49468-0603





                 ATTENTION!                         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
         Bethel Protestant Reformed                The Council of the Hope Protestant Re-               The Lord willing, on May 1, 1995,
Church has changed the location of            formed Church of Redlands, CA expresses its          our parents, grandparents, and great
its- worship services to the Holiday          heartfelt sympathy to its elder Doug Pastoor         grandparents,
Inn, 680 Irving Park Rd., Itasca, IL.         and to Mrs. Winnie VanUffelen and their fami-               MR. and MRS. JOHN C.
All visitors, friends, and Protestant         lies in the death of                                                   LUBBERS,
Reformed brethren, please take                            Ml?. DICK VAN UFFELEN.                   celebrate their 60th wedding anniver-
note! Take Exit 290 west on                        Mr. Dick VanUffelen served faithfully for       sary. We thank our heavenly Father
                                              many years as a deacon of our church. May
Thorndale Rd. Take Rohling Rd.                                                                     for giving us God-fearing parents, for
                                              his widow and all the family members take com-
south to Irving Park. Turn east and                                                                the  many years they have shared to-
                                              fort in the promise of the eternal reward which      gether, and for the Christian love, in-
go l/4 mile to the Holiday Inn.               the Lord gives to His faithful servants.             struction, and guidance they have given
         "For the Lord's portion is his            "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown     us through these years. May God keep
people; Jacob is the lot of his inher-        of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous       them in His  care in the years that lie
itance" (Deuteronomy  32:9).                  judge, shall give me at that day: and not to         ahead.
                                              me only, but unto all them also that love His             "A good man leaveth an inherit-
                                              appearing" (II Timothy 4:6).                         ance to his children's children..." (Prov-
  RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                                      Pastor Arie denHartog,  President    erbs  13:22a).
                                                            Elder Otto Gaastra, Vice-President
         The Mary-Martha Society of                                                                @ Ed and Lorraine Miedema
Hope Protestant Reformed Church                                   NOTICE11                         $I? Don and Correne VanOverloop
in  Redlands expresses sincere                Young People's Scholarship Committee:                @ Gary and Carol Lubbers
Christian sympathy to fellow mem-                  Prospective teachers and ministers seek-        @ John and Joan Bouma
bers Winnie VanUffelen, Donna                 ing scholarship money, please call Sarah                       20 grand children
Bruinsma,  JoAnn Pastoor, and                 Ondersma at (616) 669-0966 for an application               38 great grand children
Laura VanVoorthuysen  and families,           and essay topic. Applications must be in by                                            Hudsonville, MI
in the loss of their dear husband             June 15.
and father, and to Anna Mae                                                                                   CALL TO SYNOD!!
Meelker and family, in the loss of                          CASSETTE TAPE!!                             Synod 1994 appointed Hull Protestant
her brother,                                        "The Church: A Spiritual Institution"          Reformed Church, Hull, IA the calling
         MR. DICK VAN UFFELEN.                             by Prof. Herman Hanko,                  church for the 1995 Synod.
         May the Lord's rich grace and        professor of N.T. Studies in the Seminary                 The Consistory hereby notifies our
mercy sustain them in their sorrow,                           of the Protestant                    churches that the 1995 Synod of the Prot-
and may they be comforted in the                            Reformed Churches                      estant Reformed Churches in America will
words of Scripture in Revelation                             Grand Rapids, Ml                      convene, the Lord willing, on Tuesday, June
21:3, 4: "Behold, the tabernacle of           Send $3.00 to:                                       13, 1995 at 9:00  A.M.  in the Hull Protestant
God is with men; .and he will dwell                          Tape Distribution                     Reformed Church, Hull, IA.
with them, and they shall be his                        Protestant Reformed Church                     The Pre-Synodical Service will be held
people, and God himself shall be                              315 N. Park St.                      on Monday evening, June 12, at  7:30  p.m.
with them, and be their God. And                            Lynden, WA 98264                       Rev. R VanOverloop,  president of the 1994
God shall wipe away all tears from                                                                 Synod, will preach the sermon. Synodical
their eyes; and there shall be no                           TEACHERNEEDED,                         delegates are requested to meet with the
more death, neither sorrow, nor cry-               The Free Christian School of Edgerton,          Consistory before the service.
ing, neither shall there be any more          MN is in need of a teacher for grades K-4.                Delegates in need of lodging should
pain: for the former things are               Please contact Allen Hendriks at (507) 442-          contact Mr. Egbert Gritters.           Phone:
passed away."                                 5221 or Dennis Bleyenburg at (507) 442-              (712) 439-2194.
  I,        Rev. A. dent-lartog, President    7551 or write to the school, Free Christian                                        Consistory of
          Jeanne Karsemeyer, Secretary        School, P.O. Box 431, Edgerton, MN                      Hull Protestant Reformed Church
                                              56128.                                                                  Egbert Gritters, Clerk.

384lStandard  Bearer /May 1,1995


