                              THE
j     "`%:::-     .i     SmDmD




A Reformed               BEARER
 Semi-Monttdy
 Magazine
                         I                                       I





                               Rev. Thomas Miersma and family
                                Home Missionary of the PRC


Vol. 71, No. 16
May 15,1995


     CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                                    May  15,  1995
I                                                                                                                                                                                                                       I
     Meditation - Rev. John A. Heys
               Purifyylng Ourselves in Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..~~......`..... 387
     Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma
               A Defense of (Reformed) Amillennialism                                                                                                                                                                        ISSN 0362-4692
               4. Matthew 24 .~~..~~,,,~..........~.~~~...~~~~~.~..~.~.~.~.~...........,..........~~.........                                                                                              389               SemCmonthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
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               Sending the Reformed Truth to the Ends of the Earth                                                                                                                                                           EDtTORtAL  COMMRTEE
                          Rev. Russell  J. Dykstra ,,,,...,,...,.....,.,........,.,.,....,,.,.......~..,.........                                                                                          394               Editor. Prof. David J. Engelsma
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               Domestic Mission Committee Report                                                                                                                                                                             Managing Editor: Mr. Con Doezerna
                          Mr. Don Doezema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395                                    DEPARTMENT EDtTORS
               Our Work in the San Luis Valley                                                                                                                                                                               Rev. Wilbur Brulnsma, Rev. Ronatd Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Decker, Rev. AdedenHartog.  Rw. Russell  Dykstra, Rev. Barry
                           Rev. Thomas Miersma . . ..~.....i.....,,..,..,.,.....................................                                                                                           400               Grittern,  Rev. Cart Haak, Rev. Jason Korterlng, Rev. Cornellus
               The Protestant Reformed Church of New Zealand                                                                                                                                                                 Hanko,  Prof.  Henan   Hsnko,  Rev.  John  Heys,  .Rev.  Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Kuiper,   Mr.  James  Lanting,  Mr8.  MaryBeth  Lubbers,  Rev.
               - Ten Years Old                                                                                                                                                                                               Jaiklshln  Mahtani,  Rev.  Thomas   Misrsma,  Rev.  Charles
                           Rev. Rodney G. Miersma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402                                                  Terpstra, Rev.GlseVanBaren,  Rev. RonatdVanCvsrtwp,  Mr.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Benjamin Wlggsr, Rev. Bernard Woudenberg.
     All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..a*...*..... . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
     Apples of Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..*a............ 405                                     EDtTORfAL OFFfCE             CHURCH NEWS  EDfTOR
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  M@dfi2~tioln                                                                                          R@M Johlil l!E@ds



      Purifying Ourselves in Hope

And every man that hath this hope in          hope to have Christ return, in the       that already in this present life, from
him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.    sense that we are absolutely sure        the day we are born again spiritu-
                               I John 3:3     that He will come with the fullness      ally. Enmity against Satan means
                                              of our salvation. The apostle John       love towards God. Adam and Eve
    To appreciate this truth in re-           does not here merely express our de-     lost that; but they were promised the
gard to our hope, we do well to bear          sire. The desire is in our hope; but     return of it.
in mind that to hope, basically, is           it is in us because we expect to be          Now then, that we have this
desiring with expectation. So often           purified completely and everlast-        hope and purify ourselves does not
we use that word merely as mean-              ingly when Christ returns.               mean that God saves us because we
ing to desire to have something hap-              Take note of the fact that John      begin to hope to have salvation. We
pen. We hope to have the sun shine            begins this chapter with this truth:     want that salvation only because He
and the rain to stop. We hope to              "Behold, what manner of love the         has already begun it in us. Before
have surgery help us stay alive in            Father hath bestowed upon us, that       God has begun it in us, we cannot
good health. However, correctly, as           we should be called the sons of          want it. Rather, we continue to want
in the Webster Dictionary, the word           God." Now being called the sons of       what Satan promised us. We see
hope means to desire with confident           God means that we are called into        that so clearly in the world today.
expectation.                                  being as such sons of God. Our hope      The Sabbath day reveals that by
    When then, in the text quoted             is our expectation of enjoying that      what the unbelievers do. But on ev-
above, we read that every believer            blessedness. We expect to be like        ery day of the week they manifest
has hope of his purification, we un-          Christ Jesus, who rose up out of the     the hatred of God, taking His name
derstand it to mean that he not only          death into which the sinful Jews         in vain, striving in many ways to
desires it but also expects it, as God's      brought Him.                             break every one of His command-
gift to His elect. The born-again,                Now the glory of our bodies, as      ments.
believing children of God do not sim-         well as of our souls, which Christ           We do well, therefore, to take
ply desire salvation. They hope for           promises us will not come upon us        note of what John wrote in the first
it in the sense that they expect it to        until Christ returns and bestows that    verse of this chapter. He wrote:
come, as the fulfillment of God's             promised glory upon us. That which       "Behold, what manner of love the
promise.                                      the child of God hopes for, then, is     Father hath bestowed upon us, that
    What is more, in the verse im-            to enjoy the fulfillment of what God     we should be called the sons of God:
mediately preceding the text quoted           has promised us. That promise came       therefore the world knoweth us not,
above, we read: "Beloved, now are             the day that Adam and Eve fell into      because it knew Him not." Like-
we the sons of God, and it doth not           spiritual death. That day God prom-      wise in Psalm 23:l we read: "The
yet appear what we shall be: but              ised to make His elect hate Satan.       Lord is my shepherd: I shall not
we know that, when he shall appear,           That is why we, according to the text    want. He maketh me to lie down in
we shall be like him; for we shall            above, have hope of that which God       green pastures: he leadeth me be-
see him as he is."                            promised. God promised to fallen         side still waters. He restoreth my
    For to hope is much more than             Adam and Eve that they would hate        soul: he leadeth me in the paths of
to desire purification and glory. We          Satan. He promised to put enmity         righteousness for his name's sake."
                                              in the hearts of His elect. That is      God begins salvation in us before
                                              why we have, in the text above, that     we can want it.
                                              truth concerning our salvation. We           We can purify ourselves only be-
                                              have "desire with expectation" to        cause God gives us the grace to do
Rev. Heys is a minister emeritus in the       love God, as His elect; and we have      so. And we must hold on tightly to
Protestant  Reformed  Churches.

                                                                                                 May 15,19!WStandard  Bearer/387


 that truth. The whole false doctrine       whom God has already caused to               man of sin. But what God said to
 of Arminianism reveals impurity,           desire deliverance from sin, and to          Satan, when he caused Adam and
_ rather than the purity of which our       delight in ability and desire to do          Eve to fall into sin, was that He
 God here speaks through John. We           what pleases Him, as our God. For            would put enmity in His elect, and
 can purify ourselves only because          God sent His Son to earn salvation           against Satan and sin.
 God has begun purity in us. That           for us. In that mother promise, pre-             However, the statement "he is
 we purify ,ourselves  means that God       sented in Genesis 3:15, God does not         pure" refers to Christ Jesus, our Sav-
 has caused our hearts and minds to         there promise only deliverance from          ior. We, by God's grace, become as
 enjoy the purity which He gives us         punishment. He promises first of             holy as Christ Jesus our Savior is.
 through His Son. We have that in           all deliverance from Satan and sin.          We become members of His body,
 the first promise of God, found in         And every one who today has that             the holy church. As we sing from
 Genesis 3:15. After Adam and Eve           hope will purify himself, in the sense       Psalter number 383:1,
 had turned away from God and fol-          of fighting against his old man of                 All that I am I owe to Thee,
 lowed Satan's advice that they be-         sin.                                               Thy wisdom, Lord, hath
 come gods, God came with the                       That purification is the desire              fashioned me.
 promise to put enmity in His elect         and expectation of becoming lovers               And in Matthew 28:l and 2 we
 against Satan. In Genesis 3:8-U He         of God; and those who desire it wiIl         find this blessed truth that Christ
 preached the first sermon to Adam          begin to serve Him in love. That             was risen, and had come out of His
 and Eve concerning their salvation.        will reveal what God has begun in            tomb, before the stone of that sepul-
 Adam and Eve had not said one              them. After making them righteous            chre had been opened to Mary
 word against Satan. Adam blamed            by His Son, God also works love in           Magdalene and the other women
 Eve; and Eve blamed Satan. Nei-            their hearts. He causes them to de-          who came to the sepulchre. Christ's
 ther one confessed sin before God.         sire to purify themselves and to stop        body did not need that stone to be
 They blamed Satan; but they did not        their old man of sin from his wick-          rolled away to let Him out of the
 fall on their knees in sadness and         edness.                                      sepulchre.       It was a resurrection
 grief for their ungodly sin. They                  That desire and attempt to walk      body, a body more wonderful even
 tried to defend themselves by accus-       in holiness manifests that God be-           than Adam and Eve had when they
 ing Satan.                                 gan salvation in us. After our physi-        were created.
     Adam and Eve revealed abso-            cal death we will have a perfect spiri-          Take hold, then, of that comfort-
 lutely no desire or hope for salva-        tual life; and in the new Jerusalem          ing truth. We shall have bodies like
 tion. They tried to get away from          we will walk everlastingly and con-          the one our Savior has now in
 their guilt by blaming Satan. They         stantly in love toward God. God              heaven. Go back to Psalm 139:14,  on
 revealed no sorrow over their sins.        makes His elect hate Satan and sin,          which that verse of Psalter number
 They only, desired physical protec-        and He causes them to love Himself           383:l  is based. There we read: "I
 tion. There was no prayer for resto-       and to enjoy walking in love toward          will praise thee; for I am fearfully
 ration of purification. They did not       Himself.                                     and wonderfully made; marvelous
 try to purify themselves. That they                Let us take note of the fact that    are thy works; and that my soul
 could not do, because they had died        we are here taught that we do pu-            knoweth right well."
 spiritually, while still strongly alive    rify ourselvesafter God has worked               Yes, our souls know right well
 physically.                                that hope in us. We are not saved            what a wonder God has wrought
     Adam and Eve revealed the de-          merely from the punishment which             for us through His Son, who came
 sire to be saved from the punish-          we deserve. We are saved so that             in our flesh. That means that we
 ment which they deserved; but they         we can and do fight the good fight           are thankful for this work of salva-
 manifested absolutely no protection        of faith, in that we purify ourselves;       tion, not simply because we receive
 from Satan and his evil. The sad           that is, our new man in Christ puri-         such wonderful bodies, but because
 thing is that in many churches to-         fies us, causing us to walk in thank-        we wiJ.l, with body as well as soul,
 day salvation is presented merely as       fulness to God for our salvation.            be purified by our Savior when He
 deliverance from punishment, rather                Now that statement "even as he       returns to establish His kingdom of
 than from the love of sm. Satan is         is pure" can refer to every man who          heaven, and when our hope, our de-
 still today working in mankind, get-       loves God. AlI those who by God's            sire with expectation, is completed.
 ting people to want escape from            grace hope for salvation have a new          We wiIl see our purification of our-
 punishment, but not from the love          and pure man, who loves God and              selves as God's work in us and for
 and joy of performing sinful deeds.        strives to serve Him. When we are            us. And we will praise God from
     We do well to note that every          born again, we receive a new spiri-          whom all these blessings flow. We
 man with hope, that is, with expec-        tual life that is pure. Regeneration         will see our purifying of ourselves
 tation of freedom from sin - not           does bring us into a new, pure spiri-        as due to God's power and grace. -
 merely from punishment - is one            tual life. Yes, we still have our old                                              U

 3WStandard  Bearer /May  15,1995


                                     A Defen
                         formed) Amillennialism
                                            4. Matthew 24

    Postmillennialism in the Re-            the name of orthodoxy. The lie of            wilI be a gigantic blasphemy against
formed churches teaches the saints          Arminianism dominates much of                God, Christ, the church, and the
to expect an earthly victory in the         fundamentalism and evangelicalism.           saints (Rev. 13)?
future before the coming of Christ.         The false gospel of the charismatic              No coming of worldwide, in-
The majority of the human race will         movement seduces many others.                tense persecution, when we can al-
be converted to Christ and added to             No gathering of the nations un-          ready sense, in the "Christian West,"
the church. The world will be               der one diabolical head by the spirit        that the increasingly antichristian
"Christianized." Christians wilI gov-       of autonomous, deified man? What             state will turn on those who call
ern all nations, controlling all aspects    then is the meaning of the relentless        abortion murder, who condemn ho-
of national life. Christians will           rejection in the West of every ves-          mosexuality as perversion, who can-
dominate whatever ungodly remain,           tige of Christian influence in national      not yield to feminism in church or
punishing them for misbehavior and          life? How is it to be explained that         family, who confess, in short, that
compelling  them to obey the laws of        the "Christian nations" systemati-           Jesus is Lord?
God.                                        cally repudiate the authority of the             The postmillennialist will dis-
    There will be no great departure        sovereign God as expressed in His            dain this as "newspaper exegesis."
from the faith by Christian churches        law, not only in Scripture but also,         The fact is, nevertheless, that the
and professing Christians in the fu-        and even, in nature, and decree in-          Christian can and must see the signs
ture.                                       stead man's own wilI in bold defi-           in history of the Lord's coming.
    There wiII be no Antichrist and         ance of the will of God? Why the             Christ Himself commands and com-
antichristian world-kingdom in the          official, national banishment of God         mends this (Matt.  16:3; Matt. 24).
future.                                     and His law from the schools? Why            The apostle of Christ made the signs
    There will be no great persecu-         the official, national legislating of the    of apostasy and of Antichrist the
tion, or tribulation, of the true           murder of millions of unborn? Why            guard against foolish expectation of
church in the future.                       the official, national approval of ho-       the day of Christ at any moment (II
    To this, the Reformed student           mosexuality?                                 Thess. 2:1-3).
of the Bible reacts with astonish-              If there is to be no union of the            The happy predictions of
ment. His astonishment is due               nations as the kingdom of Antichrist,        postmilIennialism  for the church in
partly to his awareness of ongoing          why is there the definite coming to-         the world are overthrown by 2,000
developments in history in both the         gether of all the nations on earth,          years of history.
church and the world.                       East and West, "Christian" and non-              Postmillennialism's denial of
    No great falling away in the            Christian, on the basis of their com-        apostasy, antichrist, and persecution
sphere of the church? What about            mon insistence that man and his hap-         is refuted by historical events.
the enormous departure in the early         piness are the main thing, indeed,               Amillennialism, on the other
post-apostolic and medieval church          the only thing?                              hand, rings true to history, past and
that resulted in the false church of            Is this not the spirit of Anti-          present. To refer only to this one
Roman Catholicism? What about the           christ? Is this not the spirit of the        vital element in the controversy, the
dreadful apostasy in Protestantism          man who will oppose and exalt him-           true church has always been and is
that began soon after the Reforma-          self above all that is called God or         today the remnant according to the
tion and that continues at this very        that is worshiped (II Thess. 2:4)? Is        election of grace. When and where
moment? Theological modernism               this not the forming of the world-           has the true church ever been the
has already destroyed multitudes in         kingdom the number of whose name             majority? It was the remnant in ap-
the mainline churches and eats like         wiIl be 666 - the number of man              ostolic times; it was the remnant at
a cancer in churches that have yet          independent of God - and which               the time of the Reformation; it is the

                                                                                                   May 15,1995lStandard  Bearer/389


remnant today. Why, even in Is-               tian Reconstruction's" grand vision        every single prophecy of Christ in
rael/ Judah, it was the remnant.              of a "Christianized" world - the           verses 4-31 was fulfilled, exhaus-
    Awareness of developments in              victory of the gospel in history - is      tively, in the lifetime of the genera-
the world in light of the prophecy            largely the interpretation of Matthew      tion that was alive at the time of
of the Holy Scriptures is not, how-           24 by J. Marcellus Kik. The                Jesus' instruction. All was exhaus-
ever, the main reason for the aston-          Presbyterian's interpretation of Jesus'    tively fulfilled in A. D. 70 in the de-
ishment of the Reformed Christian             eschatological discourse has been re-      struction of Jerusalem. Nothing fore-
at the dream-world of postmillen-             printed in a book titled,  An              told in verses 4-31 pertains to the
nialism. His amazement at postmil-            Eschatolqy of Victory (Presbyterian        second coming.
lennialism's rosy forecast of the             and Reformed,  1971),  pp. 53-173.
earthly future is mainly due to the               Kik explains the chapter in such         The key to Matthew Twenty-four
contrary testimony of the Bible.              a way that verses 4-31 refer exclu-          is verse 34.... Every thing men-
    What of the apostles' prediction          sively to the destruction of Jerusa-         tioned in the previous verses were
of departure from the faith in the            lem by Rome in A. D. 70. Nothing             (sic)  to be fulfilled before the con-
                                                                                           temporary generation would pass
last days in II Thessalonians 23; II          in these verses refers at all to Jesus'      away.... The first thirty-four verses
Timothy 3, 4; II Peter 2; and I John          second coming and the events that            of Matthew 24, along with verse 35
2:18,19?                                      immediately precede His coming.                     deal with the destruction of
    What of the apostle's warning             The abomination of desolation in             jekalem  (pp. 59,60,67).
of a coming Antichrist in II Thess-           verse 15 refers only to the desecra-
alonians 2?                                   tion of the temple by the "idolatrous             Gary DeMar agrees:
    What of the apostle's alerting the        ensigns" of the invading Roman
saints to an impending tribulation            army (p. 104). The "great tribula-           The events rehearsed in the Olivet
as an element of those things that            tion" of verse 21 refers only to the         Discourse are signs leading up to
must shortly come to pass before the          suffering of the Jews at the time of         and including the destruction of
coming of the Lord, in the book of            the destruction of Jerusalem. The            Jerusalem in A. D. 70. These chap-
Revelation, e.g., 3:lO; 69-11; 79-17;         false Christs and false prophets of          ters have nothing to do with when
                                                                                           Jesus will return at the final judg-
ll:l-12;  12:17;  13;  149-13;   15:2; 16;    verse 24 refer only to the pretender-        ment. There are no observable
17; 19:2,19-21;  and 20:4,7-lo?               Messiahs and false teachers among            signs leading up to His bodily re-
    The answer given by the                   the Jews at that time.                       turn (Last Days, p. 151).
postmillennialist, particularly the               The "coming of the Son of man"
"Christian Reconstructionist" (such           in verses 27 and 30 is not the vis-               This interpretation of Matthew
as Gary DeMar, who asked for this             ible, bodily return of Christ, but His     24 is basic to the postmillennial de-
biblical defense of amillennialism),          revelation in the preaching of the         nial of apostasy, Antichrist, and
to all of these astonished questions          gospel by the apostles. The gather-        great tribulation for the church in
by the Reformed Christian is that all         ing of the elect by the angels in verse    the future. For in the light of this
of the prophecies of apostasy, Anti-          31 is the spiritual saving of the elect    explanation of Matthew 24, the
christ, and tribulation have already          through the gospel. "Angels" are           postmillennialist goes through the
been completely fulfilled. They are           human preachers.                           entire New Testament rigorously ap-
past  events. The church of A. D.                 The preliminary signs in the           plying all prediction of such things
1995 does not need to concern her-            heavens of verse 29 are not the lit-       to the destruction of Jerusalem.
self with them. Nothing of them is            eral darkening of the sun and moon,               Fundamental to this interpreta-
yet future. AlI was fulfilled in the          prior to Jesus' second coming, but         tion of Matthew 24 is Kik's explana-
destruction of Jerusalem in A. D. 70.         the going out of the figurative light      tion of verse 34, the "key" to the
    Postmillennialist Gary DeMar              of the Jews as a nation in A. D. 70.       chapter. If Kik is wrong here, his
writes, "It is unbiblical to use the          "The sun of Judaism has been dark-         whole postmillennial conception of
term `Antichrist' for a present-day           ened" (p. 128). The shaking of the         the earthly future collapses like a
or future political ruler. The proper         powers of the heavens in verse 29          house of cards.
context is theological and pre-A. D.          "refers to Satan and his angels" (p.              "This generation shall not pass,
70" (Last Days Madness, p. 204).              133).                                      till all these things be fulfilled."
    The same author has written that              The basis for this understand-                Does Christ teach that every last
the church must "recognize that the           ing of Matthew 24:4-31 according to        particular in the preceding verses
Great Tribulation is a past event."           Kik and his "Christian Reconstruc-         was fulfilled exhaustively in A. D.
For "the tribulation had reference to         tion" disciples is Jesus' word in verse    70?
the Jews, the people of  Judea." It           34: "Verily I say unto you, This gen-             We shall see. u
was "the destruction of Jerusalem"            eration shall not pass, till all these                                       - DJE
(Last Days, pp. 119,110).                     things be fulfiIled." Kik explains this
    The exegetical basis of "Chris-           word as meaning, very simply, that

39OlStandard  Bearer /May 15,1995


                                                  My second question concerns             you think this is how God feels when
W God's Patience                           the citation from Dr. Gary North.              the theologians come to Him?"
with Theologians                           He raises an issue that really puzzles         Tillich's answer, reportedly, was, "I
    First, let me tell you how much        me:                                            suppose ~0.~
I'm enjoying my subscription to the                                                            I wonder if God does not some-
Standard Bearer. To one who has                   It is always the task of Trinitarian    times lose His patience with the theo-
newly revived his interest in the Re-        theologians to discover what is bib-         logians.
formed faith, your journal is a con-         lically correct. When a theologian                                           ]ejj%y Needle
stant source of encouragement and            has concluded that a particular
                                             view is correct, he should seek to                                      Chula Vista, CA
help.                                        make his discovery a test of ortho-          Response:
    I am puzzled by the editorial in         doxy - if not in his own era, if                  You misunderstood. The lines
the April 1, 1995 issue, "A Defense          that is premature, then someday."            you quote from the editorial are de-
of (Reformed) Amillennialism," and                                                        s c r i b i n g   t h e   v i e w s   o f   t h e
I have a few questions.                           This frightens me. Is Gary North        postmillennialists.  They teach that a
    First, although I understand the       really saying that biblical truth, in-         , golden age is coming.
distinction between the various            deed orthodoxy itself, should be de-                You are correct: "amillennialism
millennialisms, I'm not sure I now         termined by theologians? Isn't this            (teaches) that there (will) be no mil-
understand the amillennial position        what got us into this mess in the              lennium at all," that is, no literal
on the millennium itself. One para-        first place? Are there no eternal veri-        thousand years.
graph states, "Coming is a `goIden         ties not subject to the whims of theo-              The only, and sure, standard of
age.' It will last at least for a thou-    logians?                                       sound doctrine is Holy Scripture.
sand years, perhaps a hundred thou-               Dr. Paul Tillich tells a story that          Does God lose patience with the
sand years."                               is relevant here. He reports that a            theologians?
    I always thought amillennialism        student once asked him, "Dr. Tillich,               He is longsuffering toward all
taught that there would be no mil-         we all know that psychiatrists do not          His children.
lennium at all. Now I see that there       like their patients to come to them                 You may very well be right: es-
will indeed be one, only the length        claiming to have some special                  pecially toward His theologian-chil-
of time is not yet determined. Is          knowledge of psychiatry.  It just              dren.  0
this correct?                              complicates the whole process. Do                                                      - Ed.

                                                                                                          Mk  Bern  kilqpkn~s   I
                                             Trinity PRC Hosts
                                                                     Reformed
                                                                Evangelism
                                                                Conference

                                                  The J-Bar-J Ranch, in Sealy,            Monday, April 3 to Wednesday,
                                           Texas, was the site of the 1995 Re-            April 5, sponsored by Trinity Prot-
                                           formed Evangelism Conference,                  estant Reformed Church of Hous-
                                                                                          ton, Texas.
                                                                                               There were 164 registered par-
                                                                                          ticipants, most of whom were from
                                           Mr. Hopkins is a member of Trinity             the PRC. There were as well a dozen
                                           Protestant Reformed Church in Hous-            or more visitors. They came from
                                           ton, Texas.                                    places ranging from Washington

                                                                                                      May 15,1999lStandard Bearerl391


                                                                                        job only of the congregation. Fail-
                                                                                        ure to follow this principle results
                                                                                        in "boardism," where the leadership
                                                                                        and guidance of field activities falls
                                                                                        into the hands of a few individuals.
                                                                                        This is a potent breeding ground for
                                                                                        bureaucracies, isolating missions
                                                                                        from the congregations, making it
                                                                                        possible, even likely, that their goals
                                                                                        become at cross purposes.
                                                                                            While all this was going on, Rev.
                           Mission Conference parficipants                              Haak was giving lessons to the chil-
                                                                                        dren, explaining about evangelism.
State to Southern California, Michi-         two dozen young people aged 13 to          God intends His children to be light
gan to North Carolina. Two repre-            18.                                        in His world. That light is not as
sentatives came from our mission in                 The general theme of evangelism     bright as it could be, at times, be-
Alamosa, Colorado. Some showed               was neatly broken.down into three          cause we are ashamed, or afraid, or
up from Grace Communion Church               parts: Denominational Evangelism,          apathetic. That shouldn't interfere
of Jasper, Texas, 150 miles north of         Congregational Evangelism, and Per-        with our doing good works for the
Houston, with whom Trinity has               sonal Evangelism.                          glory of God.
been in contact. Others, informed
of the conference by announcements
and interviews on KHCB, the local
Christian radio station, came from
as far away as Angleton, Texas (70
miles), and from as close as` Sealy.
Three of the visitors were from
Trinity's Christian Sindhi group,
which is an outreach to the Hindu
community in Houston.
    They all came eager to hear and
learn about the vital evangelistic
spirit that is an outgrowth of un-
compromising biblical principles
based on a solid Reformed tradition.
    It was truly a family conference.
Ages ranged from 6 weeks to 80
years. One family had four genera-                                          Conference speakers:
tions in attendance. There were 39                       Rev. VanOverloop,  Rev. Haak, Rev. Mahtani, Prof. Engelsma
children under the age of 12, and                   The daily schedule started with         The second morning session, af-
                                             an hour of devotions before break-         ter a time for fellowship and refresh-
                                            fast. Following that, the adults went       ment, was, for the children, a time
                                            to the Wagon Master Meeting Hall            for games and crafts under the ca-
                                            for announcements and the day's             pable direction of Trudi Hopkins
                                            main message, and the children went         and Crysta Brummel. Quite a few
                                            to the Town Hall Meeting Room               of the young people provided valu-
                                            with Rev. Haak.                             able help, too.
                                                    Monday's theme, "Denomina-              The adults' second session was
                                            tional Evangelism," was presented           for small-group discussion of the
                                            by Prof. David J. Engelsma, who ex-         speech. Each group (led by a semi-
                                            plained that the proper denomina-           nary-trained individual) appointed
                                            tional role was a subsidiary one, al-       a secretary/spokesman to record the
                                            beit necessary. Churches' denomi-           main points of the discussion and
                                            national affiliation authenticates their    report the same to the assembled
                                            legitimacy as bonafide parts of the         group just before lunch.
                                            Body of Christ, but the job of "do-             The food was delicious, high
     Conference director, Joel  Sugg        ing" evangelism and missions is the         points being Monday's supper of

392lStandard  Bearer /May l&1995


barbecue beef and pork, and
Tuesday's chicken-fried steak.
Wednesday's grilled chicken over
rice was another favorite.
     Monday's afternoon activities
included a bus tour of the scenic
Texas countryside (April is the per-
fect season to see the beautiful wild
flowers).       Several adventurous
groups drove to the other side of
Houston to view the San Jacinto                                             Adult discussion group
(pronounced ja-sin'-to) Battleground       where the followers of the Way were           ample of a true witness. Joseph
(where Sam Houston defeated An-            first called Christians. He used Hei-         humbled his sinful pride, was aware
tonio Lopez de Santa Anna and won          delberg Catechism Q & A 32 ("But              of God's presence, had courage to
Texas' independence). They just            why art thou called a Christian?")            stand his ground, had a genuine love
beat the rush-hour traffic on their        to explain the significance of that           for his neighbor, and possessed a pa-
return trip.                               name.                                         tient trust in God. The children
     Back at the camp, those who               Tuesday's rain did not eliminate          loved Rev. Haak's talks.
chose to stay, slept, talked, or played    the outdoor activities, it just modi-             After lunch, when we were say-
basketball and volleyball. A Sindhi        fied them. No one seemed bored or             ing good-byes to each other, the left-
Indian visitor and his team brought        at a loss for things to do. The               over cookies were auctioned off in
a beautiful Appaloosa, so all the kids     puddles on the volleyball court               bag lots to help defray conference
(at heart) could do a little horseback     didn't discourage everyone; they              expenses. But that light moment
riding.                                    seemed, rather, to attract a special          didn't dampen the general sadness
     On Monday evening, Allen              kind of volleyball player.                    at departing that drifted through the
Brummel gave a slide presentation              That evening, Allen Brummel               camp as suitcases and cars were
titled "An Intern In Singapore," de-       gave a second slide show, this time           packed for the journey home.
tailing some of his activities there       about the part of his internship that             According to the Conference
during his six-month internship last       brought him to the rural parts of             Evaluation forms turned in by the
year.                                      Myanmar (formerly Burma), and the             people, the material presented by the
     That was followed by an inspi-        devastating effects of idolatrous             speakers, the informal discussions,
rational and insightful message from       Buddhism.                                     and the presence of people from a
Rev.  VanOverloop  entitled "The               Tuesday's activities were                 wide range of backgrounds, gave a
Gospel of Grace." His explanation          rounded out by Prof. D. Engelsma              new appreciation for both the im-
of grace broke down into five points,      speaking on the subject, "Men                 portance and the possibilities of
which corresponded (surprisingly           Called to Repentance." The Hebrew             evangelism. The people were unani-
enough) to the Five Heads of Doc-          word translated "repent" is also the          mous in their willingness to attend
trine of the Canons of Dordt.              one translated as "turn away" or "re-         another such conference.
     Tuesday's morning talk featured       turn." Man's duty to repent has                   We are thankful for the extraor-
Rev. VanOverloop's comments on             definite effects on his life.                 dinary response by the participants
"Congregational Evangelism." Just              Wednesday was the last day of             to our preparations for the confer-
as Prof. Engelsma's "Denomina-             the conference, and another rainy             ence, but their response and our
tional Evangelism" material pointed        day, at least in the morning. Rev.            preparation count for only a .small
to the next day's subject, so Rev.         Mahtani spoke to the adults about             part of the conference's success.
VanOverloop's material emphasized          "Personal Evangelism." His main               God's hand was clearly in our midst.
congregational support of what is an       point was that personal evangelism                Trinity Protestant Reformed
individual's job. Evangelism is a          flows from the faithful preaching of          Church is located at 214  Barker-
side-effect of the church's main call-     the Word. That Word in the heart              Clodine Road, Houston, Texas,
ing: the glorification of God, and         of the believer comes out in his life.        77094. Telephone (713) 4926172. All
the feeding of the flock Congrega-         We have to recognize it for what it           of the messages are available on cas-
tional evangelism activities support       is, and get rid of little excuses and         sette tapes, and can be ordered from
and organize individual efforts (Mis-      fears to help it be more effective. We        that address.
sion Committees, Evangelism Com-           of all people on earth have a reason              Everyone is welcome to attend
mittees, follow-up programs, and the       to witness and speak of the blessed           Trinity's worship services held each
like).                                     hope and glorious God that is ours.           Lord's day at 9:30 A.M.  and 6:00 P.M.
     Rev. Haak's talk to the children          Rev. Haak's message for the                                                          0
concerned the church at Antioch,           children concerned Joseph as an ex-

                                                                                                      May 15,1995/Standard  Bearer1393


     Sending the Reformed Truth
               to'the Ends of the Earth
                                            /                                                                                       ,

    The Foreign Mission Committee                from North America. We cannot             covered by the broadcasts are former
(FMC) is privileged to labor in the              readily visit small groups of people      British colonies where the use of En-
work specifically commanded by the               who contact us for help. Rarely can       glish is common. Besides, the knowl-
Lord before His ascension, namely,               we contact them by telephone or fax.      edge of the English language is
going into all the world and preach-             Thus the nature of foreign mission        growing every day, also in Africa.
ing the gospel to every creature. The            work demands much correspon-              We do receive regular responses to
FMC members are appointed by                     dence.                                    the radio broadcasts, which letters
Synod from the Protestant Reformed                   To facilitate this, the FMC has a     are answered and the contact devel-
Churches in northwest Iowa and                   corresponding secretary, Don              oped (if possible) by the correspond-
Minnesota, and commissioned to                   VerMeer,  an elder from the Hull          ing secretary.
bring the truth to those who in their            congregation, who has put all our             The FMC also receives new cor-
generations have not belonged to the             recent correspondence on file in his      respondence from a surprising ar-
covenant. Thus the FMC seeks con-                computer. Don handles almost all          ray of sources, including local evan-
stantly to establish a foreign field             the initial correspondence with con-      gelism committees, pastors, the
where the gospel has not been re-                tacts, and develops the communica-        seminary of the PRC, the Reformed
ceived in the generations of the                 tion by sending appropriate reading       Witness Hour, and even a recent
people.                                          material to the correspondents. The       contact from the British Reformed
     On the surface, it might seem               ministers also take part in the work.     Fellowship in which Missionary
that there is virtually no work left             They correspond with those who            Hanko is active. We do appreciate
for the FMC, for no countries exist              have shown a greater interest and         the efforts of various groups send-
where the gospel has not been                    understanding of the truth.               ing the FMC the names of people
preached. In addition, various mis-               This brings up another notable           with whom the FMC can profitably
sion reports give (usually grossly ex-           feature of the foreign mission work,      communicate.
aggerated) statistics about mass con-            namely that it proceeds very slowly.          Such efforts have resulted in a
versions and the total number of                 This is due, partly, to the fact that     wide variety of contacts. One such
Christians in any given country. But             ministers, already busy in their own      is a native pastor in the Philippines
still today many pagan peoples con-              congregations, must take the time to      who has become convicted of the
tinue to live in the idolatry that their         correspond with their contacts. In        Reformed truth and desires closer
tribes have practiced for hundreds               addition, the letters to remote areas,    association with us. Some are stu-
of years. To such people the FMC                 or to countries far away, can take        dents in Ghana seeking materials to
endeavors to bring the Word of God.              weeks to arrive, and some never           read. Recently I received an inter-
    The work of foreign missions                 make it.                                  esting telephone call and follow-up
has a number of features which                       Because the people we seek are        letter from a man in Kenya. He and
make it distinct from domestic mis-              far removed and thus largely inac-        a small group of believers have for-
sion work. The most obvious is that              cessible to us, the FMC has been air-     saken the Roman Catholic beliefs,
most of the people to whom we must               ing radio messages of 15 minutes on       said he, largely because of some
bring the gospel live a great distance           two stations in Africa. Rev. Moore        Protestant Reformed pamphlets they
                                                 produces the messages which are           had discovered. The group meets
                                                 broadcast every Sunday. Since these       regularly to study the Bible, and he
Rev. Dykstra is pastor of the Profestant         messages can only be understood by        expressed the great desire that we
Reformed Church of Doon, Iowa, and               English speaking people, they are,        send a missionary to lead them fur-
secretary of the Foreign Mission Com-            admittedly, of limited value. On the      ther in the truth. You can see imme-
mittee.                                          other hand, some of the counties          diately the difficulty of trying to

394lStandard  Bearer /May 15,1995


work with such people separated by              estant Reformed Churches. But oth-         favorable. They do not have the ani-
thousands of miles. The FMC obvi-               ers were excited to have us return,        mosity of many whose ancestors
ously cannot send a delegation, nor             and gave the delegates extensive op-       were taken from Africa as slaves.
simply stop in to see them on our               portunity to speak and preach. The         They respect whites in general, and
way to a classical appointment, for             delegation returned with much en-          many have expressed a willingness
example. Thus, efficient and mean-              thusiasm for the work in Ghana.            both to help us and to learn from
ingful correspondence becomes all                   The FMC shares that enthusi-           us.
the more important.                             asm, and is convinced that God is                 With this in mind, the FMC is
    The majority of the FMC's  ac-              opening the door to labor in Ghana         proposing to the Synod of 1995 that
tivities in the last year have been di-         with full-time missionaries. Many          another visit be made to Ghana this
rected toward Ghana, a former Brit-             fruitful contacts have developed           year or early next year to further
ish colony, now a country of some               over the years, especially in the last     the work and reaffirm the evalua-
twelve million, located on Africa's             few years, and a number have re-           tion of the last two delegations. The
west coast. Regular readers of the              quested help. Besides, the FMC has         hope is that a missionary can be
Standurd  Bearer know that the FMC              other practical reasons for being op-      called after the Synod of 1996, and
has had contacts in Ghana for many              timistic about the work in Ghana.          that missionary work can begin in
years, and that in the last four years          The government in Ghana is one big         Ghana in earnest.
two separate visits have been made              plus. The fact that it is stable and              The FMC covets the prayers of
there. The last visit, of six weeks du-         has good control in the country            all those who love the Reformed
ration, was made at the end of 1994.            makes Ghana a safe place to labor.         faith and desire it to be spread to
A more. complete report by Rev.                 Also, the government is not anti-mis-      the ends of the earth. May it be the
Moore appeared in the March I,1995              sionary in its policy. A second fac-       particular prayer of the Protestant
issue of the Standard Bearer. This              tor is the Ghanaian culture. The Gha-      Reformed Churches that God soon
last visit indicated that the gospel of         naians' lives and culture are not in-      grant the Churches an established
sovereign grace had born its fruit              imical to the covenant. They live in       foreign mission field once again, if
from the first visit and subsequent             families, with the father as head. In      not in Ghana, then in a different
correspondence. Some contacts had               addition, the attitude of Ghanaians        place of His choosing. 0
definitely "cooled" towards the Prot-           toward white missionaries is most

                                                                                                      MT D&ii DO@Z@/i7~

                             Domestic Mission
                         Committee Report
                                                                                                                                          /
                                           I                                                                                              I
                                                Loveland Church and the Mission            young children, though this will take
San Luis Valley                                 Committee. Little did he think, at         time. There is outside interest in
    May 21,1994  Rev. Tom Miersma               the time, that before the year was         the group which might improve if
and his family drove onto the Elbert            out he would be back, not as a visit-      there were a full-time missionary."
Gesink farm near Alamosa in south-              ing minister but as home mission-          He added, however, that he "would
em Colorado. The tent camper they               ary stationed initially in this valley.    not expect rapid, large growth on
pulled from Alberta, Canada would                   Rev. Miersma's first impression        this potential field but slow growth
serve as a kind of home-away-from-              of the SanLuis Valley Mission was          within and without over a number
home there while Edmonton's pas-                cautiously favorable. "It would ap-        of years."
tor took his turn serving the mis-              pear," he wrote in his report to                  Something of the mission
sion group in the SanLuis Valley for            Loveland and the Mission Commit-           group's own perspective of things
a couple of weeks on behalf of                  tee a year ago, "if one may judge          appeared in a paragraph prepared
                                                from such a short stay, that we have       by Dr. and Mrs. Roy Slice, members
                                                a viable core group of young fami-         of the mission, for the. Sunday bulle-
Mr. Doezema is secretary of the Do-             lies.... There is good potential for       tin of May 29, 1994. It read as fol-
mestic Mission Committee.                       internal growth in the number of           lows: "The Protestant Reformed

                                                                                                      May 15,199tYStandard  Bearer1395
                                                                                                                               1


                                          money will be used to pay for the          phy, but also in art; and, prior to his
                                          place of worship, some advertising,        years in the seminary, he worked for
                                          and other related costs, with the bal-     several different publishers.     That
                                          ance being forwarded to the Synodi-        kind of background, and the
                                          cal Treasurer as contributions to the      affordability today of home comput-
                                          domestic mission fund!)                    ers and desktop publishing pro-
                                              The first several calls for home       grams, make a happy combination
                                          missionary were declined. The min-         for developing means of outreach
                                          isters of Classis West who contin-         which are enhanced by eye-appeal.
                                          ued to provide preaching for the               Desktop publishing is only one
                                          mission group noted the disappoint-        aspect of what Rev. Miersma refers
                                          ment with which the news of these          to as "a whole new realm of tech-
                                          declines was received in Alamosa.          nology (which) has developed, with
                                          It happened that Rev. Dykstra was          new means for distributing God's
                                          in the valley on the Sunday when           Word and the Reformed faith." It
                                          Rev. denHartog's  decline had to be        would be possible, he continues, to
                                          announced. Himself convinced of            "set up a data base of pamphlets and
                                          the necessity of having a missionary       other material in a dedicated com-
                                          there soon, Rev. Dykstra was moved         puter/file server/bulletin board type
                                          by the obvious discouragement in           format on Internet which would be
   Missiona  y pastor Tom Miersma         the group to warn in his written re-       accessible to anyone interested in the
      (interior  Homelake  Chapel)        port that, "after Synod decides -to        material on a worldwide basis." At
                                          call a home missionary, and                our missionary's suggestion, the Mis-
Churches are a denomination begun         Loveland begins calling, it seems          sion Committee is even now inves-
in the 1920s presently consisting of      that the matter is being taken care        tigating the possible use of Internet
26 churches in the U.S. and Canada.       of, and it is easy for us all to forget    as a means of distribution. (Yes,
We acknowledge that God is the Au-        to pray for a missionary." (Perhaps        there are indeed several men on the
thor of the Bible (though He used         we could extend that concern a bit         Mission Committee who do know
men), thus we use a translation           by suggesting that, after a mission-       something about Internetting,
rather than a paraphrase. So we also      ary is in place and the calling church     Onlining, Downloading, and CD-
believe that the Bible is true, both      and Mission Committee establish            ROMming.)
for modem men as well as when it          good routines for oversight of the             And the tent camper has not
was initially given. The Bible teaches    labor performed, it is easy for us all     been forgotten. That's because it is
that God is sovereign, and all things     to forget to pray, fervently, for God's    Rev. Miersma's business to look be-
occur according to His eternal de-        blessing on the work.)                     yond the valley. Though his work
cree. Man is unable to save himself;          It was surely an answer to             is to begin in the SanLuis Valley, and
God acts first to provide faith to be-    prayer that the next call, to Rev. Tom     the mission group there must be the
lievers. The Bible also teaches that      Miersma, was accepted. Within a            main focus of his work initially, he
man is responsible for his sinful con-    couple of months our home mission-         must also be "available to work else-
dition. Christians strive to be obe-      ary and his family were occupying          where for longer or shorter periods
dient to God's Law out of thankful-       a rented house in the SanLuis Val-         of time," with a view to helping the
ness, and so must not live in a way       ley. And in the few, short months          calling church and the Mission Com-
that is indistinguishable from the        that have passed since then, the Mis-      mittee "cultivate and develop many
unbeliever. True religion is con-         sion Committee has had good rea-           contacts in different areas of home
ducted as prescribed by God and is        son to express its appreciation for        missions" (Acts 1994, Art. 15,  p. 16).
not invented by man nor man-cen-          the zeal with which Rev. Miersma           Hence the potential role of the home-
tered. Since almost all churches in       has evidently thrown himself into          away-from-home in the work of our
the world now deny the above in           the work.                                  missionary. The tent trailer, says
doctrine or in practice, we are com-          With input from members of the         Rev. Miersma, "makes it possible to
mitted to forming a church in the         group, Rev. Miersma has begun to           take my family with me, and out of
SanLuis Valley out of obedience to        prepare written material for use in        which I can readily function both on
God and for our children."                outreach among those who have              preaching assignments and field
    (As an aside, we could mention        little in the way of theological foun-     work." He figures that "the cost of
that, more recently, the core group       dations. And he is paying attention        driving plus camping fees is consid-
decided to support the work of our        to format. It happens that Rev.            erably less than airfare and motel
churches by adopting a budget of          Miersma's undergraduate work in-           expenses; we are able also to cook
$50 per family per week. That             cluded a major, not only in philoso-       most of our own food."

396lStandard  Bearer /May 15,1995


    But what about school for his         the calling church, under the capable      wearing off of the initial excitement
boys? Wouldn't our missionary             leadership of Rev.  VanBaren,  has         has done anything to dampen the
have to restrict his investigative        taken good hold of every aspect of         zeal with which our missionary in
work to the summer months, or else        the labor. Loveland has established        Northern Ireland has carried out his
plan to leave his family behind? On       the kind  of  working relationship         work.     A spot check reveals:
the contrary.        "Because we          with the missionary and the Mission        monthly Bible studies on the book
homeschool," writes Rev. Miersma,         Committee which bodes well for the         of Revelation, for which he prepares
"my ability to travel and labor with      future. All in all, we are becoming        carefully worked-out study outlines.
my family is not affected by the for-     more and more persuaded that               No fewer than 18 widely advertised
mal school year. We have found            Synod acted wisely in approving the        public speeches and lectures in
that our children are able to do some     calling of a missionary not limited        Northern Ireland. Three half-day
of their school work also in the car      to one small area. Through this            conferences in England and Wales.
and trailer. This gives us a great        means the Mission Committee will           A bi-weekly one-page study-sheet
deal of flexibility for the work we       be better able to carry out its man-       sent to nearly 500 addresses through-
are doing, and this flexibility should    date to "find fields and recommend         out the U.K. Written responses to
not be overlooked when it comes to        them to our churches" (Mission             over 300 letters. A speech for the
working new fields. As we took our        Committee Constitution, IV, B).            Philosophy and Religion departmen-
trailer to Classis West and camped                                                   tal group of the Christian Union at
in the snow for two days, I can tes-                                                 Queen's University. A public de-
tify that it is workable even under       Northern Ireland                           bate on common grace with a min-
these conditions.... The trailer was          "The past year has again gone          ister of a Reformed Presbyterian
designed for Canadian weather and         very well. The interest in our work        Church in Belfast.
includes a propane heater."               continues to grow both here in                 And the members of the Cov-
    Our home missionary has shown         Northern Ireland and throughout the        enant Reformed Fellowship would
himself to be one who is ready to         rest of the United Kingdom. Now            no doubt affirm that that's only a
take the lead with respect to pursu-      that the initial excitement has worn       beginning. In fact, the emissaries
ing contacts. He says concerning          off it is a little easier to assess the    who went to Northern Ireland on
various contacts of his own in the        work that is being done and the Fel-       behalf of Hudsonville Church and
northwest that it might "be possible      lowship itself. We are thankful to         the Mission Committee report that
to organize a kind of itinerant           say that in both cases the blessing of     "more than a few times positive re-
preaching loop over a period of           God is abundantly evident."                marks were made about the hard
weeks . . . to develop also potential         So writes Rev. Hanko at the be-        work and long hours put in by our
new fields of labor." And he adds         ginning of his second annual report        missionary." Nor did the members
that "such a trip could be planned        to the calling church and the Mis-         of the CRF forget to mention their
and done in other areas, and in the       sion Committee. Perusing the               appreciation for the missionary's
southern USA also in the winter.          monthly reports of the past year we        godly wife, "for her example of char-
Whether there is warrant for such a       find ample evidence that what Rev.         ity and selfless hospitality."
trip at present is not my immediate       Hanko testifies concerning the bless-          And the appreciation is no doubt
concern but to present the concept        ing of God is true. And we find in         mutual. For Rev. Hanko has as
of what could be done if it is desir-     those sources no indication that the       much reason to be glad for the work
able."
    It's apparent therefore that Rev.
Miersma is mindful of the broader
calling of our home mission work.
But not to the detriment of the work
in southern Colorado. That's clear
not only from reports of his ener-
getic labor in the valley, but also
from his suggesting that, "by coor-
dinating field labor with vacation
time it would be possible to reduce
also the amount of time I am absent
from the SanLuis Valley." (Work-
ing vacations. How's that, for put-
ting the work of the church first?)
    Our missionary is energetic, in-
novative, and self-sacrificing. And                           Missiona  y pastor Ron Hanko and family

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                                                                                       CRF. Shortly after the return of the
                                                                                       delegation, both bodies on this end
                                                                                       received a thank you letter from
                                                                                       Northern Ireland, with 44 signatures
                                                                                       attached. The one to Hudsonville
                                                                                       read, in part, "We the members and
                                                                                       families of the Covenant Reformed
                                                                                       Fellowship wish to thank you for re-
                                                                                       leasing and sending Rev. Gritters to
                                                                                       visit us and to help us with the work
                                                                                       we are doing. Not only did he and
                                                                                       Rev. Spriensma visit all the families
                                                                                       of the Fellowship, and meet and
                                                                                       speak with the men about the work
                                                                                       of the Fellowship, but they were able
                      Jonathan and Margaret McAuley  and family                        to give much help and encourage-
                                                                                       ment to all of us in many other ways
of the members of the CRF as they           ing them. Within just the past half        as well. We especially appreciated
do for his. They continue to share          year they have purchased a heavy-          the help and advice they gave us
the load as they are able, taking care      duty washer and dryer for the              with regard to the matter of organi-
of such things as taping the sermons,       Hankos, paid for the sending of Rev.       zation. We are already following up
tending the bookstore, keeping finan-       Gritters to visit the field in January,    on their advice and will keep you
cial records, and distributing tapes        sent gifts for the Hankos with the         informed as we proceed."
and literature. The testimony of Rev.       delegation to Northern Ireland, de-            In connection with this matter
Hanko is that "this saves me a tre-         cided to take monthly collections for      of organization, the delegates noted
mendous amount of time and                  the support of the work in Northern        in their report that it was their con-
work."                                      Ireland, and agreed to pay the air-        viction that "there are men (in the
     Another time-saver, by the way,        fare for seminarian Kuiper when he         CR.F) qualified for serving in office.
is a piece of equipment recently ac-        goes to Northern Ireland to preach         The members themselves express
quired by the Cl?.F - a digital du-         for the CRF during the weeks of Rev.       willingness to submit to whoever
plicator. Prior to the purchase of          Hanko's furlough. Hudsonville              might be elected. In addition, the
this machine, Rev. Hanko was us-            earns the gratitude of the denomii         CR.F has drawn up a Constitution (a
ing a tired photo-copier for produc-        nation for their supervision of this       `church order'), copies of which have
ing the bi-.weekly  newsletters. That       field.                                     been made available for our exami-
was expensive . . . and tediously slow.         The decision to send a delega-         nation. All of this points to a matu-
When downtime for repairs added             tion to the field was a joint one, on      rity among them, an ability to work
to the frustration, Hudsonville de-         the part of the calling church and         together, and a good potential for a
cided that something had to be done.        the Mission Committee. Our inten-          church." Apparently there was a
It happens that digital duplicators         tion is that, each year, a member of       consensus that the process of orga-
are made for the kind of work the           Hudsonville's Council and a mem-           nization should begin this year, so
CRF is doing. High volume work.             ber of the Mission Committee visit
Fast. Cheap. Rev. Hanko was ec-             the field in order to 1) inquire into
static. Saves him, he says, about six       the physical and spiritual well-be-
hours of time for every issue.              ing of the missionary and his fam-
     On Hudsonville's recommenda-           ily; 2) discuss with the missionary
tion, the Mission Committee paid            his work, the spiritual condition of
$1,500 toward the purchase of that          the CRF, and his goals for the fu-
machine. But that was only a third          ture; 3) evaluate the preaching; and
of the cost. The remainder was              4) visit the members of the core
picked up by Hudsonville, through           group to encourage them in the
special collections. That's the kind        work. It happened that, this year,
of oversight of the field which             the delegate from both bodies was a
Hudsonville has given to the field          minister: Rev. Gritters, pastor of
from the beginning. Not only are            Hudsonville, and Rev. Spriensma,
they alert to needs, they also con-         member of the Mission Committee.
tribute generously to the cost of fill-     And their visit was very much ap-
                                            preciated by the members of the             Brian and Edna Crossett and family

399lStandard  Bearer /May  15,1995


that the request may be finalized by     cious truths. Even those who were         be other things to occupy our
the time of Synod 1996.                  better acquainted with the teaching       missionary's time while he's in the
    Hardly, however, are the goals       of the PRC on common grace and            States. Rev. Hanko's vacation time
of the CRF only or primarily inward      the offer of the gospel went away         was in fact increased from three to
looking. Speaking of their goals to      strengthened in their beliefs. The        five weeks, on the years of his fur-
the delegates from the States, Rev.      addresses delivered at the Confer-        lough, exactly in order that he might
Hanko noted that it is their desire      ence and the two sermons preached         have time, on the home front, to pro-
to be instrumental in the establish-     at the Lord's day worship services        mote the field. Hudsonville will
ment of other churches in the United     were outstanding, and the profes-         probably therefore have him hustling
                                         sors should be commended for the          from Michigan to Illinois to Iowa
                                         way in which they represented the         and who knows where else while
                                         PRC to those present."                    he's here. We're confident however
                                             One final benefit of the visit of     that this will be something that our
                                         the delegates to Northern Ireland         missionary to Northern Ireland will
                                         earlier this year is that they were       enjoy doing. And we surely look
                                         able, on the basis of personal obser-     forward to seeing him and hearing
                                         vation and discussions with the par-      about his work during the two years
                                         ties involved, to return with several     since he left us for the United King-
                                         specific recommendations for differ-      dom.
                                         ent emphases in the conduct of the
                                         work - recommendations which
                                         have, since then, been approved           Radio
                                         both by the consistory of the calling         Way back in 1965 Synod
                                         church and the Mission Committee.         adopted a "New Policy" for missions
                                         Our experience, therefore, is that an-    which included a reference to how
                                         nual visits of this nature are defi-      radio should fit into the scheme of
                                         nitely worth the effort and expense       things. According to that policy,
                                         involved.                                 special radio broadcasts should be
                                             For the immediate future the
       Joanna and Sarah Clarke                                                     developed "to serve in the prepara-
                                         Hankos are looking forward with           tion and discovery of a field or po-
Kingdom which call their own pas-        eager anticipation to a five-week fur-    tential field of labor."
tors, and are able to band together      lough (a bi-annual affair) this sum-          Over the years, that was never
and support each other. To that end,     mer. Rev. Hanko is scheduled to           implemented. Until now. At least,
good contacts have been made in the      attend a half-day conference in           at long last we are beginning to make
Portadown area in Northern Ireland       Wrexham, sponsored by the British
and in the Wrexham area in the                                                     some progress in implementing it.
                                         Reformed Fellowship, on June 24           In the absence of a "radio pastor,"
northeast of Wales, not far from the     and 25. And then on June 29 the           the most daunting aspect of the task
English border and from the large        family will go to Belfast for a flight
cities of Liverpool and Manchester.                                                is the preparation of the messages
                                         to New York. While he's in Grand          themselves. Revs. Bruinsma,  Haak,
Cooperation with the British Re-         Rapids Rev. Hanko will of course          and  VanOverloop  have committed
formed Fellowship has proven to be       meet with the Mission Committee           themselves to producing them. Rev.
very beneficial in promoting these       and Hudsonville's Council. But
contacts.                                                                          Bruinsma has begun preparing mes-
                                         Hudsonville has been busy making          sages on the doctrine of Scripture
    It was the British Reformed Fel-     plans to make sure that there will
lowship, you will remember, which
sponsored the Family Conference in
Galashiels, Scotland, at which Profs.
Engelsma and Hanko spoke last
summer. The testimony of our mis-
sionary was that the conference was
a great blessing to all who attended
(about 120, all told). He writes,
"Many at the Conference were hear-
ing the doctrines of grace presented
clearly for the first time, and both
they and others, almost without ex-
ception, were convinced of these pre-                              Mission Committee in session

                                                                                            May 15,1995/Standard  Bearer/399


and its authority. Rev.  VanOver-         ing the master tapes. At the time of       been feeble. Feeble, not only as that
loop will follow with several ser-        this writing they are looking ~seri-       characterizes all the work of men,
mons on the doctrine of the church        ously into the possibility of buying       but feeble when considered in the
and what it requires of us practi-        equipment to do the work ourselves.        light of the magnitude and gravity
cally. Rev. Haak will in turn pro-            We have adopted a name for             of the task We echo the lament of
vide several on the doctrine of the       our broadcast: "The Word of                Rev. Hanko, in one of his monthly
covenant and its implication for mar-     Truth." It will however be some            reports, that limitations of time and
riage and the family. The three min-      time before the first message is aired.    resources can be so restrictive. The
isters plan to stress our Protestant      We have learned, especially over the       harvest truly is plenteous, but the
Reformed distinctives as well as the      last couple of years, that this is no      laborers are few. Nevertheless, we
Reformed faith in all of their ser-       small undertaking. We commend              have seen during the past year many
mons.                                     First Church's Radio Committee for         evidences of God's blessing on those
     But that's only the beginning.       what they have managed to do for           little efforts. We thank the Lord for
One of our sub-committees has been        so many years in the broadcast of          them, and for the opportunity which
working diligently on developing          the Reformed Witness Hour.                 we have of being involved, as Mis-
openings and closings, and coordi-                                                   sion Committee, in the great task of
nating the music and the advertise-                                                  preaching the gospel to the nations.
ment of literature with the particu-                                                 Having confidence that the work is
lar messages given. They have, too,           As we reflect on another year          His, we look to the future with opti-
explored various means of produc-         we recognize that our efforts have         mism. 0





                                     Our Work in the
                                     San Luis Va,lley

     The San Luis Valley is one of        cities in the valley are Alamosa and       some of the families initially in-
the largest alpine valleys in the         Monte Vista, cities of about seven         volved have fallen away, the core
world. Located at seven thousand          and five thousand people, respec-          group has endured and grown spiri-
feet in southwestern Colorado, it is      tively. It is here that the Lord has       tually through that pulpit supply.
surrounded by mountains. While its        given us an open door to preach the        For some time they have had regu-
climate is that of the southeastern       gospel.                                    lar worship services, using reading
desert in the U.S.A., it has deep             Several years ago a number of          sermons when a minister was un-
sources of water underground, wa-         families in the valley who had come        available. The Lord has also now
ters which once formed a lake after       to the truth of God's Word and the         answered their desire for a mission-
the Flood and which have since sunk       Reformed faith by their reading and        ary of our churches to labor among
below the surface. Through the val-       study came into contact with our           them.
ley flows the beginnings of the Rio       Loveland congregation. They were              In December my family and I
Grande River as it makes its way          dissatisfied with the preaching avail-     arrived on the field after a warm
southward to the Mexican border.          able to them in the area and sought        welcome and installation as home
It is a thinly populated area whose       Loveland's help in laboring toward         missionary in Loveland. We began
primary occupation is agriculture by      the formation of a Protestant Re-          our work on Christmas day with the
means of irrigation from deep arte-       formed Church. Through the labors          commemoration of our Lord's birth
sian wells and the river. The main        of Rev. R. Cammenga, the Loveland          with much thanksgiving, and that
                                          congregation, the Mission Commit-          work continues as we seek to bring
                                          tee, and our ministers, particularly       the Word of God in the valley. Mis-
Rev. Miersma is home missionary of the    of Classis West, they received pul-        sion work involves many changes
Protestant Reformed Churches.             pit supply and assistance. While           from the regular work of the minis-

4OOlStandard  Bearer /May 15,199S


                                                                                       to gather and preserve a remnant
                                                                                       that love the gospel, that labor will
                                                                                       flourish. But as the love of many
                                                                                       waxes cold in the times in which we
                                                                                       live we must look not simply to
                                                                                       numbers of individuals in our mis-
                                                                                       sion work but to that work in gen-
                                                                                       erations, as God preserves a rem-
                                                                                       nant for His Name and gathers
                                                                                       them.In a post-Christian society, with
                               Homelake  Chapel                                        many nominal Christians such as we
                          (dining hall at extreme left)                                find in the San Luis Valley, the dis-
try, so that one must grow and de-        is needful for the work. The San             tinctiveness of the gospel has been
velop in doing the work which the         Luis Valley' Mission of the PRC              lost. An Arminian, man-centered hu-
Lord has given to us. While there         meets for worship in a chapel lo-            manism has taken the place of the
are many nominally Christian              cated at the Colorado State Veter-           true gospel of Christ. There are
churches in the area, they are largely    ans Center just outside of Monte             many who walk in ignorance of the
of the Arminian Baptist type or of        Vista at Homelake. The chapel                fact that what they know as the
an apostate liberal type. Spiritual       which is only occasionally used by           "Christian" faith is in fact not Chris-
and doctrinal ignorance prevails in       other church groups is ideal for the         tian at all. This presents a different
the valley. This problem is com-          purposes of our public worship. As           set of challenges to the work of mis-
pounded by scriptural ignorance and       many of the families stay for lunch          sions than laboring among those
a diversity of corrupted Bible ver-       between services, there is also an old       who are familiar with the Reformed
sions which promote error and ob-          dining hall we may use as well.             or Presbyterian heritage and doc-
scure the truth of the gospel. The             Setting up a mission field and          trine. It presents a very different
work in the valley therefore presents     beginning the labor takes time.              set of challenges from those con-
many challenges as we seek to bring       Books and pamphlets need to be               fronting the saints in Singapore
a clear, distinctive, Reformed wit-       sought and acquired, advertising             where many have never heard the
ness in the valley.                       needs to be planned, workable                gospel. Not only must the truth of
    Catechism classes and Bible            means for catechism and Bible study         the gospel be preached, but a false
study are an important part of the         explored. The beginning in the San          gospel which is not the gospel must
preaching and labor we have under-         Luis Valley is small; the rural envi-       be unlearned, corrected, and re-
taken. Most of the children in the        ronment and scattered population             jected.
core group are young, as are my           will make reaching new contacts dif-             Because of the multiplying of
own children, and in the beginning        ficult. But it is from such small be-        corrupt translations of the Bible,
stages of catechism instruction.           ginnings that many of our churches          paraphrases are common on the mis-
They form a solid future for the          have formed. In today's post-Chris-          sion field in North America. These
families here as they grow up in the      tian society in North America it is          paraphrases rewrite God's Word ac-
truth of the gospel. The Bible study      with such groups that are relatively         cording to man's wisdom and inter-
which currently meets every other          small in number that we will find           pretation. This too presents a chal-
week, in part due to the need for         ourselves more and more being                lenge to our mission work, both in
babysitters, is also composed of           called to work. As God continues            the San Luis Valley and in North
couples with younger children. The
services have been well attended,
with a steady stream of visitors not
only from our churches but also
from the community. We have at
present five families, including my
own, with several older widows,
which form the core group. Three
other couples are also attending the
Bible study.
    Laboring without church build-
ings and places for meeting is al-
ways difficult, but the Lord has pro-
vided also in this respect with what                                          Catechism class

                                                                                                  May 15,1995lStandard Bearer1401


America. Tracts and pamphlets can         ley we will have to develop new ma-        we teach is God's Word and not the
no longer simply cite texts and give      terials for the work we face today in      wisdom of men. A knowledge of
verse references. The Bible the           bringing the gospel. For the same          God's Word among those who name
reader possesses may itself be so cor-    reason many of our older pamphlets,        themselves "Christian" cannot be
rupted that such citations lead astray    excellent in  themselties,  as those       taken for granted as it once was.
from the truth or obscure the truth.      written by Rev. H. Hoeksema, may           And woe be unto us if these things
We seek to show, ground, and prove        also have to be revised and ex-            must be said of our own members.
the truth of our doctine which we         panded by our evangelism commit-           The spiritual, doctrinal, and scrip-
preach out of a high regard for           tees if they are to continue to be use-    tural ignorance confronting us in our
God's Word. But that regard has           ful for our work. Texts which are          mission work is a warning, lest we
been lost among those round about         cited must now be quoted in full or        also lose the heritage which God has
us. As we labor in the San Luis Val-      footnoted in full to show that what        given us. Q

   c&?&f Af@&g


             The Protestant Reformed
                Church of New Zealand
                                      -Ten Years Old-

     Greetings from your sister           during the last ten years. Let me          that we are very much like you -
church in New Zealand! As seen in         try to fill in some of the details.        so much, in fact, that if it were not
the title of this article, our little         We must first state what took          for the many miles of water between
church has reached the milestone of       place at the beginning. On March           us we would be one with you orga-
its tenth anniversary. In the May 1,      17, 1985, some ten years after Prof.       nizationally. Since organizational
1985 issue of the Standard Bearer         H.C. Hoeksema and Rev. C. Hanko            unity was not possible, the new
there appeared an article announc-        first visited New Zealand, the faith-      church sought and obtained sister-
ing the organization of the Protes-       ful group of believers were orga-          church relationship with the Protes-
tant Reformed Church of New               nized into a church of Jesus Christ.       tant Reformed Churches in America
Zealand and giving the history that       Wanting to be both Protestant and          at the 1986 Synod. Synod also
led up to that event. Ten years have      Reformed this new church not only          agreed to ask the churches to take
now gone by. Looking back over            called herself Protestant Reformed,        collections for the young sister,
those years we can confess with           but also adopted the Reformed Stan-        which would make it possible for
Samuel, "Hitherto hath the LORD           dards as held by the Protestant Re-        her to call and have her own minis-
helped us." Knowing that our God          formed Churches in America. We             ter. Early in 1987 the Macedonian
is a faithful God, both willing and       confess and hold dear the Three            call for help was sent to the under-
able to help us, we continue to look      Forms of Unity, the Heidelberg Cat-        signed. After accepting the call and
upon Him to be with us in the fu-         echism, the Belgic Confession of Faith,    waiting for the New Zealand gov-
ture, our "stone of help," our            and the Canons of Dordrecht, as well       ernment to give permission for im-
"Ebenezer."                               as all the other minor confessions as      migration, the undersigned and his
     Since few of you have any di-        they appear in the back of  The            family moved to New Zealand in
rect contact with this church you         Psalter. The Psalter, incidentally,        January of 1988. Installation services,
may wonder what has taken place           is used in our worship services ex-        officiated by Rev. J.A. Heys, took
                                          clusively. And furthermore, follow-        place in February. The undersigned
                                          ing the rich Reformed tradition, the       still serves as her pastor, having been
                                          church chose to be governed by the         here now for just over seven years.
Rev. Miersma is pastor of the Protes-     Church Order of Dordrecht.                     Turning to the membership and
tant Reformed Church  of  New Zealand.        From this it can be easily seen        life of the church, we go back to its

402lStandard  Bearer /May  15,1995


beginning. On that memorable day          ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy      and distributed nationally. Our
in 1985 five families, comprising         Ghost: Teaching them to observe            bookshop stocks all of the  RFPA
eighteen souls, brought their mem-        all things whatsoever I have com-          publications as well as other books
bership papers forward to become          manded you: and, lo, I am with             published by various organization in
charter members of the new church.        you alway, even unto the end of the        the Protestant Reformed Churches.
Today the membership consists of          world. Amen." To do this we fol-           The society also maintains a tape li-
seven families, nineteen souls alto-      low the principle of mission work          brary and sponsors lectures. These
gether. Although we celebrate the         as set forth by Christ just before His     efforts may appear small when
Lord's Supper regularly we have           ascension. In Acts 1:8 we read, "But       placed alongside the efforts of larger
had the privilege of administering        ye shall receive power, after that the     churches, but considering our small-
the sacrament of baptism to but           Holy Ghost is come upon you: and           ness it represents quite a commit-
three. Two of our number the Lord         ye shall be witnesses unto me both         ment for each of our members, both
has taken to glory where they are         in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,  and       in terms of time and resources. We
now part of the church triumphant.        in Samaria, and unto the uttermost         pray that God may continue to bless
Seven of our young people have            part of the earth." That being our         these efforts. Even though up to this
made confession of faith. Sadly, four     guide we have begun and concen-            point they have not resulted in nu-
of them upon marrying left our fel-       trated our efforts in the immediate        merical growth, the testimony of the
lowship, two to leave for foreign         vicinity of the church, working fur-       members is that they certainly have
lands. However, on a happier note,        ther out as the Lord leads us and          grown themselves spiritually. And
two of our young people have re-          gives us opportunity. To bring some        that, of course, is the first and pri-
cently announced their engagement         organization to our efforts an Evan-       mary purpose of the preaching of
to each other with plans to marry         gelism Society was established un-         the gospel, the edification and pres-
later this year.                          der the auspices of the Session. It is     ervation of the local church.
    In addition to our ecclesiastical     through this society that we carry             As a Session (consistory) and as
fellowship with the PRC we have           out most of our efforts.                   a congregation we appreciate all of
continuing contact with the Evangeli-         Our most recent effort, begun in       your prayers which you bring to the
cal Presbyterian Church of Austra-        May 1994, has been the publishing          throne of God's grace in our behalf.
lia. This contact has proved to be a      of a monthly leaflet called the Re-        We need your prayers; for, just as
blessing to us, and the brethren in       formed Banner. Five hundred of these       in any church in this world, we too
Australia have expressed the same         are distributed in the area of the         are plagued with difficulties from
with respect to us. This contact has      church each month to addresses that        time to time. We also use this means
led to our sending our pastor as ob-      have not received it before. Each          to thank you for your continued sup-
server to their Presbytery (Synod)        one contains an insert telling about       port in the way of your offerings.
meetings, and to his speaking at one      our church and an invitation to be         Your gifts of love provide the means
of their annual Easter camps and          placed on our mailing list. Included       which are necessary for us to con-
preaching in two of their churches        also is the opportunity to subscribe       tinue the ministry of God's Word
in Tasmania for a period of three         to the Standard Beurw at an intro-         here in New Zealand.
months. Thus the bond is warm and         ductory offer of half price. This leaf-        As we soldier on we remember
continues to grow. With the Evan-         let also is advertised periodically in     the Word of God which was ad-
gelical Reformed Churches in              a Christian weekly paper distributed       dressed to us on the day of our or-
Singapore we are also trying to es-       nationally, and with each weekly ad-       ganization and summarized in the
tablish closer contact.                   vertisement of our worship services        May 1, i985 issue of the Standard
    Every church, individually and        in the religious section of                Bearer.  I quote, "The undersigned
in federal union with churches of like    Wellington's  Evening Post.  This has      preached on Ephesians 220-22,  em-
faith, has the calling not only to        proved fruitful in that many have          phasizing that they as an instituted
preach to the saints within the           asked to receive the  Reformed Banner      church of Jesus Christ were a visible
church but also to bring the gospel       regularly. Several  Standard Bearer        manifestation of the church invisible,
message to those around her, even         subscriptions have also resulted.          the spiritual habitation of the living
to the ends of the earth. Being a         However, more important is the fact        God as He dwells with His covenant
small church with the desire to grow      that we have had a number of phone         people in Jesus Christ through the
not only spiritually but also numeri-     calls inquiring about the church and       Spirit. Their strength, therefore,
cally we are keenly aware of that         also a number visiting our worship         could only be found in the founda-
calling and are trying to fulfill         services.                                  tion  of the apostles and prophets
Christ's mandate to the church as             In addition, we continue to do         with Jesus Christ as its chief corner-
given in Matthew 28:19,20.  "Go ye        what we have always done. We               stone, that is, in the Word of God as
therefore, and teach all nations, bap-    maintain a good stock of pamphlets         recorded and preached by the
tizing them in the name of the Fa-        and booklets which are advertised          apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ

                                                                                              May 15,1995/Sfandard Beared403


Himself being that Word, the rev-           rity. In addition, the officebearers         that you have become better  ac-
elation of the God of our salvation.        which were to be elected during that         quainted  with your sister here in
The small flock was instructed that         service were duty bound to carry             New Zealand and thus will be able
as a church this was the Word that          out that mandate as officebearers of         better to relate to us and pray for
they were commanded of God to               Christ."                                     us.  0
preach, and that too, in all its pu-            Through this means we hope

1  A/~Aroiiiiloi7?1  us                                                                            /P/?OE  !l%&@i=t   /D@&@l~

                                            having denied Jesus three times,             ished." If Jesus did not rise from
                                            Paul for having persecuted believ-
n "IF NOT . . . OUR                                                                      the dead, our hope is limited too this
                                            ers. Discussions of Jewish  apoca-           life and we are of all men most mis-
PREACHING AND                               lypticism were also a prominent fea-         erable (v. 19).
FAITH ARE VAIN!"                            ture at the meeting.                             Imagine, for a moment, going to
     So writes the inspired apostle             "The execution of Jesus caused           church on Easter Sunday morning
Paul to the church in Corinth (I Cor.       a crisis in the circle of the disciples,"    and hearing the preacher say, II Jesus
15:14, 17). Some in Corinth were            said German University of Gijttingen         probably did not rise bodily from
saying  `I... there is no resurrection      theologian Gerd Leudemann. He                the dead! His disciples went to the
from the dead" (v. 12). To these, to        called New Testament resurrection            wrong tomb. Those women mistook
those who believed in Corinth, and          accounts "historically worthless"            subjective grief experiences for ac-
to all of us and the church of all          and "the product of imagination and          tual post-resurrection appearances.
ages the apostle states flatly, "If         fantasy." Reports have it that the           The disciples and early church lead-
Christ be not risen, then is our            scholars did not support a swoon             ers spread resurrection stories to
preaching vain, and your faith is also      theory. They did not argue that the          counteract their own guilt and to
vain . . . ye are yet in your sir-& (w.     disciples stole Jesus' body, nor did         promote the vitality of Jesus' mes-
14 and 17).                                 they portray Jesus as delusional. The        sage." Why go to church? Why
     From time to time in previous          Jesus Seminar will hold its last for-        believe in Jesus? Why suffer for His
issues we have reported on the so-          mal meeting in October. After that           sake? If there be no resurrection
called Jesus Seminar, a group of lib-       a Paul Seminar will begin. After             there simply is no Christian faith.
eral scholars who have been discuss-        what these scholars have done with               Thank God for telling us all
ing and debating Jesus' words and           Jesus' words and deeds, it isn't difi        about Jesus' cross and resurrection
deeds biannually the past decade.           ficult to predict that when they have        and for giving us and all of His chil-
This group (nearly forty in number)         finished with Paul there will be pre-        dren in the nations the grace to be-
met last March to discuss the resur-        cious little of the New Testament            lieve  it! Thank God for faithful
rection of Jesus. They concluded,           left. We wonder why, after they              preachers who with the apostle pro-
"that Jesus probably did not rise           have. denied the resurrection of             claim, "But now is Christ risen from
bodily from the dead, but that the          Jesus, they are going to bother with         the dead, and become the firstfruits
`resurrection tradition' that devel-        Paul.                                        of them that slept.... Behold I show
oped in the first-century church was            The Christian faith stands or it         you a mystery; We shall not all
an effort to promote the vitality of        falls on the resurrection. If Christ         sleep, but we shall all be changed,
Jesus' message."                            be not raised, the church's preach-          In a moment, in the twinkling of an
     According to various theories          ing and faith are vain. They are             eye, at the last trump: for the trum-
expressed at the meeting, Jesus' fol-       empty, devoid of truth, fruitless,           pet shall sound, and the dead shall
lowers mistakenly went to the               without effect, to no purpose, ac-           be raised incorruptible, and we shall
wrong tomb and thought their                cording to the literal meaning of the        be changed . . . 0 death, where is thy
teacher had risen, female disciples         Greek in verse 14. The Holy Spirit           sting? 0 grave, where is thy vic-
mistook their subjective grief expe-        uses a synonym in verse 17 which             tory? . . . But thanks be to God which
riences for actual post-death appear-       means devoid of force, truth, suc-           giveth us the victory through our
ances, and early church leaders             cess, or result. So crucial to the faith     Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore my be-
spread resurrection stories to coun-        is the resurrection of Jesus Christ          loved brethren, be ye stedfast, un-
teract their own guilt - Peter for          from the dead! Not only is our               movable, always abounding in the
                                            preaching and faith vain, we are yet         work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye
                                            in our sins, we have no comfort with         know that your labor is not in vain
Prof. Decker is  professor of  Practical    respect to our believing loved ones          in the Lord" (w. 20-58).
Theology in the Protestant Reformed         who have died for "they also which               If I could not read this and simi-
Semina y.                                   are fallen asleep in Christ are per-         lar passages of Holy Scripture at

404lStandard  Bearer /May  15,199!5


committal services in the cemetery          Classis  Wisconsin wants the vote             As we noted a month ago, the
and if I could not preach this blessed      taken from  Classis  Grand Rapids         CRC is a house divided against it-
gospel, I would resign from the of-         East until and unless they urge mem-      self on this question and "a house
fice of the ministry and never preach       ber churches to rid themselves of fe-     divided against itself..." (Luke
again!                                      male elders. Presumably Classis           11:17).
                 Christianity Today         Wisconsin wants the churches of                                       The Banner
                                            Grand Rapids East who currently                              Christian Renewal
                                            have women elders to comply with                           REC News Exchange
n WOMEN IN CHURCH                           the urging.
OFFICE . . . AGAIN!                              As reported earlier in these col-    H CALVIN GETS
                                            umns there are other overtures com-
    In spite of our having reported                                                   NEW PRESIDENT
                                            ing to the CRC synod demanding
on this issue so many times already,                                                      Gaylen Byker, a Hudsonville, MI
                                            that individual congregations who
we do so again. It is news, it is big                                                 native, is the unanimous choice of
                                            have already ordained women as el-
news, and it is all around us. Classis                                                the thirty-one member Board of
                                             ders be disciplined. At the same
Wisconsin has overtured the Chris-                                                    Trustees of Calvin College to be
                                            time, there are' at least seven over-
tian Reformed Church (CRC) Board                                                      come the next president of that
                                            tures coming from classes urging
of Trustees to rule, "that delegates                                                  school. Byker currently is vice-presi-
                                             synod to open all offices to women
from Classis Grand Rapids East be                                                     dent of Offshore Energy Develop-
                                             or to allow greater latitude to local
given the privilege of the floor, but                                                 ment Corporation in Houston. He
                                             churches on the question. "Greater
be denied the privilege of voting on                                                  will succeed Anthony Diekema, who
                                            latitude" means if a church wants
all matters before synod until such                                                   plans to retire August 31. Diekema
                                            women in office it ought to be al-
time as Classis Grand Rapids East                                                     has been president of the college for
                                             lowed to have them. If a church
complies with the decisions of synod                                                  some twenty years.
                                             wishes to retain the status quo that
on this matter." In other words,                                                                     Christianity Today 0
                                             is fine too.





                                                A Godly Mother

    A special gift that God prepared for me -
    `Twas given me `ere I saw the light of day.
    This gift was someone specially prepared
    To guide my footsteps in His holy way.
                     Day after day, she cared for me and taught
                     Not just the skills I'd need for daily living;
                     She taught me first of alI to seek His face -
                     In joy and sorrow, working, playing, giving.
                                          She held before me God's own Word, that it
                                          Could be a light upon my pathway ever,
                                          She helped me learn to sing Jehovah's praise
                                          And told me of that love that naught could sever.
                                                             She taught me to confess my sins and seek
                                                             To flee from evil thoughts and words and deeds,
                                                             To follow righteousness, stand firmly in the faith,
                                                             Turn from the wrong, and follow where He leads.

                                                                                                         Thelma We&a
                                                                                         Faith PRC, Jenison, Michigan


                                                                                                 May  15,1995/Standard  Bear&O5


                                            Protestant Reformed Seminary
                 Robert D. Decker
                 Professor  of  Practical Theology and New Testament                4949  Ivanrest Avenue
                 David J. Engelsma,  Rector                                   GrandvilIe,  Michigan 49418
                 Professor of Dogmatics and Old Testament                          Phone: (616) 531-1490
                 Herman C. Hank0

                   By the time that this report appears, classes will be finished for the semester at
              the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Students will be taking and professors will be
              marking final examinations.
                   The exceptions are the seniors, Allen Brummel and Douglas Kuiper. They will
              be preparing for their oral examination by synod in June. Passing their synodical
              examination, they will graduate in a public ceremony at the Hull PRC, Hull, IA, the
              evening of June 19. Shortly thereafter, they will be eligible for calls in the PRC. Both
              will be busy this summer. Mi-. Brummel will fill the vacant pulpit of the Edgerton,
              MN congregation. Mr. Kuiper will lead the services of the Northern Ireland mission
              while the missionary is on furlough in the States.
                   Ten of the eleven seminarians were involved in practice preaching during the
              second semester. Most Monday mornings, from 8:30 until almost noon, were taken
              up with students preaching on assigned texts (including the Heidelberg Catechism)
              and with critique by students and professors.
                   Third-year seminarian Richard Smit will be serving his internship in Southeast
              PRC in Grand Rapids under the supervision of Southeast's pastor and consistory.
              The internship begins on July 1 and continues to the end of the year.
                   The faculty has licensed third-year seminarian Henry DeJong to speak a word of
              edification in the worship services of the churches. Mr. DeJong will be doing an
              internship later this year in one of the churches in Western Michigan.
                   Last month, Rev. Bassam Madany  was a guest lecturer at the Seminary. He gave
              two academic lectures on the Reformed church's mission to Islam. Before his retire-
              ment, Rev. Madany  was radio minister to the Arabic speaking peoples on the Chris-
              tian Reformed "Back to God Hour." His lectures were solid and helpful. We intend
              to publish these lectures.
                   The Spring, 1995 issue of the Protestant  Reformed  TheaZagicaZ  Journal  has been
              published. This issue contains articles on common grace, cross-cultural missions,
              and the history of the church's doctrine of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, as well
              as reviews of several significant books. Copies are available on request from the
              Seminary.
                   All of us at the Seminary are delighted with the new addition to the building.
              The library has already been moved into the new quarters. We express our thanks
              to the churches for this support and promotion of our work. We also thank the
              friends outside the churches who contributed liberally to the addition. We invite all
              to stop by for a tour of the facilities.
                   God bless this work of the churches by giving able, devoted ministers of the
              gospel of His grace in Christ!
                                                                                    Cordially in Christ,
                                                                                         For the faculty,



                                                                              Prof. David J. Engelsma

406lStandard   Bearer/May 15,1995


  N@lwiY@ !5m7ij i&r ~hlLJl~Gh@~


Evangelism Activities                     churches' choirs give their annual          which despite being advertised as a
    The Peace PRC of Lynwood, IL          spring concerts. This was the case          spring retreat saw snow fall every
sponsored their annual Spring Lec-        again this year, with at least three        day. We can also mention here that
ture on April 21 at the Illiana Chris-    choirs giving concerts around the           during the retreat 13 young adults
tian High School. Rev. C. Haak, pas-      16th of April: the Hudsonville, MI          were involved in a serious van acci-
tor of the Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL,      PRC's choir, the choir of Faith PRC         dent while returning from
spoke on the topic, "Personal Evan-       in Jenison, MI, and our Loveland,           snowshoeing. The van was badly
gelism: A Desire for the Glory of         CO PRC's choir.                             damaged when it left the high moun-
God in the Salvation of Souls."                   The Ladies' Society of the Hull,    tain road they were traveling; but
    The Extension Committee of the        IA PRC served as host for this year's       thankfully, by God's grace, there
Lynden, WA PRC also scheduled a           Spring Ladies' League meeting. The          were no serious injuries.
Spring Lecture. On March 31, Pro-         theme for this year's meeting was               If you would like a tape of the
fessor H. Hanko, of our Seminary,         "Affluence and Its Effect on Home           two speeches given at this year's re-
spoke on the subject, "The Church:        and Church," based on Colossians            treat, you can obtain a copy for $3.00
A Spiritual Institution."                 3:2.                                        by writing the Loveland PRC at 709
                                                                                      E. 57th St., Loveland, CO 80538.
Congregational Activities                 School Activities
    The Council of the Southwest                  The Hope  PR Christian School       Minister Activities
PRC in Grandville, MI recently de-        in Walker, MI presented their All-              After graduating from our Semi-
cided to do away with their piano         School program entitled, "All Na-           nary last spring, Mr. Chris Connors
fund and instead take the amount          ture Praises God," on April 20 at           and Mr. David Higgs have now
that was in there and transfer it to      the Beverly Christian Reformed              completed further studies and in-
their church library.                     Church Independent.                         ternships and successfully sustained
    On March 28, the Adult Bible                                                      examinations in the Evangelical
Societies of the Peace PRC in             Young Adult Activities                      Presbyterian Church of Australia.
Lynwood, IL, and the South Hol-                   Once again this year the Young      Both have received and accepted
land, IL FRC met together at Illiana      Adult Society of the Loveland, CO           calls. Mr. Connors was ordained as
Christian High School to study a spe-     PRC sponsored what has become an            pastor of the Launceston congrega-
cial topic, "Angels: Good and Evil."      annual Young Adults Spring Retreat.         tion on March 24, and Mr. Higgs
    From bulletins of March and           This fifth annual retreat was held the      was ordained as pastor of the
April we can let you know that the        26th, 27th, and 28th of March at the        Brisbane congregation on April  22.
building of the new church home for       Covenant Heights Conference Cen-                Rev. C. Terpstra, pastor of the
the Peace PRC appears to be mov-          ter in beautiful Estes Park, CO. Rev.       South Holland, IL PRC declined the
ing along at a nice pace. The ground      G.  VanBaren,  pastor at Loveland,          call he was extended to serve as pas-
was prepared for pouring the foot-        and Rev. S. Key, pastor at the              tor of the Edgerton, MN PRC.
ings, followed by the foundation          Randolph, WI PRC were this year's               First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI
walls two days later. On two days         speakers. Each addressed the group          has formed a trio from which they
the next week, fill was put around        of young adults on the central              called Rev. Bruinsma. The other
the foundation, followed soon after       theme, "Discerning God's Will in            ministers on the trio were Rev. J.
with the plumbing work. And I             Our Lives." Rev. VanBaren's  speech         Slopsema and C. Terpstra.
think we are safe in assuming that        was entitled, "God Has a Wonder-
even more has been done since that        ful Plan for Your Life," and Rev. Key
time. We will keep you updated.           addressed the group on "The Re-                       Fooiffir~yfit
    During the time of our celebra-       wards of Searching out God's Will."             "Not why but what?"
tion of the resurrection of our Lord      Included with the two speeches were             "Searching out the reason for our
and Savior Jesus Christ, many of our      two debates and one discussion              trials is not usually so profitable as
                                          group and numerous indoor and               asking what we may learn from
                                          outdoor activities, including skiing        them. God does not always explain
                                          before, during, and after the retreat,      His actions to us; but, `who teacheth
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-     as well as snowshoeing. This year           like him?' fl
tant Reformed Church of HudsonviZle,      saw 53 young adults, a record num-                                     Job  36:22  0
Michigan.                                 ber, attend the three-day retreat,

                                                                                                May 15,1995/Standard  Bearer/407


                                                                                                                 SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                 Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                 Grandville, Michigan
         P.O. Box 603
        &an&i//e,  MI 49468-0603




 I                                                                                                                                  I





        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                              CALL TO SYNOD!!
          The Adult Bible Society of the             The Council and congregation                   Synod 1994 appointed Hull Prot-
      South Holland Protestant Reformed          of the Doon Protestant Reformed            estant Reformed Church, Hull, IA the
Church expresses its sincere sym-                Church wishes to express sympa-            calling church for the 1995 Synod.
      pathy to Thressa Haak in the death         thy to Rev. R. Dykstra and his fam-                The Consistory hereby notifies
      and passing on to glory of her hus-        ily in the death of his grandfather,       our churches that the 1995 Synod
      band,                                             DONALD DYKSTRA.                     of the Protestant Reformed
                 BARNEY HAAK,                        May they and all saints be com-        Churches in America will convene,
      a long-time member, elder, and faith-      forted with the word of I Corinthians      the Lord willing, on Tuesday, June
      ful Bible Society attender, on Feb-        15:55-57: "0 death, where is thy           13, 1995 at 9:00 a.m. in the Hull
      ruary 16. Our prayer is that she           sting? 0 grave, where is thy vic-          Protestant Reformed Church, Hull,'
      may be comforted in the knowledge          tory? The sting of death is sin: and       IA.
      that in life and in death we are not       the strenght of sin is the law. But                The Pre-Synodical Service will
      our own but belong to our faithful         thanks be to God, which giveth us          be held on Monday evening, June
      Savior Jesus Christ. "...Blessed  are      the victory through our Lord Jesus         12, at 7:30 p.m. Rev. R. VanOver-
      the dead which die in the Lord from        Christ."                                   loop, president of the 1994 Synod,
      henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit,                         Edwin VanGinkel,  Clerk    will preach the sermon. Synodical
      that they may rest from their labours;                                                delegates are requested to meet with
      and their works do follow them"                                                       the Consistory before the service.
      (Revelation 14:13).                                                                           Delegates in need of lodging
         Rev. Charles Terpstra, President                                                   should contact Egbert Gritters.
                 Bert Wories, Jr., Secretary                                                Phone: (712) 439-2194.
                                                                                                                      Consistory of
                                                                                                   Hull Protestant Reformed Church
                                                                REMINDER:                                    Egbert Gritters, Clerk.
                                                     The archives of the Protestant
                                                 Reformed Churches, as they are
                                                 preserved in the Protestant Re-
        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                   formed Seminary, still have no copy                        NOTICE!!
          The Council of the Randolph            of the 1953  Acts of  Sped of the                  With thankfulness to God, the
      Protestant Reformed Church, on be-         PRC.  Anyone able and willing to           faculty of the Protestant Reformed
      half of the congregation, expresses        donate (or sell) that volume, for this     Seminary inform the churches that
      its Christian sympathy to the Steve        cause, is urged to contact the semi-       they have licensed Seminarian
      VanDyke family in the passing of           nary. We have appreciated very             Henry DeJong to speak a word of
      their father,                              much the other volumes which have          edification in the meetings for pub-
               HERMAN VAN DYKE.                  already been given, and note that          lic worship. The scheduling of Mr.
          May they be comforted by the           additional copies of those of earlier      DeJong's speaking in the worship
      truth that "I am the good shepherd,        years (`~OS, `5Os, and '60s) can still     services will be done by the Semi-
      and know my sheep, and am known            be put to good use at the seminary:        nary.
      of mine" (John 10:14).                                 4949 lvanrest Ave.                                     For the faculty,
                Rev. Steven Key, President              Grandville, Ml 49418                              Prof. David J. Engelsma,
                       Berwyn Huizenga, Clerk                tel. (616) 531-l 490                                            Rector

      408lStandard   Bearer/May 15,19!%


