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                                                                             See "Music in the Church"- page 418


June  I, 1995


CONTENTS:

Meditation - Rev. Mitchell C. Dick
     Running the Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Editorial - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                 ISSN 0362-4692
     What's Coming Up at the Synod of the PRC? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                         Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Published bythe Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
     Denominational Missions,.,,,.,,,,,,.,,,*~I~.~.,,.........................*...........                                                                                   416    4949 Ivanrest Ave., Grandvilla, MI 49416. Second Class
Bring the Parchments - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                      Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
     Music in the Church (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..I.................I.I....IIIIIIII.I...........I. 418                                                                   Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                                                                                        P.O. Box 603, Grandville. MI 49466-0603.
     Samuel Rutherford: Westminster Divine (2) . . . . ..I........................ 421                                                                                              EDITORIAL COMMllTEE
                                                                                                                                                                                    Editor: Prof. David J. Engslsma
When Thou Sittest  in Thine House - Rev. Ronald J. VanOverloop                                                                                                                      Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
     An Arrow Leaving the Quiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423                                  Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
In His Fear - Rev. Arie denHarfog                                                                                                                                                   DEPARTMENT EDITORS
     Be Not Highminded but Fear . . . . . . . ..*.*............................................ 425                                                                                 Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma,  Rev. Ronald Cammenga, Prof. Robert
                                                                                                                                                                                    Decker, Rev. AriedenHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra, Rev. Barry
Day of Shadows - Homer C. Hoeksema                                                                                                                                                  Grittars,  Rev. Carl Haak, Rev. Jason Kortering, Rev. Cornelius
     The Last Four Days of Creation-Week (cont.) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428                                                                      Hanko, Prof. Herman Hanko. Rev. John Heys, Rev. Dale
                                                                                                                                                                                    Kuiper, Mr. James  Lanting,  Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .431                                                                       Jaikishin Mahtani, Rev. Thomas  Misrsma, Rev. Charles
                                                                                                                                                                                    Terpstra, Rev. GiseVanBaren.  Rev. RonaldVanOvsrloop.  Mr.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Benjamin Wigger, Rev. Bernard Woudsnberg.

                                                                                                                                                                                    EDlTORlAL  OFFICE            CHURCH NEWS EDITOR
                                                                                                                                                                                    The Standard Bearer          Mr. Ben Wiggsr
                                                                                                                                                                                    4949 Ivanrest                6597 40th Ave.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Grandville, MI 49418         Hudsonville, Ml 49426
     The editorial calls attention to some of the major items on the agenda of the                                                                                                  BUSINESS OFFICE              NEW ZEALAND  OFFlCE
1995 synod of the Protestant Reformed Churches (PRC).  These are matters of                                                                                                         The Standard Bearer          The Standard Bearer
                                                                                                                                                                                    Don Doazema                  Jo B. VanHerk
the seminary, missions, contact, and overtures.                                                                                                                                     P.O. Box 603                 66 Fraser St.
                                                                                                                                                                                    Grandville, MI               Wainuiomata, New Zealand
     But these are not the only important, or interesting, matters that the PRC                                                                                                       49468-0603                 NORTHERN IRELAND OFFICE
will treat at their major assembly.                                                                                                                                                 PH: (616) 531-1490           c/o Mr. Jonathan McAuley
                                                                                                                                                                                             (616) 636-1776      164 Church Rd., Qlenwherry
     By proposal of a constitution, a new denominational committee comes into                                                                                                       FAX:   (616)  5319033        Ballymena, Co. Antrim BT42 3EL
existence. This will be the "Catechism Book Committee." Its work will be the                                                                                                                                     Northern Ireland
                                                                                                                                                                                    EDITORIAL  POLK3
improvement and expansion of the materials used to instruct the children and                                                                                                        Every editor is solely responsible toor the contents of his own
young people.                                                                                                                                                                       articles. Contributions of general interestfrom  our readers and
                                                                                                                                                                                    questions for The Reader Asks department are welcome.
     Catechizing the children is an essential calling of the churches. In their                                                                                                     Contributions will be limited to approximately 300 words and
faith concerning the covenant of God with believers and their children, the PRC                                                                                                     must be neatiywrlttenortypewrittan,  and mustbesigned. Copy
                                                                                                                                                                                    deadlines are the first and fifteenth of the month. All
take this work very seriously. Thirty weeks of every year, the pastor and elders                                                                                                    communications relative to the contents should be sent to the
of every congregation instruct all of the children of the church, from age 5 or 6                                                                                                   editorial office.
to the time of confession of faith and beyond, in the Word of God, in special                                                                                                       REPRINT POLtCV
classes. The "Catechism Book Distribution Committee," which sees to the pub-                                                                                                        Permisaionisharebygrantedforthereprintingofarticlesinour
                                                                                                                                                                                    magazine byotherpubllcations, pmvided: a) thatsuch reprinted
lication and distribution of synodically approved materials, reports on its la-                                                                                                     articles are reproduced in full; b) that proper acknowledgment
bors. It has again this year sent out hundreds of catechism books.                                                                                                                  is made; c) that a wpy ol the periodical in which such reprint
                                                                                                                                                                                    appears is sent to our editorial office.
     The PRC have a good assortment of solid biblical, Reformed books and
workbooks for their thorough catechism-program. These include catechism                                                                                                             SUBSCRIPTION POLICY
                                                                                                                                                                                    Subscription price: $12.00 per year in the U.S., $15.&l
books and workbooks on Bible history for three levels of children's develop-                                                                                                        elsewhere. Unless a definite request for discontinuance is
ment; books and workbooks based on the Heidelberg Catechism; and a book of                                                                                                          received, it is assumed that the subscriber wishes the
questions and answers on Reformed doctrine. All are available to persons and                                                                                                        subscription to continue, and hewill be billed lor renewal. Ifyou
                                                                                                                                                                                    haveachangeoladdress,pleasenotiitheBusinessOfficeas
churches in or outside the PRC. Write for samples to 4949  Ivanrest  Avenue,                                                                                                        eady as possible in order to avoid the inconvenience of
Grandville, MI 49418.                                                                                                                                                               interrupted delivery. Include your Zip or Postal Code.
     A special committee on reprinting The  Psalter (again, out-of-print) recom-                                                                                                    ADVERTISINQ  POUCV
mends certain changes in the format of the new printing. The committee also                                                                                                         The Sfandardt3earerdoes  not accept commercial advertising
                                                                                                                                                                                    of any kind. Announcaments of church and school events,
recommends a "study edition" of the creeds and "minor confessions" of the                                                                                                           anniversaries, obituaries, and sympathy resolutions will be
PRC.                                                                                                                                                                                placedtora$lO.O01ee.  These should besentto the Business
                                                                                                                                                                                    Officeandshouldbeaccompanledbythe$1O.OOfee.  Deadline
     The Stated Clerk for the past twenty years, Rev. Meindert Joostens, informs                                                                                                    tar announcements is at least one month prior to publication
synod that he is ineligible to continue in this position, since he is moving from                                                                                                   date.
the Grand Rapids area. The rule requires the election of a new Stated Clerk.                                                                                                        BOUND VOLUMES
     From the "Yearbook Committee" comes the good news that there continues                                                                                                         The Business Office will accept standing orders for bound
                                                                                                                                                                                    copiesofthecurrentvolume.  Such orders arefilledassoon  as
to be steady numerical growth of the PRC. The churches are now over 1,500                                                                                                           poeslbte  afler completion of a volume year.
families.                                                                                                                                                                           16mm  mlcrofilm,  35mm microtilm  and 105mm  microfiche, and
                                                                                                                                                                       - D J E      article copies are available through University Microfilms
                                                                                                                                                                                    International.
41 O/Standard Bearer /June  1,1995


                             Runnin

     Wherefore seeing we also are com-             The Christian race is spiritual.       cult. Hebrews 12:1, 2 does not kid
passed about with so great a cloud of          It starts when we are born again.          us. It does not present the Christian
witnesses, let us lay aside eve y weight,      Along the way to the finish line we        race as a mid-morning stroll in the
and the sin which doth so easily beset         "run after" holiness in the way of         park. Rather, the emphasis of the
us, and let us run with patience the           thankful obedience, as athletes dis-       text is that this race is very difficult.
race that is set before us. Looking unto       ciplined by the Holy Spirit. The race      The Greek word for "race" points to
Jesus the author and finisher of our faith;    ends when we are summoned to               this. The word is agoon. From this
who for the joy that was set before him        heaven and given the victor's crown.       word we get the English "agony,"
endured the cross, despising the shame,        The race is our striving to be godly       and "anguish."
and is set down at the right hand of the       on the way to glory.                           And that is our race. It is a fierce
throne  of  God.                                   This race, our text says, is "set      and grueling struggle. Our spiritual
                        Hebrews  12:1,2        before us." It is set before us in the     muscles often ache, our spiritual
                                               Scriptures. There are revealed the         lungs sometimes seem about to
    Wherefore . . . run!                       commandments of God. We are to             burst. For the Christian is always to
     They ran. Now you run! They               live by them. We are to run, with          run his race - night and day. He
are the runners of faith as Hebrews            all of God's people, the way of the        must never let up. And daily he
11 has described. Now they are a               commandments of God (Ps. 119:32).          must exercise the most rigorous dis-
great cloud of witnesses who sur-                  But more. The Word of God              cipline of body and of soul.
round you. They ran without hav-               gives us the examples of others who            Other things make the spiritual
ing received the promise. But now              have run before us the race of faith.      race difficult. For one thing, the race
the promise has been fulfilled.                We learn from their race. We learn         is long. It is a spiritual marathon.
Christ has come. Christ has run be-            how to run as they did. We are             The marathon in the Greek games
fore you the race of your salvation.           warned by their sinning how not to         and today is 26 miles, 385 yards. But
Now you run! Run with the full                 run. We are encouraged by the fact         our race is longer. It is lifelong! Be-
assurance that in Him the victory is           that by faith these all received a good    sides, what adds to the difficulty of
certain!                                       report and a glorious crown through        our race is that we do not know ex-
                                               running the race set before them.          actly where we are going. An earthly
On your mark!                                      Further encouragement is found         runner knows every inch of the
     Christianity is a race. Let us run        in the fact that we know that this         course he must run. But we do not
the race, Hebrews 12:1, 2 exhorts.             race that we are to run has ever been      know just exactly where the Lord is
The comparison of Christianity to a            set before God, ordained by Him in         leading us to run. To be sure, we
race calls to mind the ancient Olym-           eternity. The beginning and the end        know that heaven is our final desti-
pic games of Greece. We have mod-              He knew and determined. The race           nation. But along the way God does
ern day Olympic games. The run-                you have to run as a mother. The           not tell us where we will have to
ning races are popular contests at             race I have to run as a father. The        run tomorrow or the next day. We
these games. The track is at the cen-          race one has to run alone, with no         do not know what is around the
ter of the stadium. Spectators urge            husband or wife. The race some             bend or over the hill. There is grace,
on the runners. Medals are given to            have to run as cripples. The race          and light, only for each step of the
the victors.                                   covenant children must begin to run,       race.
                                               very often before they can walk. The           All these things make for a dif-
                                               race of the young and of the old, of       ficult spiritual race. But there is one
                                               male and female, of slow runners           difficulty which makes our running
Rev. Dick is pastor of the First Protes-       and fast. God determined them all!         well nigh impossible. That difficulty
tant Reformed Church  of  Lacombe, AB,             Great comfort, this, especially        is weight, as Hebrews 12:l sets forth.
Canada.                                        seeing as our race is extremely diffi-     Have you ever tried to run with

                                                                                                    June 1,199WSfandard  Bearer141 1


weights? Weight, whether it be the          to sin. And we must do this com-                  There is a great cloud of these
weight of heavy boots or of fat, can        pletely: every weight, every sin,            witnesses, a great number. There
make running difficult, even impos-         must go. This we do by prayer, re-           are Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac,
sible. The weight referred to in our        pentance, godly self-discipline, and         Jacob, and millions more. They en-
text is the weight of sin. Sin is a         close attention to the race "set be-         compass us like spectators in the sta-
weight. It hinders our running.             fore us" in the Word of God.                 dium, watching as we run. But they
     Anxiety, fear, doubt, unbelief  -             Positively, we must run with pa-      are not watching as mere spectators.
these are all so many sinful weights,       tience, as our text says. Patience is        For they have run the race before,
hindrances to our running. Who, for         the ability to run, but also, strikingly,    and won the prize. They testify to
example, can run properly the Chris-        to wait - to wait on God. It is the          us. They shout encouragement to us.
tian race if he is so anxious about a       ability to run, but always to rest in             And they are shouting from
past of sin, always "looking over his       God and His way for you, His will            heaven now as well, I imagine.
shoulder"? A runner who looks               for you. Patience enables us to en-          Those Old Testament heroes of faith,
over his shoulder will surely trip          dure to the end, keeps us from burn-         and our grandparents, and parents,
and fall!                                   ing out when the race gets more dif-         and others we know who have gone
     Things, like the television, sports    ficult or seems too long.                    before us and finished their race -
activities, work - these can become                Laying aside every weight, with       can we not hear them? They are
weights to us. They are not weights         patience, and looking to Jesus - that        saying things like: We never regret
in themselves. But watch them               is how we run!                               one lap we had to run! God is gra-
enough, enjoy them too much, be-                   We look to Jesus as an example        cious! His reward, His heaven, is
come immersed in them too often,            to follow. He had a race to run while        worth all the sacrifice, all the pain,
and they will hinder your spiritual         on earth. And He ran it perfectly,           all the grief, all the agony!
racing.                                     without sin. He patiently endured                 "Run!" the witnesses say. Run!
     This weight, this sin, is described    the contradiction of sinners and ran,        Run! Run! To the weary these wit-
as something which doth so easily           despising the shame. That is, He             nesses say: don't give up! To those
beset us. We may translate: sin is          thought so little of it whille looking       trying to carry weights and beset by
something which "doth so well en-           at the joy set before Him of victory         their sinful nature they say: Lay that
circle us." We have a sinful nature.        and exaltation and the gathering of          aside, and put on the new man in
We have our besetting sins which            the church for His Father. He ran            Christ! Run! Faint not!
constantly hinder our life of holiness.     to the end!                                      Finally, and fundamentally,
There is the devil, and a whole world              We look to Him by faith. We           there is this incentive, this encour-
of evil people who want to get us           look to Him and behold Scripture's           agement to run. Jesus, our Savior:
and our children off the track.             revelation of how He ran. We cling           His running is more than just an ex-
     So many difficulties. And some-        to Him and run to Him for help in            ample to follow. By His running
times, dear Christian reader, fellow        the race we must run.                        He saved us. Jesus ran, taking on
runner, do we not get discouraged?                                                       Himself our weights, our burdens
We experience the loneliness of the         Go!                                          and sins, and the wrath of God for
long-distance spiritual runner  -                  There are great incentives which      them. And before His race was fin-
sometimes it seems as if we are the         our text gives to encourage us to con-       ished He had broken His body and
only ones running and wrenching             tinue the Christian race.                    shed His blood on our behalf. His
our bodies and souls. We wonder                    First, we are compassed about         was the marathon of the Mediator:
how that prize, that victor's crown,        with so great a cloud of witnesses.          run from a lowly manger up the hill
can ever be for such poor runners           The cloud of witnesses is reference          Golgotha and down into the gorge
as we are. We want to give up.              first of all to the believers of He-         of hell1
     But the Word of God says: Run!         brews 11, but also, by implication,              Wonderfully, this One, Jesus,
Run to the end!                             to all the saints who have run be-           won His race. He satisfied com-
                                            fore. These witness of something             pletely the justice of God. He is
Get set!                                    they know, they tell the truth about         crowned with great glory and honor.
    How are we to do this? First,           it. They speak of God. They speak            And He has, by His atoning race,
we are to lay aside the weight and          of the strength of faith to overcome         earned the right to be the Author,
sin which dot-h so easily beset us.         all obstacles. They speak of the great       the source of our faith.
As the runner trims off the fat by          victory given. Some of them witness              And now from heaven He gives
rigorous denial, as he takes off the        through the record of their lives in         faith joining us to Himself. We rely
heavy clothing or anything which            the Scriptures. Others, familiar to          on Him totally, looking unto Him
would interfere with his running, so        us personally, witness to us in our          all the way, confessing as we run,
must we put off our weights, our            memories of how they lived, what             that "it is not of him that willeth nor
sins, and avoid that which leads us         they said.                                   of him that runneth but of God that        I

412jStandard  Bearer /June 1,1995


showeth mercy." And He finishes           inexpressible glory in heaven                Jesus. Run, believer! Look up in the
that faith. He perfects it and us. He         So we continue to run, with              race. Look to the finish line. Have
preserves us in it. He will lead us       courage and hope. There is still the         hope. For with every grace-given
along the course we must run to the       struggle, the striving, the sin, the sor-    stride your final and glorious vic-
finish line and perfect holiness and      row. But the victory is sure in Christ       tory draws nigh. Run! 0





    The synod of the Protestant Re-       Brummel and Mr. Douglas Kuiper.              and 22 on "Reformed Church Gov-
formed Churches (PRC) will meet           Having successfully completed four           ernment."
in Hull, IA this year, convening on       years of study at the seminary, in-              The TSC recommends that Prof.
Tuesday morning, June 13, God will-       cluding a six-month internship, these        David Engelsma be granted perma-
ing. The consistory of the Hull PRC       young men will be publicly exam-             nent tenure at the seminary. It in-
will conduct a special, pre-synodi-       ined in dogmatics, Old and New               forms synod that, since Prof.
cal worship service on Monday             Testament history, church polity,            Herman Hank0 will be 65 this year,
evening, June 12. Rev. Ron Van            church history, and practical mat-           the TSC must begin work on the pre-
Overloop, president of the 1994           ters concerning their call to the min-       scribed procedure for replacing him.
synod, will preach the Word. Five         istry. In addition, they will preach         The synod of 1996 must appoint a
ministers and five elders from each       a specimen sermon before the synod           new professor.
of the two classes of the denomina-       and submit written exegesis on the
tion will deal with matters that could    Hebrew text of Psalm 127~3-5 and                           Missions
not be finished in the minor assem-       on the Greek text of I Thessalonians
blies or that pertain to the churches     413-18.                                          The report of the Foreign Mis-
of the major assembly, according to           Synod approving the examina-             sion Committee (FMC) concentrates
the rule of Article 30 of the Church      tion, the graduation ceremony will           on Ghana, Africa as a possible mis-
Order of Dordt.                           be held on Monday, June 19, at the           sion field for the PRC. The commit-
    The stated clerk of the denomi-       Hull church at 8 P.M.                        tee is "excited about our continuing
nation, Rev. Meindert Joostens, has           Two young men from the PRC               labors in Ghana, especially in light
already distributed an agenda to the      will begin their studies in the semi-        of the very favorable report of the
delegates.                                nary in the fall, maintaining the en-        delegates who visited Ghana." The
    An account of some of the more        rollment at eleven.                          visit was that by Rev. Richard Moore
important matters that will be                The Theological School Comrnit-          and Elder Don VerMeer  from No-
treated at the synod follows for the      tee (TSC) reports to synod that the          vember 19 - December 29,1994.  The
benefit of the members of the PRC         addition to the seminary building is         FMC asks synod to approve send-
and for the information of other in-      almost finished, so that occupancy           ing another delegation to Ghana in
terested readers.                         is expected by the time of the meet-         1995 with a view to calling a mis-
                                          ing of synod. Cost has been kept             sionary to Ghana in 1996. The FMC
              The  Seminary               within the original estimate  of about       reports that it has informed Rev. Jay
                                          !$440,000.                                   Kortering minister-on-loan to Singa-
    One of the main tasks of this             The TSC is proposing that the            pore, that "we would not be able to
synod will be the examination of two      seminary host a public conference            take on the work of India which he
senior seminary students, Mr. Allen       in Grand Rapids on September 21              is conducting, due to the expected

                                                                                                June 1,1995/Standard  Bearer1413


amount of work in Ghana."                   and Rev. Ron VanOverloop are mak-             The Evangelical Reformed
     The Domestic Mission Commit-           ing these radio sermons for the           Churches of Singapore (ERCS) have
tee (DMC) reports on the two de-            DMC. The new broadcast will be            asked that Rev. Jay Kortering, min-
nominational works in Northern Ire-         called "The Word of Truth."               ister-on-loan to these churches from
land and in the San Luis Valley in                                                    the PRC, remain to help them for
Colorado. Rev. Ron Hanko serves                      Contact Committee                two more years. The CCOC recom-
as missionary in Northern Ireland,                                                    mends that synod grant this request.
working with the Covenant Re-                   The Committee for Contact with        Among his other labors, Rev.
formed Fellowship. This group con-          Other Churches (CCOC) is arrang-          Kortering serves as pastor of First
sists of some 16 adults and 17 chil-        ing a conference with the Evangeli-       Church; conducts regular catechism
dren. Others attend the services as         cal Presbyterian Church of Austra-        classes; leads Bible study and prayer
regular visitors. The group informs         lia (EPC). The purpose of the con-        services; teaches classes for those
synod that it plans on addressing           ference is discussion of the doctri-      joining the churches; helps in the
synod, 1996 with a request to be or-        nal differences that presently make       evangelism work of First Church;
ganized as a church. By means of            a full sister-church relationship im-     cooperates in the mission work of
speeches, distribution of literature,       possible. A main issue is the appli-      the ERCS, particularly in Myanmar;
and advertising, the PR mission in          cation of the "regulative principle of    is advisor to the Theological Train-
Northern Ireland is influential in          worship." Frank, open discussion          ing Committee; and teaches courses
spreading the witness to the Re-            of differences with the purpose of        at the newly established Evangelical
formed faith throughout the British         coming to agreement on the basis of       Reformed Bible School.
Isles. There is cooperation in this         Scripture and the confessions is the
activity with the British Reformed          right way for churches to strive to                    Overtures
Fellowship, sponsor of a Reformed           manifest the true unity and catho-
family conference that meets every          licity of the church on earth. Ignor-         The Council of the  Doon, IA
two years at different locations in         ing doctrinal differences is both         PRC brings two overtures to synod.
the United Kingdom.                         wrong and foolish.                        One advocates changing the proce-
     Rev. Tom Miersma has just be-              In response to the decision of the    dure for calling a professor of theol-
gun his labors as home missionary           PRC synod of 1994, that future ob-        ogy. The present procedure has
in the San Luis Valley in Colorado.         servers to the Alliance of Reformed       synod electing a professor. Upon
There is a core group of 10 adults          Churches (ARC) must be permitted          accepting the call to be professor of
and 9 children. In a letter to the          to address the real issues between        theology, the minister retains his
DMC, Rev. Miersma states that "it           the ARC and the PRC, the mostly           ministerial status as minister of the
is clear that there is a significant        independent churches in the ARC           Word and Sacraments, emeritus, in
amount of work to be done. We               recommended "to the Protestant Re-        the congregation that he was serv-
have had visitors from all over the         formed Churches that their                ing when he was called to the semi-
valley almost every Sunday since            consistories initiate discussion with     nary. His ministerial credentials re-
our arrival."                               local ARC consistories." In a letter      main with the church where he last
     Responding to a request from a         to the Contact Committee of the           served as pastor. Usually, he trans-
church in Spokane, WA for which             ARC, the CCOC of the PRC has ob-          fers his church membership to an-
several PR ministers have preached          jected to this decision of the ARC:       other congregation in the vicinity of
in the past year, the DMC informed                                                    the seminary.
the church that "unbiblically di-             We object to this decision because          Doon's  overture finds objection-
vorced and remarried persons can-             it seems to us to reflect the very      able both that the call to the semi-
not be received as members of the             independency in the Alliance            nary involves the man's becoming
PRC." The reason is that "those               against which we have repeatedly        emeritus in the church he presently
unbiblically divorced and remarried           advised. And the decision seems         serves and that the professor likely
are living in sin (Romans 7~2, 3; I           to presuppose that such an inde-
                                              pendency also exists among us. We       has his ministerial credentials in a
Corinthians 7:39)." The church had            want the Alliance to understand         church from whose supervision he
requested to join the PRC with all            clearly that matters of inter-church    is removed by hundreds of miles.
its members, including those who             relations are, in accordance with the        If synod adopts  Doon's over-
are divorced and remarried.                   principles of Reformed church pol-      ture, the new procedure will be that
    The DMC is carrying out deci-            ity, matters of our churches in com-     synod appoints the man and desig-
sions of previous synods that it make        mon and, therefore, of our synod         nates a church in Grand Rapids to
special radio broadcasts "to serve in        through its contact committee. Our       call the man to the office of profes-
the preparation and discovery of a           churches must and do act in con-         sor. Upon his acceptance of the call,
field or potential field of labor." Rev.      cert on these matters, not as indi-
                                             vidual congregations.                    both the man's ministerial creden-
Wilbur Bruinsma, Rev. Carl Haak,                                                      tials and church membership will be

414IStandard i3earerlJune  1,19995


transferred to the calling church.          from the church that he last served            A brother in the churches over-
    The overture raises significant         to the church where he chooses to          tures synod to reexamine the rela-
issues of Reformed church polity            be member. The consistory of the           tionship between the PRC and the
that synod should consider carefully.       church where he has his member-            PRC of New Zealand. He asks that
One has to do with the call itself. Is      ship then becomes responsible for          synod look into the possibility of
justice done to the reality of the call     supervising the financial support of       having the New Zealand church join
when a local church simply follows          the minister. The second important         one of the classes of the PRC.
the instruction of synod to call Rev.       feature of  Doon's overture on                 In these and the other matters
So-and-So? How will the church do           emeritation is its change of Article       coming before this broadest gather-
this? by the consistory apart from          13 of the Church Order of Dordt,           ing of the PRC, may the delegates
the congregational meeting? at a            making the denomination respon-            have the Spirit of wisdom to decide
congregational meeting that gathers         sible for the support of all retired       all in the light of Holy Scripture and,
to vote for the designated Rev. So-         ministers. The original article, pres-     therefore, in harmony with the Re-
and-So?                                     ently maintained by the PRC, makes         formed creeds and the Church Or-
    The problem is accentuated by           the local congregation last served by      der of Dordt.
the very real possibility that, once        the minister responsible for his sup-          Members of these churches and
in Grand Rapids, the professor may          port.                                      others who love the faith confessed
for various reasons desire to trans-            No doubt, there are practical ad-      by the PRC, pray for the synod!
fer his church membership to an-            vantages to this overture.  Doon           Christ is present as Ring of His
other congregation than the one that        makes clear that the present system        church also in the synod of His true
originally called him. Classis West         is clumsy. Nevertheless, also this         churches.
foresaw this possibility and                overture confronts synod with im-              May the prevailing of truth and
amended Doon's  overture to allow           portant church political principles.       righteousness in the multitude of
the transfer of the professor's minis-          There is the same matter of the        counselors be a blessing to the PRC
terial credentials to another congre-       transfer of ministerial credentials        and to the church catholic. 0
gation in the area of the seminary.         and supervision of office without a                                          - DJE
But this implies that an officebearer       call, that is part of the overture on
has his credentials, that is, office, in    calling professors.
a church that never called him. And             In addition, changing the re-
what if the congregation which the          sponsibility for support of the emeri-
professor desires to join is not will-      tus minister from the local church                      REMINDER:
ing to exercise that supervision            to the denomination not only makes
which the transfer of ministerial cre-      Article 13 of the Church Order say
dentials involves?                          the exact opposite of that which it              The  Standard Bearer
    The other issue concerns the            taught originally but also raises the                    is published
place of the theological professor in       question, whether, in reality, the of-             only once a month
the denomination. As both the               fice of the minister is located in the           during the months of
present "Form for the Installation of       local congregation or in the denomi-           June, July, and August.
Professors of Theology" and the             nation. And this raises the ques-
present "Constitution of the Theo-          tion, whether the church institute is
logical School" stress, the professor       the local congregation or the de-                       The July issue
belongs to no single congregation           nomination. The principle behind                         will appear
but to the denomination. Synod              the original Article 13 is that the lo-                 somewhat later
elects and calls; the "curators"            cal congregation is the church, pos-                     in the month
charge him at his installation on be-       sessing all the privileges and the re-
half of the churches. Synod must            sponsibilities of the church. Adher-                     than usual,
consider whether the appointment            ing to this principle, the present                to make it possible
of a calling church does not com-           "Constitution of the Emeritus Com-                  for us to include
promise this essential aspect of the        mittee" declares:                                        in it a report
office of professor of theology.                                                               of the 1995 Synod
    Doon's  overture regarding a              The obligation of supervision over
change in the emeritation system              the support of an emeritus minis-                      of the PRC.
would streamline the process by               ter rests not upon the churches                       Your patience
which emeriti ministers and widows           jointly, but upon the local church                         will be
of ministers are supported. It calls          which the minister serves or has last
                                              served....                                             appreciated!
for the ministerial credentials of the                       (Art. VII).
retired minister to be transferred

                                                                                                June 1 I 199SlStandard Bearer141 5


            Denominatiand Missions

                   I "The missionary work of the churches is regulated by the general synod in a
                        mission order."
                                                                                 Church Order,  Article 51    I


Thb Missionary Task                         valves the church in compromise -            chul'ch.  This fundamental principle
of the Churches`                            belittling of the truth for the sake of      of Reformed missions is incorpo-
     Article' 51 deals with the funda-      numbers.                                     rated into Article 51 inasmuch as the
mental work of the church - the                 Missions is the task of the              article speaks of "The missionary
preaching of the glorious gospel to         church. Missions is at the very heart        work of the churches.... "
the ends of the earth. To that work         of the work to which God calls the                Missionary work  is  not the task
she has been called by the ascended         church. That is as much true today           of individuals, although certainly
Lord Jesus Christ: "Go ye into all          as it was in the days of the apostles.       every believer is to be a witness for
the world, and preach the gospel to             The Protestant Reformed                  Jesus Christ and to be ready at all
every creature. He that believeth           Churches consider missions to be a           times to give a reason for the hope
and is baptized shall be saved; but         vital aspect of the calling that these       that is in him to those who might
he that believeth not shall be              churches have before God. They               ask him concerning that hope (I Pet.
damned" (Mark  1695, 16). To that           give expression to that in the "Pre-         3:15). Missionary work is not either
command of Christ the apostles were         amble" of the "Constitution" of their        the calling of independent mission
obedient: "And they went forth, and         denominational Mission Committee.            societies, not directly accountable to
preached every where, the Lord                                                           the church or supervised by the
working with them, and confirming               The Protestant Reformed                  church. That mission societies have
the word with signs following"                Churches believe that, in obedience        so much, taken over mission work
(Mark 1620).  And to that command             to the command of Christ, the King         goes a long way to explaining why
of Christ the Reformed church to-             of the church, to preach the blessed
                                              Gospel to all creatures, baptizing,        the "gospel" that is being brought
day is obedient, bringing the good            and. teaching them to observe all          on the mission fields today is not
news of the sovereign grace of God            things which Christ has  com-              "the gospel" but is "another gospel.`!
in Christ Jesusfar and wide.                  marided; it is the explicit duty and            But mission work is the calling
     This article makes plain that the        sacre,d privilege of said churches. to     of the churth.  It was the congrega-
Reformed faith is not inimical to mis-        carry out this callhig  according to       tion at Antioch that sent out Paul
sions. It makes plain that Reformed           the measure of our God-given abil-         and Barnabas on their missionary
churches do not consider mission              ity.                                       journey (Acts 13). It is significant
work a frill, an extra-curricular eccle-                                                 that the Holy Spirit did not call Paul
siastical activity that the church may          From the very beginning of their         and Barnabas directly, but called
or may not choose to be involved            existence, these churches have been          them through the church. Paul rec-
in. It makes plain that there is to be      active in performing their mission-          ognized the authority of the church
no suspicion cast upon mission              ary calling both in our own country          at Antioch, too, always returning to
work, as if missions necessarily in-        and abroad. They have always                 Antioch and reporting to them at the
                                            stood ready to help any who have             end of each missionary journey.
                                            made pleas for help, pursuing every
                                            `opportunity for witness that the            Background to Article 51
                                            Lord has provided.
&v. Cammenga is pastor of Southwest                                                           Our present Article 51 was not
                                                The calling to missions is the
Protestant Reformed Church in                                                            an original article in the  Church Or-
                                            calling that God has given to the
Grandville, Michigan.                                                                    der of Dordt. Originally Article 51,

41 G/Standard Bearer IJune  1,199!5


as well as Article 52, dealt with the        There is one notable difference.           work, but synod does regulate de-
relationship between the  Dutch-             Whereas the 1920 version of the            nominational mission work.
speaking churches of the Nether-             Christian Reformed Church spoke of             The principle reason for synodi-
lands and the French-speaking                the missionary work of the "church"        cal regulation of missions is the unity
churches (the Walloon churches) in           (singular), our Article 51 speaks of       of the churches.  Bound as they are
the south of the Netherlands, what           the missionary `work of the                by a common -faith and order, it nec-
is now Belgium. Article 51 in the            "churches" (plural). The explana-          essarily follows that the churches ex-
Church Order of Dordt reads: "Since          tion for this change is our convic-        press and maintain their unity in the
two languages are spoken in the              tion that missionary work, inasmuch        pursuit of missions. For a congre-
Netherlands, it is considered good           as it is the preaching of the gospel,      gation to go it alone, to labor in mis-
that the churches using the Dutch            is the task of the local congregation,     sions on its own, altogether apart
and Walloon languages have their             the churches, although regulated by        from the rest of the churches of the
own consistories, classical meetings,        the churches in common.                    denomination, is independentism.
and particular synods."                                                                 And independentism - however
    The original article provided for        Synodical "Regulation"                     and wherever it shows itself - is
separate ecclesiastical gatherings, the      of Mission Work                            anathema to Reformed churches. As
Dutch and French-speaking churches               Article 51 requires that the mis-      churches we stand together under
to have separate consistory, classi-         sionary work of the churches be            Christ our Head, also in the work of
cal, and particular synod meetings.          "regulated" by the general synod of        missions.
The one assembly that they would             the denomination. What is the sig-             Besides this princifile reason for
have in common would be the gen-             nificance of synodical regulation of       synodical regulation of missions,
eral synod, which was to meet ev-            missions?                                  there is also a practical reason. That
ery three years.                                 The article clearly intends to dis-    practical reason is simply that what
    This article did not apply to the        tinguish between "regulate" and            one congregation of limited means
situation in the Christian Reformed          "perform." Synod  regulates  denomi-       and manpower would find impos-
Church. In their 1914 revision of            national mission work; synod does          sible to carry out, the churches to-
the  Church Order,  therefore, the           not, synod cannot, perform mission         gether are able to do. The pooling
Christian Reformed Church thor-              work. The performance of the work          of resources and the sharing of the
oughly revised Article 51. That re-          of missions is by the local church.        burden of the work compel the
vision, made in the Dutch language,              The principle here ought to be         churches to labor cooperatively in
read: "De arbeid der kerkelijke Zending      obvious. The work of missions is           missions.
onder de heidenen and ]oden  utordt  door    the work of the preaching of the gos-
de Generale Synode in eene Zendings          pel. No major  assembly has the right      The  "Mission Order"
order geregeld. N The translation            to preach the gospel and to admin-             Synod regulates the work of mis-
would be: "The task of ecclesiasti-          ister the sacraments. That duty be-        sions through a "mission order."
cal missions among the heathen and           longs to the local congregation, un-       The reference is to denominational
the Jews is to be regulated by the           der the supervision of the elders of       committees or boards that are ap-
General Synod in a mission order."           that congregation.  Classis and            pointed by synod and accountable
    Significantly, the new Article  51       synod are not super-churches or  su-       to synod. In the name of synod,
spoke of mission work "among the             per-consistories. They cannot call         they regulate the mission work of
heathen and the Jews," that is, for-         and send out missionaries. The             the churches.
eign mission work. The reason for            work of preaching the gospel, of call-         The Protestant Reformed
this is that in her earlier history the      ing and sending a  missionary-             Churches have two such denomina-
classes of the Christian Reformed            preacher, that is, the exercise of the     tional mission committees, each
Church regulated what we would               keys of the kingdom, belongs strictly      functioning under a synodically ,ap-
call "home" or "domestic" mission            to the local congregation and its          proved constitution.
work. In the revision and English            consistory.                                    The Domestic Mission Commit-
translation of its Church Order in               This is not to say that synod has      tee oversees the home mission work
1920, the Christian Reformed Church          no calling in missions, and that syn-      of our churches, generally a work in
dropped the reference to "the hea-           odical involvement of any sort is in-      our own country or a work among
then and the Jews," so that the ar-          trusive and hierarchical. As is the        those who in their generations have
ticle was now made to refer to mis-          case throughout our Church Orakr,          had the gospel. The members of this
sion work generally.                         so also in Article 51, the autonomy        committee are from  Classis East,
    Article 51 of the  Church Order          of the local congregation is pre-          generally living in the Grand Rap-
of  the Protestant Reformed Churches         served and at the same time the au-        ids, Michigan area. The committee
is substantially the 1920 revision of        thority of the broader assemblies.         consists of ten men - five ministers
the Christian Reformed Church.               Synod may not  perform  mission            and five elders or ex-elders.

                                                                                                     June 1,1995/Standard  Bearetl417


    Currently, the Domestic Mission       mittee of our denomination. This          eign Mission Committee spent
Committee is busy regulating the          committee is made up of men from          nearly a month in Ghana, preach-
work of two missionaries. In con-         Classis West, ministers and elders        ing, teaching, and making contacts.
junction with the Loveland, Colo-         or ex-elders from northwestern Iowa       Undoubtedly recommendations
rado congregation, the committee          and southwestern Minnesota. For a         from the committee will be pre-
oversees the labors of missionary         number of years this committee            sented to synod 1995 regarding the
Rev.. Thomas Miersma, who is la-          oversaw the denominational mission        future of this work.
boring in the San Luis Valley in          work in the country of Singapore,              May God continue to bless the
southern Colorado. In conjunction         work that God blessed in the orga-        mission labors of our churches. May
with the Hudsonville, Michigan con-       nization of our sister-churches, the      He give strength and wisdom to our
gregation, the committee oversees         Evangelical Reformed Churches of          missionaries, to the calling  con-
the labors of Rev. Ronald Hanko,          Singapore. In the last couple of years    sistories, and to the mission com-
who is denominational missionary          the Foreign Mission Committee has         mittees. May we as churches con-
in Northern Ireland.                      aggressively been pursuing the pos-       tinue to be used, and be willing to
    Foreign mission work is regu-         sibilities of labor in Ghana, Africa.     be used, for the spread of the gospel
lated by the Foreign Mission Com-         Recently a delegation from the For-       in all the world. 0





               Music in the Church (2)*

The Importance of Music                   - to drive what is sung deeply into       ence. You come to church on a Sun-
in the Church                             the soul and to fasten the words that     day morning depressed, so "down"
    The importance of music in the        are sung in the memory. Secular           that you do not even sing yourself.
church is indicated when the apostle      education has recognized this and         Then, the congregation sings:
of Christ writes, in Colossians 3:16,     has always used music in teaching.
that by our singing we teach and          The devil also knows this power of             0 my soul, why art thou griev-
admonish one another. Probably            music, and he has always used it                 ing?
this is not a familiar thought to us;     effectively to teach the lie. I have           What disquiets and dismays?
perhaps we are not conscious of this      found this to be true, to my sorrow.           Hope in God; His help receiv-
when we sing. We are well aware,          Years ago, in order, I thought, to be            ing,
of course, that we all should teach       able better to contend against it, I           I shall yet my Savior praise.
each other, and admonish each             listened to the music of the Christ-                                  (Psalm 43)
other, as the opportunity or need         denying rock opera, Jesud Christ, Su-     As the church sings, you feel your
arises (although our practice leaves      perstar. To this day, I find myself       own soul addressed; your lips begin
much to be desired). But we are           humming, and sometimes singing            to move; you are taught effectively
doing this by our singing, in "psalms     the haunting but demonic, piece of        to hope in God.
and hymns and spiritual songs."           Magdalene, "I don't know how to                Or, I come to Men's Society bit-
    Music has great power to teach        love Him." But Christ has redeemed        ter, really against God, for some dis-
                                          God's creature, music, and God the        appointment. The group sings  num-
                                          Holy Spirit uses the singing of the
                                          congregation, or of a group of saints,
                                          to teach and admonish the people
Prof. Engelsma is professor of Dogmat-    of God with the Word of Christ.
ics and Old Testament in the Protes-          If we stop and think about this,      *    reprinted from  Beacon Lights,
tant Reformed Semina y.                   we will find it so in our own experi-     February, March, and April, 1983.

416lStandard Bearer /June  1,199s


       ber 210 in The Psalter, from Psalm                for singing in church (cited in               mote a godless life-style - rebellion,
       77:                                               T.H.L. Parker, Jokn Calvin: A Bi-             irresponsibility, drugs, sexual pro-
                                                         ogrrxpkyh                                     miscuity, worship of Satan, and the
              I asked in fear and bitterness,                                                          like - teach. If you listen, you are
              Will God forsake me in distress?             Our concern about the words of              deliberately allowing the word of the
              Shall I His promise faithless         the church's songs is not imaginary.               devil to dwell in you. Then you
                find?                               False doctrine can be sung into the                must not be surprised that you be-
              Has God forgotten to be kind?         church, as well as preached into the               gin to approve these things and even
              Has He in anger hopelessly            church. As a matter of historical                  to practice them. For God's sake,
              Removed His love and grace            fact, Protestant churches have been                let the Word of Christ dwell in you
                from me?                            corrupted by the gradual introduc-                 through the music you listen to; give
              To these fearful, bitter questions    tion into their worship of hymns that              the word of the devil no place in
       comes the calm answer:                       increasingly have the congrega-
                                                    .        _        _.     _. .                           your soul by his music.
                                                    tions sing their own religious                             In the worship of the church,
              These doubts and fears that           experience, rather than the               False            since the main thing is the
                troubled me                         faith of the church. This is         doctrine               words, the organ accompa-
              Were born of my infirmity;            the heresy, fatal to the            can be sung             niment must be just that:
              Tho' I am weak, God is most           congregation, of subjectiv-       into the church,
                                                                                        as well as              an accompaniment of, and
                figh,                               ism  - making man and                                       an aid to, congregational
              And on His goodness I rely;           his religious feelings the           preached               singing. The organ may
              Of all His wonders I will tell,       center of worship, instead            into the             never become the preemi-
              And on His deeds my tho'ts            of God and His work in                church.             nent feature of the music of
                shall dwell.                        Jesus Christ. The result is                            worship. The congregation (and
       I am admonished, mightily, so that           that the church no longer looks                    visitors) may never assemble to hear
       then and there I am converted and            out with the eye of faith upon the                 the accomplished organist. Congre-
       renewed to live in trust in the good-        all-glorious God as revealed in the                gational singing may never become
       ness of God.                                 person and work of Jesus Christ, so                enslaved to the great organ. And in
              This happens through the sing-        that her worship in song is "Halle-                the organ-playing when the church
       ing of the people of God. It makes a         lujah, Hallelujah," but she now looks              is not singing - prelude, offertory,
       difference that I do not merely read,        in upon herself, at her own religious              and postlude - the music must be
       or think about, these words, but that        navel, so that her worship in song is              conducive to Reformed worship.
       the body of believers and their chil-        "In full and glad surrender I give                 Certainly the worshiping church
       dren sing them; with one heart and           myself to Thee" and "Take my life,                 must not be disturbed by excerpts
       one voice.                                   and let it be."                                    from popular, secular pieces, nor by
              If we teach and admonish one                Arminian hymns that condition                a tune that inevitably puts them in
       another in our singing, it is implied        salvation upon the free will of the                mind of words that contradict the
       that the words of our songs are              sinner have helped to drive the gos-               Word of Christ, e.g., "Throw Out
       sound, that they are the truth of the        pel of salvation by free sovereign                 the Lifeline." Since an organ does
       gospel, that they are the "Word of           grace out of the churches of the Ref-              help congregational singing, it has a
       Christ." The words are the all-im-           ormation. Even the better hymnals                  rightful place in the church; and
       portant thing, not the melody and            include "Jesus is Tenderly Calling,"               those able to play serve the church,
       rhythm. Nowadays, songs are                  "Some to the Savior, Make No De-                   with their gift, in an important way.*
       brought into the worship services of         lay," and "Softly and Tenderly."                       That we teach, and are taught,
       churches because the tune is lively,         This is an additional reason why Re-          by the singing at church implies also
       even though the words are frivolous          formed churches have opposed the                   that we sing with understanding.
       or doctrinally corrupt. This is              introduction of hymns into their              We must think through words and-
       wrong. The tune is secondary; it             worship: many hymns teach another             thoughts of our songs. Psalm 47:7
       must serve the words. John Calvin            gospel of man's saving himself by                  demands, "sing ye praises with un-
       warned against melody and rhythm             his will, and the introducing of                   derstanding." In I Corinthians 1415,
      that are not befitting the solemnity          hymns opens the way for these un-             the apostle says, "I will sing with
       of the words with which the church           sound hymns.                                  the spirit, and I will sing with the
     praises God:                                         The truth that we teach one an-
                                                    other by singing has application to
              As for the music, it should not       the music that we listen to in every-
         be light and flighty like secular mu-      day life. The music we hear is teach-         *        Cf. the article, "Congregational
         sic but should have weight and maj-        ing and admonishing us; we are                Singing and Organs," in the  Stan-
I        esty, agreeable to its subject and fit     learning from it., Lyrics that pro-           dard Bearer,  Vol. 52, pp. 851,852.

                                                                                                                June 1,1995/Standard  Bearer/419


  understanding also." Here is a com-          The Manner of our Singing                     that tie sing to God. Consciously the
mon fault of ours, that we do not                   But we must sing ii the proper           congregation at worship, or the
  pay careful attention to the words           manner. This is singing with the              group of saints, directs the music to
  we are singing: we utter the words           heart. The source of the music is             God. Although we teach and ad-
  in a mindless way. This shows that           not the voicebox, but the heart. As           monish one another, we do not sing
  we are not singing frtim the heart,          the mouth pours forth the psalm, or           for each other, ultimately, but for
  but it also hiriders  the work of teach-     hymn, or spiritual song, the heart is         God. A warning is in order at this
  ing -the Holy Spirit does not bless          in the music. This warns against lip-         point also. Fascinated by beautiful
  the singing of the saints  autotitiq2ZZy.    setice  in singing - a real danger,           sound, we easily find ourselves sing-
      A   s e c o n d   inpication,  i n       and a serious sin. God abominates             ing for people. It is not impossible
  Colossians 3:16, of the importance           and condemns all external service             that, enthralled by his powerful bass,
  of music in the church is the teach-         hi which people praise Him with the           or by her lofty soprano, as the case
  ing - the main thought of, the text          lips, but their he&& are far from             may  be, the individual singer sings
  - that it is by shiging that the Word        Him. God hates congregational                 for himself, or for herself. We must
  of Christ dwells among us richly. It         singing, beautiful as it may sound,           sing to the Lord! Not only must a
  is the will of God for'the congrega-         that  does not resound in regener-            congregation sing to the Lord God,
  titin, that the Word  di;yell in her         ated hearts. We are to put our                      but a choral society must also
  richly. It is not efiough that the Word      hearts into our music, i.e., know                      sing to the Lord - not to the
  ba?ely be  pyesent.  And the  mem-           the sorrow over sin that we           The source        audience, btit to the Lord.
  herb are called fo be active in this         sing in Psalm 51; desire the                             All of our singing,  ulti-
                                                                                    of the music
  rich indtielling: "Let the word . . .        redemption that. we  cel-                 is not         mately, is to be praise.
  dty'ell in .y6u richly." How do we           ebrate in  Psalin 107; intend        the voicebox,       God's church is a God-glo-
  do this? How does it happen that             the praise of Jehovah in                   but           rifying church. She praises
  the Word dwells richZy among us?             Psalm 150; and  meulz the             the heart.        God in the preaching; she
      It is significant that the related       blessedness of a life of obedi-                        praises God in prayer; she
  passage in Ephesians 5 speaks of be-         ence to the Law in Psalm 119.                       praises God in the singing. And
  ing filled with the Holy Spirit in con-      To sing in worship is not easy, any           it is exactly the outstanding charac-
  nection with the singing of the              more than it is easy to pray.                 teristic of the Psalms that they are
  people of God: "And be not drunk                  Singing with the heart will show         God-centered and God-glorifying.
  with wine . . . but be filled with the       itself in enthusiastic singing. Now,          They are the Word of Christ, to be
  Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in            mere -noise does not impress God.             sure; but Christ is the revelation of
  psalms and hymns and spiritual               Besides, the Scriptures do not say,           God, that "unto Him (may) be glory
  songs, singing and making melody             "Bellow," or "Bawl," but, "Sing."             in the church by Christ Jesus
  in your heart to the Lord" (w. 18,           Nevertheless, the heart will make             throughout all ages, world without
  19). The congregation is filled with         singing both lively and loud. I have          end. Amen" (Eph. 3:21).
  the Hdly  ,Spirit  when  ttie Word           heatid churches sing, whose singing
  dwells in her richly. The  &iri& is          must have caused the angels present           The possibility of Such Singing
  true df thi believer personally, But         zit the wo&hip  to weep. So lifeless!               The possibility of music in the
  hdw  doei, this happen? How are              So feeble! There are members, in-             church is grace. This is not the love-
  tie to%e filled with the Holy Spirit?        cluding young people, who barely              liness of our singing, but the free
      This ddes not take place through         niove their lips for singing, and             favor of God in Jesus Christ to sin-
  mysterious, private, spiritual .exer-        hardly utter a peep. So  unenthu-             ners, forgiving their sins for the sake
  &es, nor by the devotions of sm&             s&tic! So bored!                              of the cross and renewing their
  groups of super-saints, nor even by                                                        hearts by the Holy Spirit.
  extraordinary activities  df the con-             Take a psalm and shout,                        It takes grace to sing. No one
  gregation, but. it happens through                Let His praise ring out,                 can sing, or want to sing, except the
 singing - through singing the Word                 Lift your voice and sing,                man whose heart is reborn by the
  of Christ. The apostle aims at growth        our  Psalter  admonishes us  (418:2).         grace of Christ. No people will sing,
 in the Christian life and experience          Oh, how fervent will be the singing           save the people who hear the joyful
 - being filled with the Spirit and            of the great cdngregation  in glory:          sound of the gospel of grace.
 being indwelt richly by ,the Word.            "... as the voice of many waters, and               Let there be music in the church!
 He plainly lays out the way: sing-            as the voice of a great thunder" (Rev.              God grant the church His grace!
 ing psalms and hymns and spiritual            14:2).                                                                             cl
 songs.                                             "Glory to our King," number 418
      How important, then, that we             in The Psalter continues, "Ile is Lord
 s i n g !                                     of earth, Magnify His worth." It be-
                                               longs to the manner of our singing

 420lStandard  l3earerlJuns  1,199S


                       Samuel Rutherford:
                Westminster Divbe

Introduction                                and, indeed, the Assembly set the         of churches would have any author-
    In our last article, we left Samuel     confession, liturgy, and government       ity at all, but each congregation
Rutherford busy with his work in            for all true Eresbyterianism  through-    would be something of a law unto
the Chair of Divinity at St. Andrews        out the world in all following gen-       itself. The Erastians, on the other
College. Although he remained in            erations. Its shadow has been long        hand, `favored a state controlled
that college the rest of his life, his      and universal.                            church in which ecclesiastical affairs
work soon took him to London as a               To this assembly the Scottish         would be regulated by the king.
representative of the Scottish              Presbyterians were invited to send        Rutherford fought long and hard for
Churches on the Westminster As-             delegates. Samuel Rutherford was          the Presbyterian form of'church gov-
sembly.                                     chosen, an indication of the high es-     ernment which,ultimately  prevailed.
                                            teem in which he was held through-             The Westminster Confession
Work at Westminster                         out the Scottish Churches,                was the doctrinal product of this as-
    When the Puritans in England                For four years the assembly met       sembly. Its sound and virile ortho-
gained the ascendancy in Parliament         in the Jerusalem Room' of West-           doxy, however, did not come about
in England, they determined to bring        minster Abbey in London. Here in          easily. No doubt the greatest threat
true Presbyterianism to the entire          London Rutherford remained                to a soundly orthodox position was
realm. In order to accomplish this          throughout the entire time, separated     represented by Amyraldianism,
noble goal they called together an          from his family. It is some measure       `which taught `a hypothetical univer-
assembly of divines from every part         of the devotion to the cause of Christ    salism in the work of salvation and
of Great Britain for this work. This        which these men possessed that dur-       the atoning work of Christ, and
assembly has become known                   ing the four years' separation from       which insisted on a universal love
throughout subsequent history as the        his family he did not return home         of God and a desire of God to save
Westminster Assembly.                       when'the two children he had with         all who hear the gospel. Again,
    It is not our purpose in this ar-       his second wife died; he returned to      Rutherford was adamantly opposed
ticle to give a detailed history of this    a home without children and to a          to such a perversion'of  the gospel
Assembly. We are particularly con-          wife who had grieved alone.               and fought in the vanguard for the
cerned with the role played here by             Sitting alongside his good friend     clear and biblically sound statements
Samuel Rutherford - and even that           and fellow Scotsman, George Gilles-       of the Confession as we have it to-
only briefly. Let it be clearly said        pie, Rutherford rendered inestimable      d a y .
however that, with the possible ex-         service to the Assembly.2  The As-
ception of the Synod of Dort, no            sembly had to determine the type of
greater assembly of orthodox theo-          church government which would             1
logians has ever been assembled;                                                           This room is surprisingly small, not
                                            prevail in England. Represented at        much larger, if any, than my classroom
                                            the Assembly were not only Presby-        i n   Semiqary.
                                            terians, but also Independent Con-        2    George Gillespie was a man of abil-
                                            gregationalists and Erastians. The        ity equal to or perhaps even greater  than
Prof. Hanko is professor of Church His-     former proposed a form of church          that  of Rutherford. Gillespie is known
toy and New Testament in the Protes-        government in which no federation         for his  famous book, "Aaron's Rod Blos-
tan t Reformed Semina y.                                                              soming."

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       It was not until 1646 that         and he turned in fury against the            him, he responded to the messen-
Rutherford was able to leave Lon-         Presbyterians and did all in his             gers: "Tell them I behove  to answer
don. So impressed was the House           power to force prelacy on Scotland           my first summons, and ere your day
of Lords with his work that it sent a     once again.                                  come, I will be where few kings and
letter to the Scottish Churches at his        During the days when Ruther-             great folk come.N
departure which read in part: "We         ford was at the Westminster Assem-               It was the time when God's
cannot but restore him with ample         bly he had written a book entitled           saints were called to "love not their
testimony of his learning, godliness,     Lex Rex (The Law and the King)               lives unto death." Freely and joy-
faithfulness and diligence, and we        which had outlined carefully the po-         fully they chose the way of obedi-
humbly pray the Father of spirits.to      sition of Scottish Presbyterians to-         ence though it led across the dark
increase the number of such burn-         wards tyrannical kings and had set           scaffold, for it was for them the only
ing and shining lights among you."        forth what was the Presbyterian po-          way home.
                                          sition on the relation between the
Declining Years                           people of Scotland, the Church in            Rutherford's Character
       Upon his return to Scotland in     Scotland, and Scotland's king.                   In many ways Rutherford was a
1648, Rutherford became Principal             Quite naturally, Charles II hated        man of strange paradoxes, para-
of St. Mary's College in St. Andrews,     this book with a passion, for it ar-         doxes of character reflected in his
and in `1651 Rector of the Univer-        gued forcibly against all for which          writings. He was a man of easy an-
sity. His fame had by this time           kings stood. In September of 1660            ger and fiery temper before whose
spread abroad and in 1648 Ruther-:        the book was examined by the king's          fierce fury bold men quailed. But
ford declined an appointment to the       commissioners. It was condemned,             he was also of infinite patience and
Chair of Divinity in Hardewyck in         and the nation was ordered to turn           kindness towards suffering parish-
the Netherlands. The Dutch would          in all copies by October 16. Those           ioners, and they loved him for it.
have liked very much to have had          who refused to do this were de-              When Rutherford was exiled to Ab-
him, and in 1651 he twice received        clared enemies of the king. On Oc-           erdeen from his humble parish
the appointment to the Chair of Di-       tober 16 all the collected copies were       church in Anwoth, many of his
vinity in Utrecht. But his heart was      burned, with ominous implications,           people went the entire distance with
bound to his fatherland, and both         by the hangman in Edinburgh, and             him, walking on foot 230 miles, only
appointments were declined.               a few days later at the gate of              to have to return the same dreadful
       In the years following, Ruther-    Rutherford's own college in St.              distance. And when they left him
ford's life was once again filled with    Andrews.                                     at the gates of Aberdeen, they wept
sorrow. Charles I had been defeated           Rutherford was ordered to ap-            as those whose hearts were broken.
by Cromwell's armies on English soil      pear personally before the King's                His writings could be, and often
and Charles had fled to Scotland.         commissioners. This, however, he             were, long, tedious, monotonously
He was subsequently handed over           was unable to do because of his              argued, and filled with extensive and
to the English who beheaded him.          many infirmities and weaknesses.             heavy metaphors which all but
But Cromwell's successes did not          So he was tried, condemned, de-              crushed his thoughts beyond under-
solve Scotland's problems and the         posed from the ministry, and dis-            standing. He could, however, write
Presbyterians in Scotland were bit-       missed as professor  in absentia.  He        beautiful poetry that soared with the
terly divided over the question of        was ordered to remain under guard            eagles. In our home library we have
the attitude which the Scottish           in his own house until a further sen-        a small book of his poetry that stirs
Churches thought they should take         tence could be executed.                     the soul.
towards Cromwell's forces. Presby-            It was indeed the "Killing                   In like manner, his writings
terians were split, many friendships      Times." Rutherford's two colleagues          could be, and often were, bitter, an-
were broken, and bitter acrimony          were killed: Argyle was beheaded             gry, intolerant, filled with seeming
and fighting followed in which            on the scaffold and Guthrie was              malice  - especially when enemies
Rutherford found himself in a mi-         hanged. Rutherford was next in line,         of the gospel were the objects of his
nority position. It was no wonder         but by the time his turn came around         fury. But his letters, written from
that the Scottish were the first to       he was dying.                                Aberdeen in the days of his exile,
welcome back to the throne Charles            In fact, according to his own con-       were warm, comforting to the sor-
II.                                       fession, he preferred a martyr's             rowing, encouraging to the discour-
---Charles II came to the throne          death: "I would think it a more glo-         aged, filled with the overflowing of
with solemn promises to observe the       rious way of going home to lay down          a pastor's heart.
National League and Covenant, but         my life for the cause, . . . but I submit        While often times his writings
as was true of the Stuarts in gen-        to my Master's will." And when he            sank beneath the weight of heavy
eral, lying came easy to him. No          was ordered to appear in court to            and ponderous arguments and high-
longer than his position was secure       have the death sentence passed on            flown and over-blown rhetoric,

42?/Standard Bearer /June  1,1995


sometimes his statements could                 for sanctification as well as justifica-    but because he preached Christ -
come like a rapier. To a would-be              tion."                                      and did so with passion.
professor in the University he said:               His forte remained his preach-              He lived a faithful servant of
"If you would be a deep divine [theo-          ing. It is said of him that crowds          Christ and died escaping a martyr's
logian], I recommend to you sancti-            were attracted to his preaching not         death by a hair's breadth. His legacy
fication." And on his deathbed he              so much by the persuasiveness of            lives on in that towering monument
died with the words on his lips from           his argumentation, not because of           to orthodoxy, the Westminster Con-
which many preachers could profit              the power of his oratory, not out of        fession.  IJ
mightily: "I betake  myself to Christ          amazement at his exegetical skills,





                                               An Arrow
                           Leaving the Quiver

    As arrows are in the hand of a                 Within a few weeks of .their birth      ours, but His! So quickly we as-
mighty man; so are children  of  the youth.    we begin tirelessly to try to make          sume possession and ownership.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver          them to smile. And how ecstatic             God gives us responsibilities toward
full of them.                                  we are if we get a response (and we         the child's care and training, but we
                          Psalm 127:4,5        do not care if it is a genuine smile        often wrongly jump to the conclu-
                                               or one caused by gas). Later we             sion that responsibility means own-
    Often when we see a newborn                cannot wait for them to take their          ership. Or, worse yet, we often act
child we are amazed. We can stare              first step, clapping our hands and          as if we made the child, taking credit
at them for hours as they lie sleep-           shouting for joy at their "success."        for the things they do or say which
ing. We consider with amazement                Later yet we are anxious to hear            are right or popular, as if we made
how they existed inside the mother             them speak their first word, even if        them to be what they are. For ex-
for nine months. Often it is re-               the parents are the only ones who           ample, my child is cute because he
marked with awe aswe watch their               can understand what the child said.         or she looks like me. But God made
little nostrils flair slightly with each           We are often surprised at the           the child fearfully and wondrously,-
breath, that they lived for nine               first signs of willful stubbornness         He graciously gave to us the child
months without breathing any air,              and rebellion. First we may think it        He made in the dark depths of the
but suddenly they absolutely need              is cute, but later we can easily be-        mother's womb. When the child
air to breathe. We coo and make                come angry at their sin. We pray            was still unperfect, then the Almighty
various kinds of funny noises and              for and anxiously look for the first        saw and curiously wrought (Ps.
faces, talking in a voice which is very        evidences of their interest in spiri-       139:16).
different from our normal tone (we             tual things. We pray fervently that             Scripture tells us, "Lo, children
would be embarrassed to talk to any-           any interest will be genuine and will       are an heritage of the LORD: and the
one else the same way). We look at             grow.                                       fruit of the womb is his reward. As
their tiny fingers and toes and at the             For nine months we, as parents          arrows are in the hand of a mighty
wrinkles in their skin and consider            (and grandparents), wait for the abil-      man; so are children of the youth.
how wonderfully they have been                 ity to see and hold that which lived        Happy is the man that hath his
made.                                          in  secret  (Ps.  139:15). And toward       quiver full of them" (Ps. 127:3-5a).
                                               the end of the pregnancy it was hard        Children are a gift from God (a gift
                                               to be patient. Often I think that the       which keeps on giving - both hap-
Rev.  VanOverloop  is pastor  o f              Lord makes us wait for several              piness and heartache). They are as             .
Georgetown Protestant Reformed                 months as a gentle, but very pointed,       arrows. We did not make the wood
Church in Bauer, Michigan.                     reminder that the child is not really       of the arrow; God did. We did not

                                                                                                       June 1,199SJStandard Bearer1423


make the feathers; God did. And             to pray). Everything that could be        with the feelings of a lighter quiver?
we had nothing to do with making            done, is done. Once it has left the           The child's leaving the parental
the stone or metal which makes the          bow, nothing more can be done to          home is a powerful reminder to the
point; God did. God made and He             shape the arrow.                          parents that the child is not theirs.
still owns the arrows He gives to               For years we parents devoted          He or she never was. We may have
us.                                         our time and efforts to preparing         thought so, or acted as if they were;
       We did not make up the ele-          and polishing the children God gave       but they really were not. God made
ments of the arrow, but we do have          to us. We worked to shape and to          the wood, feathers, and point. He
the responsibility of laboring over         mold them in the right way. We            fearfully and wonderfully made the
the shaft to make sure it is straight       taught, we admonished, we encour-         child.
and smooth. We search for feathers          aged, we badgered, we bribed, we           Our children leave our homes
that their shape and placement on           counseled, and we shouted. We             and we realize that our calling of
the shaft is just right. And we             laughed and we cried. Hardly a mo-        shaping and molding them is now
sharpen the point and .firmly attach        ment (especially for the mother) and      completed. We cannot undo any-
it, We did not make the child, but          never a day went by that we did           thing we did before, no matter how
we do have the responsibility of rais-      not consider the child. In fact, in       hard we try. In fact, often efforts to
ing him in the nurture and admoni-          many ways our whole life changed          "make it right" only do more harm
tion of the Lord.                           and was affected by the presence of       than good. We let go, realizing again
                                            the child or children. Many times,        that they are not ours, but the
       +++  o++  *  ++-+                    far more than the child will know,        Lords. And we are made to realize
                                            we wept over their sinful actions.        that our work of Christian parenting
       Growing up is tough. It is tough     But more often we cried because of        was to nurture and shape them for
on the child and on the parents. And        frustrations at our own weaknesses.       the glory of God. This is humbling,
the. older they are, the tougher it         And we prayed. We prayed that             because we are made to realize that
seems to be.                                God would use us, the weakest of          constantly we have to fight the un-
       Children are not just any arrows.    means, to work in the hearts and          conscious desire to raise them to be
They are arrows in the hand of a            lives of our children, so what we         our pride and joy.
warrior. The warrior uses his ar-           taught in the home and school and             When the child leaves our
rows to defend himself and to at-           what the church taught them would         homes, there may be ways in which
tack the enemy. His arrows are vi-          sink in, that is, that the Holy Spirit    parents can still influence the child.
tal, essential to his life. Therefore       would speak to their hearts and           This however requires more wisdom
his arrows must be prepared with a          minds. Though we never worked             than was necessary before the child
great deal of care.                         as much or as well as we should           left home, especially if the child left
       The skilled warrior prepares his     have, we did work very hard in            home to get married. When the ar-
arrows carefulIy. He seeks out the          shaping and molding the arrow(s)          row is launched into a marriage'
best kind of wood, carefully making         God gave us.                              there is very little the parents can
sure the grain is straight and true.            Eventually the day of launching       do (or should try to do), and they
He carefully cuts it to the right           the arrow arrives. The child may be       must recognize and rest in that fact.
length. He seeks to make round the          going off to college. Years ago many      We may pray that the arrow will fly
shaft, and then he polishes it for          parents watched their son enter into      true. We know that our skills in
straight flight. He carefully attaches      the world of the army (because of         preparing and in launching were far
the feathers so the arrow's trajectory      the draft), and sometimes sent them       from perfect. In fact, sometimes we
will be true. He affixes the sharp-         off to war. Now it is more likely         hurt more than help, and even at
ened tip with equal care because its        that the child leaves his or her par-     times we were ruinous to the shap-
weight must stabilize the arrow, so         ents' home to get married.                ing of a godly arrow. So we pray
it can reach its goal. Then there               As the arrow leaves the finger-       constantly that God will forgive, and
comes the day when the warrior              tips, all the work of shaping is com-     will have worked in the hearts of
launches his arrow. He carefully            pleted. Now the parents can only          our child even in spite of us. We
aims at his target, making allowance        watch (and keep praying). Children        pray that God will compensate for
for distance and wind. But all his          are like arrows, not like guided mis-     our inadequacies and sins, and make
skill is for nothing if the arrow has       siles which can receive mid-course        the flight true to the goal.
not been shaped well. Unless the            corrections. Will the years of shap-          So we let the child leave our
arrow has been well made it will            ing, polishing, and balancing be suf-     home, remembering that we were
not fly true.                               ficient? How will the scars and           but guardians of God's child, stew-
       Once the arrow is launched,          wounds of the warrior (parents) af-       ards of His possession. And we let
there is little the warrior can do to       fect the flight of the arrow?             the arrow fly, putting our confidence
direct its flight (except to watch and          And how does the warrior deal         in Him. "Being confident of this

424jStandard  Bearer/June 1,1995


very thing, that he which hath be-         pentance in the hearts of the elect,      difficult to let the child go when he
gun a good work in you will per-           spiritual seed. God usually blesses       comes of age. But that we must do,
form it until the day of Jesus Christ"     our efforts and prayers. It is His        committing him to the Lord, who
(Phil. 1:6). The promise of God is         tremendous mercy that He would            alone can care for him (after all, He
that He will use the instruction of        use weakest means to fulfill His will.    did when he was under our care).
godly parents to work faith and re-        Parenting is a hard work. And it is                                                   cl





     Be Not Highminded but IF
                          (The Proper Attitude of the Christian

                Toward the Truth of Absolute Predestination)


    The above admonition is a quote        an olive tree. The olive tree repre-      sovereign purpose of salvation is for
from Romans 11:20. In the context          sents Christ. The branches in this        the entire New Testament age. The
the apostle Paul is speaking about         olive tree represent not individual       inspired apostle Paul himself is so
God's sovereign purpose of predes-         Jews or Gentiles but rather genera-       deeply moved by the consideration
tination for both Jews and Gentiles        tions of men. If we would make            of the truths of which he writes in
as it is realized in the new dispensa-     these branches refer to individuals       this section of his epistle to the Ro-
tion. That this is the subject of Ro-      we would end up teaching the error        mans that he ends it all by bursting
mans chapter 11 is evident from its        of the possibility of the falling away    forth in praise to God. "0 the
opening verses. Paul in this chapter       of the saints. In both the old and the    depths of the riches both of the wis-
is explaining the truth that God will      new dispensations the Lord is             dom and knowledge of God! how
not cast away His people whom He           pleased to save His people in the         unsearchable are his judgments, and
foreknew. The reference is first of        line of generations. According to         his ways past finding out! For who
all to God's Old Testament people,         God's sovereign purpose He cut out        hath known the mind of the Lord?
the Jews. In spite of the falling away     of the olive tree the unbelieving and     or who hath been his counsellor? Or
of many of the Jews and the fact           apostate generations of the Jews, and     who hath first given to him, and it
that the majority of them rejected         in their place He engrafted branches      shall be recompensed unto him
the Christ whom God sent to save           of the Gentiles. This will result fi-     again? For of him, and through him,
them (for He came unto His own             nally in the saving of all the elect      and to him, are all things: to whom
and His own received Him not), the         Gentiles and all the elect Jews ("the     be the glory for ever. Amen" (Rom.
purpose of God's election will stand.      fullness of the Gentiles" and the sav-    11:33-36).
"Even so then at this present time         ing of "all Israel"). This will take          We are not going to present in
also there is a remnant according to       place through the history of the New      this article any kind of summary in-
the election of grace" (Rom. 11:6).        Testament age until the day that the      terpretation of Romans 11. In this
    In Romans 11 Paul sets forth the       Lord returns. This is our interpreta-     rubric of the Standard Bearer we are
sovereign purpose of God in the sav-       tion especially of verses 25 and 26.      asked especially to focus on practi-
ing of both Jew and Gentile. He                I want to exhort you to read the      cal issues related to the calling of
does this by means of the figure of        entire amazing eleventh chapter of        God's people to walk in the fear of
                                           the book of Romans. It is one of the      God. Our focus therefore is going
                                           grandest chapters in all the Bible de-    to be on the admonition: "be not
Rev. denHartog  is pastor of Hope Prot-    scribing the truth of God's absolute      highminded but fear." This Word
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,        sovereignty in the saving of His          of God is admonishing us regarding
California.                                people. It really shows what God's        the proper .attitude that we must

                                                                                                   June 1,1995/Standard  Bearer1425


have towards the truth of God's sav-           tating on the doctrines of God's ab-              will realize how utterly foolish and
ing His people. This admonition ap-            solute predestination and the truths              evil it is for us to boast before God.
plies to us as we take, so to speak,           of God's sovereign grace. By no                        I will assume that most readers
an overview of the purpose of God              means do these doctrines involve                  of the Standard Bearer are from Gen-
through all history in the consider-           mere abstract questions best left only            tile backgrounds, though it would
ation of how God saved both Jews               to the theologians in our seminaries              fill us with joy to know that a num-
and Gentiles. That really is the im-           and irrelevant to Christian living.               ber of converted children of God
mediate consideration of chapter 11            The constant diligent and prayerful               from Jewish background are also
of Romans. But this admonition also            consideration of these doctrines by               reading this paper. In Paul's in-
has application to us as we consider           the true child of God will do a great             spired letters he is repeatedly re-
our own particular salvation and               deal to engender in him, by the                        minding those from Gentile
consider the fearful truth that God            Spirit of God, an attitude of                            background what they once
has by His sovereign grace saved us,           godly fear and humble grati-                              were. We were in our  gen-
                                                                                            ,.
while'at the same time He has sov-             tude to God. When God              Boasnng                 erations once without God,
ereignly reprobated many thousands             opens our eyes we see these               is a              without Christ, and therefore
of people with whom we come in                 doctrines on every page of        terrible sin              without hope in the world
contact everyday in our life. The              the Scriptures. We must in-       before God,                (see Eph. 212). Romans 11
admonition above must direct the               sist that these doctrines are        for it is              speaks of the Gentiles com-
attitude that we have both before              clearly sounded forth in ev-       a seeking                ing from a wild olive tree.
God and to our fellow man in the               ery sermon preached in our            to rob                The "Gentiles" are a people
world.                                         churches. We must know                    God              who are utterly corrupt and
        To be highminded is to be              what our beautiful confes-            of His               depraved in their nature.
proud, to boast of oneself. In the             sions have to say about these         LwY*                Thev live in absolute spiritual
context of Romans 11 the reference             great truths. We must teach                             darkness and ignorance h spite
is to be highminded as one stands              these doctrines diligently to our                     of their imagined great self
before God. This is to imagine fool-           children. These doctrines stand at                knowledge, learning, and wisdom.
ishly and wickedly that we have                the heart of our salvation and they               They walk, Paul says in Ephesians
some special place of favor and glory          are the well-spring of the fear of God            4, "in the vanity of their mind, hav-
before God because of who and what             and humility in the life of the child             ing their understanding darkened,
we are in ourselves. Our sinful na-            of God.                                           being alienated from the life of God
ture makes us prone to such vain                   We have a sinful nature that is               through the ignorance that is in
imagination. For this reason this ad-          prone to boasting and glorying in                 them, because of the blindness of
monition is cast in the negative form.         ourselves. The whole wicked world                 their heart: who being past feeling
        Positively there is no truth of the    as well as the apostate church-world              have given themselves over unto las-
Scriptures that gives the true child           encourages men to boast, by their                 civiousness, to work all manner of
of God more cause for deep humil-              false doctrines and philosophies.                 uncleanness with greediness."
ity and fear than the truth of God's           But before God we have no reason                       What a description that is of the
absolute predestination, the truth of          to boast. Boasting is a terrible sin              modern-day "Gentiles" of the world
His sovereign goodness in saving               before God, for it is a seeking to rob            in which we live, also of those who
His people, and sovereign severity             God of His glory. We have only                    live in our apostate nation. But be-
in condemning the reprobate. We as             reason to fear when we consider the               fore we become so "highminded"
Reformed Christians confess these              absolute sovereign goodness of God                that we imagine ourselves to be by
truths. We above all ought to walk             in saving us and His dreadful se-                 nature better than even the worst of
in deep humility and fear before our           verity in condemning the reprobate.               these "Gentiles," let us remember
God and men. The Canons of Dordt                   Let us consider some of the fear-             that we were once like them, and
make this point. "The sense and cer-           ful details of God's sovereignty men-             we are even now according to our
tainty of this election afford the child       tioned in Romans 11. God saved us                 depraved sinful nature still like
of God additional matter for daily             according to His own absolutely sov-              them. But God in His sovereign
humiliation before him, for adoring            ereign good pleasure without any                  goodness was pleased to choose His
the depth of his mercies, for cleans-          regard whatsoever to what we were                 people from eternity even though He
ing themselves, and rendering grate-           or are in ourselves. The Lord chose               who knows all things, knew that in
ful returns of ardent love to him,             us in Christ already from before the              time this people would be nothing
who first manifested so great love             foundation of the world in His un-            better than the ungodly Gentiles of
towards them" (Canons I, Article               changeable purpose of election. Who               the world. Where then is our rea-
13).                                           will ever be able to fathom the depth             s o n   f o r   b o a s t i n g ,   f o r   high-
        There is indeed a great benefit        of this mystery! If we have even an               mindedness?
for the Christian always to be medi-           inkling of what this is all about we                   Many of us, by the grace of God,

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are part of those who have already             The truth of reprobation is re-               verity cut off many of the genera-
for generations been children of God.      peatedly taught in the Scriptures as              tions of the apostate wicked Jews
But always we need to remember             the background of God's gracious                  who were once in their generations
our origin and what we really are          election and salvation of His people.             children of God. In the place of the
by nature. We all stand by nature          Of this also our Canons speak.                    Jews who were cut off, God was
condemned to be worthy of ever-                                                              pleased to graft Gentile branches into
lasting hell. But God in His sover-            What particularly tends to illus-             His olive tree so that the rejection of
eign mercy in Christ Jesus has saved         trate and recommend to us the eter-             the Jews became the salvation of the
us. What a fearful truth. God will           nal and unmerited grace of elec-                Gentiles. In our day we see many
have us again and again meditate             tion is the express testimony of the            generations even in Reformed
on the wonders of His sovereign              sacred Scripture, that not all, but
                                             some only are elected, while others             churches who were once children of
grace in saving us against the dark          are passed by in the eternal elec-              God that have been cut off and that
background of what we once were              tion of God; whom God, out of His               are completely apostate and un-
and what we still are by nature. This        sovereign, most just, irreprehensible           godly. Their lives clearly reveal that,
gives us reason only for humility be-        and  unchangeable good pleasure,                even though some of them still pro-
fore God and man.                            hath decreed to leave in the com-              fess to be "Christian." What is our
       We are to fear before God also        mon misery into which they have                 attitude over against such? Are we
when we consider the sovereign se-           willfully plunged themselves, and              better than they? Again we have no
verity of God in reprobation. We             not to bestow on them saving faith              reason for highmindedness. It is
confess with fear and trembling the          and grace of conversion; but leav-              only the sovereign goodness of God
truth of reprobation because it is           ing them in His just judgment to
                                             follow their own ways, at the last              that preserves us and our children.
clearly taught in the Bible. The sov-        for the declaration of His justice, to                    The only reason why we at all
ereignty in God's reprobating unbe-          condemn and to punish them for-                 continue in faithfulness to the Lord
lieving Israel is emphasized in  Ro-         ever, not only on account of their              is God's sovereign goodness to us.
mans 11, in verses 7-11, where Faul          unbelief, but also for all their other          If God would stop dealing with us
says that God Himself has blinded            sins. And this is the decree of rep-            according to His mercy we would
the reprobate. He gave them eyes             robation which by no means makes                also be cut off. If God cut off the
that they should not see and ears            God the author of sin (the very                natural branches from the olive tree
that they should not hear. It is evi-        thought of whish is blasphemy),                we ought to fear that He will also
dent that reprobation is eternal and         but declares him to be an awful,
                                             irreprehensible, and righteous                  cut us off who were once wild
sovereign. In that respect it is paral-      judge and avemger thereof (Canons              branches. If we were left to ourselves
lel with election. God reprobates the        I, Artisle  15).                               we would long ago have been cut
ungodly in the way of their own                                                              off in our generations because of
wickedness and rebellion against               What reason all this gives us to             apostasy.
God. In the end God will reveal in         fear and tremble before God! Oh the                         The fear of God that the consid-
reprobation His own just severity.         severity of His perfect righteous                           eration of these great truths in-
The severity of God is not cruel. The      and holy judgment of the                                      spires in the child of God must
infinitely perfect holy God is not         wicked. But all this must be                _                  constrain him to a life of hu-
                                                                                                  "
cruel. It is blasphemy to suggest          driven home to our heart and                me only             mility, obedience, fear, and
that. God is severely just. He is          soul by the consideration             reason why                 humble gratitude to God.
unassailably just in all that He does.     that we are no better than                  we at all            We ought also live in hu-
The purpose of God's reprobation           the reprobate and deserve to          con time in                mility in our attitude  to-
according to Romans is that God is         be condemned by the same              faithfulness               wards our fellow men who
willing to show His wrath, and to          severe justice of God. If                    to the              in their lives reveal them-
make his power known, and so He            God would have dealt with                     Lord.              selves as ungodly.  With-
endures with much longsuffering the        us only according to His jus-               is God's             out the grace of God we too
vessels of wrath fitted to destruc-        tice we would all face the             sovereign                would be ungodly. We are
tion (see Rom. 9:19-22).  There are        eternal horror of hell. What a         goodness                from day to day completely
many fearful mysteries about repro-                                                     to us.
                                           fearful thing! The only thing                                  dependent on the grace of
bation that go beyond our ability to       that saved us from the condem-                               God and therefore have no rea-
comprehend. Though we may not              nation that the ungodly world will                     son to boast in ourselves.
be able to comprehend the fearful          suffer is the sovereign grace and                           There is a covenantal aspect to
justice of God in reprobation, we          mercy of God. Nothing else!                      this admonition. God warns us in
have no right as mere men to reply             Another reason for fear accord-              Romans 11 about the real possibility
against God, something that we are         ing to the apostle in Romans 11 is               of the branches of the "Gentiles" also
in fact prone by nature to want to         the realization that God in His se-              being cut off from the Lord because
do.                                                                                         of pride and apostasy.  ..We must

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therefore walk in the fear of the Lord        With fear and trembling we con-      doxology of praise to God. "For of
and diligently teach our children and     sider the wonderful way of God's         him, and through him, and to him,
the generations after us to walk in       sovereignty in saving His people for     are all things: to whom be glory for
that same fear.                           His own glory. We join Paul in his       ever. Amen." 0





                                                    Chapter 4
                                          ast Four Days of
                                      ation-Week (cont.)

                                          Man was made a king. It is his very      ing that Adam was created God's
God's Creation of Man:                    nature to exercise dominion over the     covenant friend.
(4) Created God's Covenant Friend         earth.                                       It is true that in the opening
     It is very evident from Genesis          But as we said, this dominion is     chapters of Genesis no literal men-
126 that there is a close relation be-    closely related to man's being cre-      tion is made of this covenant rela-
tween man's being created in the im-      ated in the image and likeness of        tion. Yet this was man's high honor
age of God and his dominion over          God. The connection is this, that in     and his original distinction. The
the earthly creation. According to        his dominion over the earthly cre-       blessed life of fellowship with God
this Word of God, we are informed         ation man was not an independent         was man's originally: man was cre-
that "God said, Let us make man in        king, ruling in his own right, but he    ated the friend of God. As often as
our image, after our likeness: and        represented God's own sovereignty,       Scripture speaks of the relation be-
let them have dominion over the fish      as God's image-bearer, in the visible    tween God and man, it presents the
of the sea, and over the fowl of the      and earthly creation. God's man-         fundamental relation as being prop-
a& and over the cattle, and over all      date to man was threefold: 1) he         erly that of a covenant. The Bible
the earth, and over every creeping        must propagate and fill the earth, 2)    also presents the essence and the
thing that creepeth upon the earth."      he must subdue the earth: he must        heart of that covenant as consisting
In verse 28, after we are informed        discover and bring into his service      in friendship. This is directly pre-
that God created man in His own           the powers of creation, develop, and     supposed in a text like Hosea 6:7,
image, we read: "God blessed them,        use them, and 3) he must have do-        where the Lord accuses His faith-
and God said unto them, Be fruit-         minion over all the earthly creation,    less and spiritually adulterous
ful, and multiply, and replenish the      and rule over and care for all crea-     people that "ye like men (or, `like
earth, and subdue it: and have do-        tures. All this he must do as cre-       Adam') have transgressed the cov-
minion over the fish of the sea, and      ated in the image of God, that is, as    enant." Moreover, it is presupposed
over the fowl of the air, and over        filled with the true knowledge of        in all that we read of God's dealings
every living thing that moveth upon       God, righteousness, and holiness.        with Adam in Paradise. God speaks
the earth." By this Word of God to        This meant that man was to be busy       with Adam as a friend with his
man Me not only gave to man an            in the earthly creation as God's         friend. He addresses him concern-
external appointment or commission        friend-servant, consecrated to his       ing his lordship over all the earthly
TV have dominion, but this domin-         Creator and motivated by the love        creation, gives him a commandment
ion was something that was                of God. He must love God, glorify        to keep and to dress the garden, as
concreated into man's very being.         Him, and consecrate all things to        well as concerning the tree of knowl-
                                          Him. He was God's office-bearer,         edge of good and evil. And Adam
                                          God's prophet, priest, and king -        hears the Word of God and under-
The late Homer Hoeksema was profes-       in a word, God's friend-servant.         stands, and he knows God in the
sor of Dogmatics and Old Testament in     And God was his Friend-Sovereign.        wind of the day (Gen. 359.
the Protestant Reformed Seminary.             We may sum this all up by say-           But more than this, salvation is

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in the Scriptures always presented         tween God and Adam like a ladder           eternal life and heavenly glory and
as the restoration and perfecting of       of obedience by which Adam might           the immortality of the resurrection
the relation between God and man           climb up to the higher and heavenly        constitute a state of bliss that can be
which was violated and on man's            life of glory.                             attained only through our Lord Jesus
part breached through sin, and it is           There are many serious objec-          Christ, the Son of God come in the
consistently presented as the estab-       tions to this rather cold and mechani-     flesh. The first man, Adam, was of
lishment and realization of the cov-       cal view of God's covenant. But we         the earth, earthy. He could not pos-
enant of God with man, that is, with       wish to mention just three. 1) The         sibly reach to heaven. The second
His people in Christ Jesus. With the       Scriptures know nothing whatsoever         man is the Lord from heaven. It is
patriarchs, Noah and Abraham and           of such an agreement. God gave             only in and through Him that God's
Isaac and Jacob, and finally Israel,       Adam a commandment, yes, but He            covenant is raised to the everlasting
God established His everlasting cov-       certainly. did not conclude any kind       glory and perfection of heaven.
enant, according to the Scriptures         of bargain in connection with that             Rather than this conception of
,(Gen.  6:18; 9:8-17;  17:7ff.;  Gal.      commandment. God announced to              Adam as a wage-earner, we must
3:15ff.). And His promise, accord-         Adam the penalty of death upon dis-        have the proper idea of Adam as
ing to Jeremiah 31:31ff.,  is that He      obedience to that commandment not          the friend of God, his Creator and
will establish with His people a new       to eat of the tree of knowledge of         Lord.
covenant, a higher realization of the      good and evil. But it is a faulty in-          This relation of friendship be-
covenant, based on the blood of            ference to conclude from this an-          tween Adam and God subsisted not
Jesus, according to which He will          nounced penalty that Adam had the          because of any special agreement or
write His law upon their hearts, that      promise of eternal life as the wages       contract, but by virtue of man's be-
all, from the greatest to the small-       of obedience. Conceivably, if Adam         ing created in the image of God.
est, may know Him. Moreover, as            had not sinned, he could have lived        This covenant relation was, there-
often as the Scriptures refer to this      everlastingly in Paradise, but this is     fore, not something incidental, and
covenant - and the passages of             not at all the same as the eternal life    not a means to an end, but it was
Scripture which do this are very nu-       of heaven. The Scriptures, therefore,      essential, and it was the living rela-
merous - the covenant relation is          breathe not a word of such a cov-          tion of fellowship between God and
always presented as consisting es-         enant of works.                            Adam. This friendship was that liv-
sentially in the bond of living fel-           2) There is the principle objec-       ing bond of communion, that high-
lowship and friendship. In a word,         tion that man can never merit any-         est and most perfect form of the
it is this: "I will be your God, and       thing with God, and that all religion      bond of love that was based upon
ye shall be my people." And when           that is based upon this notion of hu-      the highest possible likeness between
that covenant of God is perfected,         man merit is fundamentally corrupt.        two personal beings. It was the re-
we read this in Revelation 21:3: "Be-      Our Lord Jesus Christ can, indeed,         flection of God's own life. For God
hold, the tabernacle of God is with        merit righteousness and eternal life       is the covenant God in Himself, first
men, and he will dwell with them,          as the Head of His people, but this        of all, and lives a covenant life in
and they shall be his people, and          is only because He is the Son of God.      Himself, as the Triune God. God is
God himself shall be with them, and        Man is always in a position of obli-       one in Being, but three in Persons.
be their God."                             gation to God. He can never merit          All the three Persons of the Trinity
    Rather commonly this covenant          anything for God nor bring anything        are essentially absolutely alike. They
with Adam is described as a cov-           to God that is not God's from the          are of one mind and will and love
enant of works. According to this          outset. How, then, can he ever claim       and life. Yet, they are personally
presentation the covenant relation         a reward of merit from the Most            distinct, the Father, the Son, amd the
between God and Adam is pre-               High? As the Lord Jesus instructs          Holy Spirit. As such they live the
sented as an arrangement or agree-         His disciples concerning this              life of most intimate communion
ment according to which the first          Phariseeistic idea of work-righteous-      with one another in eternal and infi-
man could have merited and at-             ness, so it is: "So likewise ye, when      nite perfection. They know one an-.
tained to the higher state of eternal      ye shall have done all these things        other. They have no secrets from
life and heavenly glory upon condi-        which are commanded you, say, We           one another. They enter perfectly
tion of perfect obedience. This cov-       are unprofitable servants: we have         into one another's mind and will and
enant was really a means to an end.        done that which was our duty to            life. For God is love.
Adam was free, but he had not at-          do." Man even in the state of recti-           It was of this blessed life and
tained to the highest possible free-       tude could never do anything extra,        fellowship that God purposed to
dom. He had life, but he did not           anything that was not required of          give His creature a taste. It was of
possess eternal life, the heavenly life    him; and he could never, therefore,        that divine life of perfect friendship
of glory. The covenant of works was        earn anything with God.                    that Adam's relation to God was a
supposedly a special agreement be-             3) We must remember that               reflection. He, too, was made like

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God, though in a creaturely way: for      his obligation and his inmost desire.       the flesh and the pride of life. There
he was made in God's own image,           That service of God was his delight.        is only woe and cursing and wrath
in true knowledge of God, righteous-      The delight of that service was his         for such a world that carries out this
ness, and holiness. On the basis of       reward; for in it all he tasted the         dominion over all things, but in re-
this likeness, Adam stood in cov-         favor and lovingkindness of his God.        bellion against the living God and
enant relation to his Creator. He         Walking with God as His friend, he          in the service of sin and corruption.
was the friend of God. His heart          walked before God as His servant.           The end of this false culture, this cul-
was knit to the heart of God. His         Adam was the friend-servant of Je-          ture of unrighteousness and rebel-
will was in harmony with the will         hovah!                                      lion, this culture in the vicious circle
of God. The most High revealed                True, Adam was made a little            of vanity, as it shall culminate pres-
Himself to Adam, and he entered           lower than the angels. He lived the         ently in the reign of Antichrist, is
into God's counsel. God spoke to          life of covenant fellowship with God        dreadful destruction. For God is not
Adam, and the latter heard and un-        on the earthly plane; and the heav-         mocked! There is no peace, saith
derstood. God did not hide any-           enly things were not for him in that        my God, to the wicked!
thing from Adam; and Adam had             original state. Moreover, he was                Nevertheless, God maintains His
no secrets from God. God opened           made not so that he could not fall          covenant, and He purposes to raise
His heart to Adam, and he tasted          from that blessed state. But withal,        it to the higher level of heavenly and
the blessedness of God's favor and        he stood originally in that position        eternal perfection in and through
lovingkindness which is better than       of perfect happiness with the Lord          Christ Jesus our Lord. From this
life. God entrusted to Adam the           his Creator; and the consciousness          point of view the sin and FalI of the
lordship over all the works of His        and blessedness of God's favor was          first man, Adam, furnishes the oc-
hands in the earthly creation. He         his delight and reward. Such was            casion for Christ to come, the Lord
was Adam's benefactor, and filled         his highly exalted position.                from heaven, from eternity ap-
him with His goodness. And Adam               But as h&hay  as he was exalted,        pointed the Head of God's eternal
was of the party of the living God,       so deeply has man fallen. He did            covenant of grace with His people.
knew God, and glorified and served        not regard his blessedness and              That Christ is the Friend-servant of
Him in all the works of His hands.        honor. He became unfaithful to his          God par excellence. He became obe-
That is the living bond of fellowship     Friend-Sovereign, violated the CQV-         dient unto the death of the cross,
in which the first man stood to his       enant of friendship, rejected the           and thus He laid the foundations of
God. Adam was God's covenant              Word of God for the lie of the devil,       God's eternal tabernacle, the basis
friend.                                   and became the enemy of God and             of the eternal covenant, in perfect
    But he was not God's equal.           the friend of the devil, and the slave      righteousness. He is exalted at the
Friend of God he was, but only as         of sin.                                     right hand of God, has received the
God's servant. As God's servant,              To be sure, it is still evident that    promise of the Spirit, and by His al-
Adam had work to do, as we have           man was originalIy the image-bearer         mighty grace He overcomes the
already noted. He was appointed           of God. It is still evident that he         power of sin and rebellion in the
lord of the earthly creation, to rule     was once the lord of creation. Man          hearts of His elect covenant people,
over it and to develop it in the name     still multiplies and replenishes the        and renews them unto the eternal
of God and in the service of God          earth. He still attempts to press -         life of covenant fellowship with the
and to God's glory. This was his          and succeeds also in a measure -            ever-blessed God.
task, a tremendous cultural task in       to press all things into his service.           The result is that they that be-
the true sense of the word. His call-     One has only to look at all the man         lieve on His name are through His
ing was to be God's servant, God's        made wonders of modern civiliza-            own sovereign grace friends of God
representative, God's superintendent      tion and alI the accomplishments of         once more. They are sorry for their
in all the creation - in the garden       humanistic culture in our twentieth         sins, and in this new covenant they
which he was to dress and to keep,        century for evidence of this. Indeed,       have forgiveness in the blood of
but also in the whole of creation         man still has dominion and subdues          Jesus. In that same new covenant,
which he was to subdue and rule.          the earth. His accomplishments,             they forsake the world, crucify their
But this service he was called to per-    even though he has but a remnant            old nature, and walk in a new and
form as God's friend, acknowledg-         of natural light, are startling. But        holy life. They have a new delight
ing God as his Friend-Sovereign. He       he is no longer the friend-servant of       in the precepts of their God. They
had no sense of compulsion. There         the living God. He exercises domin-         again taste the lovingkindness of
was no special reward for him, nor        ion as a usurper. He strives to sub-        God that is better to them than life.
the need of wages. He was moti-           due the earth as a rebel and as an          They are of the party of the living
vated by the willing obedience of         alien in God's house. In his culture        God. They keep the Word of God
love. He served God for God's sake.       he creates for himself an entire world      and the testimony of Jesus in the
There was no conflict in him between      of the lust of the eye and the lust of      midst of a world that rebels against

43QlStandard Bearer /June 1 ,I995


Him. They have their part not with       look and pray for the coming again         continuing place here below. When
the world that passes away. They         of their Lord from heaven. For they        their Lord shall come again, He shall
have their expectation not of this       have their hope fixed upon the city        make all things new and shall for-
world's sinful culture. They have        that hath foundations and upon the         ever establish the eternal covenant
their hope fixed not on the things       new creation, and they are pilgrims        of friendship in a new heavens and
that are below and that perish. They     and strangers in the earth, with no        a new earth. 0




Congregational Activities                pated new church home. This up-            church such as should be saved.
    On May 2 the council of the          date will not be current but will still
Grandville, MI PRC brought a pro-        give you a feel for the progress be-       School Activities
posal to their congregation for adop-    ing made. As of late April, the                At this time of year our Chris-
tion. The council, through its Long-     plumbing and electrical roughing-in        tian schools usually meet to adopt
Range Planning Committee, was            work was done and the block walls          budgets for the coming school year.
looking for authorization to proceed     were up displaying the locations of        In order to educate the anticipated
with construction of a 3,900 square      doors, windows, and rooms.                 410 students at our Heritage Chris-
foot addition to their church. This          The congregation of the Faith          tian School in Hudsonville, MI for
proposed addition will include a         PRC in Jenison, MI was invited to          the school year 1995-1996, their bud-
large meeting room capable of seat-      stay after their evening service on        get topped the $1,000,000.00  mark.
ing 200 people around tables. The        May 7 for a light supper and a song        We would assume that this is the
room will contain movable parti-         service.                                   first time that that has happened in
tions, so that it can be divided into        Recently we were informed that         the history of the PR schools.
six classrooms. Also included in the     the area code for part of Colorado,            Despite this figure, we can also
proposed addition are a kitchen, a       including the city of Loveland,            report that tuition costs at Heritage
pastor's study, a council room, and      where our Loveland PRC is located,         have not changed for the last two
two nurseries with adjoining bath-       has been changed to 970. Currently         years, nor will they next year, D.V.
room. The council recommended            you can still use either the existing
also that part of the funds for the      area code of 303 or the new code           Denominational Activities
project be used for the repair of the    970, but after October 1, 970 must             This year's Spring Mass Meet-
existing church building, primarily      be used or your call will not go           ing for all Mr. & Mrs. and Adult
damage that has been done in the         through. Please make a note in your        Bible Societies of our west Michigan
past as a result of a water leak.        copy of the 1994 Yearbook of our           churches was held on April 25 at
    Writing this a couple of days af-    churches.                                  the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI
ter this meeting makes it possible                                                  and featured Prof. Hanko, of our
for me to tell you that the proposal     Evangelism Activities                      seminary, speaking on the subject,
was approved by the GrandviIle  con-         The Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL           "The Importance of Prayer, and
gregation, and that the project is       sponsored their annual Spring Lec-         Teaching our Children to Pray."
scheduled to begin after this year's     ture on April 21 at the Illiana Chris-
Young People's Convention in Au-         tian High School. Rev. Haak, pastor        Young People's Activities
gust, hosted, as you know, by            of the Bethel PRC in Itasca, IL, spoke         In a fund-raiser for the up-com-
Grandville. A six-month construc-        on the topic, "Personal Evangelism:        ing convention in August, the Young
tion period is anticipated.              A Desire for the Glory of God in the       People's Society of the Peace PRC
    While our Grandville congrega-       Salvation of Souls."                       sponsored a travelogue on May 5 in
tion is gearing up for a much-needed         Monthly meetings of the Chris-         the auditorium of the South Holland,
addition to their church home, the       tian S.I.N.D.H.I. group continue to        IL PRC. Mr. and Mrs. Hank Brands
Peace PRC in Lynwood, IL contin-         be held in the Trinity PRC in Hous-        showed slides of their 1994 trip to
ues to mark weekly progress in the       ton, TX. These meetings continue           Alaska.
construction of their eagerly antici-    to be a blessing. A dozen or more              The Young People's Society of
                                         Hindus regularly attend and show           the Lynden, WA PRC met earlier this
                                         interest in the gospel of our Lord         year for an evening to discuss the
                                         Jesus Christ. Let us continue to pray      topic, What makes the PR churches
Mr. Wigger is a member of the Protes-    that God will bless these labors as        different?"
tant Reformed Church of Hudsonville,     well as all our churches' evangelism           The Young People's Societies of
Michigan.                                efforts and that He will add to His        the Hudsonville, MI PRC hosted a

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                                                                                                                     SECOND CLASS
                                                                                                                     Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                     Grandville,  Michigan



 combination pancake-breakfast /car-                  extended a call to Rev. W. Bruinsma,      Edgerton, MN PRC called Rev. A.
 wash at their church in late April.                  pastor at First PRC in Holland, MI,       denHartog to serve as their next pas-
                                                      to serve as their next pastor.            tor. With Pastor denHartog  on that
 Minister Activities                                      The Byron Center, MI PRC has          trio were the Revs. Flikkema and
      Rev. M. Jbostens, who just ac-                  extended a call to Rev. A. denHar-        Koole.
 cepted a call to serve as pastor of                  tog, pastor of the Hope PRC in
 the Lynden, WA PRC, will be                          Redlands, CA, to serve them as their                    Foodfor Bought
 preaching his farewell sermon at                     next pastor.                                  "The great weight of eternity
 First PRC in Grand Rapids, MI on                         At a congregational meeting on        hangs upon the small wire of time."
 May 21, D.V.                                         April 30, the members of the                               - Thomas Brooks 1 Cl
      First PRC in Grand Rapids has


                                                                                                                NOTICE!!!
                                                                                                    The Federation of Protestant
                                                        RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                  Reformed Christian Schools is seek-
                                                          The Ladies' Aid Society of Hope       ing applicants for the new position
                                                      Protestant Reformed Church in             of Executive Director of the Federa-
                                                      Grand Rapids expresses its heart-         tion. For more information, please
     WEDDlNG ANNIVERSARY                              felt sympathy to a former member,         telephone Gene DeBoer at (616)
     The Lord willing, on June 9,                     Mrs. Herm VanDyke, in the passing         669-2835 or mail to
 1995,                                                of her husband,                                         Gene DeBoer
          MR. end MRS. MARTIN                               MR. HERM VAN DYKE.                                4702 40th Ave.
                DOEZEMA                                   May the family find comfort in                  Hudsonville, Ml 49426.
 will celebrate their 75th wedding an-                these words from Psalm  116:15:
 niversary. We are thankful to our                    "Precious in the sight of the Lord is                     NOTICE!!!
 heavenly Father for giving us God-                   the death of his saints."                     The seminary needs a copy of
 fearing parents and for blessing                                                               the video and of the audio tapes of
 them with many years together. It                                                              Prof. Decker's lectures on the office
 is our prayer that God will continue                                                           of elder in the church. Anyone will-
 to bless them and keep them in His                                                             ing to loan the tapes, so that we
 care in the years ahead.                                                                       can make copies from them, is
     "For this God is our God for ever                                                          urged to call the seminary at (616)
and ever: he will be our guide even                     RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                  531-l 490.
 unto death" (Psalm 48:14).                               The Consistory and congrega-
 & June Timmer, in glory                              tion of the Randolph Protestant Re-         RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY
 @ son-in-law John and                                formed Church express Christian               The Council and congregation
                       Margaret Timmer                sympathy to Kathryn and Timothy           of the Loveland Protestant Reformed
 @ Jay and Ruth Doezema                               Tamminga and family in the death          Church express sympathy to Mr. and
 $% Kenneth and Gloria Doezema                        of their mother and grandmother,          Mrs. Robert  VanUffelen  and their
          9 grand children (Sandra                              RUBY RIPPLE.                    children in the death of his father,
                        Timmer in glory)                  "For all flesh is as grass, and           MR. DICK VAN UFFELEN.
          24 great grand children                     the glory of man as the flower of         May they continue to be strength-
          1 great-great grand child                   grass. The grass withereth and the        ened by the arm of Him who de-
                          Qrand  Raplds,  Mlchlgan    flower thereof falleth away. But the      clared through the psalmist, "Pre-
                                                      Word of the Lord endureth forever"        cious in the sight of the Lord is the
                                                      (I Peter 1:24, 25).                       death of his saints" (Ps. 116:15).
                                                              Rev. Steven Key, President                  Rev. G. VanBaren,  President
                                                                      Berwyn Huizenga, Clerk                Mr. David Poortinga, Clerk

 452/Standard  BearerlJune  1,1995


