                                   See "Taking t-iced to the Doctrine," p. 270


Vol. 71, No. 19
August, 1995




             _  .._._.  --  .--


 CONTENTS:                                                                                                                                              August, 1995

Meditation - Rev. Cornelius Hanko
      Changed From Glory to Glory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  ..~.... 459
Editorial  - Prof. David J. Engelsma                                                                                                                                                                           ISSN 0362-4692
      Judging Ministers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
All Around Us - Prof. Robert D. Decker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ...*..... 468                                                                             Semi-monthly, except monthly during June, July, and August.
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Pub&shed by the Reformed Free Publishing Association, Inc.,
Go Ye Into All the World - Rev, Jason L. Kortering                                                                                                                                                            4949 lvanrest Ave., Grandvilte, MI 45416. Second Class
      The Gospel in Southeast Asia .(2) . . . . . . . . . ..D..~.....~............................ 465                                                                                                        Postage Paid at Grandville, Michigan.
Decency and Order - Rev. Ronald  L. Cammenga                                                                                                                                                                  Postmaster: Send address changes to the Standard Bearer,
                                                                                                                                                                                                              P.O. 50x 663. Grandvilla, MI 49466.0663.
      A Question of Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467                                                EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
A Word Fitly Spoken - Rev. Dale H. Kuiper                                                                                                                                                                     Editor: Prof. David J. Engelsma
      Beauty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469    Secretary: Prof. Robert D. Decker
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Managing Editor: Mr. Don Doezema
Taking Heed to the Doctrine - Rev. Charles J, Terpsfra
      The Sovereign God of Preclestination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .470                                                                             DEPARTMENT EDITORS
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Rev. Wilbur Bruinsma. Rev. Ronald Cammenga. Prof. Robert
Ministering to the Saints - Mr. Edwin Gritters                                                                                                                                                                Decker, Rev. Arks denHartog, Rev. Russell Dykstra. Rev. Barry
      The Elder: "To Aid and Assist" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ,,.,............................  472                                                                                              Gritters, Rev. Carl Heck, Rev. Jason Korterlng, Rev. Cornelius
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Henko, Prof. Herman Hanko, Rev. John Heys, Rev. Dale
A Cloud of Witnesses - Prof. Herman C. Hank0                                                                                                                                                                  Kuiper. Mr. James Laming, Mrs. MaryBeth Lubbers, Rev.
      John Bunyan: Author of Pi/grim's Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474                                                                                               Jaikishln Mahtani, Rev. Thomas Miersma, Rev. Charles
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Terpstra, Rev.GiseVanBaren,  Rev. RonatdVanOverloop. Mr.
Book Reviews . . . . . . . ..I...II......~.I...I.............................I.I...................,,,,,.,..,                                                                                   476           Benjamin  Wtgger,  Rev. Barnard Woudenberg.
News From Our Churches - Mr. Benjamin Wigger . . . . . ..**......m............... 478                                                                                                                         EDTTORIAL  OFFICE            CHURCH NEW.5 EDITOR
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       Changed From Glory to

                                                 would not, look at him. They              entrusted the official ministry of the
                                                 begged him to cover his face in their     Word, the expounding of the Scrip-
         But we all, with open face behold-      presence, so that he stood with cov-      tures, whereby Christ speaks
     ing as in a glass the glo y of the Lord,    ered face before them, and only un-       through the Word and by His Spirit
     are changed into the same image from        covered it when he was in the pres-       in the hearts of His people.
     glo y fo glo y, even as by the Spirit of    ence of the Lord in the tabernacle.           We all with open faces see the
     the Lord.                                       This revelation of God's great        glory of the Lord! The veil of sin
                        II Corinthians 398       glory is the figure that the apostle      and death has been lifted from our
                                                 Paul presents to us in this third         faces. We are born again as new
         We all....                              chapter of II Corinthians.                creatures in Christ Jesus. We all are
         In the old dispensation there was           At the same time the apostle em-      filled with the power of the Spirit
~    an occasion when Israel saw the             phasizes how much richer we are           that was poured out on Pentecost.
     glory of the Lord, but only as it           than Israel in the wilderness, or even    That includes all the elect  - men,
     shone on the face of Moses.                 than the entire church of the old         women, and children, bond and free.
         Moses was with God on' the              dispensation.                             We need no one to teach us, since
     mount and asked to see God's face.              For now we all with open face         we know the Scriptures through the
     He was eager to see the One who             behold as in a glass the glory of the     Spirit. We are enabled to devote
     was speaking to him. But he was             Lord!                                     ourselves with all that we have in
     assured that this was impossible, for                                                 love to God. And we are kings who
     God is the Spirit of infinite perfec-                                                 reign with Christ over the powers
     tions. The glory that radiates from                                                   of Satan, sin, and death, even now
     His face is brighter than `a million            Blessed church of the new dis-        and forever. We can and will, we
     suns, No man can see God and live.          pensation!                                may and must live to the glory of
     Even now we cannot see God, nor                 The promises given to the fathers     our God.
     shall we see Him in eternity, except        in the days of the shadows are ful-           When the Word is expounded
     in the face of Jesus Christ, who is         filled. The types that pointed to the     we see Jesus, the revelation of the
     the revelation of the Father.               coming of the Savior have been re-        Father in the mirror of the Scrip-
         Jehovah did allow Moses to              alized. Our Lord Jesus Christ has         tures, by Christ's Spirit in our hearts.
     stand in the shelter of a rock while        come, has paid the ransom for our             0 yes, we see more. We also
     He held His hand on him as He               sins, and merited for us the right to     see ourselves. And what we see of
     passed by. This servant of God was          eternal life. He has gone through         ourselves is by no means appealing.
     privileged to see the trail of glory        death and the grave, arose, and is        Our sins testify against us, condemn
     where God had been. As a result,            exalted in glory to carry out His         ing us. The guilt of our sins presses
     his face still shone with that glory        work of salvation before the throne.      heavily on our souls. The finger of
     even when he returned to the camp           On the day of Pentecost Christ re-        God pointing at us, accusing us,
     of Israel.                                  turned to us in the Spirit to dwell in    "Thou art the man!" We realize that
         That light. that shone from the         the church, even in our hearts, and       we are bound in the bondage of sin
     face of Moses was so dazzling that          to abide with us forever. God is          and death, slaves to sin, incapable
     the people could not, and many              now not merely with us, but He            of any good and inclined to all evil,
                                                 makes His dwelling place in us.           even prone to hate God and the
                                                     Moreover, the Scriptures are          neighbor. We hang our heads in
                                                 now complete. We have the full rev-       shame and cry out, "0 wretched
     Rev. Hanko is a minister emeritus in        elation of the God of our salvation       man that I am!"
     the Protestant Reformed Churches.           in His holy Word. To the church is            The wonder of grace is that on

                                                                                                    August, 1995lStandard  Bearer1459


the mirror we see written: "The            not heard, and never entered into        as we crucify the flesh and strive to
truth will make you free." In that         the heart of man.                        live a new and godly life. We expe-
same mirror we see Jesus the Christ,           For this transformation is spiri-    rience peace, the peace that passes
the Son of the living God, who de-         tual, heavenly. We, who are by na-       all understanding. We learn con-
clares to us, "I am the way, the truth,    ture dead in trespasses and sin, are     tentment. We taste the beginning of
and the life." In Him is all our sal-      made alive in Christ Jesus. The life     the eternal joy, a joy unspeakable
vation.                                    of the resurrected Lord is implanted     and full of glory. We are kept by
     Jesus Christ, the wisdom and          in our hearts.                           the power of God unto the salvation
power of God.                                  Our Lord gave us a picture of        that is prepared for us to be revealed
                                           this spiritual awakening in the rais-    in the last day.
       +-+++  uu  +u-+                     ing of His friend Lazarus. Although               We long in an ever-increasing
                                           Lazarus had been dead already for        measure to be with our Elder
     It is with the eye of faith that      four days, Jesus commanded with a        Brother, the Christ, in His glory. We
we see Jesus on every page of the          powerful voice,  NLazarus, come          realize, as the apostle Paul did, that
infallible Word of our God.                forth!" The voice of Jesus penetrated    to be with Christ is far better than
     In the Old Testament we read          into the depths of Lazarus' being        anything this present life can offer.
the repeated promises of His com-          and awakened him from his death.         We know what it means when Scrip-
ing. Immediately after the Fall in         Only then did he hear the call, and      ture speaks of being "full of days,"
paradise God speaks of the Seed of         he stirred, wiped away the napkin        to have seen all God's promises re-
the woman, who will crush the head         that covered his face, sat up, looked    alized, and to long to enter our eter-
of Satan. To Noah comes the prom-          around, and actually walked out of       nal Home.
ise that all creation will be included     the tomb.                                         Changed from glory to glory by
in the salvation brought by the                .This serves as a picture of our     Christ's Spirit! And that in a real,
promised Seed. Abraham is assured          spiritual awakening. When the voice      mortal body, where sin still wars
that God will establish His covenant       of Jesus penetrates into the depths      within us. We poor sinners .never
with him and with his seed after him       of our souls we are awakened to a        attain to more than a small begin-
in their generations. This promise         new, heavenly life, the resurrection     ning of the new obedience. We are
and alI that follow can be summed          life of our living Savior.               saved by grace alone. We long for
up in the glorious promise, "I will            It is then, and only then, that      the day when we shall awaken to
be thy God and the God of thy seed         we hear the voice of Jesus calling us    sin no more.
after thee."                               out of the darkness and bondage of
     True Israel clung to the prom-        our sins into the marvelous light of               +u-++-#++#-+
ise, and in the line of generations of     His salvation. We are transformed
believers the Christ was born. In          into the image and likeness of Christ             But that is only the beginning.
the fullness of time God sent His          as sons and daughters of the living      We have the assurance, "Beloved,
Son. The New Testament speaks of           God. We are brought into true            now we are the sons of God, and it
the fulfillment of all God's promises      knowledge of God, to know Him as         doth not yet appear what we shall
in Christ Jesus, fully realized on the     the only ever blessed and adorable       be, but we know that when he shall
day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of       God, our God and our Father. From        appear, we shall be like him, for we
Christ was poured out in the church.       mere babes in the truth we grow into     shall see him as he is." We shall see
God reveals to us all the things that      the full manhood of grace and            God in the face of Jesus Christ. And
have been, that are, and that still        knowledge in Christ Jesus through        the glory that radiates from thaiface
must be realized through our exalted       the power of the preaching of, the       will fill us with a glory beyond de-
Lord in heaven.                            Word and the work of the Spirit of       scription, that will radiate from us
    Through the exposition of the          Christ in us.                            in an ever-increasing measure to the
Scriptures in the preaching of the             We are righteous in Christ. The      glory of the Father, world without
Word we see Jesus, our Savior, our         Spirit of the risen Lord assures us      end. That God may be all in all!
Lord. And in Him we see God as             that although we have grossly trans-              Moreover, we have the blessed
the God of our salvation.                  gressed all God's commandments           promise that our Lord is coming
    By the power of the Word and           and have kept none of them, nor are      again to change our mortal bodies
by Christ's Spirit in our hearts we        able to keep them, yet we are righ-      into the likeness of His glorious
are transformed from glory to glory!       teous in Christ, as if we never had      body by that power whereby He can
                                           any sin.                                 and will subdue all things unto Him-
      u-w  uu  +u+                             We are daily renewed, gradu-         self.
                                           ally but surely transformed into the              And all this to the praise of the
    Amazing transformation!                likeness of Christ in meekness, god-     glory of God's grace, world without
    Such as eye has not seen, ear has      liness, and fear. We grow in grace       end!  0

46QlStandard  BearerlAugust,  1995


    Let u man so account of us, us of        professors in your seminary train-           self in the opening verses of I
the ministers of Christ, and stewards of     ing.                                         Corinthians 4, is that of the minister
the mysteries of God.                                You have felt that you were be-      - that he is judged and how he must
    Moreover it is required in stewards,     ing judged the past couple of years          bear the judgment - the congrega-
that a man be found faithful.                by the people when you brought the           tion is by no means ignored. It is
    But with me it is u ve y small thing     Word publicly in the congregations.          the saints who are tempted to judge
that `I should be judged of you, or of               "Judging ministers?" you may         ministers wrongly; they were the
man's judgment: yea 1 judge not mine         groan, no doubt inaudibly; "must we          ones guilty of this in Corinth. And
own self.                                    hear about being evaluated and ei-           it is to believers and their children
    For I know nothing by myseIf;  yet       ther found wanting or found ap-              that the apostle's admonition comes
urn I not hereby justified: but he that      proved, on our graduation night?"            at the end: "Therefore judge noth-
judgeth me is the Lord.                              "Give us a break!"                   ing before the time, until the Lord
    Therefore  judge nothing  before  the            "Give us a break from the judg-      come."
time, until the Lord come, who both will     ment of ministers!"                              What I have to say, therefore, is
bring to light the hidden things of dark-            Fact is, there is no break for us    of importance to all.
ness,. and will make manifest the coun-      ministers from being judged. Not
sels of the hearts: and then shall every     only is there the constant threat of                       The Judged
mun have praise of God.                      improper judgment of us and our
                - I Corinthians 4:1-5        work (what the apostle refers to in              Those who are not to be judged
                                             verse 3 as "man's judgment"), but            by men but who are judged by the
    The theme from Holy Scripture            also there is a legitimate judgment          Lord are ministers of the Word,
that I bring on the occasion of your         (what the apostle in verse 4 calls the       those believing males who are called
graduation from the Seminary of the          Lord's judging).                             by God through the church to the
Protestant Reformed Churches may                     There is no escape in the minis-     special office of preaching the.gos-
not at first captivate you young men         try from judgment.                           pel and administering the sacra-
who are graduating. The theme is                     The-only question is whether we      ments. Those who are to be ac-
the judging of ministers, mainly by          ministers will rightly respond to            counted as stewards of the myster-
others. Since by your successful ex-         these judgments.                             ies are the ordained ministers. The
amination before synod you have                      The improper, illegitimate, and      steward who must be found faithful
taken a huge step toward the minis-          destructive judgment, we must dis-           is the preacher. The one for whom
try, .the theme definitely applies to        count: "with me it is a very small           it is a small thing that he should be
you; And you may well feel at this           thing that I should be judged . . . of       judged by his fellow believers is Paul
time that you have had quite enough          man's judgment" (v. 3).                      in his position as apostle and
of being judged.                                     The proper, necessary, and en-       preacher, as it is the apostle and
    You have been judged the last            couraging judgment, we ought al-             preacher who is judged by the Lord.
few days in the examination by               ways to keep in mind. Never may              The members of the church are to
synod,                                       the minister allow the reality of this       judge nothing before the time con-
    You have been judged con-                judgment to slip from his conscious-         cerning their pastor and concerning
stantly the past four years by your          ness. Should one allow this to hap-          all the other ministers in the denomi-
                                             pen for any length of time, he runs          nation.
* The address given at the gradua-           the risk that this will prove fatal, I           That the Holy Spirit refers in this
tion exercises of the Theological            do not say to himself personally, but        matter of judging to ministers is
School of the Protestant Reformed            to his ministry.                             plain. First, those referred to are
                                                     Although my viewpoint on this
Churches on June 19, 1995 at Hull,                                                        described as "ministers of Christ and
                                             occasion, like that of the apostle him-
Iowa.                                                                                     stewards of the mysteries of God"
                                                                                                     August, 7995lStandard  Beam/461


 (vO 1). Second, this is evident from        of this biblical evaluation of minis-        complained of as "so faint profes-
 both the preceding and the follow-          ters on the occasion of the gradua-          sors that they do little good in the
 ing context. In the preceding chap-         tion of two candidates for the min-          church." He lumped "faint profes-
 ters, the apostle has faulted the           istry from the Protestant Reformed           sors" with "enemies of God's gos-
 Corinthian church for preferring one        Seminary. The churches have ex-              pel." "Faint professors" are minis-
 preacher over another  - Paul,              pended vast amounts of labor and             ters who refuse to proclaim vital
 Cephas, Apollos, and Christ - and           money on behalf of their training,           truths sharply and boldly and, with
 forming factions around their eccle-        because these churches account  of  min-     this, refuse to condemn false doc-
 siastical champions. In the verse that      isters us servants of Christ and stew-       trines, wicked ways of life, and, I
 immediately follows the instruction         ards of the mysteries of God.                may add, pernicious movements
 about judging, Paul states, "And                You young men yourselves must            with similar sharpness and vehe-
 these things, brethren, I have in a         be impressed with your awesome               mence.
 figure transferred to myself and            position and task when by a call                 Article 55 of our Reformed
 Apollos" - preachers both.                  Christ places you in office: servants        Church Order forbids every minis-
     What a high estimation, then,           of Christ and stewards of the mys-           ter to be a "faint professor":
 the church must have of her minis-         teries of God. One would never
 ters, because of their office!              dare to enter this office without a            To ward off false doctrines and er-
     Ministers are to be accounted as       call. The exercise of this office re-          rors that multiply exceedingly
 "servants of Christ" (such is the          quires qualifications, high qualifica-         through heretical writings, the min-
 word translated "ministers" in verse       tions, qualifications both natural and'        isters and elders shall use the means
 1) and "stewards of the mysteries of       spiritual. No unqualified man                   of teaching, of refutation, or wam-
 God." Theirs is a special service be-      would be entrusted with the secrets            ing, and of admonition, as well in
 longing to a special office. Not all       of the civil state as an ambassador.           the ministry of the Word as in
 Christians hold this office and per-                                                      Christian teaching and family-vis-
                                            Much less may an incompetent be                iting.
 form this service. The minister is         entrusted with the secrets of God as
 privileged to dispense the mysteries       a herald.                                         On this article, the Reformed
 of God, ,which are all the truths of            The Bible and the Reformed              theologian Joh. Jansen has written
 Holy Scripture revealing the other-        faith have a high view of the minis-         in explanation:
wise hidden gospel of God's gra-            try. This high view, however, im-
 cious salvation of elect sinners in His    plies neither that the minister is an          With each text, the truth must be
Son, Jesus Christ. The mysteries are        exalted lord in the church, nor that           purely preached, error must  be re-
treasures. By the faithful preaching        he may do pretty much as he                    futed, heresies must be warned
of these mysteries  - good steward-         pleases. As to his position, he is             against, and there must be admo-
ship for a minister!_- the chosen           only a servant, nothing more. Christ           nition to faithfulness.
church is saved and the gracious            is the honored, authoritative Lord.
God is known and glorified.                 "Dominie"  was a particularly unfor-             "With each text"!
     This is a judgment of ministers        tunate title for the minister in the             No Protestant Reformed
that may, indeed must, be made by           Dutch Reformed tradition.                    preacher, indeed, no Reformed
us all. There is a judging of minis-            As to the minister's work in the         preacher, may be a "faint professor."
ters that is wrong but there is also a      church, it is merely stewardship:                If you graduates show your-
judging that is right: Let everyone         handling God's priceless mysteries.          selves "faint professors," you will be
in the church so account of minis-                                                       unfaithful to all your seminary in-
ters as servants of Christ and stew-          The Faithfulness of the Judged             struction, unfaithful to the churches
ards of the mysteries of God. This                                                       (who have not expended the labor
is the authoritative judgment of min-           The all-important thing about            and money that have gone into your
isters by Christ Himself in inspired        the minister's labors, therefore, is         training in order to receive "faint
Scripture. The Reformed faith               faithfulness. "It is required in stew-       professors"), and unfaithful to the
makes this judgment its own in the          ards, that a man be found faithful."         Lord Jesus Christ.
form of installation of ministers:          Faithfulness in a minister is deter-             Faithfulness in the ministry con-
                                            mined by the mysteries of God of             sists, secondly, of diligence in
  What a glorious work the ministe-         which the minister is a steward. It          preaching and teaching: hard work
  rial office is, since so great things     is primarily sound preaching and             and long hours. A lazy minister is
  are effected by it . . . which is also                                                 an unfaithful steward.
  the reason why the Lord will have         teaching of the revealed Word of                 Third, as a steward, the minis-
  such an office always to remain.          God in all its doctrines.
                                                One aspect of this particular            ter ignores, and even sacrifices, his
                                                                                         own interests, whether ease and
    It is fitting that we be reminded       faithfulness is that ministers not be
                                            what the old Puritan Edward Dering           pleasure, money and possessions, or

462/Standard BearerlAugust,  1995


name and standing, for the sake of         Any minister or candidate who reads        ough investigation and will be
the interests of the great God whose       the opening verses of I Corinthians        shown by solemn verdict. Every
mysteries are his heavy responsibil-       4 to say that ministers are "off-the-      minister of Christ will be found faith-
ity and the interests of the honor-        hook" of judgment is mistaken.             ful by u judge in court.
able Lord Jesus Christ whose de-           (Such exegesis would raise doubt               There is, and will be, judgment
voted servant he is. This too is faith-    whether the man is competent to            of every minister regarding his min-
fulness.                                   handle the mysteries of God at all.)       istry. One's ministry must be justi-
     Also, as the apostle indicates        "It is required in stewards that a         fied, just as one's person is justified.
when he speaks of a coming judg-           man" (note well the individualizing            The question is: by whom?
ment of the counsels of ministers'         singular: "a man," that is, "each              And then, because the viewpoint
hearts, the faithful minister is the       minister individually") - "that a          is the minister's: to whose judging
man who carries out his steward-           man be found faithful." The word           is the minister to subject his minis-
ship in love for God in Christ in his      that jumps out at the minister with        try?  cl
heart. A mere professional clergy-         the force of a summons to judgment
man, no matter how capable, is der-        is the word "found": "that a man                                   (to be concluded)
elict.                                     be found faithful." Faithfulness in a                                          - DJE
     This faithfulness will be judged.     minister will be established by thor-




                                           tended to be a "compromise . . . of-       erative shall permit its churches to
The CRC Synod 1995:                        fered in the hope that it will be posi-    take exception to this decision as it
Significant decisions                      tively received by a sizable majority      applies to the role of elder, as long
     On at least four important issues     of synod, thus providing a solution        as this role is restricted to the local
the Christian Reformed Church's            to our current dilemma." The re-           church. 4) If qualified women apply
Synod of 1995 took significant deci-       port began with a clear recommen-          for ministerial candidacy, the Board
sions. These issues are: women in          dation that synod recognize that on        of Trustees of Calvin Theological
office, admitting of children to the       the women's issue. "there are two          Seminary and synod may not force
Lord's Supper, continuing relations        different perspectives and convic-         trustees and delegates to vote for her
with the Gereformeerde Kerken in           tions, both of which honor the Scrip-      against the dictates of their con-
Nederland (GKN), and the second            tures as the infallible Word of God."      sciences. 5) The general secretary of
worship service on the Lord's Day.         The grounds for this recommenda-           the CRC will annually publish a list
Not only were the decisions taken          tion are numerous overtures and            of classes that decide the word
significant, they were in all four in-     synodical  decisions that have ad-         "male" is inoperative. 6)  Synodical
stances wrong.                             duced good biblical grounds for both       agencies shall not appoint women
     Concerning women in office the        positions, as well as the admonition       as ministers of the Word. 7) Synodi-
synod was presented a majority re-         of Romans 14 to be tolerant on non-        cal deputies shall not be asked to
port and a minority report by its ad-      confessional issues. "There are these      participate against the dictates of
visory committee. The minority re-         two interpretations in the church,         their consciences in any matter re-
port retained the 1994 decision, but       and we must leave room for both,"          lating to ministers of the Word. 8)
with altered grounds. It said, "the        said Rev. John  VanSchepen after           This arrangement will be in effect
most evident teaching of Scripture         reading the recommendation.                until the year 2000, at which time it
prohibits women from holding the               By a vote of 112 to 66 the synod       will be reviewed. The synod con-
offices." The decision of 1994 said,       adopted this recommendation,               cluded by urging people in the CRC
"the  clear  teaching of Scripture pro-    which included the following points:       to recognize that the issue of women
hibits women from holding the of-          1) A classis may declare the word          in ecclesiastical office is not a mat-
fices."                                    "male" in Article 3a of the Church         ter of salvation and that even in our
     The synod chose to consider           Order of the CRC inoperative, and          differences we remain sisters and
only the majority report, which ac-        authorize its churches to ordain and       brothers in Christ.
cording to its introduction was in-        install women in the offices of elder,         Banner editor, Rev. John Suk,
                                           minister, and evangelist. 2) Such a        comments, "The question that faces
                                           classis  may not delegate women to         the CRC now is whether we can live
Prof. Decker is professor of Practical     synod or appoint a woman as a syn-         with strong differences of opinion
Theology in the Protestant Reformed        odical deputy. 3) A classis that de-       on women in office. The experience
Seminary.                                  cides the word "male" remains op-          of the New Testament church sug-

                                                                                                  August, 1995lStandard Bearer1463


I         gests that we can. Take the church          mit children to the Lord's Table               mise of the second service. It is cer-
          in Corinth, for example. Some               through a four-step process, ending            tain, however, that this decision in-
          Corinthian church members fol-              with the child making "profession              sures the eventual demise of the sec-
          lowed Peter, some Apollos, and              of faith in a simple and appropriate           ond service. If the CRC wanted to
          some Paul. Its members debated              manner during a regular worship                retain the second service, why not
          whether Christians could eat meat           service." This too is wrong. A child           exhort the churches to insist on faith-
          sacrificed to idols. They disputed          born into the church, baptized in the          ful attendance to the second wor-
          about the nature of the Resurrection.       name of the triune God, is not able            ship service and exercise Christian
          Just like we do, they argued about          to discern the Lord's body. He can             discipline in Christ's love over those
          the relative merits of being ,+$e or        do this only on arriving at years of           who neglect the means of grace?
          married. And for the Corinthians,           discretion.                                                                   Banner
          as for us, the shape of the liturgy              After intense debate, coming on
          was a bone of contention. Even              the heels of a blunt speech by the             The RCA says, "Not yet."
          though they were one, the                   GKN fraternal delegate Rev. Rich-                  Classis North Grand Rapids of
          Corinthians were almost always at           ard Vissinga, who made no bones                the Reformed Church in America
          odds with each other. Yet just about        about the GKN's stances on homo-               overtured its General Synod "to ef-
          the last words Paul wrote to this dif-      sexuality and euthanasia, the synod
     ~                                                                                               fect full programmatic and organi-
          ficult, fractious church body were,         came close to cutting off relations            zational union with the Christian Re-
          `Greet one another with a holy kiss'        between the CRC and the GKN. The               formed Church in North America by
          (I Cor. 16:20;  2 Cor. 13:12)...; In our    vote was 89 to 80 not to cut off reia-         June 2000." The Classis  offered three
          culture a holy kiss might well be a         tions. The synod further decided to            grounds for this overture: "l)The
          hearty handshake. Or even a sanc-           pursue discussions with the GKN                RCA and the CRC share a common
          tified compromise" (the Banner, July        about the "issues and trends in the            tradition, a complementary history,
          3,1995,  p. 30).                            life and practice of the GKN that are          and a collateral mission. 2) There
     I         One wonders if Rev. Suk has            of deep concern to the CRC."                   are no present-day insurmountable
          ever read the Epistles to the                    "The Sunday-evening worship               barriers to complete merger. 3) The
          Corinthians. The inspired apostle           service in the CRC may be on its               time has come and is perhaps long
          sharply admonished the Corinthians,
     ~                                                way out. But synod 1995 battled                past when the will of God needs to
          not for having honest differences of        hard not to hasten its demise," re-            be heeded to heal a rift that never
          opinion, but for the terrible sins of       ports the Banner. A Canadian con-              should have happened." In an at-
          schism, incest, denial of the resur-        gregation having difficulty with the           tachment to the third ground, the
          rection, and other sins and weak-           second service overtured synod, ask-           Classis notes that the five reasons
          nesses. So sharp were the admoni-           ing that Articles 51 and 54 of the             given for the 1857 secession by four
          tions that the apostle was worried          Church Order of the CRC "be                    West Michigan congregations to be-
          about how they would be received!           changed to allow churches more                 gin what would become the CRC
          The fruit of these admonitions was          flexibility with the second service            were the use of hymns, open com-
          that the Holy Spirit worked in the          and with catechism preaching." Af-             munion for all but Roman Catho-
          Corinthians. the godly sorrow of re-        ter lengthy debate, and returning the          lics, neglect of preaching from and
          pentance so that these evils were re-       matter to its advisory committee for           instruction in the Heidelberg Cat-
          moved from the Corinthian church            rewording, the synod decided to                echism,  neglect of home visitation
          (cf. II Cor. 7~1-10).                       change Article 51 by adding the                by the elders, "and the opinion of
               The fact is that the 1995 deci-        word "ordinarily." The Article now             some in the RCA that the 1834 se-
          sions on women in office contain a          reads, "The congregation shall as-             cession from the RCA's mother de-
          flat contradiction. There cannot be         semble for worship, ordinarily twice           nomination in the Netherlands was
          gqod scriptural grounds for both po-        on the Lord's Day, to hear God's               unnecessary." Said Classis North
          sitions! One is biblical and right,         Word, to receive the sacraments, to            Grand Rapids, "None of the reasons
          and the other is unbiblical and             engage in praise and prayer, and to            stated above for secession are  doc-
          wrong! Scripture does not clearly           present gifts of gratitude." The               tinal in nature_, All the above rea-
          teach both positions. Scripture             synod also decided to add a supple-            sons have lost their cogency."
          clearly prohibits women from hold-          ment to the Church Order "affirm-                  To this the General Synod said
          ing church office. So in one sense          ing the rich tradition of assembling           in effect, "not yet." The RCA Gen-
          the decisions are not a compromise.         for worship twice on the Lord's Day            eral Synod voted instead to "encour-
          They are contradictory. In another          and encouraging existing congrega-             age the agencies of the General
          sense they are a compromise. These          tions to continue and new congre-              Synod as well as the Commission
          decisions compromise the clear              gations to embrace this tradition . . . . M    on Christian Unity to maintain regu-
          teaching of the Bible.                          It may be true that the synod              lar correspondence with the respec-
              The synod also. decided to ad-          battled hard not to hasten the de-             tive corresponding agencies with the

          454lStandard  Bearer /August,  1995


CRC and its Interchurch Relations           in North America for additional pro-       ders why the RCA hesitates to seek
Committee; and further, to explore          grammatic cooperation?                     full union with the CRC. 0
avenues of reconciliation between               Because the reasons for the 1857                           Christian Obsemer
the Reformed Church in America              secession no longer obtain, one won-                           Christian Renewal
and the Christian Reformed Church





                           ospel in Southeast Asia
                                                         part 2


       The public media here in             the largest increase and raised' the       ers himself a free thinker. His fa-
Singapore have been enjoying a              issue of whether a person needs re-        vorite term is "Asian values," which
lively discussion on the relationship       ligion to be a good citizen. Li Jin        are often played against "Western
between morality and religion. It           Cai wrote, "You don't need a reli-         values." The subtlety of the use of
was prompted by a monograph writ-           gion to tell you to be moral. Beliefs      such terms is great, and we Chris-
ten by two professors of the National       come from knowing what is right            tians in Singapore must remain alert
University of Singapore in which            and wrong. It doesn't have to be           and realize that there is no greater
they analyzed the responses of citi-        from God or what people tell you.          moral superiority in either East or
zens in connection with the 1990            It comes from the goodness of your         West. Fallen man is thoroughly de-
Census. People were asked ques-             heart from your common sense."             praved in sin, and apart from the
tions about their religious practices.      Ten other people responded in much         God of Jesus Christ is lost in his sins
By comparing these answers with             the same way. Jacob Yap said, "I           forever. The sins of the West cry to
the ones of the census of 1980, the         believe in myself." Stephen Ho             God for judgment as well as the sins
government learned what changes             wrote a summary article, which was         of the East. There is only one ref-
had taken place.                            the last one allowed in  the Straits       uge and that is beneath the cross of
    They learned that Christianity          Times.  He said, "Even the various         Jesus.
had made the greatest gains  -              religious leaders interviewed have a           Eastern religions tend to be le-
45,000 new adherents, making up             common theme running thru all their        galistic and form a certain outward
12.5% of the population, or a total         statements. A person can still be a        concept of the good life. People like
of 285,000 Christians. Since 88% of         morally good person from a purely          to convince themselves that they are
these new followers of Christianity         naturalistic humanistic point of view,     good and have a good society, yet
are Chinese, the government ob-             without the aid of religion. Religion      inwardly they are beset with decay
served that Christianity is taking on       merely adds a spiritual dimension,         and unrest. If we have to general-
the more educated and wealthy of            helps give a clearer definition of mor-    ize East and West regarding moral-.
society. Buddhism still has the larg-       als, is a source of strength and helps     ity, which is always dangerous, the
est following, 31%. The religion had        give morality a sense of objectivity       West lets it all hang out. All the rot
a 5% increase. The followers of Is-         and consistency."                          is publicized, and everyone can
lam and Hinduism remained the                   Underlying much of this public         gawk at it as long as he likes. The
same, and the Taoists declined in           thinking on morality is the influence      East covers up all the rot and wants
numbers.                                    of Confucian philosophy. Senior            everyone to think they are the best.
    What sparked the public debate          Minister Lee Kwan Yew is the great-            Young Christian converts are
was that 14.3% of the population            est public advocate and spokesman          taken out of this kind of life and
profess to have no religion. This was       of this thinking. He is a respected        brought to faith in Jesus Christ.
                                            statesman throughout the world and         Many carry with them the hurt and.
                                            has the greatest influence upon the        scars of past experiences. Some of
                                            thinking of Singaporeans. My un-           them have to deal with additional
Rev. Kortering  is a Protestant Reformed    derstanding is that he is not a prac-      hardships the moment they let their
minister-on-loan to Singapore.              titioner of any religion, but consid-      Christian profession be known.

                                                                                                 August, 1995iStandard  Seared455


These difficulties are not of the mea-        Another sister, Mui Cheng (also       them, pray to them, nurture their
sure that a Christian suffers in a        not her real name), lives at home         spirits. What terrible children! How
Muslim country. It is more subtle         with her family while her brother is      can they act this way to parents who
and can wear one down in the long         spoiled, lazy, and spends his funds       raised them and met all their needs?
run.                                      on gambling. As is true with gam-         The young Christians, more than
   Kim Choo (not her real name) is        bling throughout the world, her           likely, have to pass through a time
a Christian sister who learned in her     brother always loses more than he         of persecution. They must submit,
adulthood that her mother is not her      wins. When that happens, he bor-          but in many ways not obey. For,
mother. Rather, the person whom           rows money from the "loan sharks,".       God's sake they must bear the suf-
she calls "mother" is the third per-      illegal money lenders who charge          fering, but still honor father and
son who had something to do with          high interest. They are among the         mother. The key is to take a stand .
raising her. She learned that a friend    most cruel and fearsome people in         in all areas where compromise is for-
of her biological mother visited soon     Singapore. The family does not call       bidden. They cannot eat the family
after her birth. This friend admired      the police. Again, they must pre-         meal which is offered to idols. They
the baby; but the mother said, "So        serve some sort of face. Rather, they     cannot bum joss sticks. They can-
ugly, so chubby. You want her?"           try to appease the loan sharks by         not worship ancestors. But they can
She said it jokingly, but the visitor     pooling their personal funds to pay       be supportive children, polite and
took her seriously, and upon leav-        these debts. The parents will do any-     respectful to parents. They try dou-
ing asked if she could take the baby      thing, even borrowing money from          bly hard to spend time with parents
girl along. In order for the mother       other family members. If they do          and show their love. In the end, the
to save face, she couldn't go back        not pay, the loan sharks wiIl harass      most wonderful testimony of non-
on her word. She handed her the           the family. They threaten members         Christian parents is that their chil-
newborn. The woman took care of           of the family, sometimes coming in        dren became better children when
the baby for only a few years, and        the middle of the night and making        they became Christians. This is the
in turn gave it to another woman          a ruckus at the door, or even setting     most effective means to gain them
without even telling the original         fire to the door. The family is liter-    for Christ.
mother. These were the days before        ally held hostage to these loan               Secondly, problems arise when
adoption laws were in place, and          sharks. Yet no one does anything to       the Christian marries, and out of tra-
times were tough. After the young         the son who is gambling. He is "pro-      dition or need must live in with the
woman learned about her true              tected." The sister lives in such a       parents in the parental home. I have
mother, she felt resentment for this      home situation, and has contributed       five couples in my pre-marriage
abandonment. Besides that, she did        her own funds as well. What should        class. Three of them plan to live
not receive as good an education as       she do? Remember, in Singapore you        with parents when they marry. AlI
her siblings. The love of Christ min-     don't just move out to be on your         of the parents are non-Christian. We
isters to this need.                      own. Housing is not available to          were just discussing this past Sun-
     Bee Lan (fictional name) comes       you. If you leave, you have to live       day how much money they must pay
from a home in which the father is a      in with another family.                   their parents when they live with
drunkard. Repeatedly the father               Not all families are of this char-    them. Some parents are very insis-
would come home at 1:00 or 2:00           acter. Not all non-Christian fami-        tent that upon marriage they have
a.m. and terrorize the family. There      lies are this bad. There are those        two incomes so they can pay more
were times he would take the              who "have the works of the law            than when they were single. Paying
kitchen cleaver and hold it at their      written in their hearts." They have       parents is deeply rooted in tradition.
throats and threaten them if they         an outward form of decency. Yet           Respect and appreciation is shown
didn't do what he wanted. Bee-Lan         even in these homes, problems arise.      by children giving parents money
had learned piano, and more than              Problems arise when young             whether they need it or not. Pri-
once at 2 a.m. she had to get out of      people first become Christians. It is     vacy is not much available in such a
bed to play Chinese favorites for her     very threatening when children of         home, so the newlyweds have to be-
father's drunken buddies. The very        those who practice traditional Chi-       gin their life of "cleaving" under the
day her mother gave birth in the hos-     nese religion become Christians. It       watchful eye of an austere father,
pital to her brother, her father came     is a major upset in the family. The       and the young bride often makes do
home with another woman. To this          parents feel threatened and often         with a domineering mother-in-law.
day her mother "puts up with this         strike out in anger. If we feel sor-      If they stay long enough for children
man." `Face saving is more impor-         row when our children. may leave          to be born, a whole new set of prob-
tant than accountability. So the cha-     the church through marriage, try to       lems arise. Almost all Christians
rade of a reasonable marriage and         imagine what these Chinese parents        complain of the interference by non-
home life continues while inwardly        feel when they are afraid that after      Christian grand-parents in the disci-
all this hurt and terror build up.        they die, their children will not feed    pline of the children. Different val-

466lStandard  BearerlAugust,  1995


 ues clash directly in this area. You                                 structions from geomancers repeat-         anity  lest he make the spirit angry
can't just leave your children by                                     edly for certain details.                  and go blind in his left eye. This
Grandma. Grandma may try to in-                                           Besides this kind of superstition      causes pain in the hearts of young
fluence them in the worship of an-                                    is the spiritism of the temple medi-       Christians.
cestors and the burning of joss sticks.                               ums. It is not that members of the              There are times when the young
          Difficulties sometimes arise                                church struggle with the temptation        Christians struggle with the extent
when young Christians have to deal                                    to visit mediums, but rather their         of the knowledge of these spirits.
with the superstitions of most of the                                 family does and it affects them that       Some have claimed to hear their
locals. Superstition includes the                                     way. One sister's father died in un-       dead father's voice when the mother
practice of geomancy. Everything                                      belief. She witnessed to him repeat-       consulted a medium. Other times
comes under forces of Ying and                                        edly, but he would have nothing to         the medium tells th.em to rearrange
Yang, or whatever name they use.                                      do with Christianity, the reason be-       the furniture in the house and evil
Things must be situated in just a                                     ing that he lost the sight in his right    will end. They do it and the evil
right way for the forces to be ad-                                    eye. His left eye was becoming dim,        ends. How must such circumstances
vantageous. Large companies are                                       so he went to the temple medium            be explained?
formed which advise clients on the                                   for advice. The medium spoke                    Though we could continue with
positioning of a building on the land,                               harshly to him and berated him for          many stories and tell of other situa-
where to face it, how the furniture                                  neglecting his ancestor's graves and        tions, yet we trust this will help you
must be arranged inside, which                                       not feeding their spirits. He cursed        understand a little better what
lights must be left on 24 hours a day,                               him and said he would go blind un-          young Christians face. This is not
and even where a bag of rice must                                    less he changed his ways. The man           to sound a note of defeat, for it is
be set. Couples tell us of the times                                 trembled, and he asked his daugh-           exactly the gospel which is God's
when parents enter into the house                                    ter, how did the spirit know that I         power of salvation and transforms
of their children and immediately                                    was neglectful. He immediately              lives in just such situations. Yes,
begin to rearrange the furniture be-                                 burnt joss sticks and put out food          there are times of strength and weak-
cause it is not auspicious. One of                                   for the spirits of his family and           ness, but God is faithful.. We praise
the church members works for an                                      would hear nothing about Christi-           His wonderful Name.  c1
architectural firm and receives in-





                       A Question of Language

                 </_  <  `    ,'    ,  __  ,(           _  '  -.-    The original article                        Dutch and the churches in the south
.< _`- _ j&s~~&~ & &&&~ 1 l&l-:                                          Article 52 is the last article in       which spoke French or Walloon. Ar-
  guages  :are.`.spolien'.:,~~.`-the  .,                             the section of the Church Order  that       ticle 51, in recognition of this fact,
 Cl-$&h&; the necesSaij  transla:- 1                                 deals with the ecclesiastical assem-        required separate ecclesiastical as-
  hens shtill be. made`in the e&e-                                   ,blies. It concerns the matter of lan-      semblies on all levels except at the
 ~siastic&assemblies,` and. in the.                                  guage - the language used at the            synodical  level. Article 52 recog-
 . publication  `of  .recommenda-                                    assemblies, in the official minutes of,     nized the possibility that in some ar-
  tions, instructions,  an'd:,  de+                                  the assemblies, and the translation         eas there would be churches of both
  sions.  <  ")  .`-  `_ .                 :' `"                     of the minutes.                             languages, and hence made provi-
           `<'  &&h  Qr&r,&tic&  5a.:~                                   The original article did not deal       sion for combined  consistory meet-
    )             ,\..?
           :          si                            _  "-1
                                                 ,i             "    with the language question itself.          ings in these areas.
                                                                     This was covered in the original Ar-
                                                                     ticle 51. Early in the days of the            Nevertheless it is advisable that in
Rev. Cammenga  is pastor of Southwest                                Reformed churches in the Lowlands             the cities where the aforesaid
Protestant Reformed Church in                                        there was the difference between the          Walloon churches are found some
                                                                                                                   ministers and elders of both sides
Grandville, Michigan.                                                churches in the north which spoke
                                                                                                                          August, 1995lStandard  Seared467


  should gather every month in or-        of the articles in the earlier volumes    - must interfere with that unity.
  der to promote good unity and cor-      of the Standard Bearer were in Dutch.     There must be no barrier, not even
  respondence with one another and        Pamphlets were published in the           a language barrier, that gets in the
  as much as possible to support one
  another with advice according to        Dutch language.                           way of the expression of the unity
  need.                                       Gradually, however, the               of the church of Jesus Christ.
                                          churches were Americanized so that            It is also an important principle
     The original Article 52 was con-     the English language was used ex-         behind Article 52 that the work of
cerned that the difference in lan-        clusively. The generations born,          the church must be understandable.
guage not become the occasion for         raised, and educated in the United            This was an important principle
the churches in the Lowlands to drift     States soon lost the ability to speak     advanced by the Reformation. The
apart. The language barrier must          and to understand the Dutch lan-          worship of the church, the liturgy of
be surmounted and the unity of the        guage. There are few members of           the church, and the preaching of the
Reformed churches in the Lowlands         the Protestant Reformed Churches          church are to be in a language un-
preserved.                                today who are fluent in boUh English      derstood by the people. This prin-
                                          and Dutch.                                ciple applies as well to the decisions
Further revision                                                                    of the assemblies of the church. Not
     In time Article 52 became un-        Further revision still?                   only all of the officebearers of the
necessary.      No longer were there          This raises the question whether      church, but the common members
two languages being spoken in the         Article 52 should be removed from         of the church as well must have free
Reformed churches of the Lowlands.        our Church Order. Since the article       access to the decisions of the assem-
For the most part the Dutch language      is outdated, what practical value         blies. Nothing is to be done in a
had become the language of the            does it serve in the Church Order?        corner or in secret, but in the open
churches. Hence, the 1905 revision        Not only is it not the case now that      and subject to the scrutiny of the
of the Church Order  by the Reformed      different languages are spoken in the     church as a whole.
Churches of the, Netherlands re-          churches, but it is highly unlikely
moved all reference to the French-        that this situation will ever prevail     A look ahead
speaking (Walloon)  churches. Article     in the churches again. Would it not           Having treated Article 52, we
52 was altered so that it dealt with      be best then to remove Article 52?        are ready to begin consideration of
synodical regulation of the mission           Although no great harm to the         the third major division of the
work that was being carried on in         Church Order as a whole would be          Church Order, "Of Doctrine, Sacra-
the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia).        done by dropping Article 52, the ar-      ments, and Other Ceremonies."
     Our present article is the result    ticle does serve a good purpose. The          It may be well to begin by giv-
of the revision of the Church Order       presence of the article in our Church     ing a brief outline of the contents of
by the Christian Reformed Church          Order underscores at least two im-        this section, Article 53-70 of the
in 1914. At that time both English        portant principles dear to Reformed       Church Order.
and Dutch were being spoken in the        Christians.                                   1. Articles 53-55 deal with doc-
churches. The CRC had been estab-             The first of these principles is      trine, the signing of the "Formula of
lished by Dutch Reformed Chris-           the unity of the church. We love the      Subscription" by officebearers com-
tians. Large numbers of Dutch im-         church, and since we love the church      mitting them to the doctrines of the
migrants had crossed the Atlantic         the unity of the church is precious       Reformed faith as expressed in the
and made their way into the fledg-        to us. As much as a husband who           creeds and calling them to ward off
ling denomination. Although gradu-        loves his wife is concerned for unity     false doctrines.
ally the use of the English language      in his marriage, so concerned are we          2. Articles 56-60 deal with the
became more widespread, in 1914           for unity in the household of God.        sacrament of baptism.
much of the official work of the          The Church Order itself has as one            3. Articles 61-64 deal with the
church was still carried on in the        of its outstanding purposes the pro-      sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
Dutch.                                    motion and preservation of the                4. Articles 65-70 deal with vari-
    In our early history, the Protes-     churches' unity.                          ous other "ceremonies."
tant Reformed Churches too were               Article 52 serves to underscore               a. Funeral services.
bilingual. Both English and Dutch         this interest in the unity of the                 b. Special days of prayer.
were used by the members of the           church. Bound together by one doc-                c. Christian holidays.
churches officially. Consistory min-      trine, exhibiting one form of church              d. Heidelberg Catechism
utes and even the minutes of the          government, and practicing one            preaching.
combined consistories and early           form of worship the Reformed                      e. Singing in the worship
classis were in the Dutch. There          churches stand in fundamental             services.
were Dutch worship services. Many         unity. Nothing incidental-not even                f. Marriage.  0
                                          something as significant as language

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                                                           Beauty
    In the Scriptures, beauty is inseparably related to        Christ for the wrong reasons: the stature of a Saul (I
God and His salvation. The Scriptures speak of the             Sam. 9:2), the unblemished beauty of an Absalom (II
natural ugliness of sinful man and of the beauty of sal-       Sam. 14:25),  or the suave charisma of a modern-day
vation in Jesus Christ, while warning against false beauty     religious leader. We must hear and believe on His words
in the working out of that salvation. The Hebrew word          which are always gracious (Luke  4:22), for the words
means bright, fair, comely, and glorious. The word in          which He speaks, "they are spirit and they are life"
the Greek has the basic meaning of hour; then, belong-         (John  6~63).
ing to the right hour, timely; and finally, flourishing and       There is a lot of emphasis on physical beauty today,
beautiful.                                                     the beauty of a Delilah, a Bathsheba, or an Esther. Young
    The Lord our God is a beautiful God! The desire of         men must be warned not to lust after this beauty in
the saints is "to behold the beauty of the Lord" (Ps. 224)     their hearts, nor to be taken with their eyelids (Prov.
and to have the beauty of the Lord upon them (Ps. 90:17).      6:25). Godly wives are reminded that "Favor is deceit-
The beauty of the Lord is especially His holiness accord-      ful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that feareth the
ing to which He is without any sin and perfectly dedi-         Lord, she shall be praised" (Prov. 31:30).  The multi-
cated unto Himself. He is to be worshiped in the beauty        billion dollar industries of fashion, cosmetics, beauty par-
of holiness (Ps. 29:2). God is graceful, charming, glori-      lors, and body-toning salons, with the vain beauty they
ous. He is the God of truth, and truth is beauty. Be-          encourage, are a far cry from the beauty that is more
cause God dwelled in Jerusalem, the city of God was            than skin deep, that endures unto endless ages, and that
"beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth" (Ps.     is pleasing to God.
48:2). "Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath            Ezekiel speaks of all that God has done for His people
shined" (Ps. 50:2). Because they proclaim the wonderful        in making them exceedingly beautiful and prosperous
salvation of God, the feet of gospel preachers are beauti-     as a kingdom. "Thy renown went forth among the hea-
ful upon the mountains (Is. 52:7).                             then for thy beauty; for it was perfect through my come-
    When the gospel of Jesus Christ comes to men               liness, saith the Lord God." But Judah trusted in her
throughout the world, it finds them without any sound-         own beauty, of which she had none, and God pro-
ness, but covered with "wounds and bruises, and putre-         nounced woe upon her (Ezek.  16:14, 15, 23). Jesus
fying sores; they have not been closed, neither bound          sounded a warning against outward show and hypoc-
up, neither mollified with ointment" (Is. 1:6). In salva-      risy in religion when He told the scribes and Pharisees
tion, God gives His people beauty for ashes (Is. 61:3),        that they were beautiful on the outside, but within full
clothes them with beautiful garments (Is. 52:1), and beau-     of dead men's bones (Matt.  23:27). Whited sepulchers
tifies the meek with salvation (Ps. 149:4).  By the Word       reveal this in showy giving, prayers, and church atten-
and Spirit, undone, ugly sinners are recreated after the       dance.
image of God with the beauty, loveliness, and glory of             Although the Bible does not condemn all outward
God Himself. Thus they are made fit to dwell with Him          adorning such as the plaiting of the hair, wearing of
in the new Jerusalem.                                          gold, and putting on of apparel, it does condemn the
    Although the outstanding Old Testament types of            notion that such things comprise true adorning (I Pet.
Christ, Moses, and David were beautiful children, this         3:3). As men and women of God, we are interested in
could not be said of Christ Himself. Very strikingly, the      being truly manly and beautiful. True beauty for the
One whom God sent to beautify the church with salva-           woman is to have the ornament of a meek and quiet
tion was not beautiful! "He hath no form nor comeli-           spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. The
ness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that       stalwart man is the man of knowledge and prayer (I Pet.
we should desire him" (Is. 53:2). It would be an under-        3:4, 7). When God beautifies the meek with salvation,
statement to say that Jesus was plain in appearance, for       He begins that work in the heart, which He alone sees.
"His visage was so marred more than any man" (Is.              From the heart that inner beauty radiates through all
52:14);  He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with          our lives so that with Jesus we "increase in wisdom and
grief" (Is. 53:3); there was nothing physically attractive     stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 252).
about the Son of God in our flesh. Undoubtedly God             When we die, we shall awaken immediately with the
had a purpose with this. Men must not be drawn to the          likeness of our glorified Lord, the beauty of the Lord
                                                               God shall be upon us, and we shall be satisfied. And
Rev.  Kuiper is pastor of Southeast Protestant Reformed        when Christ returns, He will make the entire creation
Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.                              beautiful with the glory of God. ~1 '

                                                                                             August, 1996lStandard  Bearer/469


                                 e Sovereign God of
                           `, Predestin

      "Declaring the end from the begin-        whatsoever `comes to pass: yet so, as           They are real and wonderful, yet un-
 ning, and from ancient times the things        thereby neither is God the authdr of sin,       seen to us.
 that are not yet done, saying, My coun-        nor is violence 0fjCered  to the will of the        But there are other "internal"
sel shall stand, and I will do all my           creatures, nor is the liberty or contin-        works of God which become "exter-
pleasure: Calling a ravenous bird from          gency of second causes taken away, but          nal," that is, they become revealed
the east, the man that executeth my             rather established, "                           outside of His own Being and life in
counsel from a far country: yea, I have                      Westminster Confession,            time and history. These include
spoken it, 1 will also bring it to pass; I                               Chap. III,, Art. 1     God's eternal act of predestinating
have purposed it, I will also a0 it. `I                                                         (foreordaining, decreeing) all things.
                          Isaiah 46:10,11       Introduction                                    Scripture teaches that the works of
                                                    The doctrine of God ("Theology"             God in time and history are all done
      "Wherein he hath abounded toward          proper) not only embraces God's Be-             according to His sovereign counsel
us in all wisdom and prudence; Having           ing and Nature, that is, who and                and purpose worked out perfectly
made known unto us the mystery of his           what He is; it also embraces His                in eternity (cf. the above two texts).
will, according to his good pleasure            works, that is, what He does. As the            God was at work before the creation
which he hath purposed in himself...: In        eternally living God, He is the God             of the world drawing up a master
whom also we have obtained an inherit-          who is constantly active, ever work-            plan for the creation and government
ance, being predestinated according to          ing, always doing what He pleases.              of the universe and for the salvation
the purpose of him who worketh all              Jesus referred to this when he said,            of His church and people. It is this
things after the counsel of his own will. `I    "My Father worketh hitherto, and I              work of God which we treat in this
                     Ephesians 1:8,9,11         work" (Jn. 5:17). And as those who              article. We plan to limit ourselves
                                                understand that knowing God is the              this time to God's general predesti-
     "We believe that the same God, af-         highest science and the greatest                nation of all things. In two future
ter he had created all things, did not          blessing in life, we ought to be in-            articles we will treat God's `predes-
forsake them, or give them up to for-           terested in knowing (and knowing                tination of men and angels, namely,
tune or chance, but that he rules and           more!) of His actions and works.                election and reprobation.
governs them according to his holy will,            The works of God are many and
so that nothing happens in this world           manifold. When we speak of God's                The God "Wonderful
without his appointment: nevertheless,          works we usually think, first of all,           in Counsel" (Is. 28:29)
God neither is the author ofi nor can be        of His works of creation, providence,               When the Word of God teaches
charged with, the sins which are com-           and salvation. But we must remem-               us the truth that God eternally de-
mitted."                                        ber that God also has works that He             creed all things that ever take place
             Belgic Confession, Art. 13         performs within Himself. When Rev.              in time and history, it teaches us in
                                                Thomas Miersma wrote on the sub-                the first place, that this predestina-
     "God from all etei7zity aid, by the        ject of the Trinity under this rubric,          tion proceeds from the sovereign
most wise and holy counsel of his own           he treated part of these "internal"             mind and will of God (cf. Dan. 4:35;
will, freely and unchangeably ordain            works of God. When God the Fa-                  Rom.  11%). Before He made all
                                                ther begets the Son eternally, He is            things and began to work in time,
                                                working.within Himself; when the                our eternal Lord consciously and
                                                Spirit proceeds from the Father and             carefully  thought  about what He
Reu. Terpstra is pastor of the Protes-          the Son, God is active within Him-              would do, and freely and deliber-
tant Reformed Church  of  South Hol-            self. These are works of God which              ately  willed  what He would do.
land, Illinois.                                 stay within His own Being and life.             God's decrees are so many thoughts

470lStandard  BearerlAugust,  1996


  and desires which arose out of His           in what He has planned because all          To them, this is sheer fatalism and
  own perfect mind and will. This              His decrees are good and z&e. This          leads to a stoic (cold, uncaring) atti-
  thinking and willing was done in             is the case not only with what we           tude toward life's happenings. To
  perfect sovereignty, that is, in total       call good providences,  but also with       them, it is repulsive that God would
  freedom and in total self-sufficiency.       what we call evils, disasters, and          predestine sin and evils; it is in con-
  No one else taught Him or told Him           tragedies. God takes pleasure in a22        flict with what a God of love would
  what to do; He was not guided or             that He has determined to do in this        do. To them, this is too limiting of
  compelled by any one or any thing            world. And if He does, so must we.          man  and of his will and activity; it
  outside of Himself; He determined            As His decrees are worked out in            does not give him enough power
  all things in and of Himself (cf. Is.        our lives, we must always confess,          and control in his life and in the
  40: 13,14;  Rom. 11:34,35).                  "The Lord is good in all He does."          world. Especially to the Arminian,
      In the second place, this fact re-       Like Jesus, we ought to respond, "I         the idea that God has determined
  veals at the same time that God's            thank thee, 0 Father...; for so it          all things, including man's salvation,
  decrees are not arbitrary and pur-           seemed good in thy sight" (Matt.            is repugnant, since it refutes his view
  poseless. Because they were thought          11:25,26).                                  of the freedom of fallen man's will.
  out and willed, God's decrees are a              From these three points then, we        Arminians are some of the greatest
  perfectly ordered and well-arranged          may see the absolute sovereignty of         enemies of absolute predestination,
  plan of all things that take place in        our decreeing God. His predestina-          even though it is the plain teaching
  time, Because `they have their ori-          tion reveals that He is God. Herman         of the Bible.
  gin in God's perfect mind and will,          Hoeksema summarizes this well in                Yet it is an unholy irony that
  they tie not so many haphazaql,  un-         his  Reformed Dogmatics  (Reformed          most people do believe that every-
 related determinations of things and          Free Publishing Assn., 1966) where          thing is somehow worked out ahead
  events, but a perfect unity forming          he writes:                                  of time by someone  or  something;
  a marvelous plan, relating to one an-                                                    they simply will not believe that the
  other with meaning and intention,              It is especially this eternal  counsel    God of the Christian faith is the One
  so that they reveal and effect God's           of God that presents the Lord God         who has done this. Most believe
  sovereign purpose with all things.             as the absolutely blessed and self-       that all things are fixed by chance or
  The Scriptures teach this plan and             sufficient Lord of heaven and             fate or evolutionary process or some
`purpose of God's predestination                 earth.... He is the living God, dis-
                                                 tinct from all idols. For this coun-      higher power. They will trust many
  where it uses the words "counsel"              sel bf God may not be compared            other gods for the control of their
  and "p.urpose" (cf. Is. 46:lO; Jer. 4~28;      with a dead plan, such as an archi-       lives, but they will not give this
  Acts  223). It is important to the             tect makes of a house or any other        power to the only true God, nor will
  sovereignty of God and comforting              edifice. For in the case of such a        they trust Him with their lives. This
  to the believer that all things which          plan, the realization of the plan is      is why the gospel of the Reformed
  take place have meaning and pur-               always better and more glorious           faith must be brought to unbeliev-
  pose according to God's eternal pre:           than the original  conception; but the    ers, the gospel of a sovereign God
  destination. It is this which enables          counsel of the Lord is His eternal        in whose hands are all things be-
  believers to say with regard to all            good pleasure, according to which
                                                 He willed and conceived all things        cause He has ordained all things.
  that befalls them, "And we know                that are ever realized or occur in        This alone gives one a proper per-
  that all things work together for              time. In that counsel He has eter-        spective on life, and comfort and
  good to them that love God, to them            nally all things with Himself, and        hope in this world.
  that are called according to His pur-          rejoices perfectly in all tIhe works          As for those who profess Chris-
  pose" (Rom. 8:28).                             of His hands.... He is God, and           tianity but reject this truth, they
      In the third place, God's decrees          there is no one beside Him, the eter-     ought to know the only other op-
  are not His reluctant determinations           nally Self-sufficient and most            tions available to them. If they do
  regarding time and history. His                blessed Lord of all (pp. 154-55).         not believe that all things come by
  counsel is not a plan with which He                                                      God's determination and appoint-
  is unhappy and dissatisfied. God's           Opposition to this truth                    ment, then they must put something
  decrees are His good pleasure. This              The truth that God foreordains          or someone else in His place. Do
  is another key word used in Scrip-           absolutely all things that take place       they want the devil in that place?
  ture in connection with God's pre-           in this life is one which consistently      Blind, impersonal fate? Cold, arbi-
  destination (cf. P.s. 115:3;  Is. 46~10;     meets with stiff and even fierce op-        trary luck? Or do they want the op-
  Matt. 11:26; Eph. 1:5). He does what         position. Whether it be people in           tion of a totally chaotic world, in
  He pleases and acts according to His         the unbelieving world or people who         which all creatures and all events
  good pleasure, not only in the sense         profess Christianity, men cannot            have absolutely no reason or pur-
  that He freely does what He wills,           stand the thought that God would            pose for existing and happening?!
  but also in the sense that He delighfs       determine all things ahead of time.             The Word of God gives us no
                                                                                                    August, 1!395lStandard  Bearer/411


other option than the truth that God        and author R.C. Sproul points this           not sovereign, then God is not Gbd
is the sovereign Power in the world,        out in his book  Chosen by God                (P- 261.
that He is the only One in control,         (Tyndale, 1986):
and that all things come to pass as                                                         A denial of this truth, then, is in
He has ordained from all eternity.            . . . The idea that God foreordains       effect a denial of God Himself. That
The Scriptures are abundantly clear           whatever comes to pass is . . . sim-      makes this doctrine extremely seri-
to all who will read them and yield           ply a tenet of theism - a necessary       ous; indeed, it makes it a matter of
to them, that God is the predesti-            tenet of theism.... To say that God       life or death. Who is your God, the
                                              foreordains all that comes to pass
nating God, whose' eternal plan cov-                                                    God of predestination, or some vain
                                              is simply to say that God is sover-
ers all things. In fact, it is precisely      eign over his entire creation.... If      idol? May we be led by grace
as the predestinating God that He is          there is any part of creation out-        through faith to confess with the
revealed to be God, the sovereign             side of God's sovereignty, then God       psalmist, "But our God is in the
Lord. Popular Reformed speaker                is simply not sovereign. If God is        heavens: he hath done whatsoever
                                                                                        he hath pleased" (Ps. 115:dl. 0




                                            The.Eld
                   4.
                          "To Aid and

    In our two previous articles we         tive as assistants to our pastors. Our      when we are confronted with these
reviewed the history of the office of       Form of Ordination of Elders, citing        tasks, especially for the first time!
elder, as well as the necessary quali-      Paul's instruction in Romans 12 and         While a few may enter the office of
fications for those filling - or aspir-     I Corinthians 12, concludes by say-         elder with some background and ex-
ing to fill - this very important of-       ing, "Thus we see that these sorts of       perience in teaching, most do not.
fice in the church of Christ. At this       ministers (ruling elders, E.G.) are         Nevertheless, every elder will be
time I wish to take a very practical        added to the others who preach the          called upon regularly to conduct ser-
look at the work of the elder in the        gospel, to aid and assist them, as in       vices and teach catechism.
ruling and oversight of the church.         the Old Testament the common                    Are you properly prepared to do
I wish to state at the outset that          Levites were to the priests in the ser-     this? If not, how can you become
when one attempts to be "practical,"        vice of the tabernacle, in those things     more capable and comfortable in
his thoughts will of necessity reflect      which they could not perform                these tasks? If you are a "new" el-
his own ideas and methodologies.            alone...."                                  der, a good place to begin is with a
Since every elder's approach to his             Probably the most common                visit to your church's catechism
work will be somewhat different             form of what we might call "pasto-          classes. (You are not supposed to
from that of other elders, one              ral assistance" is in the area of teach-    let that wait until the church visi-
officebearer cannot (and may not)           ing, because that is something that         tors come anyhow, you know!) Note
tell another how to do his work -           happens with little or no choice on         your pastor's style and methods.
nor is that our intent here.                the part of the elders. When the            How does he make the lesson inter-
    Since the pastor (teaching elder)       pastor is away for classical appoint-       esting? How does he keep the
is also one of the ruling elders (and       ments, sickness, vacation, or any           children's attention? How does he
probably the busiest one), I would          other reason, the burden of teaching        maintain good order in the class-
like to place emphasis this time on         and "preaching" (i.e., reading ser-         room?
how the elders can be more effec-           mons on the Lord's Day) falls on                The next step is to study your
                                            the elders. Although one of the             lesson well so that you will go into
                                            qualifications for the elder is that he     the classroom with a good knowl-
                                            be "apt to teach" (I Tim. 3:2), who         edge of what you are going to teach.
Mr. Grifters is a member of Hope Prot-      of us would deny the feelings of in-        But, you say, "I have a terrible job
estant Reformed Church in Redlands,         security and inferiority and the usual      even trying to figure out what to talk
California.                                 "butterflies" that overwhelm us             about for 45 minutes! I am not an

472lStandard  BearerlAugust,  1995


accomplished storyteller like my pas-          Another aspect of the elders'         elders could do a majority of family
tor. The children will probably be         work that comes into play during a        and sick visitations, while others do
put to sleep by my monologue. So           prolonged vacancy or absence of a         the bulk of catechism instruction. (I
why should I try?" As an alterna-          pastor is -reading sermons on the         readily admit that the "ideal" would -
tive, can you thinlc of something to       Lord's Day. This can be no small          be that each elder become proficient
talk about for 15 minutes? Then con-       task, especially in our churches in       in every aspect of his work)
vert your whole "speech" into a se-        outlying areas which have little ac-          Before we close this series of ar-
ries of questions and let the children     cess to neighboring ministers, semi-      ticles on the office of elder, `let us
do the work. You will be surprised.        nary professors, candidates, or re-       return to what I touched on earlier.
They will come up with answers and         tired ministers. Diligent preparation     What are the most positive things
ideas for discussion that you did not      by the one who reads will make for        we. can `do as elders to relieve or
even think of.                             easier listening - just as we enjoy       share some of the Spiritual and men-
    As a further aid, I find the writ-     hearing a minister who gives evi-         tal.stress  that our pastors surely ex-
ten work to be very helpful as a           dence of much study and brings            perience in shepherding a flock in
"study guide" for teaching cat-            God's Word on the Lord's day in a         an increasingly apostatizing world?
echism, especially in the upper            vibrant, enthusiastic manner. Read        While we may willingly participate
classes. I see nothing wrong with          the sermon numerous times, so you         in the physical aspects of the work
going over the written work in the         know its contents almost by               we discussed above, I believe we
class. Some of the questions are           memory, not stumbling over words          have a tendency to think that the
quite difficult, often requiring help      or phrases. If you are not well pre-      spiritual condition of the congrega-
from the parents; and comparing an-        pared, you will be talking to your        tion is what we hired the minisfer to
swers in class can stimulate inter-        necktie as you race through the ser-      worry about! Not so! I probably
esting discussions. Whatever you           mon in record time! Not very edi-         err, however, in asking what we can
do, do not try to "wing it." The           fying, to say the least! Read por-        do to assist the pastor in his work
instruction of our covenant children       tions of the sermon aloud, and ask        His work? Other than preaching on
deserves better than that. The Lord        your spouse for suggestions for im-       the Lord's Day, the pastor's work is
demands better than that. If you           provement. Better yet, make a re-         the work of all the elders. And such
would be an effective teacher - and        cording to see how you sound. (You        work is best accomplished when
enjoy doing it - you must do your          say you can't stand the sound of          there is a close working relationship
homework. That. means diligent             your own voice? Good point!               between the pastor and the  indi;
study and fervent prayer! Earnest          Maybe your audience can't either!)        vidual elders. Some "potential"
prayer prepares the soil of the mind       The Word of God demands your              spiritual problems among  ,the mem-
to assimilate what you have stud-          best. With earnest preparation and        bership can most appropriately be
ied, and it brings forth fruit in the      a proper attitude, this task also can     discussed on a "one-on-one" basis
classroom.                                 be enjoyable to you and profitable        to determine if the perceived prob-
    As a related subject, what do          to your listeners.                        lem could best be approached at
you think about elders teaching                Before we leave the subject of        the pastoral level before being ad-
some catechism classes full time?          reading sermons and teaching cat-         dressed by the full consistory. The
Some of our larger congregations al-       echism, let me pose one more              pastor should be able to use the el-
ready do this. A distinct advantage        thought for your consideration. We        der as a "sounding board." This can
here, of course, is that the pastor can    said in an earlier article that, inas-    hardly occur if the only time you
spend more time on preparation for         much as God bestows differing gifts       see one another is in the formal
his primary calling - preaching the        on the officebearers, the church is       consistory setting. This past week,
Word on the Lord's Day. And it             ruled by a "plurality" of elders, so      a local city observed "take-a-cop-to-
certainly gives the elder a chance to      that one elder's strengths may            lunch" week. How about taking
develop a rapport with the young           complement  those of another. I know      your pastor out for a cup of coffee
people at an early age. I believe our      of elders who have no problem in          now and then? He needs to know
elders would do well to get to know        getting on the pulpit to read a ser-      that you too are aware of specific :
the young people on a first-name ba-       mon, but who cringe at the thought        problems that are of concern to him.
sis. We should not come across as a        of teaching a catechism class! Oth-       Conversely, things may have come
first-time acquaintance if we are to       ers are just the opposite. My ques-       to your attention that the pastor may
be effective, loving counselors. I em-     tion is whether it is necessary to do     not be aware of.
phasize Zoning, because the elders'        everything "by the number"? (Joe, I           It is fitting also that the elders,
work must be rooted in a  love of          taught catechism last week, it's your     as overseers of the preaching. make
God,.a love of His Word, and a sin-        turn this week.) Need we be               suggestions for sermon confenf,  to
cere love of the saints over whom he       ashamed that God gives differing          address faults of the congregation. --                 -
has been made an overseer.                 gifts and abilities?. Possibly some       or of certain members that you and

                                                                                             A u g u s t ,   199klMdard   Bearerl47$   .--r
                                                                                                                                   _: I ~~;&:~..
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he may agree are best treated ini-          ing pastoral attention, or, in more        all this be manifested in a love for
tially, and in a broader manner, from       serious cases, involvement by the          the saints, which in turn is rooted in
the pulpit. Certainly the faithful, all-    consistory.                                Him whose love came to expression
encompassing preaching of the                      Much of the work that takes         in giving His only begotten Son!
Word from Sabbath to Sabbath is the         place in the council or consistory             And may the congregation in
life-blood of the saints and the great-     meetings also takes preparation! El-       turn take heed to the Lord's com-
est deterrent to spiritual decay. The       ders must study and help resolve           mand to give "double honor" to
preaching of the gospel and Chris-          doctrinal issues, matters of church        those who rule well, for that is their
tian discipline are the keys by which       order, items coming to Classis or          calling to those through whom
the kingdom of heaven is opened to          Synod, and disciplinary actions  -         Christ rules His church.
believers and closed to unbelievers         to name a few. Through a close                 We pray that the efforts of the
(Heidelberg Catechism, L.D. 31). In         working relationship with the pas-         faithful, loving elder may experience
a recent sermon on Lord's Day 31,           tor, the elders may also defend the        the approval and blessing of the Ring
Pastor A. denHartog  emphasized,            minister from unjustified attacks or       of the church. Maybe this is ex-
"The church is the house of God.            criticism from within the church or        pressed in the words of a familiar
That church must be kept holy! The          from without.                              hymn:
main purpose of discipline is to                   In conclusion, may we repeat               Thus, led by His Spirit
maintain the holiness of the church         once more: the work of the elder                  To fountains of Zove,
of Jesus Christ." Accordingly, in the       requires devotion, determination,                 Thou soon shall be fitted
council room, elders should take the        continual study, earnest prayer, and              For service  above!
initiative in addressing issues requir-     an ardent love for God's Word. May             What a blessed reward! B





               John Bunyan: `Author of
                            Pilgrim 35 Progress

                                            read this fascinating allegory of the      fought long and bitterly for their
Introduction                                Christian life have come to appreci-       views. Becoming known as Puri-
     God has raised men in the his-         ate and cherish it; people of God          tans, they finally gained civil power
tory of the church who, though not          who have not read it do well to do         in England after the royalist forces
orthodox in all their views, never-         so.                                        of Charles I were defeated by the
theless have fashioned the thinking                A brief description of the times    Parliamentary forces under Oliver
of subsequent generations. Such a           in which John Bunyan lived is es-          Cromwell. Their power lasted, how-
man was John Bunyan, teacher of             sential to understand his life.            ever, only about as long as Cromwell
the doctrines of grace but a Baptist               After the Reformation in En-        himself, and shortly after Crom-
in his covenant theology. His influ-        gland, a struggle arose between            well's death, the monarchy was re-
ence is due to the one book for which       those who were satisfied with the          stored in the person of Charles II.
he is known by millions: Pilgrim's          episcopacy of Anglicanism on the           Charles, a friend of Roman Catho-
Progress. Children and adults in            one hand, and, on the other, those         lics, did all in his power to restore
succeeding generations who have             who desired a more profound ref-           that which was lost under Cromwell.
                                            ormation than Anglicans wanted.            The Puritans were defeated in their
                                            After all, Anglicanism retained many       efforts.
                                            Roman Catholic elements, especially            The difficulty was that the Puri-
                                            in liturgy and church polity.              tans themselves were divided. Some
Prof. Hat&o is professor of Church His-            Those who desired more com-         Puritans, while fighting for their po-
toy and New Testament in the Protes-        plete reformation, after the order of      sition, were content to remain in the
tant Reformed Semina y.               '     Calvin's reformation in Geneva,            Anglican Church and seek renewal

474lStandard  BearerlAugust,  1995


      from within. They never succeeded,        solute and profligate life. Especially    gation grew rapidly.
      but continue in that church until to-     his wild and blasphemous language              Tragedy came into his life at this
      day. They have become known as            made him a byword among the lo-           point. His wife died, leaving him
      the evangelical wing of the Angli-        cal folk.                                 with four children, one of whom
      can Church. Others were convinced             Wearying of the discipline of the     was a blind daughter. This little
      that the only way to purge Angli-         home, he ran away and joined the          daughter, gentle, loving, thoughtful,
      canism was through instituting their      Parliamentary Army.3 He saw no            and kind, became her father's spe-
      reforms in their own parishes. For        action, distinguished himself in no       cial delight.
      this they paid the price of ejection      way, and soon returned home as                 Bunyan soon married again, and
      from the Anglican Church, and             wild and wicked as ever.                  his second wife was a faithful wife,
      many suffered greatly.                        After resuming his former labors      a help to him in his ministry, and a
          This latter group did not, on the     and even spending a time in bell-         mother to his children. It seems,
I     whole, favor a Reformed system of         ringing in the local parish church,       however, as if he never had any chil-
      church government any more than           he married a meek and poor, though        dren with her.
      Anglicanism did; they opted instead       exceptionally pious, young girl. She           When Charles II came to the
      for a congregational and indepen-         managed to curb his wild nature and       throne he put forth every effort to
      dentistic form of church government       to persuade him to engage in read-        silence dissent and to conform all
      which made each congregation  self-       ing to advance his meager educa-          England to the Prayer Book. Dis-
      governing without any federative          tion.                                     senters were forbidden to preach,
      unity. These are the beginnings of            While -the godly influences of his    and John Bunyan was soon thrown
      Congregationalism and the Baptist         wife can only be surmised, the local      into the prison in Bedford for dis-
      movement.' Their influence is still       minister, Mr. Gifford, was instru-        obeying the command of the king.
      felt today in the British Isles, which    mental in Bunyan's conversion. The             Twelve and a half long years he
      are filled with such independent          year was 1653.                            spent in the prison, in spite of many
      Baptistic congregations.                      Mr. Gifford had come to the           efforts to secure his release and in
          Into this political and ecclesias-    ministry in a rather strange way. He      spite of many attempts on the part
      tical situation John Bunyan was           had been a royalist officer, an es-       of his wife to persuade the courts to
     born, and in it he was raised and          caped prisoner, a gifted physician in     show mercy.
      did his work.                             Bedford, a licentious man, but finally         Nevertheless, although impris-
                                                a converted man of God who be-            onment and separation from his fam-
      Bunyan's early life                       came pastor of the congregation in        ily were dreadful, Bunyan's suffer-
          John Bunyan was born in 1628          Bedford. This congregation was part       ing was never as bad as was the suf-
      in the village of Elston near the town    of the Cromwellian State Church           fering of others in far more horrible
      of Bedford. His father was a tinkerZ      during the days of the Cromwell Re-       prisons.4  His wife was cared for, if
      and the class to which he belonged        public.
      was, while not the most humble in             Bunyan came under the infhr-
      England, still far from the nobility.     ence of Mr. Gifford and was in-
          Tinkers in England were usually       structed by him in the faith. In keep-    1    This statement is not quite cor-
      Bohemian gypsies who were thought         ing with general practices among the      rect. Baptist churches were estab-
      to be remnants of old Israel or an-       dissenters, Bunyan received no for-       lished in England long before the
      cient Egypt. Aware of this, Bunyan        mal education for the ministry, but       ejection. But many of these inde-
      attempted, though unsuccessfully, to      .assumed this position after Mr.          pendent congregations moved in the
      determine whether these Bohemian          Gifford died. The congregation was        direction of the Baptist churches.
      gypsies were his ancestors.               Baptist.                                  2    A mender of kettles and pots.
          Because one of England's virtues          Bunyan possessed a retentive,         3    That he joined the army is cer-
      was that education was available to       fierce, impatient, and energetic mind.    tain. Over the question of which
      all, Bunyan's father enrolled him in      While Bunyan was living in his sins,      army he joined, there is some dis-
      the Bedford Grammar School. But           that mind led him to the head of the      pute. Some biographers insist that
      the school was so morally bad that        wicked young men in the area. Un-         he joined the Royalist troops. At
      his father, fearing for his son, took     der the power of divine grace, it be-     any rate, this was in the days when
      him out. That was the end of his          came useful in a long and noble ser-      the armies of Charles I and Oliver
      education, and whatever he learned        vice in the gospel.                       Cromwell were engaged in bloody
      from that point on was through his                                                  civil war.
      own efforts.                              Bunyan's ministry                         4    Anyone who has read Charles
         John Bunyan worked hard after              Through hard work and patient         Dickens knows the dreadful state of
     leaving school, but he also played         study Bunyan became a powerful            England's prison system and the suf-
     hard. He became known for his dis-         and beloved preacher whose congre-        fering of those in it.

                                                                                                   August, 199slStandard Bearer/475


  meagerly, by his congrega(`an;  the        by Charles II how he could go to          Christ. Such a conversion, though
  jailer was a kind man who did not,         hear a tinker preach, Owen re-            indeed the means God uses to bring
  as some, vent his brutality on his         sponded: "I would give all my leam-       some to salvation, has become the
  prisoners; and in the later years          ing to be able to preach as well as       norm for genuine conversion even
  Bunyan was even permitted to leave         the tinker."                              in many Reformed circles, but in
  prison to see his wife and children,           His ministry was not long. Dur-       those circles where there is no bibli-
  to preach in his congregation, to visit    ing a time when he was very ill,          cal doctrine of the covenant.
  his parishioners, and even to travel       Bunyan departed on a long trip                 Bunyan wrote over 50 books, the
  to London - although the jailer was        through stormy and wet weather to         best-known of which are The  HoZy
  severely censured for the latter ex-       engage in pastoral work. From this        War and Grace Abounding to the Chief
  travagance. He was not deprived            he never recovered, and he died in        of  Sinners.  But  The Pilgrim's Progress
  of his books, paper, and pen, and it       the home of a friend. The year was        will to the end of time be associated
  was during these years in prison that      1688. He was 60 years old. His            in the minds of many saints with
  Bunyan wrote a number of books,            wife outlived him by four years.          John Bunyan. It has gone through
  including the classic, The Pilgrim's                                                 over 50 editions, and every Christ-
  Progress. His blind daughter came          The Pilgrim's Progress                    mas season seems to bring a new
  to visit him nearly every day.                 Bunyan's views accurately re-         one these days. -It has been trans-
      Finally, after twelve and a :*half     flect the theology of Puritansin those    lated into many foreign languages,
  years, and when Charles II relented        days. He was strong on doctrine           including all the languages and dia-
  a bit, Bunyan was released. He put         and even satirized the Anglican           lects of continental Europe. It was,
  his affairs in order, and resumed his      Church in Mr. Worldly Wiseman,            in past years, almost always found
  labors in the congregation. It was         who wanted to reduce Christianity         on the shelf of godly homes, even
under his leadership that his con-           to mere ethics. He held firmly to         though the only other book was the
  gregation organized and became the         the doctrines of grace, but empha-        Bible.
  first legal congregation of dissenters     sized particularly the Lutheran view-          Even Huckleberry Finn gives a
  in England.                                point of justification by faith alone.    concise description of it: "Interest-
      His fame as a preacher grew,               But especially in the view of con-    ing, but tough.`! But who among
  and the small chapel had to be re-         version, he reflected Puritan views,      us, who has read it, can ever forget
  peatedly enlarged. Branch meetings         and without a solid doctrine of the       Mr. Valiant-for-Truth and Mr.
  were held in the surrounding vii-          covenant he had no room for the           Worldly-Wiseman? And who, hav-
  lages, and the first preaching circuits    conversion of the elect in infancy in     ing traveled with Pilgrim, can erase
  were established. Bunyan became a          the line of the covenant and in the       from his mind the Slough of De-
  kind of "bishop" of the churches and       daily conversion to which a child of      spond and House Beautiful? It will
  was even sometimes affectionately          God is called. In his s@ritual biog-      live yet many generations, if the
  called "Bishop Bunyan."5                   raphy, Grace Abounding to the Chief       Lord tarry, as the pilgrim's guide
      His influence spread, and even         of Sinners (1666),  he spoke of con-      on our way to the Celestial City. 0
  in London, when he preached, he            version as involving conviction of
  attracted throngs of people. The           sin, attempts'to appease God with         5    These independent congrega-
  story is told that Dr. Owen was one        legal righteousness, subsequent de-       tions had no rule of elders, and it is
  of his frequent hearers in London.         spair, a long and drawn-out period        not strange that a man of Bunya'n's
  When that erudite and highly edu-          of temptation and s'truggle, and fi-      influence would occupy an influen-
  cated divine was sneeringly asked          nally peace in the way of faith in        tial place in the churches.



 Revival and Revivalism: The Mak-            Murray's thesis is that the revivals      caricatures of true revivais. The
  ing and Marring of American Evan-          of the 17th century, which began in       former, according to the title, were
 gelicalism  (1750-1858),  by Iain H.        New England at the time of Jonathan       revivals; the latter was revivalism;
  Murray. Edinburgh: The Banner of           Edwards and were common on the            the former, the making of American
  Truth Trust, 1994. 455 pp. $27.95          Eastern Seaboard of America dur-          Evangelicalism; the latter, the .mar-
  (cloth). [Reviewed by Prof. H.             ing the visits of George Whitefield,      ring of it.
 Hariko.]                                    were genuine outpourings of the                This is `an important book from
                                             Spirit of God. They were, however,        many viewpoints. Although Murray
      Added to the list of important         followed by revivals- sparked by the      speaks of 17th century revivals as
 books which Iain Murray has writ-           labors of Charles Finney which were       indeed being the work of the Holy
 ten is this current volume on revival.      not works of the Spirit at all, but       Spirit, he is not averse to criticism

 476/Standard BearerlAugust,  1995


  of the revivals in some respects. He      church of Christ (including ,the Ref-       derstands the work of the Holy Spirit
  is critical of the excesses and emo-      ormation of the 16th century) when          in teaching that revivals result in
  tionalism which characterized the         spirituality is very high among the         mass conversions, spectacular evi-
  revivals, and even admits that these      faithful in the battle of faith.            dences of the Spirit's work, and spe-
  excesses led to departures and                 A more serious aspect of reviv-        cial outpourings of power through
  schisms in the church, and opened         als was their ecumenical character.         unusual ways in which the Spirit
  the door to cults which did harm to       While Murray deplores the influence         works. Scripture teaches that the
  the Presbyterian Church: "... an al-      of Methodism in revivalism, e.g., he        work of the Spirit is unlike earth-
  most total desolation in the Presby-      speaks without criticism of the fact        quakes, fire, and powerful winds,
  terian church in Kentucky and part        that Presbyterians, Baptists, and           but is like a still small voice that
  of Tennessee"  (p. 172). He also          Methodists fully cooperated in the          works quietly, unnoticed, unaccom-
  speaks of the fact that under             revivals of the 18th century (see pp.       panied by fanfare, but powerful and
  Methodism's influence, revivals gave      68, 69, e.g.). This ecumenicity was         irresistible for all that.
  impetus to Arminianism (p. 182) and       manifested in a disregard for doc-                   Murray talks about revival as it
  its altar call - which Murray clearly     trine; obviously this had to be true,       affected Princeton and even men-
  detests. While Murray approves of         for how could such different groups         tions Charles Hodge's criticism of
  the ecumenical character of revivals      cooperate in revivals unless doctri-        the excesses. But there is more in
  (i.e., that they were to be found in      nal differences were overlooked.            Hodge than Murray reveals. Murray
  Presbyterian, Baptist, and Method-        Yet, with some ambiguity and con-           should have referred to Hodge's
  ist Churches, which often cooperated      tradiction, Murray is quite frank in        "The Constitutional History of the
  in the work) he also recognizes that      condemning revivalism for doctrinal         Presbyterian Church in the USA"
  this very ecumenicity led to doctri-      departure, while approving of the           and told his readers of the scathing
  nal decline (p. 360).                     disregard for doctrinal distinctives        indictment of revivals which Hodge
      But the real enemy of true re-        in the revivals of which Murray ap-         offers.
  vival was the revivalism of Charles       p r o v e s .                                        It is striking that David Wells in
  Finney and New School Presbyteri-             It is in connection with this ten-      his book, No Place for Truth, quotes
  ans. Of them Murray is sharply criti-     sion in Murray's book that he seems         Sidney Mead with approval when
  cal, and he blames them for destroy-      to say that some doctrines of Cal-          Mead says: "The ascendancy of
  ing true revivals and giving revivals     vinism, such as predestination and          pietism that accompanied the Sec-
  a bad name. In fact, Murray finds         limited atonement, are not impor-           ond Great Awakening had the ef-
  today's revivals to be more revival-      tant for evangelism  (p. 363).              fect of undercutting the place of the-
  ism than the work of the ,Holy Spirit.        The book highlights what are            ology.... The passion for truth was
  Rightly, Murray's critique of Finney      other serious errors in revivals. Re-       replaced by the passion for souls,
  and the New School is chiefly doc-        vival doctrine is based on a wrong          and . . . during the 19th century and
  trinal. And this doctrinal critique       view of conversion  - surely within         well into the 2Oth, religion prospered
  opens the way for many interesting        the covenant, but perhaps outside           while theology went slowly bank-
  and helpfuI discussions in the book       covenant lines as well. For example,        rupt" (p. 110). This was indeed the
  .of the issues surrounding Calvinism,     Murray approves of the idea that            fruit of the disregard for doctrine
Hyper-Calvinism, Arminianism, and           conviction of sin is not the work of        which characterized revivals at their
  Antinomianism. It is of more than         the Holy Spirit. Some, busy in re-          best.  q
  passing interest that even in those       vivals, wanted those under convic-
  days the orthodox in the Presbyte-        tion of sin to come forward as an                    Dispklling  the Tyranny, by Piet
  rian Church, who often opposed re-        aid to a decision for Christ when           Prins. Tr. Paulina M. Rustenburg
  vivals, were called Hyper-Calvinists.     they were distressed, but Murray            Bootsma. Neerlandia, Alberta,
      But the extensive treatment of        registers his disagreement with this        Canada: Inheritance Publications,
  this subject sharply underscores          idea of coming forward on the               1994. 152  pp. $9.95 (Can), $8.50
  what in my judgment are the basic,        grounds that conviction of sin is not       (US) (paper). [Reviewed by the Bdi-
  arguments against even revivals, not      evidence of .regeneration  (pp. 213ff.).    tor.]
  to speak of revivalism.                       Revivals show a disregard for               This is the eagerly awaited se-
     ,In the first place, although          the doctrine of the covenant and the        quel to When the Morning Came (re-
  Murray makes an effort to define          place of children in the covenant.          viewed in the April 15, 1990 Stan-
  what he means by revival, he never-       The Reformed and biblical doctrine          dard Bearer). It continues the story
theless does not clearly distinguish        of the covenant insists that children       of young Martin Meulenberg in the
  between revival and normal ways           "as well as, adults are included in         Netherlands during the terrible per-
  in which the Spirit works, e.g., at       the covenant and church of God"             secution of the Reformed by the Ro-
  thetime of Pentecost not only, but        (Heidelberg Catechism,  Q.  & A. 74).       man Catholic Church and Spain in
  also in times of reformation in the           The doctrine of revivals misun-         the late 1500s.

                                                                                                     August, 7995/Standard  BeareM


     Forced by the persecution to flee       Netherlands for freedom. The next        egetical Theology) from 1888-1893.
to Emden, Germany, Martin joins the          volume, then, in this "Struggle for      From 1894 until he retired in 1932
army of Count Lodewyk, brother of            Freedom" series will have Martin on      Vos taught at Princeton Theological
William of Orange, in order to fight         the high seas with the "Beggars." In-    Seminary. He was ordained as a
the invading army of the cruel Duke          heritance Publications must not wait     minister in the Presbyterian Church
of Alva and to drive the tyrants from        so long to bring out volume 3.           in the United States in 1894. His
the Netherlands. After many adven-               `This is the kind of fiction that    wife, Catherine, is the author of the
tures, including being captured              Reformed children and young              well-known and loved  Child's Sto y
when spying out the City of                  people should read, and will enjoy       Bible.
Groningen, Martin shares in the de-          reading. Our Christian schools               Grace and Glory is a collection
feat of the army of Count Lodewyk            should have this series in their li-     of sermons preached by Dr. Vos in
by Alva at Jemmingen:                        brary.                                   the chapel of Princeton Seminary.
                                                 Many Christian book stores           Vos, as these sermons indicate, was
  . . . the little group diminished fast     carry the book, including the Re-        a keen exegete of the Scriptures. His
  from the furious attacks of Alva's         formed Book Outlet, 3505 Kelly St.,      insights are profound. The sermon
  many troops. Martin defended               Hudsonville, MI 49426 (telephone:        titled "Rabboni!", based on John
  himself with his short pike. Sultan        616-669-6730).  Canadians can order      20:16 (the appearance of the risen
  fought right beside him attacking a        from Inheritance Publications, Box       Christ to Mary Magdalene), is itself
  Spaniard at the throat when' he
  came too close to Martin. Mr.              154, Neerlandia, Alberta, Canada         worth the price of the book
  Meulenberg also tried to ward off          TOG IRO. In the United States, this          Ministers, Christian School
  any danger from his son, but got           and other Inheritance publications       teachers, Bible study leaders, and lay
  hit in his left arm by a lance (p.         can be ordered from Inheritance          members of the church will find a
  143).                                      Publications, Box 366, Pella, IA         veritable spiritual feast in this book.
                                             50219. The toll-free number in both      It is not easy going, but if one takes
     Although defeated in this battle,       the United States and Canada is l-       the time to read it through at his
the Dutch patriots and Reformed              800-563-3594.  n                         own pace, he will be edified.
Christians do not lose courage:                                                           The late John Murray described
                                             Grace and Glo y: Sermosrs Preached       Vos in these terms, "Dr. Vos is, in
  . . . Mr. Meulenberg detected a holy       in the Chapel  of Princeton Theologi-    my judgment, the most penetrating
  zeal in the Count's eyes . . . . "Maybe    cal Seminary, by Geerhardus Vos.         exegete it has been my privilege to
  it will be a long contest, and maybe       Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth           know, and, I believe, the most inci-
  we will be required to sacrifice our
  lives for it. But we must never give       Trust, 1994. pp. xii-296. $15.95.        sive exegete that has appearedin the
  up. If God wills, the tyranny shall        (cloth). [Reviewed by Prof. Robert       English-speaking world in this cen-
  be dispelled from the Netherlands.         D. Decker.]                              tury." Those of us who were privi-
  The Lord shall not forsake His op-             Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949),  best    leged to know Herman Hoeksema
  pressed Church" (p. 145).                  known for his Biblical Theology,         and hear his preaching and teaching
                                             emigrated to the United States in        would no doubt disagree with
     The book ends with Martin ob-           1881. After intensive theological        Murray. Nevertheless, Geerhardus
taining permission from his parents          training Vos declined an invitation      Vos was a gifted, erudite theologian
to enlist for service with one of the        to teach Old Testament Theology at       and certainly ranks among the best
ships of the "Sea Beggars," the              the Free University of Amsterdam.        preachers in the Reformed tradition.
famed Dutch fleet that played so im-         Instead he taught at Calvin Theo-
portant a role in the struggle of the        logical Seminary (Systematic and Ex-



Mission Activities                           ary to the saints of the Covenant Re-    there, Rev. Hank0  also gave a slide
  This past month many of you                formed Fellowship in Northern Ire-       presentation of the field and work
had the opportunity to welcome into          land, his wife and children, along       in Northern Ireland. This presenta-
your churches and fellowship Rev.            with several members .of the CRF         tion was done as part of the evange-
Ron Hanko, our churches' mission-            who also traveled with the Hankos        lism outreach of the Covenant PRC
                                             from Northern Ireland.                   in Wyckoff, NJ.
                                                 The Hanko family spent the first         On July 5th, the Hankos arrived
Mr. Wigger is a member of the PTotp-         week of their much anticipated five-     in west Michigan and moved into
tant Reformed Church of Hudso%ille,          week furlough with the family on         the vacant parsonage of the Byron
Michigan.                             .'     the east coast of the U.S. While         Center, MI PRC. For the next two
47alStandard  BearerlAugust,  1995


weeks Rev. Hanko expected to be               This year's service, held on June    call he had received from the
busy with the promotion of the work       11, developed the theme of spiritual     Edgerton, MN PRC.
in Ireland. He had meetings with          warfare as it is described in            Denominational Activities
both the Mission Committee of our         Ephesians  6:10-13.       Rev. W.                On July 6, the Grace  PRC of
churches and the Council of the           Bruinsma, pastor of the First PRC in     Standale, MI was brought into ex-
Hudsonville, MI PRC, the calling          Holland, MI, was the guest pastor        istence with an organizational ser-
church for the Northern Ireland           that evening.                            vice at the Hope PRC in Walker, MI.
field. Besides these meetings, Rev.                                                She was organized with 23 families
Hanko was also scheduled to give          Congregational Activities                and nine individuals. Of this group
slide programs similar to his pre-            On Sunday morning, June 18,          of 107 members, 55 are communi-
sentation at Covenant PRC, first in       Rev. M. Joostens was installed as the    cant members and 52 are baptized
Hudsonville on July 7, and the fol-       fifth pastor of the Lynden PRC in        members. Rev. Peter Breen, emeri-
lowing week in South Holland, IL;         Lynden, WA. Rev. R. Moore con-           tus minister in our churches,
Pella, IA; and Doon, IA.                  ducted the service. That evening         preached the organizational sermon
    No doubt one of the highest high      Rev. Joostens preached his first ser-    that night based on I Thessalonians
points of this furlough was the an-       mon as Lynden's pastor, basing it        2~13, entitled, "Preaching as a Means
ticipated confession of faith of Sarah    on I Corinthians 2:1-5. It was en-       of Grace." Rev. J. Slopsema of Hope
and, Ryan Hanko. They were to             titled, "My Preaching Among You."        Church conducted the actual orga-
make this confession shortly after ar-    The congregation had scheduled a         nizational meeting. For the time be-
riving in Michigan before  Hud-           welcome program for the following        ing, Grace's services will continue
sonville's Council. Their public con-     Friday.                                  to be held at the Grand-Valley Or-
fession was to take place, the Lord           Some old news, reported now          thodox Christian Reformed Church
willing, on July 23, with their grand-    before it gets any older: A group        on the corner of Eighth Ave. and
father, Prof. H. Hanko, conducting        from the Netherlands Reformed            Lake Michigan Dr., at 1:00 and 7~00
the service.                              Church has agreed to purchase the        P.M.
    The following Lord's Day, Rev.        old church building of the Hull, IA                   yd-for z7io yht
Hanko was also scheduled to lead          PRC.                                             "You who have so many infirmi-
Hudsonville's congregation in an ad-          On June 4, the Choral Society of     ties, should patiently bear with the in-
ditional and longed-for communion         the Grandville, MI PRC presented         firmities of others. II
service, the first communion the          their Spring Concert.                                        - C.H. Spurgeon
                                                                                                                   -       -      B
Hankos have taken part in since
leaving for Northern Ireland some         Minister Activities
two and a half years ago.                     Rev. J. Mahtani, his wife, and
    On July 31, after spending a          his son Titus were able to spend                            NOTICE!!
week with the family on the shores        about three weeks in Singapore in                Classis East will meet in regular ses-
of Lake Michigan, Rev. Hanko,             June. Rev. Mahtani had been invited      sion on Wednesday, September 13, 1995
Nancy, and the younger children           to preach a couple of times in our       at the Hudsonville Protestant Reformed
were scheduled to return to North-        sister churches in the ERCS and also     Church, Hudsonville, MI. Material for this
ern Ireland while the older teenag-       to show slides of the work of the        session must be in the hands of the Stated
ers stayed behind to enjoy this year's    Lord in Houston.                         Clerk no later than August 14, 1995.
Young People's Convention.                    We extend our congratulations                                        Jon J. liuisken
    On July 5 Rev. and Mrs. R.            to Rev. and Mrs. R. Cammenga of                                                Stated Clerk
Moore were able to travel to the First    the Southwest PRC in Grandville, MI
PRC in Edmonton, AB, Canada to            who were blessed with the birth of                          NOTICE!!!
present a slide program on the work       a son, Jared Matthew, born June 10.              Annual RFPA Meeting will be held on
of our Foreign Mission Committee              Rev. J. Slopsema, of Hope PRC        Sept. 28,1995,8  P.M., in Hope Church.
in Ghana, Africa.                         in Walker, MI, has accepted the call
                                          that he received from First PRC of                          NOTICE!!!
Evangelism Activities                     Grand Rapids, MI.                                The Protestant Reformed Churches
    Once again this year the congre-          The Consistory of the Byron          are in need of $25,000 with which to finish
gation of the Byron Center, MI PRC,       Center, MI PRC formed a trio of          the financing of the $440,000 seminary ad-
through their Evangelism Commit-          Seminarian Doug Kuiper, Rev. Mitch       dition (just recently completed). The Theo-
tee, hosted a special Sunday service      Dick, and Rev. Audred Spriensma.         logical School Committee has been autho-
in which a special effort was made        A congregational meeting was             rized by the Synod to offer private notes at
to invite and encourage the commu-        scheduled for July 17.                   competitive rates and terms. If interested
nity of Byron Center to worship with          Rev. Houck, pastor at the Peace      please call Mr. John Buiter at (616) 453-
them.                                     PRC in Lynwood, IL, declined the         8402 or Mr. Henry Boer at (616) 669-9433.

                                                                                                August, 1995iStandard  Beareti479


                                                                                                                                  EcoMD cLAss
                                                                                                                                Postage Paid at
                                                                                                                                GrandvNe,  Michigan
P.0:  B            o       x           60$'
   Grandville, MI 49468-0603


                                                                     NOTICE!!                       ATTENTION PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS
                                                      Classis West of the Protestant Re-                 Protestant Reformed Special Educa-
             `~  C o n f e r e n c e   o n       formed Churches will meet at the South             tion has available scholarship money for
     Reformed Church Government                  Holland Protestant Reformed Church in              anyone who desires to pursue a career in
           September 21 & 22, 1'995              South Holland, IL, on Wednesday, Sep-              Special Education.  For'further  information,
                                                 tember 20, 1995, at 8:30  A.M., the Lord           please contact Dave Rau at (616) 453-4344
           Thursday, September 21                willing. (Consistories should note the late        or Jerry VanderKolk at (616) 688-3533.
                          8:00  P.M.             date, which immediately precedes the Sep-
            -The Biblical Basis of               tember 21, 22 Seminary Conference on                          WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
     Reformed Church Government                  "Reformed Church Government" to be held                 On August 21, 1995, the Lord willing,
                         address by              in Grand Rapids.) All material for the             our parents, grandparents, and great grand-
           Prof. Robert D. Decker                Agenda is to be in the hands of the Stated         parents,
            Theological School of the            Clerk thirty days before  Classis convenes.          MR. and MRS. WllLBUR  BRUINSMA,
        Protestant Reformed Churches             Delegates who need lodging or transporta-          will celebrate their 50th wedding anniver-
                                                 tion from the airport should notify the Clerk      sary. There is no greater blessing for cov-
             Friday, September 22                of South Holland's consistory, using the           enant children than to have parents who
                         6o:oo A.M.              forms provided for this purpose.                   love, instruct, and admonish them in the
   The Autonomy of the Local Church                                           Rev. Steven Key,      fear of God's name. We are grateful that
                         address by                                                Stated Clerk     God has given such parents to us, and has
           Prof. Herman C. Hanko                                                                    spared them for us these many years. They
            Theological School of the                                                               truly have been an example of faithful per-
        Protestant Reformed Churches                   RESOLUTION OF SYMPATHY                       severance in the truth to their children and
                                                      The Council of the First Protestant Re-       grandchildren. May God bless and keep
                          1:30 P.M.              formed Church of Grand Rapids expresses            them in the time He yet gives them to-
   The Hedge-Thornwell Debate Over               its heartfelt sympathy to its fellow               gether.
        Church Polity in the 7800s               officebearers, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dykstra,              "The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion:
                         address by              Jr. in the death of his father, and Mr. and        and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem
             Dr. Morton H. Smith                 Mrs.  Willem  Hofman, in the passing of her        all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see
 Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary    brother,                                           thy children's children, and peace upon Is-
                                                                                                    rael" (Psalm 128:5,6).
                          8:00                               MR. FRANK DYKSTA, SIR.
                                   P.M.
 The Aufhority of the Major Assemblies                UPrecious  in the sight of the Lord is        $& John and Judy Kalsbeek
                         address by              the death of his saints" (Psalm 116:15).                      Joel and Jordana  Mulder  (Kylie, Collin),
                                                                                                          Jason, Gwennan,  Erika, Daniel, Kristen,
           Prof. David J. Engelsma                              Robert  Pastoor,  Vice-President
                                                                                                               Trevor, Alexander, Kenton, and Ethan.
           Theological School of the                                        R. VanPutten,  Clerk
        Protestant flefprmed Churches                                                               @ Lewis and Donna Bruinsma
                                                                                                               Lisa, Steven, Dale, Leanne,
     The Conference also includes time for             RESOLUTION OF SYMPAUHY                                            Renae, Gina, Craig, and Paul.
                                                                                                         Rev. Wilbur and Mary Bruinsma
questions, discussion, and fellowship.                The consistory and congregation of the
Meals and lodging are available. For fur-        Randolph Protestant Reformed Church ex-                       Brad, Heather, Mandy,
ther information and registration contact,       press Christian sympathy to Kathryn and                                             Megan,  and Lydia.
.by September 1,1995:                            Timothy Tamminga in the death of their             $& Keith and Wanda Bruinsma
              Theological School                 father and grandfather,                                       Brian, Greg, Sheila, Janelle,
   of the Protestant Reformed Churches                         PETER TAMMINGA.                                                       Calvin, and Micah.
                        4949 lvanrest                 May they be comforted in His Word                                                          Lansing, IL
            Grandville, Ml 49418                 and be sustained by God's grace. "The
                    (616) 531-1490               Lord will give strength unto his people: the                            NOTICE!!!
                                                                                                        Seminary Convocation will be held on
             8                                   Lord will bless his people with peace"
                   A.M. to 4 P.M. EDST           (Psalm 29:i 1).                                    Wednesday, August 30, at 8 P.M., in South-
                                                                    Rev. Steven Key, President      west PR Church. Prof. Engelsma will give
                                                                       Berwyn Huizenga, Clerk       the address.
48OIStandard  Bearer IAugusl,  1995


